We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
One of my affirmations has been to get rich. I know, I know… I tell youse guys focus on the end result about what you want from life, and not about the “how” to make it manifest. But when I was making these affirmations, I too was learning, and I made a lot of bone-head moves… things that taught me many lessons.
So today, I will tell you why I say to structure your affirmations around health, happiness, love, joy and other things that are meaningful to you. And not the television image of what success actually is.
back in the day I had an affirmation sort of like this…
“I live the life of a rich person from Miami Vice (a television show from the 1980’s). I live in a penthouse on the ocean with an ocean view, white walls, and a nice pool.”
Well, it did take a while to manifest. Ah, but manifest it did.
I was living in a penthouse, it was on the ocean. I did have a pool, and I was a millionaire. Ah, it all came true. But with that came other manifestations that I did not anticipate… like millions of dollars in debt. A police record. And other things.
By using “Miami Vice” wealthy people as a template I locked my affirmations into an extrapolated reality of…
Felon millionaire.
Great large amounts of debt.
All the trappings of a life on the beach living in “Billionaire row”.
Just like the images presented on “Miami Vice”.
Listen to me.
NEVER, ever… ever use movies or television to base your affirmations upon.
Today…
Playing around with LeonardoAI
I have been playing around with this software program, and it is heck of a lot of fun. Perhaps one of the best text-to-image generators.
Here’s some of my results…
And here are some videos from pictures…
These were all made on a free account. I suggest you all give it a try.
As a police officer, who was the most dangerous person you arrested and why?
The most dangerous person I can think of was someone I didn’t arrest, but should have.
I was on the graveyard shift, patrolling a city park that had several paved roads running through it. The parks were deemed “closed” from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and were posted as such, but there were no gates or physical restrictions to entry. Most of the time, if we found someone in the park after hours, it was couples making out, people drinking or smoking dope in their cars, or people sleeping in their cars. With any of these, there tended to be a high incidence of arrest warrants, revoked drivers licenses, and other lesser offenses.
I came upon a late model Camaro, occupied by a man and a woman. They were sober, didn’t appear to be making out, and reasonably cordial. I obtained the male driver’s license and ran it. It was valid, he was not wanted, and the Oregon plates (I was in Nevada) came back to a late model Camaro.
I still had a bad gut feeling about the pair. My practice with suspicious newcomers and transients was to write them a citation for whatever minor violation I could find. I knew most of them would ignore it. If they left town, the citation became one of the thousands of warrants we had in file that would never be served. If they were still around in a month and they were still up to no good, I would have a warrant to arrest them on, and we would have their photo, fingerprints, and eventually, their true identity, if it was something other than they had told us about.
So the driver got a citation for being in the park after hours, which would almost certainly be dismissed in court if he challenged it, on the grounds that it was hugely chicken shit.
I had mostly forgotten about the stop about six weeks later, when I got a radio call from another officer, one who had been my rookie trainee a couple of years before. He had stopped the same couple, ran them for warrants, and the one from my citation popped up. He was in booking with the couple. When he saw that the warrant had come from my ticket, he asked me to respond.
He had stopped the Camaro for reckless driving. When he made contact with the driver, he was confrontational. He asked the driver to get out of the car, and that’s when he saw the .380 pistol under his leg. There was a minor donnybrook, with the female passenger also assaulting the cop, but reinforcements got there in time and the pair were arrested.
A search of the vehicle revealed the original plates that had been on the car (which was stolen), a leather pouch with about a dozen loose diamonds in it, and some documents with the couple’s true names. The guy was an escapee from a Washington prison. He had been a fugitive for six months. The girl was his girlfriend, who had stolen the Camaro in Oregon, then lifted a set of plates from another Camaro. For some reason, the fictitious plates had never been reported stolen. They had done several burglaries and assorted thefts along the way, which is where the diamonds came from.
One almost fatal mistake I made during my stop was not running the VIN, or comparing it against the registration that came back to the plates. Had I done that, the VINs would not have matched, and I would have impounded the car.
Bad guy told me he had the .380 pistol under his leg the whole time I was talking to him, and if I had asked him to get out of the car, he would have shot me. Maybe he would have gotten off the shot, maybe not; maybe he would have hit me in a critical spot, maybe not; maybe I would have been able to return fire, maybe not. Our conversation ended with his very bitter expression of regret: “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
I now live about 40 miles from the prison he escaped from. If he’s still alive, that’s probably where he is. I won’t be dropping in to say hello.
Carne Adovada
This is a wonderful filling for burritos or simply great served over rice with the resulting gravy. For better flavor, prepare a day ahead.
Ingredients
7 to 8poundsbone in pork shoulder or pork butt*,remove bone and visible fat, cut meat into 1 to 2 inch chunks
Ingredients for Adovada Sauce
1Tbsp.oil or bacon dripping
1/2medium onion
4-6large garlic cloves
25-30red chile pods*,stems and seeds removed. Pods cut into 1-2 inch lengths
1tsp.salt
2tsp.Mexican oregano
3cupswater
2tsp.medium red chile powder*(optional)
1tsp.honey*(optional)
2tsp.apple cider vinegar
Instructions
Day 1 – Make the adovada sauce
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet or pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and lower the heat to medium low.
Sweat the onions until translucent.
Add the red chile pieces and increase heat to medium. Toast the chile, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. When you start smelling the chile, keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.
Once the chile pods have started to darken a bit, add the oregano, water, and chile powder. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Transfer to a blender, reserving some of the water to use as needed. Add only just enough water to be able to get a smooth puree.*
Add the vinegar and blend until smooth.
Taste. Add more salt if needed and honey if you find the sauce too hot or bitter*.
Let rest while you cut up the meat.
If you want a really smooth sauce, you can press the red chile through a strainer or colander to remove bits of unprocessed chile or seeds. Use a rubber spatula to move the chile around and press through.
Marinate the pork pieces.
Spray a large, heavy Dutch oven with cooking oil. (This pot will be placed in the oven.)
Transfer the pork pieces to the Dutch oven and pour enough red chile over the meat to coat the meat when stirred. (See Kitchen Notes for Amount of red chile. Any extra red chile can be used to “smother” the carne adovada after serving.)
Stir well to coat all of the pieces with the red chile.
Cover and set in the refrigerator overnight or for 24 hours.
Day 2 – Braise the marinated pork
One hour before placing in the oven, remove the Dutch oven from the refrigerator so that the meat can come up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 300° F.*
Place the meat in the hot oven and cook for COVERED for 2 hours.
Remove from the oven and stir. There will be quite a bit of liquid.
Return the meat to the oven UNCOVERED for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the meat is pull apart tender and the liquid has reduced.*
Turn the oven off and leave the carne adovada in the oven until ready to serve.
Top each serving with red chile if desired.
Kitchen Notes
Pork Shoulder (pork butt) Size – For this recipe I usually start with an 8 pound, bone-in, pork shoulder. Once I remove the bone and much of the fat, I end up with about 5 pounds of meat. Therefore, if you just want to start with a 5-6 pound boneless shoulder that would save the time of cut away the bone. I use the bone to make a pork stock. You could also use a 3-4 pound boneless shoulder. This would yield a smaller batch, but it would also only take about 2 hours of cook time. Just be sure to reduce the amount of red chile.
Cutting up the pork – I personally am not fond of biting into a big piece of fat with I eat carne adovada; therefore, we trim the larger pieces of fat off of the cut pieces of meat. However, we don’t get too carried away because we want to leave some of the fat for flavoring.
As mentioned, we usually cut the meat into about 2 inch chunks. This yields larger pieces that can be pulled apart with a fork once cooked. Smaller pieces (1 inch cubes) yield bite size pieces that won’t need to be “pulled”.
Chile Pods and chile powder – If your pods are hot, then use mild to medium chile powder. This helps bring down the heat of really hot chile pods and adds a little depth to the flavor of the chile. If your chile pods are mild to medium, then use hot chile powder for a spicier chile. When I’m using a VERY hot chile, I’ll reduce the number of pods to 20 pods, then add 2 tablespoons of powder.
Honey – Honey kills the burn. Therefore, honey is a great ingredient to help reduce a little of the heat from the chile as well as bitterness. However, be careful and don’t add too much. More than 2 teaspoons can make your red chile too sweet.
Amount of red chile sauce – The amount of red chile made in this recipe is plenty for 5- 7 pounds of meat, but is too much for any less than that. A rough estimate for how much red chile you need is ½ cup of red chile for 1 pound of meat. You can always add more for a saucier carne adovada. You just want to make sure that you use enough chile to fully coat the pieces of pork.
Oven Temperature – I have found it best to braise carne adovada at a low temperature of 300°F. However, if you don’t have to time to braise for 3 – 4 hours, you can increase the temperature to 350°F and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours. If you choose to cook at a higher temperature, just cut the pieces of meat smaller, about 1″ cubes.
The amount of liquid in the cooked meat – Some people may want a stew like carne adovada with quite a bit of sauce, while others, like it a little saucy, but not soupy. If you want a more stew like carne, then wait and uncover the Dutch oven 2.5 hours into cooking. However, if you want the chile thicker and more saucy, then uncover after 2 hours of cooking. If you want it even less sauce, then you can use a slotted spoon to scoop out the meat, throw it into a skillet and cook off even more of the sauce before serving. Just don’t cook off too much. You’ll need some sauce for the flour tortilla.
How does one reconcile the US dislike the Chinese and the Muslims but they are over the moon about Chinese Muslims?
You cannot reconcile unless you are a dog nation sucking up to the U.S. or you are a brain dead naive and foolish person who prefer lies to truth that hurts.
The U.S. hate China and sanctions and blockade China from 1949–1970 killing tens of millions of Chinese innocent people while they bombed the shit out of Muslim nations from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen, to Libya and Syria killing tens of million Muslims.
Every fool can see that and acknowledge that and no one on earth do not know this fact The the U.S. are evil against Chinese and Muslims but when it comes to Chinese Muslims, suddenly they want to be seen as a darling to them!
The U.S. suddenly is the champion of their rights? They fabricated lies on Uyghurs Muslims and invented genocide! And they expect the world to believed them! No one does of course unless one is blind, deaf or dumb or totally brain dead! The world knows it is another evil design to hoodwink people to hate China and thanks the world of the U.S. as human rights defender when it is the biggest wrong doer!
What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?
My wife drives a Lexus RX400h. The “h” stands for hybrid.
One day she called me from the Lexus dealer to tell me the mechanic performing the regular service told her Lexus’s engine mounts were disintegrating and needed to be replaced. The mechanic explained that because the car was a hybrid the task was very expensive—around $2500!
My wife called me because, while I’m not a professional mechanic, I’ve owned a dizzying array of exotic cars over the years and perform all my own restorations.
The first thing I did was put down my wrench (I was in the middle of replacing the clutch on my ’85 Toyota MR2) and search “engine mount replacement, 2007 Lexus RX400h”.
It just so happens that while replacing the engine mounts on the non-hybrid version of my wife’s car was a $300 repair ($80 for the engine mounts, $220 for labor) the labor involved performing the same job on the hybrid was much, much greater.
I called my wife back and asked her why she thought she needed new engine mounts. Had she noticed anything amiss? I occasionally drove her car and never heard any weird knocks from under the hood. My wife said the mechanic told her it needed the repair.
My advice was that since she’d been driving the car without noticing anything amiss, to have faith that she could safely drive it home where I could examine it (they’re only engine mounts after all).
Personally inspecting the mounts, using a very powerful penlight I was able to determine that they looked nearly new (the Lexus only had 110K on the odometer). There were tiny tears in the rubber flashing around the edges of the mounts, but they looked better than the mounts on any of my cars.
My advice, whenever possible, get a second opinion and research the repair for your car. Also, ask your friends for recommendations for mechanics they trust.
DRAGONFLY – 1952 Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Photo Processing 110mm Film Experimentation
My education was subsidized by both Federal and state governments. Sputnik went up in October 1957. To answer Sputnik and the belief the US was technologically behind the USSR, the “National Defense Education act of 1958” was passed that September. Many more acts followed that support K-12 and colleges with the emphasis on building a generation of scientists and engineers to fight the “Cold War.” By working as a Co-Op, I graduated with a BS in Computer Science and debt-free.
I worked first for computer manufactures and later in Defense and Aerospace.
I just retired. My generation, the ones educated due to Sputnik, are retiring.
During the Regan administration, all that education funding was reduced. The GI bill was canceled. Both Federal and state governments stopped supporting colleges. And we saw the rise in the cost of higher education.
Before the cut in education, we had the best universities. Researches are not getting the grants they used to. I don’t see tech companies giving big grants to universities.
Without government funding, our education is dying and is dead in some areas. One of the political parties has labeled higher education as bad and should be eliminated.
From Asian cultures we learn:
“To plan for 1 year, plant rice.
To plan for 20 years, plant trees.
To plan for 100 years, teach children.
Asian cultures plan for the long term. Toyota has a 100-year plan. US companies have a 90-day plan.
On the roll is what we call “Mett”. It is pure pork, which is seasoned with salt and pepper. Depending on who you meet, a war may break out, depending on whether you eat your ground pork bun with butter or without.
2. We drink alcohol in public. And not a little of it. In the USA for example and in many Muslim countries this is absolutely forbidden. Nobody is interested here. You can drink wherever you want, whatever you want – and above all as much as you want. But if you are not from Germany, you will always find someone here who can tolerate more than you.
3. Once you have learned German, you can learn it again right away when you move to another federal state. In Germany, the dialects are very different, and some people feel that they speak a completely different language.
4. We are not so hospitable. Of course, we are not angry, and we are not averse to visitors, but in other countries of the world, you are virtually courted as a tourist. In Germany, nobody is interested in that, even though we probably find you perfectly ok.
5. We do not speak English very well. With speaking English here, you are not as successful as in countries like Sweden. Although we know English better than France, especially the old people never learned it.
6. We are not a bit patriotic. In countries like the USA you can’t really miss where you are, because that’s the way it looks.
She REGRETS Leaving Her Husband Then Gets BITTER When He Got A New GIRLFRIEND
Because of my class schedule, I walk twelve or 15 blocks from “Prep High” to “Tech High” between 11:20 and 12:20 each school day.
I was stopped between those times and between those places on what the officer (who will hopefully soon find himself unemployed) described in the report as “reasonable suspicion” of being truant.
I was polite. Explained why I was where I was and offered the officer a copy of my class schedule, my school ID, and the business card of the vocational coordinator at “Prep High” who could be called to verify what I was saying.
The officer refused to look at anything I offered. He said it wasn’t his job to verify anything. I was handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car, and driven about 5 miles to a juvenile processing facility.
THIS IS THE FIRST LIE. Legally that was an arrest. Without probable cause and without following the procedures required when arresting a minor. (The officer would have to have an arrest warrant or have personally witnessed my committing a criminal act that would be a felony were I an adult.)
Police may “detain” an individual, defined as not allowing a person to leave while a “reasonable suspicion” is investigated to determine that “probable cause” exists to arrest. But the officer never investigated anything. To him my being a student, off of school district property, during normal school hours was truancy.
So, THIS IS THE SECOND LIE: Laws are codified and that is not the definition of truancy. In part the law reads: “any absence of part or all of one or more days from school during which the school attendance officer, principal or teacher has not been notified of the legal cause of such absence(.)”
I had offered the officer a printed, paper, copy of my school schedule which I carry in the clear outer sleeve of my notebook binder. Obviously, having scheduled me to take three AM classes at “Prep” and three PM classes at “Tech” the school district not only knew about, not only authorized, but actually COMPELLED the action I was taking when stopped.
I was processed at the juvenile facility including having a check run to see if I had any outstanding warrants. Then, nearly three hours after I was stopped, I was issued a $94 ticket / court summons where ocurred the
THIRD LIE: The time and place on the summons / ticket was FALSE. Reflecting a later time and a different place miles from where I was stopped.
My legal guardian was called to transport me home. Using the juvenile facility’s phone (number recorded by my guardian’s phone). That, the fact that there are cameras in the facility, a body camera on the “arresting officer,” body cameras on other officers working there, cameras on businesses where I was “arrested,” possibly cameras near the fake address on the ticket / summons, that the juvenile facility obviously used its systems to search for outstanding warrants and to find the name and phone number of my legal guardian, and required my guardian to sign a document for my release all DIRECTLY CONTRADICT the officers assertions (lies) in his report.
My attorney points out that proving that this officer lied in one official report calls into question EVERY other official assertion he has ever made.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am a 5 ft 6 female. Society needs police.
Well, society needs honest police. We already have too many hoodlums.
But, some people (like this liar) simply lack the mental capacity or ethical standards to be police officers.
Society needs to fire them, prosecute them for any criminal acts they commit, publicize their names (in part so others can seek legal redress), PERMANENTLY disarm them, and possibly segregate them.
As an astrophysics Ph.D, I’m looking forward to a future career in janitorial services. Once I get make a ton of money in investment banking, being a janitor looks like a perfect job…..
Because:
1) There is the FU number. It’s the amount of money you have to have in the bank to say “FU” to your boss. If you run the numbers you’ll find that even small amounts of income drastically reduce the “FU” number.
2) One thing that gets missed is that with a Ph.D. in the sciences you *can* be a janitor. Most people that go to medical school or law school end up with tremendous debt, so they *can’t* do any random job. The nice thing about getting a physics Ph.D., is that you can get your Ph.D. and then become a beach bum, since you have little/no debt.
3) I’ve known people that have worked as janitors, and they say it’s an easy job. You get paid eight hours of wages for work that usually only takes two or three, and you spend the rest of the night just chatting. You work in the middle of the night so your manager isn’t going to be looking over your shoulder, and as long as everything is clean the next morning, no one cares how many hours you “really” worked.
4) You can do janitorial work and theoretical physics at the same time. You are pushing a broom, you can think about quantum field theory. This is *not* true for a lot of other jobs. You can’t think about QFT while taking orders at McDonalds, selling shoes, flipping burgers, or driving a cab. If the janitor has a blank vacant look, no one cares, whereas being absent-minded while dealing with hot cooking oil or customers can get you fired or cause a fire.
5) And what’s the negative. Janitors have low social status. Well so what? I’ve got a Ph.d.
I suppose you see a lot of Ph.D.’s being janitors because it’s the smart thing to do.
I do not buy Chinese products (unless disposable) because I know they will be low quality. Why does China only seem to make low end products? Why do they not mimic Germany where the standard is higher?
You must be living in a cave.
Twenty years ago, China only made low quality, cheap goods. They still make them because buyers want them. Walmart couldnt survive without them.
Nowadays, China makes many high ebd products, designed by Chinese engineers.
40,000 kilometers of high speed rail in China. 347 kmh an hour. unmatched safety record. you couldn’t keep running them if they unsafe.
I was a professional photographer in Canada. Chinese photo gear was garbage. Now they have taken big strides. My tripod is made by Chinese company named Sirui. Carbon fiber, rugged and light weight. I’ve used mainly German tripods, even Leica, but the Sirui is the best. do a search online. check the reviews. Hand crafted by skilled machinists.
And Chinese companies have taken over failed western companies. Improved quality and become top sellers. Volvo was owned by Ford and lost money. Geely bought it up and gave an investment of 5billion to.make a new platform. Two years later Volvo had Car of the Year. They boldly announced that no one will die in a Volvo by 2026. They are still the safest cars on the planet. MG was a British cae company know fir sport cars called roadstes. Now owned vy Chinese car company. just launched an EV roadster. The British car magazines are raving about it. And all said it stll looks British!
In the latest McDonald’s quarterly call, the company revealed it opened >1,000 restaurants in mainland China in 2023, making it the fastest growing market globally.
1,000 restaurants is 3 per DAY, and McDonald’s is about as American as any brand can be.
China’s policing of consultancies is merely a rounding error, in the grand scheme of things. Annually, the S&P 500 generate >$1 trillion in revenue operating within the mainland market. This includes Apple, which depend on China for 20–25% of its global revenue.
How much are these consultancies worth? A couple of million each?
What’s happening is the CIA’s doubling down on intelligence within China, as traditional humint sources were vacuumed up in the repeated corruption sweeps since Xi took charge.
These consultancies have served as spy centers and information conduits, but were allowed to operate in deference of American hegemony. But relationships have become frazzled and the cases linked to these nodes made them intolerable.
Actual cases are being pursued, and people are being prosecuted, with a number deported rather than risk diplomatic protest.
America is preparing for war, and it shows in the information they are willing to pay for, particularly the networks and capabilities they are willing to risk.
Case in point: What was a Seawolf-class attack sub doing in the SCS, only to suffer a head-on collision with an undersea mount?
Thus Western Consumption is CREDIT DRIVEN and they encourage more and more credit to mobilize an economy
The West believes in minimum balances I checking accounts and wants people to spend everything they have and money they don’t have by availing credit
The Average Man uses Credit Cards
The Corporates use Wall Street, create special instruments, get AAA rating and sell the instruments to other Wall Street Entities representing Billions of Dollars of Insurance Premiums or Pension payments
For such an Economy – SPENDING is something they love especially SPENDING UNDER CREDIT
For such an Economy – BAILOUTS is something they love
Such an Economy believes that if the top 1% become richer and richer, they automatically will trickle down the wealth upto the poorest sections and enhance the economy
It’s called REAGANOMICS
When Reagan Proposed this (Or his experts did), US was producing a lot and trading everywhere as the largest trader
So it helped
However once the 1% became richer and richer, WOULD THEY EVER VOLUNTARILY GIVE UP?
No
So they purchased more congressmen, senators and today the US is in utter chaos due to these policies
In 1984, when 1% of the manufacturers became wealthy, their workers, linemen, foremen all got some share of the wealth
Today?
Chinese or Mexican Factories get a miniscule share and the rest goes to the pockets of maybe 500 people at the most
China believes SAVINGS is God
Chinese Consumption is thus INCOME DRIVEN and Chinese always buy from earnings and NEVER SPEND THEIR SAVINGS on normal consumption
Chinese focus on higher income from salary or Investments to buy more stuff and live a rich lifestyle and LOATHE CREDIT OR BORROWING , unless its towards Gold or Land or Jade where they can pay 6% a year and get 10% a year interest
China thus raises money only through secured debt, secured by Land or other assets
For such an Economy – SPENDING FROM INCOME is what they love rather than Credit
For such an Economy – Bailouts are bad unless the situation becomes so bad that you can settle 15 cents on the dollar
Such an Economy believes that Capitalism in the hands of 1% is a disaster and so ensures that the STATE regulates Capitalism in a pseudo mixed economy form
Li Peng and Li Keiqang are architects of this model
So the West sees Chinas economy from THEIR PERSPECTIVE
They see that Only 71% of the Assets are lent vide Credit of which 87% is Secure Debt and the West feels that’s Socialist and feels that’s because of low demand
That’s because US lends almost 95% Assets vide Credit of which barely 23% is Secure Debt
China meanwhile doesn’t have low demand because it’s people prefer spending income from wages and investments on consumption and saving for a rainy day
Yet US can’t accept or realize that
Likewise the West like Bailouts in the style of 2008 to prevent what’s called a Domino Collapse
China likes to allow a bubble to subside to it’s best possible low before any investment can be considered
The West regard this as WEAK FISCAL POLICY whereas Chinese People regard this as normal
So the West focuses on
GDP Growth due to Spending
Credit Growth in the economy or how much people are borrowing to spend
Net Spending due to Credit
China focuses on
Rise in Wages
Rise in Disposable Income
Income Growth in the economy or how much people are earning
So obviously the West can never predict China properly
The West is clueless about how China works
What has been the biggest plot twist that happened in your life?
One day in 1981, as my girlfriend (now wife) and I rode the bus together to campus, she said to me, “Go down to the career center and sign up for who’s hiring software engineers.”
I thought maybe she’d seen something in the Daily. Big employers sometimes took out ads in the campus newspaper. I asked, “Who’s there today?”
She said, “I don’t know. Just go down and sign up.”
Turns out there was only one company, called John Fluke Mfg., Co., hiring software folks. I signed up. In due time, I had a 30-minute campus interview with a very nice lady named Patsy Thiemens, a young developer from Fluke. The thing she was doing sounded really interesting, emulating a microprocessor’s address and data buses to stimulate boards under test. I ended up more or less interviewing her, which, unknown to me, was a pretty good way to impress an interviewer.
An in-house interview followed, and a job offer with excellent salary, working for Patsy. I spent the first 12 years of my career working in Fluke’s very professional software development process. It set the pattern for the rest of my life. It was, as the oft-repeated joke goes, a fluke.
My mother complained to me on the phone this morning. “Your former brother-in-law, the guy you liked so much you still remain friends with him? He was abusive towards your sister.”
“How come?” I wanted to know.
“He pushed her really hard, a few months back. She fell back and hit her head against a wall. It’s one of the reasons why they’re breaking up, actually. A man should never use physical force against a woman.”
“Damn! That’s awful… shit I never knew… why would he do such a thing?”
“He was being really mean apparantly. Got under her skin. You know how Ben can be. And at some point he just really crossed a line. So she slapped him and then he pushed her away…. and she…”
“Wait, she slapped him first?”
“Yes but…”
“No ‘but’, I don’t like that he pushed her but she should NOT have slapped him in the face. That was wrong. Period.”
“You should have heard the things he said. He can really, really be mean sometimes. You know how he gets when Ben gets in one of those moods, Jean-Marie, you KNOW that!”
Well at this point the whole thing sort of turned to shit. I’m supposed to side with my sister. By default, as she is family. Plus she’s a woman. But honestly, she should not have lost her temper and slapped him. The fact that a slap from a woman can be casually explained away as “he got it coming” but a push or slap from a man is instantly labeled abuse? MAJOR double standard.
The Roman Army did a great many things right. In logistics, strategy, and tactics, they were already doing many of the things that military colleges teach today. One things the history books ignore is that soldiers in the field did more building than training and more training than fighting. We’ve got journals from Roman soldiers that say things like, “I’ve been in the army for 2 years and have never used my sword. All I do is dig.” HA!
That sounds boring until you consider what fighting Romans would have been like from the perspective of their tribal foes.
The door of your command tent flies open. A panting fifteen-year-old who smells of sweat and horse stumbles through the gap and gasps, “A column to the east, my liege. Three hours ride. Romans.”
“On foot, Scout?”
“Mostly, Lord. 200 heavy infantry, plus wagons and followers.”
“Hot damn. Assemble my commanders. I want 600 men ready to ride by dawn!”
One busy night later, your experienced war machine has confirmed the Romans’ position and strength, packed your camp, mustered their courage, and deployed. A half day’s travel later, with a few hundred of your clan and allies at your back, you crest the final hill and see…
Well f*** me.
Erecting trenches, stockades, and earthworks—a stockade of portable sudes within minutes and a whole fortified castrum by sunset—was standard practice for Roman units in hostile territory. It’s hard to believe they could do it so quickly, but hundreds or thousands of men working in shifts at tasks they’ve practiced can do a LOT.
Fortifications were a huge force multiplier, and disheartened the Romans’ foes…and kept the Roman grunts busy, which the Caesars understood can boost discipline more than the walls themselves.
Russian nuclear weapons actually work. Russia conducted 2 tests in 2022 and 2023.
The UK’s doesn’t.
France’s nuclear delivery systems were tested in November 2023. But here’s the thing Macron already set out that he wouldn’t use them.
That leaves the USA and in game theory they’d likely look the other way.
Westerners now are but muh super mega weapons and my SUPER SOLDIERS! That can shoot lazers from their eyes! But then again they still believe Russia is completely out of ammunition has no food and fuel and that Ukraine is about to take Magadan.
I didn’t really do it for revenge but oh ,did it get nasty. During my divorce, I got a notice from my insurance company, that because of the accident I was in, I would be surcharged. What?!
It was a large surcharge and I actually got the notice before I heard anything about an accident.
I called the insurance company to tell them it was a mistake, that I hadn’t been in an accident.
“Oh yes, on Tues(date). In (my ex-husband’s car).”
I told the insurance rep that we were getting a divorce and I hadn’t driven his car in months. Finally, the insurance company(or police department-I had to call them too) found out that his girlfriend had been driving and got in the accident. She didn’t have her license and said she was me.
I was outraged and the revenge part was that I told them that ______(girlfriend’s name) was still an inexperienced driver (had a license for <6 yrs) which is a big surcharge in my state. The insurance company refused to cover the accident and charged her with fraud.
Are Americans really expected to pay outrageous hospital bills?
in 2010, my 12 year old threatened suicide while in a session with his therapist. He was defiant and refused to take it back. The doctor told us his hands were tied and we were to admit him to a lock down facility for adolescents.
On the way to the hospital, I kept thinking he would snap out of it and recant what he said, but he did not.
We signed some papers and left our 12 year old son there – and left crying.
The next day I went to visit and while I was sitting with my son, a man dressed in white asks me to sign all kinds of forms that basically say “You hereby agree to accept responsibility for all the costs and fees……”. I politely asked, “What are the fees – what is the cost to be here each night?”. He said it was between me any my insurance provider. I pressed for a number and he said he did not know the cost. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just sign a blank check to you; I have to know what it costs – I have a 20% deductible”. Even though I knew my options were limited, I had the right to know what a hospital charged.
The next day someone called and revealed the cost per day was $5,000 – just room and board. Doctor time and medication is extra. My out of pocket would be $1,000 per day, not including doctor time.
I told the woman over the phone that either my son comes home, or I refuse to pay the bill for one more day. Keep in mind, this was 14 years ago – I wouldn’t be surprised if the cost has doubled since then. When he was released he was put on some medication that was so over-prescribed, it almost killed him.
Fast forward to now, my son is a Paramedic who often deals with mental health crisis – he’s a wonderful caring person.
Space-Age Sci-Fi | The Phantom Planet (Adventure, 1961) by William Marshall | Colorized Movie
A very fun 1960’s era low budget science fiction movie. I hope you enjoy it!
This map shows the tracks of USS Reagan during July 30-Aug 9 in 2022. On August 2, the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan, despite the warning of China, and her visit was regarded as a severe povocation to One China policy.
Before her visit, CSG Reagan was deployed to South China Sea and Philippines (P) as a stretegic support to her action and escort. However, as Pelosi ignored China’s (C) warning and landed on Taipei (T) airport, Chinese armies began massive movement and started a military drill around Taiwan. As you can see, the CSG Reagan moved eastward to escape from China’s DF-21 missile range and then hide behind Japan (J)’s Kyushu and Okinawa.
However, in 1950, USA sent its fleet direct to Taiwan Strait (the broken line between C and T) preventing communist army acrossing the strait.
after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the United States sent its Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Korean conflict from spreading south.
Anyway, American aircraft carriers are very beautiful, very powerful, very destructive.
But even Iran is not feared of them, now including Houthi forces in Yemen, let alone China.
American friends, your enemy is not China. Your enemy hides in Capitol Hill, White House, and Wall Street.
Which criminal carried out the most absurd types of crimes?
In 2016, Stephen Ruth, a man from New York, literally uncovered a traffic light conspiracy: the story hit the headlines when, after cutting the wires connecting the intersection cameras, Ruth reported himself to the authorities, causing a media case to explode .
The story, however, must be told from the beginning: initially Ruth was arrested for the first time for having used a painter’s extension cord to point traffic light cameras towards the sky.
The act of public disobedience arose from Ruth’s awareness that the traffic lights were intentionally rigged to ensure that drivers were fined; Yellow lights at intersections with cameras last only three seconds, as opposed to five seconds at other intersections without cameras in the same county. Ruth documented everything through several videos which he then uploaded to Facebook.
Since the matter went unnoticed, Stephen decided to make news in an unorthodox way: cutting the camera cables, he reported his own actions to the press, attracting the attention of some politicians who put pressure on the police force to ensure this modern ” Robin Hood” was arrested.
The local police and sheriff’s deputies, however, took Ruth’s side; once we viewed his videos it was undeniable that his gesture had a much deeper origin than that of vandalism.
Statistics in hand, the majority of road accidents with victims occurred precisely at intersections that had “rigged” cameras.
During his most recent arrest, one of the sheriff’s deputies even offered to bail him out of jail by paying the bail out of his own pocket.
When he returned home after these events, he noticed that a new camera had been placed in the neighborhood, but it was pointing directly at his front door; Ruth was apparently now a “special guard” for the county government.
The story gets even murkier; after the news became public, someone tried to silence Stephen.
He himself says that a car intentionally tried to hit him in a head-on collision; after talking to his neighbors it was clear that the car in question (or at least, a visibly identical one, including his occupants) had surveilled his house before carrying out the attempt on his life.
I worked at a grocery store when I was a teenager. Human Resources was called in to interview the employees about a beer and cigarette theft problem.
Before my interview, I saw a co-worker cleaning out his locker. “What happened?” I asked.
“Dude, they got us. They had cameras filming everything we did,” he said. “I just got fired for eating grapes that fell off the vine.”
My turn came and the HR guy said, “You need to confess to everything you have stolen here. Put a dollar amount on the stolen goods and we will set up a payment plan for restitution and avoid your being arrested.”
“I have never stolen,” I said.
“Okay, I am going to give you one more chance. If you are honest, we won’t get the police involved. If you are lying, things are not going to go well,” he said. “Be advised we have video.”
“I have never stolen anything,” I said.
“Call the police,” he said to the manager. “We are going to have to press charges.”
“You are full of it,” I said. “You have nothing.”
“Do you want to see the video?” He asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It doesn’t exist.”
“What makes you say that?” He said. “You seem very confident for someone about to go to jail.”
“I haven’t stolen anything,” I said. “If you had a video of people stealing, you wouldn’t need a confession.”
I think seven people confessed and were fired that day. My friend that ate the grapes put $7 on the amount he had stolen. He was one of the most honest people I worked with.
The ones eating steak cooked on the heat seal of the meat wrapper never confessed to anything. They did not catch the cigarette and beer thieves they were looking for either.
The people that confessed were the honest ones who felt guilty for their petty thefts while the dishonest ones stuck to their guns and confessed to nothing. Brilliant move by HR.
In 2000 Steve Jobs Offered Linus Torvalds a job at APPLE on the condition that he should stop the development of Linux, But Linus refused to join and continued developing his product.
Microsoft was not very much impressed by its open source systems and criticized it badly but later it was sponsored by Microsoft itself.
Android is the highest using operating system on the planet with 2 billion people but Android runs on Linux.
Linux is very late that it released after three years of it’s announced date.
Linux is the only operating system named after its founder Linus Torvalds
Linux has 20,323,379 lines of code which was pretty small in the version of the kernel.
Linux first name was “FreaX” which was a combination of “free”, “freak” and “Unix”)
Google, Intel, Huawei, Samsung, Red Hat, Canonical and Facebook are among the top contributors to Linux kernel development in recent years.
9 out of top 10 public cloud infrastructures run on Linux.
IBM chose Linux for what is expected to be the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Sequoia.
All major closed source Operating Systems track user information while Linux distros generally don’t, which means better user Security and Privacy is assured.
Looking at this neutrally, there are two Narratives here
The First Narrative says
China is a one party system
There is no opposition or free press or any form of checks and balances
So the CPC can make up any statistics they want
Hence Chinas Statistics are unreliable
The Second Narrative says :-
China doesn’t have major elections , so it has no need to impress voters with statistics
China doesn’t have opposition parties, so the Governing CPC need not have an initiative to deliberately show higher numbers
China has multiple foreign investors who have made money and profit over the last 2 decades. Impossible to sustain bogus statistics for so long (Half a decade or longer)
China has too many visitors to lie about it’s growth. Unlike the USSR who had many restrictions from leaving the USSR or entering the same
I myself never set store with numbers
I ask questions
First question – Why would China show a higher GDP ?
Showing a Higher GDP would be counter productive for China because China would lose nice subsidies by the WTO afforded to non market nations who are net exporters
The cut off per capita is $ 12,500
So China would prefer a lower GDP and gain maximum benefits from the WTO
Meanwhile if China shows a higher GDP, how would China benefit?
No Investor invests based on GDP or GDP growth
They invest based on Market Annual Aggregate Returns (MARR)
No Western News will praise Chinas GDP today plus even if they do, China gains Zilch
So it makes no sense for China to show higher GDP
Second Question – Can Chinas statistics be verified?
Soviet Statistics couldn’t
This was because no US entity could come to Moscow or Leningrad and set up a factory or invest $ 100 Million
Chinese Statistics can
Hundreds of Investors have actually invested in China and got tons of profits
The MARR of China from 2000–2010 was 16.29% and 2010–2020 was 10.65%
These aren’t Chinese Statistics
These are Western Statistics based on their rate of returns from the Chinese Markets
From 2020–2023, MARR has fallen to 7.12% which is why Investments are not flooding into China as they were before 2020
So Chinese Statistics are very easy to verify simply by looking at the Economy
So my conclusion is Chinese Statistics are not only reliable, they are under played in my opinion
I see no reason for China to fudge their numbers
This is my opinion
Others may have a different opinion
Bob Lazar FINALLY Showed Element 115 That Was Sealed & Hidden For Decades!
A tad bit manufactured. But worth some time to check out if you are into UFO lore.
Yes I have. Funny story. After I was shot and in the hospital recovering, I received a “Get Well Card” from a man who lived in the city. The man wrote in the card that he saw on the news that I was the Officer who had been shot and he wanted me to know that he was praying for me. He said he and his family were devastated that I was the Officer who was shot.
He said about a year before I was shot, his wife and young son were in a serious car accident in our city and I was the Officer who responded and handled the collision. His son (who I believe was 6 or 7 at the time) was traumatized by the accident because his Mom was seriously injured and transported by helicopter to the hospital. The boy told his Dad that I comforted him during the process and kept him close to me while his Mom was treated. His son was very impressed with me and felt so special that I was taking care of him while his Mom was being treated. The man told me how much he appreciated how I took care of his son and his family wishes me the very best in my recovery.
He left his phone number on the card so when I was able, I called him and spoke to him and his son. The man happened to be a helicopter tour pilot so when I was able, he took me on a spectacular helicopter tour of San Diego Bay and the surrounding area. I met with him and his son and we had a great time. It is definitely one of the highlights of my career.
Beef tri-tip is an extremely tasty cut of beef and one of our favorites. It’s cheaper than most cuts and also leaner; therefore, one has to be careful cooking it. Tri-tip should be cooked hot and fast, or slow cooked to a melt in your mouth tenderness. Anything in between causes the tri-tip to be tough and chewy. By slow cooking in a marinade, tri-tip is taken past the tough stage to a tear apart tender, delicious bite of meat. This Slow-Cooked Spicy Beef Tri-Tip recipe accomplishes that.
The spicy tri-tip marinade consists of a few spices, chile powders and beer. The meat marinates for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. It is slow-cooked for 2 – 3 hours, to a melt in mouth tenderness. This particular recipe provides instructions for slow-cooking on the grill during the warmer months and slow-cooking in the oven during cooler months. The recipe can easily be converted to a slow cooker or instant pot. No matter which method you use, it’s a simple process with results that make your mouth very happy.
When I make spicy beef tri-tip, I use 2 pounds of tri-tip. This provides Bobby and I with two complete meals and sometimes, a light lunch. One of the meals we serve is what you see in the pictures. It’s essentially a southwestern meat and vegetable bowl with spicy beef tri-tip, seared vegetables, black beans and avocado. A second meal is normally tacos with the leftover meat and vegetables and a few simple toppings. Instructions for both meals are found in the recipe below.
I hope you enjoy!
Ingredients
Beef and Marinade
2poundstrimmed beef tri tip,cut into 1 ½ – 2” chunks
1 – 2Tbsp.chipotle paste*
2tsp.red chile spice mix*
½tsp.salt
2Tbsp.minced onion
½cupdark beer*(Keep the rest of the beer. You many need more later.)
Seared Vegetables
1medium onion.sliced then halved
1medium bell pepper.sliced then halved
Suggested Sides and Taco Toppings
Seared vegetables
Black beans, pintos or bolitas
Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
Pickled Peppers*, chopped
Lime wedges
Avocado slices
Instructions
This dish can be cooked on the grill or in the oven. The instructions explain how to cook both ways.
In a large bowl, add all of the ingredients under Beef and Marinade. Mix together to coat the chunks of meat.
If cooking on the grill, transfer meat to a large piece of parchment and fold close. Place parchment package on a sheet of aluminum foil and seal shut. Wrap in another sheet of aluminum foil.
If cooking in the oven, transfer to a refrigerator container with a tight seal.
Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight, turning at least once.
Preheat the grill or oven for a temperature of 350F.
For the grill, place the package of marinaded beef in a cast iron skillet and place on the grill.
For the oven, transfer the beef and marinade to a heavy-duty Dutch oven. Place a piece of parchment on top of the beef and press around the edges. This will prevent the marinade from evaporating too quickly. Place the cover on the Dutch oven.
“Bake” at 350F for 2.5 hours. Remove from grill or oven and check to see if it’s ready. Using 2 forks, try to separate a chunk of meat It should be pull apart tender. If it is not, close and bake for another 30 minutes.
On the grill, the meat usually gets crispy on the edges like carnitas.
In the oven, the marinate mostly evaporates, but the edges usually don’t get crispy.
Transfer cooked beef to a bowl. Using 2 forks, tear apart the chunks of beef into small bite size pieces.
(Optional step) If you want the edges crispier, heat a cast iron skillet with a tablespoon oil. When hot, transfer the beef to the skillet and stir. When the edges start to get crispy add a couple tablespoons of beer to skillet. After about 30 seconds remove from heat. The beer adds a little moisture and flavor into the beef.
Seared Vegetables – Prepare while the beef is cooking.
If cooking on the grill, wrap cut vegetables in parchment then in aluminum foil. After the beef has cooked for 2 hours, place the package of vegetables on the grill and let cook as the meat finishes.
For the oven bake, heat up a cast iron skillet with a tablespoon of oil. When hot, add the vegetables and sear until soft and browning on the edges. (You can use the same skillet to sear the beef if you choose.)
To serve,
place meat on plate with vegetables, and other sides (e.g., avocado and beans). Squeeze a wedge of lime juice over the meat.
OR, for tacos,
wrap some of the meat in a warm tortilla, top with seared vegetables and choice of toppings. End with a squeeze of lime.
Kitchen Notes
Meat – We prefer beef tri-tip because of its flavor, but you can used other cuts of meat. Cheaper cuts of either beef or pork work well. The slow cook breaks down the connective tissue of the cheaper cuts making them tender. Even though tri-tip is a leaner cut, with the spicy beer marinade and the slow cook process, the result is melt in your mouth tenderness.
Chipotle Paste – I make chipotle paste by blending a can of chipotle adobo. Just remove the seed pod before blending. Once blended you can pour into an ice tray and freeze. Each “cube” is about 1 Tbsp. of paste. If you don’t want to do this, then minced 1 large adobo chipotle and add to marinade with 1 tablespoon of the sauce.
Red Chile Spice Mix – It’s easy to make a quick batch of this spice mix. What you don’t use can be added to eggs, beans, sprinkled on top of an avocado, salads, sandwiches, and so many other choices.
Dark Beer – A dark Mexican beer, like Negro Modelo, works best.
When i was 12 years old my sister (she was 16) she began to experience abdominal pain. She never really told anyone about it except me (we were super close, like inseparable close). She thought that it was just because of her periods. As the months started to grow, so did her pain. I was freaked out so I suggested that we tell our mom but she said that she didn’t want to burden my parents (we were at a financial loss at that time).
So after about 65 days she couldn’t hold on so she decided to tell my mom. My mom got an appointment immediately and we rushed to the ER (Emergency Room). My sister was wailing in pain. The docs over there took an ultrasound scan and then an MRI and a couple of other scans, at this point my mom and I were crying that’s when they revealed that my sister had Pancreatic Cancer and that it had crossed Stage III. My mom literally fainted right there.
I was alone and scared and i had heard about cancer only in stories and books like fault in our stars. But when my sister was a victim i didn’t know how to react.
When my mom regained consciousness and calmed down, they told her that my sister was given a few painkillers and anesthesia for the time being and that we had to start with chemotherapy soon but that they were not sure that it would work. My sister did not know that she had cancer, the doc explained it to her usually merry face broke down.
They started chemo and her beautiful black locks which she was proud of slowly began to fall. She was a person of positivity so she told my mom that she wanted to EXPERIMENT her hair. She had hip length hair which she cut it to a bob then a pixie and then finally shaved her head. We both shaved our heads together.
She would never get a minute of sleep at night. On the 12th of December, it was my birthday, I ran home from school happily as my friends had given me a lot of gifts for my sister and me. My dad was there, my mom wasn’t, my sister was at the hospital, so I asked my dad to drive me to the hospital as I wanted to give the gifts to my sister.
My dad was looking really depressed but he agreed. When I reached my sisters room, she was screaming out of pain my mom was screaming for the docs. I went near my sister slowly she smiled at me even with too much pain.
Her last words to me were, “I love you, take care of tiger (our 1 year old dog) and mom and dad, it’s time for me to see grandma and grandpa in heaven”. She died at 16:07pm on my birthday. I cried for almost a month and I still cry for her every single day but not in front of my parents because I know that if I cry they will cry too. I hope she found a peaceful place! A MESSAGE TO MY SIS – I LOVE U ABBY pls come back if u can I miss you every second of my life.
One bad chapter is not the end of the book
What are five things senior citizens should not do at the age of 65 and over?
My top 5 you shouldn’t do after the age of 65.
And my top 5 you should do.
Oh, and I’ve celebrated 70 trips around the sun.
Don’t ever say, “I’m old.” Those who say it think it. And if you think it you’ll be it.
Don’t say, “I can’t.” Too many people hit 65 and sort of stop living. They stop doing all the things they used to enjoy. And they stop trying new things and enjoying life.
Don’t tell people about your aches and pains. We all have them. Talking about them only makes you and everyone around you feel worse.
Don’t count birthdays. If you’re asked reply vaguely. If you’re not asked don’t say it. It’s only a number.
Don’t complain about the weather, politics or that you don’t live in the good old days. Complaining only changes the number of people who want to hang out with you.
And my top 5 you should do.
Instead of saying, “I’m old,” say, “I feel young.” Focus on feeling young and you will.
Instead of saying, “I can’t” say, “I will”. Find things you love to do. Find new things to challenge you. Make life a continuing adventure.
Instead of complaining about your aches and pains get outside, stretch, strengthen, move and build health. Then talk about how great you feel and you will.
Instead of celebrating your birthdays celebrate the birthdays of those you love. Then you’ll look forward to many more of them.
Instead of complaining help make the world a happier place. And it turns out it will be for you and all those around you.
Growing older happens to us all. Growing happier happens to only a few.
[The media published a conversation between German officers about how they plan to blow up the Crimean Bridge. What can you say about this?]
“I read today what was posted on social media and announced by Ms Simonyan with reference to the relevant sources.
On the one hand, this is stunning. On the other, less so.
I have said that we know for sure about NATO military participation in the guise of mercenaries or people that are not part of the armed forces of the alliance.
There are some interesting details in this conversation.
These German generals discussed ways to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons (they mentioned the TAURUS) for attacking the Crimean Bridge and ammunition depots in a more subtle way.
[He’s referring to Russia’ s intelligence service leaked a conversation between German military officers who were discussing plans to attack Russia. According to the transcript, a conversation took place on February 19, 2024 among Grafe (department head for operations and exercises at the Air Force Forces Command of the Bundeswehr), Gerhartz (Bundeswehr Air Force Inspector), Fenske and Frohstedte (employees of the Air Operations Command within the Space Operations Center of the Bundeswehr). There was a detailed discussion of using German missiles to attack targets in Russia, such as the Kerch Bridge in Crimea. You can read the full transcript here.]
How to make sure they are not noticed because German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supposedly does not like it, while the Americans and Brits are already there.
They also discussed whether it is possible to target missiles remotely without being in Ukraine. One of the generals said this would still be qualified as direct participation.
They know what they are talking about.
In one exchange, one general mentions that ‘men from the US in civilian clothes’ are there.
I don’t know how to say it but all of our NATO colleagues are guilty as hell.
We’ll have to see how they explain this to their own public.”
Answer by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to a media question during his remarks at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Antalya, Türkiye, March 1, 2024.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
What is the darkest part of a software engineer’s career?
You are 25, making 170K USD or whatever. You take a fresh excel sheet, create 35 rows, put 170K in the first row, formulate 15% (that number actually depends on the flavor of the ice cream you are licking at that moment) YOY growth, stare at the whopping figure in the 36th row and pat yourself on the back in the corner of your poorly lit bedroom. I mean, you are not even accounting for the growth in your cryptic investments that are easily going to double every third year. You save the excel sheet as lifeisset.xlsx.
Fast forward, you are 35, making 245K USD or whatever, on the verge of 6th “restructuring” in the 4th company. You don’t even want to talk about what happened to your crypto investments and the company that you bet on that was going to cure liver cancer using artificial intelligence and quantum computing. You just want to find a better job, but, don’t have the motivation to bleedcode (futuristic version of leetcode that gives you, again, AI based hints based on the poem you are typing in the code editor).
You realize software engineering is a sport for the young and the fit and the smart. The funding for all the projects was for short term. And nobody can be in the right place at the right time for too long. Alas, your honeymoon period is long over. It didn’t even last for a decade.
You finally gather the courage to replace the 9W bulb in your bedroom with 14W and rename the excel to lifeisshit.xlsx.
A real man
Here are the easiest habits that will help you destroy your life:
An obsession with excess. Recently, I was in Spain. That’s where this picture was taken. This meal for me and my girlfriend was at a pretty nice restaurant and cost 215 Euros. I also drank a couple of glasses of wine at this meal. I got drunk and spent lots of money. Excess, right? But the truth is that excess and enjoyment are not bad, rather, an obsession with them is bad. It’s not bad to enjoy life, it’s bad to live in excess every day.
Bad listening. Most people have conversations merely to hear themselves talk. They don’t listen to other people, they don’t care about other people, and all their actions are acts of self-preservation. Be vulnerable enough to shut the hell up and listen. It will do you good.
Inability to enjoy what you have. If you can’t be happy with a nice cup of coffee with a loved one, you probably won’t be happy with a mansion, a bunch of drugs, and a Ferrari. Enjoyment comes from mindfulness and presence. Noticing a theme here?
Using people. If you have relationships out of convenience or if you take advantage of people who consider you “a friend”, when they figure out what you’re doing, they’ll just remove you from their life. You’ll end up alone and people will think you’re an asshole. Never use people — just exist WITH them.
Zero discipline. Everything you want in life comes from doing difficult things for way longer than you think you need to do them. Writing every day not just for a week, month, or year, but several years. Hitting the gym every week for the rest of your life. Discipline is the foundation of all constructive action.
What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?
Not myself, but a good family friend.
A few years ago she and her father, then in his early 80”s, took a vacation to visit France.
Now I must explain that her dad is one of the quietest, most patient men I’ve ever met…a man of few words, never seen him lose his temper, as level as they go.
So they fly from Ohio to New York to Paris and end up, of course, at immigration and customs. They’ve flown all night, he’s 82, and more than a bit jet lagged. The young French customs official is quite impatient as he struggles to locate his paperwork (passport, etc) in his backpack.
“Sir”, the agent says in the most snobbish, condescending voice, “you have been to France before?”.
He acknowledges that, yes, he’s been to France before as he continues to search for his documents.
“Then you should KNOW to have your paperwork at the READY!” the official snaps.
After a few more moments, her dad finally locates his paperwork. As he handed them over, he calmly states, in a voice just loud enough to carry across the entire area:
“My apologies. The last I landed here was at Normandy in 1944, and back then I couldn’t find a Frenchmen to show my passport to.”
The young official turned beet red, hastily processed the paperwork without even really looking at it, and they were on their way…including, yes, a last visit to the D-Day landing beach before he passed this Earth.
Learn the Moonwalk
What job interview question made you think, “I’m going to answer honestly, but I might be screwed?”
Almost 40 years ago I went to my final interview for a place in the Executive Development Program at Major League Baseball.
America was different in those days. Feminism was pushing down barriers that had stood for a long time, and professional women were asserting themselves in unprecedented ways. My own presence in the final group of 8 candidates was probably additional evidence of that shift.
But MLB was a little behind the curve. One of the big “issues” they were facing in the late 1970s was whether or not to allow accredited female journalists into the team clubhouses immediately after the games ended, so they could conduct interviews and file their stories for the next day. A female reporter for Sports Illustrated, Melissa Ludtke, had sued MLB for equal access.
I walked into the conference room where four senior MLB executives stood ready to greet and question me. Two of them, I confess, I knew little about at the time, but two of them were famous, legendary baseball executives, godlike to me. I shook hands with them all and made a point of NOT taking the seat at the end of the conference table. Instead I sat at the end of one of the long sides of the table. They arranged themselves around the other end.
We had a very pleasant and lively conversation, as I recall, although of course I had no idea what they were looking for. And then they asked me, If it were up to you, what policy would you establish for female journalists’ access to the clubhouses after the games?
I took a deep breath. I had no idea what they wanted to hear but I also knew there was only one thing I could honestly say. So I said it.
“I have to tell you that I really don’t see what the big deal is.”
I took another breath. They were all looking at me intently.
“I mean, we’re talking about accredited journalists, right? So they have deadlines, just like the male journalists do.”
A couple of faint nods.
“But the players are entitled to some privacy too. So I think you need to close the clubhouses completely for a short period after the game ends, maybe ten minutes, just to give the players time to take a shower and put some pants on, but then, after the privacy period is over, I think you have to just open up the clubhouse to anybody who has the right press credentials, let them ask their questions, get their quotes, whatever they need to do, on an equal footing.”
They all nodded.
None of them seemed angry or outraged, so I figured maybe I had not damaged my chances too badly. Somehow I doubt they asked the male applicants the same question, but I’ll never know.
And I got the job. So there’s that.
CIA Spy : “I Don’t Want To Live In The USA When THIS Happens 2030…” | Andrew Bustamante
I have been experimenting with AI. I have been making movies, asking questions, and generating all sorts of art. Today we will chat about my latest adventure…
I played around with it, used the Haddock style (Tin Tin clone) and ended up with this…
Then I tried again with a “flying saucer” preset.
Check out the results… The block to the right never managed to generate… sigh.
It’s fun.
Worth your time to visit and try your hand at it.
Easy . All you need is a story line, and some dialog to add.
Today…
Have you ever been banned from a place due to your behavior?
The AT&T store. My mom had died in a car accident, and it was left up to me to close her accounts and different things like that, after grieving a couple weeks I got started. She had bought an IPad and for probably nearly a decade had AT&T service for it as my parents didn’t have WiFi. I called them and told them, my mom is dead. Please cancel auto pay from her bank account. THEY REFUSED. The person had no sympathy at all. I asked for a supervisor, and they said go to a certain store, they would call there and say to cancel.
I go to the store and when I tell them the situation, nobody would touch it. Finally a call came and they said OK now it has to be approved by corporate (or some stupid answer like that). Two months go by and they kept taking 39.95 out of her bank account. I call them AGAIN, and they say go back to this store with her death certificate (which I just received). I go back and am treated like shit. The manager was a snotty little snip who barely looked at the death certificate and her two beta male minions shrugged me off when I asked if this would finally end this bullshit. They basically ignored me and turned away. I blew my stack, finally. I started shouting to everyone in the store to not get AT&T because they will charge you even if you are dead. That they are stealing my dead mothers money and these assholes don’t care. The little bitch manager said for me to leave, and I got in her face..how would she feel if her dead mother was getting robbed and nobody gave a shit?? Anyway the police came, they were actually sympathetic and I went to my moms bank still crying. Due to having her death certificate + administration of estate credentials the bank stopped the auto payment. A few days later got a letter addressed to my mother’s estate demanding payment from AT&T. The IPad was not used since she died. They had already gotten three months of payment from a dead woman. AT&T SUCKS. Now I’m going to run on my treadmill, my adrenaline is demanding action, lol.
Awesome China
Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?
Oh, that’s a lot of reasons.
For America:
no unified policies and strategies, every department has its own stance, and their stances may conflict each other. Like, the department of commerce wanted to continue high tariffs on Chinese products, but the department of treasury wanted China to buy American debt, this is paradoxical, you can’t ask someone to buy your goods while pointing a gun at him.
no unified benefits on “countering China”, Wall Street companies do not wish to counter China, while some domestic companies wish to. Because WS companies are financial sectors, they invest and make profit, no matter from where, but domestic companies rely on domestic market and labors, if everything can be made in China, then they die.
no unified strategies, Trump prefers solve China first, while Biden prefers solve Russia first. Given America’s strength is limited, it can’t handle both, but wavering between the two only waste precious time. And China, Russia, Muslim world, the global south won’t give America this chance, when it tried to solve one, the rest will rise up.
democratic. America’s democratic system allows people in 1, 2 and 3 can’t reach to an agreement.
no real representation of China, as many answers here pointed out, China’s image in Ameican media is twisted, which made Americans not able to make objective evaluation and correct decision. Sometimes the images are controversial, sometimes China is weak and easy to win, sometimes China is a threat…I don’t konw how come a country could be both weak and threatening at same time. However, if China is correctly and honestely reported, the politicians in WH and Capitol Hill will afraid losing power after American people found they’re fooled and manipulated, not just China, on everything.
no correct mentaility. America’s an amatuer in international politics, it adopts a zero sum mentality, which cuts off alternative options, and behaves like a red-eyed bull. Like Vietnam war, it could let the souther Vietnman go and admit it’s lost the war, but it can’t step back, so the only option is to increase the stakes, until the final collapse. Zero sum is an ideal result, but the world is complicated.
For China:
it’s big enough, so trade war can’t defeat China’s industry.
it’s advanced enough, so technology war can’t stop China’s development.
it’s strong enough, so a real war can’t defeat China and bring it kneeling in front of you.
For countering philosophy:
the correct comepetion is: you run fast, then I run faster. But America’s strategy is: you run fast, then I cripple you. Such a denial philosophy only makes the other side knowing there’s no chance to compromise.
for a third party observer, America’s philosophy is somewaht suicidal, when it is countering China is wishes its allies to pay the cost, or, its allies were unfortunately influenced, there’s no compensation. In long run, America wins the game but loses hearts.
pursuing defenite advantage than others will make a third party felt chilly: am I the next? How to avoid this fate? Can I unite all potential targets to avoid being taken as a target? Like I said, wins the game but loses the hearts.
Generally, present America is like the final days of Ming Dynasty of China, the empire treasury was almost empty but big heads possessed gold mountains, there’s outside threats (Manchu, Mongolians and Japanese), and ministers, lords, princes, all had differnt stances, they fought each other in the hall, the whole political machine is used as a weapon to attack the enemies in government, rather than enemies in field, the big heads controlled the information, they only report good news to the emperor, then emperor was blind and deaf, however, making final decision the right of the emperor, but a blind and deaf emperor only made wrong decisions. When farmers uprose to fight the unfair treatment, the big heads refused to fund the army, when Manchus and Japanese invaded, the corruptive army can’t fight. Finally, the emperor looked at the empty empire treasury, hang himself on a tree, when the emperor died, the empire collapsed, and Manchus conquered all China.
The history told us, for a big country, it collapses from inside, eyeing on an outsider is useless, or just put off its collapse. When an empire’s rotten from the root, “countering” an outside opponent only speeds up the bleeding.
Yes, me. It was a small company, a start up, still in a fairly early state. 22 people. The guy who hired me had great plans to get the company going, but the CEO didn’t like him. So fairly soon after I started the CEO fired my boss.
Now the reason I was hired was to replace an old guy who helped build the company but wanted to retire. Key role, materials engineering, for a company that wanted to be big in that field with new ideas. That guy taught me everything he knew, which was a lot.
But the CEO had certain plans, and because he fired my boss he decided I’d be next, so he let me go. But the guy that I was supposed to replace didn’t like what the CEO was doing, so when he heard I was fired, he decided to retire on the spot. Same day. We both walked out the door together.
So now there was a start up that wanted to become big in materials engineering, without any materials engineers, and nobody to teach any potential new employees what needed to be done.
I got lucky, I found a new job within a month. But the company that fired me went into administration shortly after, then a bigger company bought them, very cheaply, together with all their ideas, fired the CEO, merged all assets and basically deleted the company from existence.
WTF?
Who was the most unfortunate person in the history of mankind?
This Darrell Simmons of Morley, Alberta in Canada. Not only was he unlucky enough to have been born in Canada, but his luck never improved throughout his life.
He was forced to be chemically castrated after he was wrongfully accused of multiple sexual assaults in the 1980s. Once he was released from prison, he was given a pretty substantial sum of money.
Through bad investments though, he sadly lost everything. While working at a saw mill to try and get his life back together, he lost his hand in a freak accident.
One night while was out hunting with a friend, he was shot three times after being mistaken for a charging elk.
After recovering from the shooting, he was at home shoveling his driveway when he was struck by lightning in a snow storm. Darrell ultimately died that night, but it was determined that he survived the strike and actually froze to death.
More Men Choosing NOT To WORK And It’s Freaking Everyone Out
Fuck yeah. I have a friend. He worked construction doing Masonry well. One day he and his friend left work, and they got some beer on the way home. They went to my friend’s house, and they drank all the beer. My friend told his friend to watch my daughter. I’m going to go to the store and get some more beer his friend said all right, no problem. My friend left to go to the store, and when he came back, he found his friend inside of his 2-year-old daughter. He snapped. He beat the man unconscious and dragged him into the front yard. As he was dragging him to the front yard, he grabbed a can of gas and poured gas all over his friend and had to go back inside the house. Because he forgot his lighter when he came back out, he didn’t waste any time at all in turning his friend into Captain Crunch. He would have beaten the charge altogether if he hadn’t walked back inside the house , it would have been called a crime of passion,
but when he stopped and went back inside the house to get his lighter, it became premeditated murder because he thought about it first they tried him and found him guilty of premeditated murder and gave him a life sentence. I say we should have given him a medal.
“We have a world food system based on large multinational companies. It’s based on private profits and a very, very low measure of international transfers to help poor people (sometimes no transfers at all). It’s based on the extreme irresponsibility of powerful countries with regard to the environment and a radical denial of the rights of poor people, as we just heard.
We’ve just heard from the Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Many point a finger of blame at the DRC and other poor countries for their poverty.
Yet we don’t seem to remember, or want to remember, that starting around 1870, King Leopold of Belgium created a slave colony in the Congo that lasted for around 40 years; and then the government of Belgium ran the colony for another 50 years.
In 1961, after independence of the DRC, the CIA then assassinated the DRC’s first popular leader, Patrice Lumumba, and installed a US-backed dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, for roughly the next 30 years.
And in recent years, Glencore and other multinational companies suck out the DRC’s cobalt without paying a level of royalties and taxes.
We simply don’t reflect on the real history of the DRC and other poor countries struggling to escape from poverty. Instead, we point fingers at these countries and say, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you govern yourselves properly?’
Yes, we have a global food system, but we need a different system.
We cannot turn the global food system over to the private sector. We already did that about 100 years ago, and not only to the private sector, but to the private sector with the U.S. military behind it to defend these companies.
We just heard from the Minister of Honduras.
Let us recall that United Fruit Company essentially ran his country for a long time. United Fruit’s attorney was US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and his brother Allen Dulles was the head of the CIA.
On behalf of United Fruit Company, the two Dulles Brothers conspired to overthrow President Jacobo Árbenz of Guatemala, next door to Honduras, in order to stop the land reforms that Árbenz was trying to implement.
So, yes, we have a global food system, but we need a different system.
That different system must be based on the principle of universal human dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the principle of national sovereignty in the UN Charter, and the economic rights in the Universal Declaration and the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
In the Universal Declaration, all governments agreed that social protection is a human right, not merely a ‘nice thing,’ or a pleasant thing, but a basic human right.
That was 73 years ago.”
Excerpt from the speech by American economist and academic, Jeffrey Sachs, at the U.N. Food Systems Pre-Summit, Rome, July 27, 2021.
She was never specific. Where she was going, what she was doing. Especially whenever I asked her a question, she wouldn’t give specifc answers.
“Where are you going after this?”
“Oh, just to the library.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Just some work.”
“What kind of work?”
“You know, school work. Some assignments and stuff.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
I never pressed. If she asked me anything I’d be upfront about it. I think I was pressing her because I had always suspected. Now I’d like to think deep down, I knew, but the truth is I didn’t. I didn’t want to.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Just laying in bed.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Did your roomates go out for the weekend?”
“No, they just went out.”
“Are you going home for the weekend?”
“Maybe.”
“Do you want me to come drop you off at the station?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Oh”
“Yeah.”
Heard from a friend of mine she was going with someone else. Apparently they met before we did. Luckily I was at the point where I really liked her but didn’t love her, so that made dropping her a bit easier. Still hurts, though.
When I worked at the electric company, after 14 years, the company decided to lay off 3,400 employees and hire contractors to replace us. I spent a lot of time hunting down lost demand meters, and had to jimmy some doors open with a coat hanger, go through dungeons that connected to other basements, till I found all 22 of these meters, I never missed a month of reading those meters, so I never had to give anyone else directions to find them all. After being laid off, I got a call from one of the supervisors asking if I could tell them how to find those meters, for free. I told them I couldn’t just tell them how to find them, there are tools involved and I never really mapped it out, I just kind of know how to go once I’m in that location. I would have to go there and show them what to do and how to go, or it wouldn’t make sense. The supervisor couldn’t be sure he could get the okay to allow me to physically go down there since I’m not covered on their insurance anymore. I suggested that he have faith in these new contractors to figure out how to find the meters on their own, after all, I did it. They only found 9 of the 22 meters in 5 years of looking, I was informed in 2002.
I just left a job that I loved, and there are a few things that only I know how to do, but so what, someone will have to take over doing my jobs, and the flavors may be different, but they will survive. After all they must have thought it through before making up their minds to make the changes they did. I didn’t advise anyone this time, as you said the advice goes unheeded anyway. I figured it out, so can they. Have a good day
You Won’t Believe What These Graphs Reveal About Women!
Keep learning throughout your life. Even if you stop learning life will teach you lesson till end.
If you feel to cry, cry for the whole day but don’t cry next day for the same thing. Next time if you feel to cry for that tell yourself that you have already cried that day for that.
Love someone lot but not at the cost of your self identity. Be yourself.
Don’t judge the people immediately.
Listen the other person very carefully. Try to listen those words which he/she couldn’t speak.
Learn the fastest ways to get out of your mental prison, depression and trauma. Time is not infinite.
Your words can cost you a lot, use them wisely.
Deliver only as much information as required to know to the other person and not as much as you know.
Plan your day at least before a day, everyday. Be consistent.
Find out your natural abilities and believe in that.
Increase your sources of income. Live a simple but meaningful life.
Keep your moral values high. Forgive the people as much as possible and move on.
Everyday try to get out of your comfort zone, feel uncomfortable to achieve something better.
Have patience, it is your biggest strength.
Be successful as much as that world know you without any introduction
A couple of years ago, three other members of my women educators group and I met up at the bank. Three of us were new officers who needed to sign on to our organization’s bank account.
Our treasurer had made an appointment as required, explaining ahead of time what was needed. When we arrived, the woman assigned to help us couldn’t find the forms we needed to sign, so she took our personal and organization information and told us we’d need to come back another time to do the signing once she’d completed the forms.
Returning was going to be difficult because our treasurer was just days away from going on a scuba diving trip with her husband and one of the new officers taught full-time and also worked for an after school program, but we checked our calendars and found a time that would work for the four of us once again.
When we returned another day, we told the person greeting us that we were there to meet with the woman who was to have completed the forms and have them ready for signing. The greeter said, “I’m the only female employee at this branch, other than the tellers,” and she wasn’t the woman we’d met with before.
Now we’re in Twilight Zone territory. We know the four of us didn’t imagine meeting with a woman at a desk, so one of us thought to ask, “Do you ever have temporary workers?” That was the “Ah ha!” moment for the greeter.
“We do have people from other branches of the bank come to help out occasionally. Maybe one of them was a woman,” she said. She then directed us to a man at a desk, we explained once again why we’re there, and he began the process of looking for the paperwork. He comes back to where we’re waiting, opens the folder with our organization’s name on it…
And finds blank forms.
Nothing was ready to be signed. “I’m sorry,” he told us, “but all your information will have to be entered into the computer, then they have to be printed for you to sign. Unfortunately, we close in 15 minutes and this is going to take about half an hour, so you’ll need to come back tomorrow.”
That was our final “You gotta be kidding me!” moment.
But there’s a good ending to the story. When we explained our time constraints and what we’d already been through with the other woman, he took pity on us and said, “I’m going to help you.”
It took about forty minutes in all, with him staying past closing time, but he got it done for us.
The first time was a young lady who was driving erratically. She had her flashers on, and it was raining. When I got to her window, I saw it was a teenager I knew, and she was sobbing saying her grandmother had had a heart attack and was in surgery. I told her to follow me to the hospital. I drove a LOT slower and safer than she was driving when I stopped her. When we got to the hospital, I went in with her to get the status of her grandmother (who wasn’t in surgery, but was stable and having a lot of tests run). Then, I accompanied her to the waiting room where I had a little chat with her about her driving. I was gentle, yet firm while I explained to her that I would rather her be visiting her grandmother at the hospital instead of being a patient along with her … or worse.
Not on the way to the hospital, but I pulled someone over who was driving erratically to get home because his blood sugar had dropped. He was a diabetic. I had a Snickers bar in my patrol car, so I gave it to him and sat on the side of the road with him until an ambulance showed up. By the time the ambulance arrived, his blood sugar had come up considerably. It was still “low,” but he wasn’t disoriented anymore. He had taken his regularly scheduled insulin, but hadn’t eaten. He thought he would make it home before his blood sugar “bottomed out.” He refused treatment, and I followed him home to make sure he got there okay.
I pulled a mom over for speeding, and she said she was taking her son to the ER because he had the flu. I got her to step to the back of the car where I scolded her for driving so fast (85MPH in a 50MPH zone). I explained “the flu” was NOT a medical emergency that was worth risking her life, as well as her son’s life, and the life of every other driver. I remember that stop so well because I thought she was so audacious for driving THAT MUCH over the posted speed limit while seeing me posted there. I didn’t cite her, but I did sternly warn her to slow down.
I responded to a residence to assist EMS on a cardiac arrest call. I cleared when the fire department showed up, as there were enough responders. I posted in my “usual spot” and saw the ambulance “running hot” to the hospital. I knew the patient. Just before the ambulance got out of sight, I stopped a car for speeding. The driver told me he was following his mom to the hospital … who was having a heart attack. Well, he got the heart attack part right, but his “mom” was one ugly bearded dude! (I told the patient the story when he got out of the hospital. We had a good laugh over it.) I cited the driver and suggested he bring his mother to court to help him contest the ticket.
He hated this one kid. He was umm, you know a kid with really short hair, wears chav jackets, always hanging with his mates, making jokes and never studies.
The teacher kept picking on him. He would give him looks and comments.
One day kid got really pissed off and said things like I don’t care. The teacher took him to his desk after the class.
He came back two hours later with a steaming hot red face. According to the kid, he had hit him and said some things. Kid called the police.
The police car came to our school. They had a chat with the kid and the teacher. Everyone tried to go out and see it but the other teachers didn’t allow us.
Later he made an apology to the kid and his parents. They didn’t accept it and wanted to make it formal at first, but when he told them his story they forgave him and dropped everything.
Turns out, his wife died from cancer when their daughters were just 6 and 8. Before they could do anything the hospital bills were too much and they were in debts. So he worked very hard day and night. He would teach during day and drive taxi at night. He had then later got hired for our school, a private school, and were able to pay all the debts. He even managed to send his daughter to one of the Ivy League schools.
However the little daughter had hard times and started causing trouble. She smoked, stole and hurt people. She would blame her dad for all of it. But he couldn’t get her straight because he felt too sorry for everything.
She also kept sleeping outside, then one day she never came back.
So the kid had reminded him of his daughter. Now this time he couldn’t let him drive off the course like how his daughter did. He tried to get him straight, in his own way.
He wasn’t fired. He kept teaching but he looked very depressed.
After a month or so he had quit the job and was never seen again.
GDP is a faulty measure of wealth and prosperity. So example if you get all your education free and healthcare is totally free of charge you are well and live till on average 2 years past the U.S. life expectancy if you earn half of Americans. You are just as will be just as well off. Or if Americans don’t earn twice as much as the Chinese you are certainly not as well off! Stop fooling yourself.
When I was young I thought Malaysian padi planters are not as well off till I realised they don’t need to buy rice for obvious reasons, and buy fish which they catch or chicken which they rear or indeed the vegetables which they plant. All they ever need is some cloths which they don’t need to look especially good since they hardly need to impress anyone. so whatever they earned they can saved it almost entirely.
In the same logic Americans were fooled to think they are rich due to this nonsense call GDP! In the U.S. GDP is overstated and wrongly represented. If 1% owned 80% of everything and 99% shares the 20%balance. These 99% are very poor! Right? What is worst is that your dollar in the U.S. buys you only a third of the same dollar in China!
For me Average Chinese are just as well off as the yanks by 2020 with less liabilities and more asset by 2010. Today they certainly live better than your average Joe! With better cars, bigger homes, better cloths and eat better than your 99%. Hence there is zero homelessness versus 1 million tent living Americans!
To me Americans are intentionally fooled into thinking they are rich to prevent Americans from rebelling against the forever wars and the 75 years decline in real living standards!
Early in my career, I had a boss with an unbelievable temper. Anytime I did anything wrong or if I just did something in a different way than he would have, he went ballistic. I’ll call him Don since that was his real name. One day Don stopped by the job site I managed and found that I had let the roofers work on five houses out of the order they had been assigned.
I didn’t ask why. Had he asked He would have found that the building inspector had inadvertently skipped the framing inspection inspection on that one house. We were not allowed to roof a house before the framing had passed inspection or we would have to tear off the new roof (destroying the shingles) and risk a good relationship with the inspector, something you always wanted and needed.
What did Don do? He screamed at me until I put my palm about an inch from his nose and and yelled back, “Don, would you shut up for just one minute!”
His response, after the shock of having someone yell back was, “You are fired! Fired! Fired.”
I was fed up with his temper after putting up with it for a month or so and was more than happy to pack up and leave, Construction was booming in our county so I knew I could find another job with little or no problem.
To my surprise, Don called my house at seven that evening and asked, “Are you coming to work tomorrow?”
“Fired employees don’t come to work the next day because THEY’RE FIRED.” Okay I admit I might have added some less than polite exclamations.
“Oh come on, you know I didn’t mean it. What’s wrong? Do you need more money?” He actually sounded contrite but did not offer an apology.
I knew he didn’t have anyone to cover my job and I also knew he was an administrator, not a builder, so I told him, “I’ll come back for three weeks so you can find my replacement IF you pay me double and do not show up on the site until I’m gone.”
I knew it would cost the company more money than my double pay to fall behind on the completion of the project so I wasn’t surprised when he agreed. Don was true to his word and didn’t show his face on site but did call me twice. Both times, I hung up as soon as I found who was calling.
I went on to another job after the promised three weeks and never looked back. Sometimes you just have to stand up to a tyrant boss and let the chips fall where they may.
Harry Potter And The Hogwarts Rave
What’s the worst thing that you did on a school computer?
It was actually in University, not the university I went to… a university… way back it was common for universities to simply have no security whatsoever in the UK.
Even in Hong Kong only PolyU and CUHK have barrier gates to the campus. This is unsurprising as they were the centre of the 2019 riots. You can go to many places on the HKU campus and Ling University campus I don’t know about HKUST without being challenged by security.
Anyway, it was at a university not going to say which one. It was one of my friends who was there and we used the university computer labs to play LAN games.
Anyway he was studying computer science. He’d done his coursework thing and found others had copied it. They’d copied it and claimed HE had copied them. He always documented his work though so was always cleared of plagiarism.
Anyway, he’d buy a load of cheap USB sticks and Floppy disks. He then wrote a program on it that looked like it was the coursework bit it linked to some program module or something… I don’t know how as I’m not very computer savvy.
This program went and searched for all the files on a persons computer and deleted them AND wrote over the HDD sector that it was stored on. It then displayed a message I hate you fucking cheating bastards it then wiped the USB stick and the floppy.
He then left it around various computer labs. We then went for a beer.
Catula
What made you lose interest in someone?
She got crazy and hung up on me mid-conversation.
When we’d been dating for less than a month.
She was angry I couldn’t do something on a Saturday with her friends. I was in grad school. And working full time.
It simply wasn’t an option. I had a group project we were doing.
More importantly though: I’m 31 years old. She’s 27. And she’s hanging up on me like a middle schooler.
I knew it then.
If she’s acting that crazy within a month. It would only get worse.
She texted me right after she hung up on me saying something to the effect of,
“I’m not going to include you in plans anymore. I’m making them without you.”
And I said, “Look – I’m a simple guy. I don’t know what is going on right now. But I can’t do all of this stuff. Make plans without me.”
And of course, she did a 180 and was apologizing via text and then sent me a video apologizing with her face all pressed up in the camera.
It was a strange scene. That Yo-Yo, up and down, drama stuff was already starting with her.
Against my better judgment, we hung out two more times. Which only further confirmed the crazy and my fading interest.
Younger people reading this: there’s a reason we write about red flags so much. Red flags are freaking real. They become your nightmare if you don’t see them.
Some videos are just unexplainable. Take a look at these
Watch this video before it is taken down. It is currently suppressed.
Ray McGovern with Nima Alkhorshid on the possibility Israel might have sent a F-35 loaded with atomics, the intention was to detonate them in high altitude, getting an EMP effect destroying the Iranian civil electrical grid. The military…
As I understood the discussion, Pepe Escobar reported it, and Scott Ritter, as a military expert, said that that event was logically impossible.
Nevertheless, we shouldn’t put anything past these monsters.
…
IF TRUE, RUSSIA SAVED THE WORLD ONCE AGAIN FROM …
… THE MINI-ME ROGUE STATE IN WEST ASIA BEING PROTECTED BY THE BIG ROGUE STATE IN NORTH AMERICA. A QUITE DANGEROUS PAIR FOR ALL OF US TO SAY THE LEAST.
Mao Zedong 毛 泽 东 (1893-1976) made sure in 1949, at the start of the People’s Republic of China, that all the Western Jews left China. I’m not speaking of the Jewish families of Kaifeng being there since the Song dynasty (960-1279). Obviously, they were not expelled. Also, I’m not speaking of certain Jews like Sydney Rittenberg 李 敦 白 (1921-2019) or Israel Epstein 伊 斯 雷 爾 爱 潑 斯 坦 (1915-2005) the Chinese rulers thought useful for them and China.
Contrary to many urban legends repeated with gusto by misguided people, I don’t think that the Jews (in general or those living in Israel) rule the World. Of course, their “elite” is part of the movers & shakers of this World but it doesn’t mean that they rule the World. They are powerful but not all-powerful as their excellent propaganda managed to make some incurable morons believe.
Their “elite” had a lot of money, sure …
But that kind of candies works only for lowly kakocrats and NO countries endowed with a minimum of aristocratic men at the helm of the State would have succumbed to money.
Same remark concerning the big rogue state.
What’s certain is that their “elite”, especially the Zionist variety (living in the US, Western Europe or Israel) is endowed with chutzpah to an inordinate level.
The British used them at the beginning of the twentieth century for getting a foothold in West Asia because Mark Sykes (1879-1919), the British representative in West Asia at the time, got extremely disappointing results in his negotiations with François Georges-Picot (1870-1951), his French counterpart. And being clever people, the Zionist leaders, having seen clearly through the British government and its representative, the clumsy Mark Sykes, skillfully accepted to be used in order to gain a state in Palestine, having stolen step by step the land from their rightful owners since then.
As crimes’ partners, the Zionists are in a very deep symbiotic relationship with the Anglo-American EstabLishment, hence the acronym I coined : KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment).
It’s a well-known psychological phenomenon that a servant will take on unconsciously/subconsciously the characteristics of the master. In this case, both groups suffering from the get-go of extreme hubris; together, they reciprocally amplify to a staggering degree their common deadly character flaw.
Here’s a reminder of what happened between May 16, 1916 (Sykes-Picot Agreement) & November 2, 1917 (Balfour Declaration) :
There is also THE OTHER URBAN LEGEND that, thanks to his agent having got the news that Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo on June 15, 1815 before everyone, the Rothschild at the time screwed everybody at the London Stock Exchange and that his family held under their thumb the British aristocracy & its global policies since then … Legendary, huh ?!
What is sure is that the Zionists managed somehow to get A LOT OF MONEY from the US officials. The US elite is completely hypnotized by the prestige (the bribes ?) of the Jews & the Jewish culture ???
Believe what you want but for me, NO ONE IS ALL-POWERFUL …
I repeat myself : If true, Russia saved the World once again.
Not only that, Russia sent a crystal clear message to the mini rogue state & to the big rogue state, that there are truly red lines in this World & there is someone to seriously enforce them.
SO I WISH PEPE ESCOBAR’s REPORT IS 100% TRUE.
Those people, the ruling classes of the mini rogue state & the ruling class of the big rogue state, will never change.
THE ONLY SOLUTION IS THEN :
Ceterum censeo KFC-AZAEL-nem esse delendam
PAX SINICA PERSICA KOREANA RUSSICA
IMPERIUM MUNDI SEMPER INVICTUS
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer for an unusual reason?
Yes. I was on my way home and got pulled over by a cop who handed me two packages of really nice dog treats, asked to fuss my dog, and then gave me a card with his name and number. He was really friendly, lovely, asked me alot about my dog, and even asked me where I got my dog’s beautiful collar from. He then wished us well and left.
This is why.
I had been at a restaurant with three friends and my assistance dog. I’m a wheelchair user. It was a nice place, a bit pricey, but nice.
My assistance dog was always impeccably well behaved. She went under the table, next to me, and went to sleep.
We ordered our meal, and were eating, when some very bratty kids (6 ish in age, old enough to read) started running around. They saw my dog and started bugging her, getting near her and yelling WOOF!!! Then one brat poked her. My dog’s only reaction was to get up and put her head on my knee.
I strongly told Brats to bug off, leave my dog alone, and to go to their parents. Brat 2 joined her, saying, loudly, DOGS AREN’T ALLOWED IN HERE, STUPID!
I smiled as nicely as I could and tried to explain that she was a special helper dog… then Brat 1… who was a good 3 feet from my dog (whose head was still on my knee) yelled THAT DOG BIT ME!
The two terrors ran screaming ITS A BAD DOG! ITS A PITBULL! ITS GONNA KILL ME!
My dog was a smallish, exceptionally gentle, patient, and calm black lab.
In no time parents are with restaurant manager demanding that they throw me and my “pitbull” out of the restaurant. All the other patrons are looking and pointing.
I have not moved. We are still eating.
The parents (and its clear why the kids were monsters…) come over and demand to see my ID so they can “engage their solicitor”. The manager, clearly upset and embarrassed, said “I need to ask you to leave”.
I said I was not giving my ID to anyone, I was not leaving, and I would appreciate if they would leave me alone as my dog was allowed by law and they were ruining my.meal. I might have added that at least SHE had her shots and was obedience trained…
The mother screamed that my pitbull (sigh) had nearly ripped Perfect Princess’ arm off. Note said child has a small round superficial bite mark on her wrist encircled by the same pink as her lip gloss.
I told them all that my dog bit no one, and to call the cops but I wasn’t speaking to them any longer. My friend just kept eating and chatting as if nothingvwas wrong.
Parents storm off, manager begs me to leave, tells me to leave, demands I leave… I explained about Assistance Dogs, introduce her, tell him he can see she was not a problem but by then Parents are back and they had called 999 saying there was a rabid pitbull running arounfçattacking children … manager tells me to please get out. I reply…
She’s not a bitbull.
There is no rabies in Britain.
She had not moved from her space next to me.
She is wearing an AssistancevDog jacket, Ive shown my ID, and tried to explain. Im going no where.
I’m not really upset because this shit happens often enough that Im used to it… the brats were a unique twist, but people are really ignorant about Assistance Dogs.
All of a sudden a handful of cops burst in. Parents tell their side. They strut over to me and demand I immediately leave. I said that when we were done eating I would, but not until. In all this the waitress had continued to serve us… so we just got our puddings.
Lead cop is totally self impressed, and starts to read me the riot act, demanding I surrender this pitbull I brought into the place. I kept eating. He bangs his hand on the table to get my attention.
When he does, the dog treat I had on the edge of the table falls off and my sweet pup sticks her head out, takes the treat, and goes back under the table.
Just then the other cops come back and pull cop1 aside. Theyve read the situation, told him so.
He asks to see my dog properly. I called her out, and told her to ‘say hello’. She was wagging her tail (total fusspot) and raised her paw to the cop. All three of them are now admiring my dog.
Parents come over demanding I get arrested, deported, hung drawn quartered, etc.
Cop says Your children are harassing this lady, her dog is allowed…
Mother says about dog bite.
Cop says “thats not a dog bite, lady, and wasting police time is an offense. Leave this lady alone, get control of your kids, and either go sit or leave.”
He tells manager that there is no problem with us.
Cop sees we are all done and kind of hust waiting for this foolishness to end so we can leave as we’ve got our coats on, etc.
He says “I suppose you guys would feel better just getting out of here yeah?”
I start to argue but my friend says “Yes, we are going. “
He says “Im just going to get some details from the manager, and we will stay until you go, to keep the peace”.
Waitress comes over and I am about to ask for our bill but the cop waves her away saying “they are leaving, please just let them go…”
We go! Our bill was well over 100… I put £10 on the table as a tip.
We got in my van after loading my chair, saw the cops leave as we were.
When I saw the lights behind me I thought we were in trouble gor skipping out on the bill!
I did call the restaurant later and spoke to the manager to offer to pay, he profusely apologised and sent me a gift voucher and asked for another chance.
We did go back, just me and a friend (and my dog) there was a sign clearly posted that assistance dogs were welcome … but that poorly behaved children were not!
We lost Taska March 2024. Her successor is just as calm and well behaved
Assistance dogs are amazing
What secret did you learn about your neighbor that made your jaw drop?
When I was growing up my neighbor Tom was my role model. My father was an alcoholic who was rarely home except to sleep. When I wanted to learn something, I would talk to Tom. He had dropped out of school to help support his family, but was very talented with his hands. He built the house he lived in, and I mean completely, plumbing, electrical, everything. He was also an outstanding mechanic. He was very strong, but incredibly gentle and patient. I knew he was a vet, but he never talked about it except to say he hadn’t really done anything. When he died, his family searched for his records. They wanted to bury him with any medals he had been awarded. I think most of us expected stuff like a Good Conduct, National Defense, maybe a European Victory Medal. What they found out was that this quiet gentle man was a genuine war hero. He had been credited with single handedly stopping an attack by a company of Germans, effectively destroying the company through the combination of casualties he caused and prisoners he took, despite having been wounded at the start of the attack. For his actions he had been awarded a Silver Star. There were also a number of awards for other actions. I ended up spending 20 years in the military, and his rack of medals remains one of the most impressive I’ve seen.
Every mans daydream
What was a gift that made you speechless?
I was 39 with a 4 year old son. Becoming a single mom through adoption and everything was great. I had a great career, lots of friends, the child I’d been dreaming of etc. Suddenly, a massive heart issue popped up leaving me on disability for 11 months while it was diagnosed and treated. We had just moved to a new place a couple of months prior. Then, just after I paid the bills and went in for a minor heart procedure, it turns out the people I had been renting from were not the owners of the house. They were squatters and I was scammed. The actual owner showed up wanting me to pay first, last and deposit, and the past due electric bill that was nearly $1000 at that point (my rent included utilities). Obviously I couldn’t pay it so I had to move out quickly just 2 days after heart surgery. We found a place and I got help moving the majority of Stuff. Some was stolen while we were moving the other stuff.
I was released to go back to work and my HR informed me that they had accidentally overpaid me during my disability, do they were deducting that from my next 4 paychecks. About the same time, the Franchise Tax Board hit me with a penalty for not filing my taxes the year before and garnished 25% of my wages. So I was getting about $850 a month at that time. We were sinking fast! I wasn’t fully recovered enough to have strenuous work and I only get paid once a month at my regular job.
I was at my breaking point. Then, my only vehicle broke down, again! I am not super religious, but I do pray and I was definitely b my knees at that point. I didn’t know what I was gonna do. My credit was shot, I was SOL. One day I get the mail. There was a ton of bills in there. I left them sitting on the table for 2 days, because I cannot pay them anyway.
Finally, I sat down to figure it how bad this was gonna be and I noticed that one of the letters is a greeting card with no return address, but addressed to me.
I open it up and there is a beautiful card that says, “I see you struggling and I see you keep going. You are so loved and you will overcome this. Signed Jesus Christ.”
Inside the card was $2,000 in cash! I couldn’t speak for a few minutes! I still have no idea who sent that card, but it was definitely a game changer for us! To whoever sent that card and money, they definitely changed our lives.
“The United States has consistently claimed to comply with ‘the rules-based international order’, but the most significant rules are the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, including international legal norms such as UN Security Council resolutions.
The Security Council, as the core of the world’s collective security mechanism, should by no means be a tool manipulated by individual countries for geopolitical purposes, nor should it serve as a stage to pursue hegemony or power politics.
There is no exception in the United Nations in complying with international laws including Security Council resolutions, and the United States holds no privileges in this regard.”
Excerpt from remarks by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a joint press conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi after their talks in Jakarta, April 18, 2024.
INCREDIBLE SCENES (this is why I came to LAOS) 🇱🇦 LOST in LAOS Ep:2
I know Thailand is the land of smiles but in my own experience I found the people of Laos and Cambodia to be even friendlier than the amazing Thai people. Really miss that whole beautiful area of the world. Happy Travels
A real adventure…
What factors have contributed to the growing demand for fast food among Indian consumers?
Ah India
One aspect of the Nation I am proud of
Fast Food in India has been INDIANIZED better than in any other nation
After all these years of McDonalds and KFC and Burger King’s and Taco Bell – the leading fast food is still Vada Pav
When KFC was forced to launch Biryani among in its Indian menu when it was evident that the 2 Pc and 3 Pc and the famous Zinger was not doing it for the Indian people
When India is the only country in the world where the top selling burger McAloo Tikki is a vegetarian one and the top 3 selling dishes – McAloo Tikki, McSpicy Paneer and Big Spicy Wrap (Paneer) are all vegetarian pushing the Filet O Fish to fourth sport and Mac Maharajah to the fifth spot
We may be utterly beholden to the West for their technology and core software in every sphere
Yet our Fast food growth is mainly due to our own foods
The leading fast foods of today include :-
#1 Vada Pav
#2 Pav Bhaji
#3 Momos
#4 Pani Poori
#5 Bhel Poori
#6 Aloo Tikki
#7 Samosa
#8 Kachauri
#9 Pizza
#10 Sev Puri & Samosa Chat & Aloo Chaat
(Zomato most ordered foods between 3 PM and 7 PM 2023)
Only Pizza stars in the top 10 popularly eaten fast foods of 2023
And guess which is Dominos most popular Pizza?
Indian Tandoori Pizza & Achari Do Pyaza Pizza
Pepperoni or Hawaiian are the least selling while Tandoori Chicken sells far more
So it’s not just Mcdonalds outlets or KFC outlets that have spurred the taste of fast foods in India like it did in other nations
The three top reasons include
Availability
Fast Food is available everywhere today
You go to a street and you have a Pani Puri wallah or a Chat seller or a Pav Bhaji stall or a Bakery selling Puffs or a High End Pizza store
You are served in 3–4 minutes and finish in 10 minutes
Far more convenient for office culture and working culture
Price
Fast Food is not too expensive especially Indian Fast Food
You can get Pav Bhaji for 40–60 Bucks a plate which is way lower in cost and better in taste compared to a ₹ 378/- meal in KFC
Taste
Fast Food may or may not be unhealthy but it’s tasty
It’s spicy and Indians like spicy and tangy food
Chili Verde
This authentic Chile Verde recipe made with fresh tomatillos, poblano peppers, jalapenos, onion, garlic, and cilantro takes a little more work than the typical “salsa dump” recipes but is absolutely worth it! Serve it with these Slow Cooker Pinto Beans, corn tortillas, or with some Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice.
There are so many different recipes out there for chile verde but unfortunately, most of them involve grabbing a jar of store bought salsa verde and dumping it into the slow cooker with either chicken or pork.
While this can be really delicious (case in point: Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken), it will never be as good as making green salsa from scratch. While making salsa from scratch may sound intimidating, it’s actually really easy and only takes about 5 minutes of active prep.
Let’s start with the salsa. Chile Verde is made with a tomatillo salsa verde made with fresh tomatillos, chile peppers, onion, and garlic. The first step to creating this flavor is roasting the tomatillos and peppers. Roasting everything deepens the flavor, adds smokiness to the salsa, and also mellows out some of the sour flavor in the tomatillos. Next, it is important to brighten up the salsa and that is where the cilantro comes in.
How to Serve Chile Verde
Traditionally this dish is served with rice, beans, and tortillas with fresh limes but there are all kinds of ways you can use this. Here are some of my favorites:
Tacos: This is a no brainer, but clearly this stuff is delicious in tacos. Warm the tortillas and serve the chicken with fresh cilantro, limes, and queso fresco or avocado.
Burritos and Burrito Bowls: Build your own burritos or burrito bowls with rice and beans. Personally, I like to make burrito bowls since the chicken is moist and sometimes I find the burrito begins to fall apart before I finish eating it.
Quesadillas: While it may be tempting to stuff this inside a quesadilla, I actually prefer to serve it on top so the quesadilla gets nice and crispy on the outside. Simply make a cheese quesadilla and then top it with Chile Verde.
Scrambled eggs: This is so good for breakfast with some scrambled eggs and pinto or black beans. Trust me.
Baked potatoes: This is a great stuffing for baked potatoes or sweet potatoes topped with some melted cheese.
Chilaquiles: Chilaquiles are one of my favorite breakfast recipes and this Chili Verde is so good on a pile of chiliquiles. If you think you might make chilaquiles, I recommend doubling the salsa so you can cook the chips in the extra tomatillo salsa.
What is Chile Verde?
Many people wonder about the origins of Chile Verde and there is some debate whether chile verde is from Mexico or New Mexico. Most people agree that it is a dish that hails from Northern Mexico, and possible areas in New Mexico as well.
In Mexico, it is traditionally made with pork that is slow cooked in a spicy roasted tomatillo salsa that uses a variety of chile peppers. In New Mexico, it is made in a similar manner but traditionally uses Hatch chile peppers or other native New Mexico green chiles.
1Preheat the oven to broil or your oven’s highest temperature setting, like 500 degrees.
2Place the tomatillos, poblano pepper, jalapeno pepper, serrano pepper, onion, and whole unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Broil for 10 minutes, flipping everything halfway through. If the garlic looks like it is beginning to burn, remove it when you flip everything else.
3Carefully remove the baking sheet from the oven. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a lid. After ten minutes, carefully pull the skin of the peppers off, removing as much as possible. You can also remove the seeds, depending on how spicy you like things. Peel the garlic.
4Add the tomatillos, peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro. and chicken broth to a blender along with any juices from the pan. Blend until it reaches your desired consistency. Some people like a chunkier sauce and some prefer a smoother sauce.
5Stovetop: Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or heavy pot. Add the chicken (or pork), season with salt and pepper, and brown for 2-3 on both sides. Add the sauce and bring to a simmer. For chicken, let simmer on low heat for 25-30 minutes until the chicken easily shreds with a fork. For pork, simmer for 2.5-3 hours until pork easily pulls apart.
6Slow Cooker: Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or heavy pot. Add the chicken (or pork), season with salt and pepper, and brown for 2-3 on both sides. (You can skip this step but it adds more flavor if you sear the protein first.) Add to the slow cooker with the sauce. For chicken, cook on low for 4 hours. For pork, cook on low for 8 hours or until the pork is fork tender.
7Instant Pot: Use the instant pot saute setting. Add the chicken (or pork), season with salt and pepper, and brown for 2-3 on both sides. Add the chile verde salsa and cover. For chicken thighs, use the manual (Pressure Cooker) setting and cook for 8 minutes. Let naturally release for at least 2-3 minutes before using the steam valve. For pork, use the manual (Pressure Cooker) setting and cook for 45 minutes. Let naturally release for at least 2-3 minutes before using the steam valve.
When it comes to the heat in this recipe, it comes from using three different types of chile peppers that vary in strength and flavor. The poblano has the least amount of heat but adds a lot of flavor similar to a slightly spicy bell pepper.
The jalapeno is in the middle when it comes to spice and the serrano is the spiciest. You can vary the heat in the salsa by using different amounts of each pepper to find the right combination for you. You can also remove the seeds for less heat or leave them in for more.
Whenever making salsa, start slowly and taste along the way until it is as spicy as you like. Generally, I recommend making it slightly spicier than you want your final product since it will mellow out when cooked when it is cooked with protein.
If you have kids who don’t like spicy, make the salsa using just one seeded poblano pepper for flavor. Cook the protein in this mild salsa. Then puree the remaining peppers with a little chicken broth. Stir this spicy salsa into your dish individually so you can have a spicy version. I always make it this way and my toddler devours the milder chicken while I make mine super spicy.
The next decision when making Chile Verde is what kind of protein you would like to use. Traditionally Chile Verde recipes are made with pork but it is often made with dark meat chicken as well. Both options are delicious.
Normally I like to make it with chicken for a quick meal and I use pork when I will have more time since the pork takes much longer to cook. To keep things lighter, I like to use boneless skinless chicken thighs or a lean pork shoulder roast, but any protein would work.
I have been playing around with the new AI software kits out there. I have made all sorts of pictures, comics, PDF’s, videos, clips and the like. Some of which are good. Some of which are bad. This is my first movie attempt.
It’s about 2 minutes 40 seconds long.
I made my first Film Noir Movie
I opened up a new YouTube channel and made this 2 minute movie using AI. Please tell me what you all think.
I think that it stinks.
But, not bad for a first try.
What are those people indulging in when they assert that India is positioned to surpass China as an economic powerhouse?
There are two types of people. Either they are totally blind and deaf or they are dumb as hell. That thinks this way. Of course there are brain dead Indians or Chinese and China hating westerners living under a huge rock who can think that way.
But let me clarify, I think well of Indians and India and their history and culture. They have a great culture and are highly intelligent people who made wrong choices and got enslaved 300 years by the despicable British.
But what is worst is that the Indians are foolish enough to let the white Aryan Caucasian a free pass to fxxked them up after independence for another 50 years by allowing their economy to be wrecked via the so call rules based international order that impoverished them further. China on the other hand won’t let the west a day after 1949! That is the difference between India and China!
Relatable
Be the Rufus
You’re an 19 year old kid. You’re critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 – 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He’s coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back … 13 more times.
And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died 16 years ago at the age of 80, in Boise, Idaho. May God rest his soul. How come we didn’t hear anything about this hero’s passing?
Being a father
What do mediocre employees do that the best employees don’t do?
I used to live in Washington, D.C. years ago. Every other morning the radio station played DC101 and we listened to the Greaseman. I hate all drive time DJs, I just want to hear music but I really hated this guy. His catch phrase was, “Habba-doo-gee Habba-doo-gah”.
Then one day a guy called in and asked the Greaseman how to keep a job. That he had been an idiot and lost several jobs in a row and had his license pulled and how he had gotten a job bartending that was walking distance and he wanted to really try to do well and not lose this job but he didn’t know how.
The Greaseman dropped his phony radio voice and and said something like the following, “I am going to give you two pieces of advice. First if your shift starts 6, show up at 5.45. Take the fifteen to have a chat with your coworkers, wash your hands, get your head in the game. When your shift starts you are ready to work. Bosses hate people who clock in but aren’t ready to do any work yet. They notice that shit.”
“Two, look at all the other bartenders. You want to be the second best dressed bartender there. If you try to be the best dressed, well maybe the other bartenders will think, ‘Look at this new guy trying to be better than all of us.’ But if you aim for the second best you will fit in with the other workers and the boss will still think, ‘Here’s a guy who knows how to be professional.’”
I was like, “Wow, that was actually pretty good advice from someone I thought was an idiot.” I still think it was pretty good advice.
My daughter has a very close female friend. They went right through school together and to this day remain good mates. The friend ,(s), went off to uni and while on a holiday back home, stayed overnight at our house. On Saturday morning I had been for an early run and was in the bath ,we had no lock on the door and had this rule if the door is closed someone is probably in there. So the door opens and (s) walks in , naked as the day she was born, says Hi to me and sits down and takes a piss. This is a girl I have known since she was 4 years old and was such a shy little girl, then at 18 was OK with being naked in front of me and me being bollock naked in the tub. If my jaw dropped any lower I may have drowned.
I am fucking tired
Forgotten Chicken
Forgotten Chicken is a great fast and easy recipe! I have made this with chicken tenders, and it’s great. This is also known as “No Peek Chicken.”
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can water
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
Instructions
Mix rice, soups and water.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Lay chicken on top of rice mixture.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with onion soup mix.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.
Check this out
I tried this. Very cool. But takes a while to generate.
About 20 years ago, I was in a downtown area with my friend and her young son. My friend has MS and sometimes has trouble walking long distances. She has a permanent handicapped placard from her state. It was hanging in my car, and we parked in a short term parking space. So, here we are, two women apparently healthy, with a small child, and this jerk of a guy comes up and asks me which one of us is handicapped.
Usually I don’t think of the great answer until 2 a.m., but I found my tongue as I walked around to open the trunk…
“Not that it’s any of your business, but it’s her.”
…I open the trunk to reveal the stroller AND the wheelchair…
As I’m unfolding the stroller..
“For now, she’s going to steady herself by pushing the baby in the stroller. If she gets tired later, we’ll come back and she can hold him in her lap, and I’ll push the both of them in the chair. IS THAT OK WITH YOU?”
I’m still proud of that.
Just because a disability is not visible to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If you have the person in question’s full medical history, feel free to contact the authorities.
We were at a flea market that isn’t advertised. People have to either live in the area or hear of it from someone who does. A little bit of everything is sold there; nothing is expensive.
It was dusty and hot, with a mishmash of cotton cloth used as overhead cover, held together by clips and ropes, held up by mostly bamboo poles.
We gladly sat down on a rickety wooden bench, ordered homemade lemonade and rested.
Not far from us was a family of four, sitting on two worn out rattan mats. Grandmom and grandad (that’s what the kids with them called them) arranged fresh veggies for sale at the front of the mat while the kids (a teenaged boy and a younger little girl) sat behind them, cleaning more veggies and fruit.
The grandparents were poor farmers, that was evident from their clothes, their weathered skin, the way they spoke, their eyes. The children, wearing clothes that were too small, old but clean, were probably living with them so their parents could work in Bangkok. It happens a lot here.
Then I heard Australian English. Two couples of backpackers walked by, chatting. How they found this market, I will never know.
Maybe six meters away, one of the young men stopped his friends and looked back at the veggie vendors. All four returned and squatted down in front of the mats.
I was about to see if I could translate for them when the grandson began to do his best. I smiled.
The next few minutes were pure joy. The Australians were asking the Thai names of veggies and then gave the English names. Lots of smiles and laughter. They bought some of everything, then tried to pay more than the asking price.
Grandmom was having none of that; she added extras to their bags.
They took their leave but returned, taking clothes and shoes from their backpacks and insisting on sharing with the whole family. The area around us went silent (unheard of in Thai markets).
The two things I remember the most: the teenager’s huge eyes when he was given a pair of running shoes, and the little girl’s delighted laughter when she put on a pretty pink shirt that was big enough to be a dress for her.
Grandmom, wiping tears, tried to give them more veggies.
I’ve been in some scrapes, but only one in which my life depended on winning the fight.
I made the mistake of letting a subject in too close to me. By the time I saw him pulling the gun from his waistband it was too late to pull my own. I could only grab his hands and make sure the barrel of his gun did not point across my body.
For a few seconds it was quite intense. As my backup strolled up I yelled, “GUN!” at which time my backup, well, — BACKED UP. Then he hid behind a gas pump, pulled his gun and pointed it at the subject and I as we wrestled for the gun. It became a little more intense then, knowing I was in this alone. I guess had I been shot my backup would have avenged my death.
I had to make him drop the gun (the bad guy, that is). I whacked his hand against the gas pump and it fell to the ground, then he did too.
My Chief read my report and gave me a commendation letter. I still have it somewhere. He said he and the politicians were impressed by how I handled the situation. He wrote, “…you could have used your own gun, your K9, your ASP baton, your Taser or your OC spray, and instead you disarmed the subject using the least amount of force available.” I felt like a complete idiot. I never bothered to tell him I would have used ALL of those things if I had the opportunity.
So, guys. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Keep that tactical distance. Or have a good backup.
Texas Declares Biden Administration To Be In VIOLATION
This wasn’t something that I overheard, but my cousin did.
He was sitting on a train and overheard two girls talking, roughly in their early 20s. One of the girls had been asked to house sit for a family friend who was away for 2 weeks and also look after their pet German Shepherd.
Things were going well for the first few days until she woke up one morning and the dog had died in its sleep.
This was in central London in the height of summer, and the girl didn’t own a car. The owners wouldn’t be back for about 8 days so she couldn’t just leave it in the house until then incase it started to rot. She read online that she should store it in a cool place, but there wasn’t anywhere suitable at their house as it was a very big dog. She also didn’t have many friends in the area and had no access to a car, so she had no idea what to do.
She googled where the nearest vet was who might be able to store the body until the owners returned, but it was two stops away on the tube. Even if a taxi agreed to transport a dead dog, she couldn’t really afford to pay £20 for a London taxi, so she put the dog in a suitcase and took it on the tube.
A man offered to help her carry it down the stairs as she was struggling, and asked what on earth she had inside that made it so heavy (about 30kg). She was a photography student, so told him that she studied photography and had a lot of camera equipment inside. They chatted a bit about it and got on to the tube.
At the next stop, the man got off, but just as the doors were closing, he grabbed the suitcase and ran off towards the escalators as fast as he could. He was obviously a petty criminal who thought he would cash in on the camera equipment. Before she knew what had happened, the doors had shut and she was on her way to the next station.
I’m not sure if they ever got it back, but there aren’t many greater images than the thought of this man returning home thinking he had hit the jackpot, only to open the bag and see a dead German Shepherd staring back at him.
Yes, I remember a very strange thing that happened in a sort of mundane way. This happened around the late 1980s or early 1990s. I can’t remember the exact date now.
I had an appointment at the dentist, and went out to my car. It was a 10 minute drive to the dentist.
It was pouring with heavy rain. I got in my car, started it, and then realised my wipers weren’t working. I fiddled with the switch, but no -they wouldn’t work at all. It would have been impossible to drive through those conditions with no wipers.
There had NEVER been any problem with them, so their sudden refusal to operate was quite strange.
I went back in the house and phoned the dentist. I knew I’d be charged a late cancellation fee, but oddly, the receptionist said they’d had a cancellation, so there was no rush. “Just get in when you can in the next forty five minutes or so” she told me, “And there won’t be a charge.”
I was pleased by that . No pressure about timing.
I went back to the car, and tried the wipers again. Nope -not working.
I just sat there for a moment or so, then tried again, and suddenly they sprang into life!
I was, by then, about 15 minutes over my scheduled appointment time. But that didn’t matter so much now.
I drove out and about a couple of miles away there was a turning onto the main road, so I turned….
…And headed straight into a pile up of cars; a big car accident which had obviously just happened. I pulled over to see if any help was needed but someone told me they had already called emergency services.
That accident had happened within the previous 10 minutes obviously. A number of vehicles were involved. It was quite horrible to have to weave my way through it all, knowing people had to be injured, or perhaps even killed. But I had to, in order to not block the road for emergency vehicles about to arrive.
So I continued. But as I drove I began to wonder why I had been stopped from driving out, by my “broken” wipers (which, by the way, never ever broke down again and worked perfectly until the end of that car’s life.)
And as time went by, I began to wonder if something, some force, something I had no name for, had protected me that day? And why?
Something quite strange had happened that day.
I don’t feel I was “warned”. I feel I was quite clearly protected from harm, or possible death.
So one thing I learned is this: When things appear to go very frustratingly wrong in your day and you start to get annoyed about it, just stop and wonder. What might you be protected against? You don’t know. Keep an open mind.
I got a call about the “dentist’s visit” my daughter was leaving high school for. It was very strange since I was not aware of any dental appointment. I looked into it and was told that she had given the school a handwritten excuse note supposedly from me. I had not written any note.
The school was concerned because she had been having so many dental and doctor appointments that year.
It turned out she and her friend had been writing notes for each other to get out of school all year long. They had also signed a bunch of forms at the beginning of the school year so the signatures on the notes would match the signatures on file. The other mother and I had signed those forms, but the girls told the school secretary they’d lost the first sets they were given. The unsuspecting secretary gave them packets of replacement forms which the girls then signed and turned in.
I had to punish my daughter, but I secretly admired the amount of thought and preparation she and her buddy had put into the project.
I have to give my broom riding ex wife credit for this.
I have full custody but I completely missed something the ex caught one morning in texts from our daughter who had stayed at one of her friends’ house. We thought it was a safe place. We had never had any trouble with our 14 or 15 yr old daughter.
She texted her mom asking if she could pick her up later than agreed on that day. Her mom called me and said text our daughter, something is strange it doesnt sound like her.
I thought it was slightly different but definately her so I wasnt worried. Whats the problem?
She sounds high or drunk. Her texting is weird.
I picked her up myself and she smelled strange in the car but seemed normal.
I checked her bag as she took a shower and found two empty pint whisky bottles and a vape pipe. Complete and total shock.
Big fight after her shower but she has never been caught with anything again or made us suspicious. She was never allowed to hang out with that girl again. The parents didnt say anything to their daughter and busted her sneaking out to meet older boys with cars and alcohol the next night. We took ours’ phone, she couldnt warn her.
That girl straightened up too, I saw her at her job a few years later and she was very nice and mature acting. I was impressed with her.
It’s As BAD As We Thought… (Finally Some Honesty!)
He generally never says no to anything, and so he always ended up paying for all our colleagues’ coffee bill, whenever we ordered. But he always did it smilingly. He is the quietest radiologist I know of, and one of the most capable.
It was late in the evening, and he did not have lunch yet. Not the right time for the General Electric (GE) salesman to request him to ‘do demo a new portable ultrasound system’.
‘Sir just 5 minutes, the company insisted on your comment sir, please’.
As usual, he couldn’t say no.
With the last patient gone, he looked for some hospital orderly to lie down on the patient bed to check the new ‘portable ultrasound’ machine.
Hungry, and looking for a way to solve his predicament, he succumbed to the most primordial reflex. He lifted the right end of his neatly tucked shirt and placed the ‘ultrasound probe’ on to his own abdomen to check for the clarity of the machine.
–
What shocked him was not the clarity of the ultrasound machine but the fact that his right kidney showed a clear ‘mass’ at the lower pole; a diagnosis of ‘Renal Cell carcinoma – RCC’ That was the diagnosis that he would make on seeing such an image for any patient, including himself, with a radiology MD name board on his white coat.
‘Good machine’ he softly commented and left.
Instead of going for lunch, he went to his colleague in a nearby hospital. By evening urology consultation was taken and the next day he was inside the operating room in a green dress, undergoing partial nephrectomy.
We waited outside. No one ordered coffee.
The biopsy confirmed cancer, but fortunately, he was cured.
Because it was detected very early.
–
Now I know why his room has the picture of an ultrasound machine hung on the wall; instead of the usual lord ‘Ganesha’.
The mouse might be good at smelling money, but the ultrasound is better in picking up unseen diseases early and save a catastrophe, something that no money can buy.
I was a caterer for for 10 years and specialized in weddings. My last weekend serving food for weddings before moving out of state was my most challenging! There were 2 receptions for 300 people each and an extravaganza for 700 people and all were on the same day. My partner was at one, our most experienced employee oversaw the 2nd one and I had the 700 person nightmare. We had some hiccups but they all went well. We always had sufficient food for people who showed up after not responding. We had servers with champagne or sparkling cider at the end of the receiving line. We knew how many glasses they had available to help keep count of people served. Most weddings were buffet so we only had out enough plates for the people they’d signed a contract for. Often we had to bring out more plates. It was appalling how many times the parents of the bridal party tried to get out of paying for the extra people. A wedding is no place to bring uninvited people.
I used to work for a multi-billion dollar consumer goods company. There were several rather stupid policies in place.
One of them simply didn’t make any sense at all. It was a “clean desk policy.” You were only allowed one or two pictures on your desk, your computer, and an in/out basket. At the end of the day, you had to put anything that wasn’t approved away, and that happened to also include whatever you had in your in/out basket. Yes, that had to be empty at the end of the day. No staplers, tape dispensers, pens/pencils, etc. could be left on your desk.
Our offices around the world were set up as “open offices.” There were no cubicles, nor were there any enclosed offices. The only rooms with doors were meeting rooms and, of course, the restrooms. Desks were arranged in pods based on department, and you could see clearly from one corner of the building to the other.
Whenever the big-wigs were coming from the main headquarters, HR would scurry around and enforce the clean desk policy. They would badger, bully, and berate us to the point where they even took the offending items off our desks and threw them away. Everything had to be perfect for the big-wigs.
Here’s where the stupidity of the policy comes into play: the big-wigs never visited after hours when the office was in full compliance with the policy. They visited during office hours which was when everyone had papers strewn all over their desks because they were at work!
China is a peaceful nation, but it is not a pacifist nation.
They are also not idiots. They see the actions of the United States, and like President Putin, have concluded that no one in America is in control. It is completely running amuck, on “auto pilot”, going through the motions, and seemingly desirous of “suicide by cop”.
There was a time when the United States, with it’s “allies”, were roughly matched in military ability against China. That was right after world war 2, when the American military was at it’s strongest, and the Chinese nation, and military was at it’s weakest. That was back in 1950. And when the United States started bombing China during the “Korean War”, they unleashed a dragon. And the Allied forces were horribly mauled.
Since then, well, China has been getting ready. REALLY READY.
To understand what is going on, you must study Chinese military history. Because once you do… then you realize just how fucked the United States is right now. Is there anything that the United States can do right these days? From abandoned cities, to homeless tent cities, to breath-taking inflation, and mind-boggling corruption.
Do you think that it is because the American “system of democracy” hit some “bumps in the road”, or that since 2008, the United States have been fighting world war 3 against China? And China, if you read history, ALWAYS destroys the aggressor nation from within.
You all must remember that…
China has the oldest military in the world.
It has the oldest navy in the world.
It has the oldest marines in the world.
It has the largest military in the world.
It is peer capable with the best military technologies, including stealth, cloaking, and AI robotics.
But China doesn’t want to use these forces. It wants peace.
But, you know, if some imbecile decides to bomb China / Taiwan… well, the radioactive clouds over America will take decades to dissipate.
…
Oh, China is ready.
And, so is Russia.
WOP
Have you ever faced a situation when you intuitively did the right thing?
Many years ago when my husband and I were first married, I was a college student while he was working as the grunt guy for a used restaurant equipment shop to pay the bills. We stopped at Sears while doing errands. When I got out of the car, I looked down and saw a ring.
I thought it was a junk ring that a child would wear or something. I don’t know why but I picked it up and threw it on the dash before I closed the car door and went into the store.
Sometime later, while my husband was driving us to another errand, I picked up the ring and looked closer. I thought that it might actually be real. I couldn’t believe it. I mean why would a real ring be in the parking lot of Sears?
However, I took it in with me while we went into the next store and stopped at the jewelry counter. We showed it to the clerk who looked at the stone with one of those eye glass things. He confirmed that it was a real diamond.
We ended up going back to Sears to report the ring to their security, who called the police, and we had to wait around for them to show up. They took the ring and filed a report. It took several hours and we weren’t sure if the hassle was worth it.
However, we found out a few days later that an older couple had come into Sears looking for the wife’s wedding ring. Apparently, she had taken off her ring to put on lotion while her husband was driving and then she had gotten out of the car with the ring still in her lap. They didn’t realize the ring was gone until later.
We were glad that I had impulsively picked up what I thought was a piece of junk and threw it on the dash of the car. A wife got back her wedding ring and we had an unusual story to tell.
Alien Bodies Confirmed After Testing to be NON Human
I once was the Managing Director of a Consumer products division in DongGuan, China. This is how we ran it. Here’s some points that are off the top of my head.
[1] All employees sign a contract of employment. It lists the working hours, conditions and length of contract. Most contracts were 2 – 3 years long. If the employee breaks the contract, they lose accrued benefits, and social welfare benefits. If the company breaks the contract, they risk substantial fees, and penalties.
[2] Working hours were 8:30am to 6:00pm with a two hour lunch & nap time. Six working days. Sunday was off.
[3] Everyone has a free room in a dorm. The rooms had a bed, small kitchenette with refrigerator, television, and free wifi. It included a small table, and chair. Shared bath down the hall, and a common room with sofas, kitchen, microwave, and large screen television.
[4] Everyone got free meals. This included breakfasts, lunch and dinner at the canteen. Plus periodic special moments, like fee watermelon, ice cream, or Jaozi spectacular. The management and supervisory staff ate in a upstairs dining hall, the regular workers ate in a hall (or outside) next to the kitchen.
[5] We had a shared bus that ran to and from the factory into town. You could arrange pickups, or meet their fixed discharge and pickup schedule. The driver lived in the dorms. Ran a regular schedule but could be pulled out for special trips on request.
[6] Supervisory staff had slightly larger quarters, a special common room, and some other minor perks.
[7] Time management was conducted by thumb-scan. Presently the factory uses facial scanning.
[8] No dress code, except for safety concerns. Employees washed their clothes in the (dorm) floor washing machines and hung their clothes on their dorm porches. Typically, employees wore tee shirts, and trousers with tennis shoes.
[9] Average age of the workers was somewhere between 30 – 45. The guards were all retired males, and the cleaning ladies and cooking staff were also (generally) older if not retirement age.
[10] Families. Some employees had children, or extended family. The children were permitted to live in the dorms, and were monitored and looked after by the factory community. The guards had the responsibility to make sure that the children went to school safely. Visitors often asked about the toy scooters, and what-not in the parking lot and yard. But that’s why.
[11] Sickness. Illness was treated with serious concern, and we would assign staff to help the person see a doctor and make sure that they got the medicines that they needed.
[12] Special holiday. Once every six months we had a special holiday, where the factory took a trip to a park, or amusement center. The employee would have to contribute towards the cost of the bus ride, but the meals and fees were all paid by the company.
[13] CNY Holiday. The company shut down for CNY which generally lasted ten days. About half of the employees opted for a full month off. This was negotiated in their contract. Leading up to the holiday was a hectic time. We would then host a nice big dinner, and a KTV visit(s) where the yearly bonus would be handed out. Bonuses were equal to one months salary.
I’ll tack on more info as I think about it. But this should give you an idea of what it is like working in a factory in Dongguang.
Chinese billboard
Only in China.
To Die for Beef Roast
This is one of the best roasts you will ever taste. Carrots, potatoes and celery can also be added, if desired.
Ingredients
1 beef roast (any kind)
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup warm water
Instructions
Place roast in slow cooker.
Mix contents of all 3 envelopes and sprinkle over roast.
Pour water into the bottom of the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours.
American food makes you fat.
Has anyone rented a car with unlimited mileage and then really driven it with “unlimited mileage”? What was the response when you returned the car to the rental agency?
In 2010 I drove across the USA with my family.
Rather than drive my own car, I wanted to rent a car so we could have it replaced if there was a problem on the road. We had a lot of plans and couldn’t afford to lose time. We wanted a nice, large SUV with unlimited miles.
Hertz would not offer unlimited mile SUVs but I could get a minivan. So, I booked that, disappointed. I called the local airport rental place to tell them my plans, and to ask if I could reserve a specific vehicle make and model even though that was against policy. When I explained why, the manager’s eyes lit up. “We don’t offer unlimited milage SUVs, but you can upgrade the minivan contract to SUV fur a small fee and the unlimited miles feature follows!” She then let me and the kids explore the 4 SUV models of the time, and we picked a Chevy Traverse. We agreed on a Thursday pickup.
As we were packing in the days leading up to the rental, we thought we’d get the car a day early and start loading so we could take off sooner. Since we had a special arrangement, I called the location and asked about an early pickup. The person who answered said the manager was out that day but said to come down and see what they could do.
I arrived at the SJC airport location on Wednesday, and the rental lot was nearly empty. My heart sank. I suspected they would not honor the deal. I walked in, braced for bad news. When I introduced myself, they recognized me immediately. “Oh, you’re the cross-country guy! Come with me.”
We walked to the back of the rental shack and there was a Chevy Traverse, with a big OUT OF SERVICE sign on the dashboard.
“We got this car on Monday, but we couldn’t rent it because it had mechanical problems.” He opened the door and pulled the sign off the dashboard with a flourish and a grin. “OK, that should fix it. Now we can rent it.”
I went on to clock 7,800 miles over 5 weeks. They didn’t bat an eye when I returned it.
Actually it is sad, and when I peer into the future, it is absolutely worrying. Please be safe everyone.
Lots of videos today, but most are super short.
Enjoy…
Western Diplomacy is ‘Primitive’
Russians have had to dumb down their speeches at the UN so other countries can understand them, deputy representative Dmitry Polyansky has said.
Russian diplomats perceive their Western counterparts’ approach to international affairs to be “quite primitive,” Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has said. Moscow’s representatives are not certain what caused this, but have simplified their messaging in response, he added.
Polyansky made remarks about the quality of the Western diplomatic corps in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Monday, based on his personal experience at the UN. He expressed concern about Anglophone speakers at the forum selectively ignoring the context of particular situations for their own benefit.
”They pick an arbitrary point in time and claim nothing happened before it. They try to blame a nation for its actions regardless of prior events or the general context,” he explained.
The diplomat cited the Ukraine conflict as an example. The US and its allies have been describing Moscow’s military action against Kiev as “unprovoked” and supposedly motivated by “imperial ambitions,” and have pressured other nations to frame it in the same way. As they learn more about the conflict, however, those parties realize how much the general context and Western actions since Ukraine gained its independence matter, he added.
”This trick does not always work, but it is a trend. I don’t know if it’s some deeper trend or just something typical for some people coming from [Western] schools of diplomacy,” Polyansky said. “Having a dialogue with them is challenging because they show certain superficiality, tunnel vision, and unwillingness to seek the core causes of conflicts. No solutions can be found without [such analysis].”
The office of the Russian envoy to the UN has been simplifying its addresses due to uncertainty over how their words are understood, he said. Russian diplomats used to quote foreign and Russian classics in speeches, but are no longer using this rhetorical device as much, Polyansky said.
”Times dictate things. Our partners may now be less well-read individuals, so occasionally we want to speak in plainer terms to make sure our signal comes through,” he explained.
Reality
A New Civil War is A Very Real Prospect for the US
It has long been on the minds of doomsday preppers and fiction media creators alike – but how likely is it, really?
Let’s sketch a big country in three broad strokes:
First, its population is over 333 million. These citizens privately own about (or at least) 339 million guns. They are unique in that no other state in the world has more private guns than people. They easily outdistance, for instance, Yemen, a country with a martial culture that has gone through years of civil war and yet there are only about 53 firearms per 100 inhabitants.
Second, polarization is unusually high and virulent: As of 2020 already, a political scientist at one of America’s most prestigious universities, found that “political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years — more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany,” for instance. The result: America is special, but not in a good way. “None of the wealthy, consolidated democracies of East Asia, Oceania, or Western Europe,” a 2022 paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pointed out, “have faced similar levels of polarization for such an extended period.”
Last year, another Carnegie Endowment paper found that even while some of the perception of polarization on specific policy questions (such as gun control or abortion) is exaggerated, that perception itself is detrimental to the country’s cohesion. Because “the people who are most involved in civic and political life hold the least accurate [here meaning: highly negative] views of the other side’s beliefs” and there is a high degree of what political scientists call “affective polarization.” Put simply, all or many of those citizens, collectively hoarding so many guns that over 40% of households are armed in one way or the other, do not like or even merely respect “the other side” of the political spectrum – not at all and ever less.
Third, the country also displays a pronounced cultural preoccupation, really almost obsession, not merely with the idea of civil war as such or the specific history of its own very bloody civil war in the nineteenth century. Rather its elites and general population are fixated on a coming civil war, which, as of 2022, a whopping 43 percent considered likely in the next ten years. Debates, high-brow books, articles, and popular culture feature this fantasy prominently and persistently.
We are talking, of course, about the United States of America. While it would be easy to adduce more criteria and data points, there is no need. The above is sufficient to demonstrate that it would be shortsighted to pooh-pooh the risk of a second civil war in America, for two reasons: It is not a mere fantasy, owing its current national resonance to “hype” and the titillation of imagining a liberatingly apocalyptic future of chaos and every man and woman for themselves (and, in the US, I guess, every other gender that wishes to participate).
Smart Americans realize this as well. Barbara F. Walter, for instance, is a prominent political scientist who has worked extensively with the CIA to develop a model of civil war predictors, for any country but the US, of course. She has now come to warn that the model begins to fit America itself disturbingly well. She may have her centrist biases – the usual exaggeration of “Russian influence” included – but her core points are valid: The US is turning into an anocracy, that is, in essence, a regime that only pretends to be a democracy. (In fact, that is what it has always been, I would contend.) And there is a substantial constituency of those who feel threatened by losing their former social status and preeminence. Those happen to be phenomena strongly correlated with a risk of civil war.
Let’s also not forget that America is proving its enormous capacity for global disruption every day, even without civil war at home. While some observers may – even gleefully – hope that Americans fighting each other would finally have to let go of the rest of us, that is a very dicey bet. With an elite narcissistically obsessed with global “primacy” and “indispensability,” about 800 bases worldwide, an arsenal of thousands of nuclear warheads, and a nasty habit of blaming others for its own failures, a new American civil war would not exclude aggression abroad. Moreover, declining as it is, the US is still a key part of the global economy, much more so than in 1860, when its first civil war already had serious repercussions for the rest of the world.
In sum, it may attract preppers with camo baseball hats, beards, and pump guns, but don’t let that fool you: American Civil War 2.0 is a serious issue. So, what about it? What can we reasonably guess about how likely it really is and what shape it might take if it happens?
To start with the latter question, perhaps the first thing to note is that big civil wars can start small and local. That is, by the way, the real significance of the recent, open tensions over migration and border control between the state of Texas and the federal government in Washington. They did involve armed forces and much foreboding rhetoric, but, fortunately, no shots were fired. Yet those glibly dismissing the incident as mere political theater are wrong. Because, as the New York Times has noted, it was not only Texas that defied the US government. Rather, “many Republican state leaders publicly expressed defiance in terms that echoed armed conflicts.”
Indeed, the second thing to note is that, due to America’s federal structure, a new civil war would most likely begin with secession. In the fracas between Washington and Texas, 25 Republican governors openly sided with rebellious Texas. This was a perfect illustration of how one local flashpoint could quickly suck in the rest of the country by creating a logic of ultimate polarization and then secession. This logic has not yet fully unfolded. Its contours, however, have emerged clearly.
It is worth noting that many of the fiction narratives about Civil War 2.0 make the same point: Whether it is the cult graphic novel series “DMZ,” the bitterly ironic novel “American War” (it’s obvious in-joke is that it has some Americans treat other Americans the way Americans and Israelis now treat Palestinians, Iraqis, or Syrians), the small-budget yet clever movie “Bushwick,” or the big-budget “Civil War” about to hit American cinemas now: Again and again the basic premise is a scenario of secession escalating into massive domestic warfare.
Third, while the humongous pile of private firearms would certainly play a large role in a new civil war, it would be misguided to assume that such a fight would only pit gangs of private citizens, organized in militias, against official police and military forces. In reality, a dynamic of secession, once set in motion would lead to parts of the US’s manifold “siloviki” choosing their own allegiance, splitting, and starting to fight each other. If you believe that, in such a situation, the formal chains of command ultimately linking them all back to Washington would remain intact, I have a whole-and-indivisible Yugoslavia to sell you.
And, last but not least, in such a development, the war would be both severe and long. In that respect, it would resemble the first Civil War. Although, due to advanced technologies and declining inhibitions, it could be even more devastating and cruel. In Netflix’s recent and tellingly successful “Leave the World Behind,” the protagonists never learn who exactly is blowing up their country, but by the end of the movie two things seem reasonably clear: No, it’s not enemies from outside, but an inside job, and nukes are being used. That, by the way, was the premise as well of the earlier, initially unsuccessful but now cult television show “Jericho.”
How likely is such a dark future? Obviously, we do not know. But let’s note two things: We could, a priori, be looking at an America where no one is much interested in thinking about it. Yet we are seeing the opposite. If you think that means nothing, fine. Just don’t mistake your guess for a good policy or planning basis.
There are, of course, alternatives to civil war. One is peaceful de-polarization under the current anocratic conditions, which, hypothetically, can happen. The other is full-blown authoritarianism: one way to suppress the possibility of a civil war is to impose dictatorship.
But here’s the catch: A country can end up with both civil war and dictatorship. Ask the ancient Romans. Those Romans, that is, who were so much on the mind of the founders of the American Republic.
It has long been on the minds of doomsday preppers and fiction media creators alike – but how likely is it, really?
If you are greeting four people standing in a group, at least smile at the fifth person standing along with them, whom you don’t know, so that they don’t feel disrespected.
Whenever you ask someone to do something for you, even if they are ought to do it, frame it as a question to boost their self-esteem. ‘Can you please get my pen from the table?’ sounds much soothing than ‘Go, get my pen’.
People in hurry, appear too irritating, but they may be anxious about something or facing an emergency, don’t bother much, just give them a way and ignore, and even if someone is just too impatient, that’s something to pity.
You desperately want to interrupt someone, may be they are completely wrong, but at least let them finish a sentence, so that you don’t appear even worse than them.
When you finish eating, pick the little pieces of food fallen around your plate and put them on your plate and throw them, it shows immense maturity.
Don’t wait for someone, standing in front of the opposite sex wash room, because when the gate opens again and again, it can be quite embarrasing, and also people may question your integrity.
When you disagree with someone, it doesn’t make them a criminal. Respect their opinion, and realise the fact that your thoughts may also be your opinion and not a fact. ‘Argue with respect.’
Whenever you break a line, you become a teacher for countless innocent people, this isn’t something great to give back to the society, respect a line.
Not liking to be touched is not arrogance, it’s a natural trait of most people, avoid touching people as much as possible to protect your self-esteem and respect theirs.
When you shout at someone, all you are doing is wasting your energy, misusing your larynx, and showing immaturity, learn to take boldest of actions and give harshest of warnings, keeping a smile.
Italian Oven Chowder
To enjoy this hearty chowder as the Italians do, be sure to include the oysters.
What is Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder?
If you are a seafood lover – this Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder is for you!
Sometimes called an Italian “white” seafood chowder – a delicious variety of seafood and vegetables are suspended in a cream-based broth that really allows the flavors of the seafood to shine through. (You can also make a “red” seafood chowder with a tomato-based broth.)
Some Italian families serve this seafood chowder on Christmas Eve for the traditional Feast of Seven Fishes, but we love it anytime of the year – especially with fresh-caught seafood in the summer.
Why you’ll love Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder
It’s chock full of a variety of fresh seafood – and you can vary it depending on the catch of the day, or to suit your family’s tastes.
This chowder is hearty and delicious, and it makes for a very satisfying meal.
You can prepare it ahead of time (but be sure to read our tips below in the Frequently Asked Question to avoid overcooking the seafood if you make it ahead).
Ingredients
4 slices bacon
2 large carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 medium parsnips, sliced 1/2 inch thick, cutting larger pieces in half
In a 4-quart Dutch oven cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in the pan. Drain bacon on paper towels; crumble and set aside.
Add carrots, parsnips, and onions to Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until brown, stirring occasionally.
Add potatoes, chicken broth, garlic salt and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. (At this point the soup can be cooled, covered, and chilled in the refrigerator overnight.)
In a small mixing bowl stir together melted margarine or butter and flour. Stir flour-margarine mixture, milk, and corn into chowder mixture in Dutch oven. Cook and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened. If desired, add oysters and liquid to soup; heat through.
Sprinkle each serving with crumbled bacon and chives or parsley, if desired.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
Salt Pork and Bacon – These two ingredients are an easy way to add delicious flavor to any soup or chowder – the rendered fat is used to sauté vegetables, so you won’t need to add other fats. While we use both salt pork and bacon, you could easily just use all of one or the other – the salt pork adds a nice salty flavor, while the bacon adds a smokey taste.
Seafood – Buy a total of four pounds of seafood. We made our chowder with fresh haddock, chopped fresh clams, shell-on shrimp (frozen shrimp is fine), fresh scallops, and crab meat. You can substitute any of these varieties of seafood, or use all of one or the other, just as long as the total weight equals four pounds.
Clam juice – Look for bottled clam juice at the supermarket – sometimes sold near the seafood counter. Other times, you can find it near the soup aisle.
Dairy – Heavy cream makes up the broth, along with the clam juice and a broth from the shrimp shells. Unsalted butter smooths things out and adds more flavor. You could lighten this soup up a bit with light cream or half and half – but it won’t be quite the same.
Tomato – Buy canned whole and peeled San Marzano tomatoes. You’ll break up the tomato pieces into the soup and reduce the juices to create a serving sauce that garnishes each portion.
Other Vegetables – Peeled and diced russet potatoes are the best for this seafood chowder, plus diced onion and celery, and minced garlic.
Herbs and spices – You’ll use a variety of herbs and spices including bay leaves, fresh basil, fresh mint, dried oregano, kosher salt, black pepper, and fresh thyme.
I was 27 when my husband (29) passed away unexpectedly while stationed overseas. It took 3 weeks for the army to bring his corpse back to the US and a week after the arrival his church service and funeral took place. A week after the burial, I traveled back to my country of origin for only one week. My daddy, who was extremely fond of my late husband, and who couldn’t attend the funeral due to work obligations and visa lasting procedures, had an open-hearted conversation with me. He said that all of us will die. And many of us will go unexpectedly. That there was a divine reason why all of what happened had happened and that I would need to eventually come to peace with losing him. I needed to see my story with my husband as a chapter of my book that ended. I needed to turn the page to the next chapter for my own benefit, if not, instead of having one dead in the family, they were going to have two. Because that’s who I was going to turn into. A dead living woman.
I listened to his words which made sense, but I didn’t want my life to make sense so quickly so I forgot about them until after I dragged myself into an alcohol addiction for months. And one day, I remembered his wise words and between that and the help of a close friend, I realized my daddy was right. Either I got over my husband’s passing or I was going to stay dead myself.
200 Times Wife Has a MELTDOWN After Getting Caught Cheating #2
Aging is a natural process, but there are steps you can take to maintain a youthful appearance and overall well-being in your 70s and 80s. Here are some tips to help you look and feel young:
1. Stay Active: Regular exercise is crucial for maintaining muscle strength, flexibility, and overall health. Low-impact activities like walking, swimming, and yoga can be excellent choices.
2. Eat a Balanced Diet: A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats can support your skin, hair, and overall health.
3. Stay Hydrated: Proper hydration is essential for skin health. Drink enough water to keep your skin hydrated.
4. Protect Your Skin: Use sunscreen to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays, which can cause premature aging. Moisturize your skin regularly to keep it hydrated.
5. Get Sufficient Sleep: Quality sleep is essential for overall health. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
6. Manage Stress: High-stress levels can lead to premature aging. Practice stress-reduction techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.
7. Regular Checkups: Visit your healthcare provider for regular checkups to address any health concerns promptly.
8. Stay Socially Active: Maintaining social connections can contribute to mental and emotional well-being, which can affect your overall appearance.
9. Mental Stimulation: Keep your mind active with puzzles, games, or learning new skills. It can help maintain cognitive function and a youthful spirit.
10. Good Skincare: Use skincare products suitable for your skin type and age. A good skincare routine can make a difference in maintaining healthy skin.
11. Fashion and Style: Update your wardrobe with clothing that makes you feel confident and stylish. How you dress can impact your overall look.
12. Hair Care: Consider a hairstyle that suits your face shape and is easy to maintain. Many people embrace their natural gray hair, which can be quite attractive.
13. Regular Dental Care: Don’t neglect your dental health. Regular dental checkups and good oral hygiene can help maintain a youthful appearance.
Remember that aging is a natural part of life, and it’s essential to embrace the wisdom and experiences that come with it. Looking and feeling young is about maintaining your health and self-confidence as you age.
I was working at this shipping company, I think it was.
The boss was one of those who would bully his subordinates. He often made several employees cry.
Anyway, we were in a meeting. It was more like a bitching session.
The boss spent the meeting screaming at everyone, calling us lazy and insisting we were the worst employees ever. He was screaming at us and I felt I had to say something.
So I did.
The boss got right in my face. I mean, like a few inches from me. He started screaming right in my face and I simply stood my ground.
The boss screamed at me to get out, that I was fired.
Then he screamed at everyone else, calling them lazy and telling everyone to get out if they didn’t like the way he was running things.
Each and every person followed me out the door. This literally meant there was no staff to get any work done.
Not surprisingly, the boss ended up getting fired.
I was turning 30. I had planned a party for me and my going to be 12 year old daughter. It was a Saturday. My sister and I went with our kids to Mom and Dad’s for the regular Saturday bagel routine. Dad was at his parents’ house mowing their lawn. He had called me earlier with a, “Happy Birthday Robbio, See Yah later”. I responded, “Love you Daddio”. About 45 minutes into our bagel breakfast, the phone rang and my mother answered. The color completely drained from her face. She kept repeating, “A stroke? A stroke?” It was my grandfather. My father was in the hospital. My then husband and brother-in-law raced to my mother’s side and my sister and I loaded the kids into my car and sped to our grandparents. I played the game in my head, If I get all green lights he’s fine. If I see kids playing he’s fine….etc. It was a warm September day. The windows on the car were open. As we approached the house, we could hear what only could be described as wailing. It was Grandma. I have never, ever heard such a sorrowful, painful sound. My daughter found my Dad’s smashed glasses on the lawn. My grandfather returned from the hospital, just shaking his head. He said nothing. Shortly the family showed up. My dad had died. He had a massive heart attack. The sanitation workers picking up trash had jumped off of the truck to help my grandfather apply CPR, but to no avail. He was basically dead before he hit the ground. For the next fifteen years, no one and I mean no one could say, “Happy Birthday” to me. I forbade it and if someone accidentally said it, they got schooled. I still can’t really celebrate my birthday, even though it’s been 36 years. I do have a major amount of respect for sanitation workers though.
Five days after moving into a new (to me and my wife) home our neighbor, Lee, showed up at our door to borrow my weedeater. He’d seen me using it in my backyard the day before and said he wanted to do some “cleanup” around his yard. I told him that I was sorry but I had a firm policy against loaning my tools or equipment out. I also mentioned that I’d bought the weedeater at a local home improvement store for around $75. He replied that he wouldn’t use it that often so he didn’t see the point of buying one.
End of story, right?
Not quite.
The guy pretty much avoided me after I denied his request; if I came outside while he was in his driveway or yard, he’d ignore me, or just give a cursory wave before turning away. Over time I became friendly with Mack, my neighbor across the street, and one evening we were in his backyard, staining his deck, when he said that he didn’t think I was a bad guy, at all. I asked him to explain and he told me that my next door neighbor, Lee, had told him and a couple of other neighbors that I was an asshole who didn’t want to help anyone out. Because I wouldn’t lend him my weedeater.
I told Mack that Lee struck me as being something of an opportunist and con man, and Mack admitted that Lee did have those tendencies. That convinced me that I’d been right to refuse to lend him my weedeater. He was just angry at me because I didn’t buy his BS.
I couldn’t say how friendly German women as a whole were to American troops; (although sometimes they were very friendly indeed, I’ve often read, lol)…but I can relate a story my dad told me about an interaction he once had with a German woman towards the very end of the Third Reich.
My dad was a medic in the 3rd Armored Division. He landed on Omaha beach, fought all through France, drove through the carnage and destruction of the Falaise pocket, was in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge and was in Germany at the Battle of the Hurtgen forest. He was also at the liberation of the Nordhausen forced labor camp, where V-2 rockets were being constructed by slave labor…Poles, Jews, Czechs and Russians. My father was in the Ruhr pocket in Rhine-North Westphalia, Germany when the war ended.
It really didn’t dawn on me until much later in life what a living repository of history my dad was, and how present he had been at and for so much history. He told me many truly amazing stories, and as I was always pretty much the only one among my siblings who ever showed any interest in my dad’s WW II service, I wrote everything he told me down and have it archived on my computer. (And even as a child, I was fascinated by my father’s stories and recognized them for the real family and WW II history they were). I really wish I had tape recorded my dad telling these stories when he was still alive, and always meant to…but life and time got in the way (as it often does) and I never got around to it. Still, though…I’ve got them all down in print.
This happened shortly after the 3rd Armored had crossed into Germany proper. My dad told me;
“Often,when we moved into and occupied these towns,of course we would sometimes take a break for chow.And invariably, little French or Belgian or in this case Germankids wouldcluster around, watching us getting ready to eat and hoping for some food.All of these children had been living in occupied or food-rationed countries for years now; they were often terribly thin and pale.And they’d gather around, smelling the cooking food and shyly watching us with big eyes.
And of course…we shared. I mean…how the heck could you eat while being watched by hungry kids? Anybody with a heart would’ve shared, and we always did.
And in this particular town, there was a little fella watching us. He had a beat-up, moth-eaten black coat on, and a little black cap on his head. Short pants and knee socks…legs like pipe cleaners…like sticks.
So I decided right then and there to make sure this little guy got fed well.
I grabbed him by the hand, took him to the head of the chow line and told the guy filling our kits, “C’mon, pal. Load this little guy up. Load‘im up.Looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal in years.”And he hunted up an aluminum tray, and piled it high with corned-beef hash and beans and white bread. I dug a D-bar out of my pocket and also put some chewing gum on the tray, too. I knelt down and put the tray and food into the boy’s hands.
You should’ve seen this kid’s face. (Laughs). His eyes nearly popped out of his head! “Danke schoen, Herr Soldaten!’’, he said to me politely and wonderingly. I found an empty packing crate in the street, led him over to some steps in front of a house, propped up the crate and helped him put the tray on it and sit down, and stuck a tin spoon in his hand. In German, I told him to help himself and eat up. Eagerly, he began to dig in.
But as the boy began to bring the first spoonful of food to his mouth…a door to a house on the other side of the street flew open, and a matronly “hausfrau“ maybe sixty years old or so came storming out of the house and across the street to us, snatched the spoon right outta the kid’s hand, grabbed the tray of food and hurled it to the ground.
“ALBERNES KIND!” (FOOLISH CHILD!), she yelled at the boy.“Do you notknow, have you not heard?These American soldiers are all CHICAGO GANGSTERS!! They will kill you!! That food is poisoned!! And yet you are blockhead enough to eat ofit??!!”
Viciously jerking the boy up off the stairs by his arm, she swatted his ass good and turned to march with him back to the house across the street.As the kid started bawling, I grabbed her by the arm to try to stop her and explain things to her. I spoke and understood the Deutsch pretty damned well by then, and I knew exactly what she’d said; and I was very much dismayed that she actually believed I, or we as Americans, would really try to poison her child…or grandchild, most likely. And I desperately wanted her to understand that this wasn’t the case.
And besides…I wasn’t even from Chicago! (Laughs).
So Itried to talk to her, addressing her as ‘’gnadige frau” (gracious lady) and telling her, “The food is not poisoned! Look!”And I bent over and picked up the tray, and actually scooped up a handful of hash off the ground and ate it right in front of her!“Nicht giftig!”, I kept repeating to her, “nicht giftig!” (Not poisoned!)
Unfortunately, she was having none of it. With a glare at me and a sniff of her upturned nose, she turned away and dragged the bawling kid across the street and into the house and slammed the door behind them.
I felt bad that the little guy never got his chow, and that these people had been so ingrained to hate and distrust us by Nazi propaganda.
But not all the German people were that way. Many of them were quite friendly and distinctly glad to see us…as opposed to the Russians.”
My father told me lots of other stories, some funny, many quite tragic, which I’ll be submitting to Quora in the future. My first story of his got an overwhelming response, and I was glad so many people enjoyed it. I fancy myself a student of WW II, and it really made me pleased that so many other people find so much interest in my dad’s war tales. Thanks to everyone for your views and comments…more to come if you’re interested!
I went to the drive up window at our pharmacy to pick up my script. It was a very blustery day. As I went to put my $20 in the drawer a gust of wind blew it out of my hand. After paying with my ATM card I pulled away and parked. Got out of the car and searched the area but no luck. My thought was I hope whoever found it needed it more than me and drove home. During the next week or so I was in and out of my car including the trunk several times.
I had a bag full of clothes to donate to Goodwill. In order to get to the Goodwill near me I had to drive to the intersection near my pharmacy, turn left, travel about half mile, turn right onto a busy highway, drive another half mile and turn left into the Goodwill parking lot, drive to the back of the store to deliver my donation. The rear parking lot backed up to a wooded area. I took the clothes out of the trunk of my car and deposited them in the bin provided.
Just as I walked to the back of my car a $20 bill blew right up to my feet. I just couldn’t believe it. The bill looked like it had been out in weather for a while. Was it my bill from the pharmacy. Was it somehow stuck to my car or trunk. But how could that be. I had driven my car quite a bit and had been in and out of my car and trunk several times during that week. In any event I was so happy because I sure needed that $20.
When Delusional Woke People Get OWNED
TO THE MOM AT THE SCHOOL DROP OFF THIS MORNING
Today I walked my son to his kindergarten class. It was cold and we were huddled together like sardines as we stood outside the door waiting for the bell to ring.
I saw you with your little boy just a few feet from us, and I looked down when I realized you were looking at us. I hoped you didn’t know who we were. I hoped you didn’t know my son was “that kid.” The one who’s not transitioning well in this school year.
I know what the kids say about my son. They go home and tell their parents my kid is bad. Sometimes he pushes and hits. Sometimes he is defiant and refuses to sit down, be quiet, or stay in line.
I know because the kids tell him what they think of him on the playground. “Mark said I’m bad today.” Or “Aiden’s dad said I can’t play with him anymore.” And my heart hurts, because I know he’s struggling in school. And we are working every angle… in school with a specialist, at home, and through classes, books and resources.
Today, you looked at me, then at my son. “You must be K,” you said to my son. And I looked up and smiled sheepishly. It was an apologetic smile. Almost a “I’m sorry you know his name” smile, because that means you’ve heard the stories.
I said to you, “Yes, this is him.”
I whispered when my son stepped away that we are aware he’s causing some trouble and we are working on it. That we take his behavior very seriously.
And then you did something I never expected. I don’t know if I was waiting for you to tell me what you heard K did to your son, or just tell me off. But instead you told me about your older son who struggled with similar problems at this age. You told me that now he’s in high school and he’s a straight A student.
Instead of tearing me down, you lifted me up. You gave me hope. And you handed me an olive branch so I know that I do have an ally during school drop off. An ally I never expected.
You didn’t have to make that connection. You could have ignored us or pretended not to know us. Or yes — you could have told me what you think of my son (you would not be the first). But you didn’t. You showed me grace and kindness and you uplifted me more than I could possibly describe in words.
I told you I would love to learn more about steps you took with your older son. I would love suggestions and guidance and that I would call you. And you know what? I will call you. Even if no suggestions or guidance is ever exchanged. I will call you because you are a friend I want to have. You are a good person.
Supporting evidence: Having spent more than 5 years at TCS I thought employees must accept their manager’s decision, no questions asked. After I moved to Australia I took up a casual hour based contract job. I didn’t mind the pay (which was less than what my experience could get me) because I loved the team. My manager believed in giving credit where it was due and soon the top management wanted to offer a fixed term contract which meant I could take paid leaves. I was so grateful and was about to sign the contract when my manager asked, “Aren’t you going to ask for a raise?”
“But this is so nice of them and I don’t want to make it awkward. What if they think I’m being greedy?”, I asked.
My manager laughed but looked at me seriously as she said, “Ruchika, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! You know you can get more money outside and they know it too. Don’t let them get away with it. Show them you know your worth.”
I nodded and wrote an email only to please my manager. I was so surprised at the response because the higher step pay was granted to me, just like that.
After some time, the management decided to offer me an ongoing permanent position and offered me the topmost step pay in the band. I was about to sign the offer letter as my manager reminded me to ask for a raise again. “But they are already offering me the topmost level in my band and they can’t change the band for this job, so I’m not sure what they can do.”, I responded.
“They will figure out a way if they want to. I know they will because they know you’re good and wouldn’t want to lose you. However, if they can’t, the worse that’ll happen is, they’ll refuse. I can’t see what you have to lose.”
Cursing the awkward situation I was in, I wrote an email trying to sound grateful and confident at the same time. My manager approved the draft and I hit send. By the end of the day, the General Manager asked HR to add a special loading to my pay package, which meant I was earning pretty much the same as the next band without undergoing any admin headache.
The thing is the company knows their good employees and understands, like all relationships, this association needs to be beneficial to both the parties. So if there’s something that you know will help you perform better for your company… just ask!
Boss asked me to train a newly hired paralegal graduate to do my job in one week as she was going to be my backup while I was on vacation.
I asked him how do I train 35 years of experience in a fresh paralegal graduate? I did my best to cram the information before I left for vacation.
She was inattentive and I had grave concerns since she refused to take notes.
Upon my return, I got the blame for every mistake she made during my absence. Each attorney gave me a list of their grievances.
I defended myself and was scolded for insubordination and told my services were no longer required.
So I left, turning in my keys. 4 hours later I receive a text stating that I misunderstood our conversation and that it was not their intention to terminate me.
5 hours later, I receive another text stating that he was no longer firing me but I needed to be less reactive and more understanding of the firm needs.
I decided to help clarify the situation and informed him that my text response confirms the separation terms.
And if you are a teacher, you might be cranky after reading this. It does not put teenage me in a flattering light.
When I was in high school, you had to take 2 years of gym in order to graduate. May I just say, over 30 years later, the most frequent recurring nightmare I have is not having enough of the right credits to graduate high school.
This plagued me.
I hated gym. I wasn’t athletic. I was not a group anything, and was particularly awful at group sports. I’m very tall, so you’d think I’d be good at volleyball. Nope. Into the net every time.
I despised everything about gym, because I was an outsider. Outsiders are most vulnerable in gym class. I just wanted to be alone & read books & listen to Bowie records.
Plus, I hated my body. I thought I was supposed to look like Farrah Fawcett. I did not look like Farrah. I was fat, and in particular I hated my legs.
Back then, you were required to do certain things to pass gym. One of those things was called dressing out. We also had to participate in class, then take a shower & dress for our next class, all in six or seven minutes at the end.
As you can see, this was a lot of body exposure for someone who hated their body so much. Every part of it was a humiliation to me.
I have a picture of myself in a swimsuit after my senior year. Thing is, my body was fine. I’d be delighted to have that body again.
(So if you are a teenager and hate your body, stop it. You are more fabulous than you know.)
Dressing out was changing out of our school clothes & putting on our gym clothes, which was basically a polyester onesie. Navy shorts attached to a navy & white horizontally striped shirt which zipped up the front to our neck.
It was just heinous. See?
(Photo courtesy of Google images)
I just wouldn’t do it. I’d plead not feeling well & wonder why putting on this onesie & playing dodgeball could possibly advance our lives in any way. I sat on the sidelines staring at the antics of class with great disdain. And I seemed to be getting away with it.
I was not getting away with it.
One day, our gym teacher, Mrs. K, walked over to me. She had a very pleased with herself expression on her face. She was smirking.
Because kids like me were the bane of existence to teachers like her. I had a bad attitude.
Once in a while, teachers will one-up kids like me. My antennae went up. The smirk worried me.
I need to talk to you, she said.
I stood up and gazed at my foe, with her Hamill haircut and velour track suit in a particularly unflattering shade of mauve.
I have to tell you, she said, almost unable to contain her glee, that you are failing gym. There’s no way for you to pass. None. I have told you over and over you have to dress out and participate. You haven’t done either. So, she continued, delivering her coup de grace, unless you go to summer school, you will not graduate with your class.
SUMMER SCHOOL? Oh, HELL no.
I do believe I cried. She was unmoved, giving the standard line that eff-ups like me hear time and time again:
There are consequences to our actions!
It was unbearable.
I did feel ashamed. It was just so stupid and avoidable. I’d truly screwed myself this time.
Two things were certain.
I was not going to summer school.
I was not being left behind a year. Impossible.
So I had to put my thinking cap on & figure this mess out.
Okay. What does she want? What do teachers like her want from students? Above all else?
The answer was clear. The problem was the execution of the plan. She would be suspicious. I had to deliver this perfectly.
The next day, I showed up at gym class. I put on the wretched gym suit. I participated in calisthenics and dodgeball. I showered & dressed for class. I saw her looking at me with my peripheral vision; I did not turn my head or make eye contact.
Me & my new, improved attitude were docile. Subdued. One of the herd.
Next day, I came back. Did the same thing. Participated. Laughed along with the other students. Plays well with others, check.
I knew the fatal flaw would be to ask her to pass me. So I didn’t. Nothing happened. A week went by.
Then one day she calls my name after class. I trot up to her. I keep my eyes big and innocent. I say Yes m’am.
I’ve noticed, she starts, that you’ve been dressing out & participating for a week. Without a reward in sight.
That’s right, I think, keep going…
You have had a real change of attitude.
It’s actually worked, I think, this is just thrilling.
So, she continues, kind now; dare I say moved? If you continue to dress out every day & write a two-page report on the importance of dressing out, I will pass you.
YES
But you have to do it every day, she warns, letting me know not to test her benevolence.
Ah, bien sur, Madame. I give effusive & grateful thanks.
I walk out of there like a boss. I can barely contain my joy. No summer school. I graduate with my class.
I tell my best friend, howling with glee, about how my attitude had changed.
Unbelievable, says my friend T, with more than a little disgust.
What do teachers want most? They want to make a difference in a kid’s life. I let her think she had changed me; that she’d taught me the importance of a good attitude.
What are most people surprised to hear about Australia?
the crustaceans we put on barbeques are called “prawns”, not “shrimp”.
I had never heard of Steve Irwin until after he become famous overseas — he was not that well-known here before he became famous overseas
Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee are anything but “typical Australians” — typical Australians live in cities, like Sydney and Melbourne and the other state, territory, and federal capitals
we rarely see dangerous animals or insects — Australia is not particularly dangerous and we have a long life expectancy
we don’t see many kangaroos or other native animals unless we live well outside the big cities
Pavlovas — you must eat one
Australian confectionery is very good, at least compared to American confectionery
Australian food (meat, vegetables, fruit) is fresh and generally of a high quality
most Australians live near the ocean — the interior is relatively empty (and dry, as in desert)
Australia does not have a lot of Mexican restaurants because we don’t live next door to Mexico — it is a long way from here
Australians do not like Starbucks, and do not have “Burger King” — we call it Hungry Jacks because of a court case run by a business here that already had the name “Burger King”
our Woolworths has no relation to American Woolworths … except our Woolworths stole the name before the American Woolworths tried to open stores here (Woolworths Group (Australia) – Wikipedia
)Australians drive on the left — like the British, Japanese, New Zealanders, Indians, and many other people in this part of the worldwe have winter in June, July, and August, and summer in December, January, and February … and no, we don’t think that is strangeit gets cold here in winter, especially because we build our houses to be cool in summer … and then freeze in winter if we don’t have heaters and woolly jumpers (sweaters).
If you only bring summer clothes to Australia you will suffer during winter months.we have Christmas in summer (December) … because Christmas is not a celebration of winter, it is a celebration set on 25 December
Australians write dates as day/month/year not month/day/yearthe Australian accent is different to the New Zealand accent — just ask a New Zealander to say “fish and chips”: if they say “fush end chups” they are from New Zealand. It is definitely different to any British accent.Australians use A4 paper, not “Letter size”; we use the metric system; our currency is the Australian dollar … and we changed all of those things in my lifetime.our temperature is in Celsius.
No, we don’t understand Fahrenheit, we have to convert it to Celsius first.we put “petrol” in our cars, not “gas” … unless your car has been converted to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in which case we say “LPG”, not “gas”. Petrol is not a gas, it is a liquid.
One boss asked a subordinate to review sick leave usage. The subordinate reported that 40% of all sick leave was taken in conjunction with a weekend. He took it as proof that people were abusing the sick leave system.
The boss ordered all supervisors to require a doctor’s note when someone took sick leave in conjunction with a weekend.
I did a quick analysis of his order and responded, “Monday and Friday are each one fifth of the work week, or 20% of the work week each. Together they add up to 40% of the week. If people get sick at random, they will call in evenly over the work week. You should expect to see an even distribution of 20% of sick leave taken on any given work day. The fact that only 40% call in on Monday and Friday (20% each) proves that no one is abusing sick leave.”
So I was working with this Car Dealership in the States for quite a while, about 4–5 years. Made good money and we had relatively good business practices, which isn’t common in car sales anywhere, and I ended up liking it alot. Anyway, they had this page in the employee handbook that states essentially that if your fired, quit, etc before commission is paid out on the 15th of each month then they were not required to pay you your commission. And that instead of $15 an hour your paychecks were retroactively reduced to minimum wage of $7.75. So, in this dirtiest of fine prints, what it didn’t tell you is that if they fired you on the 14th, which happened ALOT, then instead of getting your commission check, you were handed a bill that you owed them. Unless you worked an impossible amount of hours, you’d never be able to break the “Draw pay” or the money they front you weekly, $600 weekly. You would have to sell an absurd amount of cars, which case your not fired no matter how much you suck, or work 100+ hours a week to cover it. It was just cruel and dirty. I watched many folk get fired on the 14th and on the 15th have a letter from accounting stating that you ower them $300-$500 due in less than 30 days. Everyone screamed it was illegal, but “You signed the agreement” was always the answer. Somebody sued them for it once, and if memory serves me right they dragged it out for about 2 years and settled on not nearly enough money to cover lawyers and court costs. Dirty fine print at its best.
In 2012 a man was traveling in a Suzuki car with 3 others in Patna. He was driving at a speed of 100 kmph on an empty highway. Soon an SUV passed them at a very high speed. The SUV was so fast that it almost got out of control and was about to hit the Suzuki.
To save the accident, the driver of Suzuki tried to move away from the passing SUV. Doing so, the Suzuki got out of control and overturned and hit the corner of the road.
(photo for illustration only)
Four people in the car were badly injured, but narrowly escaped. The SUV driver fled after the accident and there was no one else on the road. Suzuki’s driver was badly injured and he got out of the car and sat on the middle of the road, shouting “Save!”.
It was 36 degree heat and the road was scorching. The driver lay on the road thinking that he was about to die. He wanted to help the other 3 passengers, who were still inside the car and were moaning in pain.
A few minutes later a car arrived. The man who got out of the car made a video of the accident with his phone. Then he took a closeup of the driver, whose face was covered in blood. Then this person sat in his car and left from there.
A few more minutes passed and the other car stopped. A middle-class couple came out and saw the driver lying on the hot road. The couple went back to their car and came back with a sheet.
To protect the injured driver from the scorching sun, the couple shed a sheet over him and stood up. They both stood in the sun. The husband then called emergency health services and asked them to come to the scene immediately.
They both stood there giving shade to the injured driver for almost 70 minutes! So long in the sun!
After the ambulance arrived, the couple took two other passengers in their car along with the ambulance.
The couple left the hospital after the four injured were admitted to the ICU. The driver narrated this story after recovering from an injured condition for several months, but he could not meet the noble couple.
China is militarily aggressive towards Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
China is a dictatorship.
China is trapping developing countries in debt with the Belt and Road Initiative.
There are many, many more lies. They could fill a book, so it’s not appropriate to expound on all of it in a Quora answer.
Some food for thought…
China has fought no wars since 1979. How many wars has America fought?
China has legitimate maritime disputes in the South China Sea, just like USA and Canada have no fewer than five maritime disputes.
China does not sanction other countries, nor interfere in their politics, nor overthrow their governments. America has done all of this.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 85% of Chinese trust their government. Only 40% of Americans do, and 30% of Brits do.
According to Latana’s Democracy Perception Index (which measures what people think of their political system), China is the sixth most democratic country, well ahead of Canada, UK, and USA.
The Global South gives overwhelming support to the Belt and Road Initiative. Over 150 countries participate!
Married Women Held Accountable for Late Night Encounters with Under Age Boys
At 4pm he told us to compile a report and action plan ready for tomorrow’s 830am meeting. Now to do this properly would take each of us a full day’s work. All 7 of us protested, and asked for more time. I asked when he expected us to find the time, and he told us to work on it that night at home. I openly said “sorry, that’s unreasonable. I have a 90 minute drive home, then I’ll be cooking dinner, and then helping with showers and homework. When that’s done I have about an hour before I’m ready to fall asleep. His reply? “Get your wife to make the dinner and shower the kids while you work on the report.” And then he left the room. So we all united and decided not to do it.
He went off his tree at 830am the next morning when nothing was done. I had a word to the very nice HR lady, about what he said, along with the list of people in the room who witnessed it. When he blew his gasket and wanted HR to issue warnings, she simply told him to reschedule the meeting for the following day, and let us work all day uninterrupted to prepare for it, in work time.
My ex worked at a Friendlies restaurant. They had that wonderful phenomena with the Sunday morning church crowd. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, ask anyone who works Sunday morning at low-end restaurants.
This one family was notorious for demanding exemplary service, running the servers ragged and not tipping. On my ex’s last day of work, they showed up and did their usual. Rather than not tipping, they left a little card that said “I’ve given your tip to Jesus!” She balled up the card, followed them out into the parking lot, threw it at the dad and said “Jesus doesn’t pay my fucking rent!”
The dad flew back into the restaurant and demanded she be fired. The manager said it was her last day, and maybe things like this wouldn’t happen if you tipped the server. It was golden.
70% of people keep things to themselves to avoid being judged by others.
People between the ages of 18–33 are the most stressed in the world After the age of 48, stress level tends to reduce.
The most common lie said by humans is ” I’m fine”
Pretty people are automatically more acceptable by people. Average looking people have to do something above average to get accepted and ugly people have to do something extraordinary!
Always tell the truth. So when you have to tell a lie, people are more likely to believe you.
More you talk about a person to others, more you fall in love with that person.
If you announce your goals or tell someone else about them, you are less likely to accomplish them because of lack of motivation interest since you have nothing to prove.
A true friend who understands your troubles is far more valuable than a hundred friends who only show up for your smile.
We tend to behave better when we are being watched.
Happier is not the one who has more money, but the one who has more money than his neighbor.
Anger increases the desire of possession in people. People make more efforts to obtain the object that is associated with angry faces.
‘Maturity’ has no connection with ‘Age’. Yes, age is just a number…you can find more maturity in a child, than a person in his 50’s. Maturity comes with ‘Empathy’.
Intelligent people tend to have fewer friends.
We want more choices, but choose better with fewer options.
I’ll admit that when I conducted interviews — either alone or as part of a panel — there were times when I liked, or disliked, a candidate early on. That’s why I came up with a series of questions to ask and made sure to ask them all: I wanted to give the candidate an opportunity to change my mind, one way or the other.
I will say that my initial impression was right about 70% of the time but ending an interview after five minutes would be a waste of the candidate’s and, more importantly, my time. In my 50+ years in the work force, there was only one occassion when I ended an interview prematurely. When I owned a security guard company I interviewed a woman for a job as Operations Manager. When she sat down she said that she’d heard good things about my company and she really wanted the job. Then she stood up and leaned on my desk, so I could see down her blouse, and said she’d do anything to get the job. I looked at her and smiled, and she repeated, Anything.
I ended the interview at that point, after less than ten minutes, and thanked her for coming in. I told her I planned on making a decision before the weekend (she’d come in on Tuesday) and I would let her know what is was. I had my assistant call her two days later and tell her another candidate had been hired. That chick was a lawsuit waiting to happen and I wanted no part of her.
When I’ve approached a table and before I’ve even said hello I’ve been met with ‘just so you know, we are on tripadvisor’. *sigh*. I can tell straight away I’m going to get AT LEAST one complaint about food/service/drinks/the colour of the tablecloths or whatever other excuses they want to make in order to receive a discount or face a terrible review.
We have a group of women who come in twice a month. There are always between 8-10 of them. They are taken care of as well as we take care of all our other guests. The fact you leave reviews on tripadvisor is not special and you will not be treated any differently. Every time they come in they order the same lamb dish. Everytime they ALL complain about the lamb dish.
The first time I was apologetic and gave a good discount on the bill. Two weeks later it happened again I gave a discount but started to suspect something when other patrons complimented the lamb and I had watched them talking for a good 15 minutes after food was served before complaining the food was cold. The third time it happened I was pissed off. Not only were they generally rude to the staff but when they paid the bill they would make a big deal out of saying they left a little extra for the server and it has never been more than 5 pence. Luckily we are in a country where we don’t rely on tips to earn a living.
So this third time they come in; as usual they want lamb and as usual they complain about it. When it comes time to pay I take the complete bill over, no discount.
The chief moaner said that as they hadn’t enjoyed the lamb they should get some discount. I was once again reminded they were on tripadvisor. I proceeded to tell them that they had been here twice now, ordered the same thing and complained about it both times. They were choosing to come here and if the food was that bad they didn’t need to come back. They were more than welcome to leave a terrible review and in exchange we didn’t have to give them free food every other week or put up with their terrible attitude and it was a worthwhile trade.
Shockingly they didn’t argue back just paid the bill and left. Also shockingly they came back two weeks later like normal and ordered the lamb, which when asked if everything was okay with their meals it was ‘delicious’ or ‘lovely, thank you’.
They still come every fortnight and we never got a negative review on tripadvisor.
She Sells Her Soul For 50 Years Of Pleasure, But When The Devil Comes For Her, She Outwits Him
In 2022, I visited New York City to take a training for my job.
I set aside the day before the training started as a sightseeing day. I knew I wanted to visit Ellis Island and the 9–11 Museum, so I bought a package ticket for both through the website where I booked my flight and hotel.
On my sightseeing day, I took the subway from my hotel down to Battery Park and met my tour group there. The tour guide, who was wonderfully intelligent, knowledgeable and interesting, took us to the ferry, which took us to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
After the ferry returned, it turned out that I was the only one of the group who had also signed up to go to the 9–11 Museum. The tour guide walked me down there, saying it was only a few blocks away.
I’m 63 years old, and not in very good physical condition. The temperature was over 90 degrees, and I do not do well in the heat. So it was a long walk for me, and I had to take frequent rest breaks. The tour guide was quite patient with me, and we had a really great conversation during this walk.
At one point in the conversation, I mentioned my husband. The tour guide said to me, “Your husband must be very smart. I know this because you are very smart, and I can tell you would never put up with a guy who wasn’t as smart as you. You would have him for breakfast.”
I will never forget that complement!
P. S. FYI, my husband IS very smart.
Italian Wedding Soup
This Italian Wedding Soup Recipe is simply the best! Made with acini de pepe, beef and pork meatballs, carrots, celery, greens, and Parmesan cheese. This soup is SO flavorful! Serve with crusty bread and a glass of wine and enjoy!
Packed with onions and carrots, spinach and pasta and meatballs, this hearty soup is perfect for chilly winter nights. Serve a big bowl of wedding soup with crusty rolls for a satisfying meal.
Yield: 29 cups; about 16 (12 ounce) servings
Ingredients
Meatballs
2 hamburger rolls or 4 slices white bread
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or meatloaf mix
1 medium onion, grated or very finely diced
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, diced; about 2 cups
2 cups finely diced carrots, about 3 large carrots
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 to 4 1/2 quarts (16 to 18 cups) chicken broth, homemade or purchased
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs or 3/4 teaspoon each dried oregano and dried basil
10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach
1 teaspoon salt, to taste
1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
2 2/3 cups uncooked orzo, ditalini, or other small, roundish pasta
Instructions
Meatballs
Combine the bread, egg, milk, and salt, stirring until everything is well moistened. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes to soften.
Add the ground meat, onion, cheese, and herbs. Mix gently until thoroughly combined.
Shape tiny meatballs, (about 1 inch diameter or less). Using a level teaspoon scoop (which volume-wise is actually 2 level measuring teaspoons) makes about the right size. Place the meatballs on a parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheet, and refrigerate them while you prepare the soup.
Soup
Get out a large pot, at least 6 quart capacity. Pour the olive oil into the bottom of the pot, and add the onions and carrots. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add the broth and herbs, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 10 minutes.
Add the frozen chopped spinach, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, total; the soup will take awhile to come back to a simmer, due to the frozen spinach. Help it along by breaking it up with a fork as it cooks.
Gently drop the meatballs into the soup. Simmer the soup for 30 minutes or so, then stir in the pasta, cooking until it’s al dente. For orzo, this will take about 8 minutes or so.
Add salt and pepper to taste; using reduced-salt canned chicken broth, we added 1 teaspoon salt; and 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.
Serve the soup garnished with freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese.
When I was a Probation and Parole officer I had this guy on parole and probation at the same time. He had several positive cocaine drug tests. Usually three positive tests was where they would be arrested. Larry was uniquely qualified for extra chances. I can’t remember the fourth reason, but it most have been pretty good for me to have given him the pass. Then he got his fifth positive test. As much as I liked him I felt like I had to arrest him then. So, I confronted him about the positive test, and instead of denying it like most parolees did he said, “Officer Davis, I was this woman, and she poured cocaine all over her breasts and p**sy, and said, Larry go down on all this stuff.” Then he looked at me like a five year old child would, even though he was a forty some year ago man and said, “Officer Davis, what did you expect me to do?”
I never new if that story was true or not, I’m pretty sure it is, but anyway it was such a good story that Larry got another chance and completed hi probation and parole, with a little help from me.
Older Woman Leaves Her Good Husband And Can’t COPE With The CONSEQUENCES
This was back around the mid-90’s in So Cal. We were having dinner with serveral of my husband’s coworkers and their spouses. It was a fairly well-known Italian place, I ordered shrimp and broccoli pasta. I took a few bites, and there was a large curled up caterpillar (I later learned was a “tomato horn worm”). It was the size of the shrimp, but not quite a brilliant green like the broccoli.
I didn’t want to make a huge fuss, so I pushed food around the plate. The server came around, and noticed that my plate was still mostly full. He asked if there was something wrong, and I pointed to the caterpillar. He went kind of pale, and quickly whisked my plate off the table. My husband noticed, but with the rest of the table eating and conversing, no one else did.
The owner of the place came over and very quietly apologized, and offered me another item. I no longer had much appetite. He asked if I would like a dessert, but no, I just couldn’t. You could tell he was genuinely aghast. I didn’t make any announcement to the rest of the table, but just said I was full. They didn’t know anything until they were told that the entire table’s bill was comped.
We still laugh about that “green” shrimp. And yes, that restaurant is still in business.
Irishman here. About 25 years ago, our next door neighbour went on holidays to Spain for 2 weeks leaving their 16 year old son behind. The son had a series of parties all week and I called in to him to have words with him. When I called in, there were a group of kids there and when I was talking to him, I noticed from his eyes that I may have done better talking to the dog. He was as high as a kite and you could see and smell the drugs. I reported it the Gardai (Irish Police) who called out to him, but did nothing.
Friday of the week came and the party was beginning to grow with loads of people and loud music. I couldn’t take it any longer and my wife, kids and I went to our holiday home in Wexford for the weekend. Before we left, we informed the Gardai and some neighbours.
The following morning, we got a call to say the house next door went on fire and we had a lot of fire damage in our house. We came home to chaos.
The young lad next door moved in with some relatives nearby and they refused to ring his parents in Spain to tell them in case it would ruin their holiday.
When they came home, we spoke to them and they refused to accept any responsibility and we had to put it through our insurance. At the time, I was very naive regarding putting in an insurance claim and missed out on a lot. I should have replaced stuff where I just got them repaired and made do with a lot of other stuff. In short, I only claimed for half of what I should have and in saying that, my insurance increased for the next 5 years and affected our no claims bonus for 7 years. It cost me 10s of thousands of Punts.
The next door neighbours got their house completely gutted and rebuilt. Essentially a new house. The only thing that remained of the original house were the 4 walls, All concrete. They then moved out to a new house elsewhere.
In answer to your question: Yes they should pay and carry out a clean up. But it didn’t happen in my case.
When my son was in 8th grade, he refused to get in my ex’s car when she came to pick him up. I never found out why.
We took him to counseling, she had him meet with her minister (I took him over). In all cases, he sat there for over an hour and never said a word.
Eventually, she sued me for not forcing him to go with her. Judge took testimony. Told him all the things that we had tried to find out what was going on. Judge decided to take a crack at it. Spent 15 minutes chatting with him in chambers. Judge found him personable and likeable, but when he brought up why he wanted nothing to do with his mother, my son shut down and refused to interact with him.
Judge’s decision was that my son had veto powers over any custody agreement. My son never talked with his mother again until after high school graduation. He is 25 years now, he still has a bad relationship with his mother, and I still don’t know why.
1968. Single Mom, very poor. So poor I couldn’t afford needle & thread to sew my good blouse with a torn sleeve at shoulder. Worked for GSA, government with 2 other office ladies. Main Secretary had to have major surgery; off several weeks. The other lady became ill & took extended leave also. Left me to do all the work.
I didn’t mind as all the custodial/maintenance persons told me what a great job I was doing. They all said my annual appraisal warranted an outstanding rating; meaning a bonus of $200.
My boss called me in for the appraisal and his words: “I think you deserve an excellent rating but if I give it to you, I will have to fill out a lot of paper work. Then what will you have to work for next year”.
I was crushed and dumbfounded. It was unbelievable to the others persons as well. Within a few months, I found another job. Karma stepped in. Boss called me within a month and asked me to return as the other gals were leaving.
I was 16 years old and had an appointment my mother made because I was bleeding from my rectum. I was a 16 year old who thought it was all so dumb and wasn’t this doctors appointment just stupid and why mom did you bring me here… I was vocalizing all of this and my mom was crying and I was being awful. Finally I hear, “Shut up you little bitch!”
I was stunned. My mother probably wanted to applaud the man and I don’t blame her.
That doctor found very active ulcerative colitis. I was pretty sick. Pretty dumb too. To that end he went on to become my doctor for the next 20 years or until he retired. We had a real bond because of his big mouth.
On the day of his retirement he gave me a big hug and told me that I’d come a long way from the little brat he had met at first. He told me I was his favorite patient now. Good thing he was the best doctor I ever had.
He never apologized for saying that to me, but I did apologize for acting like a little bitch. Entitled one at that. Lol. You go Dr. Cocco!
*****PS. For anyone that thinks this behavior was wrong for a doctor. Maybe. However in this case I was bleeding actively from the inside out. This doctor could tell that with no exam really. All a person in GI bleed status has to do is fart and if you are in the medical profession you know what it smells like and tastes like pretty much without a “guaiac” or test. In this case the doctor could tell that I was mega non compliant as I was 16 and you don’t die at 16. So he stunned me into submission to get me out of there and to a hospital.
My mother had a child die from a bowel that was twisted and maybe she did or did not know what was going on. This was a whole different era. She was probably afraid it was happening again. In any event I was a bitchy little entitled brat back then. Even if it wasn’t emergent she should or would have clapped. Lord knows she tried everything else.
Just so you all know the rest of it maybe you’ll get more of the big picture.
When I was a senior in High School, I had a group of friends that I used to hang around with.
Oh, sure, most of the time we just stood around, smoked joints, drank beer and did acid. But it was a different time and a different place. We would alternate our locations, from the “standard” keggers, to road drives though the Western Pennsylvania woods to just hanging out near the river at a tipple.
Anyways, one of the guys was this older fella named Calvin. I liked him, but he was a hard drinker and partier.
I still get a chuckle out of this, but we are all stoned in my GTO. Calvin was in the back seat. A friend had lit a “Thai stick” which of course, was a very powerful form of marijuana, and when you smoked it, it felt like a baseball bat smashed your face. And we were parked outside this historical landmark; an old church and cemetery. We were listening to Led Zeppelin, and just sitting there completely zoned out. Our brains were pickled.
Calvin was chewing on something. He would reach into the ashtray at the side of the door wall and pull out some old cigarette butts and put in in his mouth and chew on it.
Then he said, after a while… “Man, this popcorn is the really stale”.
The PRC has sent barges into the channels between Quemoy and Xiamen to deepen the water channels between the ROC-held island of Quemoy and the PRC city of Xiamen. The ROC government in Taipei has said that this is a violation of the lines which the ROC had drawn between the two governments, and which had largely been respected by both sides.
Following the Feb. 14 event where an ROC coast guard ship chased a PRC fishing boat, leading to its capsize and the death of two PRC fishermen, the two sides have been involved in several rounds of negotiations. The PRC side has demanded a public apology and compensation to the families of the fishermen, but the ROC authorities have refused. So the PRC side has decided to deepen the shipping channels in the area, and violating the lines drawn up by the ROC.
Now the ROC authorities are threatening to take action against the PRC ships working in the area. They have not specified what actions they will take aside from pushing the PRC ships out of the area. This sets the stage for a confrontation.
The problem with the ROC position is that the authorities now publicly refer to the ROC as “Taiwan”, because the ruling DPP is for Taiwan independence. By taking a stance on offshore islands so close to Xiamen and PRC-held territory, they are choosing to enforce territory which is far away from Taiwan, and is not considered to be a part of “Taiwan”.
Why are they doing this? Do they expect the Biden administration to support them? It does not make a lot of sense.
If they don’t enforce it though, it is likely that the PRC air force and navy are unlikely to recognize air and sea claims made by the ROC anymore.
Salami-slicing in action.
Chuck Wagon Peach Cobbler
Ingredients
Cobbler Crust
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 cup cold water
Cobbler
1 Cobbler Crust
1 cup granulated sugar
6 cups peaches, drained and juice reserved
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Half-and-Half
1 cup juice from drained peaches
1/2 cup Black Jack Daniels
Instructions
Cobbler Crust
Mix dry ingredients and add shortening. Cut in with a fork. Mixture should look like coarse meal.
Add cold water gradually to make a ball.
Divide into 2 balls, top and bottom. Roll out one and line a 14 inch pan or 14 inch Dutch oven.
Roll out remainder and cut into 1 inch slices for latticework on top.
Cobbler
Melt butter in saucepan. Add peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar and Half-and-Half. Mix well.
Line pan or Dutch oven with crust.
Pour in fruit mixture.
Cover top with strips of crust in latticework pattern.
Moisten strips with water before baking and sprinkle sugar on latticework for crispy finish.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.
Every Man Needs To See This
What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?
When I bought my first car, a 1966 Mustang, my father insisted that I take it to his mechanic to go over it to make sure it was all working properly before I could drive it. It would stall out after 10 minutes of driving, so there was a problem.
The following was on the bill….
Clean top of carburator
Check oil filter for loosenes
Check window operation
Check exhaust system
Check steering, suggest replacement of steering box.
This was 1972 and the bill was over $300.00!!
The actual problem was a pinched fuel line. Rubber hose and two clamps. $1.50.
I replaced the oil filter and changed the oil. $7.50 total.
I removed the interior panels of the door, and greased the tracks. Already had grease $0.00
I replaced a broken hanger for the exhaust. $3.50
I pulled out the steering box and found it only needed grease and adjustment. Time and labor, already had grease $0.00.
The dude that worked on my car was a hack. I pointed out all this to my father and he only said “I guess your a better mechanic than the place we took it to. I never went back there.
Idiots
Is it difficult for British expatriates to find entry level jobs in law and business in Hong Kong as of 2023? Where do I look for work?
It’s difficult for my legal bod cousins. As I’ve mentioned before in another post during CNY celebrations a lot of UK born cousins were back in HK. A lot of them were looking for a route to come live in HK.
One of them was my cousin from one of my dad’s sisters. She’s worked in a UK legal firm for ages and wanted a way to come back here. Her just like many UK born ones have HKID cards so do not need visa sponsorship.
She had work experience.
She can work for less because accommodation is provided, the Clan provides several fully fitted out portacabins right at the back of the village, Portacabins are used because the common houses are being torn down and rebuilt. Anyway these portacabins all you have to do is pay for the electricity used.
She’s also pretty damned good in Chinese, HSK6… but here’s the thing HSK6 is still considered by most China born Chinese to be illiterate!
So? You have none of the above advantages.
You have to answer the question to HK immigration – why should I let you work in HK? What skills do you have that are in demand or somebody in HK can’t do. AND it has to pay over $28,000 a month.
You’re competing against all the returnees.
Jimmy Tells American General “The U.S. Is The World’s Biggest Terrorist!”
What is the most unsettling thing someone has said to threaten you?
A group of my friends was out drinking at a local bar where the music was loud, the floor was sticky, and the atmosphere was biker/tattoo/STD/obnoxious.
I was talking with someone who was an acquaintance-they were a friend of one of my friends. We knew each other, but only through these mutual friends.
Unfortunately, alcohol makes some people belligerent and, in the case of this one particular individual, paranoid.
I must have said something that didn’t sit well with him because the belligerent paranoid (BPA) accused me of disparaging him (I had not). He turned to my husband and told him he knew for a fact that our daughter was not his biological daughter (She is 100% his biological daughter). He started uttering non-sensical statements which I, for the most part, ignored and took as our cue to get the hell out of that dive bar.
The BPA went to the bathroom, my husband waited to pay the tab, and I went to get the car.
While I waited for my husband to come out, the BPA came up to my window and just stared into my car until I noticed him which caused me to jump and scream. I rolled down my window and told him he nearly gave me a heart attack.
Then he very calmly stared at me and said, “I’ll be by later tonight to stick a lighter in your outside dryer vent until your house catches and you all burn to death.”
Who the fuck communicates such a descriptive and specific way to unalive someone they barely know for reasons that are a complete figment of their imaginative paranoia?
My husband and I didn’t sleep well that night. The next day we installed cameras. And we have avoided all contact with the BPA since that unsettling and strange incident.
Bring your cat to work day
What are some deep things you should read today?
Everybody is self-made but only millionaires will admit it.
When you work for someone, the harder you work , the richer they get . When you work for yourself, the harder you work, the richer you get.
Continue to live for moments that make your heart smile wider than your face could ever imagine.
Uncomfortable dating tips : Women want you the most when you don’t need them.
Most people know “WHAT”to think , not “HOW” to think . If you learn this, you can conquer the world.
You can’t force love. Either it’s there or it isn’t. You’ve got to be able to admit it . If it’s there , you’ve got to do whatever it takes to protect it.
Modern life is low-level psychic warfare.
Men will gladly spend a whole day with a woman, but not a single hour on their purpose. And, in the end, they ask, “why did she leave?”.
Men Have FINALLY Had Enough Of Their FEMALE Colleagues
Who is the dumbest law enforcement officer you have ever encountered?
Oh I have a doozy.
1978. Houston. Near the Galleria Mall.
I was getting off the freeway when a police car cut me off, almost running me off the road, no signal. Just truly bad driving.
Being young and stupid, when I was beside him at the light, I called him on it.
Oh he lit me up. I had three friends in my car with me. He made me get out of the car and was just screaming at me, telling me he could do anything he damn well pleased and poking me in the chest the entire time. I politely asked him to stop poking me with his finger and he threatened to break all my fingers off. He was so mad he was spitting and his partner was standing next to him with a smirk.
I stayed calm and asked my friends to write down their name, badge number, and car number. That’s when they hopped in their cruiser and just zoomed off.
I didn’t like it, so I called and talked to the desk officer. He took all the information and I assumed absolutely nothing would happen.
Nope.
I got a call back from a lieutenant a few days later. They had done an investigation, because the location I reported them at was nowhere NEAR where they were assigned for that shift. What they discovered is that they were cutting out of their area, going to the mall, and catching a movie. Lots.
The lieutenant shared that this was not the first complaint, but it was the last, because they’d both been fired.
Moral of the story? If you’re doing something outright stupid, don’t light up the stubborn college kid.
Today’s Shinjuku Kabukicho August 23, 2023 UP
As a patient, what’s the angriest you have ever been toward a doctor?
Dad had stage four mastatised pancreatic cancer, double incontinence, dementia and crippling arthritis. His oncologists used to call him in every month for a check up that consisted of him looking at dad’s medical notes asking how he was then nodding his head, that’s it. But, the trip to the hospital took nearly an hours preparation, a forty minute drive each way, a ten minute walk from the car park to the clinic (dad in a wheelchair when I found one) and then the worst bit! The oncologist used to call ALL that days patients in at 0930 then see them in alphabetical order! Look at our surname! The first few times were bad but one time after dad returned to the hospice he had to be rushed back to the same hospital under blues and twos! The next appointment we managed about an hour in the waiting room and dad was struggling to hold back his tears of agony, so I wheeled him out and started along the corridors back to the car. First the receptionist tried to stop us and I told her what to do on a short pier, then the nurse came running up to try to return us to the clinic “as the doctor was very busy and would get to us as soon as possible”. Dad told her to go forth and fornicate or something similar! She ran back and told the doctor (don’t know if fornication was involved or not). Pushing a wheelchair with a mind of a shopping trolley containing a fifteen stone (210#) obese man (5′2″ ) in immense pain, who didn’t want to be there, you don’t move very fast! The doctor caught up to us to find out what was going on and exercise his presumed authority! Wrong move! My dad used to be a CSM and he taught me how to project orders across a parade ground! Don’t shout at me if you have sensitive hearing! Amongst other things (including the legitimacy of his birth) I told him we were there for the benefit of dads health and not his ego! And we left, luckily for him he didn’t try anything physical! I’m also 210# but six foot tall and very little of that was fat! Unfortunately the stress and strain on dad contributed to him once again that evening being returned to hospital by emergency ambulance.
Now my dad through a variety of reasons was no stranger to that hospital. In the ward he usually ended up on, all the staff knew him and were on first name terms, most since being students. One of the senior consultants had first met my dad when he was doing his medical training and had become friends (even came to dad’s funeral! What, you think you recover from stage four pancreatic cancer? At 81?) He wanted to know why dad was back in hospital once again. So we told him who, how and why! Now this senior consultant is married to the chief executive of the hospital, that may or may not be the reason that the oncologist changed his appointments policy from block appointments to individual appointments and a very significant attitude adjustment the next time we went to see him!
Gen-Z
What is the biggest secret that your first boss told you that has helped you the most?
I started to work as a programmer with a large insurance company.
I was also going to a university at night for an engineering degree.
So, the job was just a paycheck for me until graduated.
My supervisor called me into her office and let me know that she knew that I was just using the job as a steppingstone until I graduated. She was a quaker and peppered her speech with thee and thou. A lovely lady.
She told me the company had its own problems and if I showed some diligence in my job, she would ensure that I would be rewarded for my effort.
I took her advice and made a great effort to please her and focused on my job.
When the company put together a planning group, she insisted that I be a part of it.
The group consisted of two vice presidents, three directors and one programmer.
The first problem we tackled was the number of boxes of paper documents shipped to all our service locations at the end of the month. The cost of shipping the boxes and how hard it was to look up the data at the service location.
This was in the late sixties and personal computers were not common.
I was a tech magazine reader at the time, so I suggested to the group that we output the data to a fiche machine because the fiche produced would be less costly to ship than sending boxes,
It would require the home office to buy the fiche machine and the service locations to rent fiche readers, which at that time were very cheap.
The benefit to the service location was the fiche was easy to handle and never got torn.
Well, the company and the service locations loved the idea, so it was accepted.
The planning group stayed together for a year, and we solved some smaller problems.
That 15-minute conversation with my supervisor changed my life forever.
When I received my degree, I no longer had an interest in engineering and chose to stay in the computer field.
She is gone now but not forgotten.
Pepe Escobar: Putin and China Send DEVASTATING Warning to NATO as Germany, Macron Threaten WWIII
This is really rather good.
Can Quora conservatives explain why and when you started being a conservative?
I can try.
It’s a long story, though. But, like most other people, my political leanings are the result of my influences early in life, and my experiences. And, to some degree, what I didn’t experience, that others did experience.
For example, it’s easy to be supportive of the police, when you’ve only ever had positive encounters with them. It’s easy to assume that most people can avoid negative encounters with the police by simply obeying the law.
That door swings both ways. It’s easy to have an adversarial view of the police when you or someone you know had a negative encounter with them.
Once you get a political idea in your head, you start to see it everywhere you look. This is true for people across the political spectrum. You’re influenced to see certain things and, by God, now that you’re looking for them, you see them everywhere.
For me, my journey to the right side of the political spectrum is more of a journey of being pushed away by the left, rather than willingly moving towards the right. I’m more libertarian than conservative, but, in contemporary America’s binary political landscape, it seems that anything that isn’t progressive is often all grouped under “conservatism.”
Progressives: What’s your stance on [this issue]?
Me: Total indifference. It has nothing to do with me.
Progressives: So you don’t support the people who are dealing with it?
Me: Does my support or lack of it have any impact on the issue whatsoever? No? Then why must I choose to support it or not? Why can’t I remain indifferent?
Progressives: You sound like a conservative. Your silence tells us all we need to know, and it won’t protect you.
Me: If indifference on this topic makes me a conservative in your eyes, okay then. I’ll add your labeling of my political stances to the list of things I don’t care about.
If I’m being super honest, in the last decade or so, I’ve gone from identifying as “libertarian” to identifying as “cynical.” I assume that most politicians are only looking out for themselves, most government attempts to fix issues will fail, or make things worse, the government has more than enough money to fix society’s problems, but a lot of that money is wasted, etc…
For example, there’s a ballot measure here in Chicago to raise taxes on real estate sales over $1m, to raise funds for housing options for homeless people. My view on that is that it will likely pass, but not a single homeless person will be helped by this. Any money raised by this will find its way into the pockets of politicians and their supporters, while the expenses will just passed on to renters. The people who support it will get to pat themselves on the back for caring about the homeless, while ignoring the complete lack of tangible positive outcomes from it. The goal here is virtue signaling from the rank-and-file voters, sticking it to “rich people,” and lining the pockets of the Democratic machine. Homelessness is just the necessary reasoning for it all.
Basically, I assume that, for the rest of my life, the general situation in the world, and in my country, will be roughly the same as it is now, and my best move is to put myself and my children in a position to avoid the worst of it. The “status quo,” when it comes to politics, is too hopelessly entrenched to be uprooted, and too hopelessly corrupt to be effective.
But this question is about the origins of my conservatism, not why I stick with it in middle age.
I suppose my political journey began as a child in the 80s and early 90s. My father worked for the U.S. Navy, as a civilian machinist. Among other things I remember him saying about his job were:
He was forced to spend millions of dollars on machines that he didn’t really need in his shop, but the companies who made those machines donated to the right politicians.
He was forced to spend every single dime he was allocated for the fiscal year, or, the next fiscal year, he wouldn’t get as much allocated. Saving money isn’t rewarded, but is actually punished, when you work for the government.
He would never be promoted beyond his current level, no matter how well he did, because he was a white male. Back then, the federal government was only interested in promoting racial minorities and females.
That last one was something I heard versions of from most white men I knew growing up. Of course, half of them worked at the same base where my father worked, so they dealt with the same policies. None of these were rich white men. They were all working class white men, and they all felt like they were being punished for things they didn’t do, in the name of “fairness.” And they placed the blame for that injustice directly at the feet of liberals.
The same white “social justice warriors” of the 50s and 60s found themselves, by the 80s, on the receiving end of social injustice, in the form of Affirmative Action. It seemed like every middle-aged white male I knew growing up was a “live and let live” and “don’t judge a book by its cover” kind of guy, with a serious chip on their shoulder that others weren’t adhering to the “don’t judge a book by its cover” mantra. Every single white guy who felt like they were falling behind in society was able to blame Affirmative Action for their slipping, no matter how true it was.
The message, for younger white guys like me, was easy to pick up: it is legal to discriminate against you because of your race and gender, and you just have to accept it.
And, once you start looking for it, you see it everywhere.
Why does my high school have a counselor specifically for helping minority students get into and pay for college? That’s discrimination. Why is no one calling it out? My parents are taxpayers, too. That counselor should be helping everyone who needs help with those things, and not discriminating against students based on race.
You just have to accept it… or, affiliate yourself with the side of the political aisle which points out the hypocrisy of it all.
So it wasn’t so much “we’re conservatives,” as it was “liberals are working against people like us, so I guess that makes us conservative by default. Where else would we go?”
By the time I got to high school, I was socially liberal, in the sense that I simply didn’t care about people’s personal business, particularly in the bedroom. I was also very concerned about environmentalism, and even started a small paper recycling program in my school. It didn’t last, but at least I tried. I wanted to be a “part of the solution.”
My environmental views have skewed heavily to the cynical side in the 30 years since starting high school. I think recycling paper is a huge waste of time.
I remember, however, in high school, being annoyed by some of my more politically involved classmates, demanding that I (and everyone else) not only form opinions in line with theirs on certain topics, but openly express our support. They had the “if you’re not openly supporting us, you must be quietly opposing us” attitude that I’ve seen in other progressives in my adult life.
Some of my most common PG-rated thoughts throughout my high school years were versions of “I’d care more about this person’s point of view if they weren’t so damn loud and obnoxious all of the time.” And, of course, a sarcastic “the problem you’re in could have been easily avoided has you made more conservative choices in life.”
It was during those years that my own sister, of her own volition, developed a drug habit, became a teen mom, and dropped out of high school. I had a front-row seat, starting around age 12, of how to ruin your life through really shitty decisions, and it sapped a lot of the sympathy I had for people who were dealing with the consequences of their own shitty decisions.
Although I’m getting better about it, when I hear that someone put themselves in a bad situation, and is now begging “society” to bail them out of it, one of my first thoughts is, “how is this anyone else’s problem but yours? Why should we all have to pay for this?”
Anyway, that’s my evil conservative origin story.
Tales From The Streets : San Diego Streets Ep-4
What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?
While inprocessing for the military, I worked at a radio station selling air time in a town of 30,000. When I took over my route a retired Army major was occasionally hitting $6,000. That was pretty good in 1979. I took billings over $8000. Three months later, I was fired (I was the only man), and a young cutsie 22-year-old girl was hired. She had zero experience.
My sales manager/station owner’s wife told me to “clean out my desk.” I did just that, trashing everything including sales invoices for the month. She made a big point of letting me know I wouldn’t be getting my commissions. I waited patiently for my salary check ($1,500 at the time) at my desk, then walked to the bank and cashed it.
Two days later I got the call. “Where are all the sales invoices for August?’
“In the trash.”
“What!?”
“You said clean out my desk. I did.” Then I hung up.
I heard later the young girl didn’t work out, and the station went bankrupt.
Sad, isn’t it?
Do you think that coaching institutes like Unacademy should be banned as they charge lakhs and crores and those who study from these will do corruption to recover their investment made on studies which they can’t earn honestly in a government job?
I absolutely do
Coaching has become an Industry today and whenever such things happen, everything becomes counter productive
Xi Jingping rightly said
In China :-
Private Tutoring Apps had become an Industry and had commercialized education so much that the newer generation was no longer going to such coaching facilities to LEARN OR ADD TO THEIR KNOWLEDGE OR UNDERSTANDING but to specifically orient themselves to scoring marks in a specific examination (Gaokao)
Private Tutoring Apps had become exploitative and were commercializing learning to an extent where it was feared that the entire Gaokao could be modified to suit the whims of the Private Tutoring Apps
So he wiped out the Industry mercilessly
“F*** the Billions of Dollars in Paper value”
Today Tutoring has gone back to the old 60 RMB per Hour student tutors or Volunteer Tutorials and Extra Coaching
India and China both have predators who suck the blood of common people and exploit them in the name of capitalism
The Difference is CHINA BANNED THIS
In China, if any Institute publishes the list of toppers for admissions
Their license is suspended for 5 Years
They are fined not less than 60,000 RMB but upto 250,000 RMB
Ministry of Education Bans the Idolization of China’s Top Gaokao Scorers
Stories of the top achievers of China’s national exams can no longer be propagated by state media; the emphasis should shift to the average, harmonious student.
India not only allows this to flourish but ignores cases where Institutes LIE about their students by paying money to the students and making the students lie
Most Coaching Institutions are run with political contacts
Now my point is
Is Unacademy really predatory?
Just because they offer coaching for a fee doesn’t make them predatory
Just because they have referrals doesn’t make them predatory. That’s just business. Same as a Tutor asking you to give her cards to your friends.
Do they exploit the situation in India and claim if you don’t take their course, you will lose badly
Do they help you learn or do they force you to structure your brain into clearing the JEE or NEET rather than learning the topics?
Do they prostitute education by paying more money to marketers than teachers?
So far at least I dont think they are that bad
Please correct me if they have become that bad
Coz that’s what happened to BYJUS
From being a place that helped students sharpen their brains to understand CAT better, they prostituted and pimped education spending more on “Celebrities” like SRK who also prostituted himself like he did with Arindam Chaudhari
Unacademy are also going BYJUS WAY
Using Tendulkar the dropout of Xth Standard to promote an Education Product
So they too are starting to pimp out education
It won’t create the Students India needs
Not the thinkers, analysts, people who understand fundamentals – they aren’t born from KOTA FACTORIES or Prospective Pimping Edtech Apps
They are born by self study with tutoring to help them sharpen their brains
One thing to learn and understand Physics, Maths and Chemistry and USE THIS KNOWLEDGE AND WRITE THE JEE
Another is to learn Physics, Maths and Chemistry BECAUSE YOU WANT TO WRITE THE JEE
The former is a winner
The Latter ends up mediocre in life in every aspect
Solution?
Ban full page Ads of Toppers by various Institutions
Regulate the Coaching Fees
Make sure Coaching Institutes remain Sole Proprietorships Or Partnerships and dont become Companies
Ban any Coaching Institute taking over another Institute
Register all Coaching Institutions with Ministry of Education with select standards
Otherwise the next two generations of students, the so called FUTURE OF INDIA would be the most worthless
Anyone who exploits students like this must be taken to Gulags and forced to labor for 20 hours a day in the -17 degree weather
Tokyo’s Night Joy Paradise Plus Unexpected PERMISSION 2
Can you provide an explanation of the recent Texas v. Pennsylvania case before the Supreme Court? Is it accurate that President Trump does not have jurisdiction over these cases due to not being a member of Congress?
Well, let’s start with some basic principles of U.S. constitutional law.
Under the constitution, the Supreme Court may only hear original cases in very limited circumstances. One of those is when one state sues another state. That’s not uncommon, but usually its due to disputes about the right to use water from rivers that pass through more than one state. The usual procedure is to refer the case to a special master (usually a federal court judge) who holds the trial and reports back to the Supreme Court which can then affirm the decision.
Congress cannot expand the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear cases that aren’t listed in the constitution. That was what Marbury v. Madison was about – the court was given power by congress to hear cases involving disputes about judicial appointments in the District of Columbia, and ruled that Congress didn’t have that power.
Now, onto the case. The State of Texas attempted to bring a case shortly before Congress was to meet to confirm the result of the 2020 election to sue the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for not following its own election laws. Essentially, they wanted to disqualify all the mail-in ballots cast during the election on the theory that Pennsylvania law hadn’t authorized them. This issue had already been tried by Pennsylvania courts which ruled such suits were “untimely” – any such suit had to be brought before the election, not after.
But the only issue before the court was whether they HAD to take the case. As a rule, the Supreme Court chooses which cases it hears, but again if this is a case within its jurisdiction to hear new cases, they might have to take it.
What the court ruled is that no state has the right to start a case in the Supreme Court unless the judges agree to hear it. That’s probably good policy as it appeared this case would have asked the Supreme Court to allow one state to enforce laws in other states, which in any other case would be a no-no. For example, Texas could not sue to prevent Pennsylvania physicians from performing abortions on Texas residents just because it’s illegal for a Texas resident to leave the state for an abortion, or based on some theory that Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow physicians to perform abortions except on Pennsylvania residents. Once again, the issues in this case were already settled in Pennsylvania courts, and those could have been appealed to the Supreme Court if there were a constitutional issue (that’s what happened in Bush v. Gore).
But let’s get back to the rule about the Supreme Court only being able to hear a narrow range of original cases. The president does not have the right to sue in the Supreme Court (although he could be sued in, for example, a case involving the appointment of an ambassador – that’s within the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction). Members of Congress don’t have the right to sue in the Supreme Court either.
Elysium Movie Clip | Full Robot Fight Scene | Matt Damon | Diego Luna
What is the most unbelievable behavior you witnessed from a new co-worker that made them get terminated almost immediately?
I worked in a loan department as a loan clerk. A man was hired as a new manager for one of our branch offices. Our Vice President asked me to train the man on the loan process and how to type out the form letters, etc.. This man gave me grief from moment one.
He was arrogant and a smart aleck. I wanted to slap him about every five minutes. He was also a male chauvinist pig. He kept making sexual remarks to me and about me. When I sat him in front of the computer to type out the form letters, he refused to do them, saying “Typing is women’s work. I’ll have one of the women do it for me.”
The final straw came when I took him back to our Vice President’s office. The VP was asking me how he had done and before I could respond, the man said something to the effect of “Well, she wouldn’t sit in my lap, so I think she needs to be spanked.”. I just stared at the VP. He turned to the new manager and said “You’re fired. This is one great lady and you’ve disrespected her since the moment you walked in. Get out before I turn her loose on you.”.
Middle Class Meltdown: America’s Unseen Crisis
Biden = Russia, Russia, Russia!
Trump = China!, China!, China!
Nothing is ever going to get fixed.
Was Hitler a drug addict?
Adolf Hitler was a chronic drug addict. His drug use was of epic proportions.
Hitler was prescribed by his doctors so many various drugs (including cocaine) that he was rarely in a state unaffected by powerful mind-altering substances.
According to his doctors, Hitler was “a good patient.”
He was meticulously adherent to the regimen for his chronic sinusitis: cocaine in aerosol form.
The German Fuhrer also took amphetamines, sedatives, and hormones.
Hitler relied on daily injections of the “wonder drug” Eukodol. It contained oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid. The drug caused the state of euphoria, practically rendering the user incapable of making sound judgments.
In his book “Blitzed”, German author Norman Ohler described how the Third Reich was permeated with drugs, including cocaine, heroin and most notably crystal meth, which was used by everyone from soldiers to housewives and factory workers.
Pervitin, an early form of methamphetamine, was available in Nazi German without a prescription.
In Nazi military during WWII, drug use was encouraged.
In September 1939, Ranke tested the drug on 90 university students and concluded that Pervitin could help the Wehrmacht win the war.
The effects of amphetamines on an person are similar to those of the adrenaline produced by the body, triggering a heightened state of alertness. In most people, the substance increases self-confidence, concentration, and willingness to take risks while at the same time reducing sensitivity to pain, hunger, and the need for sleep.
Later, a dose of cocaine was added to Pervitin tablets, to increase the drug’s potency and encourage continuous use.
When Hitler’s drug supplies ran out by the end of the war, he suffered severe withdrawal from serotonin and dopamine, paranoia, psychosis, rotting teeth, extreme shaking, kidney failure and delusion.
The Sopranos – Paulie enjoys Miami
Can Mike Tyson still knock out Jake Paul when he’s going to be 58 years old in the fight?
Technically yes but realistically an emphatic no.
I never thought I would be saying this but Jake Paul is likely to beat Mike Tyson.
Why? That’s a legitimate question since we are talking about one of the greatest and most feared heavyweight champions ever V a relatively junior pro boxer with very few fights.
I’m afraid it all comes down to age, activity and conditioning. At age 40 or even 50 I’d give Tyson a great chance but he’s nearly 60 now, been out of the ring close to 20 years and been doing a lot of other things. Put simply he’s just not in condition to fight a professional fight. He could beat the hell out of the normal types of guys in the street no doubt about it but this is a professional boxing fight we’re talking about. It’s very likely that after one round of intense fighting he’ll be totally finished from a cardio perspective. After that last stand, Jake Paul who if nothing else can at least hit hard will probably get him.
Don’t be fooled by the videos of Tyson looking fast and powerful in training. They have been carefully edited to make him look good. In reality in the fight (if it’s a real one) he won’t look that good or fast. He’ll still have a bit of power so there is some danger to Jake Paul but probably only for one or two rounds max. After that it will a big advantage to the younger man.
No matter how good a condition a fighter is in, the age aspect of this is relevant. A 60 years old head isn’t supposed to get hit hard by a pro fighter. The blood vessels can’t be trained to take those shots like they used to.
For people of my generation it’s pretty sad to see the great Iron Mike Tyson reduced to doing this kind of circus act.
This fight could end pretty badly and shouldn’t really be happening at all. That’s capitalism for you.
EDIT : I guess the most likely thing here is that they’re both in on it as a money grabbing exercise and have agreed with each other not to hurt each other. The fight will probably be the least interesting part of the next few weeks. It’s all about the build up.
Mr. Spock Sends Up a Flare – Star Trek – 1967
What is the craziest thing you ever did when you were a teenager?
I can’t believe I am going to admit this….
When I was 14 years old in 1982-ish. I was recently uprooted from my lifelong hometown. I moved from upstate New York to Pennsylvania with my mom and step-monster. A friend of mine had just gotten sentenced to serve time in a NY state jail. I wrote to Scott frequently, as I thought he must be bored and lonely. I used this same stationary every time, with little unicorns on it. After the third or fourth letter, I realized just how bad it was for him in there.
I got together a little bit of money and bought some pot. I put it in a little matchbook, and sent the matchbook to Scott, along with a letter saying something like “I hope this helps.” I was smart enough not to sign my name, just in case anything bad happened. I thought that it was illegal to tamper with someone’s mail. It never even occured to me that the jail’s officials in charge were allowed to open up Scott’s mail and go through it. I used the same stationary as normal. Little unicorns. Can you see where this is heading?
My parents were surprised when federal detectives showed up. The formal charges were:
“Using the Federal Government (The United States Post Office) to transport illegal drugs across state lines.” To a correctional institution, no less.
Okay, you can laugh your a** off now…
I’ll wait.
Thank God I was 14. I was sentenced as a juvenile offender (the record was sealed); deemed “incorrigible”; had a PINS petition put in place against me (Person In Need of Supervision); had to perform 100 hours of community service and was almost placed in foster care because my parents couldn’t handle it or me anymore. Thankfully, my grandmother took me in, instead. My parents called me all sorts of stupid. Yes, I have to agree. But my answer to them at the time was “I thought he could use a buzz.”
Hugs.
-Valeri
The fourth
What is a polite response when someone says they don’t like your home?
I am soon to be 64. At this stage in my life, I have a VERY low tolerance for a**hattery. I don’t bother trying to be polite to people that aren’t polite.
The last time one of my sisters came to my house and made a comment about a few papers laying on the floor, I didn’t let her get away with it. I left them laying on the floor after they fell off the desk; for a good reason, but that was none of my sister’s business. I don’t believe in explaining to people why my house looks the way it does. Why SHOULD I? So, what I said to her was this: “You don’t REALLY want me to start critiquing YOUR housekeeping, do you?”. After I said that to her, she never said anything about anything that was on the floor again.
You see, her and her husband always leave their dining room table FULL of all different kinds of papers, looks real messy, but you know what? I never say anything because it’s THEIR house! They can keep it the way they WANT to! Plus, I don’t CARE about it, it’s not MY house! They SHOULD have the same respect for me!
AND, that’s the same way I feel about someone coming into my home telling me they don’t like it. Depending on who it is that is saying it, I MIGHT say something like “I don’t care, you don’t live here.” or maybe ”What did you come over for then?”. See, the FUN thing about messing with RUDE people, is because they never expect people to be rude BACK, which is why they are rude in the first place, because people LET them get away with it. *I* don’t. The looks on their faces when they are rude and I am blunt with them…PRICELESS!!!
In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, seasoned salt and seasoned pepper; shape into four patties.
Grill or broil to desired doneness (about 5 to 6 minutes on each side for medium).
Meanwhile, in medium skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and taco seasoning; mix well.
Cook onion over medium high heat until soft and transparent.
Top each patty with onions and cheese.
Return to grill or broiler until cheese is melted.
Place each patty on a roll; top with lettuce and tomato.
Companies Are Being Forced Out of NYC… Why?
Are Democrat supporters who have a pathological hatred of Donald Trump aware that at least 80% of what they think about Trump is misinformation and comes from outright lies by the US Mainstream Media?
I was a mainstream reporter (NYTimes and NY Herald Tribune) when Donald Trump was in his early 30s in NYC. I got to know him at his hangouts and on several more private occasions.
He was not then, nor is he now, “stupid” as so many anti-Trumpers continually proclaim. He was, however, a man whose word meant absolutely nothing. He spoke almost nothing but outright lies and “gut” fabrications. He’d betray a “friend” in a blink; he loathed any woman whose “pussy” he could not “grab”. He was a physical coward in private and in public. He was frightened to wetting his pants of his Nazi-loving, face-slapping, fascist father, to whom he lied and groveled. He had no friends since he only took and never gave. Both men and women immediately felt his creepy, duplicitous, despicable ways and avoided him unless they wanted to be close to what they thought was his money. Her learned how to manipulate and twist the American legal system from his evil genius lawyer Roy Cohen (“Don’t tell me about the law, tell me about the judge.”). I believed then that hate is stupid and as a reporter I did not hate Trump. But I understood him, and understanding is the opposite of hatred.
Trump is now and was then (as any woman who knew him even a bit well would agree) —- a mentally vicious, endlessly traitorous, sickeningly self-absorbed adolescent with feminine soft hands (no manual labor) and a filthy tongue. That was in his early 30s. Any honest observer and reporter quickly found him out and in New York and environs his name was a dirty joke. . . Then came TV “reality” shows and millions of unfortunate Americans watched how he behaved and they want to be just like him, and get away with it. If anyone who reads this considers themselves a friend of Trump, may their gods help them. He will make America and Americans poorer in mind, money, than it ever was, The only way to beat the Russian-sponsored thug is to confront him with a community of people who will oppose him and his fellow liars, cheaters, thieves, and those who tolerate them,
Father’s statement
What did you do when an aggressive driver got out of their car and wanted to fight?
Bad Traffic day in Orlando, FL. As a legal motorcycle rider, I was following traffic laws and traffic lights, and traffic wasn’t moving at all. The *ssh*l* in the car behind me started to lean on his horn. After 5 or 10 horn blows I started to respond with my 139 decibel horn everytime, followed by a turn of my head to look at the driver banging his hands on his steering wheel and yelling again. When he tried to pull up next to me in the space between me and the car in the next lane, I moved to block just enough of the lane that he would have to hit either me or the car in the next lane. At this point he starts yelling at me. He continues to try to move up. The Car next to me gives him just enough space, and I continue to control my lane.
When he gets close enough he started yelling “You! On the motorcycle! ….” and a flood of anti-hispanic, anti-biker rhetoric just comes spewing out of his mouth. Not being hispanic and not considering myself a “biker”, I calmly turned around, looked him in the eyes, and said “No hables espaniol”.
The drivers is ENRAGED! He starts to get out of his car. And he keeps screaming about immigrants. Once he is out of the car, I turn to him again.
I say to him “I was born in Philadelphia PA. Am I an immigrant? And aren’t you smart enough to understand that I don’t speak Spanish? That is what “No hables espaniol” means.”
The man is flabbergasted, stops in his tracks, flaps his mouth several times, and the best revenge, the log jam broke and the light changed, at the same moment. As I pulled away, the man was left standing in the middle of the street with every car behind him laying on the horn, and trying to get around him.
It Begins… Army Troops Take Over NYC
Have you ever had to tell an employee that their attire was inappropriate?
Yes, I had to take on the most difficult challenge of all, a man telling a woman that her attire was inappropriate for the office.
To set the scene, this woman was a young adult, a peer and also a work-friend. She had just lost a bunch of weight and also taken a European vacation. She was feeling good about her body and bought a dress in Paris that showed it off. This dress was so low-cut that it showed the underside of her breasts. If you wanted to pick up a casual hookup in a bar, this was exactly the dress you wanted to wear. But I would never, could never say that.
What I said to her was that this dress looked awesome on her with her weight loss, and if she was looking for a date, it was a great choice. But if she wanted to be taken seriously as an engineer and not distract people, something more conservative and businesslike might be a better choice. She was, in fact, having difficulty being taken seriously, so she took this advice on board and dressed more professionally after that. I got to keep our friendship and not get sued. I’m super glad I won’t ever have to do that again.
Passport Bros are leaving and Modern Women are HUMBLED
When U.S. prisons are inspected, does it actually help the prisoners?
The American Correctional Association (ACA) came to do an inspection at the Federal prison I was in.
A failed inspection would mean loss of accreditation. I’m not aware that means anything other than egg on some suit’s face.
For a prison inspection to be meaningful, hordes of inspectors should rappel from helicopters into the yard in the dead of night without warning. They could carry badges, clipboards, and maybe a few pieces of equipment. (OK… five minutes warning so nobody gets shot).
Instead, the prison had months of notice. They had enough lead time that they could leisurely waste weeks, doing nothing to get ready. When the visit was about two weeks off, suddenly stuff started happening.
New paint was slathered on everything, thick enough it could’ve stopped an escape all by itself.
In the chow hall, we had a persistent leak in the roof. Because it wasn’t fixed for years, the drop ceiling soaked up water, several tiles collapsed, and ominous mold was growing in the insulation around the duct work. At about the same time that paint was being poured over every surface, a crew of inmates came in to patch the ceiling. They didn’t fix the leak, they just patched the drywall and drop in sections that were affected.
Our dishwasher could never get up to temperature. The water was so hard that the heating coils were continually clogged with deposits several inches thick. Pick up any tray that had gone through the thing, and you’d immediately see that the luke warm water wasn’t getting trays clean (of course we never bothered with soap or surfactants either). Instead of trying to fix the dishwasher, the staff, experienced in many an inspection, simply stopped using it. It was “temporarily out of service” for the visit, and we used thousands of dollars worth of disposable foam plates and cups for each meal. This kept the inspectors from finding out that the machine was actually permanently out of service.
So, no. The inspections didn’t help us at all. Our food did get dramatically better for the couple of days that the visit went on, but that was really the only change.
After the visitors left, the dishwasher was plugged back in so it could moisten the dirt on the plates, and the ceiling started to crumble again, revealing mold that had blossomed nicely in the humid darkness.
What story of survival blows your mind every time you think about it?
A bolt of lightning hit the right wing of the aircraft, and suddenly LANSA Flight 508 was plummeting toward the ground. Over the screams of dozens of others, Juliane Koepcke — who was sitting at 19F, a window seat — heard her mother say from the seat beside her: “Now it’s all over.”
Seconds later, the plane is disintegrating in mid-air, and Juliane’s mom is gone. Juliane is still strapped in her seat, but she is not inside the cabin anymore — instead, she is all alone in the open air at a height of 10,000 feet, tumbling down from the heavens.
The last things she will ever see are packed treetops that look like broccoli heads. Or so she thinks.
Because the next day, she wakes up on the Amazon rainforest floor, still very much alive and miraculously only modestly wounded:
She had a concussion, a broken collarbone, some deep cuts. The forest, she wrote in her memoir, “saved my life,” the foliage cushioning the impact of her 10,000-foot fall. She went in and out of consciousness before finally pulling herself to her feet.
That is her first survival story, but now she is all alone in a jungle. She is seventeen years old, and she needs to focus on the next step. A second survival. Luckily for her, Juliane has lived in the jungle for several years, in a research station where both of her parents were working at the time.
She looks for her mom first, but doesn’t find her. Then, she decides to look for a stream, because streams often lead to villages, and she will soon need water. And when she finally finds a creek, she also finds dead people:
“When I turned a corner in the creek, I found a bench with three passengers rammed head first into the earth. I was paralysed by panic. It was the first time I had seen a dead body.”
[Image of plain wreckage of LANSA Flight 508, which had boarded in Peru. (Coral Brunner/Shutterstock.)]
As days go by, a wound on her upper right arm gets infested with maggots about one centimeter long each. She remembered that their dog once had the same infection and that her father had put kerosene in it, so when she finds a small hut with a palm leaf roof, and outboard motor and one liter of kerosine, she sucks the gasoline out and puts it into the wound.
The next day she hears human voices, and she is saved for the second time around.
Later, Juliane found out that her mom also survived the crash, but was badly wounded and died a couple of days later in the rainforest, all alone, and desperately hoping that a miracle had saved her daughter.
We all pick up bad habits. One of my bad habits (I have many) is that I often swear in English. When I swear, very few people around me understands English, so they do not realize that I am swearing.
Familiarity causes problems.
So I swear at the house. My wife does not like it, but it has become so commonplace that I don’t think about it.
But…
I have a young daughter.
And GULP! she has started to swear! Oh, God no! So I stopped all my swearing completely. But I think the Genie is out of the bottle. And NO, I do not think that it is “cute”. I hate her swearing.
I think that I am handling it fine, and not raising an eyebrow when she says “What the Fuck!” or “that God-damn son of a bitch”, or anything else.
Now, I use the terms… “Jimmy Crickets”, “fiddle-sticks”, and “Gosh and golly”. Alot.
But still…
Don’t let your life change because you have gotten too relaxed and confident. A word to the wise.
Yes, he was. Albert Einstein was notoriously incapable of remaining faithful to one woman. Female beauty was his greatest weakness, and he wasn’t shy or bashful about the fact — he famously explained relativity as “an hour talking to a pretty woman feeling shorter than a minute of having one’s hand on a hot stove”.
Albert Einstein had mistresses throughout his life. He was unfaithful to his first wife, who was the mother of his three children. He then was unfaithful to his second wife as well, who was also his cousin. The little girl on Einstein’s lap? His adopted granddaughter. Who, as legend has it, may have been an out-of-wedlock daughter fathered by the aging scientist and then adopted by one of his sons to ‘avoid scandal’.
The stereotype we have of Einstein is “somewhat confused, awkward scientist completely obsessed with his work”, but in reality, he was quite socially savvy and quite capable of seducing women, something he did often and ferociously. Women in his life were aware of his proclivities — a great man belongs ‘to the world’, and sharing, as he saw it, was caring.
Some women like their men handsome. Others go for brains. Albert Einstein had no shortage of brains… and no shortage of women in his life. He got around, so to speak, and was sexually active until old age.
A quick learner
Spaghetti all’Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil)
This dish comes from Campania, Italy. The flavor of the olive oil is what makes this dish, so use the finest extra virgin olive oil.
Ingredients
1 pound spaghetti
2/3 cup olive oil
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Cook spaghetti in plenty of boiling, salted water, with a dash of olive oil.
Heat olive oil with cloves of garlic but do not let the garlic brown.
Warm oil gently to release the flavor of the garlic.
When spaghetti is cooked, drain it and transfer to a warm serving bowl.
Pour over the oil and garlic and toss the spaghetti well.
I always use my cruise control as I have a heavy foot and without the control would speed without meaning to. I was on my way to church and when I turned off the expressway I stopped for a light. That turned off the cruise control. I was doing 70 in a 35 when I spotted the trouper. I slowed down and pulled over and of course he came up right behind me. The usual “Do you know why I stoped you”. I was totally honest. Explained about my cruise control being off and realized I was speeding the same time I spotted him. He went back to his cruiser and then came up, handed my license back and said, “You haven’t had a speeding ticket in years so I’m just telling you to slow down. Where were you heading anyway?” I said, “Wow, thanks and I was on my way to church just up the road”. Truth.. He smiled and said I should be on my way before any of my friends drive by and see me sitting there. I thanked him again and stayed 3 under the limited the rest of the short drive to church. I have always wondered if it was because I am a little old lady or the fact I was very honest with him. But he saved me a huge fine that day.
The western media is a coordinated propaganda machine mostly own by the far right Neocon group that has a clear agenda to demonised any nation or nations that refused to be submissive and subservient to them. And China and Russia is their key focus.
Do their coordinate their attack on China to slur it, to demonise them, to cast doubts on China, to downplay their achievements and to spew hates on China and the Chinese people. That is simply a fact and a matter of fact that everyone on earth knows except some 5% or so brain dead who blindly follow the western media narratives.
Politically the U.S. is a dead man walking. It has totally lost its plot. It has done so much shit the entire world wants to get as far away from the U.S. as possible. With the exception of US slave vassal states like Germany, Japan and South Korea, US fellow natives slaughterer like Australia, Canada and to some extent New Zealand, its fellow despicable colonial masters like UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium and those nations who loved to poke Russia in the eye and then run to hide under the U.S. skirt Lithuania or Poland!
China has 150–175 nations on earth out of the world’s 195 nations respecting and supporting them regularly versus the above 12–15 nations supporting the U.S. that is the comparison.
Obviously, I mean OBVIOUSLY, they have never been to China and have no idea how fucking enormous it is.
If you hop in a car, and start driving, it will take you days… DAYS… passing huge apartment buildings full of hard working, militarized families, studying… working… training…
…building after building. Mile after mile. Kilometer after kilometer. Over and over and over.
One enormous giga-complex housing thousands of families… after another… and another… and yet another.
China is HUGE.
Simply enormous.
…
China is not the third world cesspool that the Western “news” says it is. It’s a nation thirty years in the future. It is proud. It is strong. And it is LETHAL.
It is a dragon wearing a cute panda-bear suit.
You all in the West are unaware.
Backwards. Retarded.
Fed garbage; not just figuratively, but literally. Most American doesn’t even know where California is on a map, or how many States there are, or how much 5 + 8 is.
When I say “stupid”.
I mean it.
Meanwhile in China…
I started using facial recognition and QR to pay back in 2013. That was ten years ago. I haven’t touched a coin or paper money in all that time. Using paper money is so 19th century.
My car is electric and it talks to me, and only turns on when my voice recognition software allows it to.
It self parks, customizes the interior with a rotation of interior motifs, plays my morning jazz tunes, and gives me a nice warm back rub as it links to the toll road and carries me off to my office.
In my office, my staff brings me my coffee and turns on my systems for me. Sometimes they might have a kid or two with them, being sick or what not. No worries, though, they are their next to their parents doing their studies next to the desks.
Lunch is paid for all my staff. It’s one of the state mandated laws, and after they eat a huge healthy cafeteria meal of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, they go take their normal naps.
…
That’s just the first four hours of a typical day in China.
…
There’s a bunch of dunder-heads that think that the USA can invade China with D-Day style Naval assaults, and the threat of nuclear war.
Troll?
Moron?
Buffoon?
Ignoramus?
They believe that proud and powerful aircraft carrier will lay off the coast of China and launch cascade after cascade of fighters and bombers into China.
They think that stealthy submarines will sneak up and start bombing China. All this unopposed, and the Chinese will take it. Smile and say “… can I have another, master?”
They believe that the proud troops will be easily resupplied by Australia, Japan, Korea and Philippines. After all, that is the on-going American construction activity. Billets. Barracks. Supply depots, and large investments in bordellos for employment for the locals.
Fantasies. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
NEVER going to happen.
…
I am here to tell you that World War started in 2008.
Oh, sure, the elements started far earlier. But historians will write that the date of the war began was in 2008.
It peaked in 2020 with the bio-weapon(s) that the USA launched on China during CNY (John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo brilliance there), and fell back towards conventional war with the NATO conflict began in Ukraine.
It hasn’t gone that great though.
Wars don’t go to plan, and this crop of brain-dead, pathological psychopathic oligarchs are dangerously deluded.
Take Ukraine. Ah. The “war in Ukraine”.
What they mean is the unreported hostilities used to counter the Russian “special military operation”.
Over 3000 American soldiers (with countless more NATO gents) are dead. Just because the American “news” isn’t reporting it, doesn’t mean that it is not going on.
Dead Americans are all over the place. I have photos and photos. Movies and movies. But if I put them up, they get pulled. It’s “news you can use”, but that is bad for the Westerners to see.
Good men. Soldiers. American men.
Dead.
Over what? And why?
It is sad.
I cry for the widows at Fort Lenard Wood.
As that phase winds down with a European collapse (economic, social, industrial, and military) a new phase opened up.
All to schedule; a disruption of the middle eastern shipping lanes.
Ah… that’s gonna teach China a lesson!
In their wet dreams, perhaps. China is about 3450 steps ahead of the rest of the world. They know what underwear that you will wear two days from now. Long before you even decide to put some on. That’s how advanced China is.
This idea that “China can be isolated” has failed, and is bound to fail, as the Chinese BRI are now proving how far-sighted and successful the rerouting of shipping avenues have proven themselves.
No wonder both Russia and China are screaming forward; an economic gallop. While the collective “West” is mired in inefficiency, lunacy, and insanity.
None of which is being reported in the “news”.
Here’s some more American troops in Ukraine…
Meanwhile…
We are watching the United States collapse in front of our very eyes.
After all, Texas has laid forth the reasons for departure from the Federal monstrosity.
And look at all the “steam” that it is gathering…
And yeah.
The USA has this dream of opening up a long-desired war in the Pacific over China. Troops, material and weaponry are flooding toward the Philippines, Japan and Australia. All ready to die for “democracy”.
Whatever the Hell that means.
A rally-cry of the moronic who still believe that “their vote counts” and that American culture (woke, red-pill, open marriage, LGBQ+) is worthy of preserving.
Woo! Woo! I’m gonna kill Commies for all that free gay sex!
And when that day comes… “death by cop” will be experienced in America. Up and down the coasts. As the United States will be bludgeoned by many, many, MANY people; and their nations. People who have been ridiculed and marginalized over the decades of pompous, elitist wars and flouting.
America is NOT respected in the world.
It is despised.
It is no mistake the distain that the illegal immigrants show towards American. And they are the polite ones. The USA is poised to get a much-needed Ass-Kicking at a scale of ferocity that is off the scale; in both ferocity, and in long-duration and everlasting pain.
And the United States has lost.
It just hasn’t been reported on yet.
Look around yourselves. The USA has no downtowns. No factories. No hard workers. No functioning anything. It’s just on the long slow crumble…
At this point in time, “war against China” will not be needed.
I was swimming in the hotel swimming pool and this lonely 12 year old girl came to swim. I immediately swam to the other end. She just kept following me, and talking and saying her parents were busy, and didn’t have any time to spend with her, and she was in a strange city.
I was really really getting uncomfortable, she wasn’t doing anything wrong, and if her parents or my wife were there, I wouldn’t have been near as uncomfortable, but would still be worried.
I eventually left her in the pool by herself.
When I was living in the city, the neighbors kids, probably 5 and 6, would come out and wait by the fence for me to walk to work, and I would stop and talk to them for 5 minutes, always staying back at least 3 feet from the fence, in my own yard.
They were such cute kids. But I hardly knew the parents.
When I walk down an almost empty street, if there is a woman in front of me, I either fall further back, or speed up and pass her when there are people around. I can’t just walk at my own pace.
You have to avoid anything that looks vaguely inappropriate, even if you are doing nothing wrong.
Wife Thought Husband Was A Doormat Until He Showed EVERYONE Graphic Evidence Of Her “Adventures”
I was with a group of people who where trying out clay pigeon shooting, and were standing around in groups of 3 or 4 people.
When it was your time, you were called forward and given the shotgun, shown how to load it and where the off-catch was. Then you just needed to put the shotgun against your shoulder and call out for the pigeons to be released. Nice and simple, and the trainer was standing to the left of the shooter.
Until we had a girl who, having loaded the shotgun, had a problem and needed to talk to the trainer. So, she needed to turn around and decided to turn to her right, with the shotgun pointed horizontally in front of her. Of course, that meant that she was then pointing a loaded shotgun at everyone else in the group as she turned around.
Apart from me, no-one in the group noticed what was happening. I was, obviously, flat on the ground before she reached my position. End of shooting for her.
You know guys, sometimes I get the biggest belly-laugh when I read some of the answers here. Either they are terribly deluded, or they are immensely ignorant.
…
Here’s a REAL answer.
First of all, let’s throw out some FACTS to “set the table”, so to speak.
China has the largest Navy in the world.
China’s navy is not spread out all over the place (like the USN), but are concentrated at the projected battle fields.
China’s navy is also the oldest navy in the world. It was operating CENTURIES before the first organized navy in Europe.
China’s navy has been restructured, and operates NEW ships with cutting-leading-edge systems and technology. Many of which are unique and unknown to the West.
Were a war to occur between the USA and China, a Naval war would be the lest of the worries of the American “leadership”. Economic, social, and financial collapse would all be in free-fall.
But, let’s answer this question.
Can the United States Navy sink the Chinese Navy?
Here’s my answer…
Yes, the USN has the ability to destroy vessels, aircraft, bases, and people of the PLAN.
It is highly unlikely, however, that they will be able to completely destroy the PLAN.
It is likely that in the process of this destruction, that the USN would suffer great losses in men, material, weapons, and vessels.
Both sides will likely take great losses.
But this is 2024. China’s city-destroying munition capabilities are global. The consequence of a United States (or proxy) war against China will result in the people of the attacking nation being hurt.
Thus…
American major cities will also become targets for destruction.
…
Remember, boys and girls, China is a peaceful nation…
…until it isn’t.
…
Never forget the great losses that the United States incurred the last time they fought the Chinese.
Look at the BIG PICTURE. Not the tactical issues, but the strategic issues. Then faced with this reality, project the highest probability outcomes.
Three days! In fact, they fired the CEO that fired me, then called and asked if I would consider coming back. I said, no. They then offered me a contractor position at over $200 an hour, I still said, no thank you. They ended up hiring someone nearly twice my salary and that person quit within 90 days. Although still happily unemployed, I never considered going back. Two weeks after my severance pay ran out, I found another job and was very happy. More pay, less stress, and much better management. I was lucky! My previous company, no so much. They tried contacting me a few times for questions, and I gave them info if I could but I never did any work for them again. I followed the recently fired CEO on LinkedIn and till this day, she is still unemployed. I sure hope she learned her lesson about hiring friends with less skills to replace experienced workers. It may not have been her best plan for success. Just about all the management were inexperienced friends of the CEO. Of course, many were let go once she was fired. The company is near bankruptcy and most of the good talent started to leave. It is sad just how much damage a CEO can do to a company when they put their own interest first.
second class life in MOSCOW! better than the WEST?
Examples of pointless human cruelty are, sadly, boundless. This is a shocking image and I apologize in advance for sharing it, but here’s one that truly got to me… in Belarus, 1918, after WWI had already ended, the brave Russian officer Rosinski was captured by the Bolsheviks.
The Bolsheviks tortured the captain, likely to get information out of the man, which he bravely refused to give. After that, they simply continued with the torture out of some sick sense of innate cruelty. He was ‘the enemy’ and he was at their mercy, so they brutally murdered their captive.
The brave captain was emasculated. And anally impaled on a tree branch. All this while still alive.
Alfred Savoir, the man who published the picture and was an eye witness to the death of the brave military officer, described “M. B.”, who ordered this atrocity, thus:
I knew him not long ago; he was a charming teenager with an ironic wit and joker. He was rubbed with French culture, he admired the novels of Barres and he quoted willingly poets that I did not know quite. He was also a great dancer, a great flirteur and a good bridger. He often came to Paris, and he amused himself.
Today, this bourgeois benevolent and skeptical, this happy boy is impaling people. Understand who can!
This is a perfect example of just how cruel people can get. And also, its a perfect example of the very worst treatment, torture and humiliation a human being can be forced to endure.
What shocked Savoir the most when seeing the scene, wasn’t just the act of cruelty itself, but the utter indifference of the crowd:
“In this inhuman document you will find something more terrible than torture, it is the attitude of the crowd. Look at these figures: they are bored! A horse falling Avenue de l’Opera provokes in the Parisian public more reflexes, more comments. Here, what placidity, what indifference!”
Basically, the Communist soldiers overseeing the brutal torture of the prisoner of war in their hands, had seen similar horrendous tortures taking place before their very eyes. Rosinski, chillingly enough, wasn’t even the first, or the worst of their victims.
Needless to say, the image and story have been etched in my mind forever. Why are humans this way? Simply because they can be. You give a person the power over life and death, and you’d be surprised by how even the most polite and milquetoast person turns into a psychopath practically overnight under the right circumstances…
It’s going down
This sounds toxic
Pictures of Noah’s Ark That Are Completely Real — If They Happened Today
The classic cosmic do-it-yourself project, Noah’s Ark, is probably well known to all of you. In it, God tells Noah to “build a giant ark, grab two of every animal, and let’s turn this planet into a giant water park.” But what if this tale involved a common man who was having financial difficulties today?
It all began in the 1990’s under President Bill Clinton. By off-shoring manufacturing, and converting to finance and a Managerial economy, the GDP reflects a measure of how wealthy the top 1% is in a given nation.
Elements of society that generate profit for very wealthy people, for large corporations, and for the government are measured int his calculus. Things that matter to them; things that generate money for them, are what is measured.
The collectable tax base. Higher taxes = higher GDP.
Annual liquidity of the currency of the nation. Less savings = higher GDP.
Vacant buildings; a potential to be rented out for profit. Empty building = GDP.
Income from tariffs for inbound imported items. Add tariffs = Higher GDP.
Population. More people = Higher GDP.
Income from duties; on inbound products. More duties = Higher GDP.
Services; potential or realized. Includes babysitting, and waitress activity.
The success of the stock market. Direct correlation.
Inflation. The higher the inflation; the higher the GDP.
Personally, I think this is a Ponzi scheme of great deception. As it holds no advantage to a business owner, or an investor in determination of value, gain or loss of anything. It is just a rather useless measure that is used by the “news media” to convince dissatisfied people that they are happy and doing well.
This isn’t my idea.
This is what is discussed in the most prestigious video with the great economics professors of the West; Michael Hudson, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen.
She took one of my team members out for drinks with some other colleagues and didn’t invite me. I didn’t mind at all at the time because people form friendships at work and it’s fine not to always invite everyone. But I did think it was a bit odd.
It turned out that this was the beginning of an elaborate campaign to try to get my job. She tried to undermine me with my staff, my peers and my management as well as my stakeholders. She blamed me for things going wrong, lied about things I had said/not said, and tried to take my work off me. She even tried to tell my lesbian staff member that I was homophobic.
She wasn’t subtle. And because I prioritise people management and relationships at work, it got her nowhere. I got my revenge a bit later when asked to review a crucial report she had produced. I eviscerated it, quietly suggested to my manager that if she wasn’t capable of such basic work, and couldn’t write grammatically correct English, perhaps her contract shouldn’t be renewed.
She never spoke to me again, and left shortly after.
When my wife and I were first married we would frequently buy coupon books that were put out by charities that gave discounts to go to different restaurants. We really enjoyed this because it gave us a chance to go around see different restaurants but also to see different parts of the city where we lived.
One night at about 7:00 around the Christmas holidays we went to a small Mexican restaurant that was in a nearby town. We went in and there were very few people in the restaurant and it was very small with only four or five tables. We were seated by a young girl who looked to be about 11 or 12 years old. She greeted us politely and gave us menus. She came back to the table and took our orders and my wife and I were able to sit and have a nice quiet conversation.
When the food came the young girl and her younger brother who appeared to be about eight years old carried the food to the table, expertly placed it in front of us and brought us our non-alcoholic drinks. A little while later she came back and asked us how the food was and we told her that it was very good.
At this point we we were puzzled because they seemed to be the only two in the restaurant. I got up and walked to the door of the kitchen and saw only the two children working hard as they prepared food at the stove.
So when he brought the bill I asked the young girl where the adults were who owned the restaurant. She explained to me that her mother and father had gone out for the evening because it was near the Christmas holidays and they hadn’t had much time together.
She and her brother had cooked dinner for us, served it and also accurately handled the bill at the end of the dinner. She even gave us each a piece of candy and wished us a merry Christmas.
My wife and I were both stunned as we left and talked about these two little children who prepared and served such a good dinner. This became a subject that we talked about for years.
Walter White’s 5 Most Badass Moves | Breaking Bad ( Bryan Cranston)
I would like to start this by saying I am an American who has lived in the UK for 38 years, worked in 12 countries and visited 43 countries. My Bachelors is a BSc (Economics) in International Relations.i will try to be as unbiased as possible.
The experiences are very different. Jingoism and patriotic brainwashing takes place in many countries, but honestly, my life in a Californian elementary school had more in common with China and North Korea than most of Europe. Pledging the flag every day and the teaching of American exceptionalism. Yes, the is much to be proud of in the US from the National Park movement to flight, amazing manufacturing leap forwards to putting man on the moon. However there is much that is not taught:
The natural resources of the US created great wealth, the founding fathers were largely gentry land owners (and mainly slave owners). Washington and Jefferson’s families have had huge estates in Northamptonshire England, and went to the US as it was not enough for them.
Slavery – this is taught now. It made a huge difference in wealth creation. Meanwhile most of Europe, slavery was illegal (yes I know rich brits and Dutch owned slave trade companies and the abolition movement pressured hard in Europe to stop it, and did a generation before the US Civil War.
Robber Barons exploited the poor in the South (and the North) and were even celebrated for living the American dream. The union movement in the early 20th century started to counter this. But the fear of the “red menace” largely squashed it in the post war years.
The 2 world wars decimated Europe, WWII especially. So America, who’s infrastructure was largely unaffected profited well as decolonisation took place and Europe rebuilt. The balance of power changed.
The dollar became king. America was seen as the land of opportunity. But really the mind set of Puritan settlements seen as radical nut jobs in Europe, coupled with the propaganda of the revolution (remember the red coats protected shipping lanes from pirates and also tried to defend the colonies from the indigenous population, that is not cheap and the tax on tea was to help pay for that) and everything else led to small government, frontier spirit and let’s be honest, exploitation of immigrants and the working class. The country was new, so yes, opportunity was there.
But now, so many people have to work hard to feed their families. One sickness can lead to bankrupt and homelessness. People are largely ruled by fear and capitalism. It is sad, but true.
Now compare this to the European experience. The American revolution showed Europe a route for change. And revolutions took place through the late 18th and through the 19th centuries. But it was to workers and farmers that led the charge, not the upper echelons of society like America. Strikes and worker mobilisation and supportive societies led to stopping children in factories and up chimneys. It led to rights for the workers. In the tin mines of Cornwall, in the early 1800’s, the average life expectancy was 23. People rose up to fight for their rights. And they were given, after long hard fights.
Attitudes were different after the world wars. The populations lost so many compared to America (of course the US involvement, where my Grandmother’s first husband was killed on the beaches of Normandy) led Europe to be thankful, but it was nothing of the scale in Europe. Most people wanted (and want) a better quality of life. Socialised medicine systems like the NHS were established. Worker rights improved further to encourage them to work in different industries (the UK encouraged people from India, the Caribbean and Africa to come and work here). There are similar stories in mainland Europe. We saw that by having these things in place, people became happier and more productive.
I know no European who really considers health insurance before moving jobs. It is not a thing. I do know many who like packages where they can take less pay for even more leave.
I now work in the NHS. I have 31 days off a year as paid vacation and 8 bank holidays. I work as hard as I have in other countries as my American work ethic was drummed into me since childhood. But I have travelled the world, taken time to see friends and family, indulged in hobbies, been to 90% of my kids’ school events and relaxed when we have had a hard time. I am told off if I go too long without a break or don’t use my allocation. I am told off if I am seen emailing when I am off.
Between social health care and annual leave I believe I experience a far greater level of freedom now than I did in the States. And I really wish my fellow Americans could experience it too.
Kinloch story
Sending a message
First time in Chinese new year CCTV performance, the PLA: “winning 决胜” with island landing: that shows Beijing determination towards Taiwan reunification. This is unusual as traditionally, Chinese new year celebrations are without 🔥. Enjoys the 3.27minutes video :
Over 35 years ago, our small daughter had a fairly young (16–17yo) babysitter while I worked at a part time job in a school. Obviously the babysitter was not required during school holidays, so the babysitter, who I will call Marjorie, decided on the spur of the moment to hop on an interstate bus and have her own little holiday.
Before school recommenced, Marjorie came to me looking embarrassed, and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t babysit for you any more.” I was a bit blindsided as I knew she hadn’t just found a new job or anything like that, so I asked what was the matter. With much embarrassment, Marjorie told me that on her return to our small town, she found that there were rumours circulating to the effect that her sudden departure on her holiday was because I had come home unexpectedly to find her in bed with my husband.
Talk about making a story out of nothing! (I should note that at another time when my husband went on leave from his job at the same time his company car broke down and had to be towed to the city for repairs, the rumours circulated that his absence was due to his crashing the company car and breaking his leg 🙄). Apart from it being totally untrue, it was insulting to my husband to insinuate that he would be having an affair with a barely legal teenager. And poor Marjorie, who was a very sweet young lady, was mortified.
So I said, “If you stop babysitting for us, it will reinforce the belief that there is truth to this disgusting rumour. What we need to do is to go shopping together in the main street and have lunch, then for you to keep babysitting to demonstrate that nothing has happened.”
When I was a young boy, my parents warned me to stay away from a particular house on the West side of town. My parents would warn “They want to be left alone, so leave them be. Do not go up there, and do not provoke them. Remember they have guns.”
Why ask questions that you know the answer to?
What are you, a sadist? Asking the same old questions day in, and day out. Hoping, praying, waiting, for some other tidbit of information that would make the reality easier to digest?
On paper, in theory, all of the 11 aircraft carriers that the United States fields (10 Nimitz and 1 Ford), could be destroyed by Chinese conventionally-armed DF-26 “carrier Killer” missiles. Given the flight times for the latest upgrades for the hyper-velocity versions of the DF-26 anticipated stopwatch from launch to destruction is within five minutes within the 4000 Km range.
They are very effective.
And are designed to completely destroy Aircraft carriers.
China has a few thousand of them. Against what? 15 aircraft carriers.
From time to time, China takes them out as a warning to overly aggressive American neocons that are getting “too big for their britches”.
These units are not the ONLY weapons systems that are designed to destroy carrier flotillas, islands, and large bases like in Guam or Hawaii. There are many others. It’s just that the DF-26 is particularly good at it. Given the enormous numbers of launchers, and the insane levels of stockpiled munitions, one can only assume that all targets from land bases to submarines will be the prey for this missile.
The DF-26 appears to be designed specifically for high precision conventional strikes. The most likely target for the DF-26 missile would be Guam going by the range of the missile. Given the nature of the targets in Guam, which are mostly air bases (Guam has two large air bases where, as revealed by satellite imagery, B-52 squadrons are deployed), the DF-26 might be carrying specially designed cluster based bomb-lets to cause maximum damage to bombers spread out on the tarmac. In addition, there could be a specially designed deep penetration warhead for Hardened and Deeply Buried Targets (HDBTs).
Now, for the longest time, the USN and the ONI have been very quiet about the massive exponential increase in Chinese weapon lethality, survival-ability, and technology. The reports have been duly logged. The studies have been gamed out. The results and conclusions have been presented, filed and forgotten.
But it has only been during the last year that the USN admirals have become increasingly frenzied when dealing with hawkish Administration and Senate members. These people are not taking “no” for an answer, and want to find some edge; some justification, to “pull off” a “successful” war against China.
So, sometime, within the last nine months or so, the ONI through a number of key admirals, laid out the reality to the neocon “war hawks”.
The Chinese “just ran rings around us,” said former Joint Chiefs Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten in one after-action report
. “They knew exactly what we were going to do before we did it.”
Dozens of versions of the above war-game scenario have been enacted over the last few years, most recently
in April by the House Select Committee on competition with China. And while the ultimate outcome in these exercises is not always clear — the U.S. does better in some than others — the cost is. In every exercise the U.S. uses up all its long-range air-to-surface missiles in a few days, with a substantial portion of its planes destroyed on the ground. In every exercise the U.S. is not engaged in an abstract push-button war from 30,000 feet up like the ones Americans have come to expect since the end of the Cold War, but a horrifically bloody one.
And that’s assuming the U.S.-China war doesn’t go nuclear.
“The thing we see across all the wargames is that there are major losses on all sides. And the impact of that on our society is quite devastating,” said Becca Wasser, who played the role of the Chinese leadership in the Select Committee’s wargame and is head of the gaming lab at the Center for a New American Security.
“The most common thread in these exercises is that the United States needs to take steps now in the Indo-Pacific to ensure the conflict doesn’t happen in the future.
We are hugely behind the curve. Ukraine is our wakeup call. This is our watershed moment.”
So…
Please give me a break. Stop asking for answers that you do not want to hear.
If the United States drops one bullet inside of China, and Taiwan is China, the entire USN gets sunk. And the American losses in the first two hours will be absolutely horrific.
Finally, keep in mind that the limitations of the DF-26 (4,000 km) represents just a tiny portion of the massively lethal military onslaught that the China is ready and willing to unleash upon the United States and it’s idiotic “allies”. I suggest the Mr. DF-41 educate you all on what will happen to American and European cities. And lets not forget the up front and personal Type 094 or Jin class submarines.
China Launched a new Generation of Fighting Robots that Shocked the World
I’ve been fortunate so far in avoiding most scams. But a recent incident is worth noting. The driver side window was coming off the track in my wife’s Corolla. I took the vehicle to a Toyota dealership. They diagnosed the problem as a bent window regulator. The diagnosis cost nearly $100. But the repair would cost an additional $500. This did not seems right to me, so I declined. A bit of research on YouTube led me to purchase the part for $50. I saved an additional $50 money by purchasing a window regulator without the motor, then just transferred the motor from the stock unit. The most relevant aspect is that I was able to complete the entire repair in well under 1 hour. It was straightforward, and it worked perfectly. Charging $600 for the job is a scam – period.
In retrospect, I doubt the repair tech ever removed the door panel. Since this incident, I take my vehicles to a nearby independent shop that has earned my respect. Furthermore, I regularly reference YouTube for guidance in making minor repairs myself.
Women know but still won’t change, they just demand men accept their damage.
I had a young man who worked for me, quite a few years back, for about 6 months. He was constantly late to work which use to annoy me no end.
When staff come to work late on more than one occasion, I sit them down and have a chat. I let them know that I have noticed that they are late and that it makes me feel bad. I feel bad because it tells me that they don’t want to be there. So I ask them if that’s true and if I can do anything to improve this.
Every time I have this conversation it has never been said to me that they don’t like the job or don’t want to be there. So I continue with the reality that if I don’t insist upon them being at work on time it has the potential to spread to all the other employees and I can’t have that happening. I ask that they be mindful of the wider implications of being late and to make sure it isn’t a habit.
So this is how it went with this young man except he continued to come in late. My conversations gradually changed from nice to demanding to threatening him with losing his job if he kept it up.
Sure enough he again came in late,again, and I fired him for it. He was shocked and couldn’t understand why and literally said this golden nugget to me. “Why? I haven’t been late since the last time!”
In Australia the industrial relations law at the time allowed me to fire any employee, with no written warnings, if they had been with the company less than a year and the company employed lease than 15 people. This being the case I was well within my rights to fire him without a formal process.
A few weeks after his termination I am served with papers informing me that a wrongful termination complaint has been filed against me and I have to appear before a tribunal. Great!
In his filing he lied about his start date and lied about the size of my company and the number of employees. I had to prove otherwise and sent this documentation into the tribunal along with why he was fired prior to the hearing. It was work I shouldn’t have had to do but it was not too onerous.
I wrongly assumed the tribunal would throw the case out based on the evidence I gave them and the lack of evidence he gave, but no, it went ahead anyway.
He and his representatives – by the way, I was not allowed representation – talked about his work and why he shouldn’t have been sacked and how bad an employer I was, this carried on for about 15 minutes and was mostly untrue.
When my turn came I declined to talk about him, his work or say anything negative. I told the tribunal it wouldn’t serve any positive purpose talking about his work. I simply addressed the two key pieces of evidence that allowed me to fire him with no come back.
The tribunal then separated us both to speak with us separately. I was told by them they could tell I was a good employer by what I said and how I didn’t say anything negative about him. They said I had done nothing wrong and asked if I would consider reversing my decision to fire him and let him resign instead.
I resisted this as that wasn’t how it happened but relented after further pressure from the tribunal.
The whole thing, in my mind, was him deliberately wasting my time so he could make me pay for having fired him. It’s possible he was after a payout too but the way the tribunal saw things it was obvious he couldn’t succeed with that.
For those who will feel the need to side with the employee because all employers are money hungry, slave driving mongrels and want to leave me some comments.
Know this:
He never rang to say he was going to be late. He was at the gym prior to coming to work. His work was not good when he was there. He was late on more than 10 occasions. I also asked his supervisor to talk to him about being late. He never once offered to make up the time and was very quickly out the door at days end. He also never asked to vary his hours either.
So let’s begin by by prefacing this saying this happened to by my god-daughter’s mother. I had known this lady for over 24 years at the time. I was the one person that she called when she needed help, a ride to work, grocery stores planning her money, and things like that. So I didn’t think twice, when she asked to borrow my extra truck for awhile. So I’m thinking that she’s only wanted to be able to do couple things for a week or so, but NO. She ends up keeping it for nearly a year, didn’t change the oil change when I told her that she needed to after keeping it more than 5 months. But she did get an front end alignment, then she bugged me about getting her money back for it so much, I just said f*¢£ it. I ended up showing her to continue to drive the truck just about a years time. Finally she calls me and tells me I can come and pick it up cause she was moving to different house. I go to get it and find out that the only reason she was returning it was the engine had messed up, and needed fixing.
So I she called me up to tell me that I can have the truck back, but it going to need some fixing up. And just to make herself look better, she calls a mechanic, to diagnose the problem. He dies and she even arranges for him to fix it. But he has never fixed it or returned the truck. So far forward two years and she is asking to borrow the other car I had bought to replace truck, plus loan her several hundred dollars. She even tried get her daughter to sweet talk me into give her what she wants. I didn’t give in and told her that I just didn’t haveit then. No darn way I was going to help her out anymore after she messed up my truck.
May be because the “some people” is indeed 87% of the world call the Global South! And maybe because those people has intelligence, you don’t! You thought sucking up to the U.S. and helping them stay in denial is great.
Oh by the way the rest of the 13% most are coerce into saying US is great, some are forced to do, the rest are wishful that US is strong! A bankrupt nation with a million homeless with 35 trillion dollars debts is anything but strong!
Tagliatelle with Gorgonzola Sauce
Ingredients
25g/1 ounce/2 tablespoons butter, + extra for tossing the pasta
225g/8 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, divided
150ml/1/4 pint/2/3 cup double or whipping cream
30ml/ 2 tablespoons dry vermouth
5ml/ 1 teaspoon cornflour
15ml/1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
450g/1 pound tagliatelle
Salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan ( it needs to be thick based to prevent the cheese from burning).
Stir in 175g/6 ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese and stir over a gentle heat for about 2 to 3 minutes until melted.
Whisk in the cream, vermouth and cornflour.
Add the sage; season. Cook, whisking, until the sauce boils and thickens.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water according to the instructions on the packet.
Drain well and toss with a little butter.
Reheat the sauce gently, whisking well.
Divide the pasta among 4 serving bowls, top with the sauce and sprinkle over the remaining crumbled cheese.
Interview to Tucker Carlson – Kremlin.ru, Feb 9 2024 Vladimir Putin answered questions from Tucker Carlson, a journalist and founder of Tucker Carlson Network.
> Russia is said to weaponize everything. The position of China is not (yet) seen in military terms. The emphasis is on economic competition. Any undeniable Chinese achievement must be declared to have been a bad investment. The directive thus reads:
“When writing about China’s achievements – question their purported cost.”
But we will be very polite if you’re 1) not that brainwashed and 2) reasonable.
Positive reports about China are rare to be seen in American media, you don’t think it’s strange.
Posts revealing the facts behind your propaganda on Tweeter/X or Facebook got deleted, you don’t think it’s strange.
Chinese users were banned on social media for no reason, you don’t think it’s strange.
Chinese quorans are upset and disappointed about this, because no matter how detailed we tried to prove China is not what you thought, what replies I frequently received is: it’s China’s propaganda.
OK, fine, whatever.
Several days ago, I met a guy here, his argument is, China DID genocide Uyghurs, because he has evidences. I checked his evidences only to find they are reports on some mainstram media.
Firstly I told him, although those reports had “revealed” some CCP documents, but it is about the vocational education records (background information: Chinese farmers do not own large peice of land, so they are not able to be rich on their small piece of land due to huge polulation, and they usually don’t have chances to work in cities due to their economic status), and this is a proverty-eradication program initiated by government. However, MSM like NYT took it as an evidence of “forced labour”, LMAO, this program is nation wide, not just in Xinjiang but to all Chinese in lower income levels. Obviously he didn’t know this background.
He said although he can’t read Chinese, he can verify the information via translation.
Then I told him 1) what you can verify is the translation, not the truth, 2) this is called selective appropriation , translation usually used to project negative images in news reports, these are academic conclusion in communication studies and I have a degree in this area.
He said he can’t verify my education background.
Then I suggested him to read some of the leading scholars in this area.
This is just a simple version of what happened.
The fact is, during the course, I’m annoyed by his stubbornness and arrogance, and his attitude rejecting any polite argument, then I lost control, calling him brainwashed, stupid, uneducated.
See, this is a typical case of Chinese quorans being “strangely aggressive”.
This is in the era when computers broke the $1,000 price so a lot of people with limited skills were getting them.
At that time, I made PC clones, and sold/serviced them (and any other brands) in the local area. Think: small town.
The PCs we sold were all with home delivery and setup. That saved so much hassle (for us and our clients). At least when we left they could dial up and get online and surf the internet. Usually! One client it just wouldn’t work. Wrong password error no matter how many times he tried.
Finally, we got the ISP to tell what password he was trying to use. Let’s say it was ABC, the correct one. When we setup it up with logged in fine. Saved the password. So all he had to do was click connect.
But what he did was add ABC to the password field. So his first attempt to login was with ABCABC then ABCABCABC. Each time he tried he just appended his correct password onto a long string of correct passwords.
Computer were new… that is an easy thing to do. And the in home setup and service got us past a lot of those kinds of issues.
It wasn’t uncommon when at someone’s house for service (not a new one) the client would want me to clean up the hard disk. Kinda like go through their folders and ask “do you want this?” and if not click delete.
Sometimes they would mention it would be best to avoid a specific folder or so.
So, this guy asks me to clean up his folders…. and we’re going through one by one. Now, I am not a prude and could careless if you have porn on your computer.
But, I click a folder and the screen fills with adult images…. of my client sitting next to me and others some of whom I recall knowing! Now, that is really something I don’t want to see! I think my client was also a little more than embarassed.
The Spiritual Connection of Cats | Why Did GOD put a CAT in your life ?
When I lived in The ‘States, spaghetti was my primary food. It was affordable, tasty and easy to make. I would cook up hamburger (mince) and then add it to spaghetti with some peppers and onions.
When I moved to China, I learned about REAL noodles… and all sorts of different variations. All so darn yummy.
A popular classic Beijing dish, Zha Jiang Mian features ground pork and onion cooked in a rich savory brown sauce with a hint of sweetness, tossed with noodles and then served with crunchy cucumber. It takes no time to prepare, is easy to cook, and can be prepared ahead of time. It’s a perfect one-bowl dish for hot days and is great for meal prep as well.
What is Zha Jiang Mian
Zha Jiang Mian (炸酱面), or translated literally, fried sauce noodles, is one of the most classic and famous dishes in Beijing cuisine. It’s not as fancy or well-known as Peking Duck, but if you travel to Beijing, locals will always recommend this dish to you.
My parents told me that zha jiang mian was a dish for poor people. The traditional recipe uses a thick salty soybean paste to make the sauce, together with a bit of ground pork and sometimes lard. The sauce becomes so rich and flavorful that you only need a small amount of it to accompany a whole bowl of noodles. This way, people don’t need to spend much to fill up their bellies.
Although it seems like a simple dish, it has a whole set of rules that govern how it’s served in Beijing. It is called Old Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles here, and this is considered the most traditional and authentic way to prepare the dish. In addition to the sauce made from yellow soybean paste, the dish is often served with sliced cucumber, sliced red radish, boiled bean sprouts, and yellow soybeans. By adding all these things to the noodles, you can create a balanced and flavorful dish that is refreshing and has a good texture.
Why this recipe
However, the recipe I’m sharing today is different from the traditional way of cooking Zha Jiang Mian. This is a family recipe that was passed down from my grandma, and I think it tastes much better than the traditional one.
Secret Ingredient: Sweet Bean Paste
Instead of yellow soybean paste, my family uses sweet bean paste (Tian mian jiang, 甜面酱) to make Zha Jiang Mian. It is a thick dark brown sauce made from fermented wheat flour. Tian Mian Jiang is less salty than yellow soybean paste and has a slightly sweet flavor (It is the same sauce that accompanies Peking Duck and Moo Shu Chicken). It has a more delicate flavor and is less overwhelming than yellow soybean paste. Sometimes Chinese restaurants label it as hoisin sauce. But sweet bean paste is less sweet and has a deeper fermented umami than hoisin sauce.
You can find sweet bean paste at Chinese markets and many Asian markets. You can also purchase it on Amazon.
A more satisfying sauce
The traditional Zha Jiang Mian uses very little pork in the sauce. Because the dish is created for a budget meal, like I mentioned above.
For the homemade version, my mom uses much more pork and chopped onion to create a much better texture and more delicious sauce. Since sweet bean paste is less salty than soybean paste, you will also use more sauce per bowl of noodles, which makes the dish more balanced and satisfying.
My mom likes to chop a fattier block of pork into small cubes instead of using ground pork, to achieve a better mouthfeel. Here I used ground pork to make prep much easier. But feel free to use cut-up pork for your dish if you prefer.
Ingredients
When you’re ready to cook, your counter should have:
Sweet bean paste and water
Sliced cucumber (and other toppings if you prefer)
Minced ginger
Shaoxing wine
Oil for cooking
Ground pork
Chopped onion
Type of noodles for Zha Jiang Mian
There are a few options for Zha Jiang Mian. Traditional Zha Jiang Mian uses a rather thick type of noodles. It’s a bit similar to udon noodles in terms of thickness, but with a chewier texture.
If you have access to Asian market, try to find fresh noodles in the refrigerated section. The Lan Zhou Fresh Noodles or Da Xi Bei GunGun (my favorite) by HAVISTA, and the Plain Noodles from Twin Marquis are great options. You can freeze the portion you’re not using for up to 6 months.
If you can only find dried noodles, that’s totally fine. You can use either the thick type or thin types of noodles, depending on the texture you prefer. Make sure to use noodles made from wheat flour and water (there shouldn’t be eggs or other ingredients).
You can serve your Zha Jiang Mian with no toppings and the result will still be delicious. For a better texture, my favorite topping is sliced cucumber. Other crunchy vegetables such as sliced radish (red, daikon, or watermelon radish), blanched bean sprouts, and sliced carrots are great options as well. You can also add a small handful of salad greens to the dish.
TIP: If you find slicing vegetables too time consuming, use a julienne peeler to save time.
An untraditional topping
Unlike the traditional way of serving Zha Jiang Mian, my mom loves to add scrambled eggs and tomato as a topping. This is a family tradition and I’ve never seen other people serve Zha Jiang Mian this way. But I love how it tastes. The tender tomatoes and eggs add more volume to the noodles and balance out the rich brown sauce, making the dish so delicious and colorful!
How to cook zha jiang mian
Mix the sweet bean sauce
Sweet bean sauce is a thick paste that’s easy to burn in a hot pan. So you will need to add water to it to thin it out before cooking. It’s like the idea of miso paste, as you should dissolve it in water beforehand.
Cooking Zha Jiang Mian sauce
Gently cook the ginger
Pan fry the pork
Add the sauce
Simmer to bring the flavor out of the sauce
Add the onions and cook until tender
Stir and serve!
The sweet bean sauce needs to be cooked for long enough to bring out the best flavor. That’s why you will start with a diluted sauce, and it will gradually thicken until it’s done. Make sure to stir the sauce frequently during the cooking, so it won’t burn on the bottom of the pan.
Cook the noodles and assemble
When the sauce is simmering, you can start a pot of water to cook the noodles. Because the Zha Jiang Mian sauce will be piping hot once it’s done, you can boil the noodles at the end, when the sauce is almost ready.
To assemble, transfer noodles to individual bowls and add a spoonful of the sauce. And top it with vegetables as you like. Then you can mix it all together and eat it.
My family’s recipe not only preserves all the deliciousness of a bowl of traditional Zha Jiang Mian, but also tastes better and is super comforting. Add a spoonful of sauce to the noodles and gently mix them; you will smell the pungent aroma and be unable to resist picking up the chopsticks and digging in.
Guys, this dis is authentic, and super delicious. If you love American (Western) “spaghetti with meat sauce”, you will absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this dish. It is worth the time to prepare correctly.
However, if you are in the West, go to any Chinese family run… Chinese restaurant, and ask for Zha Jiang Mian.
Pronounced like a “ja”. Say it twice fast as in “ja-ja”. Add “mian” which is noodles in Chinese. You say…
Originally Answered: What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poor or less educated than they were?
I worked at Trader Joe’s for 3 years while I was pursuing my Ph.D. One day, a woman and her granddaughter came through my lane. The girl, about 12, remarked that she thought it would be fun to work at Trader Joe’s someday. Her grandmother winked at her and said, “Oh I think you can do a little better than that.”
I continued scanning her groceries and said, “Keep it in mind if you’re ever in school getting your Ph.D. The flexible hours and benefits are great so you can focus on your studies.” I looked directly at the grandmother and said, “At least that’s how it’s working out for me.”
The woman was embarrassed, but I continued, talking again to the granddaughter. “And, just remember, a job you love and enjoy is the most important part.”
This is just ONE example of hundreds. Customers coming through my lane acting as though the only reason for me being there was because I was too dumb, too lazy, too whatever to be their equal. I worked with people with their MBA, artists, and people who didn’t have a college degree but were the hardest workers I’ve ever known before or since.
Ukraine SitRep: A Hated New Commander – Critical Lack Of Infantry
The Ukrainian President Zelenski has fired the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces General Zaluzny.
Zaluzny was replaced by General Syrski, a somewhat unexpected choice as Syrski is hated by the troops for pushing them into meat grinders without a perspective of winning. Syrski, who was born as a Russian, had lost the cauldron battles of Debaltsevo (2015), Soledar (2023) and Bakhmut (2023). Currently Avdeevka is in a cauldron and likely to fall.
Rumors say that Syrski already ordered reserves to reinforce the troops in Avdeevka. Russian FAB bombs will welcome them.
General Syrsky has a reputation for being willing to engage the enemy, even if the cost in men and machines is high. He is a divisive figure who provokes strong reactions from serving officers. Some praise his professionalism, others say he terrifies his subordinates and rules by fear. He is less likely to question the priorities of his president. As he takes on the top job, he will have to soften his style of command and learn to speak truth to power.
The reorganisation will also cause disruption as officers shift to new positions in the chain of command. It is important that these changes do not degrade Ukraine’s capacity to fight. Before long, the country will need a new mobilisation even if General Syrsky uses his troops mostly for defence—as, for now, he should.
Ask yourself, why would Zelensky appoint a commander that the entire armed forces allegedly hates?
In fact, this is a ‘design feature’ not a bug.
Recall that the reason Zaluzhny was given the boot was he had become too powerful: he was too loved by the troops, and by the people. Why? One of the reasons is likely because he fought for the troops multiple times. In early 2023, documents were leaked showing that he nearly begged Zelensky to pull troops back from Bakhmut, but the narco-Fuhrer refused, wanting it as a symbolic city defense—perhaps taken with romantic delusions of Stalingrad.
During the grand summer ‘counteroffensive’, Zaluzhny pulled the brigades of the 10th Army Corps back and began to use them sparingly—much to the chagrin and disapproval of US sponsors—after the initial first few wipes devastated columns of Leopards and Bradleys along the infamous road of death near Rabotino and Mala Tokmachka.
Recently it was claimed Zaluzhny likewise attempted to get Avdeevka totally withdrawn. It does not seem that he likes to waste men for what he knows to be fruitless efforts. Syrsky on the other hand appears glad to grind them down.
So, has it become obvious yet? Zelensky needs a commander-in-chief he can control, someone not universally loved by the troops; someone who cannot use those troops at a time of opportunity to ‘march on Kiev’ and oust Zelensky from his citadel. Syrsky appears to fit the perfect prototypical role: undefiant, unpopular, uncharismatic, and most importantly, untempted by political ambitions—the ideal subserviant factotum to Zelensky’s regime.
There is no word yet what Zaluzny is going to do. He has the respect of the troops and good relations with the ‘nationalists’, i.e. the Nazi fringe militia of Ukraine. He also has the support of some politicians opposed to Zelenski.
A coup is thereby a possible outcome of this change.
Yesterday a Washington Post article, sources from interviews at the Ukrainian front, describes the utter shamble the Ukrainian forces are in:
In interviews across the front line in recent days, nearly a dozen soldiers and commanders told The Washington Post that personnel deficits were their most critical problem now, as Russia has regained the offensive initiative on the battlefield and is stepping up its attacks.
One battalion commander in a mechanized brigade fighting in eastern Ukraine said that his unit currently has fewer than 40 infantry troops — the soldiers deployed in front-line trenches who hold off Russian assaults. A fully equipped battalion would have more than 200, the commander said.
Under normal circumstances a mechanized battalion is supposed to hold a 3 kilometer long frontline. With only 40 infantry soldiers available that becomes an impossible task. The further deterioration from that depleted state will be rapid.
Oleksandr, a battalion commander, said the companies in his unit on average are staffed at about 35 percent of what they should be. A second battalion commander from an assault brigade said that is typical for units that carry out combat tasks.
Asked how many new soldiers he has received — not including those who have returned after injuries — Oleksandr said his battalion was sent five people over the past five months. He and other commanders said the new recruits tend to be poorly trained, creating a dilemma about whether to send someone immediately onto the battlefield because reinforcements are needed so badly, even though they are likely to get injured or killed because they lack the know-how.
“The basis of everything is the lack of people,” Oleksandr said.
“Where are we going? I don’t know,” he added. “There’s no positive outlook. Absolutely none. It’s going to end in a lot of death, a global failure. And most likely, I think, the front will collapse somewhere like it did for the enemy in 2022, in the Kharkiv region.”
The new Ukrainian mobilization law, which is supposed to refill the army with fresh bodies, is still creeping through the Ukrainian parliament. It will likely come into force only by April. The first new troops conscripted under it will take until July to be combat capable. One wonders is the current Ukrainian army can hold that long.
Posted by b on February 9, 2024 at 7:41 UTC | Permalink
My Wife/Her Friends Expected Me To Pay For Their $700 Dinner Bill, Instead I Walked Out!
There are already some good answers here. One type of crime that has a low solvability is the “one off” variety, e.g. an offense the perpetrator does once before moving on. Solvability gets even lower if the crime is committed with no other connection between actor and victim.
For example, say that I am on a cross-country road trip, and take a detour to Ames, Iowa. I’ve never been there. I take I-80 to I-35 North, and stop off at a gas station/convenience store somewhere around Ames. I cover my license plates just before I get there, park around back or some other place where there are few surveillance cameras, and walk inside, robbing the store. I go back to my car, drive a few miles before getting rid of the license plate covers, and resume my trip. I stop for gas only at stations around I-80, none on I-35.
I haven’t given the cops much to go on. If I’m careful not to leave fingerprints and wear some clothing that makes it hard to get a good camera shot of my face, the chance this crime is going to be connected to me is pretty low. If I get greedy and use the same tactics at other crime venues, I increase my chances at getting caught with each iteration.
Organized crime hit men use a similar tactic. They take on targets that are outside their usual haunts, and do the deed in a place there are few witnesses. The police local to the site of the crime won’t know anything about the hit man. A federal agent looking for behavior patterns (M.Os. or modus operandi) might pick up the trail, but even that is a long shot, one that gets longer if the M.O. hasn’t been tied to the hit man.
While there are some smart criminals, most people who make it a habit to commit crimes aren’t especially bright, and have signature behaviors that tie the crimes back to them.
There’s a sport called Airsoft. If you know about it, skip this part, but for those who don’t here’s an explanation.
Airsoft is like paintball, but a lot of its components, i.e. the guns, gear, etc. is a lot more realistic than paintball. A lot of LARPers and MilSim (Military Simulation) guys love doing stuff like that.
The sport started in Japan due to its tough gun laws but the sport soon spread to other places like Britain, America, and… oh… Russia for instance.
In America, MilSim events are huge. There is a lot of preparation involved. People will drop thousands on gear to look like this:
This is an image I found off Google. Rifle, easy with all attachments, $300+, not to mention any internal modifications he might have.
Helmet an easy $50, assuming its a nice one. Earpieces have wires, so they’re probably communication linked, noise cancelling and sound enhancing. Easy $70–80. Crye combat pants. $100.
Even vehicles, which probably cost thousands to kit out:
As you can see, American MilSimmers are rather dedicated.
However, compared to Russian MilSim events… Well let me just say this. Its like comparing a pickup game of basketball with the neighborhood friends versus an all out NBA game. Take a look at this video.
Fucking hell. Russians bring multimillion dollar TANKS to their Milsim events. Plus, as you saw in the second vid, Russian soldiers got involved to take blank potshots at people to add to realism!
Meanwhile in America you have people arguing about 10 foot engagement distances and bang killing.
Yep. Most Russian thing ever, bring a tank to a toy fight.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca is a traditional Italian pasta from Naples that’s quick to put together from pantry staples. If you have canned tomatoes, garlic, olives, anchovies and capers in your cupboard, you can knock out this simple but flavourful sauce in a flash. It’s a stellar emergency meal everyone should know, with a “saucy” backstory of its own!
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
There are various colourful stories explaining how this dish came to be, and how Puttanesca pasta got its name. “Puttanesca” roughly translates to “working girls” in Italian (that’s a politically correct term I’m using there!) One tale tells how this dish was invented in the brothels of Naples so the smells wafting from the kitchen would entice potential … errr, clients. Another story claims this pasta was a quick and simple dish ladies of the Neapolitan night could throw together in a hurry in amongst their busy schedules.
Does this kind of talk on a G-rated food blog make you blush? 😉
Whatever the origins, today this is considered a classic and staple Italian pasta recipe. It’s budget-friendly, easy and quick to make, yet delicious enough to woo family and friends (or indeed, “paying customers” … 😉)
Ingredients in Puttanesca sauce
Being such simple recipe, this is one of those dishes that genuinely benefits from better quality ingredients. In this pasta, the one ingredient I find is really worth seeking out is fresh deli-style olives in olive oil or brine, rather than cheaper jarred ones you find on supermarket shelves.
Oh, also, anchovies – the secret “why is this simple sauce so good?” ingredient. If you skip it, the sauce isn’t quite as good! However you can leave it out if you wish to make the dish vegetarian / vegan (add a little more garlic, capers and olives instead).
Black olives – Try to use good quality, fresh olives from the deli. These come in either olive oil or brine and will add more flavour into the sauce as it simmers compared to bottled ones that come in sealed jars. Both pitted and unpitted are fine but pitting your own is best.
Anchovies – This adds savoury flavour and salt to the sauce without leaving it “fishy-tasting”. In fact, you’d have to have a highly attuned palate to be able to taste it at all. The anchovies are finely chopped and dissolve into the sauce, and any strong fishiness disappears leaving just deliciously deep umami.I prefer to use whole anchovies and finely mince it myself because it has better flavour than using anchovy paste. But paste is a handy alternative – my rule of thumb is 1/4 teaspoon of paste per anchovy (so use 3/4 teaspoon in this recipe).
Spaghetti – Traditionally made with spaghetti or vermicelli pasta (ie. the thinner spaghetti), though this recipe works just fine with any long pasta. Or short, for that matter!
Tomatoes – Not all canned tomatoes are created equal! Better ones are sweeter and break down better to create a sauce. TIP: If you find your tomatoes are a bit on the sour side, just add a touch of sugar to the sauce. It’s a cheat’s way of taking the sour edge off that is a game changer with for example, Spaghetti Bolognese.
Capers – Adds little pops of briny goodness and that unique caper flavour to the sauce. I usually use standard size capers. On occasion, I find they can be giant in size so I’ll reach for the baby capers instead. Both work!
Garlic – Because this is Italian food!
Chilli flakes (aka red pepper flakes) – A pinch of heat is wonderful in this sauce. It’s not a spicy sauce, here it’s just a background hum of warmth.
Extra virgin olive oil – For cooking and finishing.
Fresh basil and oregano – These finishing herb touches will really lift the dish and return some freshness to the sauce. But if you don’t have them, it is absolutely still worth making using a pinch of dried oregano. Don’t bother with dried basil, it’s basically flavourless.If you don’t have basil, serve with a sprinkle of parmesan instead. The extra flavour will compensate for absence of fresh herb flavour.
How to make Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Start the sauce first and get it simmering, then cook the pasta. They’ll both finish at the same time, ready to toss together!
This recipe serves 2. Use a medium size skillet here rather than a very large one, else the sauce will dry out too quickly when simmering. If you’re scaling the recipe up however a large skillet will be necessary to toss the pasta in the sauce (or use a pot for the sauce and tossing).
Sauté aromatics – Start off by sautéing the garlic in olive oil until it starts to go golden on the edges. Then add the finely chopped anchovies, capers, olives and red pepper flakes and cook for a further 1 minute.This sautéing step is key to the flavour of the sauce. It blooms the flavour of the red pepper flakes and even more importantly, takes the raw fishy edge off the anchovies while causing them to break down, ready to dissolve into the sauce.
Add everything else into sauce – Add the can of tomatoes, then add water by rinsing out the can. In goes salt, pepper and fresh or dried oregano, then give it a good stir.
Simmer 10 minutes – Once the sauce comes to a simmer, turn the heat way down to low and let it simmer gently, stirring every now and then, for 10 minutes while the pasta cooks. The tomato will break down, the water will cook out, leaving behind a nice, shiny and thickened sauce. If at any stage it looks like the sauce is drying out (probably due to heat being too strong or using a skillet that’s too large), just add a splash of water.
Cook pasta – Cook the pasta in salted water. Just before draining, scoop out a mugful of pasta cooking water. This is a key, essential step for cooking any pasta(well and properly!). We add a splash into the pasta sauce when tossing with the pasta. Starch that’s left in the cooking water helps emulsify the fats and water in the sauce. This has a thickening effect and also discourages the sauce from separating. The sauce clings deliciously to the pasta strands instead of leaving a watery pool of bland liquid at the bottom of your pasta bowl.You’ll see this step in every pasta recipe on my website. And every household in Italy makes pasta this way!
Combine pasta, sauce and pasta cooking water – After draining the pasta, immediately throw into the sauce along with about 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water. I rarely measure, I just eyeball it.
Toss, toss, toss! With the skillet still on a low stove, use 2 wooden spoons to toss the pasta vigorously for a minute. After 20 or 30 seconds of tossing, you’ll notice that the sauce in the skillet starts clinging to the pasta (thanks to the pasta cooking water!).The pasta is ready when the sauce is all stuck to the pasta rather than sitting in the skillet.Pasta/sauce gets dry – If at any stage the pasta (or sauce) gets too thick or dries out, rather than being slippery and shiny, just add an extra splash of pasta cooking water then toss more. This will resurrect the pasta and makes it “juicy” again. This is why we scoop out a big mugful of pasta cooking water! I do this multiple times when taking photos and shooting videos of pasta because it loses freshness within minutes and I can’t shoot that fast!Sprinkle with basil and serve immediately!
Pro tip: warm your pasta bowlsWatch how to make it
Pasta is a dish that is at its absolute best served hot and fresh. It is never the same reheated. It is also one of the rare dishes where I make the effort to warm serving bowls, to preserve the heat of the pasta when eating. I just pop them in a 70C / 160F oven to warm before I start cooking, or in the microwave for a minute before serving. It’s worth the small effort, especially in winter!
What to serve with Puttanesca pasta
Parmesan?
Puttanesca is traditionally not served with the typical shower of parmesan because it already has plenty of salt and savouriness from the flavour-packed ingredients. But I won’t stop you if that’s how you want to roll.
Having said that, if I don’t have fresh basil sometimes I use parmesan to compensate as a finishing touch (no it’s not the same thing at all, but I like to have a garnish).
Sides!
In my world, Puttanesca is planted firmly in the “emergency pantry meals” bucket so you won’t get a side salad if I make this for you. It’s also technically 95% vegetables anyway! 😉 However, if you’re after a super quick one that’s on-theme, Rocket with Shaved Parmesan fits the bill with a side of hot buttery garlic bread or focaccia (I’m very proud of this recipe, I hope you try it one day!).
Add a Tiramisu for dessert or Italian Almond cookies with coffee, and suddenly this humble “quick pantry dinner” has transformed into a full blown Italian dinner menu!
We had a 10 year employee working at my store named (ummmm) “Suzy”. She was the community out-reach leader (and amazing at it) and the intimates / beauty department manager. She had a perfect attendance record. She was one of TWO “Exceeds Expectations” leaders in the entire store. She went to EVERY fundraising event and was absolutely one of the most delightful human beings I ever worked with.
I was in the break room with the store manager. In walked “Suzy”. She opened the fridge, dug out a bottle of iced tea. Said (out loud), “No name! Fair game!” and opened it and drank it. We didn’t even have time to stop her. We saw her take an item from the fridge. There was no moral dilemma on our part. The front of the fridge had a sign on it saying, “If it’s not yours and you take it, it’s theft. Period.” We had a camera pointing at the fridge because food theft had been a past issue.
“Suzy” was walked off the property the same day.
She was stunned. “But I have perfect attendance. I’ve gotten exceeds expectations on every review. I’m the community captain.” It absolutely broke my heart (she was one of my all time favorite employees). We had to explain to her, “Nobody gets immunity to the rules. You cannot be the greatest employee ever and expect that you earn some kind of points that grant you forgiveness, especially in an area so critical to trust and morale. All theft is treated the same, regardless of size or intent. You took something that didn’t belong to you.”
Theft is and should always be treated with absolute zero tolerance. No exceptions ever. Making exceptions demands future exceptions for all people. Making exceptions about theft opens the door to low standards. Better to fire all the perpetrators and shut the unit down until backfill can be identified than to allow a thief to continue being employed for even one second.
My son stole $2000 in a locked box from under my bed as I slept. He knew I needed that money to do badly needed repairs on the house we had just moved back into after a divorce. He had just gotten out of a juvenile treatment facility. He refused to get a job. He kept bringing a friend over at night when I was working.
My house reeked of marijuana every morning when I got home. They ate my food. He was 18. A legal adult. When I discovered he stole the money I had him arrested.
He was put in jail. No one would bail him out so he stayed there for three months. At court I told him I did not want to see him until he was a contributing member of society. He had to have a legal job…not selling street drugs etc. He was given time served plus probation and had to pay restitution. He got out of jail and lived with the kid who had been hanging out at my house.
His mother kicked them both out. My son found his birth father and stayed with him. He soon learned the man’s sole goal in life was to stay high. My son then stayed with another friend, couch surfed.
Lived in an office building bathroom. Then with a woman who was crazy. Then a friend rescued him. He lived with them and their father for two years.
They made him stay clean, clean up after himself, eat healthy, get and keep a job. He then asked if he could come back home.
He is now 24. The other day he thanked me for holding him accountable. He has a job he enjoys and is saving money for a future. Some kids just need tough love.
My husband is a retired Royal Thai police officer. He rarely told me much about his days, not wanting me to worry, get upset.
He did, however, share a few events that had me laughing…
Story 1
Husband and his men were chasing a small group of meth dealers who abandoned their car and ran into the tall grass of a swampy field.
Husband has the usual regulation, very short hair and was wearing a bright orange vest that was clearly marked POLICE, front and back, in huge English and Thai letters.
He waded into the swamp and stood next to one of the meth dealers who told him to take off the bright vest because the police were searching the area!
Story 2
Husband and his guys raided a gambling den at dawn. The players, many of whom were very drunk, ran to their motorcycles, trucks and cars to get away.
Four men staggered to their car but were stunned because the police seemed to be keeping pace on foot with their ‘pedal to the metal,’ speeding car.
In fact, they had jumped into an abandoned car that had no engine and hadn’t noticed they hadn’t moved at all.
Story 3
‘Uncle’ Tan was a quiet, older man who grew veggies and sold them from the back of his pick-up.
Officers received a call saying that Uncle had unsuccessfully tried to rob a local shop with a plastic water pistol and was walking down the highway, TOWARDS the police station.
He seemed pleased when he was arrested.
As was the norm, he was told he could be held for 48 hours in the police station jail, longer if a judge deemed it necessary. Uncle perked up at the possibility of ‘longer.’
The officers were puzzled until the truth came out: his wife’s sisters were coming for their yearly visit, and Uncle said that he was just too old to go through that hell again. He had thought he would be in jail for weeks.
The judge showed leniency, asking the police to hold Uncle until it was deemed safe for him to go home.
Does it occur to you it could be the U.S. that could be imprisoned? If the U.S. ends up spending tons of money meaninglessly and without a return and yet it cannot stop spending billions to continuously do shit that don’t pay it is the U.S. that is trapped. China don’t gives a shit it simply just let the US waste all it money bribing nations who refuse to do shit, just to pretend to the world it has allies.
For us in Asia. Even Japan, Korea, Phillipines and India have no wish to do shit as it knows the repercussions and it has been China’s neighbour for some 5000 years! It may have no choice but to barked some shit on China to get the U.S. off its back. But sure won’t risk it to do more than that. So the U.S. having a pay billions get some pretend shit is outright silly and wasteful.
So who is trapped? China can and will do what it wants. And the U.S. has to stay and waste a ton of resources to get pretentious shit that China gives a damn. To me the U.S. is trapped in its own stupidity!
Groom yourself, even if you’re living alone . Keep your beard clean and trimmed. Girls may wax, if necessary.
Always carry a wallet, Comb, Belt, Perfume, a pen with you.
Workout at least 1 hour a day, it’s the least you could do for your body.This will keep your confidence up, your body healthy and your face free of pimples.
Cover your mouth while sneezing, coughing, etc. Say ‘Sorry/Excuse me’ afterward.
Invest in your own personal hygiene like flossing your teeth, cleaning your mouth, wearing cologne.
Speak a bit less and think before you speak because one wrong word can hurt your personality.
Talk looking into the eyes of the other person.
Be a man of your words , If you promise to do something for someone, make sure you do it .
Show respect for other person’s opinion. Never tell a person he or she is wrong.
Learn the difference between Ego and Self-respect. There’s a very thin line between them.
Hustle as much as you can. Fast success brings ego, slow success builds personality.
Do Meditation.(Meditation transforms you into a new human)
Never make fun of someone’s disability whether it’s financial, mental or physical.
Never hesitate meeting new people. People have own experiences and knowledge to share with you.
My coworker, Marty, at the Department of Correction was fired after bantering with our department’s business manager. She was a diva with a (very) high opinion of herself and one morning Marty told her that she looked “nice”.
She cocked her hip and smiled at him, and asked if he was implying that she didn’t look good every day. Marty responded that she did, indeed, look good and that she looked good enough to eat. That ended the conversation and I went on my merry way.
When I returned to the office late that afternoon, another coworker pulled me aside and asked, breathlessly, if I’d heard about Marty. I hadn’t — I’d been out installing computers in a prison all day — so she said that he’d been fired! For sexual harrassment! The diva business manager had filed a complaint against him.
I immediately tracked my boss down and told her the complaint was bullshit, and that I’d witnessed the entire exchange. She said that her hands were tied because Marty admitted saying the diva looked good enough to eat. It was considered inappropriate verbiage for the workplace and the diva insisted that she would be uncomfortable working with Marty.
I kept my contact and conversations with her to a minimum from that day on.
China has been excluded from the ISS project, which has greatly promoted the development of China’s aerospace technology.
You can imagine that 20 years ago, several young people decided to save money to buy a car and then use it together. The Chinese were excluded. He was told: Your money is dirty and we will not accept it.
You have to understand that Russia, which the United States considers an enemy, is accepted, while China is excluded. How humiliating is this to China?
The young man decided not to pray to join but to work hard on his own. Finally, he made enough money to buy a car of his own. A new car that belongs only to him.
The group of young people who pooled their money to buy a car are still using that old car together, even though it is very old. All participants are not yet able to buy their own cars.
When they saw a Chinese driving a new car alone, they were filled with envy, but they said: His car is smaller than ours!
Let us assume that if China was allowed to join, what would be the result? They may have a module on the ISS, but they will never have their own CSS.
Now everything has changed
The Chinese space station is so advanced that they even use Hall thrusters to maintain orbit without having to consume a lot of fuel like the ISS.
Famous media commented that the interior of CSS is like an Apple store, while the ISS is like an old grocery store.
My father was a very serious and strict man. We lived in a nice house with a covered front porch on a hill overlooking a valley. One day when I was 10 yrs. old I was with my father on the porch ,there was a man dressed in a suit and tie and they were discussing serious business. I knew not to disturb them in any way. I had to remain quiet so I quickly became bored. I looked around the porch for something of interest when I spotted a small stone on the floor. When I picked it up I thought it was such a perfect throwing stone, the shape and the way it fit in my hand I just knew it would travel a record breaking distance down that valley. I took a few steps back so I would be behind dad’s peripheral sight as they both were facing the valley in deep conversation. I focused on a bush for my target . I took a couple deep breaths and threw the stone with every muscle I had.
To my horror the stone slipped out of my hand . I heard a deep moan as my father collapsed to one knee . As he grabbed his left ear he uttered”” “JUMPIN JESUS” WHAT WAS THAT ? I was so afraid I couldn’t speak. The stone had hit the bone behind his left ear and instantly a purple knot appeared . WELL , WHAT WAS IT ? I finally managed to say… a rock.. A ROCK ! Get in the house. Well, lucky for me their conversation lasted longer giving him a cooling off period. When the man left Dad gave me a lecture about throwing rocks and interrupting adults. Surprisingly there was no physical abuse which I expected. Now many years later even though he’s gone , I can hear his voice as if he just now said “WELL, WHAT WAS IT ?” And I get a good laugh about that frightened little boy .
Do you wonder why I put the Deng Xiaoping face on my post? Because the post I am writing tends to make sense for what I will try to convey. As you know, in the mainstream media, basically the West tends to use this Imperialist projection against the Chinese nation. It has become a human sin for the Chinese people to seek their old legitimate rights such as the right to become rich and powerful, the right to become among the most respected nations it used to be during the Ming towards Qing era.
The mainstream media has changed its focus from China’s rising economic threat towards China being the country seeking sphere of influence in Asia. This projection is among those who had committed this act before. History doesn’t lie, not do the suffering of the people they had to face from the British to the American Imperialism which still is going today in many forms.
China has now become one of the second largest economies in the world and the first if we see it through a PPP basis. The nation’s citizens are now enjoying a much better, high quality life in comparison to what their parents had to face under Mao respectfully. China, just like Deng envisioned, became the county that is leading the world in science, tech, and environment policies where China has been recently focused on being the country focused on building a strong green economy.
Media nowadays tends to portray China as aggressive and imperialist. Every investment China does in other countries is judged as a form of imperialism, every defense that China undertakes or its mission to uniting Taiwan is seem as foreign aggression by the West on China when they only want to take what was lost before. This judgment is not just fueled by the West but also by CINOs, or in other words ‘Chinese just in name’ that have Chinese names and ethnicity but they lack the Chinese spirit to show sympathy for their homeland. Most of these can be found in countries like Malaysia and Singapore or even U.S. who tend to side with the West’s aggression against China. This lack of knowledge is what has made ignorance prevalent today. The lack of the understanding the Chinese mindset and their way of doing things is what made them see China from a hostile viewpoint rather than a positive one.
Socialism: what do I mean? Well to understand China’s foreign policy and the way how it perceives the world is through the socialist perspective. You see Socialism didn’t come out of thin air in China. People before Mao used to be exploited, oppressed by the Chiang Khai Shek government. The land was controlled by the foreign businessmen who used China as a source of destination to build capital under the Chinese labour. This unequal relationship between China and the West is what made the Chinese more angrier, coupled with the hate from their humiliation. The weakness of the Chinese civilization is what pursued the Chinese people to seek a new radical solution and that was Socialism which back then Chairman Mao worked tirelessly to increase the support and work towards unifying China.
Its basis was simple: to fight against oppression, build an equal society and bring back China as the nation it once was. Which means an independent, strong China without being anymore humiliated. Thus when Mao United China is the time where humiliation of China ended and China began to recover. During the recovery, China faced many obstacles. Once was the American aggression in Asia, the other was the restrictions which were put against China because they were “Communist,” then the aggression from outside. China, after seeing Korea fall to the American forces, was forced to send its troops and successfully push out the American troops and North Korea was saved. Hence the socialist and proletarian cause was built on self defense and defending neighbours from Imperialist aggression that came from thousand miles away.
After Chairman Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping came to power, which is praised for the new reforms that brought China to the place it is today. A new socialist modern economy built by Chinese people and a strong country looking to move forward even more and bring back the national rejuvenation to the Chinese people. The Deng Xiaoping goal was to always revitalize China which is now being carried by the leader Xi Jinping. Which meant a rich China which used to be under Qing before the Imperialist oppresion, a strong China in Asia and a China that is respected and seen as the gateway to the Eastern civilization and not a China that will replace the role of the West.
Deng Xiaoping in a public forum told others:
China shall always belong to the Third World and shall never seek hegemony. This idea is understandable because China is still quite poor, and is therefore a Third World country in the real sense of the term. The question is whether or not China will practise hegemony when it becomes more developed in the future. My friends, you are younger than I, so you will be able to see for yourselves what happens at that time. If it remains a socialist country, China will not practise hegemony and it will still belong to the Third World. Should China become arrogant, however, act like an overlord and give orders to the world, it would no longer be considered a Third World country.
What do these words mean? It is simple. The leader who laid out the reforms for his nation and the next vision, he is also the one who made sure to future generations to always see China as a nation similar with others of the third world. He never advocated a China which replaces the West’s role, he never advocates for a dominated Chinese power that controls Asia in the similar way of how United States has controlled South America.
This is also one of the main factors that led China into creating SCO and BRICS organizations, because the vision is simple: to build prosperity and encourage integration and connectivity with the third world that includes all of the former nations that were once colonized and exploited. Anti-Imperialism is after all something that has been pushed from Marxists itself, because the concept or freedom isn’t mainly focused on ending exploitation but also imperialism that caused the third world to suffer under the hands of the Western nations, that exploited its natural resources to feed their population.
Anyone who tends to see China in a Western way then that kind of thinking is bound to fail and even insult your own intelligence. No rational person would be crazy enough to compare China to a Western country and I believe the track records of US and other western countries, tells us a lot about the morality that the West loves to show many times.
But what kind of vision then does China see for the world?
Of course the role that China will play will fundamentally change the world in many ways, and right now we are already noticing many changes especially in Asia. We are seeing a role that keeps growing each year. And a strong China is at the same time bringing a good balance to the world especially when it’s necessary to counter the bi-polar world order by US
Multipolarism: China’s idea of Multipolsrism came even more to light after the importance and value of BRICS began to rise. This is in vision with Deng Xiaoping’s stance who’s always have said to never seek hegemony. China sees Multilateralism as the only way to bring equality to the world order where some certain nations seek a greater role in the world affairs and share a certain security to meet the world challenges.
New Financial system: Putin in the interview with Tucker laid out a very good critique of the US dollar. He mentioned how the United States’ policies towards other rivalries have caused mass panic in the world, and it is true in many ways. After the Russia war in Ukraine began, the West was so quickly to launch the heaviest sanctions in history. This didn’t collapse Russia’s economy and instead they shot themselves in the foot. Because the world for the first time in history was ready to move and make a change in the international order, which was the beginning of implementing new different currencies in trade with other countries. This thing is only going to become more common especially as BRICS advances.
Unity within their territory: Many people tend to see China’s actions in Taiwan in a wrong way but instead this isn’t the case. China has only sought to reunify its territories that were once lost. The ROC and PRC were at civil war which the ROC lost and retreated to Taiwan. Technically they are still at war, because considering that no peace treaty has been made or even ceasefire, this makes it legitimate for China to reunify Taiwan.
The development of BRICS: BRICS will continue to play even more important roles in the next decades, it will be more than just an organization. It will be the representative of the East and of the Global South. It will put the other part of the world in equal footing with the West. This balance is exactly what the whole world should pursue, because the moment there is a balance of power, then you will be at peace and respected. Though my opinion of BRICS might be optimistic, but as of now, I believe that all members have one desire, and that is to seek more independence from the US dollar regime.
Does it really matter which type of clock we are using?
Yes! It does.
Reason is “Those who use ‘Analog clock’ are more aware of the ‘time spent’ & the ‘time left’ than those who use Digital clock”.
How? Is what your question right?
Here we go. Let’s have a look at the digital clock.
What did we get? The time is 9:30 & that’s it. Only the current time.
Now, Analog clock.
Just look at it. Look at how beautiful it is. What do we observe here? 11:55. That’s it? No. But along with the ‘current time’ there is something else.
This we sense by intuition. An Analog clock resembles a pie chart which can represent self–expressive data.
Intuition matters! It is the advantage of having Analog clock.
This is not so easy with digital clocks. Because we need to force our brain to calculate the ‘time spent’ ,‘time left’, etc.
I’m not getting old. I’m there. I’ll be 77 years old in a couple of weeks, so I believe I qualify to answer this question.
I have a lover who is younger than I am. And if I were to “lose” him, I would readily find another, if I desired it.
However, I pay close attention to my figure, my wardrobe and my makeup. It takes me about half an hour to put my makeup on skillfully enough so I don’t look as though I’m wearing any. I dress nicely even when I have nothing important to do, although I am still in business, which keeps my thinking sharp. I watch what I eat carefully, most days keeping at 1200–1400 calories total for the day. This enables me to have lunch or dinner with my love or friends in a restaurant pretty much any time I wish.
I don’t exercise, though I know I should. However, I have two flights of stairs that I go up and down many, many times per day. I tell myself that this helps.
I read extensively, and not just on the damn internet. I have an immense library and continually add to it. I read in science and in the arts. Although I do try to avoid politics, these days. I am responsible for my feelings, and I like them to remain hopeful and serene. But my reading enables me to converse on many topics. And until Covid, I also traveled, an activity which broadens anyone’s perspective.
So in answer to the question, I feel just fine, thank you very much. And I also feel – and know that I am – desired.
I hope perhaps your young mind has been opened, even a bit. Thanks for the question.
A very good illustration
This is a good illustration why the size and growth of US debt is totally out of whack with the real economy.
American debt is already THE systemic risk to the world economy. There is not enough money in the world to satisfy America’s ravenous appetite, not even if it prints them for free.
This is why the BRICs are desperate for an option to the dollar.
Hubby and I went to a fancy steakhouse in Atlanta for dinner a few years back. Having checked out the restaurant’s online menu, we made sure we were appropriately dressed—me in a long Italian silk dress and hubby in some business casual outfit. We arrived at the time of our reservation and experienced multiple WTF moments—
1. We were led to a side dining room instead of the fancy main dining room shown on their website. The decor was shall-we-say interesting. It resembled a kindergarten cafeteria, with folding chairs.
2. All the other guests there looked like they had just attended a basketball game.
3. The female manager had a LOW-cut cami and jacket on. Her boobs were 75% exposed.
4. On my way to the ladies’, I passed the kitchen and caught a whiff of rotten fish.
5. Before the server set my plate of scallops down, I smelled a stench that could have only come from decayed seafood.
6. Service was slow, but that was the least of our concerns.
All this cost us $250, tip included.
If you wonder why we did not raise any issues about what we went through, it was a mystery shop. Essentially, I was contracted to observe anything about the restaurant’s operations. In the end, the meal did not cost us anything. We were actually paid some money for the effort. However, the experience was so bad that I did not offer to take the same assignment for several years to come.
Vintage Ads and Celebrities’ Glamour on These Classic Vespa Scooters
The DELUSIONAL OBSESSION with 6-Figure Salaries in Modern Dating
Future cat ladies. (And I do love my kitties. But no man is going to be able to make them happy.)
Italian Drunken Noodles
Italian drunken noodles are my Italian fusion take on one of my favorite Thai-style dishes. Brimming with noodles drenched in a flavorful, wine-infused sauce, bits of spicy Italian sausage, plus sweet bell peppers, onions and basil, this Italian take on drunken noodles is not only scrumptious, but quick and easy to prepare as well!
Yield: 6 servings
An Italian twist to a favorite Thai dish
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of trying Thai drunken noodles (or pad kee mao), you know what an amazingly vibrant, rich and flavorful dish it is.
With ribbons of broad rice noodles drenched in a sweet and savory sauce, charred red and yellow bell peppers and onions, a choice of spicy meat, tofu, or shrimp, and a light flourish of freshly julienned Thai basil, this dish always hits the spot when it comes to all those big flavors I crave in Thai cuisine.
I must admit, whenever I would enjoy this dish, it always made me wonder what an Italian version of it would taste like…
How to Make Drunken Noodles with an Italian Twist
In keeping with those basic components of noodle, meat, veggie, sauce and herb, it’s easy to see how Thai-style drunken noodles can easily be “morphed” into a brand new, Italian-style dish with a distinctly different flavor profile, while still maintaining the spirit of the original.
This is what I love and appreciate about fusion food!
What I did with this Italian drunken noodles recipe was to substitute wide and tender pappardelle noodles in place of the broad rice noodles, and then switched out some spicy and rich Italian sausage for the tofu, shrimp or chicken typically served in the Thai version.
For the sauce element, I used a tomato base kissed with a hint of wine in order to make the dish a bit “drunken”, and then kept the classic vegetable medley of multi-colored bell peppers and onions, plus that flourish of fresh basil to tie all the flavors together.
Here’s a glance at my Italian drunken noodles recipe: (or just jump to the full recipe below…)
To get things started, I cook my pappardelle noodles according to package instructions, and keep them warm while I prepare the sauce.
For the sauce, I place a large, heavy-bottom pan over high heat, and add a drizzle of olive oil; once hot, I crumble in the spicy sausage and brown it until cooked through, then remove it from the pan.
Next, I caramelize my onions in the pan drippings, then add in my seasoning, followed by my bell peppers, and saute until golden; then, I add in my garlic and wine, reducing that just a bit.
Finally, I add the diced tomatoes, with their juices, into the pan, along with the browned sausage, and allow the mixture to simmer for a couple of minutes; and then, I finish the sauce with a touch more olive oil and some fresh herbs before adding in my warm pappardelle noodles, and tossing everything to combine.
Ingredients:
8 ounces pappardelle noodles, uncooked
Olive oil
4 spicy Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 large onion, quartered and sliced thinly
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 red bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
½ cup white white (I used Chardonnay)
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, julienned, divided use
Preparation:
Prepare the pappardelle noodles according to instructions on package; then, drain the noodles very well, and keep them warm while you prepare the sauce.
Place a large, heavy-bottom pan or braising pot over medium-high heat, and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil; once the oil is hot, crumble the spicy Italian sausage into the pan in small chunks (you want to keep the sausage fairly chunky), allowing it to brown in the oil for a few moments on each side; once the crumbled sausage is browned, remove it from the pan/pot with a slotted spoon and place into a small bowl to hold for a moment.
Next, add the sliced onion into the pan with the sausage drippings, and allow it to caramelize and become golden for roughly 5 minutes or so, stirring to keep it from burning (add a touch more olive oil, if necessary); once the onion starts to become golden, add the salt, Italian seasoning and cracked black pepper, and stir to combine.
Add in the sliced bell peppers, and allow those to saute with the onion for about 2 minutes until slightly tender and golden; next, add in the garlic, and once it becomes aromatic, add in the white wine and allow it to reduce for a few moments, until almost completely reduced.
Next, add in the diced tomatoes with their juice, and return the browned spicy Italian sausage back into the pan, and gently fold the mixture to combine; allow it to gently simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes to blend the flavors, then turn the heat off.
To finish the sauce, drizzle in about 2-3 good tablespoons of the olive oil to create a silky, rich flavor, and stir in the chopped parsley and about half of the julienned basil.
Add the cooked pappardelle noodles directly into the sauce, and using tongs, gently toss and combine the noodles with the sauce and all of the ingredients in it; check the seasoning to see if you need to add any additional salt or pepper.
To serve, add equal portions of the Italian drunken noodles to bowls, and garnish with a sprinkle of the remaining julienned basil (you can even top with shaved parmesan, if desired, and an extra drizzle of olive oil).
Tips & Tidbits for my Italian Drunken Noodles:
The larger the pan, the better: Use a large, heavy bottom pan (cast iron or a Dutch oven) for this dish, as it retains heat well and will give a little extra color and flavor to your peppers and onions; plus, it provides room to add the noodles directly into the sauce at the end, and toss ’em around.
Pappardelle are best, but don’t sweat it: Pappardelle noodles are the broad or wide egg noodles that look a bit like “ribbons”, and you should be able to find them in the pasta section in most markets—they really are best for this recipe; but if you can’t find them, feel free to substitute whatever type of pasta noodle you like. The flavor will still be amazing.
Go white or go red: White wine is what’s called for in this recipe, but red wine would also be a delicious choice; use whatever you’d actually like to drink with this dish.
Looking to leave out the alcohol? No problem: If you’d prefer to leave alcohol out, then simply substitute chicken stock for the wine, and add a little squeeze of lemon at the end for that “brightness” as well.
Go Veg: For a meatless version, omit the spicy sausage altogether, and enjoy just the veggies, noodles and sauce; but you can always use a vegetarian “crumble” in this dish as well, or even use cubed tofu to keep in line with the Thai inspiration.
Prep ahead: You can make the sauce element of this recipe ahead of time, such as the day before you’d like to serve it, which will actually give the sauce more time to sit and gain deeper flavor; just prepare the noodles the day of, toss with the warmed up sauce, you’re set to go.
General Instructions
Place a large, heavy-bottom pan or braising pot over medium-high heat; add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, crumble the Italian sausage into the pan in small chunks, allowing it to brown in the oil for a few moments.
When the crumbled sausage is browned, remove it from the pan/pot with a slotted spoon and place into a small bowl to hold for a moment.
Place in the pan the diced bell peppers, salt, Italian seasoning and cracked black pepper. Stir to combine. Allow to sauté for about 2 minutes until slightly tender.
Add the garlic. Once it becomes aromatic, add the white wine and allow it to reduce for a few moments, until almost completely reduced.
Add the diced tomatoes with their juice.
To finish the sauce, drizzle in about 2 to 3 good tablespoons of the olive oil to create a rich flavor.
Add the chopped parsley and about half of the basil.
Return the browned Italian sausage back into the pan and gently fold the mixture to combine. Allow it to gently simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes to blend the flavors. Then turn the heat off.
During the debate, KMT Presidential candidate brought up a very good point. The US sold 400 missiles to Taiwan for $6 billion. That came out to be $15 million / missile. But then when the US was defending Israel from attacks they fired those missiles and were reporting that they were expensive $3-million missiles.
Why were they sold to Taiwan at 5x the price? It makes sense if the US is leveraging the reported danger to extract as much value as it can from Taiwan. It doesn’t make sense if it has intentions to defend Taiwan.
The Mainland is ending its preferential treatment towards Taiwan which would hurt the ability for Taiwanese products to be exported to the Mainland. The US can help mitigate the impact to the Taiwanese economy by increasing imports from Taiwan and signing a free-trade agreement but it hasn’t.
How can anyone expect the US to give up its lives for Taiwan if it can’t even give up a bit of its profit?
Always keep a diary and a pen with you. Whenever you get any intriguing idea, write that down in your diary. When you open this diary, you’ll realize that you have a great set of ideas.
Leave your comfort zone as nothing grows for good there. Take risks in your life. Risks come with reward. Look at the rewards and move ahead.
Introspect and improve. Realize your mistakes and improve them. Try your best to not to repeat your mistakes again.
Success is something you take by force. No one will give it to you freely.
The secret of success is hidden in booksand old-school wisdom. Yet most people hate to read books. No wonder, few people are successful.
Stop expecting instant satisfaction. Patience, persistence and perspiration are your best friends. Remember that there are NO shortcuts in life.
Cry as hard as you want, but make sure that when you stop crying, you never cry for the same reason again.
No matter how much it hurts now. Someday you’ll look back and realize, your struggle changed your life for better.
If you are an intelligent person, you will try to do what you love the most. But if you are a genius, you will only do what is needed.
Students believe that there is only one right answer to every question. That is why people always want to follow the crowd because they think there is only one right way to live life. Find your own way . don’t follow the crowd
Putting in the work daily without quitting. Going through the drudgery and mundane tasks repeatedly. Practicing everyday like insane just to master your craft.
Don’t bother about the judgements of society, friends, peers and relatives. You want it, go for it. Don’t give a fcuk about others , live your life , give your best
The Chinese Communist Party is not in charge of assimilating everyone into Chinese culture, and it does not promote it. In fact, the Party makes a big deal out of preserving minority cultures, and giving them special advantages such as in numbers of children they can have (unlimited), and giving minority students extra points in the highly competitive university exams. There is some grumbling from Han Chinese about all the benefits minorities get in China.
Some minorities such as the Manchus, some Mongolians and some Tibetans have been absorbed by Chinese culture, not by any government policy. The general rule in China is that any non-Han Chinese minority, if it adopts Chinese language and the Chinese non-nomadic lifestyle, will eventually disappear over several generations.
This is not done because of any government policy; it is just that Han Chinese language and culture have a very strong pull which is hard to resist over time. This is because more than 90% of China’s population is Han Chinese, and once a minority adopts the language and then culture, it loses its own identity.
This is not done under any threat of force, but is done voluntarily by individuals.
More fun with the the Vespa scoots…
We start with Ann Margret.
Western women are BROKEN
She Made Him Wait, While Keeping a “Friends With Benefits”
It wasn’t so much what my boss said, it was more about what the company did. Being more specific, what the sales department and management did.
At the time I was a senior developer for a medium sized, privately owned and pretty much unheard of software company.
One day I found out, quite by accident, that the sales department had told a prospective client about some wonderful new software that we had.
The only problem with that was this wonderful new software didn’t exist!
So, sales lied to the client.
Then came all the fanfare, because they actually sold it to them… with an impossible delivery date, even for a team five times our size.
The plan was for the dev team to develop this new software working sixty hours a week without overtime pay, while management strung the client along until the final delivery more than a year later.
So there was this big pep talk meeting – you know the ones – we need you guys to help us deliver and all, and we’ll make it up to you afterwards, we promise. We’re a big family and we are in this together and all that kind of stuff.
I didn’t believe a word of it.
After the meeting I confronted my boss who said, “Well, you know how it works.”
At that moment I knew he didn’t have my best interests at heart and I looked at him and said, “I want no part of it.”
Then I got up and left the building without saying another word.
The next day when I didn’t show up for work my boss called me asking where I was. I told him, “Sorry, I thought I was quite clear yesterday, as I said, I quit!”
He said, “But you can’t quit! We need you! You’re our only senior developer!”
And I answered, “Watch me!” and hung up the phone.
It’s been four years now and the company still hasn’t delivered the final version of the software nor has it made good on its promise to their employees!
You ever have that goofy kid who could never take anything seriously? Who took any opportunity to be the center of attention? Who relished being the class clown and wore the jester’s hat like a triumph? That was Chad. I don’t remember how many grades in elementary school we had together before he and I transferred to other schools at the end of fouth grade, but it was at least a couple. He used to not only drive the teachers crazy but even us students too! Every day we had to bear witness to his never ending shenanigans, sometimes he would start up with a joke and the whole class would collectively groan and grab their faces. If I’m being honest, I was his friend but even I found him to be too much at times, too optimistic, too dramatic, too goofy, too Ace Ventura. I remember thinking, “why can’t he just be normal for a day?”
I went to middle school with some of the kids/friends from this elementary school. One of the popular boys, Randy was one of them. We were talking during free period one day when I brought up Chad. He also remembered him and smiled. We exchanged stories about his greatest hits and laughed. Then he told me something that absolutely broke my heart, and only spoke as a testiment to Chad’s resiliencey. He told me Chad’s stepfather used to beat him, often. At some point the authorities found out and removed him from his home. His everday life at home was hell, his only respite was during the time he was safe and felt safe at school, and Chad always made the most of each moment because he knew when he got home that day and every day after that, there would be no more laughter.
I hope he’s doing better, and I hope he’s happy where ever he is now. It goes to show you never know what someone is going through, even if they smile in your face everday. I have never forgotten about Chad, and I never will.
My twins birthday is coming up. And I was thinking of rewarding the missus by upgrading her car to something better.
A Range Rover Evoque 🙂
So the search started, and I finally scored a good deal on this particular high spec (and a higher priced) Evoque that’s is in a dealership nearby to my house.
Off I went. Arrived in my old e46, and I asked to see the car. This local Chinese chap took one look at me, and probably deduced that I was too young, or too shabby looking to even qualify to get an evoque, and decided to reject me.
He told me, put a deposit before even thinking of sitting in the car!
Before you think I made drama, let me tell you that the opposite happened: I smiled and walked back. I don’t necessarily like to deal with idiots, so I don’t mind looking for another.
For some reason, just as I was about to leave, another salesman from India who is working there came to me, apologized profusely and told me that he can serve me better.
I accepted.
I went to see the car, and told him that I would love to take it for a test drive 5 minutes away to my house to show it to my wife to ask her opinion on the spec and color. This guy agreed, and said we could do a short run.
So off we went.
The moment this Indian guy saw the neighborhood and my house, and the cars parked in there, he realized that he scored a lottery prospect.
After that, I was practically given free reign to do unlimited test drives and checks on that car, unaccompanied.
I saw the car on Wednesday. Thursday I contemplated on it with the missus between that or Cayenne. She wanted Range Rover, so be it.
On Friday I agreed and signed the papers in the AM. That evening the bankers called to tell the dealer that the loan passed. This coming Monday I am taking the car, once paperwork’s is completed.
$90 billion spent on disinformation about China, what did the US people get?
Of course, only Plato could answer this accurately but here’s my penny:
In Greek mythology, Thera and the eruption are missing and the explanation for this is that the eruption miraculously didn’t affect mainland Greece. The Greek myths that express their collective memory, although they involve foreign lands often, had to be of Greek interest and the eruption, no matter how cataclysmic it was, was not. So, Plato didn’t possibly have a clue about the events of the Bronze Age which took place almost 1,000 years before his time.
Security is better. When i studied in Chicago, I was told to always keep 20-dollar life money in the pocket in case anyone wants to rob me, and UChicago has the so called safe ride to take students home because walking alone at night is not safe. Here in Shanghai, Beijing or any major cities (except Guangzhou perhaps), it’s safe for girls to walk alone at night. And people don’t shoot people so often, especially struggling students don’t kill classmates or teachers. At worst, they jump from buildings without harming others.
Second, food is cheap and delicious if you don’t mind antibiotics, additives, pollutants etc. (If you count in unhealthy western food, the Chinese food is not that bad in quality.) Clothes are cheap and good quality. In fact most products made in China are cheap and accessible.
Third, online purchase and delivery and other services based on the internet is incredibly convenient. As long as you don’t care about personal information, China has all kinds of Apps to satisfy your physical and mental needs.
Fourth, the government agencies and hospital systems are much more efficient than those in USA. I am not saying the quality is better but the waiting period is shorter.
One thing I dislike is a must of vpn to access foreign media. But this is like a filter, the gov don’t want ignorant children and people to access to those anti-China information, because they can’t do critical thinking, so the gov thinks that if those were to be brainwashed, they would have to be brainwashed by us not the Western. I am neutral to it. Common people are like pawns, they’d better just stay where they were and do both to avoid being cannon powder.
I was 10 my brother was 13 and mom and dad was in there 30. We when to a old run down house that Dad was used to go on fishing trip when he was a kid. Mom said it so run down. Dad said it still got a roof on it. Mom said ok we stayed. We got what fews begs we have out of the car and we when into the house. it started to Strom very bad. We stayed dry in that old house. About two hours passed we was getting our sleeping bags out. We hard a loud pop. The wind had blown a big tree on to the car. The car was totaled. Mom said we 150 miles from home without a car. No one could sleep until the Strom had stopped that was all most 3 hours. By morning there was a new storm and like the other one it to blowed a tree down on to what left of the car. We ended up been there for over a week. Our foods ran out after five days. We all fished for our foods. 6 days in as we was all fishing. A big tree fell onto the dam house. If me and my brother was have been in our room a sleeping we were been hurt or killed.
GAMECHANGER: China Tests ‘Dream Shell,’ Achieving Mach 7 Speed
Both my wife and I worked, we both had good jobs and shared the childcare of our 4 children. I was always the more nurturing parent, if the children ever hurt themselves they would always come to me, I was more affectionate, I used to bathe them, read to them, tuck them in and look after them most weekends. My wife was extremely jealous of my relationship with the children and they grew up, we grew apart. She used to often go out with the girls on a Friday and Saturday night and occasionally wake up the following day with a hangover so bad she would spend the day in bed. Which was fine with me, meant that I had more time with the children and we used to find somewhere to go and have real fun.
Unsurprisingly after 13 years of marriage, when our eldest was 11, she decided to leave me, she had an affair and that was that.
What really sucks about being a man is the custody battle that I had after that. The standard custody model still is, for the father, every other weekend and maybe one night during the week. Everyone assumes that the mother is the ‘right’ parent for the children to live with and I had to fight that prejudice every day for a very long year.
My ex-wife even told me that she didn’t really want custody of the children, she only was fighting because the bigger percentage of time she got, the more Child Maintenance she would get. The first time that we were in court she started off by saying that I shouldn’t see the children at all, claiming that I had abused the children, hit them, raped her and had an affair with a teenager. The judge ordered that I didn’t see the children at all, while this was investigated. That was a hard couple of months.
After a year, meetings with social services, so many court visits that I had my own seat in the waiting room, I eventually got 50:50, the best a man could ever hope for in this world.
Even though we had exactly 50:50 I still had to pay Child Maintenance because she gets the Child Benefit. Guess why … Child Benefits default to the mother at the birth of the child.
I Visited World’s Largest Tech Show…You Won’t Believe What China Did
I posted a comment / answer on Quora, and it was deleted. The space was a “Warfare” space, and was very heavily “Pro-America”. The same thing, that you all understand if you were brought up in the USA… America is the best, and the toughest and the king of the world… yeah. Sure.
This answer was declined. Posting here. If you know the reasons for it being declined Please inform me.
China is a peaceful nation.
But, it is NOT stupid.
…
The United States has thrown EVERYTHING at China. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
From “color revolutions” inside of China, to “color revolutions” in all the nations surrounding China. From undersea excursions and conflicts, to near-space satellite warfare. From cyber warfare, to bio-warfare attacks. From managed famines to lawfare assaults. From efforts designed to collapse the Chiense banking industry to efforts to collapse the Chinese real estate industry.
It’s been full spectrum and absolute.
But not reported in the “news” of the West.
…
Instead we hear of submarines ramming undersea mountains, freak geomagnetic storms, the “apparent random” firings of Naval Commanders, and the Secretary of the Navy. We read (in the West) about Chinese “warmongering” a build up for a “Taiwanese invasion”.
All this interspersed about how Putin has brain cancer, and how Russia is running out of ammo. We read about how Xi Peng is going to be disposed and how the poor downtrodden people of China are going to rise up for “democracy” and Freedom”.
…
Info war is in full swing.
There is ZERO credibility in Western “news” media. Today it is so outrageous and comically fake and ridiculous that it is amazing that these tabloids are still able to have people that watch and read their content.
…
So… Yeah. It’s full spectrum. EVERYTHING.
Of course…
The clueless in the West would believe the fake narratives of Putin losing, China collapsing, and America remaining strong. They will believe that COVID was fake, or if it was something of concern, then it was “China’s fault” for one reason or the other. That’s the narrative, and that’s want the oligarchy expects Westerners to believe.
…
The United States is a feudal plutocracy.
While China is military-based meritocracy.
…
And the question is…
“Why is China preparing for a war with the United States”?
Answer…
China must. China owes it to it’s people. China has a responsibility to its people to expect the best, but prepare for the worst… and prepare they ARE.
…
Oh, it’s just like the United States is throwing EVERYTHING at China, China is preparing with EVERYTHING as well.
And, let me tell you all…
They don’t read American / Western “news”.
They know what is REALLY going on.
…
So China is ready.
If you are a consumer of Western “news” you will be unaware of the following facts, but you do need to brace yourself for the realities.
Were the USA, either directly or through proxy, attacks China… China will throw nuclear warheads at American cities and military installations.
Oh, sure. China has a “no first use policy” in regards to nuclear weapons.
But within the FORMAL WORDING of this (particular) policy is one sentence that you all should all pay attention to…
“…if attacked… China reserves the right … to use every means at its disposal … to attack the nation that attacks it.”
For some reason, the Western “news” media glosses over this sentence.
Perhaps they cannot read Chinese, or simply just cut and paste their “news articles” directly out of Langley VA.
Whatever, the Chinese FORMAL STATEMENT regarding nuclear weapons use is very carefully worded, and intentionally ambiguous enough to give the most aggressive neocons pause to consider.
…
So, yeah. China is ready.
It was ready in 1950–53 when it defeated the United States in Korea, and is ready today as it dishes EVERYTHING thrown at it, right back to the United States to consume.
…
At this point in time…
The United States and China are like a married couple living together weeks prior to a divorce. The United States is cheating, bending words, manipulating systems… and thinking “They’ll never find out”.
While China, is playing it smart.
Already has contacted the divorce attorneys, arranged the legal papers and made all the necessary arrangements. Just waiting for the time of CHINA’s choosing to terminate the relationship.
…
Quick summary
China is READY to take on the United States, simultaneously with it’s proxy “allies”.
China WILL use nuclear weapons.
China is above-peer capable with the best equipment of the West.
China is a military-based meritocracy.
…
Quick Note
The disinformation about China permeates all levels.
China is a military-based meritocracy, but the West portrays this reality as “conscription”. Which is disingenuous. It gives the Western reader a pre-conceived illusion of poorly trained, unmotivated troops. But the reality is something quite different.
…
I was going though my stacks and found other posts similarly deleted on the American website.
Such as this one…
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Is ‘World War 3’ really on the horizon?
I can understand your fear and concern.
I hope to calm you down with a nice happy dose of reality. The biggest culprit in this fear is the media. Whether it is social media, or main-stream media. Media is filling your mind with fear.
What the American Main-Stream Media says
According to 99.9999% of the American government controlled Western media; the world is heading towards world war 3 out of necessity. Both Putin and Xi are “loose cannons” with a selection of mental disorders and are out of control in trying to rule the world. Putin invaded Ukraine out of greed and lust, and Xi Peng will invade Taiwan for the same reasons. They despise democracy and freedom and want to rule the world as a dystopian nightmare world where everyone is controlled by Tiktok and weather balloons.
The REAL answer – being under-reported intentionally
World War 3 is the climax of the massive period of change that the world is going though. It is a generational event, and coincidences with solar activity. It is as predictable as the orbits of planets, and the mass movements of animals.
This period of change is a rather long event cycle and involves change at all levels. Some nations collapse. Some nations grow. Some groups engage in battles, while others suffer economic hardships. What ever happens, it is not homogeneous. But rather an aggregate of minor events sprinkled over a multi-decade long time periods.
The build-up to this period can be traced back to the 1960’s where the major dominant power; The United States, began a series of strategic blunders that set the stage for events that we are now witnessing.
The actual pivot point for contentious calamity occurred in 2008 with an economic meltdown in the West, and the resulting frantic splashing and doggie-paddling that we see today all spawn from it.
The actual war occurred in 2019 though 2022 with was the Coronavirus event. This was a three tiered biological phased attack on China by the United States.
Other events during this “war” consisted of the the disastrous 2020 Trump Flotilla into the South Chinese Sea, the undersea submarine wars from 2021 to 2023, and the satellite wars of 2020 to 2023.
Simultaneous with these events are the generalized cultural, social, and economic collapse of the United States and it’s Western proxies, the NATO incursions and war in the Ukraine following the “color revolution” in Kiev in 2014, and the failed Hong Kong color revolution of 2018 – 2020.
While the West shrinks in influence, the East (and Global South) grows. Both Russia and China are major global powers in all measurements, and are generally immune from the boiler-plate of attacks, and manipulations normally used by the West.
Africa is completely changing, and it has shed it’s colonial slave role and embraced a role as the “new” middle class in a rapidly changing world. Along with this follows a rag-tag collection of power centers around the world.
The world is now has entered into a “reconstruction” period globally. This is resulting in new alignments, and massive failures of nations and societies that are unable to adjust and change with the times.
This period will be a long one, and I am afraid that it has only begun.
Though, I anticipate the end of this period around 2030 or so, give or take two years. … The main-stream “news’ is designed to incite and inject fear to control people. I urge everyone to control themselves.
The future looks bright for most of the world. It is change that we do not like, and those in power want us to fear it. Do not. The intelligent person recognizes this and takes appropriate steps for a bright future ahead rather than clutching on the past though fear.
…
Resulting in this comment…
I see the “West” and in late-stage dying. The “dance of death” where the body contorts and twists and shudders.
Not only just chinese from China but also chinese origin from others even from Singapore.
I travel to US for a dozen times both business and holidays but each time my checked in luggages 100% checked and prised open plus hand luggage checked even if you go to green lane.
This prove one thing for sure. US had created so many enemies around the world that they are living in fear of daily terrorist attacks whereas chinese people in China are living in peace and harmony without any fear or concern for their safety.
When you approach American policeman, they are ready to draw their guns whereas when you approach a chinese policeman, their mindset is that you need help.
That is the difference between China and America.
Baked Lasagna
Ingredients
Sauce
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
Lasagna
3/4 to 1 pound lasagna noodles
Butter
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese
1/4 pound Italian sausage or ground beef, coarsely chopped
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese
Instructions
Sauce
Put all the ingredients into a large cooking pot. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
Pass through a sieve; return to the pot, and season to your satisfaction. Continue to simmer until sauce has thickened.
Just before using this sauce, stir in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Lasagna: Brown sausage or beef, then drain.
Boil lasagna noodles. Drain and put a layer into a well buttered casserole dish.
Add a layer of mozzarella cheese, then a layer of sausage or beef and a thin layer of hardboiled egg.
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and ricotta or cottage cheese. Moisten cheese with some of tomato sauce.
Continue in layers, finishing with a good thick layer of grated Parmesan.
Dot with butter and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
I am a Chinese, have studied in the UK and traveled to many countries.
For me, China is democratic – probably even more democratic than western countries.
Of course, I am referring to the original meaning of the word democracy – the power of the state belongs to the people and the people have the right to rule the government.
Nowadays, democracy in the west often refers to multi-party competition, where the ruling party are elected by universal suffrage.
But this approach has some significant problems. As voters are ordinary people who has no specialized knowledge on managing the country, the core competitiveness of the election process becomes the ability to publicize public opinion, personal affinity, and persuasion, which have little to do with whether they can actually formulate and implement policies well, but are more relevant to the resources of the society and the media operation behind them.
In the west, the rule of the people is in a single choice question of political preference, and the frequency of being able to make a choice is once every four years. If you are the minority voter, you will not be able to get a satisfactory result in those four years.
In contrast, China’s “democracy” works like this:
1. A huge system of officials that everyone can enter by studying and taking exams – from the smallest local township government to the central government, all within the same pyramid-tested promotion system. For Chinese graduates, it is a very common career selection to pick an official position related to their major from an open government list, take a test on logic and issue processing skills, and become a government official. All newcomers need to start from the basic positions and get enough practical results before they are internally elected with promotion.
2. The criterion value of the government affairs is “people first”. The most important judgment dimension is whether they can improve the life of the majority and satisfy the people.
3. Public opinion monitoring and feedback mechanism. All levels of government have set up channels to receive public opinion, such as emails, petitions reception, or social media. For every actual problem, the government must give feedback or specific plans within a period of time; and after a period of time, they must do regular follow-up visits to ensure that the problem has been solved satisfactorily. All this is counted in the KPIs of government staff. If the people are not satisfied with this government’s response, they can complain to a higher level of government, which has absolute power over the next level of government, and the government department complained against will be penalized and monitored.
In China, the rule of the people is in the government’s “people first” evaluation criteria, and in the mechanism of feedback and resolution of specific issues that are highly valued. However, if your opinion is detrimental to the interests of the underprivileged, or if you are not looking for a solution, but simply venting your negative feelings and trying to get more people to share your negative feelings, then your opinion might be refused or ignored, or be deferred in to future considerations.
I think this is why people say: in the west, you can change the government, but you can’t change the policies; however in China, you can’t change the government, but you can change the policies.
Of course, both mechanisms have their own drawbacks. For example, since the core competence of universal suffrage is the ability of influencing public opinion, so having control of the media and enough money is almost equivalent to having a high probability of obtaining the highest power in the country; in China, it is very difficult to make the complex internal promotion completely transparent, and it is not easy for the people to monitor inefficiencies and corruption inside the system.
But for me and at least 80%+ Chinese people, the current one party Chinese government is still very satisfactory.
As for the so-called “Communist Party is not the same as government”: in fact, the CCP is not the same as the Soviet Union type of “communism”, for example, China has its market economy system and is running well. Actually when there is only one political party, the notion of party advocacy would be extremely weakened. In the case of China, people would tend to feel that the Chinese system is more like a parliamentary system even within the government. China is a country with a secular culture, and ideology discussion is not really that important, what matters to this government council is simply about insisting with the people-oriented value, and making people living in better lives.
To be honest, I think that the vast majority of the world’s people don’t care about politics.
People care more about their own lives – whether they can live healthy and happy lives with the people they love, whether the society is fair, safe and free, whether they can enjoy their civil rights as a human being, whether their problems can be solved and whether their dreams can be realized.
Also, I agree that China is better for ordinary people, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to live in, but not for the extremely rich guys. If you are a rich tycoon or celebrity and has no interest in benefiting ordinary people, then the Chinese government might supervising you with very strict rules, you will have more freedom and power in the West.
But as for me, China is not bad.
Kirill Babaev: Here’s why the result of Taiwan’s election is bad news for the US
It will become apparent in the long term that China was the real winner
By Kirill Babaev, PhD, director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Financial University, and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the National Committee for BRICS Research.
In 2023, the volume of trade between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was $268 billion. This means Taipei traded more with its main adversary, Beijing, than with its foremost ally, Washington. And for Chinese business, Taiwan was a more important counterparty than the state’s key strategic partner, Russia.
These facts are important for an understanding of the current relationship between the two parts of China. They are inextricably linked not only by the commonality of language, history, and culture, but also by hundreds of thousands of trade and production contracts. And this may prove to be a decisive factor in the long-term struggle for the island between the great powers.
The elections in Taiwan on January 13 did nothing to change this. On the contrary, apart from pro-American candidate Lai Qingde’s victory (with a far-from-solid 40% of the vote), the parliamentary elections revealed the defeat of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which lost its majority and ten seats in the Legislative Yuan to the conventionally “pro-Chinese” Kuomintang Party.
The outcome has made the island’s power system somewhat unstable, suggesting that the main battle between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan is yet to come. However, the US has only one undeniable advantage in this war – the ability to pump its proxy with weapons and defense systems in anticipation of a violent conflict. China, on the other hand, has far more leverage. Thus, in the coming years, Beijing won’t try to solve the Taiwan problem militarily: on the contrary, it will attempt to turn America’s “Pyrrhic victory” on January 13 into a final US defeat in the next elections on the island.
In his first post-election comments, winning candidate Lai (who won’t officially become president until May) spoke in a peaceful way about Beijing and Sino-Taiwanese relations, without in any way trying to demonstrate a desire to unilaterally declare the island’s independence. US leaders have also spoken in the same vein, stressing that they intend to develop only “informal” relations with Taiwan, while continuing to be guided by the “One-China” principle.
As a result, Taiwan is now well aware that the path to independence is a dead end, as none of Taipei’s closest allies will endorse the move or recognize the existence of an “alternative China.” The path of maintaining the status quo, on the other hand, is the most unstable, because in this case the sword of Damocles of armed conflict between the US and China will hang over Taiwan, in which the island risks losing its entire economy and many thousands of its citizens’ lives.
The only option for Taiwan in the long term is a compromise with mainland China; some kind of full-fledged arrangement that will allow the island to maintain the way of life and economic system that it’s accustomed to, and that will allow Beijing to consider the question of reunification closed, or at least with a clear, if distant, solution.
Hong Kong may partly serve as a model for such a solution, but in the case of Taiwan, the compromise is likely to be much softer. Beijing and Taipei could agree on a roadmap to reunification by 2049 – ending a century-long cycle of confrontation. That plan could well lead to a union state along the lines of the EU or Russia and Belarus.
Of course, such an outcome would be good for all Chinese on both sides of the strait, as it would remove all risk of armed conflict or a ‘hostile takeover’ of Taiwan by the PRC. These are precisely the outcomes feared by all those who voted for Lai on January 13.
Only one country would be extremely disadvantaged by such a cross-strait arrangement, namely the US. Washington has invested too much in the doctrine of containment of China, in the formation of a chain of military and political alliances around its borders and a defense belt on the island of Taiwan itself, to lose this “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” Of course, the Americans will do everything in their power to oppose any kind of agreement between the two parts of China, whatever it may be.
But attempts to move Taiwan away from Chinese shores and closer to the US coast are geographically meaningless. As Beijing’s economic power grows, the importance of the Sino-Taiwan economic relationship will only increase (even if bilateral trade temporarily declined in 2023). The status quo that Washington has fought so hard to preserve is actually more favorable to China. It seems that President Lai Qingde will prove to be a much more balanced politician than the outgoing leader, Tsai Ing-wen. If this is the case, it may well come to pass that the January 13 elections were actually won by Beijing, not Washington.
Peter Man Comments
The author, as a smart PhD, should state the obvious. All Taiwan election results are bad for the US.
Once again, I will say something not echoing media platitudes. China is, in fact, conducting long-term strategic actions to weaken the hegemon, which will eventually collapse by exhaustion. This strategy has been applied many times in China’s history, and as a history lover, I will illustrate with one example, the war between Chu and Wu during the Spring and Autumn Era (771 – 476 BCE). This was the early Zhou feudal era when historians began recording state annals. Chinese annals in those days were known as Spring and Autumn, meaning a year. It came from the Shang, Chinese civilization’s progenitor, who did not have summer and winter seasons so spring and autumn represented a year.
Near the end of this era, the barbarian (culturally and linguistically non-Chinese) state of Chu in the south along the middle part of the Yangzi River became a behemoth. After making a strong matrimonial alliance with Qin in the northwest, which lasted until Qin Shihuang unified China, Chu threatened and made war on every state in the north while encroaching and swallowing small states to its east. The last bulwark against Chu’s eastern expansion to the Pacific coast was Wu, a small barbarian state centered around Suzhou to the west of Shanghai. Chinese annals recorded that Wu natives shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies, decidedly non-Chinese practices.
At the time, Chu had subjugated many small tribes and states between themselves and Wu, creating a buffer zone as well as a launch pad for future wars against Wu. When looking at this behemoth state of Chu with a hundred times the power of this small state of Wu living on the plains of Huai River, it would appear that Wu’s fate was sealed. Instead, over two generations, Wu would not only survive but defeat Chu in every battle, eventually capturing Chu’s capital.
One of Wu’s strategies was to light up endless fires in the buffer zone. Chu could not maintain its hegemony without reacting. Each time there was trouble, Chu had to send its army over long distances across mountainous areas, and each time Wu would withdraw into a defensive position nearby. When the Chu army, being tired, far from home and uncertain of their vassals’ loyalty, decided to retreat, the Wu army would ambush them and cause further damage. Thus, Wu, at very little cost, exhausted Chu (疲于奔命) and eventually defeated them.
The history of the Chu and Wu conflict is a much bigger story, but this illustrates how a big, hegemonic country with its fingers in every pie can be weakened from exhaustion caused by endless small fires. Knowing this, I’m not surprised that China is not using its weight to put out small fires. All this talk of China helping America cool things down in the Middle East or West Asia is just wishful thinking.
Another thing that China definitely should be aware of and which I have always averred, the US and Japan will not intervene militarily should the PLA decide to land in Taiwan. Chang Ya-chung, the deep blue KMT member who advocates immediate negotiations with China for peaceful reunification, said as much in a recent interview.
In short, Stop dreaming anyone will come and rescue us in a war with mainland China. If there is war, Taiwan will be destroyed like Ukraine. I guarantee not a single GI will die for you. Why not? Because their opponent will be the PRC, a well-armed nuclear state, America is not that stupid. They will tell you all kinds of rubbish to sell arms and use you as a proxy.
They will use you, the Taiwanese people, as a pawn and sacrifice you in a heartbeat.
So you better wake up and do what’s best for Taiwan and its people.” For all pols and pundits who paint Chang as a red communist trojan horse, he welcomes holding a public debate, but no one wants to take him up on the challenge.
No one wants that debate lest people learn the bitter truth.
Chang, as the principal of Dr. Sun College is well respected as an educator and well-liked by young Taiwanese. These well-educated young voters are not stupid. They voted en mass for Ko because they’re disillusioned with the corrupt KMT led by a scumbag who appointed an unwinnable nonentity as the presidential candidate.
I ran an Engineering department that covered military equipment scattered across the country.
We had specialised staff based out of an office building who were dispatched nationwide as required.
We had a good atmosphere. Staff worked hard and long as required and when it was quiet were compensated with additional vacation days and “under the table” days off. Overtime was not available.
For example – it was fairly normal for an eng team to leave home at 4 in the morning to be at an airbase for 7:30, leave at 8 pm and do the same the next day, and for as long as required. The company refused to give hotel accommodation, considering every base within the country “drivable”.
A new admin boss took over and a biometric system was implemented. A decree was issued that EVERY member of staff MUST clock in and out, and while clocking out could be any time, clocking in had to be between 7 and 7:30 am.
I fought it for about 6 months but eventually was told to toe the line or leave.
It was no longer possible to pay staff back with vacation days, official or unofficial, and the company immediately lost hundreds of hours of productivity with staff, understandably cutting back their hours, feeling unappreciated. As their boss (and a human being) I could no longer ask them to work the ridiculous hours they had been previously working, knowing there was no compensation available.
Another productivity masterstroke from the same guy was the removal of all printers from eng department, putting us on the print server located on a different floor, sharing with other departments.
The boss had previously implemented a rule that petty cash could only cover items up to USD 80. One day we ran out of toner for the color printer, had to print documents for a top level meeting.
The boss, wanting to impress by cutting stationery costs, had delayed signing approval for purchase of toner, ordered weeks earlier, so the cupboard was bare! I contacted the IT guy and explained about the meeting, who was going to be there, and that the boss wasn’t around and he nipped out to the local mall and picked up toner at a cash cost of USD 81. As punishment, for exceeding the 80 buck limit, the boss removed all printers from Engineering.
These things happen when people get promoted beyond their capability.
One, was a friend of a friend. He was actually a pretty smart guy, and did programing of some sort. The guy’s personal life was a disaster. His wife left him, he bought a car he couldn’t afford, then got fired from his job. He kept the car but stopped making payments, and hid the car so they couldn’t repo it. He was staying at my friends house for a while and he screwed that up as well by being a jerk to his hosts. So, he finally found a job as a programmer, and it seemed he was going to be able to turn his life around. His first day on the job, he sent an email to upper management, and basically cc’d the entire company, telling them everything they were doing wrong. >They came to see him, thanked him for coming in, and fired him. This guy is a total dufus.
The second is almost the same. A friend mine, never seems to be able to hold a job. She told me she got hired at a new place. She wanted to make her mark there, so sent the president and the executive a long e-mail about how they could improve the company by taking her advice, and listed a bunch of her suggestions. This, after working there for less than a week.. yup she got fired.
Snow fell in Texas and the whole metroplex closed down. School was cancelled, power outages disabled many households, and I found myself collecting fallen branches in our front yard to make a fire for warmth.
My worries about entertaining my five young kids for the day, however, quickly dwindled as my two oldest began to organize an elaborate project in the back yard.
“Come on, let’s build an igloo!” they hollered.
I thought, “OK, that’s not going to work, but at least they’ll be occupied for a while.”
Bradley, my oldest, gathered supplies, while Amber helped my younger kids get dressed in layers of their warmest clothes. Garden gloves had to suffice for hand ware, but nobody minded. Excitement lit up the house to where we barely needed electricity.
I went to work starting a fire in the fireplace and preparing a crude meal that required no heat.
I looked outside and saw the meager beginnings of a snow structure and, after feeling a bit sorry for them, thought, “This might be a great chance for my kids to use real-life problem solving skills.”
The next time I looked out, I was amazed! Someone had the idea to empty out the sidewalk chalk boxes and use the plastic containers as molds for the igloo blocks.
They worked all day on that igloo, eventually building it up to Bradley’s head. As the sun went down, they made plans to finish the structure the next day.
All my kids went to bed early, as there was really nothing much to do in the dark, and they were exhausted from their laborious day.
Then, my husband came home from work. His business never closed. He parked in the driveway behind our house and came in through the back door. Being so dark, he ran right into the igloo, got snow “all over” him and became irate.
He destroyed the igloo, claiming that the weather would soon become warm, the snow blocks would melt, the grass underneath would be saturated, resulting in a huge mud puddle and a ruined lawn. He then got a shovel and a flash light and spread the snow all over the back yard. The igloo was gone and I was furious.
That was February.
The crushing of the igloo had crushed my kids’ hearts, and when I stood at the window watching my husband with a shovel and a flashlight spread out snow to preserve his lawn, something else was crushed too. My denial — at how dysfunctional our marriage was — shattered, and other fits of his unnecessary anger over the last decade flooded my mind, just like that igloo was going to flood the backyard.
I filed for divorce in March.
That was 14 years ago, and I am now happily married to a man who would never dream of crushing a child’s igloo.
After getting rejected in his first interview of the day, he was naturally dejected. So he entered the room with a frustrated face.
He was hardly interested in the company profile and such was his mood that he wanted to take someone on.
Interviewer: Are you fine? You don’t look well!
Friend: I haven’t eaten since morning, I prepared for my previous interview so well and got rejected in the very first round.
I: So, did you prepare for this interview as well?
F: No! I was more interested in that company. And I wanted to give my best at one place.
I: Do you know trading?
F: No! I don’t!
I: Then why are you interested in this company?
F: For the money! Do you think all those standing outside know trading?
I: Atleast some of them might?
F: I’m telling you, they don’t.
I: So you are a student of geology, right? How do think you’ll be able to manage working in a trading company?
F: There is a novel named Liar’s Poker in which the male protagonist was a student of Art History and ended up getting trained at Salomon Brothers. He works as a financial journalist now. And yes, it’s not fiction, the guy wrote it as his semi-autobiography. I think I will be fine.
(He knew he scored there)
(After asking some basic tell-me-about-you questions)
I: What’s your biggest strength?
F: I’m very patient.
I: See! We need people who are dynamic and full of energy. I don’t think patience and our required qualities go hand in hand.
(This was like a tipping point for him)
F: Have you heard of Rahul Dravid? He is regarded as one of the most patient cricketer. Yet, once he had the fastest fifty in ODIs. When he played his first T-20, he hit 3 consecutive sixes. Just because someone is patient doesn’t mean they can’t be dynamic and aggressive.
(Interviewer gave a smile at this answer)
Result: Selected
UFC fighters were assaulted by the woke mob
Federal Reserve Chairman: U.S. Debt “Unsustainable”
The United States is on an “unsustainable” path with regard to its national debt and it is time to address the issue, Jerome Powell said in an interview aired Sunday.
The US national debt currently stands at more than $34 trillion, according to the US Treasury.
“In the long run, the US is on an unsustainable fiscal path. The US federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy,” Powell told CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program.
“It’s probably time, or past time, to get back to an adult conversation among elected officials about getting the federal government back on a sustainable fiscal path,” he said in the interview, which was recorded on Thursday.
In the CBS interview, Powell reiterated that stance, saying it was unlikely that a rate cut would come at the next meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in March.
“I think it’s not likely that this committee will reach that level of confidence in time for the March meeting, which is in seven weeks,” Powell said.
The VC/NVA had dedicated SIGINT (signals intelligence) units involving in radio interception, telephone tapping, and code-breaking. Their members were fluent in many languages. In 1970, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division found a North Vietnamese SIGINT facility hidden underground near the Thi Tinh River; every single radio communication of the U.S. 1st and 25th Divisions had been logged, and the intercepts translated into Vietnamese.
In 1966, all 14 Vietnamese barbers working in the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s base camp were Vietcong sympathizers. They didn’t cut anybody’s throat but they did gather intelligence.
The first B-52 operational losses of the Vietnam war took place on 18 June 1965 when two B-52s were destroyed in a mid-air collision, costing American taxpayers 20 million dollar.
In early 1970, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces made a short incursion into Cambodia and discovered huge NVA compounds containing: 4,793 small arms, 730 mortars, over 3 million rifle rounds, 6.5 million anti-aircraft rounds, 7,285 rockets, 124 trucks, nearly 1 thousand tons of rice and a telephone switchboard.
A report issued by the Pentagon in 1973 estimated that 35% of all enlisted men who had served in Vietnam had tried heroin and 20% had been addicted at some point during their tour.
By 1968, the U.S. had set up 40 ice-cream plants in Vietnam and 760,000 tons of supplies were being delivered every month. American movies, stage shows, color TVs, chilled beer, Napoleon brandy, etc. were readily available. Rear-echelon troops could imagine they were still back home.
Some 10,000 U.S. servicemen lost at least one limb in Vietnam – more than in World War II and Korea put together.
The number of U.S. helicopter lost during the war: 4,865.
Eight (8) million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 4 times more than the amount dropped in all of World War 2.
The amount of ammunition fired per U.S. soldier was 26 times greater in Vietnam than during World War II.
For each artillery shell or rocket hitting its base camp, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s official policy was to fire 1,000 shells on the surrounding countryside in retaliation. (Talking about a rich man’s war, huh)
Lucky number 13: An estimated 27 thousands tons of unexploded ordnance were littered throughout the country at the end of the war. In November 2015, one unexploded 406mm naval shell was unearthed from a garden in Quang Tri Province, near the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Presumably, this 2,000-pound shell was fired from the battleship USS New Jersey.
14. Over 18 million gallons (or 72 million liters) of defoliants were used throughout the war, even now Vietnamese children are being born with horrifying physical disabilities as a direct result of the US use of chemical defoliants.
15. In 1965, around 42% of all chemical defoliants sprayed in South Vietnam were aimed at food crops, and the country quickly went from rice exporter to rice importer.
16. At the peak of their commitment, South Korea had 44,829 troops in South Vietnam, Australia had 7,672, Philippines sent 2,000, Taiwan sent 31 and Fascist Spain sent 13 men. Morocco sent 10,000 cans of sardines.
17. By the early 1970s, years before the war’s end, South Vietnam’s landscape was already pockmarked with an estimated 21 million bomb and artillery craters, covering some 350,000 acres in all.
18. At its peak, the U.S. effort in Vietnam was soaking up 37% of all American military spending and required the fighting strength of more than 50% of all Marine Corps divisions, 40% of all combat-ready army divisions, and 33% of the navy.
19. In mid 1969, the GI underground newspaper in Vietnam, “GI Says,” publicly offered a $10,000 reward for the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Weldon Honeycutt, the officer responsible for the disastrous attack on Hamburger Hill in May that year. There were at least 7 attempts, but Honeycutt managed to live out his tour and return to the U.S.
20. US Navy pilot (later Senator and 2008 Presidential Candidate) John McCain was taken prisoner by North Vietnam on October 26, 1967 when his A-4 aircraft was shot down over Hanoi. Upon discovering that his father was the admiral commanding all U.S. forces in the Pacific, North Vietnam offered to return him early, in exchange for his cooperation. McCain, however, insisted that standard military procedures be followed and prisoners of war be returned in the order of their date of capture. He ended up spending 5 and a half years in captivity and was frequently tortured.
3 of my kids were in a horrible car accident. 2 only had minor injuries but my youngest son, Joe, was severely injured. He had a brain injury and fractured orbital plane requiring immediate surgery. When the insurance company settled the 2 received $1500.00 in a trust until they turned 18. But Joe was awarded $35,000. The courts insisted the trust was a regular bank, which had lower interest rates, rather than my credit union. When the bank received the 2 trusts for $1500 we decided to put the money into CDs, at the time CDs were getting 8–9% interest. Then Joe’s case was settled and the money sent to the same bank. However the bank refused to put his into a CD, instead they put into regular savings which paid maybe 3%. My husband went to his business bank and had them look over the court order. That bank said there was no valid reason for not putting the money onto a CD and they requested a wire transfer to their bank placed all 3 into an even higher rate termed to end when each turned 18. As a result Joe had 65,000 dollars when he graduated from high school. The 1st bank tried to fight the move but the court backed us up. Their loss Joe’s win.
Ancient Romans Reproduced so much that A Plant Went Extinct
Ancient Romans and Greeks used a plant called Silphium as a super effective contraceptive. But here’s the crazy part: they used it so much that it actually went extinct. Can you imagine that? This plant was so important to them, and they relied on it so heavily, that they ended up losing it forever.
Its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.
It was cherished by the Romans and held such a special place in their hearts that they immortalized it in poems, songs, and esteemed works of literature. Its popularity was so profound that it contributed to the wealth and prosperity of the city of Cyrene, located in modern-day Shahhat, Libya, making it the wealthiest city in Africa.
The history of silphium can be traced back to ancient times. It was first mentioned in writings by the Greek poet Hesiod in the 8th century BCE, and it was also referenced in the works of other ancient Greek writers, including Theophrastus and Aristotle. The ancient Greeks believed that silphium was a gift from the gods and valued it highly for its medicinal properties.
The Greek residents of Cyrene valued silphium to such an extent that they depicted its silhouette on their currency before relinquishing control to the Romans. The significance of this extraordinary plant was even recognized by Julius Caesar, who stored an impressive stockpile of 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) in the official treasury.
It grew abundantly in the wild in ancient North Africa, particularly in the region that is now modern-day Libya. It had large heart-shaped leaves, tall stalks, and yellow flowers, which grew in clusters. It was unique in its flavor and aroma. The leaves and stems were used to flavor food and wine, while its juice was used as a natural remedy for a variety of ailments.
Not only as a contraceptive and in beverages, but Silphium was also used for treating a variety of medical conditions such as coughs, sore throats, and indigestion.
The plant grew only in a small region around Cyrene, which made it a rare and valuable commodity. As the plant became more and more scarce, its price skyrocketed, making it became more valuable and further increasing the demand for it. Despite efforts to cultivate the plant and protect it from overharvesting, it ultimately proved to be unsustainable and went extinct.
The loss of the Silphium plant had significant consequences for the ancient Greeks and Romans. Without access to this effective form of birth control, the population of these societies may have grown at a faster rate, leading to increased competition for resources and potentially putting strain on their economies and environments.
But the story of Silphium doesn’t end there. In fact, its extinction may have had even wider-reaching consequences. The plant was not only used as a contraceptive but also as a remedy for a variety of ailments. Its loss meant that people were no longer able to rely on it for these medical purposes, and they had to find alternative treatments. This had a major impact on the health and well-being of the ancient Greek and Roman people.
The extinction of the Silphium plant serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of overconsumption and the need to carefully manage our use of natural resources. It also serves as a reminder of the important role that plants like Silphium have played in human history, and the need to preserve and protect the biodiversity of our planet. So the next time you hear about a plant or animal going extinct, remember the story of Silphium and the lessons it holds for us all.
Today, the exact identity of silphium remains a mystery, as no specimens of the plant have survived. However, it is believed to have been related to the fennel or giant fennel plant, and its medicinal properties are thought to have been due to a resinous substance contained within the plant. The legacy of silphium can still be seen in ancient artwork and writings, which depict the plant and its many uses.
I was investigated by CID, are you selling drugs? Are you working in a strip club? Are you dating men who give you money?
A rumor that I was sleeping with the Post Commanding General went around my unit.
I was placed on night shift, and every crosswalk duty for a month.
My promotion paperwork for an upcoming board disappeared.
Keep in mind this was at Ft. Benning GA in 1997, I was an MP (military police)
The” war on drugs” was still around and the perception in the news was that the only African Americans who drove luxury cars were drug, that was the “obvious” conclusion.
My Platoon sergeant finally pulled me into his office and asked “private, how in the hell can you afford a brand new Mercedes!” I told it was 7 years old, she just looked good, it was the entry level Mercedes so was affordable and my payments were about 125.00 a month (can’t remember exact amount).
He sat back and just laughed, and said “ok that makes sense”
Now remember this was 1997, AOL was just coming out so an online search was not possible. And it never occurred to the big heads in CID to ask me how much I paid for the car, how old was it, all the questions my platoon Sergeant asked me. I am still shaking my head about that.
I was more mad that people thought that I would sleep with the Commanding General, I was 22 so he was probably 50+ so in my young eyes he was oooold, like The Crypt Keeper old! ROFL!
I have always driven a MB since, have two in the garage now.
This is the same prejudicial calculus behind the pogroms, lynchings, riots and destruction suffered repeatedly by Chinese communities around the world over the last few centuries.
In Indonesia, formerly known as Batavia, it has happened repeatedly, and it will happen again.
In Malaysia, the Emergency eventually led to depopulation of the Chinese through the forced Separation of Singapore, and the implementation of race-specific policy to encourage emigration through the clever use of Singapore as a relief valve.
In America, a massive wave of violence against Chinese immigrants beginning in the 1870s culminated in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Scott Act, and the Geary Act in the 1880s-1890s. There were massive celebratory demonstrations in California each time an act was passed.
YELLOW PERIL became a crystallized phrase in the press at the turn of the 20th century.
Chinese in America were bottom of the ladder, and treated worse than vermin.
Fast forward to the 21st century and the same attitudes persist. If the US could, it would have bombed Beijing or Shanghai like Gaza is being pounded today, and insist it isn’t a genocide.
Considering what his ancestors perpetrated repeatedly, Tom exhibited nothing more than rude antics, part of the election gameplan in a crucial “winner takes all” Presidential election year.
What we must bear in mind is the naked prejudice revealed and confirmed by the performance, and how the same sentiment can rapidly boil over into hate that require bloodletting to calm.
We should all make preparations for war in East Asia in the coming decade.
BULLETIN: EUROPEAN COUNTRY ISSUES NOTAM FOR “UNPLANNED MILITARY ACTIVITY NECESSARY TO PROTECT NATIONAL SECURITY”
We now have an precise date window for the outbreak of World War 3 in Europe. A country has issued a NOTAM for “Unpanned military activity necessary to protect national security.” This LIFE-SAVING content is now open to the General Public —
Poland has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) involving the ENTIRE eastern 1/4 of the country of Poland from Gdansk in the north to the southern tip of the country, including the border with Belarus and Ukraine.
Specifically, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) in Coordination with the Polish Air Force has Introduced a Notice-to-Air-Missions (NOTAM) from February 5th to May 5th for the entire East of the Country on the Border with Ukraine due to the reported possibility of Unplanned Military Actions related to ensuring National Security.
The NOTAM requires any Civilian Aircraft which is Operating inside of the Zone to remain in Radio Contact with Flight Authorities and to Activate their Transponder as to prevent their Disruption of Increased Activity by Military Aircraft.
Hal Turner Analysis
It seems to me, as a guy with average intellect, the only reason Poland would do this is because they KNOW there will be a NATO entry into the Russia-Ukraine war during this specific time period, and as soon as that entry begins, war between NATO and Russia will ensue. The NOTAM was issued yesterday and began yesterday, February 5, so WE ARE ALREADY IN THE WINDOW for the start of actual World War 3.
Also, as a regular guy with average intellect, this notice tells me they don’t yet know the specific date, but they know the window of time, which, to me, means when this comes, it will happen like a lightning bolt from the sky. I suspect we, the general public, will have NO WARNING AT ALL.
For weeks now, European countries have been telling their citizens to stock-up on Prescription medicines they may need to live. Many people found this advice curious; after all, why would there be a need to do something like that? Now, we seem to know why.
It looks to me as though they have been planning a NATO entry into the Ukraine war for quite some time, and they’re trying to prep the public for the war that NATO is going to cause.
In addition to countries in Europe telling their people to stock up on Prescription medicines, other nations, like Sweden and the UK, have been openly telling their citizens to “prepare for war” with emergency food, water, medicine, fuel, flashlights, batteries and portable radios for news.
So, it seems to me, the writing on the wall is now blazingly clear.
As all readers may recall, Russia made plain at the start of their Special Military Operation (SMO) into Ukraine, that if NATO chose to enter the conflict, Russian conventional forces are NOT comparable to NATO. Russia admitted that from the start.
Russia then also made clear that “We are a nuclear power, and our abilities in this area are superior to NATO.” Russia finished by saying, “If NATO declares Article 5 Collective Self Defense against Russia, it will be a war that no one will win.”
Those words . . . . “a war no one will win” is a nuclear war.
So we are now in the window for the outbreak of actual nuclear war, from right this minute, until May 5.
I earnestly hope my readers have stocked-up on Emergency food, water, medicines, an electric generator with stored fuel to run it, so as to have electricity for refrigerators, freezers, maybe some light.
We are OUT OF TIME. You have to possess these things NOW or get what you can IMMEDIATELY.
As I mentioned earlier, it seems to me we will have ZERO warning about this. When it begins, it will likely escalate so fast, none of us will have any time to react.
If you don’t have your emergency supplies before this breaks out, there will be no way at all for you to get them.
The general public – who wait until the very last minute to do — . . . anything . . . . — will be in shear panic. Stores will be immediately flooded with shoppers trying to get their hands on anything they can. It will be chaos. Bedlam.
Store shelves will be wiped clean within a couple hours.
So if you don’t have your stuff, you won’t be able to get it.
Please, in the name of Almighty God, I implore you to get prepped right now.
You need:
Shelf-stable foods: Pasta, Rice, Dried Beans, Canned meats, Canned vegetables, Condiments (Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Salt, Pepper, SUGAR), cooking oil, Jarred pasta sauces and the like.
WATER! A human needs 8 eight-ounce glasses of water, per day, to survive. If the nukes fly, the public water supply will become contaminated. You MUST have water stored. Not for doing dishes, or showering, but to consume and cook with!
Medicines you take to survive. For instance, my wife had Thyroid cancer and her Thyroid was surgically removed. But a human cannot live without Thyroid Hormone, so she has to take a pill EVERY DAY just to continue living. If she runs out of those pills, by day 5 of no pill, she will be dead.
If YOU or your family members take medicines to live, YOU need to stock up. Tell your doctor to give you a prescription so you can stock up. Tell him why you want it. And pay for it with your own money, because your insurance company WILL NOT PAY.
A generator or some type of small solar array with a battery. You need to be able to power your refrigerator/freezer a couple hours a day to prevent food from spoiling. Have spare fuel for that generator, but don’t store flammable fuel in your house. It has to be outside. And NEVER run a generator indoors. Gas-operated generators give off carbon monoxide gas which is LETHAL. You would die from the fumes within minutes if you ran the generator indoors.
COMMUNICATIONS GEAR: Get yourself a small, cheap CB Radio ($39) with a small antenna for your car or your house. If this thing happens, and I believe it will, our electric grid may go down. All the TV and Radio stations have generators, but they may go down too after a few days of no power. YOU have to be able to communicated with neighbors, friends, and the like.
Get a SHORTWAVE RECEIVER – small ones operate on batteries. They’ll let you hear the news from many countries around the world. You’ll be able to keep informed! Have spare batteries for it, too.
Flashlights for each family member and replacement batteries for each light.
The list is **NOT** complete, and for some of us, what we “need” seems endless, but these are the absolute essentials you need. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM.
I was working on a ship, we were in a relatively mild storm, and a line had come loose and was flapping in the wind. I sent the deck hand out to secure it, he was wearing a floatation jacket, to keep him dry, and keep him afloat, if he fell over board. There was a railing all the way around the deck, except for the stairway. Since it wasn’t a bad storm, he wasn’t required to put on a safety line, and to tell you the truth, back in the 1980s people were pretty lax about safety, and safety lines were not always worn when they should be.
Just before he left the bridge, I said, “You know what, we should practice with the safety line, when its easy to get around, rather than only gain experience when its dangerous”
He wasn’t happy, they were a pain in the rear, and got tangled in every thing. But he put it on, and just clamped it onto the railing, when a rogue wave hit, and washed him down the deck, and under the railing. I grabbed a safety line, clamped on, and started to pull him up. Another wave came and washed him right back onto the deck. I dragged him into the bridge.
We always used safety lines after that, in even mild storms.
We would take off a week or two around christmas to go visit family since we lived halfway across the US from them. Usually we would get a cat-sitter, but on one occasion, we didn’t have anybody lined up, and we were flying Southwest, which allows small animals in the cabin. I went by the airport to buy the special mesh carrier they require you to use as well as pay the fee for bringing an animal on-board.
On the day of travel, the cat is mildly sedated and attracting a lot of attention—people love animals in airports, and cats are especially uncommon to see.
While waiting for our connection, the attendants at the gate called us to the desk to inform us there was a family with cat allergies going to be on the same flight and to mitigate any issues, the family had opted to sit in the very back of the plane, and would we please mind boarding in the first group and selecting a seat towards the very front? Hell yeah! awesome, let’s do it!
So we aren’t the very first to board, the special priority members still got first dibs, but we do manage to get seats in the second row behind an older couple, so pretty good on distancing from the family with the allergies.
I’m holding the cat in the carrier on my lap while people board before sticking her under the seat, and at some point a passenger or flight attendant comments on how they love cats, at which point, the woman in the row ahead of us swivels to say “there’s a CAT?! but I’m allergic!”.
A nearby flight attendant explains that we are being seated up here to accommodate a family who also has an allergic member and that this woman and her companion are welcome to reseat in the back if it’s going to be a problem, but the cat will be confined to the carrier at all times, and they ask me to go ahead and put her under the seat in front of me, which I do.
“But, my husband needs the front row seat! His legs get cramps otherwise!”
“Well, you’re welcome to move back there by yourself then, ma’am”
It turned out she didn’t feel her allergies were severe enough to justify that. Her only symptoms I could observe during the flight were disdainful sniffs every so often.
I was very pleased at the respect paid to my cat, who was basically a ticketed passenger and had followed protocol, and I left the attendant a glowing review on the SWA site.
An amazing husband. An amazing father. Always putting his family first. An engineer. Smart. Smart as a whip.
At most things.
sometimes he does things and I don’t know wether to laugh or laugh and cry.
there was the the time he took back a new pair of shoes because the left one was too tight. The salesman with a deadpan face pulled the paper stuffing out if the shoe and said, try it now.
there was the time he got banned from the neighborhood gas station because he drove off with the gas handle still in the gas tank.
The time he jumped on his new racing bike but forgot there were no pedals. Yes I helped him up off the yard and died laughing.
so.., you get it.
I mentioned it to him once, for a smart guy you sure do a lot of not-so smart stuff.
He smiled. And shrugged his shoulders, ya, go figure, when someone’s smart brain switch turns on that bright, something else up there has to shut off.
When I still practiced dentistry, I was running tight on time getting to work, but I had to fuel my stomach first or pay the consequences. So I stood in line at Panera’s, only one person in front of me, when a woman dashed in just as the cashier called, “Next!”
To my shock (and the guy ahead of me), the woman dashed right on up to the cashier and began to place her order.
I walked over and pointed out to the cashier how the other guy and I had been waiting at least ten minutes, while this woman she was waiting on had just now flown through the door. The cashier had already started ringing up the woman’s order, so said cashier sheepishly shrugged and grimaced a half-assed apology, like, What do you expect me to do now, it’s too late. And continued on.
Entitled woman, in the meantime, yelled at me, “I’m running late for work!” As though that explained everything. To which I replied, “So am I! But I was here first, and now you’re going to make me even more late.”
She waved me off as the cashier went to get her order.
Now for the satisfaction.
As I walked toward the door with my bag of food, entitled woman stood at a counter to add sugar, etc. to her extra-large coffee, when the cup flipped over and spilled its contents all across the counter and onto her.
It may have been mean of me, but I said loud enough for her to hear, “Perfect karma,” walked on by and out the door.
Rarely, some people managed to survive the gas chambers and were not killed immediately afterwards. One such person is Gena Turgel and her story is more than astonishing. She survived three Nazi concentration camps and in Auschwitz-Birkenau was forced naked into the gas chambers.
Gena and Norman
She was 16 when her hometown of Krakow, Poland, was bombed by the Luftwaffe on September 1, 1939, the first day of the war. Norman had relatives in Chicago, but the family delayed putting plans to move there into action, and Poland was quickly conquered by the Germans.
In the Jewish ghetto of Krakow Gena lost two brothers fighting against the Nazis. She was then sent to Plaszow concentration camp, where she survived for two and a half years until her transfer to Auschwitz. There she survived numerous experiments conducted by Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele.
The most surprising part of her story is that she did not realize she was in a gas chamber until another prisoner told her. “Do you know what just happened? You were in a gas chamber!”. said Gena: “I never realized I was in the gas chamber… It must not have worked.
The “Krema 1” gas chamber at Auschwitz.
Here is how she described his path to the gas chamber,
“We went into that room with the stone floor and holes in the ceiling. We were shivering, it was very cold, and we were waiting and waiting.”
In Auschwitz, “the water was undrinkable and we lived mainly on beet soup,” she wrote. “Everywhere we went the horrible stench of the crematoria followed us.”
The time spent in Auschwitz left its consequences. Since then, Gena wore her perfume to forget the smell of the camp.
After two months in Auschwitz, as the Red Army advanced toward Auschwitz, she was sent on a “death march,” first to Buchenwald concentration camp and then to Belsen, where she shared a barrack with Anne Frank and offered herself as a nurse because of her knowledge of German. When Belsen was liberated by the British, she showed a young army officer, Norman Turgel, the hospital where she worked.
In October 1945, she and Sergeant Turgel were married in Lübeck, Germany, in a synagogue that the Germans had used as a stable during the war. She was 21 years old at the time.
Mr. Turgel died in 1995. Mrs. Turgel is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Gena Turgel died on June 7, 2018 at her home in England at the age of 95.
This story is true, but you don’t have to trust me: feel free to do your research on the internet.
Local grocery store where my niece worked for a while. One day I saw a sale on my favorite ice cream that I could not believe. It said on the sign 5 for $2.00. Wow I thought, that’s either a bad mistake by an employee misplacing the numbers, or just maybe the ice cream was out of date. I check dates and they were fine. So I grabbed five of my favorite flavors and headed to pay. I was fully expecting to pay $5 for two of them, which was still a bargain.
At the self checkout I rang them up and sure enough they were $5 for two. No problem I had taken a photo of the sign, and call the cashier over. I explained the situation and the sign. The lady then calls over a manager, who I explain again about the sign and the pricing. She does some button pushing, some things pop up on the screen, and she leaves saying she will go correct the sign. I said I was perfectly fine paying the $5 for two, but just wanted to let them know it was confusing. All went fine so I thought. They were nice and courteous as usual.
I get home and pack my 5 delicious pints of ice cream into our freezer. I was just curious what they charged me for the single pint, so I grabbed the receipt to have a look. Well, the only thing I could find for ice cream was that single $2.50 pint. Apparently the manager had deleted the other 4 from the que. I just got 4 free ice creams! I started thinking about it and I remember the employee had bagged up the ice cream herself as the manager punched away at the screen.
I called the store and explained the situation, saying I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. I was told well it was an honest mistake and they didn’t take food back, so enjoy the sweets on them. I most certainly did enjoy those free pints which seem to taste better knowing they were free.
Know what? I’m homeless. I live in the driver’s seat of my Chevy Aveo.
I got there because my mom owned the house I was living in and paying her my house payments. I lost my job and she immediately told me she was going to sell the house. Keep in mind that I hadn’t missed a payment, and I offered her my 401K, which was ten months’ of payments to give me time to find a new job and keep things steady.
I have severe depression and anxiety, and this threw me into a severe depression episode where I talked about suicide. One of my friends freaked out about this and called the police who entered my house without permission and forced me out and into a shitty hospital. (That’s a whole other story. I came out in worse shape than when I went in.) While in the hospital, my family came and got my keys so my cats could be taken care of. Instead, they took my cats (who are at a foster home right now) and wouldn’t let me back in the house. They found a flipper, who paid $8,000 for my house and sold it for $80,000 after throwing out all of my possessions, putting a fresh coat of paint on everything and remodeling the bathroom.
I was left with my car, and that’s it. A friend took me in for a year, but he wanted to rent out the room I was in so I got kicked to the curb. That was 2 days before Thanksgiving.
I currently work 2 jobs but still don’t make enough to get a place to live. (Yay low wages.) I tried to take advantage of low income housing, but after a year and a half of filling out forms, there just isn’t anything, so I gave up. I’ve heard too many horror stories about shelters that I would rather sleep in my car when the temperatures get to 12 degrees than go there.
Quit trying to blame the poor and homeless people for their problems. Most of them would gladly work to pay for their own care and shelter. Until you’ve been there yourself, you’ll never understand because you just don’t want to see what’s really going on in this world.
I’ve told the story before, but an ex-friend of mine called in a panic 10 days before her wedding, telling me the caterer had cancelled. I was the only one she knew with catering experience and could I figure something out for the wedding?
We worked out a deal. If she could hire me two chef temps to help and pay for the food items, I’d give her the labor for her wedding gift.
Big mistake.
I spent a week and $1500 of my own money (that I really didn’t have) prepping food I’d bought wholesale, under the assumption that help would be arriving and that I’d have the money paid back.
The help never arrived. She said they wouldn’t work for an individual. That was blatantly false, but by this point I was scrambling.
Come the day of the wedding, I was frantically trying to get my home made pasta, bread, meatballs, sauces and sides to the venue. The venue employees were absolute angels who helped out in any way they could.
By the time it came to plate the food, we were a well oiled machine and it was amazing. And they even sent me home, telling me it was in their contract to clean up when it was all over. (I later learned this was my job, but they had already figured out I was being scammed and felt so bad for me.)
Two weeks later, the bride and I met up to settle the food payment. In fact, she suddenly changed the story, and said she was there for her wedding gift.
What.
The.
Fuck.
When she figured out I didn’t have one, she called me a terrible friend and stormed out. I had a bad feeling something was wrong. I called several other mutual friends and they came to the cafe I was at within the hour.
We hashed out what had happened to us. In fact, we all had wedding industry or industry adjacent jobs/skills. And she’d scammed all of us for our talents and money.
All in all, by telling us someone had cancelled and could we please do this and she’d pay us back, she got
Catering
A cake
Photography
Alterations and all three bridesmaids’ dresses sewn
Most of the venue payment
Decor
Flowers
She got what was essentially a free wedding from all of us, by conning us all.
We did get our money back eventually, but it took small claims court, a debt collector, and a few years of frustration.
Baked Ravioli and Cheese
Ingredients
1 (50 count) package frozen cheese ravioli
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cubed American cheese
3/4 cup crushed potato chips (optional)
Instructions
Cook ravioli according to package directions; drain.
Meanwhile, for sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour. Add milk; cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.
Add cheese; heat and stir until cheese is melted.
Salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked ravioli; stir gently.
Spoon into an 8 inch square baking dish.
Sprinkle crushed potato chips over.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges bubble and top is golden brown.
I was in my 9th grade math class. One of my best friends brothers (he’s a year older than me) was sitting next to me. In front of me was another guy and we were in the back of the class in the corner.
The three of us are shooting crap, talking and messing around. We had finished an assignment and had a few minutes.
All of a sudden our principal comes over the loudspeaker.
“Teachers and students. I don’t know how to even start to say this. There’s been a shooting at Columbine.”
Everyone in the class went silent.
“We are on lockout until further notice. No one is to leave the school grounds and students who are off campus will not be allowed back in. Please, turn on the TV’s in your rooms for more information. I don’t know how many times I can say this out loud.
We are safe. Pray for Columbine.”
We were all in shock.
Columbine High School was about 10 miles from our high school.
My dad worked at Leawood Elementary, 2 blocks down the street, where the first kids ran.
Now, my dad normally worked nights, but he worked that day (and I don’t know why, maybe his boss was a closeted pot head, all I know was my dad was there that day.)
My dad was my first thought, since they didn’t know what was actually going on yet. Is my dad okay?!? What’s going on?
My second thought was about my mom. She worked at the central district office. What in the world was going on there? Then, my thoughts turned to my friends. Names I was lucky to not hear later on the news.
I know this sounds like it took minutes to think of all of this, but it was mili-seconds.
The whole class was in shock when the TV was on.
It showed the building that I had driven by every Friday night to take my dad dinner (Columbine). Another building….that my dad was in. The kids running away from the building with their heads covered.
We were all staring at the TV. Hoping that we’d recognize a face so that we would know our friends were safe.
Some kids cried. Others were in shock. No one spoke for what felt like hours. We just stared at the TV. Hoping it was just a dream, or a prank.
The bell rang, and we were dismissed to our next class.
That was the only time in my 4 years at my high school that the hallways were quiet. Once in a while you’d find a group of kids crying and holding each other. It was surreal.
I made it to the band room and was able to call my mom. It was a zoo at her office and my dad was safe, helping families who were coming to pick up their kids. He was in for a long night.
The day went on. Same thing. At 2:00 PM The principal gave us an update and let us know that we weren’t on lockdown anymore. You could tell he had been crying.
We went home that afternoon to watch the horrifying news unfold.
We know how the rest of the stories goes.
PS (if you’re interested)-I only had the courage to ask him (my dad) once about that day. It was about 7 years afterward.
I had only seen my dad cry 3 times in his whole life, and that was one of them.
He said that parents swarmed the school, searching for their children as the kids were brought to the school (I think by bus).
As the afternoon turned into evening, more and more parents were leaving, thankful that their kids were OK. There were parents of children who were injured that left with police officers and escorted to the hospitals.
There were parents whose children never showed up that afternoon.
My dad said it was about 8:00, one by one the parents were called into the office. They all knew what it meant to be the last parents there.
Some walked out crying. Some were in shock. Some screamed the most wretched noises he’s ever heard.
My dad was never really the same after that.
None of us were.
Abandoned $5.5 Million MEGA Mansion | Everything Left Behind
Back in the late 1980’s, I attended a local County zoning board meeting. This was in Indiana.
I had a personal reason for being there which is of no concern at this time. Maybe I’ll talk about it later on, but it’s really just a trivial thing.
Anyways, the bulk of the meeting as that a couple of big conglomerates wanted to dump their industrial waste, medical waste, and radioactive (!) waste in our county in a landfill outside of our town. They would do it for free, and we would allow them. All the the board members were “gung ho” on this proposal.
WTF?
I mean it, it was like they must have been having sex with the corporations, they were gleefully pushing the paperwork through. I have never seen such happy people. I was really stunned.
“Yes please! Can I have some more toxic waste, HIV needles, radioactive liquids, and cancerous shit sir?”
But a gal stood up.
I knew her. I worked with her.
And she stopped the entire (future) train wreck. In fact, the smiles disappeared from the boards faces as a true and real anger started building in the room.
She reminded them of “Love Canal” and WTF were they thinking! And she and others were going to make a big issue of this, and screams of bribery and money changing hands and all that went a flying.
The meeting ended.
And nothing was resolved.
…
The next week, we read in the local paper that the board passed the company, and allowed it to start dumping the toxic trash near us.
I guess that they just went ahead and did it anyways, and the “public hearing” was just for show.
The United States is like that.
…
Just for show. They do what they want.
Oh, there are rules and regulations.
They do what they want.
Oh, there are rules and regulations.
For you. For me.
But not for THEM.
The entire community was screwed over.
…
People! I am convinced that the ONLY way to set things right is to erase it all and start fresh.
Im thoroughly pissed off. Im Australian too but I see on the news tonight that USA has just started the war in the middle east. They dont give a fuck whos country they bomb but they are doing it to bomb Iranian supporters. Americans also have bases in countries not their own so whats the fucking difference. Biden says were no going to bomb Iran just every supporter base outside their borders. So that has to mean that every US bases outside its borders are no fair game too.. This IS the beginning of the true WW3 and Im pissed off because not only my taxes but my countrymen will most certainly be asked (forced or coerced) into fighting in the middle east in support of USA. USA are the fucking bad guys here just like they were in Afghanistan and Iraq and in Vietnam before that. We should not be involved in this. I dont support Iran and I dont support Syria or Jordan or Lebanon or Gaza but for gods sake please realise that its the USA that are starting and supporting these wars. The only thing I support now is Justice and humanity and I cant see it anywhere.
So the U.S. and U.S. dog nations thinks that when you do shit on Huawei all for containing their progress has no repercussions?
Think again!
Everything you throw at China it will boomerang back 3–5 times as hard on you! Bear that in mind 1.5 billion Chinese and Chinese origin for a start and another at least 2.5 million sympathetic to China others will turn off similar U.S. or western brands representing 60% of world demand to spike the west back.
So think very very very carefully before you ever do shit. China is happy to share a loaf of bread with the west if it plays fair. It not it will have no choice. Take EV’s for example. If the west start anti China shit, 60% of world’s demand is at stake. Japanese and western brands better think twice if you start this racist shit.
Apple is a good company. But the U.S. government forces it to do shit in China so it has to bear the repercussions. Learn how to say no to the U.S. government. Remember for very new outlet for McDonald’s, KFC s and Starbucks in the U.S, China open 10 new outlet. For every GM sold in the U.S. 2 is sold in China. Think twice before you do shit!
Apple, is learning the hard way now, GPS learned the hard way, US chips are are thoroughly fxxked up, US senators learned that depriving Chinese from ISS allowed the Chinese to put up a better, faster, more technologically advanced Chinese space station up in space! Those shit western brands that foolishly talk up fabricated shit about the Uyghurs all lost a boat load of money!
12 Reasons Why Men Don’t Want To Get Married Anymore
Pepperoni Stromboli
Ingredients
2 (16 ounce) loaves frozen bread dough, thawed
1/2 cup spaghetti or pizza sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 ounces sliced pepperoni
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Punch dough down. On a lightly floured surface, roll each loaf into a 20 x 8-inch rectangle. Place one rectangle on a greased baking sheet.
Spread spaghetti sauce in an 18 x 4-inch strip down the center. Sprinkle with oregano, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Fold long sides of dough up towards filling; set aside.
Cut the remaining rectangle into three strips. Loosely braid strips; pinch ends to seal. Place braid on top of the cheese; pinch braid to dough to seal. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
When my daughter was in fifth grade, if her bus got to the school very early before school, instead of going to the cafeteria and waiting there, she would go to her, previous kindergarten teachers room and help her with the five-year-olds. She would read to them, play with them or help organize the day for the teacher by passing out papers, crayons, etc. once the bell rang that the school day was starting, she would just go to her own classroom and begin the day normally. My daughter very much liked her kindergarten teacher, and she, being a youngest child, enjoyed being around young children. She felt good about helping out and very much enjoyed these early morning volunteer sessions.
Well, everything was fine until somehow her fifth grade teacher found out what she was doing. To this day, I don’t know why, but her fifth grade teacher was absolutely livid that she was not dutifully sitting in the cafeteria until school started. She called my sweet and helpful girl, a little sneak. Said that she was sneaking around the school before school started even though she knew very well what the rules were. I have to assume that the kindergarten teacher also knew what the rules were, but never had a problem with it, or told my daughter to go ahead and go to the cafeteria or to her own classroom. The lunatic fifth grade teacher further demanded that my daughter write her a letter of apology for not following the rules.
anyway, when my daughter came home from school that day and tearfully told me how she had been treated by her fifth grade teacher, now I was livid. I called the school and demanded a conference with the teacher and the principal and my daughter. We had a conference, and they tried to calm me down by telling me it’s all about safety, and they have to know where our children are at all times that they are on school grounds, blah blah blah. Which is fine. But that needed to be calmly and kindly explained to my daughter instead of assassinating her character. I demanded that the teacher apologize to my daughter. After the principal pressed her, she very awkwardly and haltingly apologized. I further informed them that my daughter would NOT be apologizing to anyone for innocently trying to be helpful and kind.
But my daughter did not get to volunteer in the kindergarten classroom after that day. And they did not find her a replacement volunteer opportunity, either. And, of course, she hated her teacher from that day forward. And even now, when she is 23 years old, Every time she thinks about that teacher, who chose to believe the worst, instead of seeing the goodness in her, she becomes angry all over again.
Mandatory Paternity Test Law Passed – No More Paternity Fraud From Women
Most serious researchers into the Edmund Fitzgerald’s shocking destruction on 10 November, 1975, in a gale on Lake Superior believe that the ship sank from a combination of factors. This is largely due to widespread dissatisfaction with the conclusions reached by the US Coast Guard in the immediate aftermath of the sinking.
The Coast Guard’s official report on the loss of the Fitzgerald, dated 26 July 1977, stated that the most likely cause of the wreck was improperly sealed cargo hatch covers (the rectangular structures amidships that are clearly visible in the photo above), which led to gradually accumulating water in the non-subdivided cargo hold. As more and more “boarding seas” sent water crashing over the main deck, the ship sank lower and lower until finally, its bouyancy was overcome and it plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior. In short, the ship was lost due to the failure of its crew to properly secure it against the conditions caused by the severe storm in which it sank. This is probably the closest thing in maritime circles to citing “pilot error” as the cause of a plane crash. The Coast Guard’s document is located in its entirety here:
The Lake Carriers Association—the professional trade group representing the shipping companies which owned the US-flagged ships on the Great Lakes—immediately and vociferously disagreed with the Coast Guard.
Paul Trimble, a retired USCG vice admiral who was then the president of the LCA, wrote a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board on September 16, 1977, that specifically disputed the cornerstone of the Coast Guard’s theory on the sinking. His letter stated that:
“The present hatch covers are an advanced design and are considered by the entire lake shipping industry to be the most significant improvement over the telescoping leaf covers previously used for many years. The one-piece hatch covers have proven completely satisfactory in all weather conditions without a single vessel loss in almost 40 years of use…and no water accumulation in cargo holds.”
Having thus rejected out of hand the idea that the Fitzgerald’s crew had essentially been negligent or at least careless in securing the hatch covers, the LCA’s suspicions immediately centered on an event that occurred several hours before the sinking, soon after the ship had departed from Superior, Wisconsin, fully loaded with more than 26,000 tons of taconite iron ore pellets. This was a possible running aground or “shoaling” of the ship near Caribou Island.
Caribou Island in Lake Superior, North America. Photo Courtesy of Morris Chisholm by way of Flickr dot com.
During its final journey, Fitzgerald was traveling in concert with another large freighter, the SS Arthur Anderson, under the command of Captain Bernie Cooper. At around 1530 (3:30 in the afternoon), or roughly 4 hours before the Fitzgerald sank, Cooper received a radio transmission from Captain Earnest McSorley of the Fitzgerald. McSorley told Cooper:
“Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?” By “checking down”, McSorley meant that he was reducing speed so the trailing Anderson could close the distance and keep an eye on the Fitzgerald in the gathering storm. Cooper radioed McSorley and asked if he had his pumps going, and McSorley said, “Yes, both of them.”
Massive Storm Waves Breaking on the Shore of Lake Superior. Wave Heights of 35 Feet or More Have Been Observed During Storms on the Lake.
It is crucial to note that the storm was already underway by this point in the day on 10 November. Winds had reached near gale force several hours earlier, at 7 AM that morning, with wave heights of 10 feet observed. Thus the Fitzgerald was in heavy seas well before it passed by Caribou Island, and more so at the time McSorley reported that his vessel had been damaged. Just prior to the Fitzgerald’s radio communication with his ship, Cooper and one of his bridge staff on the Anderson—sailing astern of the Fitzgerald and watching its course on the Anderson’s radar—both remarked to each other that each thought McSorley and his ship were far too close to Caribou Island and a known underwater hazard called “Six Fathom Shoal”. A “list” meant that the Fitzgerald had taken on enough water to make the ship lean over on its side. A downed fence rail could only have been caused by either a heavy impact with a large object of some kind, or—much more likely—”hogging” of the ship. This would have snapped the steel rail as it was bent to the breaking point by the ship’s hull itself being forced upward from an impact with something on the lake floor beneath the vessel. Although Cooper’s sometimes excitable and occasionally inconsistent testimony led the majority of investigators to discount the idea that the Fitzgerald had struck rocks jutting up from the lake bottom, others were convinced.
Subsequent radio transmissions from the stricken ship indicate that McSorley was worried. Between 4:30 and 5:00 he called the Coast Guard on the emergency channel—the “distress frequency”—and also put out a general call asking for information about the lighthouse and the radio beacon at Whitefish Point, at the southeastern end of the Lake. The comparitive safety of Whitefish Bay was just beyond the Point.
Further, although McSorley did not tell Cooper that he was particularly concerned by whatever had happened near Caribou Island, around 5:30 he reported to another ship captain, Cedric Woodard of the Swedish cargo vessel Avafors, that:
“I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.”
Woodard replied: “If I’m correct, you have two radars.”
McSorley: “They’re both gone.”
It should be noted that McSorley said something at this time that was apparently picked up in his transmission to Woodard because McSorley was shouting to the crew while leaving his radio mic on. As described by writer Hugh Bishop in his Lake SuperiorMagazine article “Edmund Fitzgerald: Decades of Speculation, Fascination and Grieving”:
“Captain Woodard, who was acquainted with McSorley and had talked with him many times previously, said in testimony that he didn’t recognize the voice when first they spoke and that McSorley sounded strange.
Still later, at about 6 p.m., Woodard called the Fitz to report that the light had just come on at Whitefish Point. During that conversation, he stated that McSorley inadvertently left the microphone on when he said to someone in his pilothouse, “Don’t allow nobody on deck,” also saying something about a vent that Woodard couldn’t understand.
In Lake Superior Port Cities Inc.’s newly released book, The Night the Fitz Went Down, Captain Dudley Paquette vividly describes his voyage through the massive seas of the November 9-10, 1975, storm as master of the downbound Inland Steel Company’s SS Wilfred Sykes. He is particularly intrigued by the command that Woodard overheard.
“In those seas, such a command goes without saying, so why did McSorley have to emphasize it?” he asks. “There had to have been something happening on the deck that a mate thought they had to get control of – even if it meant putting lives in danger.”
Whatever prompted that command just a little over an hour before the sinking, Paquette analyzes that it would have been catastrophic and visible from the pilothouse in the darkness of an early November evening. That would likely mean that it was at the forward end of the weather deck. Previously suggested possibilities are that a hatch cover washed off or the heavy deck crane or the spare blade for the propeller broke loose and crashed about.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a hatch cover came off, because I loaded right beside him in Superior on November 9 and the deck crew was still putting on hatch covers when they left the Superior Entry into Lake Superior,” Captain Paquette says. “It’s likely that they didn’t latch a lot of the hatch cover clamps because the crew was on Sunday overtime pay and they were so late getting covered up – and the weather was very nice at that time.” Captain Paquette thus sided with the Coast Guard and essentially blamed the crew.
By this point, then, at around 6 PM, the Fitzgerald was badly damaged, listing from increasing amounts of water in its cargo hold and in other spaces—too much for the ship’s powerful pumps to stay ahead of—and sailing blind.
Worse, meteorological reconstructions of the 10 November 1975 storm show that it was exceptionally powerful even by the Great Lakes’ notoriously vicious standards.
Unusual and Violent Waves on Lake Erie in a Recent November
In some ways the seas during the worst storms on the Great Lakes are more difficult than what ships would encounter in the open ocean. This is due to the “Bathtub Effect” that produces oscillating waves which collide with each other from two or more directions. A “seiche”—similar to a tsunami—can also develop as sustained winds blow enormous amounts of water ahead of them down the Lakes. Similar factors have led to ten foot waves being seen even on as small a body of water as the 50 square mile Sea of Galilee (referenced in the New Testament in Matthew 8:23–27).
— This blog post is discussing the Bathtub Effect as observed in the Gulf of Mexico and not the Great Lakes, but is still a good overview of the phenomenon.
Captain McSorley knew that his ship was badly wounded and in mortal danger. Knowing also that he was not far from Whitefish Bay, he decided to run for it. Unfortunately this decision put him squarely in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. The Fitzgerald sailed into the exact spot where the storm reached its maximum power, and at the center of the worst waves and seiche storm surge produced by the 80-plus MPH winds and “bathtub effect”.
The Final Voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. The Ship Sank 17 Miles Northwest of Whitefish Bay.
The last communication with the doomed vessel came via radio at about 7:10 PM. Anderson first mate Morgan Clark radioed the Fitzgerald to notify him of a radar contact about 19 miles ahead. McSorley acknowledged this and asked if he “was going to clear”, ie, if there was any danger of a collision. Clark said that there was none, then asked how things were going. McSorley replied, “We are holding our own”.
Soon after this, the Fitzgerald entered a snow squall and radar contact was lost. Just prior to Clark’s transmission, Cooper later testified, the crew of the Anderson had felt “a bump”, an impact that hit their vessel from behind. Looking back from the pilothouse, the bridge crew saw two huge waves partially engulf the ship, moving forward from the stern. The second of these struck the back of the pilothouse, which forced the bow of the Anderson down into the seas. As Cooper described:
“We took two of the largest seas of the trip. The first one flooded our boat deck. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat.… The second large sea put green water (the powerful center of a wave) on our bridge deck! This is 35 feet above the waterline.”
SS Arthur Anderson, a Great Lakes Freighter That Traveled With the Edmund Fitzgerald on 10 November 1975. Note the Height of the Ship’s Pilothouse in the Bow of the Vessel.
Cooper’s ship, though badly rattled, quickly recovered from the force of the blow, and the crew watched the two giant waves move down the Lake—toward the struggling Fitzgerald. All contact with the Fitzgerald was lost about 10 minutes later.
The subsequent report by the Coast Guard was based on extensive video of the wreck on the bottom of Lake Superior. The footage was taken by the US Navy’s CURV III (Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle).
Conditions on the lake bottom, 535 feet down, were somewhat muddy and so the quality of the video was not ideal.
Following the Lake Carriers’ Association letter to the NTSB that disputed the Coast Guard’s conclusions, a second report—this one by the NTSB itself—was issued.
Taking a somewhat broader view of the tragedy, the NTSB document considered in more detail several possible contributing factors. Most of these had been briefly touched upon by the Coast Guard but not discussed comprehensively.
One of these was the near-certainty that the Fitzgerald was overloaded on its last trip.
An Early Photo of the Fitzgerald, in Light Condition at Pierside, Probably in the late 1950s or Early 1960s. The Ship Was Launched in 1958.
The Fitzgerald Riding Low in the Water While Fully Loaded, Sometime in 1971. The Ship Would Have Looked Much Like This As It Sailed Into the Storm on 10 November 1975.
The distance from the waterline to the main deck of a ship is known as “freeboard”. On the night before its destruction, the Fitzgerald probably left port with as little as 11 and a half (11.5) feet of freeboard and possibly even less. This was a dangerously thin margin of safety, particularly in a storm, even had the ship not been damaged.
There was also the possibility that the Fitzgerald was not entirely seaworthy in other respects when it sailed from Superior, Wisconsin. The NTSB noted:
“A former chief mate of the FITZGERALD testified that between September 13 and October 3, 1975, the FITZGERALD discharged at Toledo, Ohio. Because of the FITZGERALD’s deep draft, she was not able to pull up to the dock and had to lay off some 12 feet each time. The ship seemed to plow its way toward the dock every trip, he said. Similar “groundings” of other Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels during discharge at various ports were observed by Coast Guard Marine Inspectors during the winter of 1976 and the spring of 1977 and by Safety Board personnel during the summer of 1977.
In other words, there may have been unrepaired damage to the bottom plating of the ship’s hull that was the result of literally plowing its way the last short distance to various unloading docks around the Great Lakes shoreline.
This idea has some corroboration from one of the ship’s surviving previous crewmen, Jim Woodard, who had sailed on the Fitzgerald for some time in the 60s and 70s. He told a recent interviewer that the Fitz “was a wet ship”—meaning it leaked noticeably and often shipped water while underway—and that he just did not have a good feeling about it, even though it was widely known as “the pride of the American side” and an assignment on board was greatly prized among Great Lakes mariners.
It is also possible that the vessel’s design itself was inherently flawed and at least somewhat structurally unsound. Support for this point comes from the fact that the Fitzgerald’s sister ship, the SS Arthur M. Homer, which had undergone a very expensive lengthening and reconstruction to increase its cargo capacity, was suddenly and unexpectedly removed from service by its owner, Bethlehem Steel Corporation (now defunct) just 5 years later, in 1980. A similar conversion had been planned for the Fitzgerald itself.
The following passage from the Wikipedia article about the sinking explains:
“Retired Great Lakes Engineering Works naval architect Raymond Ramsey, one of the members of the design team that worked on the hull of Fitzgerald,reviewed her increased load lines, maintenance history, along with the history of long ship hull failure and concluded that Fitzgerald was not seaworthy on November 10, 1975.
He stated that planning Fitzgerald to be compatible with the constraints of the St. Lawrence Seaway had placed her hull design in a “straight jacket .” Fitzgerald’s long-ship design was developed without the benefit of research, development, test, and evaluation principles while computerized analytical technology was not available at the time she was built.
Ramsey noted that Fitzgerald’s hull was built with an all-welded (instead of riveted) modular fabrication method, which was used for the first time in the GLEW shipyard. Ramsey concluded that increasing the hull length to 729 feet (222 m) resulted in a L/D slenderness ratio (the ratio of the length of the ship to the depth of her structure) that caused excessive multi-axial bending and springing of the hull, and that the hull should have been structurally reinforced to cope with her increased length.”
The Launch of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Detroit, MI, 7 June 1958. The GLEW Was for Many Years a Major Shipbuilder on the Lakes, and Has Since Gone Out of Business.
Eventually the NTSB report gave its “Findings” and “Probable Cause”, which largely echoed the Coast Guard’s previous findings but with additional detail:
“Findings:
1. The FITZGERALD’s hatch covers were not weathertight and allowed water to enter the cargo hold over an extended period. This water was not detected because it migrated down through the cargo. There was no method provided for sounding the cargo other than visual observations, nor was there any method for dewatering the cargo hold with the vessel trimmed by the bow.
2. Amendments to the Great Lakes Load Line Regulations in 1969, 1971, and 1973 allow Great Lakes bulk carriers to load deeper. This deeper loading increased deck wetness which caused an increase in the flooding rate through nonweathertight hatches or other nonweather-tight openings.
3. The topside vents and fence rail were damaged before 1520 either by a heavy object coming adrift on deck or by a floating object coming aboard with the seas. The FITZGERALD’s hull plating probably was damaged also; the damage propagated and caused flooding of the ballast tanks and tunnel.
4. Flooding of ballast tanks and the tunnel caused trim and a list. Detection of ballast tank flooding prompted the ballast pumps to be started. However, the flooding rate through the hull damage, which was propagating, increased and exceeded the capacity of the pumping system.
5. The hull stress levels, even with a substantial amount of flooding, were low enough that the hull girder did not fail before the sinking.
6. The forces on the hatch covers caused by boarding seas were sufficient to cause damage and collapse. These forces increased as flooding caused a list and reduced the vessel’s freeboard.
7. Flooding of the cargo hold caused by one or more collapsed hatch covers was massive and progressed throughout the hold. Flooding was so rapid that the vessel sank before the crew could transmit a distress call.
8. The vessel either plunged or partially capsized and plunged under the surface. The hull failed either as the vessel sank or when the bow struck the bottom.
9. The availability of a fathometer aboard the FITZGERALD would have provided additional navigational data and would have required less dependence on the ANDERSON for navigational assistance.
10. The most probable trackline of the FITZGERALD, from west of Michipicoten Island to the position of her wreckage, lies east of the shoal areas north and east of Caribou Island; therefore, damage from grounding would have been unlikely.
11. The shoal area north of Caribou Island is not shown in sufficient detail on Lake Survey Chart No. 9 to indicate the extent of this hazard to navigation. A contour presentation of this hazard would allow mariners to better assess this area and would help to eliminate the erroneous conclusion that there are isolated spots of shallow water, where in fact there is a large area of shoal water less than 10 fathoms deep.
12. Insufficient water depth has been observed at some loading and discharge piers. “Groundings” of vessels at these locations induce hull stresses of unknown magnitudes and create the potential of undetected hull damage and wear.
13. Although the National Weather Service accurately predicted the direction and velocity of the wind expected over the eastern end of Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, the predicted wave heights were significantly less than those observed.
14. Loading information on the FITZGERALD and other Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels was not adequate.
15. Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels normally can avoid severe storms. The limiting sea state for Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels should be determined, and the operation of vessels in sea states above this limiting value should be restricted.
16. The presence of an EPIRE aboard the FITZGERALD would have provided immediate automatic transmission of an emergency signal which would have allowed search units to locate the position of the accident. The accurate location of this position would have reduced the extent of the search area.
17. Installation of trim and list indicating instruments on the FITZGERALD would have provided the master an early indication of flooding that would have an adverse effect on the vessel. These instruments would have given an indication of whether the master’s corrective action was adequate.
18. The surface search and rescue capability of the Coast Guard on November 10 was inadequate.
Probable Cause:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the sudden massive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers. Before the hatch covers collapsed, flooding into the ballast tanks and tunnel through topside damage and flooding into the cargo hold through nonweathertight hatch covers caused a reduction of freeboard and a list. The hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces imposed on the hatch covers by heavy boarding seas at this reduced freeboard and with the list caused the hatch covers to collapse. Contributing to the accident was the lack of transverse watertight bulkheads in the cargo hold and the reduction of freeboard authorized by the 1969, 1971, and 1973 amendments to the Great Lakes Load Line Regulations.”
In short, the ship sank because of progressive flooding following damage sustained from some cause near Caribou Island, aggravated by overloading. The initial flooding and overloading made the Fitzgerald go lower in the waves of the storm, which began a downward cycle of boarding seas. These gradually brought more and more water aboard until a final, catastrophic collapse of one or more hatch covers allowed sudden additional and overwhelming flooding that drove the ship to the bottom.
The NTSB added that the storm was significantly stronger than weather reports had predicted, and both the Coast Guard and the NTSB noted that the navigational charts used by McSorley were not entirely accurate regarding the underwater hazards around Caribou Island. This last factor led the NTSB to take the unusual step of including a dissenting opinion in its conclusion. Board member Philip Hogue wrote:
“The most probable cause of the sinking of the SS EDMUND FITZGERALD in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975, was a shoaling which first generated a list, the loss of two air vents, and a fence wire. Secondarily, within a period of 3 to 4 hours, an undetected, progressive, massive flooding of the cargo hold resulted in a total loss of buoyancy from which, diving into a wall of water, the FITZGERALD never recovered.
Like the Marine Board of the Coast Guard or the majority of the Members of the National Transportation Safety Board, I could speculate or surmise in the first instance that flooding into the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch covers or in the second instance that flooding took place due to the failure of hatch cover Number One due to massive seas. I reject these arguments because neither of them is fully cognizant of the ramifications of the first reported list, the loss of two vents and fence railing at approximately the precise time the FITZGERALD was reportedly in or over shoal waters. Between the first reported damage and the time of the sinking, approximately 3 to 4 hours later, seas of 25 to 30 feet and winds gusting to 80 knots were variously observed. Without exception, expert testimony has affirmed the fact that seas in shoal waters are inherently more violent and wild than in open water. It follows, therefore, that subsequent to her initial sustained damage, the FITZGERALD suffered progressive damage from laboring, rolling, and pitching for the next 3 to 4 hours as it proceeded toward Whitefish Point Light. At or about 1730, Captain Woodard aboard the Swedish vessel AVAFORS received a report from Captain McSorley stating the FITZGERALD had a “bad list,” had lost both radars and was taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas he had ever been in. In approximately 2 hours from the initial report of a list, the FITZGERALD had acquired a “bad list” and sustained the loss of both radars. Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes later at or about 1910, the FITZGERALD reported it was holding its own. This was the last transmission ever heard from the FITZGERALD. Aside from the expert testimony elicited at the Coast Guard Marine Board hearing, it is self-evident that Captain McSorley had a damaged ship, and that he did not know how damaged she was….
It is reasonable to assume, from all that is known of Captain McSorley, that his first report of damage was based on damage sustained immediately prior to 1530 and that it was no small consideration that caused Captain McSorley to ask the ANDERSON to stay with him, saying, “I will check down so that you can close the distance between us.””
In the end, while these are expert and informed opinions, no one really knows for certain what sank the Fitzgerald. There is an enduring mystery about the ship and its final voyage that is both tragic and strangely compelling. In this vein Woodard said something striking. He had spoken with many of the Fitzgerald’s crew when his ship and the Fitz were in port a couple of weeks before the sinking.
“God strike me dead if I’m lying,” Woodard said, his spontaneous laughter checked. “We pulled in behind them and everybody I saw on that crew had an aura around them. That’s the honest-to-God’s truth. They glowed, just like a little brightness, you know what I mean?”
When asked if he was benefiting from hindsight and imagination, Woodard said, “I’ve never seen that since.”
My mother once told me a similar story. She said she had seen our next door neighbor at the local post office just before he was killed in a car wreck by a drunk driver. She later described seeing the same kind of strange aura and light around him when she looked at him.
Do with that what you will. As I say, there is mystery here.
Perhaps the biggest lesson that should be taken from the sinking is that no matter how skilled the sailors and how large the ship, all are still less than specks of sand compared with the vastness and power of the sea and of great storms over large bodies of water. It is no wonder, then, that both the traditional US Navy Hymn and Gordon Lightfoot’s enduring ballad speak with reverence of the power of both Nature and Nature’s God.
Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep; Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea!
How the US Keeps Fighting China, Knowing It Won’t Win?
It’s a toss-up between Caesar at Alesia and Alexander’s siege at Tyre. But for this answer I’ll focus only on Caesar.
Those two are definitely in my list of top battles not only because of the absolute understanding that Cesar and Alexander had of the flow of battle, or the mind-blowing tactics they used, but also because of the ingenuity they showed and just the relentless determination to bend the universe to their will.
Let’s jump straight to it.
Caesar at Alesia
Just look at this. What you are seeing is Caesar laying a siege while at the same time being besieged by another force. Just… OK.
The year is 52 BC. It’s the culmination of 8 years of Gallic Wars. The leader of the Gauls is Vercingetorix. A great general himself and a chieftain of the Arveni tribe. He had organized a fairly large rebellion and even convinced several tribes, allies of Rome, to defect and join his cause. After shadowing Caesar’s legions for some time, and playing a game of cat and mouse, he ended up retreating to the hill town fort of Alesia. Around 30,000 strong, together with the local civilian population were stationed in the small fort.
Caesar, being the great tactician that he is, opted for a prolonged siege, to starve and demoralize his enemy. He ordered the construction of a 18 km long wall to circumvent the town and prevent the enemy’s escape (the middle fortification that you see on the photo above). As you can imagine, this is already a little unorthodox. Sieging a fortified town with a smaller force, in the middle of enemy territory, with little to no supplies. But then what this total badass did was to turn around and build a secondary, outer wall, 21 km long, circumventing the first one, with enough space to contain his entire army. And those walls, weren’t anything simple either. There was enough space for his man to patrol them, as well as more than 20 towers, trenches, and even a moat which he somehow filled with water.
Between the choice of attacking a superior force with better position and being trapped between two armies, Caesar opted for a 3rd option – to build his own frigging castle.
While all of this was happening, Vercingetorix’s relief force arrived, adding more than 50,000 to his already larger force. Caesar was outnumbered 3 to 1 and was smack in the middle of the two armies.
The battle raged for several days, the Gauls were attacking simultaneously from the inside and outside, with the two side’s cavalries chasing each other around the fortifications. On the 3rd day of fighting, a focused attack on one side of the fortifications almost broke the Romans but a young soldier by the name of Mark Antony snatched victory from defeat with his commanding skills.
On the final day of the battle, both Gallic armies made a last attempt to break Caesar and attacked simultaneously, spreading to cover the whole length of the fortifications. The Romans were spread thin and Caesar was commanding his reserves himself, rotating groups of 500–1000 man and reinforcing every spot that was about to falter.
Completely surrounded and fighting on all directions at once, Rome’s legions were in dire situation. Then the worse thing happened, the outer Gallic army bridged the outside walls and poured in the fortifications. Caesar rallied around 7,000 soldiers from wherever he could spare and formed a shield wall on the two sides of the broken fortifications, trying to contain the Gallic spill. Then, from another side of the wall he sent his remaining cavalry who were useless defending the walls anyway, to break out of the fortifications, circle around and charge from the location where the Gauls were entering his defenses. In the most epic pincer move ever, Caesar’s cavalry came seemingly out of nowhere, scaring the attackers shitless, and making them think another army was approaching. This caused general panic. Seeing this, the whole Gallic relief force retreated, leaving only Vercingetorix and his remaining forces trapped inside the fort.
Vercingetorix rode out and personally surrendered to Caesar the next day.
Caesar seen here, forced to sit down due to the sheer weight of his balls.
“A Total COLLAPSE Is Coming” – Whitney Webb WARNING 2024
Yes. The key word is Chinese, not Singapore. But then Zuckerberg’s wife is Chinese and he was not asked about It. Chew was asked about his wife and children. Maybe if Tom Swabhead goes to Singapore, their immigration control should ask
“Are you a member of the Ku Klux Klan?”
“No, sir I am from…..”
“ Just answer the question”
“ No sir”
“Did your ancestors fight for the Confederates?”
“Sir, that was before my……”
“Yes or no please”
“You can’t expect me to…. no sir”
“Did your great grandfather own slaves ?”
“What makes you think so?”
“Your surname is Cotton. And have you heard of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?”
I Walked In On My Fiancée “Servicing” My Dad, Got In On Video And Now I’m Sending It To Her Family
One day when I was around 18 or so, my mom got a can of soup out of the pantry. When she went to open it, she found the can had already been cut and the soup was all moldy inside:
She grabbed another can: same thing. My mom ended up pulling all the canned items out of the pantry to check each one. All said, there were at least a dozen cans of soup that had been opened and carefully placed back on the shelf, and they were now absolutely disgusting inside.
My brother, my father, and I all swore we had not been responsible for this. None of us had any theories (well, no reasonable theories) as to how this might have happened.
It wasn’t until a while later (might have been a few months or even a year or more later, don’t really remember clearly) that my mom was telling this story at a gathering of a large group of family friends when one of my best friends, Joelle, interjected with: “Umm, I think maybe that was me…”
And then we finally got our explanation for the whole bizarre event.
Several months prior to “the soup incident,” my family had gone away for a week-long vacation. Joelle, also 18 or so, had been our house-sitter since we had pets that needed to be taken care of.
She now recalled for us how one night she had been in the mood for a bowl of soup (and we had told her to feel free to eat anything she wanted). So she grabbed a can of soup and our can opener, which wasn’t like the electric one she was used to. Ours looked like the one on the left while she was used to the kind like the one on the right:
With the can openers she was used to, the blade would pierce into the top of the lid, cutting down into the metal inside the rim, like this:
Ours, on the other hand, was a “safety” can opener that cut into the side of the can, just below the rim:
So, after finally managing to latch the thing onto the can, she twisted it around the can like steps 1 and 2 below:
But she never got to step 3, because to her, it didn’t look like it worked.
Hungry, and determined to not let the defective can opener deprive her of a bowl of soup, she tried a different can. Then another…and another…before finally just giving up and eating something else entirely. And since she didn’t manage to open anything anyway, she just put all the cans back into the pantry the way she’d found them.
She never mentioned it to us before, because who wants to admit to being the dumbass who can’t operate a simple can opener?? Besides, it’s not like we would ever find out…
And that is the story of how our house guest accidentally left us with a pantry full of moldy soup.
*images are not of the actual incident. I got all the images from a Google image search and then added the borders, arrows, and commentary.
Nearly 90% of the 500 invited guests didn’t attend the wedding.
This wedding was recent, just last Christmas. The bride and groom, let’s call them Michelle and Paul, were married on December 24, of all dates.
Michelle is a goddaughter of my aunt and her mom has been friends with my aunt since high school. Paul is a third generation Filipino Chinese but his grandmother is very traditional. She insisted on consulting a feng shui expert, who claimed that December 24 was the best date for the couple to get married on. How he decided on this advice, I have no idea.
In Filipino culture, Christmas is the most important holiday of the year. During Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Filipinos will surely be home to celebrate these days with their families. How Filipino families will spend Christmas is always pre-planned, so don’t think they’ll give up being with their families on a very special occasion just so they can attend your wedding.
Michelle’s mom lamented that her daughter and future son-in-law almost had no say on the details of their own wedding, and that everyone in Paul’s family seemed to blindly obey their matriarch.
As soon as my aunt received the wedding invitation, she called Michelle and her mom right away to let them know that she won’t be able to attend the wedding. To make it even less likely for guests to attend, the wedding was set at 6 PM, which is going to be followed by dinner at a hotel. Knowing how big weddings really go, the 6PM ceremony will last for an hour, then it’s followed by endless picture taking in the church, which is followed by even more picture taking at the reception. When guests finish dinner, there’s going to be a program and other traditional wedding stuff that will take hours. So, the guests will be essentially spending Christmas Eve at this wedding and not at home with their families.
So the wedding took place as planned, but only two or three members of the entourage made it. After pictures were taken in the church, the two bridesmaids and the best man, who is the only part of the groom’s entourage who made it, left and rushed to get home.
The reception was really sad. Only family members were left in attendance that the program was nixed.
A few days after the wedding, my aunt had a chat with Michelle’s mom and she was still disappointed. She had hoped that the wedding would be set on a different day so that most of the guests could attend. She said that the function hall was practically vacant with rows of empty tables. The servers who were hired to accommodate 500 guests ended up serving one guest each. She sent my aunt a picture that looked like this:
(Photo Credit to emmalovesweddings via Pinterest)
It really baffles me why this wedding still took place as planned and there didn’t seem to be any adjustments made. It’s truly bizarre and not something a bride would like to remember about what could have been the happiest day of her life.
Edit: First, thank you for the upvotes 😊🤗 I never thought my answer would get this much attention since the question was answered many times before I did.
If I did not reply to your comment, it means I can’t find it 🙁 I don’t get notifications on some comments.
I’ve been to many weddings and have heard of and seen some unpleasant things happen that I can add a few more to this answer. The reason why I chose this wedding for my answer is because of it being so bizarre, it’s unbelievable.
Here are some information to help explain how the wedding went as it did and I learned this from my aunt after I posted this answer.
The grandmother paid for the bulk of the wedding expenses. She paid close to 90% of the costs and in a way it helped explain why she had the last say on the decisions. If the wedding was meant to be a gift (this is only a speculation), she should have just given the money to the couple so they can plan their wedding according to their choices.
I still can’t get my head around this: Grandma booked the venue on the day the invitations were sent out. So there really was no point in waiting for RSVP. One of the wedding planners quit at this point— not surprising at all.
Before the invitations were sent out, the bride’s family was advised by several friends that a Christmas Eve wedding is not a good idea. According to my aunt, one of the bride’s uncles was heard saying, “I told Michelle not to expect us if she’s having her wedding on Christmas Eve. We already made plans.” Several friends also said basically the same. “If the wedding is on Christmas Eve, we won’t make it. Count us out.” So the family already knew that many of the guests won’t make it. The groom informed his family of this. Clearly they were not able to convince grandma, who said, “We will proceed as planned.” I’m pretty sure one can still cancel or make reductions on catering services at reasonable charges but grandma did not. Well, it’s her money. 🤷🏻♀️
The few members of the entourage who made it apparently had an agreement with the couple. The best man and two bridesmaids, one of them turned maid of honor, promised the bride and groom that they will stand for them during the ceremony at 6PM, but also promised their families they will be home in time to spend Christmas Eve. This is why they appeared to have ditched the couple at the church when they did not. Because of this lack of a wedding party, certain parts of the ceremony were “altered.” it got me asking this question, if there were only this few members of the entourage, couldn’t members of the family take their place? It seems that the more details I got, the more questions I have.
The “RSVP” doesn’t always work in my culture. Sadly, most people do not bother replying to an invitation. If they want to attend, they’ll simply show up and sometimes they do so with extra guests in tow. If they don’t or can’t make it to the occasion, they will simply do not show up. I know this from experience. This also explains why in most gatherings, the host prepares food based on the number of people who were invited, not with the number of people who confirmed to attend. Paul’s grandmother must have had the same thought, but it was definitely not a smart move to go ahead and have the caterers prepare according to the number of invited guests. Adjustments should have been made when several guests already expressed their regrets about not being able to attend in favor of spending Christmas Eve with families.
One guest told my aunt, “It is wrong of them to assume we’ll give up Christmas Eve in favor of the wedding. If you invite me for any occasion on a Christmas Eve, it is understood that I will not attend.” I’m assuming the other guests shared the same sentiment.
There was a compromise on the wedding date and the wedding ceremony. I was also curious about this and I learned that the families came to an agreement. The wedding ceremony was held by Catholic rites in deference to the bride’s religion, but the date of the wedding will be decided by the groom’s family, who are Chinese, thru a feng shui reading. It was probably an attempt at combining traditions for the merging of two families but it did not work.
There’s definitely a lot of absurdity on this wedding that I still find it hard to believe the entire thing happened at all. I hope for the best for the couple.
Magic Music for Cats – UNBELIEVABLE Results (Tested 2022)
Ending The U.S. Presence In Middle East
The Biden administration, in its utter stupidity, is launching a(nother) full fledged war throughout the Middle East.
> U.S. forces launched a broad attack against Iran’s powerful military wing and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria on Friday, delivering a blow to armed groups that Washington has blamed for killing American troops in Jordan and a surge of violence across the Middle East. <
🇺🇸💥🇮🇶Footage shows the explosions of the headquarters of the Anbar Operation Command & the headquarters of the 13th Hashd al-Sha’bi Brigade, after it was targeted by US raids, in the Anbar province of Iraq
That is is unit which is fighting ISIS … 🤔 Embedded video
I am returning to the Middle East this coming week to continue working with our partners on how to achieve durable peace in the region, with lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The US: We don’t want to escalate the war in the ME, but we bombed Yemen & killed 10 Yemenis, we bombed Syria & Iraq & killed 16 Iraqis, 7 Syrians, but please de-escalate coz we will bomb you more in the coming days. In the meantime we are sending bombs to Israel to bomb Gaza.
—
In 2020, after the U.S. assassination of General Qassam Suleimani, the leadership of Iran announced that, in consequence, the U.S. presence in the Middle East will be ended. Iran and its allies have since diligently prepared themselves to achieve that aim.
The hot phase of the process itself was initiated primarily by Hamas on October 7 (which followed the October 2 desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers). The secondary and tertiary steps were launched by Ansarollah in Yemen and Kataib Hizbullah in Iraq.
In each cases the U.S. and its Israeli proxy responded with harsh escalations.
Harakat al Nujaba PMF declares that it will not be defeated or subdued by US airstrikes and vows to teach the US humility with fire, says it has surprises in store. Attached image
> The statement also affirmed that the Syrian army will continue to defend Syria’s land and people, and strike all terrorist groups, regardless of how much their sponsors and supporters try to obstruct this goal. It added that it is determined to liberate the entire Syrian territory from all terrorism and occupation, including the US occupation which “cannot persist.” <
The Axis of Resistance is present throughout the Middle East. It has its own economic and social networks. It produces its own weapons and its fighters are well trained to fight under the local circumstances. This is an enemy the U.S. can not defeat.
These groups’ decision to strike US forces in response to the Gaza genocide follows a well-entrenched pattern of resisting joint US-Israeli aggression, or what the Journal describes as efforts to “push back against American and Israeli influence” in the Middle East. And contrary to US claims that Iran’s main regional allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah in Yemen (the Houthis), the PMU in Iraq, Hamas/Islamic Jihad in Palestine, and the Syrian government — are all mere Iranian “proxies”, these groups “have domestic agendas of their own and operate with some measure of autonomy,” the Journal notes. US intelligence analyst Brian Katz concurs. Iran’s allies “are no longer simply Iranian proxies,” Katz writes. “Rather, they have become a collection of ideologically aligned, militarily interdependent, mature political-military actors committed to mutual defence.”
The conflict has boiling on a low flame for some time:
As the Washington Post notes, Iranian allies in the region “began targeting U.S. interests in 2018, after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran” as part of a hawkish policy of “maximum pressure.” Rather than return to the Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in January 2021, Biden continued the Trump agenda – and knowingly endangered US troops in the process.
When Biden “ordered airstrikes on militia groups” in Syria, the Washington Post reported in August 2021, that ended up “sparking a fresh cycle of reciprocal violence, with militiamen firing at a facility housing U.S. troops and American forces responding with artillery fire.” Biden’s support for Israeli aggression against Syria yielded the same result. When a drone strike hit a US military base located in southern Syria in October 2021, US and Israeli officials acknowledged that it was “Iranian retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria,” the New York Times reported.
In launching and encouraging attacks on Iranian allies in the region, Biden was pursuing an arrangement that he forged with the Israeli government In August 2021, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged Biden to pursue “a death by a thousand cuts” strategy, in which the US and Israel would “[counter] Iran through a combination of many small actions across several fronts — both military and diplomatic — instead of a single dramatic strike,” Axios reported. The goal would be to put Iran’s “regional aggression” – a euphemism for resisting US-Israeli hegemony – “back in the box.” Toward that goal, one of Bennett’s key requests was that “Biden not to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq and Syria,” which the Israeli delegation felt quite “optimistic” about. In Biden, Bennett gushed, “I found a leader who loves Israel, knows exactly what he wants and is attuned to our needs.”
In opposite to those plans it is the Resistance which is using small and increasingly larger cuts to eliminate, over time, the U.S. presence in the Middle East. It is dead serious.
I would like to ask you now to understand the following: It is not what I want or my opinion; it is the ice-cold reality: On October 7th, a war was started by the Axis of Resistance. It was started against both Israel and the Western occupation of the Middle East. As stated above, it will not end before all occupation forces are out of the Middle East, the Two State Solution has been implemented in Israel, or all people in the Middle East are dead … period.
I have no emotions here; I’m not invested in the region. This is a logical assessment of what is currently happening in the region. It is not going to stop until one of the scenarios is implemented.
Other interested powers are already positioning themselves for a new situation in the Middle East.
Give it two, three or maybe even five years. But the envisioned results WILL be achieved.
Posted by b on February 3, 2024 at 15:38 UTC | Permalink
Art break
The Age of Making Money is Over. The middle-class is done.
Sausage and Cheese Calzone
I don’t know about you, but the only thing I love more than pizza is a big calzone filled to capacity with all of my favorite fillings. Calzones are the ultimate in Italian comfort food if you ask me. More than lasagna or spaghetti, when I want something that fills me up and leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside, I go for a calzone. These calzones are the best I’ve ever had because they’re fully homemade. From the dough to the sauce, it’s all made from scratch right in the kitchen, so it’s the freshest, tastiest calzone ever!
Homemade Calzone Recipe
There’s nothing better than this delicious calzone recipe for a dish that’s full of Italian flavor. A flaky, homemade crust surrounds a filling of Italian sausage, onions, pepperoni, three kinds of cheese, Italian seasoning, and more tasty ingredients, then they’re served with a tasty marinara sauce. When you put them all together, you get a recipe for hand-held deliciousness that you just cannot beat. It’s just like holding a tiny pizza in your hand and then devouring it.
In a skillet, cook the sausage and onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring to break up the meat.
Add bell pepper and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring often, or until the sausage is cooked through and vegetables are soft.
Remove with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Stir in the mozzarella, parsley and red pepper flakes.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Brush 2 baking sheets with olive oil or spray with olive oil cooking spray.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Take one piece of the dough and with floured hands press it into a 6-inch round. Stretch or roll it out with a rolling pin into a 12-inch circle. Leaving a 1/2-inch edge, spread a quarter of the filling over half of the dough. Dampen the edges with water. Fold the dough in half to enclose the filling; seal the edges with a fork. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. With a large spatula, carefully transfer the calzones to the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and crisp on the outside.
Serve warm.
Variations
One of the best parts about these homemade calzones is that you can play with it to make it exactly the way you want it. After making the crust, the rest is up to you. Go super rustic or make it semi-homemade. Use your favorite toppings. You can tweak it to your heart’s content.
Favorite Pizza Toppings
Just like a pizza, this calzone is totally open to your interpretation. Use any of your favorite pizza toppings from sausage and pepperoni to salami, ham, and pineapple, olives, anchovies, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and more. If you’d put it on a pizza, you can put it in this calzone.
Vegetarian Calzone
Make this recipe vegetarian by filling it with your favorite pizza veggie options. The marinara sauce pairs perfectly with any vegetable that you’d normally put on your vegetarian pizza.
Semi-Homemade Calzone Recipe
If you don’t want to go the homemade route, make this recipe semi-homemade. Use premade pizza dough and pizza sauce to cut down on time. Then make the rest of the recipe per the directions.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have questions about this homemade calzone recipe, then I have answers. The following FAQ answers all the most frequently asked questions regarding calzones, so it’s worth a read before diving into the recipe.
What is a calzone?
A calzone is simply a folded pizza. Its essentially an Italian version of a savory turnover.
What’s the Difference Between Calzones and Stromboli?
There are three major differences between the two. Calzones are simply a round crust folded in half and stuffed with toppings and sauce. On the other hand, Stromboli is rolled into a spiral with a bit of extra dough folded over the top to seal it. Another major difference is that, while both the calzone and Stromboli are dippable, Stromboli will often have sauce baked inside it while calzones never will. Finally, calzones almost always have ricotta cheese in them, and Stromboli doesn’t.
Do Calzones have Sauce Inside?
No. Calzones are dipped in sauce. The sauce is never baked in.
Do Calzones Always Have Ricotta Cheese in Them?
Traditional calzones almost always have ricotta cheese in them.
Is a Calzone Just a Folded Pizza?
Pretty much!
What to serve with calzones?
These are hefty, hearty hand-held pizzas, so the best things to serve are light options like a side salad or roasted vegetables.
Can you freeze calzones?
Yes. Let the leftover calzones chill in the refrigerator, then wrap them tightly in clingwrap and store them in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bags.
Homemade Calzone Recipe Ingredients
This recipe is fully homemade, so there are several ingredients. The great thing is that they’re all simple and easily found at your local grocery store.
For the Dough
All purpose flour
Instant dry yeast
Salt
Sugar
Warm water
Olive oil
For the Filling
Butter
Onion, diced
Hot Italian sausage
Oregano
Basil
Red pepper flakes
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Parmesan cheese, shredded
Fresh parsley, chopped
Garlic salt
Black pepper
Large eggs, with one egg beaten
Pepperoni slices
For the Marinara Sauce
Tomato sauce
Tomato paste
Crushed tomatoes
Onion powder
Garlic salt
Oregano
Basil
Black pepper
How to Make This Homemade Calzone Recipe
As a fully homemade recipe, you’ll be making the dough, filling, and sauce. Don’t let that deter you, though. All three parts of the recipe are very simple to make. Requiring only basic steps that anyone can do.
Step 1: Make the Homemade Pizza Dough
In a large bowl, whisk flour, yeast, salt, and sugar together. Add warm water and oil. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer with the dough hook, mix on low until ingredients are well incorporated. Increase speed to medium and continue mixing until dough forms into a ball (about 8-10 minutes).
Place dough ball into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rise for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. Next, transfer to a well-floured surface and divide the dough into 9 even pieces. Place dough pieces on a large baking sheet or parchment paper and set them aside.
Step 2: Make the Filling
In a large frying pan or skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add sausage, onions, and seasonings to the pan and cook until sausage is completely cooked through and no longer pink and onions are translucent. Drain and set aside to cool. In another bowl, add the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and parsley. Stir to combine then add eggs. Mix well. When the sausage has cooled, add the cheese mixture, stir to combine. Set aside.
Step 3: Make the Marinara Sauce
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and seasonings. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer over low-medium heat for 20-30 minutes.
Step 4: Assemble the Calzones
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Set aside. Then, roll each dough ball into 6-inch circles. Add a heaping tablespoon or two of the sausage and cheese mixture to the center of the dough. Fold the dough in half and press and pinch the edges together to form a seal. Brush the tops of each calzone with beaten egg and place them on a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 13 minute or until golden brown and serve with the marinara sauce.
First let me help you understand further. If U.S. has the audacity to attack China. It won’t be 4 fronts. It will be at least 10 fronts! The U.S. has done so much shit there is at least 10 nations that wants to teach the U.S. a humbling lesson!
Luckily for you guys China won’t attack you unless you attack them! China wants peace and prosperity not wars and ravages. But still if you make the mistake China will make you pay dearly. Don’t say we did not warn you.
If you attack China in, in China, China will attack the U.S. in U.S. mainland. Don’t be fooled that China will submissively let you walk all over them. This is 2024 not 1842! Let’s hope you are smart enough to be humble.
EVERY URBEXERS NIGHTMARE – WE NEVER EXPECTED THIS TO HAPPEN
I was at a comic convention that was being held inside a mall. I was dressed as Batman. We decided to walk around the mall for shock value, as we were and are weird that way.
While my friends went into a store to shop, I stood outside a Barnes and Noble bookstore waiting for them. Suddenly, an alarm rings!
The shoplifter had books under his shirt. His hope was to mingle with the Saturday afternoon crowd and be lost in the shuffle, getting away with his ill gotten gains. Keeping his head down, he tries to blend in.
Suddenly, a pair of black boots fills his view. As his gaze travels upwards, he sees a scalloped cape, a Bat emblem, and finally the terrifying visage of…the Batman!
Shocked that Batman was in front of him, he paused…just long enough for the security guard to catch up and snag him. The guard thanked me by saying, “Thanks for helping me nab him, Batman!” He then led the shoplifter off.
Someone called the local news crew, who sent a reporter. By the time they had arrived, the convention was over and I was home. A friend of mine who works at the station told me what happened. The reporter talked to the security guard who confirmed the story. The reporter asked if there was any security footage of the event.
When they checked, because the footage was in black and white, they could barely make out the young man in the t-shirt, but the black clad Batman was not seen. They decided not to run the story without visuals.
Once again, the movie cliché of Batman catching criminals but no one could prove he was there became manifest.
1930s ABANDONED Time Capsule House with MANY Valuables left inside
I made a deposit at the teller window for a check for $741.23. (Yes that’s a very “specific” amount” but important to my story.) I got the deposit receipt back and went on my way. As soon as I got home to enter the transaction my register, I noticed a discrepancy. The deposit receipt said my deposit was for $741.32. I had a copy of the deposit slip I had given the teller, and it said $741.23- the correct amount. Granted it was only 9 cents discrepancy so I thought “No big deal. They will just fix it.” Well, it ended up being a huge deal. I had a number of things set up for auto pay from my bank that would start coming out 2–3 days later. I always try to give myself a window “just in case” I am late depositing my check and it doesn’t post until the following day or something.
Well, the next morning the deposit was showing up as though it had posted- still with the 9 cent discrepancy, so I figured they would just deduct the 9 cents within a couple of days and all would be well. Nope, they completely reversed the deposit and took ALL of that money back out of my account. By the Tuesday following the weekend, I was “in the red” due to “NSF fees.” I called to find out what happened- thinking maybe I had forgotten to enter an auto pay into my records. Nope, I was told that the discrepancy had triggered an investigation of my account and my funds would be held for 21 days. I asked if I could leave a message for the branch manager to give me call. I was told that would be fine. I left a message, and received no call back for a couple of days. This was very unusual.
This was a bank I had used for YEARS for personal and business reasons. The company I work for had a long business relationship with the bank as well. I knew the branch manager well. I arrived at the bank to talk to the branch manager and found out he was out of the country dealing with a family emergency and wouldn’t be back for at least two weeks. I asked to speak to whoever was filling in and explained the nature of the situation. Well, the “substitute” manager was extremely unpleasant and unprofessional. She berated me and was practically yelling at me for an error that was THEIR fault. I was told the situation could only be remedied right away by “a cash deposit large enough to cover the original check and enough to cover the NSF fees.” I was still reeling from the fact it had happened at all. I went back to discuss the matter with my employer, an attorney. He spoke to someone he knew at another branch and they were able to fix the immediate problem, and restored all of my NSF fees. My employer was NOT happy. Shortly after the dust settled, my employer asked me to set up an appointment for us to go down and remove some items from our safe deposit boxes to take out items for an “inventory” of the boxes. While I was in the vault removing the items, my employer was out in the lobby closing down all of the accounts and the boxes. We moved them next door to a different bank.
Our usual branch manager came back to the news that we had closed all of our accounts. He asked why this happened over something so “insignificant” as a 9 cent discrepancy. I went through the entire scenario. He was so upset that it had happened, but he understood why. The manager that berated me is now gone. I will NEVER work with this bank again. They were the issuer of a rewards card I had for travel. I cashed out all my rewards and closed the card. If I ever find out they are the issuer of any credit card I may apply for, I just say “no thank you.”
I think you mean either the Navy or the Air Force. There is no scenario where the US Army engages the Chinese Army without first Naval and Air engagements.
And the loser of the engagement won’t be fighting an Army war afterwards.
The current state of the art is that the Chinese have a decisive advantage over US war ships. The US would have to traverse 1,200 miles of Ocean minimum to attack China or Chinese forces. During those 1,200 miles of Ocean, the US fleet would come under attack from ASBMs (anti-ship ballistic missiles), Hypersonic wave riders that can come in from any direction, and supersonic anti-ship missiles.
The Pentagon simulations show that US ships don’t have enough ammunition to prevent most if not all US ships from being sunk.
If the US launch fighters, then the US F-35 from 10 carriers (about 700 fighters) would be facing several thousand Chinese fighters of various grades but with PL-15 air to air missiles which out range US AIM-120 by at least 30 miles.
If your army have pistols and the enemy has rifles and we are fighting on a open plain starting at 1,000 yards with no obstacles, who would win?
WTF Girl?
Ukraine Army Uses American-Supplied HIMARS to Strike Bakery, Killing 20 Civilians
The Ukraine Army used an American-supplied HIMARS precision rocket system, to attack a Bakery/Restaurant in the ex-Ukraine city of Lysychansk, Luhansk, Russia today. The strike killed at least twenty (20) people and destroyed the building.
TERRIFYING SCENES of dusted and bloodied bodies on stretchers could be seen as the dead and injured victims were pulled from rubble.
Lysychansk is a city of about 99,000 people and is some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory. It is not a military center and has no military troops or bases there.
It is clear Ukraine hit this city because they wanted to kill CIVILIANS. The scalable map below shows the location of Lysychansk.
Video of a heavily damaged building, with emergency workers pulling out an entirely crushed car, is already making its way across global social media sites has people asking why the Ukraine Army would hit a bakery? The answer: The bakery was known to have fresh bread on weekends.
The Luhansk Information Center said Ukraine shelled the bakery using the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
Lysychansk voted in a supervised and internationally-observed Public Referendum, to secede from Ukraine and to join Russia. Ukraine would not let them go.
The city was liberated from the Ukrainian Nazi government by Russian forces in the year 2022.
Since then, from time to time, Ukraine has fired into the city from the distant front lines, for the sole purpose of harming civilians, whom they hate for voting to leave.
Open up China and ALLOW MORE AND MORE PEOPLE TO SEE CHINA FOR THEMSELF
That’s what’s being done
Rather than keep responding to Western Lies, China took the best way out which is to
Come & see for Yourself
Every foreigner who comes to China, reports on the reality which is seen by at least 50–100 more foreigners and gradually they begin to see the LIES that the Mainstream media has been spreading
It’s how CHINA BROKE THE UYGHUR LIES
Rather than respond to Western propaganda which would matter very little, they invited and had 600,000 people visit Xinjiang including 80,000 foreigners from the West & Japan plus another 400+ delegates from across the world
Not one of them could respond to the propaganda spread by the West and many downright called them “LIES”
So the West quietly changed Genocide to CULTURAL GENOCIDE which was addressed by a Chinese who said “So what , you want us to remain in the 19th Century is it?”
I recently sent a mail to their tourism department and they said Xinjiang needs NO PERMISSIONS whatsoever for any size tour group
You can book a ticket to Urumqi and as long as you follow Visa norms, you can travel anywhere you want within China
The Chinese of course are aware of this but they know it’s a lie. They know how their life is.
They are puzzled to know they are being repressed by the CPC and regard the whole thing as obviously childish lies.
Simple as that
BOOK YOUR TICKET and find out what China really is like.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I had very average scores in the 12th grade and the CET exams. I did not prep for or take the JEE. I randomly walked in to the BITSAT and AIEEE and obviously didn’t clear those either. My father wanted me to take a “core engineering” branch like Mechanical in a semi-decent college. He was willing to help figure out a way to pay for that. However, I was only interested in computers at the time; so I decided to push back. Also, I don’t like handouts or shortcuts so decided to take my rightful place at the new college-by-the-highway and see where life took me.
At the time, a lot of people mocked me and said it was stupid of me to have screwed up my one chance to make my life better. Most people started dismissing me from their lives as just one more from the crowd. Four years later, I got an admit from Stanford University and suddenly everyone wanted to be my friend; everyone wanted to tell me how they always believed in me. I was not buying it. The journey wasn’t romantic at all. Every day, every week, every month was a struggle, a fight worth fighting, a life worth living. I found my true friends and the love of my life during that journey. They were the people who stood by me and had my back when I was a nobody.
Being at the small college gave me time to pursue what I genuinely enjoyed. I loved building robots and my HoD supported me whole heartedly as I participated in competitions across the country along with my friends (from 3 different colleges). I would not have received such an opportunity had I taken admission at another college where grades mattered most. It was this support, encouragement and exposure that helped me build a stronger profile.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. My friends and I started building robots in his house when we were 19. We worked hard and in three years, we had won many national and international competitions and earned a name for ourselves in the country’s AI circles. Do note, this was way back in 2007 when AI was a very new field that not many people fully understood. We started a company that enabled us to teach college students about robotics and AI, and, we were happy. And then we closed it all down. Life happened. A couple of us got jobs and moved. One of my friends had to take some extra classes and had to repeat a year. And as for me, I had no clue what to do next so I decided to take a year off and watch birds while I applied for my M.S.
Our robotics team was very near and dear to me. My team was literally my best friends, the guys I grew up with since I was a toddler. To close shop and move on like that was heartbreaking. We had dreamed of conquering the world together as teens but life would have none of it. This was the first time I understood what it meant to give up something you love. Luckily we all stood by each other and ensured that we helped one another move on with things. After all, there’s more than one way to achieve your dreams. And things did eventually work out really well for all of us.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if we hadn’t dissolved the company. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patients needed it.
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I watched my idol read a quote that went something like:
“If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 13 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Earlier this year, my father had a severe stroke. It took me 36 hours to get back home to be with my mother. Those were the longest 36 hours of my life. We spent the next three weeks with dad in the ICU as he battled for his life. Until then, death was always a concept that we had discussed often but never actually witnessed. We practically lost him a couple of times but he made it back. This taught me some very important life lessons, especially around what my priorities should be.
I learned how fragile life is and that family should always come first. It struck me deeply how we will all someday lose the people we love. I realized how important it is to make every moment count.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
What is the biggest misconception people have about life?
My father had a boyhood “best friend”. His name was Zeke.
He used to tell me stories. They would go fishing together as boys. They would do things. They would get drunk, and they would live their lives on “Polish Hill” a Polish-American suburb in Pittsburgh.
He was Zeke’s “best man” at his wedding. And he knew both Zeke and his wife quite well as they all were High School friends.
One day…
…I was perhaps 16 years old at the time, and having a long-distance, relationship with my girlfriend. With periodic phone calls, and weekend visits to her home in Lower Burrel, PA.
One day…
My father was crestfallen. He came home (from work) and was pale as a ghost.
It turns out that his buddy Zeke had an argument with his wife. It was pretty bad. And the wife took out a pistol and shot Zeke in the face.
BLAM!
It apparently blew most of his head off, and he was buried in a closed-casket.
It really shook my dad up, and I don’t blame him.
Now, myself, being much older… has had good long time “best Buds” Childhood friends dead… yeah I know what it is like.
Robbie… drug overdose. Marcus… Suicide by shotgun blast. My cousin Sincere’ … Coronavirus.
My brother, Daniel… I just don’t know… he doesn’t answer any e-mails. It’s been over a year now.
Life moves on.
People.
Life is too short to die over an argument. If you and your spouse are not getting along… then leave. No one needs to die over anything.
At the age of 39 I had it all. A loving wife, two fantastic kids, an apartment in New York City, a house in the country, new car, nice vacations and a high paying job as Creative Director of a hot creative advertising agency.
Everyone wanted to be me.
Except me.
On the outside I was the poster boy for Happy Successful Man Who Has His Whole Future Ahead Of Him. But deep down inside I was miserable.
I began to assault myself daily with that five word mantra. The one that so many of us begin muttering when they find themselves wandering through that unfamiliar, unsettling neighborhood known as midlife.
Is this all there is?
We don’t ask ourselves that question when we’re 25. It’s still too early in the first quarter of the game. We caught the ball on the five yard line and we’re making our way up the field.
But at 39, it’s halftime. Do the math. The average man is going to live till the age of 78. I was on the back nine.
I know — your actual mileage may vary. You could get killed falling off a ladder at age 60. Or at the age of 100 you could fall off a hooker. There’s a lot of latitude in The Middle. But somewhere between 30 and 50 you’re halfway done. It’s up to you to decide when to look at the face in the mirror and say:
Is this all there is?
No. There’s a whole lot more. And I’m going to tell you how to get there. Tonight I’m going to send someone to your house. He’s a teenager, about 17 or 18. He doesn’t know much about life — what teenager does? But he knows what’s cool. And after talking to you for a couple of hours, he’s going to be able to zero in on what’s a cool new direction for you to head in.
In fact, by the end of the evening, this kid is going to completely outline and plan the second half of your life. And that’s what you’ll do. Trust me, it will be cool.
What’s that you say? That’s the dumbest damn thing you ever heard? Why should you let some teenage kid with no world experience plan the second half of your life?
My answer is, why did you let him plan the first half?
This rut that you’re stuck in, this life that you’re trapped in, who planned it? Not you. Not the YOU you are now. Most of us form our life’s plans shortly after high school. Maybe we’re 16, maybe we’re 23, but for the most part we’re still kids. And then once we make a plan, we stick with it.
That was my insight. I was pushing 40 and still living the dream of some teenage kid.
That kid didn’t exist anymore, and yet I was still following the path he laid out for me. Most kids can’t project past next Saturday, much less conjure up what your life could be like 25 years down the road.
That was the moment I decided that the 40 year old me should start planning the life of the 60 year old me and beyond.
I was at the top of the ladder, and I suddenly realized I didn’t need one more rung. I wanted to find a new ladder.
I did. Climbing that ladder was at times terrifying, but never boring. Today I have all the things I had at the age of 39 and more. But this time around I’m deliriously happy with who I am and where I am. I still have dreams for the future, but I no longer wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and ask is this all there is?
My Act Two was conceived, written, produced, and directed by an adult. And I’m grateful for the insight that convinced him to take on the job.
EDIT – JANUARY 30, 2017: Dear People of Quora. I am overwhelmed by your response to my post. Not because the number of views and upvotes have skyrocketed, but because most of the comments and the private messages have asked me for more. Lots more.
One commenter, Traci Amick, said it like this: “Marshall, Marshall, Marshall… You can’t leave us hanging! When you made the decision to redirect and change your life what and how did you do it?”
There was a reason I left you hanging. I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, let me give you a brief (and I do mean brief) overview of what happened after the light bulb went on.
Here I was, pushing 40. At my core I’m a writer, but somewhere along the way the ad agency that hired me to write ads promoted me and paid me more money to stop writing and start managing. I wore suits, spent a lot more face time with clients, and I supervised a hundred other people. And while it was often gratifying, I realized that my career had stolen the one thing I loved doing most. Writing.
My solution was to start writing on my own. Over the course of countless nights and weekends I wrote a play, Squabbles, a comedy. Two years later it ran for eight weeks in a dinner theatre in Kansas City. (Since then it has played in thousands of theatres around the US.)
Shortly after Squabbles opened, ABC-TV asked me to turn it into a pilot for a sitcom. It didn’t fly, but now I was an accredited pilot writer, and for the next 6 years I kept my day job as an advertising agency Creative Director, and developed TV pilots for the networks on my own time. It’s unusual for a pilot to get picked up for a series, but two of mine did. I was 45 when the second one got picked up, and I decided to make the leap. I left advertising for TV.
I went to Hollywood, but it wasn’t fair to uproot my wife and kids to chase my dream, so they stayed in New York. I flew home as often as I could, which wasn’t often enough. Many of you asked if my quest for a new career wrecked my marriage. Just the opposite. After two years, despite the fact that I was on the fast track, I left Hollywood and came back to what was most important to me — my family.
There were some TV writing opportunities in New York, and I wrote a movie script which I sold and produced, and then — out of nowhere — a whole new creative avenue opened up. The Internet.
I caught the wave early. I opened Compelling Content, an Internet advertising agency, sold it five years later, and eventually zeroed in on the final frontier for every writer. A novel.
That took five years, and in 2006, I published The Rabbit Factory, my first crime fiction novel. Today I’m a #1 best selling author, with five books of my own, and the coauthor of the NYPD Red series with James Patterson.
I didn’t mention that in the original post because I didn’t want to be thrown off Quora for shameless self-promotion.
I’m not on Quora to sell my books. I’m here to exchange information, to share experiences, to give and take bits and pieces of life magic. I love this forum, and I’m grateful that one of my posts could resonate with so many of you.
One final note: Eight days after my original post I have a quarter of a million views, 3300 upvotes, and over 100 comments and messages. In the beginning, I responded to the comments, but I’ve reached the point where I no longer can. I wish I could, but I have to get back to my day job. Writing.
At the moment, I’m working on NYPD Red 5 with James Patterson. But this experience on Quora, especially your comments and messages, has made me realize that there are a lot of people out there going through the same mid life career angst that I went through. And that the 60,000 word version of my story just might make an interesting book.
EDIT 2 – FEBRUARY 15, 2017: One million views. Humbling to say the least (and I’m not exactly a guy who’s world famous for his humility).
The subject of life change is a hot button for most of us, but more often than not it’s the story of someone stuck in a dead end job who is looking for a better way. My experience wasn’t that. I walked away from a successful career that was stifling me, and today I’m thriving in the one I had been dreaming about.
I get a lot of head nods when I share my story in person, but I’m amazed that it resonated with so many people across this global forum.
Thank you for your eyeballs, your upvotes, and your feedback.
I was able to answer every direct message, but because of a Quora Quirk it’s extremely difficult to respond to the hundreds of comments. There’s no logic to the order in which they appear and no way to reorder them so the newest are at the top. That means I have to click on “comments,” scroll through five or six, then click on “more comments.” Eventually, I get to one I haven’t read yet, but as soon as I send a reply, the site takes me back to the top of the comments, and I have to go through the process all over again.
EDIT 3-MARCH 18, 2017: For those of you who wanted more details (really — it’s not my ego; some of you actually asked) I’ve expanded my answer into an article on Medium. Thank you for the encouragement. Here’s the link: The Thrills and Perils of Switching Careers
I rented the ground-level apartment in my friend’s split level for a few years. The guys who rented upstairs owned a party lighting company, and as a result they usually came home from work around 3 AM. I worked a nine-to-five job, and I’m a fairly light sleeper. When they came home from work, they’d occasionally turn on the TV, and usually fairly loud, which would of course wake me up, but most of the time I could drown out the noise by turning on a fan in my bedroom.
This was annoying but I could deal with it……until one of their girlfriends moved in upstairs. This nasty such-and-such had no problem with turning up the volume on the TV all the way, in the middle of the night every night, and watching for hours. This was the early years of flat-screen TVs and they had a big one, so likely it was verrrry expensive. When I knocked on the door to ask them to turn it down, I was told ‘this is when we get home from work and we’ll do what we want’. Even having my friend, their landlord, intervene, had no effect.
Well, a few nights of one or two hours’ sleep made me downright ingenious. I remembered that once, while microwaving my dinner, I had started vacuuming the floor and having both appliances turned on tripped the circuit breaker. I crossed my fingers that we were on the same circuit and during the next morning’s 3 AM showing of Willy Wonka, with the girlfriend screaming “I love this movie!” and turning the volume up even louder than usual, I turned on the microwave and the vacuum. Five seconds and poof! Blessed silence! I heard a little shuffling around upstairs, then one of them went down into the basement and reset the circuit breaker.
The power came back on, and so did the television. I waited about a minute before turning back on the microwave and vacuum. Poof! Silence! They reset the circuit breaker again, but this time there was no more TV. I went back to the most blissful slumber ever.
My friend later told me that they complained to him about the power going out because it was such an expensive TV and that could damage the electronics. I told him that if they kept the volume to a respectable level then I wouldn’t have to do anything about it, but I wouldn’t hesitate to if it happened again. The microwave/vacuum trick was only necessary a couple more times before they got the hint and kept the noise down in the middle of the night.
Chinese believes in owning assets and keeping a healthy cash flow. As a Chinese origin I do find western lease or rental mindset difficult to comprehend but it is a cultural thing.
Chinese people feel compel to own things and to not let others dictate lease terms to them. Westerners feel that buying assets when you can lease them makes more sense. But to me it is cultural. China is a 5000 years nation, the west like the U.S, Canada and Australia are merely 250 years or so. They are a warrior type mentality that fights all the time. I guess it impacted their mindset.
Chicken Scaloppini with Rustic Tomato Olive Spaghetti
The ingredients are married perfectly to enhance the chicken.
Ingredients
4 ounces multi-grain thin spaghetti
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large leek, white and light green parts, thinly sliced (or 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 cup Lindsay® California Ripe Pitted Olives, halved lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 egg whites
1/4 cup dried Italian seasoned bread crumbs
4 (4 ounces) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Instructions
Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sauté leek and garlic in oil 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes, olives and pepper flakes; simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon water in a shallow dish or pie plate.
Place bread crumbs in another shallow dish or pie plate.
Dip each cutlet in egg mixture letting excess drip off. Dredge in bread crumbs to coat each side lightly.
Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through.
Drain spaghetti; transfer to four serving plates. Spoon tomato sauce over spaghetti; top with chicken and garnish with basil.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15 min | Servings: 4
Nutrients Per Serving: Calories: 401, Calories from fat: 132, Total fat: 15g, Monounsaturated fat: 9g, Cholesterol: 73mg, Sodium: 683mg, Total Carbohydrates: 33g Dietary fiber: 4g Protein: 33g
I asked AI to make a Music Video… the results are trippy
Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sâr) was the dictator of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, taking power at the end of the Cambodian Civil War. As soon as he took power, He and his administration transformed Cambodia into a one party communist dictatorship. Over the next 4 years, he and his administration committed various human rights violations and carried out what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide. To go into more detail, Pol Pot and his administration:
• Forced the Cambodian population to work without pay.
• Made the Cambodian population live in the country side by forceful removing them from their homes in the cites.
• Destroyed Cambodia’s legal system and replaced it with re-education and interrogation centers. If they thought that you were guilty, you would have been very hard pressed to convince them otherwise.
• Caused much of the Cambodian populace to starve, many times to death.
• Killed anyone they either felt didn’t fit into their new society or deemed to even slightly be a threat to their regime. these included: people with connections to the previous government, Doctors, Lawyers, Intellectuals, Journalists, Business Leaders, Vietnamese Cambodians, Chinese Cambodians, Thai Cambodians, Christian Cambodians, Cham Muslims and family members of prisoners who were thought to be a threat to the regime. Even wearing glasses or being able to speak multiple languages could get you killed.
• If you were to be executed (which was very likely), you would have been taken to one the various “Killing Fields” and would most likely be killed with a pickaxe, so that they did not waste any bullets.
By the time they were overthrown during a Vietnamese invasion, the Cambodian life expectancy was about 18 years old.
As bad as rulers such as Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin and Mao Zedong were for their people, I believe no one was as brutal as Pol Pot was.
I feel like their motto put it best:
To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.
This doesn’t qualify as disgusting, but many years ago, I was involved with an Internet startup. They spent all of their time having meetings which achieved nothing, and were a complete waste of everybody’s time. One day, I was asked, no told, by the CEO to prepare a lengthy report on something that I considered ridiculous. I wrote 3 pages of it, and then decided to see what would happen if I didn’t finish it off, so I added 35 more pages of Loren Ipsum (Latin), and handed the report in. At the next meeting when everybody was present, I made a point of asking the CEO if the report was what he had wanted. He said “Yes, it was great”. I stood up, and told the entire room that this very important report that I had handed in, and which the CEO thought was great, actually contained 35 pages of Latin, proving that he hadn’t actually looked at it. I said “I quit”, and walked out of the door. The company went belly up 6 months later.
I don’t know if it was disgusting, but it was rather a unique trick. I used this a couple of times on drug dealers.
When I worked undercover in narcotics I would be asked to buy street-dealer weight in either cocaine or Heroin. The designer drugs weren’t around yet and this new stuff called crack was just making its way onto the market.
One problem every undercover faced was the hand to hand delivery of the drugs. During the actual purchase, you needed to be able to testify that you gave the money directly to the seller and they directly handed you the drugs. ( AKA hand to hand purchase).
Drug dealers were wise to this. When an informant would introduce me to the seller they would take the money but they would only give the drugs to the informant and not to me directly.
I couldn’t testify that I got the drugs from the informant. That would require me to identify the informant and have them testify. No way I would do that. So I came up with a cool little trick.
I would give the dealer the money and he would pass the drugs off to the informant who gave them to me. I would look at the package and say it was light (not the correct weight) and throw the package back directly to the dealer saying I wanted my money back. Drug dealers are not in the business of giving out refunds.
I’d move in close seemingly to get my money back, but we’d talk a little and I would agree to the light package if he would agree the next package would be a little overweight.
As soon as the dealer agreed, I’d reach out and take the package back directly from the dealer, sometimes almost pulling it out of his hands, thus completing a hand to hand transaction.
We would let the case sit for six months before we made the arrest, so they would not remember what informant walked me in. But my little hand to hand trick worked every time.
What is the craziest military tactic ever used?
Viewer discretion is advised… Imagine you’ve time travelled back to the 7th July 1944, and you’re now a squad leader on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands with the 105th Infantry Regiment of the US Army. As your cutting around giving the ‘grunts’ on the .30 cal Browing machine-gun their ‘arcs of fire,’ suddenly, multiple blood-curdling screams across the battlefield could be heard – BANZAIIIIII!!!!!
The Japanese have just launched a massive banzai charge, leading from the front are their officers, brandishing their samurai swords. Just behind the officers are thousands of Japanese soldiers with bayonets fixed, and as the sun glints down on the cold steel you feel the sweat beads across the forehead form. You lift your helmet and wipe the sweat with your sleeve as you wait for them to get in range. . . you wait. . . and wait. . . RAPID FIRE!!!
Your M1 Garand’s barrel is glowing red, the .30 cal is clattering away bursting your eardrums. As one of the enemy Japanese soldiers falls another one takes his place. They have now broken into your position and the hand-to-hand fighting is fierce. . . all of a sudden you’ve been brought back to the present, you don’t know why, but grateful that you’re now safe. . . I’ve dramatized, but I want to try to put you into the same position (‘foxhole’) as the defenders.
The Battle of Saipan and the US forces had pushed the Japanese back so far they had nowhere to go by 6th July, so the commander of the Japanese forces Yoshitsugu Saitõ made plans for a final suicide banzai charge for his soldiers and the civilians on the island. Saitõ said:
“There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured.”
Why the Japanese soldier didn’t believe in surrender, was because they believed in the code of ‘Bushido’ the samurai code of conduct:
Honour was a samurai’s life. Upholding one’s honour through suicide was regarded as a virtue. Loss of face was regarded as an insult that had to be avenged. Surrender was unforgivable sin that resulted in exclusion from civilized society. Dying in battle is what a samurai aspired to achieve.
The Japanese would try to swarm the enemy in a mass frontal attack which the allies called a banzai charge. This was shortened from, Tennõheika Banzai “Long live His Majesty the Emperor.” This tactic was classed as an honourable suicide which was against well organised, dug-in troops with machine guns and artillery support.
The American soldiers/marines who fought at the Battle of Saipan were some brave men, they had “balls of steel.” This is what Wilfried ‘Spike’ Mailloux of the 105th Regiment facing the Japanese Banzai charge at Saipan, said:
“I was scared as hell,” said Mailloux, then a 20-year-old corporal from Cohoes, a mill town north of Albany. “When you hear that screaming — ‘banzai’ — who wouldn’t be?”
To me, the Japanese soldier’s banzai change of World War 2 was the craziest military tactics used.
JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT CHINA – U.S RIVALRY CONTINUE ? AND MORE
Oh my God. A deep madness.
Subtle Change in Ukraine Blame Means Deadly Trouble for Americans
OPINION-EDITORIAL — A very subtle change in the words coming out of the Russian Foreign Ministry signals the FINAL step before the annihilation of the United States. We have now reached the final step . . .
The wording used by the Russian Foreign Ministry was very subtle, but its implications are anything but. See if you can pick-up the subtle change in this excerpt from RT:
The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs who were killed last week when the Russian Il-76 military aircraft transporting them was shot down by Kiev’s troops, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said.
On Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee released a report stating that the cargo plane was destroyed using two US-made MIM-104A missiles fired by a Patriot air-defense system. The Il-76 came down in Russia’s Belgorod Region last Wednesday. All of those on board – 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members – were killed.
Russian investigators stated that Ukrainian troops fired the missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. They based their conclusion on 116 missile fragments found at the crash site bearing inscriptions in English.
Responding to the report, Zakharova said in a Telegram post that US citizens “need to know where their money is going,” arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.”
Did you catch it? Did you pick up the subtle change in the language they used? It’s right there in front of you!
Here, let me focus it for you:
“The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs . . .”
Then again, in a later paragraph:
” . . .arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.” “”
This tiny and subtle change points the finger not just at the US Government, it also points the finger at . . . . YOU. And me! Individually. Personally.
This is a point I have made repeatedly on my radio shows in the past two years. I have earnestly pointed out that what our GOVERNMENT does, is being done IN OUR NAME.
Remember, this nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address wherein he posited that we have “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Ergo, when the US Government does something, it does it in OUR name. You and me.
The Russians have now made clear who it is they hold responsible for what the US Government is doing: YOU and ME.
You see, we . . . . you and me . . . . ARE in fact, to blame!
We sit back and do nothing while our government runs roughshod over the whole world. Sanctions on this one and that one. Military action here. Military action there. And whenever our Government engage in that activity, people we don’t know, in lands we’ve never been to or maybe haven’t even heard of . . . . die.
Oh, and while our government is doing all this crap to people all over the world, you and I sit back and do . . . . nothing. We don’t make a phone call to our members of Congress or the Senate. We don’t write a letter or send a fax. We don’t even fire-off an email. We sit on our asses and do absolutely . . . . nothing.
The Russians are now making clear it is YOU and I who are doing this. YOU and I who are to blame. Directly. Personally.
You know what? They’re right.
WE are to blame. We elect these people then sit back and tacitly approve of what they’re doing by our own, personal inaction. They slaughter people all over the world. They bomb countries back into the Stone Age. You and I sit back and do absolutely nothing. Or worse, we sing idiotic Beach Boys Parody songs like “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran . . . .” as if somehow what we’re doing is good. It isn’t.
A Russian guy I know cited US Senator Lindsey Graham the other day to make a very valid point to me. He showed me what Lindsey Graham, posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) wherein he said the following:
Then the Russian guy asked me “What if some member of the Russian Federation COuncil (i.e. a Russian “Senator”) Posted this exact message on VKontake (Russian Social Media) only changed the countries involved, like this FAKE SAMPLE:
FAKE RUSSIA SENATOR
In case the Putin Administration is wondering, it is abundantly clear to the United States and everyone else in the region, that the Administration doesn’t want war. But it will be difficult to tell the families of the fallen soldiers that the United States is not at war with us.
The United States is at war with Russia on multiple fronts through their proxies (Ukraine). Weak talk and weak action are putting our service members [in Ukraine], at risk. If the United States doesn’t pay a heavy price after the deaths of our service members, and the wounding of many more, then the Putin Administration is derelict in their duties to protect Russian personnel in harm’s way.
To the Putin Administration: Stop the weak rhetoric and respond with strength to protect Russian interests and lives. Your current approach to United States/NATO aggression is not working. Change while you can.”
Same words as Lindsey Graham. Same logic.
So I have to ask YOU, the Reader, if Lindsey Grahams words about Iran are good enough to warrant the US attacking Iran, would the FAKE Russian Senator’s exact same words about Ukraine, justify Russia hitting us?
Why not. Same situation!
You see, this is a big problem for my fellow Americans. We view the world as being ours to do with as we please. We never once stop to think how other powerful nations, might decide to use OUR logic, when dealing with . . . . us.
Now, some of you will react by saying “They wouldn’t dare.” Oh no? Why not?
And you would respond “Because we would nuke the living shit out of them.”
Really?
Because they can also do that to us.
Oh.
Yes.
Reality sets in.
And those same reactionary Americans who would say “They wouldn’t dare” would then likely say “They won’t, it would mean the end of the world.”
Yes. It would. And we would have done it to ourselves by the way we are behaving around the world.
Why should Russia sit back and allow us to supply arms to Ukraine, which are now clearly being used to kill Russians?
Why shouldn’t Russia tell the United States (again) to stop supplying weapons that are killing Russians and then add, or Russia will start hitting the United States?
Why shouldn’t Russia make it direct? Blunt?
Well . . . . turns out, they just began making it blunt. At the top of this Op-Ed, they have now begun blaming “American citizens.” You and me.
Where is this leading? Let me explain it this way:
What is the difference between “Killing” and “murder?”
Murder is the unlawful killing of an innocent. But “Killing” is allowable if it is “justified.”
For instance, if a guy is aiming a gun at you, and you do something which kills him, that is “self defense” and not murder, even though the guy is now dead.
So there is a difference between killing and murder. One may be allowed while the other is not.
Same thing with countries.
The U.S. is supplying weapons for Ukraine to use to kill Russians. Russia has repeatedly told the US and NATO to stop, but we are not stopping. ERGO, it would be “justified” for Russia to kill us in self defense.
Thankfully, the Russians have good morals and they know that perhaps the innocent American people ought not be harmed because of our evil government. SO thus far, they have not killed us.
I think the change in Russian Foreign Ministry wording mentioned at the start of this Op-Ed, tells us that’s about to change.
The official Diplomatic Corps of the Russian Federation is now openly, and publicly, laying the blame for the deaths of Russians, upon “the American people.” Me and you.
Having repeatedly told us to stop, the only thing left for Russia to do is to make us stop – by killing us.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has now begun laying the historical groundwork to justify exactly that.
By changing their statements to lay blame upon “the American people” they are building a record to justify killing . . . us.
Wise-up folks.
Unless we reign-in our wayward government, and stop them from running roughshod over the whole world, you and I __can__ be held accountable. You and I __can__ be stopped.
The clock seems to be ticking.
Now, you can either step up and start being an active and engaged citizen, and start telling your elected public servants to knock it off, or you can go right back to sitting on your ass and doing nothing until the brilliant white flashes start. Then you can feel sorry for yourself as you vaporize, except God already knows: You brought this on yourself by not getting off your lazy ass and stopping your own government while you still could.
No pity for you and me.
FEARFUL EUROPE! Europe Slows down De-Risking from China
I had my fairly new license and was driving my parents car when a deer darted out in front of me. I swerved and put the car into a ditch. Not hurt.
I find a phone and call a tow truck. Get back to the car and there is a police car there. I explained I’d stayed with the car for 15 minutes but knew there was a gas station nearby.
He gives me a ticket for speeding because in his opinion that’s the only way this could have happened.
Now this is a small municipal court for traffic tickets. My license was from my parents home 3 hours away. He was expecting me to just mail in the fine rather than contest it. He approached me before court to “refresh his memory about the event” and naively I did. He gets called and testifies that I was speeding.
So, I asked him where he was when the accident happened and was able to witness me speeding. He said he passed me going in the opposite direction.
So, I asked: if you saw me speeding in the opposite direction & saw me wreck my car, why did I have to walk 20 minutes to the phone, call police headquarters to report the accident, and walk back before you wrote the ticket?
The judge stopped things at that point & dismissed the charges.
This will not go down well with the electorate and, moreover, with the soldiers of the Ukrainian forces:
A poll published by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology in December found 88% of Ukrainians supported the top general. Zelensky’s approval rating, though also high, was considerably lower at 62%.
It is far from clear that any new commander will be able to improve Ukraine’s difficult situation on the battlefield without significantly more forces and weapons — precisely what Zaluzhny has demanded of Zelensky, adding tension to what was already a fraying relationship.
Zaluzhny’s popularity — both within the military and among ordinary citizens — makes his removal a political gamble for Zelensky. It also poses strategic risks at a time when Russia has intensified its attacks and Western security assistance for Kyiv has slowed. The general has built strong rapport with his Western counterparts and has often been able to advocate directly for certain materiel and seek counsel on battlefield strategy. … Both Budanov and Syrsky are considered favorites of Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, the chief of the presidential office and Zelensky’s closest adviser. Nearer the front, however, there seems to be little appetite for change.
“My personal opinion is you can’t do something like this right now — Zaluzhny is someone 80 percent of the military considers a good authority,” said Oleksandr, a battalion commander fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“For what is he being removed? It’s not clear. And who will replace him? Syrsky? God, I hope not. No one in the army likes Syrsky,” Oleksandr added.
The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.
So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.
Avdeevka is nearly surrounded and any attempts to hold onto it will cost many valuable lives of soldiers for no discernible advantage. But, just like with Bakhmut, Zelenski wants to hold on to the city to be be able point his western sponsors to some ‘successes’.
My hunch is that, after Monday’s kerfuffle in Kiev, the decision to fire Zaluzny was still hanging in balance.
The change now only happened after the noeconservative destroyer of Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had landed in Kiev.
When asked by a journalist whether Nuland had learned about Kyiv’s plans on the battlefield, she replied that, in her opinion, Ukraine would achieve great success.
“I have to say that I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the resolve, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine. I also leave more confident that, even as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” the U.S. Under Secretary of State emphasized.
This hint does not foresee success on the ground but asymmetric operations within Russia or the Black Sea. More to the like of this which has happen last night:
Ukraine sinks Russian ship.
During a night attack by drones in the Donuzlav area, the Black Sea Fleet lost the Ivanovets MRK, built in 1989, 493 tons of displacement, armed with Moskit missiles.
Sinking that ship will do nothing to change the outcome at the battlefront. Nor would any attacks on Russia oil and gas infrastructure change anything.
Nuland’s remark also hints that the replacement of General Zaluzny will not come in the form of Army General Alexander Syrski, who is disliked by the troops for unsuccessfully holding grounds in Bakhmut and elsewhere at too high costs in men and material.
Nuland’s hint towards asymmetric operations points to the elevation of the Chief of Military Intelligence Directorate Major-General Kyrylo Budanov as a incoming replacement for Zaluzny.
Budanov has been responsible for some daring, if mostly unsuccessful, terror attacks on Russian land and interests.
Back in June 2023 the Economist explained why Zelenski might seek to elevate Bundanov:
Aides huddle close when the general speaks. Under his leadership, Ukraine’s main directorate of intelligence—HUR—has become a plucky, autonomous authority that punches above its weight. It resembles a gang. “Before we had managers, now we have a leader,” says one veteran officer. Oleg, an operative who has known General Budanov for decades, speaks approvingly of his ability to infect others with his fervour, comparing him to a snake “hypnotising you before he comes in for the kill. Restrained, measured, never panicked. You do anything he asks.” … As a confidant of the president—those in government call them kindred spirits—General Budanov is understood to be playing an ever-bigger role in behind-the-scenes peace negotiations. Sources say he is a conduit to secret talks with the Chinese, and he has also been in contact with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner outfit.
In conversation it is clear that General Budanov has been thinking hard about post-war Ukraine. Last winter there was talk of him becoming defence minister. He insists his only ambition is victory. Yet secret polls conducted by Mr Zelensky’s office show they are thinking about using the cult of their hero spymaster to counterbalance a perceived rivalry emanating from Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s likeable and independent commander-in-chief. General Budanov’s colleagues say they are convinced he is destined for a big political role once peace comes—if he lives that long.
To the TV producers (Yermak) around the former comedian actor Zelenski it is all about ratings.
Budanov may be good at marketing his image as a successful terrorist.
But he has zero experience of leading any size of unit in combat. You can not lead a company, battalion, brigade or army by ‘huddling close’ with aides. It needs long term strategic thinking just as detailed attention to all kinds of day to day logistics.
Leading an army is like conducting a huge orchestra through a four year long Wagner epos. Having played the first fiddle in a chamber quartet does not qualify for that.
I am sure that U.S. military is not happy about this move. While there were some disagreements with Zaluzny about the right strategies those were between military professional who allowed for diverting opinions. Zaluzny was seen as an experienced professional soldier. Budanov is seen as a spook who had never been in command of any real military. He well not be talked to at the same level.
According to one source, Zaluzhnyi’s senior staff are also expected to be removed from their positions.
With the new inexperienced leadership the situation on the ground will soon become a catastrophic mess for forces of Ukraine. There will be wrong priorities, miss-allocations of resources and large scale losses of men and ground.
On the other side terror attacks on Russian targets, industrial equipment as well as population centers, are likely to sharply increase.
The larger U.S. aim of all this, first announced as a 2019 RAND study, is still unchanged:
The study at that time recommended the arming of Ukrainian’s army as the best way to unbalance Russia. We have since seen the escalation of that strategy. The move from the battlefield to the realm of terror is a response to the degradation of the first by empathizing the psychological effects of the second.
The foreseeable outcome though is unchanged. Ukraine will be smashed, Russia’s power will increase and the global view of the U.S. as a reliable partner will be diminished.
Posted by b on February 1, 2024 at 14:48 UTC | Permalink
I exposed a huge scam by my local gas distributor (cooking gas).
This is a typical cooking gas cylinder in India.
As you can see (not very clearly though), on the neck of the cylinder, net weight and gross weight are clearly mentioned.
Recently, I read an article in ‘The Hindu’ that revealed that a lot of gas agencies/distributors/delivery persons in India are stealing cooking gas. They take out about 1–2 kg of gas from each cylinder and sell it separately in black. The loss in weight is too small for an unsuspecting buyer to notice. But in terms of money, this translates into a loss of about 60 INR per cylinder. The article cautioned everybody to get their gas cylinders weighed before paying the delivery person (Delivery persons are mandated to carry a portable weighing scale along with them by the Govt.)
At first I laughed it off. My agency was trusted. It would never do that. But then on a whim, I decided to try it out. When the next cylinder was delivered to my home, I casually asked the delivery boy to weigh it. The color on his face instantly changed. He started stammering, started insisting that there was no need for this because the bond of trust we shared! I immediately grew suspicious. I pressed him. He then started making excuses that he forgot to bring along his portable weighing-scale.
Luckily, I had my own weighing scale at home. I immediately brought it out and weighed the cylinder myself. The gross weight printed on the cylinder was 29.5 kg, whereas the scale read 27 kg. A difference of bloody 2.5 kgs.
The delivery boy started begging me not to register a complaint against him. And that he wouldn’t repeat the mistake ever again.
Apparently, this is a huge scam going on all over India. If you are reading this answer, please get your gas cylinder duly weighed before paying for it.
Not exactly fired, but we thought it was a great reaction.
After a recent merger between two rather large companies, it was necessary to reduce personnel, so each department was asked to cut staffing by a certain percentage.
To encourage volunteers, management offered to give a full week worth of salary and paid medical benefits for each full year a person had worked at the company if they took early retirement. And anyone who qualified for a pension also got the full pension as if they had not retired early.
One member of our team was about 14 months away from his planned retirement date when he would start receiving full Social Security and pension payments.
He had worked for the company for 45 years. After some simple math, we all strongly encouraged him to take the deal.
He got 45 weeks of full pay, a whole year of benefits coverage (negotiated with HR), his full pension, and they also bought out the almost two months of accrued vacation time that he had been saving up in order to retire a few months early.
He basically got a 12+ month paid vacation with full benefits. We will be having a retirement party for him on his original planned retirement date in a couple of months. 😀
I imagine that wasn’t what management had in mind when they made the offer, but everyone on our team was very happy for him to get it!
The Duran: NATO Crossed Putin’s Red Line and Russia is Ready to FINISH It
Yesterday, I was working with an Orthodox Jewish woman around age 25 on sparring.
Let’s call her Chaya. It was her first day training and I was taking her under my wing to mentor her a bit. (Yes, I have reached the level of being able to slightly teach others. Not much)
Chaya was very sweet, and found it hard to hit. She was so kind and shy, she found it so difficult to get up the anger to hit.
I was holding up the kick shield for her to practice on. (For those who don’t know, this but with punching)
She wasn’t hitting the body shield bag hard enough. She just couldn’t summon the anger needed. She kept giggling and being very gentle and kind.
I tried to rile her up. “Come on, Chaya. Imagine the teacher you hate most? Imagine being cut off in traffic? Imagine your air conditioner breaking on the Shabbat.”
Nothing. She just had no anger.
So I had to be a ***** and I knew exactly what to say. So I said “Imirtza Hashem by you, dear. Have you tried being less picky?” Which means “With God’s help by you,” in reference that she needs divine assistance to find a partner, something Jewish singles (especially female) hear ALL THE TIME AND IT DRIVES US ALL CRAZY! It’s condescending, it’s shaming and it’s really salt in our wounds. And we hear it from well meaning busy bodies all the time.
Chaya’s eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened with sheer rage. She punched the bag so hard, I was knocked back several steps. “See, I knew you had that in you,” I said triumphantly. “Now, you know you can punch.”
She delightedly thanked me and we exchanged worst date stories.
Sometimes, you just need some motivation and if it takes using evil, so be it.
No. But may I highlight a dirty trick by a phone soliciter?
I’ll take that as a yes.
A neighbor of mine was a saleman for Sam’s Club. The guy who makes a pitch to your boss, offering a discount to any of his/her employees who’d like the group membership, put on sales presentations at state fairs etc., cold-calling as well.
Then I moved halfway across the state. He calls me one afternoon, disguising his voice and acting as if he’s calling on behalf of some worthless telemarketing offer. Of course I, not recognizing him, utter some choice words before hanging up. He calls me right back, identifies himself and proceeds to ask me why I couldn’t be more polite in declining whatever it is that’s being offered.
I told him why. Said my peace and then we chatted about whatever he had really needed to talk to me about.
Many years ago I was in a chat room of a group with hundreds of members. Predominantly adults but, there were older teens. I don’t remember what was being discussed but, this kid (older teen) started making rude comments then started making bizarre comments about school shootings,violence and basically hinting he was going to do something. Quite a few people ignored it or told him he was being inappropriate and that he would be reported to moderator. Most in the discussion didn’t take it seriously. I went to his profile which fortunately wasn’t locked down. So concerning posts and was able to figure out the state, town and high school he attended. And his actual name. So I called the police in that town. Explained what I had seen, sent screenshots etc. While I was on the phone with a detective they got a call from one other man who had done the same as me. Surprisingly, the detective called me back a few hours later and while he didn’t give me many details he did say, that between myself and the other man they were able to locate the boy and that everyone was safe. I confess to stalking the FB profiles later and saw that he had been hospitalized so hopefully he got the help he needed. I worried I was doing the wrong thing but, I just kept thinking how hard it would be to live with myself if I saw news the next day of a school shooting and HADN’T called.
Candies in a box
“I know that I have less to live than I have lived.
I feel like a child who was given a box of chocolates. He enjoys eating it, and when he sees that there is not much left, he starts to eat them with a special taste.
I have no time for endless lectures on public laws – nothing will change. And there is no desire to argue with fools who do not act according to their age. And there’s no time to battle the gray. I don’t attend meetings where egos are inflated and I can’t stand manipulators.
I am disturbed by envious people who try to vilify the most capable to grab their positions, talents and achievements.
I have too little time to discuss headlines – my soul is in a hurry.
Too few candies left in the box.
I’m interested in human people. People who laugh at their mistakes are those who are successful, who understand their calling and don’t hide from responsibility. Who defends human dignity and wants to be on the side of truth, justice, righteousness. This is what living is for.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch the hearts of others. Who, through the blows of fate, was able to rise and maintain the softness of the soul.
Yes, I hustle, I hustle to live with the intensity that only maturity can give. I’ll eat all the candy I have left – they’ll taste better than the ones I already ate.
My goal is to reach the end in harmony with myself, my loved ones and my conscience.
I thought I had two lives, but it turned out to be only one, and it needs to be lived with dignity.”
Brilliant Anthony Hopkins
and free interpretation of Mario de Andrade’s poem
We had a dishwasher that wouldn’t latch, darn thing wasn’t more than 20, 24 months old. Called the repair guy. He “fixed” it, I paid the bill and off he goes. Well the darn thing starts leaking about two days later from the middle of the door at the bottom. So he comes back, takes the front of the door off. I can see the paths of the water leak from the “newly replaced latch” all the way down the insulation ( soaked by the way) to the spot where it leaked onto the floor. He informs me that we need a new door, over $450, we only paid $560 for it. So I informed him I wasn’t paying for a door, the latch was obviously installed wrong. Oh non, says he, the latch is fine. Oh no, say I, you broke it I’m not buying anything. So he leaves. I call the repair business office, they send a higher up, supervisor or some such ro lookat it. I show him the paper work, he looks at the machine and, Lo and behold the latch is incorrectly installed and the door needs to be replaced. New door for free, and no labor charge. He even refunded the work for the latch.
The greatest threat to the U.S. is your mostly brain dead population created as a result of 75 years of U.S. media propaganda and spin by the US media to glorify the U.S. and demonised those that refused to be submissive and subservient to them.
I have been a business mechanic of sort for years on end till my retirement, and in my view, the first part of any change is recognition and acceptance of the need to change! In the case of the U.S. you guys don’t even know you are in life support and that your U.S. economy is one humongous Ponzi scheme!
There lies the US problem. If you don’t want to know that you are haemorrhaging cash due to forever wars and you cannot afford your defence spending. If you refuse to accept that Chinas has lapped you guys! You ain’t gonna fix it! There lies your problem. Americans must be the most ignorant and naive people on planet earth! You media has made all of you believe in your so call “exceptionalism”
You still think Chinese lives in caves with bats and Russians are Slavic underachievers! And you are 10 foot tall genius! Many here in QUORA still thinks we are in 1945 when the 2 world wars ravaged all other major powers! And the U.S. share of world economy is 52%.
China and Russia don’t need to lift a finger, Americans will implode the U.S!
Please note that the antonym for Democracy is not Communism. It is Dictatorship. There is no logical contradiction between communism and democracy, as many in the US seem to believe. It is a ridiculous, gross misconception.
Is America a true democracy? In my opinion, there is no true democracy or true dictatorship in this world. Every country lies somewhere on a continuous spectrum between these two extremes. If America were a true and pure democracy, I should be able to look into Trump’s tax records and no one could stop me. Note I am not criticizing the American system, but only saying that you cannot call it a true and pure democracy in the sense of the word. It is just closer to the democratic end of the spectrum than some other countries.
I am from Taiwan, not China. I have not lived a single day under communism, but I have lived many years under an anti-communist dictatorship, and that was BAD. You cannot equate democracy with anti-communism. It is simply wrong.
It is very strange to me that communism is such a dirty word in the supposedly free and open-minded American public psyche, as if it were some kind of voodoo witchcraft. I find it totally anti-intellectual and closed-minded, not worthy of a true and free democracy.
I lived in a townhouse with one shared wall. When I moved in, the neighbors were a very quiet couple, never heard a peep out of them. They moved out a year later – and 3 single male construction workers moved in. They played obnoxiously loud music at all hours of the day and night. Complicating matters – I had a 3 year old, and was pregnant with my second child. So sleep was a need.
My wusband (nicer than saying ex-husband because he WAS my husband at the time) politely went next door to ask them to turn down the music – several times. It got to where they wouldn’t answer the door when he went over there. We called the police several times – and they wouldn’t answer the door for the police either.
The situation was wretched – and I began looking for ways to get the message across. One night – they left their garage door open during a particularly loud jam session. I had already gone to bed, and was wearing a huge maternity nightgown – because – I was hugely pregnant. I quickly snuck into their garage, and flipped the breaker switch. And scurried back to my side of the townhouse quietly. They figured it out the next morning. And did their party thing the next night – and I repeated the process. After that they left the garage door shut.
Around this time, I had the baby I was expecting. My wusband and I decided to take the kids and visit a friend for a few hours on a Saturday when we knew all of the neighbors were home sleeping off their Friday night party. Before we left, we moved both of the stereo speakers over to the shared wall, and turned on some super loud heavy metal music to share with said neighbors. And left. We did this several more weekends.
The construction workers broke their lease and left a couple of months later.
Many years ago I had a strange neighbor that lived with his mother next door. I did not speak with them but I would wave if I saw them to be polite.
A few years later I had fallen asleep on the couch and heard this weird noise by the window like scratching. I thought it was my cat and started checking, I see the screen going up in the window and two arms, I started screaming get the f*** out of here and slammed down the storm window.
I woke my son up and called the police, unfortunately my description was two arms of a Caucasian male. This was in the country so not a lot of people around. Four police cars later and after getting my story they went next door. I figured they were asking if they saw anything, but no they were hauling out the guy next door. They found him hiding under a car in the garage. They told me they knew this guy and he had been in trouble before. He had actually broken into my house when the people before me lived there. That would have been good to know before…
So we go to court and you can tell this guy is not right in his mind when he talks to the judge stating he doesn’t understand: so after my victim impact statement, they hold him over but say I can go but not to worry he will not be back.
I do not know what happened but he was back two weeks later and now I have to live next to this guy.
All I could think of was this, my neighbor he knows when I am home or at work so what exactly were his motives to break in knowing we were home? Scared me to death and I had two kids to think about (my daughter was not home the night this happened luckily).
So I called my brother and he came over with a shotgun to teach me target practice. I printed off pictures of this guys mugshot to use for target practice in my backyard. When I was done, I posted them around my property so he would get the message…
Not sneaky but hopefully scared him off. I never had trouble for the next year I lived there but I also never leave a window or door unlocked at night either. Even in the summer months.
Luckily I have much nicer neighbors now and a much better gun to protect myself with if the need arises.
Opening Incredible Garage-Found Gun Safes After 8 Years | What Will We Find Inside?!
Update 4/12/17- Many, many folks have asked me to identify the hotel chain. It was a Hyatt!
I was on a road trip and needed to stay overnight suddenly because a fast moving snow storm was blowing in.
I could see the logo of a hotel chain I occasionally use a few blocks away. I called them and asked if I could have a room on short notice? No problem. Note that between the time I called and the time I appeared at the front desk was maybe 20 minutes!
Here is a portion of my front desk (FD) conversation-
FD- “Mr. B. thank you for staying with us on such short notice. I see you have our affinity card so you have a room on our priority floor. Please remember that we have complimentary coffee and breakfast on that floor beginning at 6:00 am.”
Me- “Thanks but I’m leaving early tomorrow and I’ll be gone by 5:00 am.”
FD- “I understand Mr. B. Have nice night.”
So I trundled up to my room and there on the desk was a small pitcher of ice cold milk and three fresh chocolate chip cookies along with a note. The note was handwritten and addressed specifically to me and thanked me for staying on such short notice. It was signed by the manager. I was very impressed but the best was yet to come!
The next morning my alarm went off at 4:30 am as I planned on leaving at 5:00 am. The message light on my room telephone was blinking but the phone never rang! Of course that would have disturbed me.
The message was something like this-
“Good morning Mr. B. We noted that you were leaving early this morning and couldn’t take advantage of the amenities on our priority floor. We took the liberty of placing coffee and breakfast pastries outside of your door. We didn’t know if you preferred regular or decaffeinated coffee so we included a carafe of each. Have a safe trip!”
You know guys, sometimes I get the biggest belly-laugh when I read some of the answers here. Either they are terribly deluded, or they are immensely ignorant.
…
Here’s a REAL answer.
First of all, let’s throw out some FACTS to “set the table”, so to speak.
China has the largest Navy in the world.
China’s navy is not spread out all over the place (like the USN), but are concentrated at the projected battle fields.
China’s navy is also the oldest navy in the world. It was operating CENTURIES before the first organized navy in Europe.
China’s navy has been restructured, and operates NEW ships with cutting-leading-edge systems and technology. Many of which are unique and unknown to the West.
Were a war to occur between the USA and China, a Naval war would be the lest of the worries of the American “leadership”. Economic, social, and financial collapse would all be in free-fall.
But, let’s answer this question.
Can the United States Navy sink the Chinese Navy?
Here’s my answer…
Yes, the USN has the ability to destroy vessels, aircraft, bases, and people of the PLAN.
It is highly unlikely, however, that they will be able to completely destroy the PLAN.
It is likely that in the process of this destruction, that the USN would suffer great losses in men, material, weapons, and vessels.
Both sides will likely take great losses.
But this is 2024. China’s city-destroying munition capabilities are global. The consequence of a United States (or proxy) war against China will result in the people of the attacking nation being hurt.
Thus…
American major cities will also become targets for destruction.
…
Remember, boys and girls, China is a peaceful nation…
…until it isn’t.
…
Never forget the great losses that the United States incurred the last time they fought the Chinese.
Look at the BIG PICTURE. Not the tactical issues, but the strategic issues. Then faced with this reality, project the highest probability outcomes.
They are not pretty.
JUST NOW…States Under Attack NEED National Guard Deployed IMMEDIATELY
Modern architecture in Nigeria is built with total convenience in mind. We have more toilets and bathrooms in our houses than bedrooms. I’ve built two myself, although not opulent in any way, but it was unthinkable to construct a four-bedroom home with just one or two bathrooms.
When I travel and hear people or real estate agents in developed countries boast about their six-bedroom houses with two baths, the Nigerian in me can’t help but feel puzzled. In Nigeria, such a setup would be considered ridiculous.
I understand that building in developing countries like Nigeria is quite cheap, but just how much extra is it going to cost for a decent bathroom in every bedroom?
The unwritten standard amongst Nigerians is that each bedroom must come with its ensuite bathroom, just like a hotel, ensuring privacy and convenience. Additionally, there’s always a separate toilet for guests by the living room.
This practice in Nigeria also stems from practicality. With sometimes large families, the idea of waiting in line for a bathroom in your home seems absurd. To think that one would have to walk the entire hallway to get to the toilet, especially at night. This is unimaginable in a home with several boyfriends and girlfriends.:D
Our homes are designed to ensure that everyone has their own space, minimizing inconvenience and maximizing comfort. Building a bedroom without a space for a toilet, accessible only from the same bedroom is a great disservice to whoever is to occupy that room.
While mostly rich folks opt for homes with extensive bathrooms in developed countries, it’s intriguing to note that such a luxury, sometimes at a lower standard is a standard feature in a modern Nigerian building.
P.S.
In the comment section, some people have shifted focus to Nigeria’s poverty, rather than discussing architecture. About 23% of Nigerians, over 50 million people, belong to the middle-upper class, and many in this category can still afford to build their homes. This number alone is more than the population of many rich countries. Nigeria is a land of both immense wealth and poverty. If you’re looking for stories about poverty in Nigeria today, you’ll have to keep scrolling or better still, write it yourself! This post focuses on the architectural styles prevalent among Nigerians who have the means to build their own homes based on my observations!
Poverty is a real problem in Nigeria and it’s getting worse, but there is so much wealth in Nigeria too. Sadly, talking about Nigeria’s poverty and scams is more acceptable and beneficial to many westerners that we can’t even talk about anything else without backlash.
Oh, boy, did I! My mother still blames him for my hatred of math 35 years later!
I had an Algebra teacher get it in his head that A students will always get an A, B students will always get a B, etc, regardless of the grading scale. If and A was 90-100%, A students will do the work to get above 90%, and if an A is 95-100%, we would do the work to get a 95%, etc.
So he decided to make his grading scale A= 98–100%, B= 95–97%, C= 92–94%, D= 90–91‰, below 90% is and F.
So what had been an A/B student (me) would instead fail. Yeah, we hated him. And it only took 1 semester to get him onto probation, and he was gone after the second semester.
He really screwed up by doing this to my class. Out of 52 kids in my graduating class, almost 10% were teacher’s kids, plus one was the principal’s kid! In rural Wisconsin, many normal kids had parents that were uninterested in grades or intimidated by teachers, but when the parents ARE the teachers and principal, that factor disappeared, and they had no problem pitching an absolute FIT until it was fixed.
But I still hate math, the damage was already done.
Papa Vento’s Sicilian Chicken
Like Chicken Parmesan, my father made this for us all the time while we were growing up.
Ingredients
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup olive oil (+ more for frying)
1 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan
Ground black pepper
6 large slices mozzarella cheese
1 large can (32 ounces) crushed tomatoes (regular or Italian seasoned)
1 medium onion
Instructions
Pound out chicken breasts between wax paper to 1/2-inch thick.
In a shallow bowl, combine breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. In another shallow bowl, pour 1/2 cup olive oil.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Dip chicken breasts first in olive oil, letting excess drip off, and then press into breadcrumb mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium / low heat. Sauté chicken breasts until golden on both sides.
Arrange chicken breasts on bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour crushed tomatoes evenly over chicken. Halve the onion and “sliver” cut it, sprinkling them on top of the tomatoes (quantity depends on your taste ). Lay 1 piece of cheese over each chicken breast and bake for 30 minutes until cheese starts to turn golden and sauce is bubbly.
My father makes this with pounded round steak and non-seasoned tomatoes but we love this version. You can make it either way and make up your own mind.
When I was born my parents lived in a flat (apartment ) in quite a rundown area as they were struggling to make ends meet.
My Dad worked 12 hour nights and came home to my mum in floods of tears. Shed been cooking a curry and the “skinheads” on the next floor didn’t appreciate the cross cultural culinary efforts that my mum was whipping up.
They kicked and banged at the door screaming “it stinks of f***ing P***s in here” and other derogatory and racist remarks. All while knowing full well there was a young mother and baby inside.
My Dad came home, and after mum told him what had happened, he decided to visit the chap upstairs.
Knocking was done via my Dad’s shoulder on the flimsy little Yale lock (Dad was a rugby player, Prop to be exact!) and upon entering the was confronted with the offender, in his underpants, swinging a mase at him. Dad kindly removed the offensive weapon from him and told him what a silly man him and his friends had been. Then, upon exiting, Dad noticed this guy’s new stereo system and it reminded him that he’d also had enough of his crappy music at all sorts of hours.
Dad informed him that “I’ve had e-f***ing-nough of this too” and proceeded to throw the stereo system out of this chaps window, which was obviously shut because Dad wouldn’t waste time like that.
Job done, Dad goes back down stairs to enjoy his curry. Then there’s a knock at the door and matey boy has phoned the police. My Dad was honest and willingly accompanied the officers to the station to attempt to resolve the matter.
Fast forward and it goes to court. Now there’s breaking and entering, GBH, criminal damage and………. burglary. This guy had had the audacity to say Dad had stolen his precious stereo system and, during questioning the Judge asked my Dad “so, do you know the whereabouts of the said stereo system”
My Dad replied “Yes your Honour, with all due respect I believe the stero is still in the f***ing tree”
The courtroom burst into laughter and after the judge reminded my Dad to watch his language, decided to send a constable to investigate my Dad’s claim.
After the proceedings resumed the constable concluded to the court
“Yes Your Honour, it would appear that the stereo system is still in the tree”
I believe the chap upstairs was done for wasting police time and moved not long after.
My Dad has always got plenty of these stories from his younger days and whilst I don’t condone any of his actions, they’re bloody epic!
Chinese penchant for knowledge and continuous improvement means that Chinese will always become smarter that Americans in general. Americans in general are cursed by the perception that they are exceptional. Starting from this premise makes them think they are better and smarter than the rest.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The U.S. became overwhelmingly strong due to the coincidence of history. The 2 world wars wrecked all the major economies and left the U.S. with one eye but the rest of the world has lost both their eyes! The became the king of the blind.
Confucianism ethics in every Chinese person mean they focus on being educated and learning. They will stop at nothing to give their children the very best education money can buy. Diligence and hard work is among the traits that gives Chinese the edge. This means apart from having a higher and better education that is at least 3 full years ahead of the west, the Chinese race never stop learning.
American has this feeling of entitlement and it thinks the world must be submissive and subservient to them and they can always be the best by hook or by crook. These days mainly by crook! Given any task Chinese will start faster and work harder at it and in the end Chinese will be more successful.
Candice explains why it is important for wives to be monogamous
Chinese lower -cost cars are the result of EV’s and they need batteries which China has the raw materials to make unlike the US so low cost EV’s represent the future of international relations between the trading Nations which has developed into a competition between two trading blocks.
Bipolarism has taken the world by storm BRICS led the way as the Russian Special Operation guaranteed retreat to be forbidden, the World post February 24 – 2022 will never be what it was from 1991 to 2011, I know that end date is not universally accepted it was when Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi refused to be cowered into submission and took on the British and French Arab Spring which had to be save by Obama coming to their rescue bombing Libya and alienating Russia, Vladimir Putin saw the need to jump into the Presidency again because Demitry Medvedev was too far gone supporting Obama, now Demitry Medvedev is an anti Western hawk compared to Putin, that’s how different things are in Russia today compared to 1991 to 2011.
After 2011 Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad followed in Gadaffi’s footsteps and unlike Muammar Gadaffi the Syrian leader remains alive while military Keynesian economics has conquered the United States of America after getting up to full speed under Obama in 2011, now the US economy is swallowing Europe using the pretext of war with all credible sources pointing to the modern times unprecedented threat coming from the Southern Powers China and Russia which is alarming the US, Britain and EU.
This international predicament developed from the US, British and EU’s 1991 complete victory over the entire political and economic landscape within which China has risen in that 33 years to reflect the exact opposite as the goods arranged on supermarket shelves are coming from China taking the place of Japan as the manufacturing centre of the US, Britain and EU’s operations, on top of that China as part of BRICS is now the largest exporter of cars to what is now becoming known in political and economic narratives’ as the Northern Group associated with the pattern of wealth acquisition in the North American continent and poverty in the Southern American continent.
BRICS represents the South and have gained control over a significant portion of the World’s economic landscape which the Northern Group of Nations the US, Britain and EU can’t afford to allow China’s belt and road initiative becoming the turning point of the Northern Groups 1991 to 2011 political and economic control of World affairs, one way the Government’s of the US, Britain and EU can reign in BRICS as they did Japan is to make China’s products economically non viable by pushing up the prices compared to the competition from other parts of the World that do not challenge the economic dominance of the Northern Group the US, Britain and EU.
Import duty is one way the Northern Group are pushing up the prices of what China has to offer, this Government policy does have limitations as the Northern Group manufacturers become protected and take advantage by pushing up the prices of their cars.
1, In 1991, US pharm industry promoted opioid-related drug by saying opioid is harmless. Doctors could prescibe it to patients & drug stores could sell it. From 1999-2017, 200,000 Americans died from opioid. Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin was sued & fined for $8.3 billion in 2020. Purdue is owned by a Jewish American family Sackler.
2, In around 2010, OxyContin was hard to get. People turned to heroin which is cheaper but stronger. It also uses an ingredient from opium. In 2010-14, CDC reported that the death rate due to heroin has risen more than 200% among “white” & African Americans.
3, The 3rd wave is fentanyl which started in 2014. It also contains an ingredient from opium. In Aug 2021-Aug 22, 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose. 2/3 were fentanyl.
Capitalism & politics
In the book “Death of Despair & Future of Capitalism”, economist Anne Case & Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton point out the collusion between pharm capitalists & politicians. Their deep collusion makes it difficult to control drug.
Politicians receive donation from pharm capitalists. Hence politicians will never come up with an effective law to control drug.
British Guardian reported in 2017 that, for the past 10 years, US pharm industry spent $2.5 billion in lobbying politicians. 90% of congress-persons & 97 out of 100 senators received political donations from pharm industry. At least once.
The fight between the 2 political parties is another reason. While both parties swear they would fight drug crisis, no party wants to cooperate with the other to effective beat drug abuse. No party wants the other party to become a hero.
scapegoat
In order to show they have done their part in fentanyl battle, USA blames it on China.
China adopts zero tolerance on illegal drug & is very strict on drug control. China is ahead of United Nations to classify drug into fine categories so as to effectively catch drugs that do not meet the requirement.
Since Sept 2019, US customs has not caught any fentanyl from China. But US politicians keep telling Americans that China exports fentanyl.
In 2023, USA sanctioned a Chinese police unit & lab that inspects for illegal drug. Perhaps USA is upset that China is too strict & US customs did not find any from China.
USA also sanctioned companies that produce LEGAL chemicals & equipment that can make fentanyl. The chemical is legal because, if used properly, it can be used to make pain killer for, say, cancer patients. The equipment is legal because it is a tool to make pills.
US politicians are not serious about solving problems.
Look at poverty: any theft below $950 is not a crime. ie USA encourages open robbery.
When USA loses jobs due to Clinton’s globalisation program, Trump said China steals US jobs.
Instead of curbing gun violence, USA militarizes teachers & babies.
If one day USA collapses, it is the collusion of US politicians & capitalists.
How do you start a business? You must have these two.
Business concept.
Capital.
Do you have a great idea, or you have money to invest, or a little of both?
If you have money, this is the scariest part in China. Because if you are asking on Quora (instead of Chinese social media), you are likely a foreigner who aren’t familiar with Chinese language and society.
Like with any society, it’s not wise to advertise your willingness to spend your money. You are just ringing the dinner bell for scammers, more or less. There will be hundreds of people being very willing to become your best friends.
Isn’t China very safe? Very. But while police can protect you from criminals, police can’t protect you from yourself and your own bad decisions, persuaded by scammers.
If you have a great idea, you may think of ways to safeguard your ideas, trade mark if you can, so the people you pitch your ideas to will not simply steal your ideas and lock you out of any profit.
Chances are there are millions of people in the same boat as you: having great ideas, wanting investors.
What to do to start your dream business in China?
Starting a business requires more commitment than a marriage. You have to be ready to give 200%.
Need money. Unless you are lucky enough to have a financier, you need some initial capital to invest in your idea, to create some kind of a working prototype, to have something for show. This will put you above the millions of people who simply got ideas.
Get to know China.
China is like any society. There are honest people and there are really shady people. You can’t simply see it on their appearance alone.
If you are a lone warrior, your first investment is to live in China, even a few months at a time. Get involved in Chinese daily life, get involved in the industry you want to be in. Find a part time job there?
Or seek out an existing support network you can trust.
If you are Indian, seek out other Indians already working in the industry you want to start business in. They are likely more sympathetic to befriend and show you the rope. They may even find you a job.
But beware, even your own compatriots can scam you, or mislead you. Don’t be too trusting.
This is all I have for a Quora answer.
With only a very vague question, this is all you are going to get. Being an entrepreneur is full of risk. Your first lesson is not to get rich quick, but learn risk management. I rather you lose a few thousands today for a hard lesson, than to lose a few millions 10 years later for this same lesson.
Pro-Tip: Find professional legal consultation for second opinion.
Say you are about to engage in a business deal, whether with local Chinese or your compatriot, secretly go outside to find paid consultation services. They will know Chinese laws and regulations more than anyone. They can smell a fish from miles away. You can’t save money on this.
Pornstar’s ABANDONED Mansion ~ You Won’t Believe What We Found Inside!
Malaysia man’s viral stunt of planting banana tree in pothole gets road repaired within hours
Public works department blame continuous rain as reason behind delay in road maintenance
Frustrated over the authority’s inaction, a Malaysian man planted a banana tree in a pothole on a road to draw attention to the problem.
Mahathir Aripin from Jalan Sandakan-Lahad Datu village in Sabah posted a photo of the banana tree standing almost in the middle of the road on his Facebook page.
The base of the tree was covered with some soil to ensure it stood erect.
He also posted a message expressing his concern for those using the road and humorously suggested he might use tar next time.
“I feel sorry for the road users. I’ll cover it with tar next time,” he said on 29 January.
Seeing the response to his Facebook post, the local authorities responsible for road safety – the Sabah Public Works Department – started work to repair the road.
Reports said the pothole was filled within hours of Mr Aripin bringing attention to it.
The public works department blamed continuous rain as a reason for delay in the road maintenance.
This method of highlighting road repair issues is not unprecedented. There have been cases reported in Kedah in the country, and even in Florida, US.
Mr Aripin’s post sparked a conversation on road conditions in Malaysia.
On social media, several commentators commended his effort to bring attention to the problem of road safety and maintenance.
One jokingly said that he should have planted a durian tree whose fruit is notoriously foul-smelling instead of a banana tree.
Others responded with the laughter emoji while some called his attempt to plant a banana tree in the pothole “naughty”.
The pothole’s location was about 500m from the spot where a recent accident claimed the life of a 4-year-old girl, believed to have been caused by a pothole.
According to Malaysia’s Road Safety Plan 2022-2030, the country aims to reduce road deaths by 50 per cent by 2030.
In police work, there are many things you see that you would rather have not seen. Suicide by firearm seems to be at the top of my list. I only experienced this once in my career.
Sure I have found people a day after the person lost their head, sort of, with the blast from a shotgun — what a mess. It’s very inconsiderate to the family members or even first responders who have to deal with this.
But only once, when I was responding to a call of a man with a gun was I quite close when the shot was fired. I was out of my patrol car with a partner and running up an outside staircase which led to the man’s apartment when we hear the bang. He is sitting on the landing at the top of the stairs with his back against the wall, looking at us. He had a small caliber handgun still in his hand, and the barrel remained in his mouth. He was alive for the moment, but it was apparent he wouldn’t survive.
My partner took out a pair of latex gloves because there was blood, and started to put them on. I didn’t wait for gloves and grabbed the gun with both hands and first peeled his finger off the trigger. I then peeled the rest of his fingers from around the gun and handed it to my partner.
I wasn’t sure how this man felt about the police, but I was going to be sure that he didn’t take one of us with him. The man expired while we were at the scene. There were skull fragments and white and gray brain matter against the wall behind where he was sitting. Even after shooting himself he remained upright and seated.
A crime scene was immediately taped off, and detectives were brought in to investigate. The first unique discovery was that the handgun was fired twice. The first bullet was later found flattened but still in the brain cavity. It must have struck the inside of his skull with sufficient force to fracture it but did not exit. The second bullet was found underneath the man’s body.
Something I learned from detectives that night is that it’s not uncommon for a person considering suicide by handgun to fire a test round to make sure the gun is working properly. The noise from the first shot was reported by a neighbor and drew us to the scene.
Had our arrival hurried this man’s final desperate act? That’s something we will never know. I would have loved to have had the chance to speak with the man and perhaps change his mind. But that wasn’t to be.
I was permitted to enter the man’s home with the detectives and found a neat and well-organized apartment. He had this entire event meticulously planned out.
On the dining room table were a series on neatly organized envelopes lined up in a perfect row. Three were separately addressed to family members, while one was marked Funeral director and last one simply said: Police. Inside the envelope, marked police was a neatly handwritten letter. The first thing I noticed was that the letter was dated with today’s date. The letter explained that he had taken his own life freely. He went on to explain that he suffered from a very painful and debilitating terminal illness which would lead him to a more painful state before his eventual death.
He provided us with the names and contact information for several doctors who were treating him. He also asked us to make sure we contacted the funeral director first, so his family members would not see him in his current state. He went on to ask us to hand-deliver the other letters to his family members and provided their addresses, which were all local. He closed his letter by apologizing to us for any mess his act may have caused.
We next opened the letter to the funeral director, as it was unsealed and only identified with the words funeral director. Again, we found a neatly handwritten letter reminding this funeral director of his pre-paid funeral contract. The letter advised that one of his children had the written agreement. He went on to provide significant detail on his final arrangements, down to the suit in which he wanted to be buried.
The final three letters were to his children and were sealed which is how our officers delivered them to his loved ones.
A cursory search of the apartment which is standard in any crime scene identified two more, nearly exact sets of letters. Each set of letters were also handwritten but had different dates on them. Each roughly a few weeks apart. It was clear that the man had planned his demise on several prior dates and but hadn’t or couldn’t go through with it, until tonight
We reviewed these earlier letters because they were not in envelopes or sealed. The letters to his children were very loving and apologetic; asking for their understanding and forgiveness for his decision. They also spoke of the hopelessness of his medical situation and the difficult decision of letting go.
I never met this man until that night, and yet I feel like I knew him. In reading his letters, I believe that he was a decent man confronted with an impossible problem with no good solution. His final written thoughts were of comforting and reassuring his family and seeking their forgiveness for his decision to end his pain and his life.
We Found A Abandoned Safe In The River. What’s Inside The ABANDONED SAFE? (OPENED)
Obviously, I mean OBVIOUSLY, they have never been to China and have no idea how fucking enormous it is.
If you hop in a car, and start driving, it will take you days… DAYS… passing huge apartment buildings full of hard working, militarized families, studying… working… training…
…building after building. Mile after mile. Kilometer after kilometer. Over and over and over.
One enormous giga-complex housing thousands of families… after another… and another… and yet another.
China is HUGE.
Simply enormous.
…
China is not the third world cesspool that the Western “news” says it is. It’s a nation thirty years in the future. It is proud. It is strong. And it is LETHAL.
It is a dragon wearing a cute panda-bear suit.
You all in the West are unaware.
Backwards. Retarded.
Fed garbage; not just figuratively, but literally. Most American doesn’t even know where California is on a map, or how many States there are, or how much 5 + 8 is.
When I say “stupid”.
I mean it.
Meanwhile in China…
I started using facial recognition and QR to pay back in 2013. That was ten years ago. I haven’t touched a coin or paper money in all that time. Using paper money is so 19th century.
My car is electric and it talks to me, and only turns on when my voice recognition software allows it to.
It self parks, customizes the interior with a rotation of interior motifs, plays my morning jazz tunes, and gives me a nice warm back rub as it links to the toll road and carries me off to my office.
In my office, my staff brings me my coffee and turns on my systems for me. Sometimes they might have a kid or two with them, being sick or what not. No worries, though, they are their next to their parents doing their studies next to the desks.
Lunch is paid for all my staff. It’s one of the state mandated laws, and after they eat a huge healthy cafeteria meal of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, they go take their normal naps.
…
That’s just the first four hours of a typical day in China.
…
There’s a bunch of dunder-heads that think that the USA can invade China with D-Day style Naval assaults, and the threat of nuclear war.
Troll?
Moron?
Buffoon?
Ignoramus?
They believe that proud and powerful aircraft carrier will lay off the coast of China and launch cascade after cascade of fighters and bombers into China.
They think that stealthy submarines will sneak up and start bombing China. All this unopposed, and the Chinese will take it. Smile and say “… can I have another, master?”
They believe that the proud troops will be easily resupplied by Australia, Japan, Korea and Philippines. After all, that is the on-going American construction activity. Billets. Barracks. Supply depots, and large investments in bordellos for employment for the locals.
Fantasies. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
NEVER going to happen.
…
I am here to tell you that World War started in 2008.
Oh, sure, the elements started far earlier. But historians will write that the date of the war began was in 2008.
It peaked in 2020 with the bio-weapon(s) that the USA launched on China during CNY (John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo brilliance there), and fell back towards conventional war with the NATO conflict began in Ukraine.
It hasn’t gone that great though.
Wars don’t go to plan, and this crop of brain-dead, pathological psychopathic oligarchs are dangerously deluded.
Take Ukraine. Ah. The “war in Ukraine”.
What they mean is the unreported hostilities used to counter the Russian “special military operation”.
Over 3000 American soldiers (with countless more NATO gents) are dead. Just because the American “news” isn’t reporting it, doesn’t mean that it is not going on.
Dead Americans are all over the place. I have photos and photos. Movies and movies. But if I put them up, they get pulled. It’s “news you can use”, but that is bad for the Westerners to see.
Good men. Soldiers. American men.
Dead.
Over what? And why?
It is sad.
I cry for the widows at Fort Lenard Wood.
As that phase winds down with a European collapse (economic, social, industrial, and military) a new phase opened up.
All to schedule; a disruption of the middle eastern shipping lanes.
Ah… that’s gonna teach China a lesson!
In their wet dreams, perhaps. China is about 3450 steps ahead of the rest of the world. They know what underwear that you will wear two days from now. Long before you even decide to put some on. That’s how advanced China is.
This idea that “China can be isolated” has failed, and is bound to fail, as the Chinese BRI are now proving how far-sighted and successful the rerouting of shipping avenues have proven themselves.
No wonder both Russia and China are screaming forward; an economic gallop. While the collective “West” is mired in inefficiency, lunacy, and insanity.
None of which is being reported in the “news”.
Here’s some more American troops in Ukraine…
Meanwhile…
We are watching the United States collapse in front of our very eyes.
The USA has this dream of opening up a long-desired war in the Pacific over China. Troops, material and weaponry are flooding toward the Philippines, Japan and Australia. All ready to die for “democracy”.
Whatever the Hell that means.
A rally-cry of the moronic who still believe that “their vote counts” and that American culture (woke, red-pill, open marriage, LGBQ+) is worthy of preserving.
Woo! Woo! I’m gonna kill Commies for all that free gay sex!
And when that day comes… “death by cop” will be experienced in America. Up and down the coasts. As the United States will be bludgeoned by many, many, MANY people; and their nations. People who have been ridiculed and marginalized over the decades of pompous, elitist wars and flouting.
America is NOT respected in the world.
It is despised.
It is no mistake the distain that the illegal immigrants show towards American. And they are the polite ones. The USA is poised to get a much-needed Ass-Kicking at a scale of ferocity that is off the scale; in both ferocity, and in long-duration and everlasting pain.
And the United States has lost.
It just hasn’t been reported on yet.
Look around yourselves. The USA has no downtowns. No factories. No hard workers. No functioning anything. It’s just on the long slow crumble…
At this point in time, “war against China” will not be needed.
It’s OVER.
He HOARDED GUNS! I Bought The MOST EXPENSIVE Storage Unit In The Country!
As a young boy, my father would take us out periodically out of our city (Bridgeport, CT) and go for a ride into the country. And there we would go to a roped off hole in the ground. Turns out that twice a day, this hole would gusher out a tall column of water. And it was really cool to watch as a young boy.
It’s something that I haven’t seen in decades. And truthfully, I have forgot about it all. But you know, the other day, by chance, I remembered the blow hole. I was thinking about it the other day whilst musing about what to expose my young daughter to. Yup. A natural ocean blow hole.
If you can spend sometime at a local library and chat with the people there, they might be able to point you all in the right direction for some fun excitement for the family. You never know.
I worked in a coffee shop and many tourists would come by. This guy from another state came one day doing the « have we ever seen each other before » act. I said no and gave him his coffee. Just a reminder that I had a fiance at that time (now my husband). He then waited for me at the end of the counter . I thought he had a question so I went up to him and asked if everything was ok. He told me the classic « you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, I would love to take you on a date … blahblahblah » I refused and said I have a fiance. He replied « but do you love him? » I was stunned.
I confirmed that yes in fact I was very much in love with my fiance to wich he replied « are you sure? ». I was getting frustrated a bit so i just said « I know I love him so don’t ask me that again it’s rude ».
The next thing he said was even worst. He simply said « Not even for one night? ». That was enough, I went up to my boss and told him everything. My boss escorted him out.
Very shocked how a person can ask such questions shamelessly!
America today
Yogurt Cake (Yiaourtini)
Ingredients
Cake
1/2 pound butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 egg yolks
1 cup yogurt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
6 egg whites
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 shot glass cognac
1 teaspoon baking soda
Syrup
2 cups sugar
3 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and baking powder and set aside.
Cream the butter well. Add the sugar and continue beating until very light. Add egg yolks one by one and continue beating. Slowly add yogurt and dry ingredients alternately. Whip egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Fold in chopped walnuts. Mix the baking soda with the cognac and fold into the batter. Pour into pan and bake 45-55 minutes.
While the yiaourtini is baking, prepare syrup. Bring the ingredients to a boil and gently boil for 20 minutes.
Let both the yiaourtini and syrup cool for about 20 minutes and then very slowly pour the syrup over the yiaourtini. You may not need all of the syrup.
Cut into diamond shapes. Cover to keep cake moist.
This is an idea I read somewhere a while ago, and it’s been really helpful for me in developing patience:
Most people completely overestimate how much they can do in a day, but underestimate how much they can do in a year.
In just a day, you can’t change much.
Say one day, you go to the gym, eat healthy, sleep 8 hours, talk to a girl you have a crush on, and work on your business for a few hours. You do some breathing exercises you found on YouTube, read a book, and even call your mom and ask her about her day.
You had a great day.
But at the end of the day, you’re frustrated because your life is pretty much the same. You still kind of suck. You’re still a mess.
Your muscles are still small and you’re still overweight. Your business is still in the red. The girl you have a crush on still keeps forgetting your name. You still have anxiety, your mom is still worried about you, and reading the book was hard — there were a lot of words you didn’t know.
“Fuck this!” you think.
You want to give up because you’re frustrated by how little progress you’ve made.
A whole day of work, and you weren’t rewarded… What the hell?
Right?
Wrong.
Positive results come from compounded efforts.
Most people understand that things like fitness or weight loss take time (if you don’t, you should get that in your brain) but we often lose patience when it comes to other things.
Things like:
personal finance
relationships
reading skills
mental health
or anything else worth it really
ALSO take a long time to build.
These skills are a result of mental fitness, business fitness, social fitness, etc.
The most important thing you can learn in your 20s (or any age, I think) is the value of patience and persistence.
After a year in the gym, you’re still not at your goal weight, but you’re close. Your confidence has improved. You know the names of all exercises now and you know what muscles they work. When you walk into the gym, you have a plan. The guy at the front desk remembers your name now.
After a year of working on your business, you’ve turned it around. You’ve made dozens of mistakes, lost clients, made marketing errors, and nearly given up 100 bajillion times, but you didn’t. You’ve been rewarded with your first high-paying client. When you got the Stripe notification from them, you cried. Baby steps.
That girl you have a crush on doesn’t just know your name now, she’s in love with you. You’ve been together for almost a year. Working up the courage to “talk to her” became working up the courage to ask her out, then the courage to kiss her. You’re happy. You want to marry her one day.
Those books you read have gotten a lot easier to read. You actually enjoy reading now. You look up fewer words. Each book teaches you a new lesson — even if sometimes the lesson is just “some ideas are not worth writing books about”.
Your anxiety has gone down a lot too. You’ve done those breathing exercises every single day. You’ve learned that it’s called “meditation”, and whenever you feel stressed about work or your relationship or anything else in your life, you try and practice it. It doesn’t always “fix everything” but it usually helps.
It also helps you realize that progress is a neverending journey. There’s something infinite about sitting in a finite space and doing nothing but existing.
Oh, and your mom?
She’s still worried about you because that’s your mom. She’s never not going to worry about you.
Two keywords are mentioned in this question: history and myth
Historical documents are very serious matters to the Chinese. It does not mean that just randomly discovering some stone carvings, scriptures, or parchment scrolls can be called “historical documents.” The “historical documents” recognized by the Chinese are actually is very limited. Basically they are serious, formal historical archives and books.
The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty recorded in Chinese historical documents, there is no earlier one.
In addition to formal historical documents, other civilizations, countries or dynasties before the Xia Dynasty will of course be recorded. However, in the Chinese view of history, these records can only be classified as “myths” or “unofficial histories”, and they are not recognized by history.
In order to respect the historical habits of the Chinese people, I think it is inappropriate to use mythology and unofficial history to discuss the civilization before the Xia Dynasty.
But this issue can be discussed using archaeological findings. Although in the eyes of the Chinese, simple archaeological discoveries cannot be regarded as trustworthy history. But their credibility is higher than myths and unofficial histories.
1. Liangzhu Civilization
Existing in today’s Zhejiang Province, China, it appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 500 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.
Archaeologists have discovered large-scale urban ruins here, tens of thousands of acres of rice fields, granaries with hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rice, huge dams and palace ruins. Countless tombs, jades and pottery.
UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage. After measuring the scale of houses, tombs, and rice fields, archaeologists estimate that tens of thousands of people once lived in and around this city. It was the capital of an ancient country.
But there is not a single word about it in Chinese historical documents.
2. Sanxingdui Civilization
Sichuan Province, which exists in today’s China, appeared 4,800 years ago and lasted for 1,400 years. It was 800 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, and its existence spanned the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty.
Not only ancient Stone Age ruins were discovered here, but also a large number of relics from the Bronze Age. Huge, complex and exquisite bronzes, ivories, and jades filled the sacrificial pits.
UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage.
However, there is no detailed record of it in Chinese historical documents. There are only some approximate accounts, and they cannot be completely confirmed.
3. Longshan Civilization
There are multiple sites that exist in today’s Shandong and Henan provinces of China.
It appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 100 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.
A large number of jades, pottery, architectural and urban ruins have been discovered in multiple sites of the Longshan Civilization. Because of its location and cultural relic style, it has a certain connection with the Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists tend to believe that it is the predecessor of the Xia Dynasty.
However, there is no record of it in Chinese historical documents, only some vague records, and they cannot be completely confirmed.
In addition, China has also discovered the remains of many ancient civilizations that date back to earlier times, such as the DwenkouCivilization, Yangshao Civilization, Hemudu Civilization, Hongshan Civilization, and Majiayao Civilization. The earliest urban ruins discovered so far date back to about 8,000 years ago.
However, there is no record of these civilizations and their cities in Chinese historical documents. Therefore, they are not regarded as “official history” by Chinese historical circles, but are uniformly classified as: “prehistoric civilization”
I live in a pretty nice neighbourhood but it’s right next to a sketchy one and the nearest Domino’s is between the two.
I had stopped off for some pie and wings and was hurrying back to my car laden with goodies, filled with anticipation, ready to stuff my face whilst I watched trashy Sci-Fi reruns. As I passed a bus stop an absolute unit of a young lady lurched out of the shadows and, looking up, I realised she was part of a crowd of teens I could generously describe as “scruffy”.
As is typical for creatures of this sub-species she engaged my attention with the wittiest of retorts “oi, Fuck you lookin’ at?”, to the sniggers of the rest of her pack. (ever seen the episode of Buffy where Xander is a jackal? Yeah, got flashbacks).
This is where things could have gone very badly for me because my brain HATES me. Normal folk just grunt and scurry off at this point, maybe agress back if that’s their jam. Not me and my brain, ohhh no.
Me? I just froze up.
Evil brain that hates me? That bugger made me look her up and down, slowly, and say “I don’t know, 3am pity fuck?”
Let’s be clear here, these are the kind of teens that carry knives and use them, my sphincter slamming shut damned near caused the wind to change directions and there was a moment of absolute stillness.
Then one of the pack started laughing and the rest joined in (sounding even more like jackals) and, deprived of her support this behemoth of a fight starter just kind of stalled in place and so, regaining control of my me, I scurried off to my car, hopped in and wasted no time getting out of there.
Resting heart beat at the time? Hummingbird after it’s fifth line of coke.
One day, a stranger gave me a ride in Afghanistan.
This isn’t normal: he was just an Afghan man, and I was a uniformed active duty US Marine. I had stepped off the base for some reason, I don’t remember what, possibly to go to the bazaar which was held just-off base which we were allowed to visit, and after I exited from one gate, I realized I needed to be on the opposite side.
As I turned to walk back the other way, I understood just enough Pashto at the time to understand when an Afghan man in a truck offered to give me a ride to where I need to go.
Without thinking, I hopped in. And the doors locked. I could not unlock them. It immediately hit me just how stupid I was, and I realized that due to the confined space in the front of the vehicle my long rifle was useless. Trying to conceal my hands, I tensed and gripped my knife, ready to kill the driver, and stab and slash my way out of the vehicle at the slightest provocation.
But nothing happened. The driver stayed very calm and quiet. When I arrived at the other gate, he came to slowly to a stop, and unlocked the door. Relieved when I left his vehicle, he smiled and waved, wished me well, and continued on his way.
It was then I learned that even in Afghanistan, strangers can be kind.
But I never told anyone, because what I did was also astoundingly, immensely stupid.
Before 2019, Huawei mobile phones were not much different from Chinese brand mobile phones such as Xiaomi and OPPO.
The differences are very limited, such as better-looking photos, better mobile phone signal, and more beautiful casing.
. The difference between Huawei phones and Xiaomi phones at that time was the same as the difference between Samsung phones and Xiaomi phones. “A little better”, that’s all.
They have more in common. Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Samsung are all global products. Their CPUs come from professional suppliers such as Qualcomm and MTK; their screens come from LG and Samsung; their glass comes from Corning in the United States; their memories come from Micron and SK; and they also have accessories from various multinational suppliers such as SONY, TI, and Infineon. The operating system comes from Google’s Android.
They are all products under the background of globalization and the result of global cooperation.
But the Huawei mobile phone in 2023 is a unique case, it is completely different.
It is completely different from Apple, and also completely different from Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO.
It is no longer a global product.
Due to U.S. sanctions that began in 2019, Huawei is unable to cooperate with global suppliers, and they are unable to purchase most parts.
95% of the components of the Mate60 mobile phone to be launched in 2023 will come from Chinese suppliers, and the remaining 5% will be general-purpose components.
In fact, almost every component of this mobile phone comes from a Chinese company. Huawei has built a complete supply chain with the support of its Chinese partners.
They even printed the American Raimondo, the promoter of sanctions against Huawei, on their advertisements.
They are declaring: Thank you for making us stronger
this is really cool
This mobile phone has almost no components outside of China. All its semiconductors are produced in China, and its operating system is also developed by Huawei itself. Since its launch in September 2023, this mobile phone priced at US$1,000+ has continued to sell well in China, with 4 million units sold in just 3 months.
It is the first time that one country has completed the entire industrial chain of a smartphone since humans invented the smartphone. It is also a regression to the globalized division of labor among human beings.
All this stems from politics, because the United States believes that Huawei is too powerful and threatens “U.S. national security.”
Of course, there are many Chinese elements that threaten U.S. national security now, such as garlic and rubber tires.
My friends daughter made this decision. She had a 3.7 plus GPA from an excellent university. She scored well on the GRE so I am pretty sure she would have done well on the MCAT. She had volunteer work with a very reputable research group. She is attractive and charming and as a former member of the Admissions committee at the medical school that employs me I think she would have been admitted. I also think she made a good decision based on what she wants in life.
first she spent 2 years in PA school post college versus 4 in medical school and a minimum of 3 more in residency. Her debt for 2 years of PA is significant but nothing like it would be in most medical schools. She began full time work as a PA immediately so was able to start paying off that debt immediately. As she is employed in a federal hospital she received vacation, health care and time off to get married and have a baby before the age of 30. She went back to work and is paying off her debt. She does not have regular night call or weekend work. She works directly with patients and she likes that. She has time off to see her family and she is close to them. She and her husband are saving for a home. Unless she went into a highly paid medical specialty she will probably come out as well financially or near so because she has less school debt, will pay it off faster, will be able to afford a house which is a major wealth building maneuver, and if she decides to put extra time into her job and works weekends she will get paid extra for that, as opposed to a DO/ MD resident or fellow who may be there at no extra pay at all hours. I personally think she made a smart financial decision and from a health point of view one with less stress.
I don’t think I would ever make the same decision but I wasn’t keen on starting a family early, and I wasn’t keen on marriage until I met my wonderful husband, I was interested in research and in making my own decisions and I didn’t have enough financial perspective to realize how bad the debt could be (fortunately I went to a relatively cheap state med school). I wanted to be a decision maker and change the world in some small way. I love science and read science even in my time off. Everyone is different and each of us has to find our path.
As a trained kickboxer I will say that I’ve been in this position before and it’s a catch 22. If u do ur fucked and if u don’t sane outcome, you’re fucked. I had a girl get in my face and began spitting insults and saliva. I asked her to back up and get out of my personal space and she continued the assault. I will note her bf was in the vicinity and watching the entire thing. I yelled to him to please get control of his GF before things escalate further. He didn’t. She tried to hit me with her beer bottle and I open hand slapped the taste outta her mouth. She deserved it and then I had to deal with the bf. I wasn’t hurt and in all honesty she was fine too. It could have been much worse but it didn’t need to happen at all. Females, especially young ones, tend to think they can actually assault a man and have no repercussions. It’s simply not right! The truth is cops usually take the side of the woman regardless but that doesn’t make it right. My opinion is if anyone (regardless of gender) causes me harm I will react accordingly. Call it what u will but I call it not being a doormat.
About 8 months ago, I decided to move to Austin, Texas.
I struggled with anxiety about the move for months — from April to July.
I’d lived in Chicago for roughly 20 years and wanted a change. I also was struggling to find world-class training for Jiu-Jitsu in Chicago. I also was sick of freezing my booty off every winter.
I was terrified that the fear of not making my move “work” would stop me from making it at all.
In the end, I just packed my car and drove all the way down to Texas to begin a new life. I left my friends, family, and everything I knew behind and “gave it a shot”. Instead of quitting when things got hard (although I definitely wanted to at times), I kept going.
As of today, I have been living in Austin, Texas for 7 months.
About 9 months ago, I met my girlfriend.
I struggled with anxiety about my new relationship for the entire first few months of it.
Fear of past traumas ruining a good thing before it began. Fear of the relationship failing despite the obvious potential it had. Fear of having everything I’d ever wanted in a partner and still not being happy.
I was terrified because I cared.
Despite my fears, I decided to carry forth in my relationship and do my absolute best. I decided to love openly despite being scared of being burned. I decided to try.
Today, I’m in the happiest relationship I’ve ever been in.
About 11 months ago, I started writing my first book.
I struggled with a lot of anxiety about the book for a very long time.
The fear of the book not being good. The fear of the book being good but not selling well. The fear that my stupid ADHD wouldn’t let me even finish the book in the first place.
I was terrified of doing something I had always wanted to do.
Nonetheless, I kept putting one word in front of the other and writing. Then, when I’d finished writing, I started editing.
The book will be available in a little less than 3 months.
About a year ago, I quit my job.
I struggled with a lot of anxiety about it for weeks and weeks.
I lost sleep over it. I worried about becoming broke and unemployed and “a bum”. I was taking a big leap and essentially trying to make a full-time living through Jiu-Jitsu seminars and writing on the Internet.
I was terrified that fear wouldn’t “let me” quit my job and chase my dream.
In the end, I went up to my boss and told him I was quitting and why, and he was cool with it. Life’s been good since.
The lesson is this:
The human experience is so much more customizable than most of us are aware of.
You can quit jobs, move cities, and meet new people. You can write books, make art, and do all the things you’re afraid of.
Yes — sometimes things don’t work out — but realizing that you have more control over your life than you think is deeply empowering.
I didn’t close my account but since this is a lot about Wells Fargo I will offer my experience. I have been with Wells Fargo over 60 years. During that time I have had the following experiences:
When I was about 25 I got a notice that my 90 day $30,000 unsecured note was due. Not mine! Someone sure had excellent credit!
I also had a business account and mistakenly wrote checks on the wrong account and had overdrafts. They charged me no fees. But I had made a few other errors which I had always talked them out of the service charges. Finally they told me that they were putting a note in my file and would no longer forgive the service charges. I quit making mistakes.
Many years later I called the bank to check on my balance and it was thousands of dollars too high due to an erroneous deposit. I told them to get it out of there and they did that the next day. Someone had a pretty good payroll check for more than $4,500 and that was over 30 years ago. When they reversed the deposit the person’s social security number showed up on my bank statement!
Recently I had to fight for several days to get my $50 back for a check they charged to my account. They needed several days to “investigate” it when one look at a copy of the check revealed that it was not my name and address, not my account number, not my signature, and not even my bank (Wells Fargo Minneapolis) but Wells Fargo New Jersey!
How these things happen is beyond me. Thank goodness I don’t have any loans with them.
The strangest? A colleague was fired for disagreeing with a disembodied voice.
Jim was working a few hours a week at a small language school. Many of the other teachers were backpackers, but Jim was a teacher through education and experience.
Each classroom was outfitted with a two-way intercom that, if used, boomed out through a speaker over the chalkboard. Jim hadn’t a clue that it existed.
He was teaching a lesson that included his spelling words for the students to write down. When he spelled out ‘t-h-e-a-t-e-r, ’ a disembodied voice boomed out, “That is incorrect. The correct spelling is ‘t-h-e-a-t-r-e.”
The Thai owner often used the intercom to listen in on classes. He had lived in England for a few years and was more than a little proud of his English language skills. He KNEW that he cheaply and illegally hired young people with no experience, other than being native speakers, and he used that as his reason to ‘spy’ and to correct when he felt it necessary.
Jim’s reply, using a polite, even tone, explained that it was a difference between British and American English. His words were for the students as well as for ‘the voice.’
Silence for about 5 seconds…then ‘the voice’ said, “Pick up your final pay packet from the office after class.”
The average motel in rural areas is about $45/night. In the city, it’s about $80/night. So, average, say, 60 dollars. That’s about $21,900 for a bed at night.
Most motels do not provide toiletries, which means Jack needs to buy new ones, at least for the time he stays in the same motel. The TV show does mention he carries his toothbrush around, but that still leaves toothpaste and at least a bar of soap. These things aren’t expensive, but because Jack moves around a lot, he needs to buy new ones every time he moves from one motel to another. Say he buys a bar of soap + toothpaste to last him for a week; that’s about 5 – 10 bucks. Say he moves every week. That’s about 500 bucks a year.
Quite a few people feel the need to tell me that even cheap hotels provide some kind of toiletry. Sure. Let’s say Reacher doesn’t need to buy those. That’s 500 saves. Good job. Surely, that offset the other 60K-80K he must spend on room, food, and weekly new sets of clothing.
Now clothing, because he doesn’t have luggage, so he doesn’t have any spare clothing. It doesn’t seem like he uses self-service laundromats. After all, what would he be wearing when he laundered his only clothing? That means he buys new clothing every single time he needs to change. Let’s say he changes underwear every other day and changes his jeans, T-shirts, and jackets every week. Mind you, while he could buy bulk, he had to throw whatever he didn’t wear away when he moved. So, say he buys a 6 pack of underwear for 10 bucks, plus a t-shirt, a new pair of Jeans, and a Jacket every week. And from what we have seen, his Jeans, T-shirts, and Jackets are relatively high quality. So even if he bought from the thrift store, he wasn’t going for the cheapest, and considering his size, I’d say 100 dollars per week for clothing. That’s another 26,000 for clothing.
This is a very very conservative estimation. Obviously, you lot 1) never shop for yourself, 2) didn’t know how hard it is to find clothing that could fit a very tall person with wide shoulders, and 3) never visited a thrift store in years. Could Reacher find a good jacket or a nice Levi Jean once in a while from a thrift store? Sure, he could. But every single fucking week, even in a small town? LOL. I don’t think so. Unless he wears smelly clothing all the time, I suspect the majority of the time, he will have to visit a department store that carries his size.
Thrift stores aren’t “J Crew for the cheap.” There isn’t a wealth of perfectly good clothing for you to pick. Especially with the rise of fast fashion, what you get in thrift stores nowadays are 1000 different pieces of garbage clothing from Shein or Modcloth. None of them will fit Reacher. There’s a reason why the majority of people do not shop at thrift stores once they have the money to shop at regular stores.
Reacher couldn’t sustain his weekly (if not more frequent) clothing needs through thrift stores. It is a fantasy. It doesn’t work in real life. He has to buy from regular department stores.
Keep in mind that he can’t wait. He can’t pick and choose because he only has one set of clothing, and if that set of clothing becomes dirty, torn, smelly, and covered in blood, he must get a new set immediately. He didn’t have the luxury to shop at different stores until he found the cheapest.
Realistically speaking, considering he might need more than one set of clothing per week, he will have to visit the department store or even specialty stores like Big and Tall for clothing at least half of the time, and his clothing cost could rise to 35K-40K.
Travel. Jack probably utilizes his veteran discount, so I’d say if he travels every week, 20–30 bucks a week, we’re looking at about 1,000 dollars for traveling. And it’s not going to be pleasant. Because there’s no public transportation outside major metropolises, Jack would spend a lot of time waiting for buses and walking for hours. Because of his gender and imposing height, he probably won’t have much luck hitchhiking.
He doesn’t cook, so he dines out every single day, and we know he occasionally drinks alcohol. On average, a meal costs about 20 dollars, very conservatively. We’re talking about small diners and fast-food joints. 60 dollars a day for 365 days, plus maybe a few fancy steak dinners plus top-shelf hard liquor here and there, that’s 25,000.
And there’s the medical cost. Jack helps random people. That’s his thing. And he helps people by doing violence. That means he deals with injuries, cuts needing stitches, fractured bones, concussions that need MRIs etc. etc. all the time. He most likely gets treatment from the local VA, but since he isn’t disabled, there will be a co-pay. And there will be times when he couldn’t get to a VA. He might need to visit an emergency room right away. I have no idea how much co-pay is there, but knowing the American VA system (and health care in general), it’s not going to be cheap. So I’d say maybe another 10,000 just for medical costs (do you know how much it costs to have an MRI? A brain MRI is about 2000 dollars).
And there are the miscellaneous spending, movie tickets, extra coffee for the day, occasionally needing a gun, etc.
Everything considered, I say to sustain this kind of bag-free lifestyle, you are looking at 80K – 100K a year.
Yes, I’m aware that Reacher sometimes steals from criminals. This answer isn’t about where his money comes from; it is about how expensive it is to live his lifestyle.
And what would he be doing all day long? There’s only that many “small towns” he can visit without getting tired of the pisspoor diner food and suspicious look everywhere he goes. I suspect he fills his day by playing Batman. I think he goes out of his way to look for trouble. That means he’s most likely running away from local police and/or getting in and out of hospitals. Still think my 10K medical cost is outrageous?
So, can you live a nomadic life like Jack Reacher? Sure you can. It’s not cheap, it’s not pleasant, it’s not easy, it’s not romantic, it’s dangerous. Unless you’re punishing yourself for some past sins, or you’re running away from something, not a life style I would recommend.
I didn’t realize this answer touched a nerve. I get it. You imagined if you wanted to, you could leave your job, your family, everything and live like nomads. How hard can it be? Jack Reacher did it! Surely you, a regular dude who can’t sleep without your Ambien, can do the lifestyle if you want to. That’s why you bought that gigantic F150, isn’t it? Even though you have never towed anything in your entire life. But you dreamed of being the tough guy who drives around in the wilderness. And you dreamed about being this loner vigilante who roams the American small towns delivering justice with nothing but his fist.
And I’m not sure when is the last time any of you visited a thrift store. What do you think thrift stores sell? Armani for 20 bucks? People do not donate high-quality clothing to Goodwill, and when they do, trust me, the employees get the first pick. You’re lucky if you can find anything that isn’t broken down Shein or Old Navy or other fast fashion brand garbage. That’s why I specifically said thrifting is not sustainable for someone like Reacher with his size and the wear and tear of his clothing.
The simple truth is Lee Child didn’t think it through. It’s like J.K. Rowling insisted that there is only 1 magical school in the entire British Isles, and that created a lot of worldbuilding problems for Harry Potter. Lee Child could easily solve all of the practical difficulties by simply saying Reacher had a backpack. If the backpack is too dorky, Reacher could have a manly leather overnight tote. That would solve a LOT of problems and make Reacher’s odyssey across the US much cheaper and easier. But noooo, we can’t have that. Lee Child wanted to create a mystery lone wolf character, a modern-day “The Man with No Name.” He shows up in some random town, beats up some bad guys, saves the girl, and leaves town with only the clothes on his back.
Wake the fuck up, dude. Jack Reacher is a fantasy. You can’t live that kind of life on the cheap or even with money.
Neil Shubin is an American fish paleontologist. Behind him is a fossil he discovered (and a reconstructed model of it) he named “Tiktaalik”. It’s clearly a fish, but it also clearly has elbows.
When he’s not doing paleontology, he teaches anatomy in medical school. His students think he’s excellent. When they ask if he’s a surgeon or an internist, he answers “I’m a fish paleontologist. Do you want a refund?”
The reason Dr. Shubin is so good at teaching human anatomy is that human anatomy is simply modified fish anatomy. Human beings evolved from something like Tiktaalik, which lived 375 million years ago and is the ancestor of all terrestrial vertebrates, including amphibians, birds, reptiles, mammals, and us.
Finding the same structures between fish and humans isn’t hard. Fish even have five major bones in their fins, just like we have five fingers. Sometimes the bones are modified for another purpose (like hearing) but you can find many one-to-one comparisons.
I was hauling Caterpiillar equipment from Surrey, BC, to places like Ft. Lauderdale, Richmond Va. El Paso Tx, and Long Beach Ca. this was oversize equipment meaning I was overheight, overwidth, over length and overweight. (I had to buy overdimensional permits in every state.
My little brothers wedding was on Saturday, so when I got home the week before, I declined another trip since they usually take 7 to 10 days. I was told this load was going to Salt Lake City, so I should just make it down and back by Friday.
I loaded up and called the customer once I crossed the U.S. border. He informed me they this machine had been sold to a customer in San Antonio Tx.
Fuck.
I hauled ass, and had the load off by Friday morning. I informed dispatch I was leaving the truck and trailer in the customers yard and flying home for Wade’s wedding. I missed my flight by 5 minutes. It was an $1800 ticket, non refundable, and the ticket agent took pity on me. She said if I could make Phoenix Az by 2:30 AM, I could catch a flight there and be in Vancouver by 8:30 and still be home by noon.
I got pulled over in Tucson Az, at 11PM doing 87 mph in the far left lane. (Almost zero traffic.)
Charged with speeding and public endangerment. (A felony count with 10 years minimum) the jail was full and they considered me a flight risk (Canadian) so they took me to Pima County Maximum Security, and put me in F+G, the highest security.
Allowed one collect call per day except those phones wouldn’t accept collect to Canada. So I was in there 5 days before my cell mates lawyer called my family back home to tell them where I was. Last they had heard was Friday when I said I was gonna make it. My folks sent him 30 grand for bail which arrived an hour after I didn’t need it anymore.
Tuesday I plead guilty to speeding, $100 fine and 2 day driving course. Thursday I got shackled up with 6 other guys and put in a van, which was left for an hour, midday, with the windows rolled up. Before we all passed out I remember everyone telling why they were in there and what the charges were. Every single guy in there was a murderer, and a couple were in for more than one. They pissed themselves laughing when I told them I was in for speeding.
They have double jeopardy in AZ and I’d already plead guilty to speeding so it got thrown out. I was released later that day.
The lawyer gave me $100 and I was buying some shoes when I got to talking with a well dressed guy, who, after hearing a bit of my story, insisted I come stay at his house while I got things sorted out tto fly home. His name was Todd, he was a Professor at the University of Arizona. He took me home to his place up on the mountain, to his wife and 4 year old daughter. I stayed 4 days and he drove me to the airport. Gave me $100 which I told him I would repay, but I lost contact and never did so if anyone knows who I’m talking about, get ahold of me.
I lost all the wedding presents that were in my truck plus all my personal effects. It cost $18,000 US, for what I don’t know. I sold my 1972 short box fleet side chev pickup, factory 4 speed, 20,000 original miles, to cover the money put up by my folks. I lost my job, never made it to the wedding, and now I have to explain what happened every time I cross the border.
One small thing that I pay attention to in people is how they react when small things go wrong.
There’s a long line in the coffee shop.
Traffic.
Someone cut them off on the road.
A lot of people nowadays freak out when things like this happen to them.
I think that there is more insight into who someone is when small things go wrong than there is when things go right. I also think catastrophic incidents (losing loved ones, accidents, etc) are a bad time to judge character.
But when something small goes wrong, the strongest people I’ve met are completely unfazed.
They simply adjust and go about their business.
“A long line in the coffee shop? That’s okay. I’ll wait.”
“Traffic? I’ll put my book on and let everyone know I’ll be late.”
“Someone cut me off on the road? That’s okay. They must be in a hurry.”
Before you can become truly strong — the type of strong where major problems don’t phase you — you must first become strong enough to deal with minor inconveniences.
It’s kind of terrifying to me how many people nowadays can’t handle something small going wrong.
Discovered that the septic system isn’t working like it should be. So dad explained that he would just dig up the pipe and run a sucker stick through it to unclog it. (If you don’t know what a sucker stick is, ask and I will tell you. Basically, a long metal rod.)
Dad suffers from angina, and at the age of 87, there are limits as to what he can do, physically. So when he gets involved in a project, I usually hang around and “help”, which actually means that I’m there in case he has a bad attack and needs nitro.
So there we were, with every digging tool we could find on the place from spades to sharp shooters to post hole diggers to regular shovels and everything in between. Right away, Dad showed me a hole in the ground and told me to be careful not to step in it. He gingerly stepped around that hole, and I watched him each time. Then I went to grab a sharp shooter to help him dig, and dammit! I stepped in that dang hole. Left foot sank inside, lost my balance, couldn’t get my rubber boot clad foot out of the hole. By then I was on my hands and knees in the muddy muck, yanking and yanking to get my foot out. Finally with a great gurgling noise, the hole let go of my foot and I gave a might tug, causing me to fall flat on my front. Managed to keep my face out of the mud. But I was a total loss. Surprisingly, I landed more on the grass than in the mud, so it wasn’t too horrible.
My dad said, “OH NO!” as he watched me go down, and when I busted out laughing, he did too.
We never did find the end of that dang pipe, and tomorrow some professional septic tank people are coming out to redo the whole nasty thing.
It takes a sense of humor to survive around here.
Blow Bang
Sykotakia Ladorigani
Ingredients
1 pound chicken, lamb or calf liver
Flour for dredging
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
Olive oil for frying
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Instructions
Wash the liver very well. If using lamb’s or calves liver, cut it into strips or cubes. Season the liver with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Shake off excess and fry in the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the oregano, lemon juice and garlic if used.
Pour the contents of the pan onto a serving dish and serve with lemon wedges and bread for dipping into the oil/lemon/oregano mixture.
May also be served as a main course. Simply increase the quantities according to how many people are being served.
Serve with either fried potatoes or plain white rice.
I was working at a relatively small company, the last establishment I would ever be employed by in the U.S., but I didn’t know that yet.
I was in before all others, every day, getting an early start. I loved my job, my colleagues and the owners. I felt I had a comfortable, rewarding future there.
For New Year’s, the company held a lavish ‘Thank you!’ dinner and gave us expensive appliances as well as cash bonuses.
I was surprised by the generosity and grateful…until a few days into the new year, when I met with the office manager for my yearly evaluation.
She praised my work, and my ability to get along with clients and colleagues. She was aware that I wanted/deserved a promotion (one step up) but told me the position was going to an older woman (in her early 50’s).
I will never forget the reasons offered: The woman was not effective in the position she had (equal to mine), they felt sorry for her re her possibly having to look for a new job ‘at her age’ so they were promoting her to free up her current position so a better employee could be found.
I was then given a substantial raise while being told how much everyone loved me because ‘I was so easy to kick around’ (Exact words).
A short time later, I resigned because I discovered I had an intolerance for disrespect that money could not fix.
The same office manager felt I was ungrateful for leaving, never accepting that she had insulted me.
Note: The older woman found the higher position beyond her capabilities and quit a few months later.
By that time, I was on my way to a much better life in Thailand.
The Man Who Fought World War II for 28 Extra Years
January 22, 2024
The jungle sweltered, a thick canopy choking out the sun. Insects buzzed in a relentless symphony, punctuated by the occasional screech of unseen creatures. For 28 years, this had been Shoichi Yokoi’s world, a far cry from the rice paddies of his Japanese village. A soldier declared dead, he was a ghost haunting the verdant shadows of Guam, oblivious to the war’s end and the life that had moved on without him.
Yokoi’s story begins in 1941, a young tailor swept into the maelstrom of World War II. Stationed on Guam, he found himself amidst the brutal Battle of 1944. As American forces closed in, Yokoi, along with other Japanese soldiers, retreated into the island’s dense interior. They clung to a desperate hope: that the tide would turn, that reinforcements would arrive. But the tide never came. The war ended, the world moved on, but Yokoi and his dwindling comrades remained, prisoners of their own denial.
Life in the jungle was a constant struggle for survival. Hunger gnawed at their bellies, the threat of disease ever-present. Yokoi hunted small animals with sharpened bamboo spears, fished with traps fashioned from vines, and cultivated meager crops in hidden clearings. He built flimsy shelters, patched his decaying uniform with leaves, and kept a tattered diary, chronicling his loneliness and yearning for home.
The years blurred into one another, marked only by the changing seasons and the slow fading of hope. Two of his companions succumbed to illness, leaving Yokoi utterly alone. Yet, he persisted, driven by a samurai’s code of honor and a flicker of faith that he would one day see his family again.
In January 1972, two local hunters stumbled upon Yokoi, a wild-eyed, skeletal figure emerging from the undergrowth. The war, they informed him, had been over for nearly three decades. The world he knew was gone, replaced by a bewildering landscape of peace and prosperity.
Yokoi’s return was met with international media frenzy. He was hailed as a living fossil, a relic of a bygone era. Some saw him as a hero, others as a tragic figure, a victim of his own unyielding loyalty. Yokoi himself struggled to adjust. He grappled with survivor’s guilt, mourned his lost comrades, and yearned for a normalcy that had become foreign to him.
He married soon after his return, fathered a daughter, and attempted to rebuild his life. Yet, the jungle’s grip never fully loosened. He dreamt of verdant shadows, woke to the phantom sounds of unseen creatures. Shoichi Yokoi, the man who survived 28 years lost in the jungle, could never truly escape the war that had claimed not just his youth, but a part of his soul.
Yokoi’s story is a stark reminder of the human cost of war, a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of blind obedience. It is a story that lingers long after the echoes of gunfire fade, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring shadows of war.
DARK Reality Of Marriage That Men Are PURPOSELY Never Told
Watch the entire thing. They look at Western marriages and the laws that differ depending on your sex. Very interesting and very disturbing.
Sleep can be such a precious commodity in lockup that you take it when you can get it.
Personally, I got some of my most productive snooze time after breakfast was rolled into the day room.
While my cellmate was engrossed in THE PRICE IS RIGHT, our living space would temporarily transform itself into a snore free zone.
So by lunchtime headcount, I could typically get caught up on any sleep I may have missed during lights out.
Nobody sleeps through the night in jail.
It’s a physical impossibility.
The lights may dim, but they never go completely out, so unless you mask up, the florescent bulb over your stainless steel shaving mirror is going to shine in your eyes all night long.
And I don’t know how you feel personally, but I was never really comfortable wearing eye shades while incarcerated.
Call me overly cautious, but I don’t want to be fumbling with a blindfold when the shit goes down.
CO’s make a particular point of creating as much noise as possible when they walk their respective rounds during graveyard shift.
Deadbolts rattle.
Armored doors slam.
The hours rumble along like a gurney down a shuttered hallway.
A couple of years ago we bought a house, after leaving the house we’d been in prior for over 25 years. The new home was our dream home in many ways. It checked all the boxes for us and we couldn’t wait to move in.
The Sellers were a slimy couple. The guy was a b.s. artist, an alcoholic and a bit of a scammer, and his wife was the breadwinner with a 1-year-old, too busy to either notice who her husband was (who was about 12 years older than she was at 44), or she didn’t care. I think a little bit of both. The husband tried to scam $7,500 from my husband and me regarding a mirror that he claimed he’d recently bought which was affixed to a parlor wall in the house. He said his wife had bought the large, gilded pier mirror and if we didn’t pay them, it was going with them. This mirror was a fixture and should have remained in the home, and I fought for it, but didn’t win. I came to find out that the mirror had been in the home for 23 years and was, indeed, affixed to the wall and should have remained. The owners before our Sellers had bought the mirror at a yard sale 23 years prior for less than $300 and had had it permanently affixed to the wall. So, the scam artist husband Seller lied to us about his wife having bought the mirror, and also lied about it not being a fixture (fixtures remain with the house, they don’t get taken).
This was a very difficult closing. Their attorney was a real b—-h and in many ways she enabled them to not fulfill aspects of the contract we had with them. We could have sued them over some, but we didn’t. Our closing attorney was no better, but on the opposite end. He had no spine and was unable and unwilling to go after their attorney on our behalf. Instead, he just kept talking us down off the ledge into giving up rights we had under the terms of the contract for sale.
We get to closing day in Septemeber, finally, and we get a call from our attorney early that morning telling us the closing isn’t happening. Mind you, all of our belongings are packed and piled everywhere, and only one piece of furniture, a sofa, is unwrapped. Turned out that the title company did one more check just before closing, and it turned out the Sellers had two federal liens on the home for non-payment. One was a HUD mortgage they had taken out during COVID, and guess what – the government was pretty much shut down, because this was 2021; so, there was no reaching HUD. You can’t close on a home until liens on it are satisfied, or transferred to another property. We’re pretty sure they knew about the liens and were trying to hide them until we closed. They had been in the house for only two years and had pushed for a quick closing. Now we knew why.
The Sellers did nothing to resolve the liens, and we sat there with all our belongings in boxes and our dogs for two months. We wanted to get out of our Contract for Sale, but we were told by our attorney that we couldn’t, or the Sellers could sue us (it was actually the other way around, but our attorney was terrible). September turned to late-October, and all our winter clothes were packed, so we didn’t even know which boxes our winter clothing were in. October turned to November, and we were still living that way, no plates, no pots, no pans, so we couldn’t even cook a meal for ourselves.
Finally, we started calling around trying to resolve our Sellers’ lien problem for them so we could close on our new house. Finally my husband spoke with a biz associate of his who knew someone who had worked for HUD under the Trump administration. He put us in touch with him, and on the phone the gentleman asked us the address of the home we were trying to close on. It came right up on his computer. Then he asked us if we knew to where the Sellers were moving. I had done some research on them and found out they were moving north several states away and had the address. He could see that, indeed, they were the owners of that property. In a few strokes on his keyboard, he transferred their HUD lien to their new property, which they’d already purchased.
There was the matter of the second lien. For that, we had to have a tax attorney in my husband’s office offer to discharge the second lien for them, but he was going to charge them for this, of course, not do it for free. So, the Sellers said they wanted to hire their own tax attorney, which my husband’s tax attorney found for them. Within a week, she got the second lien discharged and applied to their new home so we could close on our new home. This was in late-November of 2021, two months after our September closing date got canceled.
When we closed, finally, we went to the house and found that the Sellers had left furniture in the home they should have taken, left food out in the basement, dirty diapers in garbage containers around most of the home, and more. I had to hire a cleaning company to clean before we could move in, which would be another two days. Not a big deal, but these people were so inconsiderate and so nasty in the way they treated us. You would think they would have left a bottle of wine with a note for us saying ‘congratulations and thank you,’ but they didn’t.
Over a year went by, it was summer of 2023, we were happy in our new home, enjoying it, and fixing it up (needed a lot of work). I come in one day with the mail, and open a letter. It’s a notice for the former owners’ Tesla saying it was going to be repossessed for non-payment. LMAO. The next letter I opened was another overdue notice for a storage unit of theirs that hadn’t been paid in several months. I had another good laugh, and I wondered if the mirror they took out of spite was in that storage unit, but I had no way of finding out. I would guess it probably was. It would have cost almost as much to move it as what they had asked us to pay to leave it.
Typically, I wouldn’t take any glee in anyone’s being in debt and in way over their heads, but these people were so inconsiderate of us in every way and so thankless about what we did for them in doing the work to get their liens discharged so they could sell their house, that I thought what they had gotten themselves into was just pure Karma.
When I was in elementary school in the 1950s, we had a science book that said, “it might look as though western Europe and western Africa could nest against the east coast of North America and South America. This is just a coincidence. Continents don’t move.”
Within ten years, tectonic plate theory had spread into the high schools and suddenly we knew that continents are drifting all the time and causing earthquakes. We found out that rock formations in England seemed to continue tha Appalachian Mountains. Now it’s hard to remember how recently Continental Drift became consensus science.
When I was young, Big Bang was used derisively for the hypothesis that the universe had a sudden beginning.
The Martian Chronicles was still highly recommended as science fiction, even though Mars was known to be uninhabitable before the stories were written.
The double helix model of DNA was not taught in schools when I was first taking science classes, and the terms genes and chromosomes were our main genetic vocabulary.
But that’s just a function of science gradually improving on what was known before. Just as I had to learn new names for a lot of countries as they became independent: Bechuanaland to Botswana. Tanganyika and Zanzibar to Tanzania. The Rhodesias and Nyasaland to Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. And many other examples. So I learned the true names, then history happened, so the truth was revised.
I’ve done this once, when a drug crazed fool did a U-turn over double lines and began to chase me down (to this day the cops think it’s only because my car was similar to one of his enemies/dealers/customers cars). After driving around 2 local suburbs, double tracking & looping the same route several times, it was clear he wasn’t giving up. He didn’t try to pass, he simply tailed me everywhere with his high-beam on, and honked his horn occasionally.
I was smart enough to only take back roads, so I wouldn’t get caught at a red light, and tried to use intersections where I didn’t have to wait. Anything to prevent him from having an opportunity to get out and do something nasty. My hope was to spot a passing cop car and somehow get their attention, but this never happened.
So I simply drove to the nearest Police station – which always has cops going in & out the doors, and a clear view of the carpark from the front counter, which is manned by 2–3 cops at all times. He followed me in, so I blasted the horn to get their attention. Fortunately a duty car came in behind, stopping his exit. Cops came out as he was getting out of his car, and promptly grabbed him for outstanding warrants. They had a chat to me about what I did, and told me it was the right thing to do, and had the added bonus that it saved them having to find the guy later.
I always think of that now, but haven’t had to do it again.
I’ve been sitting on this incident for too long: Some 7 years ago I bought a car I’d lusted after for years.
RenaultSport RS Megane 275 Cup Special. Then the ultimate front wheel drive with multiple Nurburing lap records. 12 months old 4,000ks, immaculate with balance of 5 year warranty remaining.
2 years later, 34,000 ks and one morning it just wouldn’t start, flat battery. Charged it, 10 minutes after trying again to start it battery was flat. So I’ve narrowed it down to the fuseable link under the battery.
Rang the local Renault dealer – Brian Hilton Toyota/Renault in North Gosford and explained. ‘No worries we’ll send a tow truck to collect it’ …and again explained my suspicions. I rang them the next day and ‘Its the starter motor and there’s not one in the country(?) Renault will airfreight from France’ Me: So you checked the fuseable link? ‘Yes, its definently the starter motor’.
3 weeks later (warranty hire car – (only because I phoned Renault HO) I get a phone call: ‘Its a big job because we had to remove engine to replace it (B/S). We’ve changed the starter motor…(wait for it) but have found that the fuseable link has also blown (WTF) and we’ll get the part tomorrow so you can pick it up the next day’ (I said nothing about initial conversation)
Picked it up and all seemed fine, other than a bit of a front-end clunk within 2 days, within 4 days there was a clunk from the front end even on slow Speed Bumps. Took it to my regular and very trusted Workshop (who race RenaultSports) ‘Gosford European’. Franck Donniaux the owner took a quick look: ‘They’ve rattled gunned the engine mount bolts and the gearbox is bouncing off the subframe cause the bolts on LHS mount have snapped. They helicoiled 2 new bolts in, gave me the bill, and said this is Brian Hiltons cost.
Spent the next few days thinking about it the best response …eventually rang Brian Hilton Dealer and booked it in for a full complete service to replace everything serviceable that could be done: Wiper blades, all filters, brake fluid and coolant flush etc etc. (didn’t say a word about the engine mount).
2 weeks later dropped it off and then a call from service department: ‘We’ve noticed a broken D/S front ball joint boot and the front disc ABS sensor needs replacing’ A: Fine do everything that looks like it needs doing. Picked it up and bill was $1,375. Asked to speak to the service manager ‘But why all the works been done’, asked again to speak to service manager…he wandered across and I said this is one for your office – unless you’d like the rest of the waiting room to hear.
Very nicely and courteously explained the process from the beginning:
1. Fraudulent miss-diagnosis, I had clearly asked twice that they check the starter motor fuse link
2. My car off the road for 4 weeks,
3: Broken engine mount bolts and that engine did not need to be removed. (He immediately agreed to refund me Franck’s bill)
4. Broken tie-rod boot and broken ABS sensor (ABS was a warranty anyhow) could only have been their doing when it was there
My suggestion: – they not only pay Franck’s bill, they waiver the service fee or this would go right up the chain. and very public. I then said nothing and just watched him whither in his seat.
Outcome – all costs paid…found out that the Renault Service Technician was sacked 2 weeks later. This however was evidence of bad management from the top down.
….and would never go anywhere near Brian Hilton Gosford ever again!
So nice though having a mechanic and workshop that I can trust = Gosford European
Woman instantly REGRET their life and hit the wall
Decline in American marriages
Damn.
Check this one out too…
How to Stop Rationalizing Choices That Go Against Our Values
January 22, 2024
We’ve all been there. Stuck at a crossroads, staring down a choice that gnaws at our gut, whispers contradictions to our core values. Yet, with a deft mental sleight of hand, we weave justifications, construct elaborate rationalizations, and somehow convince ourselves to take the path of least resistance – the one that may offer immediate gratification but leaves a lingering dissonance in our souls.
But here’s the truth: rationalization is the kryptonite to a fulfilling life. It’s the thief that steals our authenticity, leaving behind a hollow shell of who we aspire to be. So, how do we break free from this self-sabotaging habit and align our choices with the values we hold dear?
1. The Pause Button
In the heat of the moment, our rationalizations run on autopilot. Take a time-out. Step away from the decision, even if it’s just for a few breaths. This conscious delay disrupts the momentum of rationalization and gives you a chance to reconnect with your core values. Ask yourself: How does this choice align with the person I want to be? Does it resonate with what I truly believe in?
2. The Value Inventory
We often hold our values close but don’t articulate them regularly. Take some time to revisit your personal compass. Write down your core values, the principles that guide your decisions and define your identity. Keep this list handy, a constant reminder of the north star that should guide your choices.
3. The “Why?” Drill
Our rationalizations are often surface-level justifications. Peel back the layers. Ask yourself “why” repeatedly, digging deeper into the motivations behind your choice. Is it fear, convenience, or immediate gratification driving you? Uncover the true root of your desire and see if it aligns with your deeper values.
4. The Mirror Test
Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror after making the choice. Does the reflection radiate self-respect and integrity? Or is there a flicker of unease, a sense of betrayal to your own principles? This visualization hones your decision-making by confronting the immediate consequences and long-term impact of your choices.
5. The Compassionate Coach
We often fall into the trap of harsh self-judgment when we rationalize against our values. Instead, approach yourself with compassion. Acknowledge the human tendency to slip up, and remember that progress, not perfection, is the goal. Learn from the experience, strengthen your value compass, and move forward with renewed self-awareness.
Breaking the cycle of rationalization requires self-awareness, honesty, and a commitment to your values. It’s a continuous practice, a dance between impulse and intention. But with each conscious choice, you create a ripple effect, aligning your life with the person you truly want to be. Remember, your values are your compass, not a cage. Embrace the discomfort of choosing integrity, and watch your path unfold with an authenticity that resonates from within.
One of my friends told me about his friend who had totaled his MG Midget and wanted it gone.
I said cool I’ll look at it. He took me over and we looked at the car. I accepted his price of $150. I asked if I could work on it for a day in his garage, as the right front wheel was jammed by the fender. He said sure. I actually pulled the fender out of the wheel with my hands. I also pulled the hood straight enough to close. I replaced the brake line and bled the brakes. I drove it out after 2–3 hours.
I had to do some bodywork on the hood and fender before repainting them with spray cans. My repair costs were about $20. it was the late 1970s.
Drove the car for about 4 years. During that time it was totaled again by a reckless corvette driver. His insurance gave me $2000 plus the car. I again repaired the same bumper, hood and right fender. I also cut down a plastic chevy grill to replace the the mangled MG grill. Repairs from that accident totaled $30.
When I was in college myself and two other football players had to get clearance from our orthopedic doctor to play in a game. So we got on the elevator along with young nurse or medical staffer. All of a sudden the lights and elevator went out, emergency light kicked on. The young nurse really hadn’t paid much attention to who she was on the elevator with until then. I’m 6′5″, white, at the time 265 lbs,two of my tackle friends 6′6″ and 6′7″ 305 and 325 lbs two or so. I’ve never seen a woman panic so fast, or badly. I don’t know if it was claustrophobia or just outright fear, she started crying and collapsed. She literally peed her scrubs. Thankfully the power came back on as Jeremy had reached for the emergency phone. We yelled for help, medical staff got her in a room, next I know the police were there to talk to us, thank God the cops were willing to talk to me, otherwise there could have been real trouble.
Back in the 1970’s I worked for a bank in the City of London. The dress code for men was suit and ties. Not unusual at that time, my parents bought me a suit. As this was my first job, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes, but, I did purchase some navy blue trousers and a navy blue blazer. I wore them to the office and I was called into my managers office and he said, that it was OK, but on the limit of the dress code. The blues didn’t match 100%. OK, not a major problem. Several months later, and a bit more money, I went and had a suit made to measure. It was dark green with a red silk lining, very smart, so I thought. Again I went to work feeling very proud to be in my super new suit. Again I was called in to see my manager, he again said, OK, it’s a suit but it’s not navy, black or some other sombre colour. As I worked in the personnel section, I had access to the company rules and there was nowhere that stated what colours clothes had to be. I worked in an office on the 3rd floor and the only contact I had with customers, was when I went out to lunch and had to walk through the banking hall. In the morning and evenings when entering and leaving the bank was closed to customers. I left shortly afterwards, but that’s another story.
If the question had not been asked as phrased, my experiences would not have come to mind. I’ll tell you about two of them.
I survived three attempts that are by some of those that worked for me that tried to fire me! By murder!
In a war zone, I was in charge of over 100 men. Some criminals, joined up to avoid jail. Morale poor. Racial tensions taut as a bow string. I was in charge of discipline and as much of their safety, as could be handled by command. My job # 1, keeping all mine alive and getting them home, with as little damage as possible!
I was that command and I took my job seriously, on base and in the field. I was a more disciplined superior than the bunch had been accustomed to and a few were not, not only unreceptive, but very much in contempt!.
The first two grenades that exploded under my bunk at different times, were largely defeated by precautions taken with flooring and a blast shield I had created under my sleeping mat.
I failed to move my bed after the first and second attempts. A near fatal mistake. The bastards almost got me with the third. The laminated layers of 3/4”, pressure treated plywood and inserts were sufficiently degraded from the first two blasts to allow schrapnel from the third to penetrate the floor and blast shield I had created with tightly packed body armor between frame and my sleeping mat.
A single piece of grenade schrapnel penetrated all protection and wrecked the slide action of the M-16 (I kept, in bed, when asleep, right along side of my body), at the time of the explosion. My issued weapon was ruined. My hooch was wrecked and I don’t recall how long the bells kept ringing.
So, if given a choice between how they tried in the RVN and the way, years later when Big Al, fired me while camping in the Canadian Rockies, for not leaving a phone contact, I’d take the later.
ps; Speaking of the later, I suited up Monday like I hadn’t heard I was canned. Everyone acted like they had seen a haint when I walked in and as for Big Al, well , he must have forgotten. He never said a thing. Check the Quora search engine for the full story.
One week after my mother died, I was alone in our house. It was a big old mansion and it was cold and dark, and I was lonely. Then suddenly late at night all the (battery operated) smoke detectors started going off. All 20 of them. All went off at the SAME TIME.
Three years earlier we installed the detectors and installed the batteries in all of them. What a coincidence! So yeah, all the batteries ran out of juice at the same time, and doing so, set off the alarms. And it was just a coincidence that it was a few days after my mothers’ burial.
I will never forget that. Of course, no one believes me. They don’t consider it important or anything. Just a random bit of trivia. But for me, alone and lonely in the big empty manor, it was significant. And that is my story for today.
We all experience odd things from time to time, but it is how we react to them… what we consider about them… well… that matters.
As a law student, I was an intern for a federal judge. When I graduated law school, I asked her to write a letter of recommendation for me to take the bar exam. On the day of this story, I was swinging by her courtroom to pick up the letter and I caught the end of a hearing.
The hearing involved a pro se plaintiff suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in federal court. What happened was, he was involved in a domestic violence situation. The Massachusetts Department of Child Protective Services placed custody of his child solely with the child’s mother (whom I presume was separated from the plaintiff). A condition of him regaining shared custody was that he had to complete an anger management course with a satisfactory grade.
So he took the course, got the good grade, and submitted his paperwork to the state. The state lost his paperwork, and for whatever reason he was unable to submit it again. He decided the path of least resistance was to re-take the class. Then he sued Massachusetts for negligence, seeking to recover the cost of the second class.
To be sure, this is a pretty modest ask. I could imagine other plaintiffs being… shall we say… more aggrieved under these circumstances. Maybe throw a million or two for emotional distress, etc. Nope. This guy was just asking to be made whole. This probably is why the judge ended up being so sympathetic.
Although the hearing I walked in on was only a preliminary hearing, the judge was absolutely livid that the case made it that far. She absolutely grilled the Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) who was representing Massachusetts. Along the lines of:
Judge: I’ve read the pleadings, and it appears to me there’s no factual dispute here. Ms. AAG, is there a dispute?
AAG: Well, your honor, we can’t really be sure that we lost anything, but…
J: But the man has documentary evidence that you did! Are you disputing these documents?
AAG: [sheepishly] No…
J: SO WHY HASN’T THIS SETTLED?
AAG: Well, your Honor, it was never… ummm… it isn’t clear the exact amount he is seeking in damages…
[Maybe in his complaint, he only asked to be reimbursed for so-and-so expenses without actually stating a dollar amount]
J: Oh, it’s not huh? Did you bother asking? You know what, never mind. Let’s figure it out right now. Mr. Plaintiff, how much did the second course cost?
Plaintiff: About $2100?
J: Call it $2400. And did you incur any other expenses?
P: I had to take off work early and I had to take a taxi to the school. I make so-and-so dollars and hour and the taxi was such-and-such. The course lasted so-and-so many days.
J: Okay, call it $3000. Ms. AAG, how’s that? $3000. Can we settle this?
AAG: Well, your honor, I… ummm…. I don’t know if I have the authority to se….
J: Don’t give me that!! Do you have any reason to dispute that this is the correct dollar amount?
AAG: [again, sheepishly] No your Honor
J: Great. Then there’s no reason to not to settle this, right?
AAG: [whisper-soft] R… right.
J: Great. Let’s get this done right here, right now. [To her clerk] Rex, go ahead and print off one of the form settlement agreements, and put in $3000.
[The settlement agreement is signed, and apparently the hearing is over]
J: Ms. AAG, one more thing: When will he get his money?
AAG: Well, your Honor, I really don’t handle that aspects of settlements, I really couldn’t…
J: You have thirty days.
AAG: Your Honor, all due respect, but I…
J: You have. Thirty. Days.
AAG: Yes your Honor.
Not only did this pro se plaintiff win, but he won without ever really opening his mouth.
Take a Product made in China and off a factory line for 130 RMB
By the time the product is packed and shipped to an exporter, the product costs 225 RMB to the exporter including 8% to the Manufacturing Factory, 32% in Taxes and other charges
The Exporter pays a further 24% in Taxes and Shipping Changes plus his own profits and sells it to the US Importer for 300 RMB
The US Importer pays around $ 43 for the product to the Chinese exporter
Earlier he would give it to the distributor who would sell it to the retailer who would retail it for $ 79.99 or around 580 RMB
From $ 18 to $ 80 is the journey of the product in the capitalist market
Now comes Tariffs
Imagine a 30% Tariff imposed
That would price the product at $ 58 to the importer as he has to pay $ 15 to the US Government
This rises the retail price to $ 109.99 for the retailer whose profit margins on the product fall by 18–20%
That’s the hourly wage of an extra worker
Nothing changes for the Chinese
The Product at $ 109.99 is still unbeatable at that price and no US manufacturer can compete and make a similar product for less than $ 275 Retail
Yet
The American customer pays $ 30 More
The Retailer loses profit cut
The Importer gains zilch
The US Govt gains an extra $ 15 paid by their own public
That’s all that’s happening
The US, the great capitalist country is slowly becoming Soviet Union
This Brainless Syphilitic hoped that he can reduce customers who aren’t prepared to pay the extra 30 Bucks for the product and hence reduce orders by the retailer from China and they would buy American products made in Mexico
Now they sell the same product for $ 109.99 with a MADE IN MEXICO sign, pay $ 30 to the Mexican partner and MAKE THE SAME $ 43 that they did when they made the product in Fujian
So US as usual is screwing up its economy every single day
The crime rate is so low in the Netherlands that they have closed 23 prisons since 2004 because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them
Back in the 90’s Denzel Washington paid the fees for a young aspiring actor who couldn’t afford to go to Oxford’s summer theatre. That young actor was Chadwick Boseman (R.I.P). Chadwick publicly thanked Denzel at the AFI life achievement awards in 2019
In 1963 a Turkish man was renovating his home. After knocking down a wall in his basement he found a tunnel. He followed the tunnel and discovered an ancient underground city called Derinkuyu which once had a population of 20000 people
In 2009 an autistic artist named Stephen Wiltshire was able to draw the New York City skyline from memory with a pen after taking a helicopter ride for just 20 minutes
Princess Diana was known for ignoring royal protocols. She would often ride the tube. At theme parks she would refuse preferential treatment and make William and Harry wait in line like everybody else
The blue Nelson lake in New Zealand has the clearest body of water known to man with visibility in the lake of up to 260 feet
The record for the biggest car theft of all time was 1000 Volvo cars. The cars were ordered and delivered then the invoice was ignored and to this day has still not been paid. The cars were ordered by and delivered to North Korea
In 1963 the Bronx zoo opened an exhibition titled “the most dangerous animal in the world,” it was a mirror
2 muggers in New York City once tried to mug former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey (who was in his 60’s/70’s at the time). It ended as you might expect with both muggers unconscious. The dates and circumstances leading to the event are a bit uncertain although Dempsey did reference the incident in his book
My personal favourite: In 1996 an avid birdwatcher in Devon, England spent a whole year hooting at owls and then recording their responses unaware that it was one of his neighbours pretending to be an owl and hooting back
I got convinced to buy a couple of lottery tickets and won a good amount of money when I really needed it.
My ex had offered to run to the store before leaving for his business trip. While we really didn’t have much of anything in the house, I told him not to bother, b/c it was in walking distance and I could go for the extra exercise.
A series of unfortunate events occurred: He called me after the first night to let me know the reports were in worse order than he anticipated, so he’d probably be gone an extra 2–3 days (not a problem, though we did share a vehicle at this time). Instead of going to the store, I decided to order food only to have it cancelled because my debit card had been declined. Twice.. The next day when I called the bank, I was informed someone had tried to use my card number to purchase 2k in airline tickets, so they cancelled my card & I wouldn’t receive another one for 7–10 days.
This was during a period where I’d yet to see the importance of an emergency credit card and rarely carried cash, but fortunately, I looked in my purse and checked the clothing pockets in the laundry room and came up with about 35 bucks and some change.
I walked down to the store and got some basic necessities, and relayed my woes to a cashier I talked to quite often. They jokingly suggested with luck like mine, I should use my last 10 bucks for scratch offs. I knew she was being facetious, but given the mood I was in, I said “why the hell not”, and bought two, $5.00 tickets. On the first one, it said I won a free ticket and she asked if I wanted another or cash, but since I was going all in I asked for the another ticket. I scratched that one off first, and to my surprise, won 250.00 dollars. I was so shocked, she had to remind me I had one more, so I scratched that one off and had won another 250.00. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise during an otherwise frustrating situation.
This still angers me 23 years later. So I lived in a village which had a river that runs through it. And every year it floods at least once due to heavy rains and high tides. The river was once big enough that boats would come up and our little village was a kind of harbour. When it flooded the river would come up and over the fields and accross the main road. Now cars and buses would go through this flood water with no issue. Until October 2000. My class had been kept behind so I missed the bus home. My brother who was 11 (was tiny for his age and looked about 2–3 years younger because of his height) and my sister who was 15 were on the bus along with about 5 other kids all between 11–15
Now remember that other buses got through, including the bus from another school and our school buses aren’t like Americans but just regular coaches that are used for holidays etc and the councils pay for this. Our bus driver contacted his manager and asked what to do about the flood. The manager said to let the kids off and not go through the flood water. The only way for the kids to get home was to walk through the flood water. It was about 2 foot deep but was incredibly fast flowing.
When I finally got home I found out my little brother had nearly been swept away by the force of the water and my sister nearly died trying to stop him. Luckily all the kids made it through safely. The bus would have just got it’s tires wet. The worst part was, the following day was my granddad’s funeral so it was already a horrible time.
My mum kept us of school both to grieve and also because she couldn’t trust the bus driver with her 3 children. The manager promised us a trip to Alton Towers. We never got that trip as the manager was fired but the driver kept his job. He wasn’t allowed to drivw the school route again but instead was put on a mini bus driving little old ladies to town and back.
BOTH should have lost their jobs. He would have seen the other bus go by (was also a coach but a different company) so he knew he could get through it but to make my tiny little brother walk through rapid flood water….. that’s something you can’t forgive. My sister is terrified of water now, struggles to even cross a bridge with running water below. my brother seems to be unaffected, he was more worried about losing mum’s Tupperware and the pizza he’d made at school.
A hillbilly went hunting one day in West Virginia and bagged three ducks. He put them in the bed of his pickup truck and was about to drive home where he was confronted by an ornery game warden who didn’t like hillbillies. The game warden ordered to the hillbilly to show his hunting license, and the hillbilly pulled out a valid West Virginia hunting license. The game warden looked at the license, then reached over and picked up one of the ducks, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This duck ain’t from West Virginia. This is a Kentucky duck. You got a Kentucky hunting license, boy?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced a Kentucky hunting license.
The game warden looked at it, then reached over and grabbed the second duck, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This ain’t no Kentucky duck. This duck’s from Tennessee. You got an Tennessee license
?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced an Tennessee license. The warden then reached over and picked up the third duck. “This duck’s from Virginia. You got a Virginia hunting license?”
Again the hillbilly reached into his wallet and brought out a Virginia hunting license. The game warden was extremely frustrated at this point, and he yelled at the hillbilly, “Just where the hell are you from?”
The hillbilly turned around, bent over, dropped his pants, and said, “You tell me, you’re the expert!”
In the mid-nineties I was a big city police officer. Just before Christmas I was dispatched to a driveway auto accident. It seemed minor as I arrived but a young woman had fallen and struck her head resulting into a head injury that lead to a two month coma. I had a friend badly injured in the same hospital ward and I spent many hours sitting with the family of the the injured woman and grew to know them. As she slowly came out the hospital staff tried to wean her back to solid foods, she resisted. As a middle aged police officer I developed a voice of authority. The family ask me to help, with my voice and commands she began to eat a few bites. As she regained clarity she began to know who I was. After time my friend was transferred to a long term facility and the coma girl was released to go home with family supervision.
Months go by and I am dispatched to a car break-in in the courtyard of the coma girl’s apartment building. I was taking a report from another young woman victim. I heard a voice from several floors above, “Wayne is that you”? Because I am so sophisticated and know one Shakespeare scene, I answered “but soft, what light through yon window breaks? It is the East and Christine is the sun!” Chris who still had memory problems replied “ay me”. We completed the scene while the car break-in victim stared as though she was an extra in a Woody Allen movie.
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Zesty Chicken Oregano (Kotopoulo me Riganates Skaras)
Ingredients
1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) broiler- fryer chicken, cut up
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped
Lemon slices
Instructions
Place chicken in ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Mix remaining ingredients except lemon slices; pour over chicken.
Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F, spooning oil mixture over chicken occasionally, 30 minutes.
Turn chicken; cook until thickest pieces are done, about 30 minutes longer.
I worked as a temporary at a place that tried this crap. I told the agency that the supervisor refused to sign my time sheet with the extra 15 minutes, because they don’t pay their own employees and won’t pay me for it either.
The agency called the other temps working there and found out that they were adjusting their time sheet so they can get paid. The agency owner then called the client, who was so sure about herself. She said she had the right to have the meeting every morning and not pay anyone for attending.
The agency owner informed her that he was going to audit every time sheet of every temp that they have sent her, calculate the lost time and charge her for it. He then pulled out all of the temps and paid us for the rest of the week and any back pay. Which was kinda sweet, this happened on a Monday afternoon.
I was one of the last people to leave the office and she came out of her office and was yelling at me for calling the agency. I was temping a payroll clerk position, so of course I knew what she was doing was illegal. I told everyone in the office this and that they can get backpay for every meeting every morning, if they filed a wages and hours complaint with the labor department.
Then I walked right past her and said have fun with that. It cost her a lot of money to pay back those employees and temps. She had a hard time getting temps after that, because they didn’t want to be part of her hours scam.
Looking for a sign
What the fuck 1
High-Value Woman: Traits, How to Find and Make Her Your Girlfriend
Last Updated On December 15, 2022by Andrew Ferebee
Some men waste their time on women in lower leagues. You don’t want to be that guy!
High-value women are not desperate for a relationship. They don’t rely on men for finances, validation, or even their security. No, they’ve got it all figured out.
I won’t lie to you — these women are rare. If she is self-possessed enough to know what she wants and go out there and get it, she’s a real keeper. When you meet her, you will know it immediately. You need to do something about it before someone else does.
Miss this opportunity and she will have a ring on her finger before you know it.
So, how do you spot a high-value woman and what should you do about it? I want to help you with just this conundrum. Read on to elevate your chances of getting a shot with her now.
Traits of high-value women
First things first, what is it that makes a high-value woman? Like most men, you’ve met — and even dated — countless women in your lifetime. What makes this one so special?
Trust me, you will know that she is different. But you might not be able to pinpoint exactly why that is. Whether you’re already dating her or ready to make your move, there are some things that you will have noticed about this woman. Here’s a quick breakdown:
1. She has her own career or knows what she wants to do with her life
You’re not looking for a 1950s housewife — you want a woman who has her own drive, her own passions, and her own career. You know that there is nothing more attractive than a woman who has set her own life goals and is reaching them at every turn.
That’s not to say that she has to have the biggest paycheck. She might be dedicated to a career in nursing, be a teacher, or have a small business.
Whatever it is that drives her, it’s about the fact that she’s not waiting around for some man to come and ‘save’ her.
2. She doesn’t play games or try to ‘win’ your affection
Some women play endless, tiring games. They won’t call you back. They pretend to be mad about small things.
They ‘test’ you to see how you will react to certain things. They sneak around and don’t treat you right. All of that is nothing but high school drama.
You deserve to leave it behind. Real, grown-up women know that there’s no point in playing games when they meet someone that they value. If she is direct and lets you know that she is interested, that is a green flag.
As the relationship moves forward, you can trust her to never play around. She’s not here for those games. She wants to live her best life — with you by her side. You need to make sure that you can measure up to her standards before you even try to approach her.
Real women want elite men. Before you can win her over, you need to make sure that you have your own life sorted out. I’ve worked with many men to help them regain their masculine power and elevate their lifestyles.
The journey toward the life that you deserve might sound tough, but it’s worth your time and effort. Backed by a supportive community of men and coaches, I’ve seen men get the results they’ve been looking for quickly. When you transform your life, the right women will notice and, trust me, they don’t play games.
3. She is upfront about what she wants and expects from a relationship
You’ve got no time for a woman who is giving you riddles. Some women think that it’s cute to be oblique and never let a guy know what they want. Then — as if that weren’t bad enough — they have the audacity to get angry when the guy doesn’t fulfill their needs.
You can waste your time, energy, and money on dating these women. All that you will get in the end is a loss. When you’re seeing a woman who is obsessed with drama, you need to get her claws out of you as soon as possible. Repeat after me: It will not end well.
Dating a high-value woman is a completely different experience. From date #1, she will show you what she wants and you will never feel in the dark. You won’t have to play dumb guessing games with her to keep her on the side. She has the maturity to be upfront about it.
4. She is self-assured and can make her own decisions
Confidence is a rare trait. 79% of women say that they struggle with their self-esteem. You’ve likely seen the signs: she is unsure of her decisions, constantly asks you for advice, and needs reassurance that she’s attractive all the time. It’s exhausting.
High-value women are different. When you meet one, you will notice the difference straight away. She is self-assured and doesn’t need a man’s advice. In her career and personal life, she makes her own decisions. She is the one calling the shots here.
You won’t find this woman begging for your attention — you will want to give it to her.
5. She is in control of her own life and doesn’t need a relationship
This woman was fine before you came along and — if you do break up — she will be fine once again.
Elite women are the opposite of clingy. They know themselves and their own minds. These women are not waiting around for the right guy to come along. Far from it.
She doesn’t mess you around or beg you to stay with her because she’s ‘lonely.’ No, she has her own stuff going on each day. If you’re the right man for her, you will fit into that.
6. She is kind and compassionate to the people in her life
Kindness goes a long way. You might think the woman I have described here is cold. That’s not the case. You don’t want some uptight or cut-throat businesswoman.
High-value women care about the people in their life — and they are not afraid to show it.
She might be close with her family. She might have a tight-knit group of friends. She might spend every Sunday with her sister.
Whatever it is, you can see that she has compassion.
How to make a high-value woman your girlfriend
You’ve got your eye on her — she’s got it all together and has ‘girlfriend’ written all over her. Now that you’ve found a high-quality woman, how do you make the first move?
Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide variety of men in my elite coaching program. It’s no secret that the vast majority of men worry about dating.
When you’re new to the game, you don’t want to end up making rookie mistakes. Luckily, I’ve got your back here.
Here, I share my expert-backed advice on where to find high-value women, how to catch their attention and make them want you.
1. Make the right first impression — it counts
75% of men are scared to first approach an attractive woman. Let’s say that she catches your attention when you’re in a local bar. How do you react? Do you stare at her across the room for hours on end? Or do you get up out of your seat and do something about it?
When you find yourself in the presence of a high-quality woman, every second matters. What you do from the offset will make an impact on her and determine how she reacts. No matter how nervous you may be, it’s important that you act like a complete gentleman.
Be respectful of her space and whether she wants to be approached. When you first introduce yourself, ask her if she’d like to have a drink with her. Women often find men intimidating when they approach them out of the blue. Let her know that you won’t take up too much of her time and that you purely want to get to know her or get her number.
2. Show her the respect that she deserves from the start
High-quality women are worthy of your respect. Scratch that — all women are worthy of your respect. One of the most important lessons that all men have to learn is to treat women as they deserve to be treated.
When you meet a woman who ticks all of your boxes, you need to treat her like a lady. There are no exceptions to this golden rule.
Forget the tricks that pick-up artists tell you will work. They won’t.
If you want to make this woman your girlfriend, your best bet is to go back to old-school dating techniques.
That means showing her that you are interested, taking her on dates, and giving her the space to make up her own mind. Take some tips from your grandpa — he knew a thing or two.
3. Avoid playing games or using cheap gimmicks to get her attention
Men and women both play games when dating. You know the drill. You might not text her for a few days after the first date.
You might pretend to have plans (when you don’t!) to seem more in demand. You might even lower yourself to the old ‘negging’ tactic.
None of the above will work. You’re dealing with a high-quality woman here and you need to show her more respect. Leave those playground tricks behind.
If she notices that you are playing games, you will lose her attention fast.
Chances are, she’s met men like that before and — as you might expect — swiftly dismissed them. Women who are self-possessed don’t have the time to mess around with players.
4. Show her that you are a high-value man and worth her time
You’re looking for a high-value woman — have you stopped to think about what she’s looking for? Yes… *ding ding ding*… you guessed it: She is looking for a high-value man.
The most effective strategy in attracting this woman is showing that you have your sh*t together. Women who know what they want will be on the lookout for elite men.
They don’t want some man-child who they will have to pick up after. Nothing is less attractive than that. No, they need a guy who calls the shots in his own life.
What are you bringing to the table? A good job? A house? Financial independence? A lively social life? Think about what it is that you have to offer and subtly let her know about it. You don’t need to flaunt it. Be quietly confident in what you have to share with her.
The moment she sees that you’re a strong, stable man, she will be interested. You don’t have to bend over backward to get her attention. Make sure you let her know that you are on the path toward your most elite life and that she has the chance to join you.
Takeaways
Before you can win the affection of a high-value woman, you need to elevate your lifestyle. I’ve worked with a selection of the world’s most elite men to support their growth.
My coaching program teaches men like you to change their mindset and regain the masculine power that has been taken from them. Taking control of your life is the first step.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic trick that will make a high-value woman fall in love with you. Life doesn’t work that way. You need to put in the groundwork and figure out your own life before you can attract a woman of this caliber. You have to start that journey.
Having the support of coaches and a community of like-minded men can make a real difference. I’ve worked with countless men who have tapped into this power and used it to upgrade their lifestyles and relationships.
It’s time to stop missing opportunities – in your work, romantic, and social life – and start living the best version of your life now.
Yes. My cousin was dating an unemployed airline pilot. Her father was a pilot, so flying was the ultra in pride and desirability. She was quite wealthy, and very desirable to a man who wasn’t into working. He was divorced, living with his momma, and dodging child support payments, blaming the wife for all of his problems.
She was diagnosed with cancer. I went to help out when she had her surgery. Since she lived in another state, I stayed with her at her parent’s house. They were both too busy to care for her due to their high powered careers.
After she got out of the hospital, I walked into her room to give her some medicine. He was leaning over her body in a way that struck me as strange. He almost looked threatening. It was like he was that Harry Potter character who sucked out your energy and soul. When I saw his face, I can only describe it as a window opened up and I saw evil. I warned her and her family about him.
As a result, I was kicked out of their house and shunned for a good two years. I was not invited to Christmas and her father told my grandmother it was because I didn’t like “the nicest guy” he had ever known. Keep in mind this family is quite prominent and he was sucking up to them big time.
The next time I saw my cousin, she had a badly broken shoulder. He had tried to kill them both by ramming his car at top speed into a tree. She had jumped out of the car and shattered the shoulder. Unfortunately, he did not kill himself- he just wanted to kill her. She suffered with that shoulder until the day she died. It never stopped hurting. His abuse started not long after I gave the warning she ignored.
Another year passed and my uncle came to me to apologize. He said, “You were right about somebody.” He went on to tell me that he had been arrested and given a long prison sentence for trying to kill his ex-wife. I wish they had listened.
When I was very young, I decided to move in with my girlfriend. At the time, I did not realize that I was way too young to do this and not really ready to take this step with this particular young lady. We looked at apartments and were interested in looking at furniture. My girlfriend told me that she knew a family friend who sold quality furniture at a store that give discounts to members of her labor union.
We visited this furniture store located at the time (mid 1980’s) in the Empire State Building. Her friend was happy to see us and even offered us an additional discount since he knew her family so well. He explained to us that his company offered a money back guarantee on all deposits. This guarantee was printed on their receipts. We picked out a bedroom and living room set and I left a healthy deposit.
Long story short, we ended up breaking up within the next two weeks. I went back to the furniture store to get my deposit back but my former girlfriends friend was not in. I visited the store two more times and I always seemed to go on his day off. The manager and his assistant noticed that I had been there a few times asking for him and offered their assistance. I explained that I was there for a refund of my deposit. They informed me that they had no record of me putting a deposit on furniture. They asked for my receipt which readily I produced. Very few businesses used computers at that time. They looked up my matching receipt number in their book. When they turned to the matching page, it was blank. They determined on the spot that the salesman had not entered the transaction in their records and pocketed the money. They stated that he was probably going to come up with the money at a later date and enter it in the book then. He probably thought that he had time to pull this off without anyone finding out. The manager and his assistant were very angry. They handed me back my receipt and told me that I was going to get call from the salesman by the next day, and that he was going to make arrangements to refund my money out of his pocket. They also told me that If I do not hear from him, return to them and they will refund my money and they would then go to the police and have him arrested.
The next day the salesman called me and made arrangements to meet me at my job to give me the deposit back. The check that the former salesman gave me was drawn on his mother’s account. It appeared that Mama had to come to his rescue. The Furniture store manager called me 2 days later. He informed me that he fired the salesman and if in the future I wanted to purchase furniture, he would offer me furniture at cost.
Yesterday I read an article that rather haunted me.
[1] It’s about a boy, aged 9, who lived alone for almost two years. His mother abandoned him to live with her boyfriend. The boy didn’t know how to operate the heater, so he would sleep under three blankets in the winter just to keep warm. He’d eat canned goods, and scavenge for food outside like a hyena.
He did go to school, however, managing to be present every day for two years without fail, having a perfect attendance record. His grades were excellent and he was reportedly in good spirits. Nobody in school new he ate stale food and took cold showers in a cold apartment with no one by his side. Authorities speculate the boy’s routine is likely what kept him alive — going to school every day, eating lunch there and talking to his friends in class. He never had friends over, always finding excuses not to.
Now the kid’s in foster care. His mother is being charged with all sorts of crimes for abandoning him. He reportedly never wants to see her again. Does he even have a father, grandparents? God. It’s just so sad, leaving a child alone to fend for himself in this world.
China containment becomes a lose-lose strategy for everyone
In trying to fight Beijing, Washington is causing irreparable damage to the world economy and it may be too great for even America to bear
Alex Lo
As Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman recently observed in Foreign Affairs, “China’s role as the workshop of the world … might be as hard to replace as the global role of the US dollar.”
And yet, that hasn’t stopped Uncle Sam from trying to wreck the China workshop, which has the unintended consequence of pushing more countries to try to “de-dollarise”.
The United States has been strong-arming countries and companies to divert their supply chains away from China, and these involve not only advanced tech products such as superfast computer chips but also mundane items such as rare commodities. Meanwhile, it has weaponised the global economy and financial systems to pursue its own foreign and trade policy goals.
They are the two economic aspects of its full-spectrum containment against China, which of course, also includes a predominantly military component. Countries such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia and even the US were supposed to benefit from the supply-chain redirection. But they now find it hard to take up the slack. Much of the re-routing with new chains turns out to be just longer, more opaque and expensive, without severing ties to Chinese suppliers. Costs are adding up.
Last year, Taiwan’s Pou Chen Corp, a leading shoe manufacturer for the likes of Nike and Adidas, had to cut more than 6,000 jobs at its Ho Chi Minh City plant. The Vietnamese government once heavily advertised the investment of Japanese electronics giant Kyocera Corp, but it ended up producing low-tech ceramic packages for electronic insulation and resistance, rather than the more advanced packages for crystal devices.
Labour unrest, official corruption and red tape are cutting short the allure of Vietnam for foreign manufacturers. Comparatively, getting permits, licences and subsidies for foreign businesses in Vietnam for many has made China almost a bureaucratic paradise. Volatile internal party politics in Vietnam may be as tricky and scary as in China.
Cheaper labour costs at first made Vietnam attractive, but it turns out relocating factories, hiring locals and reorganising supply chains away from China can eat into whatever savings are made. Many Vietnamese contractors still go to China for supplies, so Western clients end up, as the Economist recently reported, inviting in more middlemen.
The story may be better for India and Indonesia, as both are competing with even cheaper labour, so long as they stick to low value-added production. But they may fare worse if they aim higher, as Vietnam can boast good infrastructure with modern ports, newly built highways and power supply. In any case, China doesn’t want those jobs any more as it is moving up the hi-tech value chains.
It’s highly ironic that Taiwan’s TSMC, which agreed to build a big chipmaking plant in Arizona after intense pressure from Washington and the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has just announced production delays to next year, and for even more advanced chips, until 2027 or 2028. Perhaps by then, the US plant will come in handy and replace production in Taiwan, as that was the date some Pentagon generals claimed the mainland would invade!
Brics, the bloc originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long been criticised for having no viable economic or political coherence or purpose. Well, now it does. They are all afraid of US economic warfare with sanctions being its primary weapon. From digital currencies and currency swaps to restricted computerised messaging for financial transactions, they are trying to de-dollarise.
Dozens of countries, especially those in the Global South and are not US allies, want to join now. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members.
As Krugman said, the China workshop and the US dollar are two pillars of the global economy and are extremely hard to replace. Yet, Washington has made it a policy to erode those pillars, one by design, the other inadvertently.
The collateral damage may be too great for even the US to bear.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit ECOWAS regional block
Reuters January 28, 20243:52 PM GMT+1Updated 37 min ago
NIAMEY/BAMAKO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Three West African junta-led states Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso said on Sunday they are immediately leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional economic bloc that has been urging them to return to democratic rule.
The decision by the three countries, announced in a joint statement read out on Niger national television, is a blow to the bloc’s regional integration efforts after it suspended the three countries following military takeovers.
…
“After 49 years, the valiant peoples of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger regretfully and with great disappointment observe that the (ECOWAS) organization has drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of Pan-Africanism,” Colonel Amadou Abdramane, Niger junta spokesman, said in the statement.
…
The three countries are also members of the eight-nation West African Monetary Union (UEMOA) that uses the West Africa CFA franc currency pegged to the Euro. The monetary union, following decisions by ECOWAS leaders after the coups in Mali and Niger, had cut off their access to the regional financial market, and the regional central bank. It later restored Mali’s access but Niger remains suspended.
A lower left tooth was loose (#21 for the cognoscenti). I went to the dentist.
He looked concerned, said it was broken vertically, removed the part that was broken, and took a look at what was left.
“You’ll have to see an oral surgeon for this. It’s a dental emergency. I’ll have my office set up the appointment.”
I get a call a few minutes later. Can I come in to see the oral surgeon the next day?
Next day, I’m there. Terrified. I’m a total dental chicken. “The tooth was reabsorbing into the jawbone” (What?!!) “so we have to take it out. It is likely to get infected. You need …”
And he proceeded to give me a few minutes of dental speak.
With only laughing gas and huge horse syringes full of novacaine, and wearing intense magnifying glasses, he drilled and chiseled a tooth/root/bone unit apart.
None of that was necessarily the coup de grace.
The hard part is not having to drink smoothies for a week until the stitches are removed.
The hard part is not waiting seven months with a toothless gap in my smile, as I wait for my gums to heal before they can do surgery a g a I n to place an implant into my jawbone (but that’s a huge Y I K E S for the future).
The hard part — is — overwhelming and aching bone pain in my jaw socket where the tooth infiltrated the bone. It hurts so much that pain has been preventing me from sleeping or moving much during the past four days since the tooth was separated from the jawbone and extracted.
I didn’t anticipate any of this pain with just a loose tooth. The pain afterwards was totally unanticipated and a thousand times worse than I thought it would be.
If a dentist ever tells you that a tooth is infiltrating your jaw bone, act sooner than later. Even if you don’t feel that anything is wrong.
Dental pain should be avoided at all costs.
Do You Have Jason Bourne in Custody? | The Bourne Supremacy | All Action
I’ve met guys over the years who find all kinds of physical traits unattractive. Everyone has their own personal visuals they like or dislike.
But there seems to be one universal, non-physical trait that men find unattractive with women: complaining.
You’ll never hear a guy complain that he wishes his woman would complain more to him. You’ll hear a lot of guys complain about how much their woman complain. (Or, complaining’s close cousin, criticizing.)
This includes things like:
Complaining that their guy didn’t do something that he either didn’t know he was supposed to do, or planned on doing later.
Complaining about the quality of work their guy did for something that no one is ever going to see or care about.
Complaining to their guy about things the kids or pets did wrong, as if it’s their guy’s fault that the kids or pets did those things wrong.
Complaining to their guy, like its his fault, about things that the guy has absolutely no control over, like the weather.
Complaints that are essentially versions of “my man did not read my mind.”
Criticizing their man’s choices for things that have no impact on the woman whatsoever.
Criticizing their man’s choices when their man asked for the woman’s input, but the woman didn’t offer any.
Tangentially related to “complaining” are things like:
Attempting to hold a deep conversation while the guy is trying to focus on something else, like a television show or driving.
Attempting to hold a deep conversation with the guy within 10 minutes of falling asleep or waking up.
Greeting their man with a task to do as soon as he gets home.
Adding on to their man’s “to do” list while he’s actively doing something the woman already put on that list.
Around 3,000 years ago, Hebrew men realized how much they didn’t like their wives’ complaining, and wrote it down in the book of Proverbs.
Hard to imagine, but an ex-colleague of mine was fired for something they DIDN’T DO outside of work but were ACCUSED of doing.
The company we worked for had a code of ethics that said you could be fired not just for doing something wrong, but for there being a public IMPRESSION that you did something wrong.
In his case, he had been in the chain drugstore the previous weekend, and was accused of shoplifting. After some unpleasant exchange with the store’s security staff and my colleague insisting that he would NOT allow them to examine his bags, but would only allow the police to do so, the police were called. He was searched, his bags were searched, and nothing was found.
Store management apologized to him. He said fine, okay and that was that, right?
Nope.
On Monday when he came to work, and people were saying what they did that weekend, he said “You won’t believe what happened to me!” and he related the incident.
Within a couple of hours, he was called to Human Resources and fired. Reason? Small town, everybody knows everybody. The accusation of shoplifting was made publicly in the store, where some of the other customers knew or might know him, and who also might be OUR customers. In our company’s eyes, that made our customers question whether they should give us their business, if we kept him as an employee.
He appealed but to no avail. Lost his job.
Lesson – don’t share too much about what happens on your time off, even if you didn’t actually do something wrong, perception can be everything.
I was in Las Vegas and was shopping at the Caesar’s Palace mall. I came across a sport memorabilia store that had two sports stars there signing autographs. At one end of a long table was Pete Rose and the other end was Kenny Stabler. I noticed that there was a long line waiting for Rose’s autograph but no one was at Kenny’s side. I didn’t know why Kenny didn’t have anyone in his autograph line, since he did have a super bowl win and was in the NFL HOF. My son-in-law was a huge Oakland Raider fan, so I went over to get Kenny’s autograph. As I was talking to Kenny, I noticed that Rose wasn’t really talking to the fans in line. He just signed the picture and his handler told the fans that Rose didn’t have time to answer any questions and told them to move on. Rose never even cracked a smile and actually looked perturbed to be there.
On the contrary, Kenny was most gracious and talked to me for over 10 mins. Instead of the stock picture they were passing out, he posed for a picture with me trying on his super bowl ring. He took down my address and said he would mail it to me. To my amazement, within a week I received the photo. My son-in-law treasured that photo for many years until his passing. What a difference in personalities between two superstar athletes. I never respected Pete Rose after that incident even though I once supported his failed attempt to get into the baseball HOF.
In college, a fellow fraternity brother named Mike met me after class to tell me he had the key (answers) to the upcoming engineering-physics mid-term exam and I could buy it for just $25. It was to be a 100 multiple-choice question exam to be given in a week.
Unfortunately, Mike spoke a little too loud and the professor heard him. The professor did not know who or how many people had the answer key so he decided to create an all-new test. He contacted two of his top grad students (Paul and Jim) to help and they toiled over the task for the next 4 days.
On the day before the exam, I overheard the professor ask Paul if he “was ready”. It seemed out of context so I got suspicious and decided to check with Mike. I heard MIke was over by the WPC Student Center so I headed over there. As I was scanning the area for Mike, I saw him talking to Paul. I hid and watched as Mike gave Paul an envelope and Paul gave Mike several sheets of paper. Mike had just bought the answer key to the new exam.
I waited until they separated and then went to Mike. I asked, “Are we all set for the exam tomorrow”. I wanted to see if he would offer me the new exam key. To my surprise, he did. I took it and sold it to two of my friends – Bruce and Khan – for $30 each. We all aced the exam and repeated it all again for the finals . . . . but with less drama.
So what were the unintended consequences? Bruce and Khan went on to become structural design architects at a prestigious firm in Chicago and were the design engineers for the 1,450 ft tall Sears Tower (it’s now called the Willis Tower) – the one that had 90x 5×8 ft, 380-pound windows that blew out in high winds.
As it turns out, the semester that we all cheated on the exams was when they taught the aerodynamics of wind on structures and how to compensate for the stresses involved. If Bruce and Khan had attended those classes and learned the topics taught that semester, then the Sears Tower would not sway 18″ in high winds and would not have ultimately spent $6 million to replace all of its 10,343 windows. All those unintended consequences because of an exam answer key that sold for $30.
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If this isn’t all true, it should be, and if it isn’t then how could it be? I’m not one to make up stuff unless I do and then it is only to prove my credibility or not. Wouldn’t you do the same if you didn’t know what you say you know in the context of being honest and trying to tell people that which could be true if it was? But, being a smart person, you knew all that already, didn’t you?
11 Signs A Woman Has Multiple Partners and What to Do About It
Published On January 22, 2024by Andrew Ferebee
So, you’ve met a woman that you’ve completely fallen for. You’ve been dating for a while, and everything has been going well. She might even be “the one.”
The problem is, you’re not entirely sure you’re the only one in her life. You can’t place your finger on it exactly, but something leads you to believe she may be seeing other men.
You want clarity, but you’re unsure how to broach the subject. After all, things are going well, and you don’t want to mess up a good thing. But at the same time, not knowing what’s going on is driving you crazy.
Dating multiple people at once is a tricky subject to navigate. In an ideal world, both partners will communicate their ideas and expectations about dating other people. The problem is we don’t live in an ideal world.
More often than not, people dance around the issue because they don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings (or damage the relationship’s potential). This leads to one or both people playing the guessing game.
If this sounds like your current situation, understand you are not alone. And as difficult as it can be to navigate this situation, you can gain clarity — if you know what to look for.
Today, I’ll give you a framework you can use to gauge whether or not the woman you’re dating has multiple partners and how to approach things if she does. Signs That The Woman You’re Seeing Has Multiple Partners
1. Unless You’re Told Otherwise, Assume She Is
In today’s dating climate, you should always assume that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other men. Unless she comes out and explicitly tells you that the two of you are exclusive, you’re probably not.
Understand that couples seldom become exclusive off the bat. Nine times out of ten, one or both people will date around before settling on their chosen person.
So, even if you’re really into the woman you’re seeing and everything seems to be going great, that’s fine. But just remember that nothing is official until it’s official.
2. Other People Call You The Wrong Name — Or Think They’ve Met You Before
If she brings you around to meet a group of friends or family, and those people call you the wrong name or think they’ve met you before, it could be a sign that she’s dating other guys.
Don’t assume that these friends or family members are misremembering. It’s far more likely that they were introduced to another man recently.
And if you want to gauge whether she’s being honest with you, press her on the issue. Ask her about it and see what she says. If she tries to dodge the issue or acts unnatural, it’s probably because she’s dishonest.
3. She Avoids Introducing You To Friends Or Family Members
Oppositely, she may avoid bringing you around to meet her friends or family. For this one, look at the context of the situation to see if something seems odd to you.
If she has to attend a wedding and tells you she’ll go alone, that’s odd behavior. Why? Because no one likes to attend a wedding alone. And chances are, she’s not.
It’s far more likely that she’s just going with someone else.
If you’ve been dating for several months and have not met anyone from her social circle, that’s just not natural. If she often tells you she can’t meet because she’s going out with her friends but doesn’t invite you to come, that’s also odd.
Chances are, she’s bringing another man to these gatherings. And rather than letting her friends or family know she’s dating multiple men, keeping you on the back burner is easier.
4. She’s Had An Unreasonable Amount Of Partners
Does the woman you’re dating talk about more exes than you can count? If so, it could indicate a pattern of behavior.
Just because a woman has many exes doesn’t inherently mean that there’s something wrong, but the time frame matters. If you get the sense that she’s dated ten different guys in the last three months, there’s a very good chance she was dating them simultaneously.
And there’s also a good chance that’s the same thing happening with you. Chances are, you have much in common with the men who came before you.
So, always be mindful of the patterns that are right in front of you.
5. She Shies Away From You And Isn’t As Affectionate As You Are
Do you feel like you’re the one who’s always being affectionate, but she isn’t doing the same? Sure, you may be intimate with this woman, and everything could be great in the bedroom, but what about other acts of affection?
Does she allow you to wrap your arm around her while walking together? Can you hold her hand? Hug her? Kiss her in public?
Sure, some people aren’t into public displays of affection, but it can also be a sign. These “loving” affections are sometimes more significant than sex. And if she shies away from your affection, ask yourself why.
There’s a strong possibility she’s seeing other men and doesn’t want to lead you on any more than she already is.
Remember that men and women approach dating and relationships in very different ways. You’ll seldom see a man stay with a woman after losing interest, but women do this often.
If you think she’s lost interest in you but doesn’t have the heart to tell you, read the signs and don’t let things last any longer than they need to.
6. She Craves Sex Less Than You Do
Oppositely, it might not be the public displays of affection that are the problem, but your sex life. If she approaches intimacy with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, again, ask yourself why.
Of course, it’s perfectly normal for people to not be in the mood sometimes. What you have to look at is the underlying pattern. If your relationship started with a great sex life, but that drive suddenly faded, there’s a reason for that.
If she tells you she enjoys sex and that she enjoys having it with you, but the two of you inexplicably go long periods without sleeping together, it could be a sign that there’s someone else in the picture.
Again, nothing is certain. But if something feels off, it’s probably because it is. It could be a sign if you’re a generally rational man who doesn’t have underlying trust issues, but something is telling you not to trust this woman.
7. She Tells You She’s Busy — But Doesn’t Tell You Why
Does it seem like you can never get a straight answer from her? Does she give you ambiguous answers about what she’s doing and who she’s doing it with?
If so, it indicates that she’s seeing other men. Also, look at how often you meet up with her. If it’s every couple of weeks or once a month, that’s probably because she’s seeing other guys when she’s not with you.
Does she only meet you during the week and always have a full calendar on Fridays and the weekends that doesn’t include you?
Again, look at the underlying patterns. If they seem strange, it’s probably because something’s up.
If you’re really into her and want nothing more than to spend time with her, but she seems unwilling or unable to do the same for you, it’s a sign that something is off.
8. She Takes An Excessive Time To Respond To Your Messages
Most people are glued to their phones between six in the evening and midnight. They unwind from work with a glass of wine, Netflix, and their social media feeds.
If you text this woman without a hitch all day, but then she suddenly goes MIA during the evenings, that’s almost certainly a sign that she’s with another man.
She’s not texting you back because she can’t text you back. Again, look for things that seem odd. If she tells you she’s going to the gym after work, that’s fine, but if she doesn’t respond to your messages until noon the next day, it may be because she was with another man.
9. She Only Meets You At Odd Times
It’s nine o’clock on a Friday night, and she suddenly hits you up to go out. And this happens after she told you she already had other plans.
While you told her that you would also make other plans, that wasn’t entirely true. Your “plans” entailed ordering a pizza and playing Call of Duty.
You want to say ‘no,’ but you are also sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself, so you can’t resist.
If a woman likes you, she’ll make you her first priority, not the fallback guy. If the woman you’re seeing asks you to meet at odd hours or with little notice, she’s using you as a backup.
Now, some guys are okay with this, but if you’re not, you need to say so. You should not suffer in silence and play the guessing game.
10. She Still Has Active Dating Profiles
Whether you met this woman online or not, if you find that she has an active dating profile, you can be almost certain that she’s using it.
Don’t let her sell you on the “I didn’t have a chance to delete it yet” or “I forgot I had it.” Having a dating profile as a woman means dealing with a constant barrage of messages. It’s almost impossible to ignore.
And if the woman you’re seeing has an active dating profile, she’s not ignoring it, either.
11. She Gets (And Seeks) A Lot Of Attention On Social Media
While an active social media presence isn’t necessarily a sign of something wrong, keep an eye out for odd activity — especially from other men.
If you see comments like, “I can’t wait to see you again,” or “We had such a great time,” from men, and you have no idea who these guys are, there’s a good chance she’s dating them.
Just look for anything that seems odd or out of place. If your instincts tell you something doesn’t feel right, then something is wrong. Don’t turn a blind eye to it.
What Do I Do If The Woman You’re Dating Has Multiple Partners?
Well, for one, you could just talk to her about it. And if you haven’t done this already, it’s probably because you’re scared of the consequences.
You may fear that if you talk to her about it, she’ll tell you that she is, in fact, seeing other men and isn’t interested in seeing you anymore. Or that she’ll just cut you off completely.
And this leads us to the true problem…
In any relationship, no matter how casual or serious, a certain power dynamic develops. And the person who is more confident, grounded, and self-assured is the one who has the upper hand.
And in instances like these, that person is not you. If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you are not dating other women, even though you suspect your partner is.
I’m also going to assume that deep down, you know exactly what’s going on with your current relationship. The problem is that you’re having a hard time accepting the truth.
The question is, why are you putting yourself in this position?
Why are you allowing yourself to be subjected to this treatment? Why are you allowing this woman to essentially “play you”? Why are you allowing yourself to be treated in a way that feels disrespectful?
Is this what an alpha male would do?
Certainly not. An alpha is the type of man who doesn’t chase women but has women chase after him.
Just imagine how great it would feel to be the type of man who could have his choice of high-quality women instead of being at the mercy of situations like these.
In other words, there are several things you could do to remedy this situation, but the first thing you should do is…
1. Raise your value in the dating economy
Let’s just face the facts for a moment and be brutally honest: You’re at the mercy of this woman you’re dating. She has you wrapped around her finger, and she knows it.
Because if she truly valued you for the man you are, she would never let an opportunity to be with you pass her by. There’s no point in playing the field when you have the home run sitting right in front of you.
But that’s the thing: she doesn’t see you that way. And that may be your fault. Are you doing everything you can to show her your value as a man? Is it abundantly apparent how great of a catch you are?
Become the type of man that women would line up to date. Be the type of man who can give women experiences unlike any other. Be a grounded, cultured man who takes risks and gets what he wants in life.
Invest in yourself so no woman can deny your obvious value. Prioritize your physical fitness, expand your mind, embrace new experiences, and be a fun person to be around.
When you put your power on full display, women will take notice.
2. Talk to her about it and have an honest conversation
Or, if you’re really interested in this woman and genuinely think your relationship has the potential to be something special, discuss the issue.
Tell her what you think is going on and explain that you’re uncomfortable with it. Tell her that you value the connection the two of you have and want to see it grow into something more.
If she doesn’t feel the same, yes, that will hurt a lot, but at least you won’t have to spend your days guessing. Remember, sometimes, the fear of pain (especially emotional pain) can be worse than the pain itself.
The first step to resolving the issue is getting it out there in the open so you can discuss it.
3. Consider your options
If you’re aware that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other people, it might be worth thinking about exploring other relationships yourself.
This suggestion isn’t for everyone. If it doesn’t align with your values or comfort level, that’s completely okay. However, it’s important to reflect on the dynamics of your current situation.
She’s keeping her options open, which raises the question: should you do the same? It’s natural to have strong feelings for her and to hope for a more committed relationship in the future. But, if you’re not at that stage yet, it might not be wise to fully commit yourself to someone who isn’t making you their priority.
Instead of focusing solely on this relationship, consider the possibility of meeting other people. This approach can provide a more balanced perspective and prevent you from feeling overly invested in a situation where your needs might not be fully met.
4. Stop wasting your time and prioritize self-respect
If you’re fed up with the situation and can’t take it any longer, end it. Tell her you no longer feel comfortable with the relationship and move on.
Many people forget that they are responsible for how others treat them.
If you’re being treated in a way that makes you feel undervalued, it’s because you allow it to happen.
So, don’t allow it to happen any longer. Make the hard choice and end the relationship.
Takeaways
If you’ve grown sick and tired of these dating situations you find yourself in, it’s time to make a change. Leave the past behind and become a high-value man who attracts high-value women into his life.
If one thing is certain, it’s that anyone has the power to change. Society has a nasty habit of conditioning us to believe we’re fixed in our current situation and that we’ll never be able to improve and embrace our full potential.
Not true. I’m proof of that. And if you want to gain insider knowledge of everything I learned on my journey, the professional coaching program at Knowledge for Men is just what you need.
How nice would it be to be surrounded by a group of strong, grounded, like-minded men who will challenge and push you to become the best version of yourself?
And to be clear, this isn’t a place for those faint of heart. Honestly, you’ll probably have to face aspects of yourself that will make you quite uncomfortable.
But if you’re looking for the single best place to grow into your true potential, this is it. No complainers are here, only serious, dedicated men committed to helping others.
Are you ready to take the next step? Are you ready to embrace your untapped potential and live a life you previously only imagined?
If so, the time is now. I’ll see you on the other side!
Lambert here: Not a geopolitics maven, but Iran sure did offer Russia the right hand of good fellowship with those drone sales.
By Simon Watkins, a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for Credit Lyonnais, and later Director of Forex at Bank of Montreal. He was then Head of Weekly Publications and Chief Writer for Business Monitor International, Head of Fuel Oil Products for Platts, and Global Managing Editor of Research for Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Originally published at OilPrice.com.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei gave his official approval to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia.
• The agreement will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale.
• The new deal includes far-going agreements on defense and energy.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, gave his official approval on 18 January to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia, according to a senior energy source in Iran and a senior source in the European Union’s (E.U.) energy security complex, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. The 20-year deal – ‘The Treaty on the Basis of Mutual Relations and Principles of Cooperation between Iran and Russia’ – was presented for his consideration on 11 December 2023. It will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 (extended twice by five years) and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale, particularly in the defense and energy sectors. In several respects, the new deal additionally complements key elements of the all-encompassing ‘Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement’, as first revealed anywhere in the world in my 3 September 2019 article on the subject and analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order.
In the energy sector to begin with, the new deal gives Russia the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea, including the potentially huge Chalous field. The wider Caspian basins area, including both onshore and offshore fields, is conservatively estimated to have around 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in proven and probable reserves. In 2019, Russia was instrumental in changing the legal status of the Caspian basins area, cutting Iran’s share from 50 percent to just 11.875 percent in the process, as also detailed in my new book. Before the Chalous discovery, this meant that Iran would lose at least US$3.2 trillion in revenues from the lost value of energy products across the shared assets of the Caspian Sea resource going forward. Given the newest internal-use only estimates from Iran and Russia, this figure could be a lot higher. Previously, the estimates were that Chalous contained around 124 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in place. This equated to around one quarter of the gas reserves contained in Iran’s supergiant South Pars natural gas field that account for around 40 percent of Iran’s total estimated gas reserves and about 80 per cent of its gas production. The new estimates are that it is a twin-field site, nine kilometres apart, with ‘Greater’ Chalous having 208 bcf of gas in place, and ‘Lesser’ Chalous having 42 bcf of gas, giving a combined figure of 250 bcm of gas.
The same right of first extraction for Russia will also now apply to Iran’s major oil and gas fields in the Khorramshahr and nearby Ilam provinces that border Iraq. The shared fields of Iran and Iraq have long allowed Tehran to side-step sanctions in place against its key oil sector, as it is impossible to tell what oil has come from the Iranian side or the Iraqi side of these fields, which means that Iran is able simply to rebrand its own sanctioned oil as unsanctioned Iraqi oil and ship it anywhere it wants, as also analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order. Former Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, publicly highlighted this very practice when he said in 2020: “What we export is not under Iran’s name. The documents are changed over and over, as well as [the] specifications.” Another advantage of the shared fields is that they allow effectively free movement of personnel from the Iranian side to the Iraqi side, and the utilisation of key oil and gas developments across Iraq is a key part of Iran’s longstanding plan, fully supported by Russia, to build a ‘land bridge’ to the Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria. This would enable Iran and Russia to exponentially increase weapons delivery into southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights area of Syria to be used in attacks on Israel. The core aim of this policy is to provoke a broader conflict in the Middle East that would draw in the U.S. and its allies into an unwinnable war of the sort seen recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and which may soon be seen as the Israel-Hamas War escalates.
The price of all manufactured items traded between Russia and Iran, including military and energy hardware, has been formalised in the new deal, although also not in Iran’s favour. For Iranian goods exported to Russia, Tehran will receive the cost of production plus 8 percent. However, these export sales to Russia will not be transferred to Iran, but rather they will be held as credit in the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Moreover, Iran will receive a huge markdown on US dollar/Rouble or Euro/Rouble exchange rates used to calculate its credits in the CBR. Conversely, for Russian goods exported to Iran, Moscow will receive the payment in advance of delivery and at a much stronger exchange rate that benefits Russia. Moreover, the base price before any exchange rate calculations are made, will be founded on the highest price that Russia has received in the previous 180 days for whichever product it is selling Iran. This system has informally been in place for several weeks now, and according to the senior energy sector source in Tehran exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, Russia has ensured itself the highest possible price by selling to Belarus at a very large premium whichever product it intends to sell later to Iran, so establishing the required pricing benchmark. Payments for goods and services falling outside the direct finance route between the central banks of the two countries can now be done through interbank transfers between Iranian and Russian banks. Those also involving renminbi can also be done through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) system, its alternative to the globally-dominant Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system.
In many cases, the expansion of military cooperation between Iran and Russia is tied into the energy sector elements of the new 20-year deal. Progress is earmarked to be made on upgrading the facilities at the key airports and seaports that have long been targeted by Russia as being especially useful for dual-use by its air force and navy, and which are also close to major oil and gas facilities. Top of the list of Iranian airports that Russia regards as the best for dual-use by its air force are Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Abadan, and it is apposite to note that in August 2016, Russia used the Hamedan airbase to launch attacks on targets in Syria using both Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters. Top of the list of seaports for use by its navy are Chabahar, Bandar-e-Bushehr, and Bandar Abbas. Similarly linked to Russia’s gaining the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea is that it will also be given a joint command capability over the northern aerospace defense section of Iran’s Caspian area.
It is also apposite to note here that Iran’s electronic warfare (EW) system can easily be tied into Russia’s Southern Joint Strategic Command 19th EW Brigade (Rassvet) near Rostov-on-Don to the northwest of the Caspian. This can also be linked in with China’s EW capabilities. These EW capabilities would include jamming systems for neutralising air defences in the region. This will be augmented with new missiles designated to be sent to Iran by Russia under the new deal, according to the senior E.U. security sector source exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. “Selected IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] personnel will be trained on the latest Russian upgrades of several short- and long-range missiles – the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, the Iskander M, the RS-26 Rubezh, the BrahMos3, and the Avangard – before the plan to manufacture them under licence in Iran begins, with the aim being to have 30 percent of them stay in Iran, with the rest being sent back to Russia,” he said.
“What all of this means, is that the new 20 -year deal between Iran and Russia will change the landscape of the Middle East, southern Europe, and Asia as Iran will have a much-extended military reach that will give it much more leverage to make political demands across those region,” he exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. “This reach also means that countries in these areas will feel that continuing to rely on the U.S. for their protection is a lot more of a precarious option than it was before,” he concluded.
Be careful how to treat others
Old Fashioned Greek Shortbread
Ingredients
1 pound butter (NO margarine)
2 egg yolks
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon anise
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
Beat butter at medium speed of electric mixer for 10 minutes.
Add egg yolks and confectioners’ sugar. Beat 5 more minutes.
Add anise. Add flour one cup at a time, kneading.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes or until very lightly browned.
Being a new Grade 11 student in a small city was devastating. I had come from the “big city” to a rural cowboy type environment.
In the school of 259 students there was a huge class difference. Some families had money, some were farm kids bused in and as always the partiers. I didn’t really fit in, but I wasn’t bullied either.
The cheerleader girls snubbed everyone. Including me, they gossiped and ignored everyone but their clique. As I only had a year and a half before graduation I existed, couldn’t wait to get out of this place. As soon as school was done, I went back to my home city.
I was fortunate to get a job at the library, which was unionized. A year went by before the wages were negotiated and settled. When this was completed, we were back paid a year of difference.
This was in the early 1970’s and when I got my huge cheque and took it to the bank. I went through the teller, who recognized me and I was shocked to see the cheerleader queen working for the bank.
She took my deposit and with her snooty voice asked me if this was a severance payout. I looked her in the eye and smiled. I assured her that I hadn’t been fired. She looked at me and I could see she was looking for a snide remark. Just then I got my revenge.
I smiled and said to her, heavens no, I love working at the library. I told her, no problem, this is my bimonthly cheque.
She was so shocked that she turned on her sweetness and asked me, would you like to go for coffee this week. Again, I smiled and told her, thank you for asking but my social calendar is very busy.
“I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.”
I was working as a Tourist Officer for the GNWT. My job was to maintain a park, and do tourist services. Simple work. One of the services was a visitor exit survey to see if people were enjoying the north. Let me set the stage.
Fort Smith NWT, is a community of about 3000 people. The airport is very small, and usually only has one person on duty for a flight. Her name was Mary*. She was both ticker agent and security guard. She pointed at an older woman and said “Tourist” so I went over and asked if she was willing to do the survey. “No problem, young man” was the very southern response. She was from Peachtree Georgia and had a classic plantation accent. After a few questions about what hotel she stayed at, and and activities she did, Mary called for pre-boarding, but to please do a tourist survey with me as there was “Plenty of time.”
The woman got absolutely infuriated with me instantly. And very loudly yelled “I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.” And stormed over to the gate. The entire airport started laughing. And “In your country” because a new standard greeting between us for the summer.
*All NWT airports have a “Mary” and it seems like they are all the same women. A wonderful native Lady with a wicked sense of humor.
This late January 2024, it seems that there are numerous trends going on at this moment in time.
American Society
“Passport Bros” is a real thing for young men. They are leaving and not planning on returning back to the USA. Leaving “woke” American women, childless, without families and living off “hook-up culture” as they enter a new life of “cat ladies”.
China
“President” Biden continues on the war-path against China and has three aircraft carrier groups off the Chinese coast right now. And provocations are ramping up in the Pacific. Though he is making all the flowery overtures.
Russia / Ukraine
Russia is winning in Ukraine, and NATO is in a panic.
UK and NATO
UK has gone insane and talking about mass conscription and nuclear war. The USA is obliging shipping nuclear weapons to the UK. France wants an active role; Via la France!
Gaza / Israel / Middle East
Gaza War continues a pace, and American ships are sinking. Both Israel and the United States are much weaker than they are considered to be. No obvious end of the war is in sight. But the UN is “putting its foot down” regarding both the USA and Israel.
American Civil War
Texas and half the other states are stopping the influx of illegal aliens, Willing to dissolve the union to do so. “President” Biden responds by shutting of LG gas, and more efforts will obviously ramp up in the future.
It looks like a very exciting year of the dragon 2024. If you live in the “West” then please “batten down the hatches”. Things are about to get really dicey.
“A Child That Is Not Embraced by the Village Will Burn It Down to Feel Its Warmth.”
January 24, 2024
This poignant quote conveys a tragic yet profound truth about human nature. When a child grows up deprived of community, lacking that feeling of belonging, they will go to destructive extremes to fulfill their fundamental need for connection.
This quote speaks to how our early environments shape us. A child is not born inherently good or bad. But if they mature in isolation, never feeling accepted by those around them, it damages their social development.
Rejected children often suffer from low self-esteem, anger issues, and oppositional behavior. Lacking positive childhood connections can impede their ability to interact with others and form healthy relationships later in life.
The quote suggests that without intervention, that alienated child may eventually seek out negative attention-even if it means resorting to violence or other dangerous acts.
They want to retaliate against a community that made them feel unworthy and invisible. It’s a maladaptive cry for help, for someone to finally notice them and their distress.
A village that embraces all children-that provides guidance, role models and a nurturing web of social bonds-could prevent such a destructive cry for connection.
It highlights our collective responsibility to foster welcoming communities that envelop children in warmth, so they become citizens seeking to build up rather than tear down society.
Lamb with Rice (Atzem Pilafi)
Ingredients
3 pounds lamb, cut in 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound butter
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, strained, or 1 tablespoon tomato paste diluted with 1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cups water
4 cups raw rice
Instructions
Wash and dry meat.
Brown 2/3 of the butter in large pot. Add meat and brown on all sides. Add onions and continue to cook until they become a light golden color. Add tomatoes or diluted tomato paste, and the salt, pepper and water. Cover pot and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 hour. Put meat into casserole and keep it warm.
Strain sauce; measure it. Add water if necessary to make 8 or 9 cups. Pour into large pot and bring to a boil. Add rice. Stir at the start to prevent sticking. Cover and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Add meat and mix well. Brown remaining butter and pour it over the rice.
Cover pot with a clean towel, then cover towel with pot lid. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Serve hot.
Serves 6 to 10.
Fostering a Nurturing Village
Understanding the profound truth behind this proverb compels communities to reflect on their role in nurturing the younger generation.
1. Inclusive Communities: Societies need to strive for inclusivity, ensuring that every child feels accepted and valued, regardless of their background, abilities, or challenges. This involves active engagement and support for all children, especially those at risk of marginalization.
2. Proactive Support Systems: It’s crucial for communities to establish robust support systems for children and families. This includes accessible educational resources, mental health support, and recreational programs that offer positive outlets for energy and creativity.
3. Collective Responsibility: The proverb underscores the collective responsibility of the village. Every member of the community, not just the immediate family or educators, has a role in embracing the young. This could mean being a mentor, offering support to struggling families, or simply being a kind and attentive neighbor.
“A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” is a powerful reminder of the critical role of community in shaping the lives of its youngest members. It calls for a collective effort to nurture, guide, and embrace every child, recognizing that the well-being of each individual is deeply intertwined with the health of the entire community. By ensuring that no child is left unembraced, societies can prevent the flames of neglect and build a future that is warm and bright for all.
What It’s Like Working At An Animal Shelter Which Has To Put Animals Down?
January 25, 2024
On a daily basis, we clean up after the animals, feed them, take their pictures, vaccinate, medicate, socialize, etc.
For every cute puppy or kitten we adopt out, we usually find ourselves getting two in return. Whether its a stray off the streets, or some heartless chode that decided their dog of 5+ years doesn’t “fit” with their lifestyle anymore. No matter how hard we try, we grow attached. To some, we attach more than others.
Euthanasia is a necessary evil. Space isn’t limitless, and even if it was, who would pay for all of the animals? I’m just sure our fellow Texans are salivating at the thought of increased taxes, especially for taking care of feral cats and breeds that have been labelled violent by a very ignorant public (i.e. pit-bulls).
It doesn’t matter how hard you steel yourself, or how long you’ve been doing the job. You never get used to it, and you never grow completely numb. Imagine getting 12 cats in the span of a single day, and having to pick the 12 that have to die so there is enough room to accommodate them. I’ve stopped eating for days. I’ve cried myself to sleep. I’ve grown very disgusted with my fellow man.
Now on top of all that, imagine doing the job and running into disdainful assholes every single day. People that scoff at your profession as if it’s nothing more than playing dog-catcher. Well-wishers that stand on pedestals moaning about how cruel it all is, but offering nothing more than hot air when it comes to real answers to a very real problem.
My personal favorites are the “animal lovers” that fall over themselves to rescue the yorkshire terriers and miniature pinschers that occasionally trickle into the shelter, but never seem to notice the 2+ year old mutt in the adjacent cage that is just as sweet, if not more so than the other dog that has a crowd of willing adopters and a guaranteed ticket out the door.
That reminds me, let us not forget about the pool of dimwits that only support no-kill shelters, and continually ask why the municipal shelter you work at isn’t no-kill as if it were as simple as flipping a fucking switch. (Protip: It’s easy to label yourself no-kill when you can pick and choose what comes in, and shut your doors on a whim)
Carl Frithjof Smith, After the Communion (1892)
Norman Rockwell, Barber in Shuffleton, 1950
Motley Life – Kandinsky
Le Suicide by Manet (1877)
The Lady Of Shalott. John Waterhouse. 1888.
Jean Geoffroy and a Visit Day at the Hospital, 1889
“Soir bleu”, Edward Hopper, 1914
The Palace Guard, Ludwig Deutsch, 1892
Wayne Thiebaud – Cakes (1963)
Oleksandr Murashko. Girl in a Red Hat. 1902
Vincent van Gogh, Avenue of Poplars in Autumn (1884)
Uh Oh! 2024 Health Insurance Policies Modified to EXCLUDE Coverage for War, Riot, Insurrection
2024 Health Insurance Policies have been Updated with NEW Exclusions & Expenses Not Covered: “Treatment of an injury or a sickness, which is due to war, declared or undeclared, riot, or insurrection.”
Watch and listen to the 90 second video below. This is something that made me go, “Uh Ohhhhh.”
Check your insurance policies.
Look here. This is under exclusions and expenses not covered on a 2024 Cigna health policy. Treatment of an injury or a sickness, which is due to war, declared or undeclared, riot, or insurrection.
This is not typical. In an insurance policy from United Healthcare from last year (2023) and the language typically reads like this:
What happens with my coverage under extraordinary circumstances? And it says in cases of disaster, epidemic, war, riot, insurrection, that they will do their best to provide the services you need.
But now take a look at United’s 2024 health insurance policy, another exclusion, riot, war: “We do not cover an illness, treatment or medical condition due to war declared or undeclared.”
Cigna and United aren’t the only ones that have changed their language excluding war from their policies. Anthem has also done this, and it just makes you wonder why in the world would that be the case?
All these wars, insurrections, riots etc. are planned well in advance by the globalist deep state. Nothing is left to chance and nothing happens by accident.
These big corporations like insurance companies would have all been given the heads up that shit is about to hit the fan in 2024 so they are covering their asses by denying you coverage when you or your property gets hurt by these planned events by the deep state.
That’s what I think is going on here. The wealthy and politically connected all talk to each other and attend meetings off the record. Davos is not the only place they talk at.
U.S. Moving Nuclear Warheads to UK over Russia Situation
The United States is moving nuclear weapons back into the United Kingdom for the first time in 15 years over a perceived “threat” from Russia.
Procurement contracts for a new facility at Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Lakenheath in Suffolk confirm that the US intends to place “Dialable” nuclear warheads from 10kt to 1.2 MT at the air base.
The US removed nuclear missiles from the UK in 2008, judging that the Cold War threat from Moscow had diminished.
The disclosure comes in the wake of warnings that NATO countries need to ready their citizens for war with Russia.
Last week, Admiral Rob Bauer, a senior NATO military official, said that private citizens should prepare for all-out war with Russia that would require wholesale change in their lives.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the British Army, went on to warn that the public would need to be called up to fight if there was war with Russia because the Army was too small.
The British government has been the quintessential devil in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, escalating month-by-month, despite Russian warnings to stop.
In fact, it was the British Home Office that initially told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to “ignore” Russia’s Ultimatum on February 22, 2022, wherein Russia gave Ukraine five hours to agree not to join NATO and not to station US missile defenses on Ukraine territory, because such missiles would have about a five minute flight time to Moscow.
Zelensky took the advice from the British Home Office (and from the US State Department) and ignored Russia’s ultimatum — and two hours after that Ultimatum expired, the Russian Army crossed the border into Ukraine. ALl of this could have been avoided if Ukraine did those two simple steps.
Instead, in the two years since Russia commenced its Special Military Operation into Ukraine, upwards of five hundred thousand Ukrainian troops have been killed, and another six hundred thousand have been injured; many permanently disabled, losing limbs.
Ukraine has also permanently lost the eastern Oblasts (states) of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhya, and Kherson, all of which have undertaken public referendums to secede from Ukraine and accede to Russia. Of course, Crimea also held such a Referendum back in the year 2014, and has been Russian territory since then, although the British and Americans refuse to recognize that public vote by the citizens of Crimea.
The US and UK have supplied stronger and stronger weapons to Ukraine, but despite all the weapons and monetary support, Ukraine is losing the war very badly, and recent remarks even by US and UK officials make clear “Ukraine cannot win.”
So now, the US is positioning nuclear bombs in the UK because both the US and UK know that the time is rapidly approaching for both countries to be held accountable by Russia for the war they’ve helped wage against Russia. The British especially since they have been the most aggressive and the most militant.
The Russians, however, are not impressed. One source in the Russian Ministry of Defense told me “The Americans can put all the nuclear bombs they want in Britain; none of them can get out of silos fast enough to be used if we launch our new SARMAT hypersonic missile. That missile and its fifteen warheads would hit Britain in two hundred and two (202) SECONDS after it’s launched. Those American bombs wouldn’t even get out of the silos or off the ground on planes in time. It would already be over for the British.”
Picture of the Day
January 25, 2024
Children belonging to families of Stark and Schwartz, beet workers near Sterling, Colo. Family, including children, work from 5 A.M. to 6 P.M, with only half an hour for lunch, a work-day of over 12 hours. Sterling, Colorado, 1915
From the colonial era onwards, child labor was woven into the fabric of American society. Necessity, not malice, often defined the lives of children, who contributed to farmwork, apprenticeships, and home-based industries.
However, with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the nature of child labor shifted dramatically. Factories beckoned, their voracious appetites easily satiated by the nimble fingers and small statures of children. Textile mills, mines, and glass factories became the new playgrounds, echoing with the clatter of machinery and the hollow coughs of dust-choked lungs.
Children, as young as eight or ten, toiled alongside adults, often for longer hours and at considerably lower wages. Their tiny hands fed machines, navigated narrow mineshafts, and endured repetitive, soul-crushing tasks. Hazards lurked around every corner: mangled limbs caught in gears, lungs ravaged by coal dust, minds dulled by monotony. Education, play, and childhood itself were luxuries afforded to the privileged few, sacrificed at the altar of economic progress.
Yet, amid the clamor of industry, dissent arose. Progressive reformers, journalists, and photographers documented the grim realities of child labor, their poignant pictures and impassioned narratives igniting a public outcry. Lewis Hine’s haunting photographs of child mill workers, Jacob Riis’s unflinching exposés of tenement life, and Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” laid bare the human cost of unchecked industrialism. Slowly, the tide began to turn.
The first legislative steps towards reform were tentative, often hampered by powerful industrial lobbies. State-level measures emerged piecemeal, with Massachusetts enacting the first meaningful child labor law in 1874. However, the fight for national legislation proved arduous. Numerous bills were defeated, bogged down in political wrangling and concerns about economic disruption. It wasn’t until 1938, with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, that comprehensive federal protection for child laborers was finally secured.
This landmark legislation established minimum wages, limited working hours, and prohibited the employment of children in hazardous occupations. While not eliminating child labor entirely, it dramatically curtailed its prevalence and ensured that generations to come would have the right to an education and a childhood free from exploitation.
However, the legacy of child labor continues to echo in contemporary debates. Issues of migrant children employed in agriculture, exploitative work conditions in developing countries, and the increasing presence of children in the online gig economy remind us that vigilance is still necessary. The struggle for children’s rights is an ongoing story, a testament to the enduring belief that every child deserves the chance to flourish, not toil, in the tapestry of human experience.
Real Estate in China was very undervalued in the 1970s and 1980s
Many Chinese purchased their homes for as little as 100–200 RMB a Square Meter in the mid 1980s
Gradually China began to grow and prosper and it’s real estate grew
First from 1996–2004, it rose to it’s actual value having been undervalued in the past decades
So far as good
Then from 2004–2016, it rose beyond the actual value, becoming more and more over valued
Land values rose by maybe 30% but prices rose by 80%
It became harder and harder to buy a house in the big cities especially as in China, one needed to pay 40% down payment for a mortgage unlike the standard 10% in US or 25% in India
By 2018, the Average Chinese had pooled 31% of their Savings into BLOATED PROPERTIES
THIRTY ONE PER CENT !!!!!!!
The market was still red hot and speculation was rife
A 80 SQ Meter Flat with a value of maybe 1,200,000 RMB now sold for 2.1–2.3 Million RMB
Around 170% Bloated!!!
An Economist named Ching So presented a report to the Party citing that IF THE CHINESE DIDN’T STOP THE RAMPANT SPECULATION, BY 2030 – THE TOTAL REAL ESTATE BUBBLE WOULD BE ALMOST 50 TRILLION RMB
Fifty Trillion RMB!!!!
The Chinese hastily woke up, and found they JUST had enough time to prevent a major crisis
They passed the three laws, now famous for financing of real estate
China estimated that if the companies collapsed now, they would have at least 60% Assets and the net blowout would be around 6 Trillion RMB
So now Real Estate no longer will grow at those stupendous rates
So most people are reluctant to invest in real estate
Also since Real Estate is stagnant , most people are reluctant to invest 40% of their savings into buying a house
Hence demand is slumping
The best way to revive this is to allow the slump to bottom out, allow a few big giants to collapse, see the value of property fall lower and lower into more Value = Price territory
Then maybe China will bail out the survivors
Then people will start buying homes again
This is estimated to be in 2026–2027
Essential knots: how to tie the 20 knots you need to know
This story was originally published by Outdoor Life.
Knot tying has always been one of those key outdoor skills that the inexperienced take for granted. The experienced outdoorsman, however, has had enough success and failure to know that there are right and wrong knots for certain jobs.
But first, it helps to know a few strange terms. Put it simply, a knot is some kind of fastening or splice made by intertwining one or more ropes or some other flexible material. After tightening a knot, it should hold on its own. A hitch is a little bit different. It’s like a knot, but it generally involves another object like a stick, a post, a ring, or occasionally another rope. Properly tied, hitches can hold their place, or they may be able to slide, depending on the hitch you choose. A lashing is like a hitch, but slightly more complex. Lashings involve the use of a rope or similar material to secure two or more objects together. To grossly oversimplify all this, the knot is just rope fastened together; the hitch is a rope fastened to an object; and a lashing is a rope fastening multiple objects together.
A good knot can save lives when you’re dealing with a survival situation, performing first aid, and when working over heights or water. But, you have to know how to tie it. So make sure you know what to do with your rope the next time you head into the wild by learning these 20 essential knots.
1. Square knot
The square knot is a classic for connecting lines and tying knots. Whether you are tying two ropes together to make a longer rope, or you are tying up a bundle of firewood to carry, the square knot is a winner. It’s much more secure and stable than its cousin the granny knot, which everyone is probably familiar with as part of tying their shoes.
How to tie a square knot:
You can tie a solid square knot by lapping one rope right over left, then underneath the other, and then tying the same again in the reverse direction—left over right and then underneath. You’ll know you did it right when the working end and standing end of each rope is side by side (not making a “cross” like a granny knot).
2. Clove hitch
The clove hitch is an easy knot to tie, and it secures a line to a tree or post quickly, but it does slip when used alone, without any other knots as a backup.
How to tie a clove hitch:
To create a clove hitch on a tree, make a loop of rope around the tree. Then make another loop and pass the free end of the rope under the second loop before tightening. To tie this one over a post or stake, just create a loop in the free end of the rope and slide it over the post. Then make another loop the same as the first. Put the second loop over the post (just above the first loop) and tighten the hitch.
3. The bowline
The bowline creates a loop at the end of a rope that cannot shrink or expand. This knot is often taught and illustrated with a poem of a rabbit coming out of the hole, hopping in front of a tree, going behind the tree, and back down his original hole.
How to tie a bowline:
Form a loop on top of the long end of the line. Pass the working end of the line up through the loop and around behind the line. Then pass the working end down through the original loop, all while maintaining the shape of the second loop you create, which becomes your bowline loop. Once the “rabbit” is back down its hole, pull the “tree” up to tighten the bowline.
4. The figure eight
The figure eight knot creates a stopper wherever you need one on a rope, though the steps are also steps you take to create several other knots.
How to tie a figure eight:
To tie a figure eight, also known as a Flemish bend, simply pass the free end of a line over itself to form a loop. Continue under and around the line, and finish the knot by passing the working end down through the original loop.
5. The sheet bend
The sheet bend is my favorite one of all, even though technically it’s a “bend”—a type of knot that connects one rope to another. I like it because it’s the best bend for tying different types of material together or joining different thicknesses of rope. This knot even joins together lines or materials that normally couldn’t be joined together because of differences in diameter.
How to tie a sheet bend:
To create a sheet bend, bend the thicker or more slippery rope into a “J” shape (like a fish hook). Then pass the other rope through the hook shape from behind, wrap it around the entire fishhook once and then tuck the smaller line between itself and the other rope. If the ropes are the same diameter and texture, the sheet bend actually resembles a square knot. To tie a sheet bend with fabric or a tarp, collect, squeeze, and shape the material into a “J” shape, and then run your rope through and around the “J.”
6. Two half hitches
You can use two half hitches to secure a line to trees or poles, or to secure the line to itself like you would tying a trucker’s hitch. A half hitch is fairly easy to tie, and I use it often to tie tarps up for shelters, or to hang up hammocks.
How to tie two half hitches:
After you wrap the rope around the standing end and through the inside of the loop created to make the first half hitch, wrap around the line the same way again to make the second half hitch. Pull it tight and you should have two half hitches, one seated next to the other. If you want added insurance, you can tie an overhand knot with the tag end of the line to keep the two half hitches from slipping.
7. Taut line hitch
The taut line hitch takes the place of a slide to tighten or loosen a loop in a line (like a tent guy line). This knot grips well as long as there is tension on the “taut” side of the loop.
How to tie a taut line hitch:
To tie the taut line hitch, create a loop by wrapping around a solid, unmoving object like a tree or tent stake. With the free end of the rope, wrap around the main line twice on the inside of the loop. Then lay the free end of the rope over the two wraps, wrap it around the main line, and draw the tag end through the loop you just created. Cinch the wraps until tight. Pull on the standing line and the taut line hitch should grip the loaded line.
8. Fisherman’s knot
True to its name, the fisherman’s knot is pretty much only good for using with fishing line.
How to tie a fisherman’s knot:
Pass the free end of the line through or around the object to be secured, for example, through the eye of a fishhook. Then, wrap the free end of the line around the other side of the line about five or six times. Pass the free end of the line through the triangular opening next to the object being secured, and then pass the free end of the line through the large loop you just created by going through the small triangle. If you are tying this one with fishing line, spit on the line before tightening to lubricate it so that the friction does not cause heat damage to the line. Tighten the knot, trim off any extra line and enjoy your day fishing.
9. Water knot
The water knot safely secures webbing, flat belts, and most types of straps together.
How to tie a water knot:
To tie the water knot, start with a loose overhand knot in the end of one strap. Pass the other strap in the opposite direction so it mirrors the route of the overhand knot on the first strap. Take the ends of the two straps and pull the knot tight. That’s it—it’s very simple and very strong.
10. Rolling hitch
The rolling hitch adds a leg to an existing line. This hitch is the basic knot behind a taut line hitch, but it can be added to any existing line. The rolling hitch was often used historically to hook more dogs to a dog sled main line.
How to tie a rolling hitch:
Wrap the free end of one rope around the main rope to create a half hitch. Make a second half hitch and then wrap over the entire knot to finish with a final half hitch to the other side from your starting place.
11. Prusik knot
The Prusik knot creates a loop that can be used as an ascender or decender. This “slide and grip” knot can also be handy for adding a loop to a rope when neither end of the rope is free.
How to tie a Prusik knot
To tie a Prusik, you’ll need a short rope and a separate long rope. Tie a loop in the short rope that is secured with a solid knot like a square knot. Now, wrap the loop around the long rope three times, making certain that each wrap lies flat against the long rope. Pass the loop of short rope under itself and pull it tight. As long as there is weight on the loop, the Prusik will grip the long rope. You can also slide the Prusik up or down the long rope by taking the weight off the loop and pushing the wraps up or down the long rope.
12. Timber hitch
The timber hitch secures a rope to an object for hauling or to act as a support.
How to tie a timber hitch:
To create a timber hitch, all you need to do is run the free end of the rope around the object, like a log, that you intend to pull. Then wrap the tag end of the rope around the inside of the loop you created four or five times. After you tighten the timber hitch so the four or five wraps are tight against the object, the constant tension will keep the hitch seated.
13. Blood knot
This little gem of a knot is used on fishing line to secure two lines together (mends a broken line or attaches leaders and tippets).
How to tie a blood knot:
You’ll start the blood knot by overlapping the two lines, and wrapping one free end around the other line five or six times. Pass the free end between the two lines. Wrap the other line the same number of times (five or six), and tuck the free end back between the two lines in the opposite direction of the other free end of the line. If using fishing line, spit on it to reduce friction damage.
14. Man harness
This crafty knot allows you to put a loop in a line anywhere along the length of a rope when neither end of the line is free to tie a loop—and you didn’t hear it from me, but a man harness is great for cheating at tug of war.
How to tie a man harness:
Gather some slack in the line and make a loop so part of the line runs through the middle of the loop. Grab the side of the loop and pull it through the gap between the line in the middle and the other side of the loop. Pull the new loop tight, and then pull the line to cinch the man harness knot. This knot can slip if there isn’t constant tension on the newly created loop, so keep something in the loop to hold it.
15. Carrick bend
This square knot alternate joins two ropes together securely, and is easier to untie than a square knot.
How to tie a carrick bend:
To tie the carrick bend, form a loop with the free end of one rope. Pass the other rope’s free end under the first loop, and then over then under as seen in the picture. Thread the free end across the loop passing under itself, and pull on both standing ends to tighten.
16. Trucker’s hitch
You don’t have to be a truck driver to have a use for this rugged hitch. The unique feature of the trucker’s hitch is it gives you a unique mechanical advantage for tightening up a line. While tying this hitch is a little complex, it’s worth the trouble if you need to tighten lines as much as possible before securing them—I use it all the time to tie down tarps or secure shifting payloads.
How to tie a trucker’s hitch:
Start off by tying a figure eight knot with a loop of the line. Then pass the free end of the line around or through whatever you’re attaching the rope to, before passing the line through the loop. Next, pull the working end tight, and secure the free end with two half hitches, just below the loop.
17. Barrel hitch
The barrel hitch has been used in sailing and construction work for centuries. It allows you to secure a bucket, barrel or other cylindrical object to lift it in a well-balanced position.
How to tie a barrel hitch:
Place your barrel or other object to be lifted on top of your rope. Then tie an overhand knot across the top of the barrel. Open up the overhand knot until it wraps around the top sides of the barrel. Tie the ends of the rope together with a square knot and then then lift. This knot makes a fine bucket handle when the wire handle finally breaks off.
Safety warning: For safety and stability while hoisting barrels, the rope around the barrel needs to be high above the center of gravity on the barrel, but pose no danger of slipping off the top of the barrel. FYI, beer has an excellent center of gravity.
18. Sheepshank
This knot seems half magic trick, half practical knot, but it shortens a line without cutting the line. This knot keeps our long ropes in one piece, despite our miscalculations in the field. I will use this one on bear bags, when the line is too long, but I don’t want to cut it.
How to tie a sheepshank:
To tie a sheepshank, fold the rope to the new length you need. Create a half hitch in one end of the continuing rope, and drop it over the nearby loop. Make a half hitch in the other standing end, drop it over its adjacent loop, and then tighten the whole thing slowly.
19. Tripod lashing
The tripod lashing is commonly used for shelters and to support camp items, like a cooking pot over a fire.
How to tie a tripod lashing:
Start by collecting three poles that of almost identical length and thickness and lay them on the ground side-by-side. Tie a clove hitch to one of the end poles, and then wrap around all of the poles four, five, or six times. Now, wrap line between the poles–twice between each one–working back toward the original knot or hitch you tied. Finish the lashing by tying the tag end of the line to the tag end of your original knot. Spread the legs of the tripod and use it in your camp for something handy.
20. Square lashing
The square lashing has been used to build everything from camp chairs to towers and bridges – but you can also use it to secure two poles together.
How to tie a square lashing:
Tie a clove hitch to one of the poles, near the place where the two poles cross. Then wrap your line around the junction of the two poles, going under the lower pole and over the top pole. Spiral outward with these wraps five or six times. Next, wrap between the poles, biting onto the previous wrappings to tighten them. Finally, use a square snot to tie the free end of the rope to the free end from the clove hitch that started this whole lashing. Easy, right?
In the late 1930s, with WWII in motion, and only months before his assassination, Leon Trotsky already had a vision of what the future Empire of Chaos would be up to.
“For Germany it was a question of ‘organizing Europe’. The United States must ‘organize’ the world. History is bringing mankind face to face with the volcanic eruption of American imperialism…Under one or another pretext and slogan the United States will intervene in the tremendous clash in order to maintain its world dominion.”
We all know what happened next. Now we are under a new volcano that even Trotsky could not have identified: a declining United States faced with the Russia-China “threat”. And once again the entire planet is affected by major moves in the geopolitical chessboard.
The Straussian neocons in charge of US foreign policy could never accept Russia-China leading the way towards a multipolar world. For now we have NATO’s perpetual expansionism as their strategy to debilitate Russia, and Taiwan as their strategy to debilitate China.
Yet in these past two years, the vicious proxy war in Ukraine only accelerated the transition towards a multipolar, Eurasia-driven world order.
With the indispensable help of Prof. Michael Hudson , let’s briefly recap the 5 key variables that are conditioning the current transition.
Losers Don’t Dictate Terms
1.The stalemate: That’s the new, obsessive US narrative on Ukraine – on steroids. Confronted with the upcoming, cosmic NATO humiliation in the battlefield, the White House and the State Dept. had to – literally – improvise.
Moscow though is unfazed. The Kremlin has set the terms a long time ago: total surrender, and no Ukraine as part of NATO. To “negotiate”, from the Russia point of view, is to accept these terms.
And if the deciding powers in Washington opt for turbo-charging the weaponization of Kiev, or to unleash “the most heinous provocations in order to change the course of events”, as asserted this week by the head of the SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, fine.
The road ahead will be bloody. In case the usual suspects sideline popular Zaluzhny and install Budanov as the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the AFU will be under total control of the CIA – and not NATO generals, as it’s still the case.
This might prevent a military coup against the sweaty sweatshirt puppet in Kiev. Yet things will get much uglier. Ukraine will go Total Guerrilla, with only two objectives: to attack Russian civilians and civilian infrastructure. Moscow, of course, is fully aware of the dangers.
Meanwhile, chatterbox overdrive in several latitudes suggest that NATO may even be getting ready for a partition of Ukraine. Whatever form that might take, losers do not dictate conditions: Russia does.
As for EU politicos, predictably, they are in total panic, believing that after mopping up Ukraine, Russia will become even more of a “threat” to Europe. Nonsense. Not only Moscow couldn’t give a damn to what Europe “thinks”; the last thing Russia wants or needs is to annex Baltic or Eastern European hysteria. Moreover, even Jens Stoltenberg admitted “NATO sees no threat from Russia toward any of its territories.”
2.BRICS: Since the start of 2024, this is The Big Picture: the Russian presidency of BRICS+ – which translates as a particle accelerator towards multipolarity. The Russia-China strategic partnership will be increasing actual production, in several fields, while Europe plunges into depression, unleashed by the Perfect Storm of sanctions blowback against Russia and German de-industrialization. And it’s far from over, as Washington is also ordering Brussels to sanction China across the spectrum.
As Prof. Michael Hudson frames it, we are right in the middle of “the whole split of the world and the turning towards China, Russia, Iran, BRICS”, united in “an attempt to reverse, undo, and roll back the whole colonial expansion that’s occurred over the last five centuries.”
Or, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defined at the UN Security Council this process of BRICS
leaving Western bullies behind, the changing world order is like “a playground scuffle – which the West is losing.”
Bye Bye, Soft Power
3.The Lone Emperor: The “stalemate” – actually losing a war – is directly linked to its compensation: the Empire squeezing and shrinking a vassalized Europe. But even as you exercise nearly total control over all these relatively wealthy vassals, you lose the Global South, for good: if not all their leaders, certainly the overwhelming majority of public opinion. The icing in the toxic cake is to support a genocide followed by the whole planet in real time. Bye bye, soft power.
4. dedollarization: All across the Global South, they did the math: if the Empire and its EU vassals can just steal over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves – from a top nuclear/military power – they can do it to anyone, and they will.
The key reason Saudi Arabia, now a BRICS 10 member, is being so meek on the genocide in Gaza is because their hefty US dollar reserves are hostage to the Hegemon.
And yet the caravan moving away from the US dollar will only keep growing in 2024: that will depend on crucial crossover deliberations inside the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and BRICS 10.
5.Garden and jungle: What Putin and Xi have essentially been telling the Global South – including the energy-rich Arab world – is quite simple. If you want improved trade and economic growth, who’re you gonna link to?
So we’re back to the “garden and jungle” syndrome – first coined by imperial Britain orientalist Rudyard Kipling. Both the British concept of “white man’s burden” and the American concept of “Manifest Destiny” derive from the “garden and jungle” metaphor.
NATOstan, and hardly all of it, is supposed to be the garden. The Global South is the jungle. Michael Hudson again: as it stands, the jungle is growing, but the garden isn’t growing “because its philosophy is not industrialization. Its philosophy is to make monopoly rents, meaning rents that you make in your sleep without producing value. You just have a privilege of a right to collect money on a monopoly technology that you have.”
The difference now, compared to all those decades ago of an imperial free lunch, is “an immense shift of technological advance”, away from North America and the US, to China, Russia and selected nodes across Asia.
Forever Wars. And No Plan B
If we combine all these variants – stalemate; BRICS; the Lone Emperor; de-dollarization; garden and jungle – in search of the most probable scenario ahead, it’s easy to see that the only “way out” for a cornered Empire is, what else, the default modus operandi: Forever Wars.
in West Asia, totally out of control yet always supported by the Hegemon, aiming for a multi-front war against the whole Axis of Resistance: Palestine, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraqi militias, Ansarullah in Yemen, and Iran.
In a sense we’re back to the immediate post-9/11, when what the neocons really wanted was not Afghanistan, but the invasion of Iraq: not only to control the oil (which in the end they didn’t) but, in Michael Hudson’s analysis, “to essentially create America’s foreign legion in the form of ISIS* and al-Qaeda** in Iraq.” Now, “America has two armies that it’s using to fight in the Near East, the ISIS*/al-Qaeda** foreign legion (Arabic-speaking foreign legion) and the Israelis.”
Hudson’s intuition of ISIS* and Israel as parallel armies is priceless: they both fight the Axis of Resistance, and never (italics mine) fight each other. The Straussian neocon plan, as tawdry as it gets, essentially is a variant of the “fight to the last Ukrainian”: to “fight to the last Israeli” on the way to the Holy Grail, which is to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (copyright John McCain) and provoke regime change.
As much as the “plan” did not work in Iraq or Ukraine, it won’t work against the Axis of Resistance.
What Putin, Xi and Raisi have been explaining to the Global South, explicitly or in quite subtle ways, is that we are right in the crux of a civilizational war.
Michael Hudson has done a lot to bring down such an epic struggle to practical terms. Are we heading towards what I described as techno-feudalism
– which is the AI format of rent-seeking turbo-neoliberalism? Or are we heading to something similar to the origins of industrial capitalism?
Michael Hudson characterizes an auspicious horizon as “raising living standards instead of imposing IMF financial austerity on the dollar block”: devising a system that Big Finance, Big Bank, Big Pharma and what Ray McGovern memorably coined as the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) cannot control. Alea jacta est.
* ISIS (also known as ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia.
** A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
The China haters and Chinese doubters with many of them here in QUORA has been predicting doom and gloom on China for years. And made 100 collapse projection!
Let me help them learn the truth that these U.S. and IS dogs hate to hear.
In 2023 China grew 5.2%. And has an official inflation rate of 0.2%. That means Chinese standard of living grew by a full 5.0%!
US GDP grew by 2.4% but has an official inflation rate of 3.4%. So effectively the U.S. economy dwindled by -1.0% in 2023.
UK economy contracted by -3.0% and has an official inflation rated of 4.06% hence the real GDP of U.S. deteriorated by a whopping -7.06%
And guess what BBC, CNN and Fox had a field day claiming China’s economy is in trouble! Hahahaha and fools like those haters actually believe in them!
Here are 5 things I’ve learned recently that shocked me and impressed me, now let me share with you:
1.CIA revealed a “heart attack” gun in 1975
[1]. A battery operated gun which fired a dart of frozen water & shellfish toxin. Once inside the body it would melt leaving only a small red mark on the victim where it entered. The official cause of death would always be a heart attack.
2.Eli Whitney’s creation of the cotton gin
[2] gave the South enough economic power to be able to start the Civil War, and his creation of interchangeable parts for rifles gave the North the manufacturing power to win the Civil War.
Although Whitney’s invention only involved a few hundred kilograms of matter, it shaped the future of a nation and its people; it is rare that a single contrivance has such a profound social effect.
3.A British plan to assassinate Hitler
[3] was ultimately called off because they thought keeping him in power would help the war end faster given his terrible decision making and strategy.
4. A research found that
[4]the most common last name among American physicians is no longer “Smith”, it’s “Patel”.
5. In the Netherlands, if you die and have no next of kin, friends or family to attend your funeral, they will send a poet who shall read a custom poem for you at your funeral so that you won’t be alone that day.
My sister and I were transiting Dallas airport en route to New Orleans. My sister is 100% deaf and lip reads. I walk with a cane.
We had arrived at a different terminal and although our bags were through checked we had to pass through immigration and travel to a different terminal and pass through security there. Things were going well until we got to the security check. My sister put her hand luggage on the belt to the scanner as did I. My sister entered the body scanner and upon exit one of the staff started yelling at her. I was still to enter the scanner so was unable to help other than to yell “That is my sister. She is deaf.” I was told to “Butt out lady, none of your business.” The one doing the yelling just increased the volume and then some more. I again called out that she is deaf, she cannot hear you. As I was exiting the scanner I saw him grab her arm and start pulling her. I lost it and tried to get to her side. Three large males blocked me. By now you would have thought a full-blown incident was going down.
I was yelling I must help my sister. Why have they taken her. She will be scared. She is deaf. Help me. Help her. I heard a voice at my side. “Did you just say she is deaf” It was a supervisor. “I said yes she lip reads” This man walked past the guards blocking me and went to my sister who was sobbing. I saw him touch her arm and get herto look at him and then he spoke slowly and carefully. She became calmer and after a few minutes I was allowed to pass and join her and we were sent on our way.
UK knows HK laws well because HK runs the common laws of former coloniser UK. UK & Hongkong had an extradition treaty. UK suspended it in 2020, after the 2019 HK coup has failed. The coup was plotted & led by USA+UK.
How many British politicians & citizens are involved in HK conspiracy? Quite a few.
In an earlier post (link below), I talked about USA+UK interfering Hongkong judiciary system which is currently prosecuting HK’s #1 traitor Jimmy Lai (黎智英). J Lai’s aide Mark Simon was an ex-CIA & naval intelligence agent. UK & USA are co-conspirators.
In this post, we look at how an intl crime works. (1) propaganda (2) lobby/bribery/collusion of foreign politicians. Both involve lots of (illicit) money.
Mark Simon helped J Lai grow from broke to multi millionaire “overnight”. J Lai ran a multi-million media called Apple Daily(苹果日报) which spread propaganda. At the heat of the coup, Apple spread disinformation daily, if not hourly. … control of people’s info/mind is important for a successful coup.
intl crime – lobby/bribery/collusion of foreign politicians
There was an NGO called Hongkong Watch (香港监察)re human rights. The founder is Benedict Rogers. UK MP Lord David Alton is a patron. Luke de Pulford has connection too.
J Lai paid Andy Li $500,000 & asked him meet D Alton & other MPs in Conservative party incl de Pulford. At the end, a total of 19 UK MPs “monitored” HK’s 2019 district election (translation: to make sure HK traitors win the (fraud) election so as to control district council).
Other than Alton & de Pulford, Andy Li also met Andrew Heyn of UK’s Consul General in HK, Anson Chan (陈方安生 HK #2 traitor) as well as US senator Rick Scott.
Martin Lee (李柱铭 HK #3 traitor) & TW Chan (陈梓华) got to meet Benedict Rogers.
illicit money in an intl crime
In July 2019, a conspiracy was plotted. It was nicknamed zhibao (支爆) (short for 支那爆炸 literal translation: China explosion).
Lawyer TW Chan asked J Lai to fund the propaganda in foreign countries, so as to ask foreign countries to pressure & sanction China incl Hongkong.
Andy Li’s whatsapp showed Martin Lee asked if J Lai could first lend $5 million. J Lai promised $1.56 million for foreign media outlets thru 2 of his companies, Dico & Lais Hotel in Canada.
TW Chan knew Mark Simon. M Simon promised to fund the “explosion” scheme upfront, but the money must be reimbursed later.
TW Chan asked Andy Li to organise a group called “Stand with HK (重光团队)” & take instructions from J Lai.
Andy Li raised fund 3 times & got $24.4 million.
For 3 times, Andy Li spent $9.8 million to publish seditious articles in 20+ countries eg USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan etc. And in 9 overseas media eg Guardian, Washington Post, Japan’s NHK etc.
J Lai pre-paid 6 foreign media at $3.54 million.
A columnist named Jack H (not sure the spelling of his last name) worked at J Lai’s Apple Daily. Thru Jack’s UK bank account, $3.2 million was deposited to Andy Li’s account in UK.
The fund that was raised by Andy Li was used to reimburse M Simon’s foundation.
In order not to disclose his identity, Andy Li transferred it to Taiwan. From Taiwan, $1.65 million reimbursed J Lai. M Simon reported to J Lai that the entire loan has been reimbursed. (Try not to add up the figures. Some details have been skipped. I just report it as is.)
In Aug-Nov 2019, J Lai paid Chan $174,000 & asked him set up street booths to do propaganda.
the scheme was quite successful
The 2019 HK riot was almost out-of-control. China took action …
In Mar 2020, China indicated it would hand down a HK security law which would take effect on 2020/6/30. China would “forgive” those who stopped treason before the deadline.
China’s warning did not stop J Lai from lobbying foreign countries. Though it has stopped HK’s #2 & #3 traitors who announced retirement from politics.
After the HK Security Law is in effect, Andy Li fled to Taiwan with 11 others. His boat drifted into China’s territory & thus was arrested by China.
a state witness against J Lai
Andy Li was remorseful & said in HK court “I would like to say I am sorry” with a 90 degree bow to the judge.
It was Andy Li, TW Chan & many of Apple’s managers who turn to become a state witness against J Lai that we see the involvement of foreign countries & the illicit money.
That is why, in an earlier post, USA+UK demanded HK release J Lai unconditionally & threatened to sanction HK judges. They even complained to UN Human Rights Council claiming that HK security law has violated J Lai’s civil & political rights. … UK is trying to protect his politicians from extradition & arrest by ICPO. Haha.
Koubeba Syriani
Ingredients
1 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pound lean ground veal or beef
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup ground walnuts, + 20 walnut halves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup toasted bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil, + more for brushing
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 pitted prunes
1 cup chicken or beef stock
2/3 cup dry red wine
2 to 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
Instructions
In a food processor or blender, combine the onion, chopped parsley and lemon juice and pulse to chop.
In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, meat, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, bread crumbs, oil, egg, pepper or pepper flakes and salt and knead into a homogenous mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Shape 1/4-cup portions of the meat mixture into oval rolls and arrange in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Brush the rolls with oil and bake for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, insert 1 walnut half into each prune (you may need to halve the larger walnuts).
Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
Arrange the stuffed prunes between the meat rolls, add the stock, wine and 1 to 2 tablespoons of the vinegar and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more. Baste with the pan juices, turn off the oven and leave the dish in the oven for 5 minutes.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with vinegar, salt and/or pepper or pepper flakes. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve.
I had some druggie horse people rent the house next to me. It was on 4 acres. Around 1 acre was fenced in. It was so thick you about couldn’t walk through it. They put 7 horses in that area. It was up wind of my house so all you could smell was horse chit.
I complained to them.
I was told if I didn’t like it I needed to move to town. I called the dept of agriculture. They said there was no limit to the number they could put in the area. The owner of the place was a friend from highschool that lived half way across the country. I called him. He said they didn’t pay half the time.
I asked if he would sell the place. He agreed to so I bought it . I paid cash so the Tennants had no idea.
I then went to them and complained about the smell again. I was told to get out of their yard. I said soon as the horses were gone I would. She called the law and told them I was trespassing and made threats to them.
I had the camera on my phone on just in case something happened like this lol live feed to Facebook. The officers took their side and they were laughing at me . I was told to leave by the deputies.
They then asked if she would like to press charges. She said yes and started rattling off lies about what I had done.
I let her tell her stories then I pulled out an envelope I had in my pocket. It has the deed to the house and land.
I then logged into Facebook and showed the officers the video.
The smiles and laughs were gone in seconds.
I then said I would be filing for an eviction the next day.
I did and moved my daughter and grand kids in . Been nice every since.
Never Count On Money Not In the Hand
January 25, 2024
It’s tempting, isn’t it? To gaze at the horizon of future fortunes, squinting through wishful thinking to count imaginary chickens nestled in speculative eggs. We do it with inheritances, tax returns, that “big idea” just waiting to explode. We tally future salary raises, potential bonuses, and the nebulous windfall from that distant relative we barely know.
But here’s the harsh truth, friends: money you don’t have isn’t yours. No matter how glittering the mirage, how convincing the whispers of “soon,” present reality trumps future possibility.
Why? Because life, as they say, has a way of intervening. That inheritance could get bogged down in legal red tape. The “sure thing” investment turns sour. The big break fizzles. And suddenly, our meticulously counted chickens morph into dust devils dancing on the financial plains.
The friend who is supposed to repay your loan turns out to be a broke loser
Your income tax refund turns out to be a lot less than expected
A buyer backs out of buying your item for sale
Your car needs repair out of the blue, and it costs a lot
Your work bonus turns out to be misleading and not worth the trouble
The little brother gets arrested, loses his job, and now needs you to loan him money
So, let’s break the habit of phantom fortune counting. Let’s swap daydreams for reality checks and embrace a fundamental truth: your financial security rests on what you have, not what you hope to have.
Here’s how to shift your mindset:
Focus on the controllable: Instead of dreaming of a potential windfall, channel your energy into building your present financial well-being. Invest in skills, pay down debt, build an emergency fund. These actionable steps, not hopeful wishes, pave the path to real prosperity.
Live within your means: Don’t spend money you haven’t earned. This may seem obvious, but the allure of future riches can make us splurge on the “now,” setting ourselves up for disappointment and potential hardship later.
Appreciate the present: Gratitude for what you do have shifts your focus from the elusive “what if” to the concrete “what is.” A healthy dose of contentment can make you far richer than any imaginary windfall.
Plan for the future, but realistically: Yes, set goals and plan for your future financial needs. But keep those plans grounded in present realities, making adjustments as needed. Remember, even the best-laid plans can encounter unexpected turbulence.
Life is full of possibilities, some more likely than others. But building true financial security requires building on solid ground, not the ever-shifting sands of speculation. Focus on the present, make smart choices, and watch your real, tangible prosperity bloom, one disciplined step at a time.
I’ve posted this somewhere before, but a number of years ago I was in Jakarta, Indonesia and due to fly back to the UK that evening on Singapore airlines.
When I went to check in and get my boarding pass (yes this was back when you actually got your pass at the check in desk) there were a lot of angry people making a fuss and the young Indonesian woman at the desk looked thoroughly upset. It was clear that she wasn’t far from tears.
I speak Indonesian and when I got the chance asked what the problem was. She said that an earlier flight had been cancelled and that as a result the flight I was due to catch was overbooked. She explained that she had to bump a number of people and knew that it was going to be problematic. The noisy, unhappy people milling around her desk proved that.
I said that I’d be happy to be bumped to a flight the next day if it would help her as I had no real need to catch that flight.
She thanked me profusely and asked me to take a seat for a while and she would sort out the details once she had dealt with the other customers.
I took a seat nearby and read my book for a while until a second young woman in a Singapore airlines uniform approached me and said “thank you for helping out Mr Graham, but we’ve managed to find you a seat for the flight tonight. I hope you don’t mind that the only remaining seat is in first class.”
So for the sake of being polite and offering to help an upset young woman with an awkward situation, I ended up in first class on an eighteen hour flight being looked after like a king. It seemed that the flight attendants had been told I was a “special guest “ and nothing was too much trouble for them.
The formal, official groundwork is now laid for actual Civil War inside the United States.
The Governor of Texas has declared, in writing, that the federal government has “broken the compact” with the states.
He announced he has invoked the “Invasion” clause of the Constitution and says Texas has a right to self defense which it will enforce with the Texas National Guard.
Here is Governor Gregg Abbott’s Declaration:
I have already told my wife that if this comes down to Civil War, I want us to sell BOTH houses, (NJ & PA) and move immediately to Texas.
I’m from India. I’ve been to 10 states all on the East Coast.
People don’t believe that you can literally just drink water out of the tap in the bathroom. There is a reason why the glasses are kept in the Bathrooms of all American hotels & motels.
Nobody believes that their pharmacies and retail outlets are big way way way bigger than you could imagine. CVS & Walgreens, which are both essentially pharmacies are probably even larger than small malls in India. Also, they just don’t keep medicines, they keep EVERYTHING.
People don’t have any clue about the extent of diversity in America. I used to feel proud about being from a diverse nation. Then, I went to America. You see people from every race, races you probably didn’t even know existed, every religion, every gender and every form and somehow, they all just blend together.
People don’t believe that America is a beautiful nation. Many Indians think of it as a culture-less nation. They often ask me whether there is anything to see in America. They have this image that it’s a nation with big buildings and wide roads. No. You cannot be more wrong. There is so much to see and so much to do other than big buildings.
In Washington DC, all the Smithsonian Museums are free! It is very very hard to believe and also very very hard to resist going to all of them.
Everybody isn’t fat. There are a lot of people who care about their health and fitness. I have seen people walking and running on busy streets of big cities.
The thing that pinches the most, you have to pay for trollies at Airports. Also, you need to pay for luggage in flights which pinches because when you convert it into your native currency, it is very very expensive.
If you think the portion size in American is big, think again. It isn’t big, it’s HUGE. Cookies, candies, chocolates, bags of chips etc are enough to feed a lot of people.
(For example- this is a pizza we cluelessly ordered in Chicago. This was around twice the size of a large pizza in India.)
9. If you come from a tropical country like me, American Summer is NOTHING like summer. It is usually comparatively cold, even in June & July.
10. Again, if you are from India, there are no motorbikes on the roads. Absolutely none. It’s very very weird because in India, it’s very common to see bikers riding motorbikes as if they own the road.
11. Majority of families in America have lunch around 11 am or 12 pm. This isn’t the case in my country because Lunch gets postponed to 2 pm or 3 pm.
12. Contrary to popular culture, the life of a regular American Teenager is nothing like what you see in movies and tv shows. Their life doesn’t revolve around parties, drinking and sex, they are probably only a tad bit less stressed than us.
13. I don’t drink coke but my friend pointed out that if you buy a cup of coke, you can get infinite refills.
14. Vegetarian or Vegan options are very very limited. If you are willing to survive on fries, then you’ll love it.
15. Almost everybody uses GPS. The fear of getting lost is negligible.
16. This is a funny one. In cold Northern States, when it snows and gets ridiculously chilly, people go to big stores like Walmart & Costco to walk. You can imagine how large these stores really are.
17. People are extremely patriotic. They have the American national flags everywhere like outside hotels, spas, homes, schools etc. We don’t enjoy flexibility when it comes to national flags in India.
(I took this picture from somebody’s backyard.)
18. It’s very common for people in stores or in museums or in public places to chat with you. This is very pleasant. People aren’t cold and reserved.
19. Flying by airplane is cheaper than taking a train. It’s the other way round in India.
20. This is weird, correct me if I am wrong, almost everybody has an iPhone. It may be the latest one or an older one but everybody has an iPhone. Even our Taxi driver had an iPhone.
21. People are also very obvious about the political party they support. I saw people wearing Clinton T shirts, Bernie Sanders jackets, Donald Trump hats etc. I haven’t seen such craze anywhere else though.
22. Houses don’t have ceiling fans. This is hard to believe because life without a fan is impossible in India. All of them have centralised heating/cooling.
23. Houses aren’t made of concrete and bricks like in India, they are made of wood. My parents jokingly said that these houses aren’t “majboot” (“strong” in English) enough.
24. There is McDonald’s everywhere. Even in the middle of nowhere, there will be a lone McDonald’s joint. I am not kidding.
25. They don’t home deliver McDonald’s in America. They do it in India though. India -1 USA- 0.
26. People LOVE coffee. Obviously not more than Indians’ love for masala chai.
All in all, it’s an amazing place to visit.
(Please correct me if I am incorrect with some facts)
Especially the team with Raimondo as the core has formulated one stupid restriction policy after another.
Initially, Nvidia could provide chips with 100-point performance, leading the market and stealing away almost all Chinese customers. Thinking this was too good for China, they issued a ban banning American companies from exporting chips with a score of more than 80 points.
Nvidia chose to develop a 79-point chip to meet US regulations and they could continue to do business with the Chinese.
Nvidia’s business is still good, because even a chip with 79 point is still very good. The Chinese can make up for the performance gap by increasing the number.
Raimondo’s team is dissatisfied with Nvidia’s approach and believes that they are “stepping on the border and harming U.S. interests.”
So they updated their policy and demanded that “U.S. companies be prohibited from exporting chips worth more than 40 point .”
Nvidia had no choice, they developed a 39-point chip to sell to its Chinese customers.
However, this time all the Chinese customers left.
Because Nvidia’s competitor Huawei can provide chips with a score of 70 points. There are no sanctions, no limits, and the price is quite cheap.
Since those 79 point are not acceptable, why do these Chinese customers continue to play within the rules of the United States? A 40 point chip means nothing to them.
They gave orders to Huawei one after another.
Huawei has received billions of dollars in orders, and there will be more and more in the future.
They will transfer these gains to the R&D department to develop and produce 75-point, 80-point, and 85-point chips, and gradually catch up with Nvidia in the future.
The professional advice of Nvidia’s boss was completely ignored, and the whole world laughed at the stupidity of American politicians.
This is interesting. You will damn agree with me after reading this.
Some years ago, one of my friends came to me asking for money.
I gave him (donated him) some money. After some days, he came again and asked for the same. Again I donated some.
After some days, he came to me and didn’t talk about money. He told me a sad story “How he lost all his money that I had given him”.
This time I provided him some work because I was busy with other projects. I let him handle one of my clients because he was as qualified as me.
He made some money because I gave him whole project fee.
He was happy.
Again, after some days, he came.
Again he asked for a project.
I told him “I have no projects right now to give him.”
Then he requested and I provided him another project.
But this time:
Out of anger, he misbehaved the client. Because of him I lost a client.
I asked him to leave the project so I can fix the design as well as relation with the clients.
Out of anger, he again deleted one of my databases. And acted like he didn’t do anything.
Then I kicked him out of my house. I had a real fight with him.
He went to our close friends and told them “How I refused to provide him money. How I made him worked like a donkey. And how I had a fight with him. And he also acted like he is the poorest guy in the world ruining my relations everywhere.”
Today, I read one Hector’s answers. So, I remembered it.
LESSON 1:
You can’t help people who never want to help themselves.
LESSON 2:
People will always blame you for their failure after you help them. Because they think, your help is useless. They never think about their failure to execute your help.
LESSON 3:
“Don’t help anyone for free. Let them pay the price for it so they can understand how important your time, relation and emotion are”.
Election 2024 – Preliminary Assessment
At this point the U.S. presidential election of 2024 seems almost decided.
Today it looks likely that Donald Trump will again become president.
Trump has won the New Hampshire primary and the only other Republican candidate still in the race is the neo-conservative candidate Nicki Halley:
Donald Trump marched closer to the Republican nomination with a sweep of the first two contests, defeating former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday as voters turned out in projected record numbers in New Hampshire’s primary.
Trump’s lead here was decisive enough for the Associated Press to project his win shortly after polls closed. With nearly 75 percent of the vote tallied, Trump led Haley by about 11 percentage points. … Trump’s victory dealt another blow to critics in his party who saw the New Hampshire race as perhaps the last best chance to stop or slow him.
Halley is kept in the race by some billionaire donations, including from those who tend to donate to Democrats, in an effort to somehow still damage Trump:
Despite her shrinking path to halting Trump’s march to the Republican nomination, Haley’s showing in New Hampshire hinged on independents, who are permitted to vote in this state’s Republican primary. … New Hampshire voters in the Republican primary split about evenly between people who were registered as Republicans and those registered as independent or undeclared, with a tiny share saying they were not registered to vote before Election Day, according to early exit polls. Independents and undeclared registered voters supported Haley by about a 2-to-1 margin, while registered Republicans supported Trump by about 3 to 1.
The hope of the Halley supporters is that other open primaries may still give her a lead. Democrats turned Independents could flood such elections and make her look like a winner:
Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, released a memo as voting began Tuesday vowing to fight on through Super Tuesday in March, despite pre-primary polls showing Trump with a widening lead here and less favorable contests ahead for Haley. The memo argued that outperforming with independents could buoy her after South Carolina. Michigan has an open primary, and 11 of the 16 Super Tuesday states also allow non-Republicans to vote to some extent.
New Hampshire has already shown that this concept does not work as well as presumed.
President Joe Biden does not have to fear any primary challengers. His party is stuck with him. This despite some awful polling data that should have pushed the Democrats to retire Joe Biden.
Only 38.9% of voters approve of Biden and his policies while 55.7 % disapprove them.
Trump numbers are better. 43.1 % have a favorable opinion of him while 51.8% find him unfavorable.
There is little chance for Biden to turn this around. There is nothing in the policy queue that could be seen as a win for him. On domestic issues he is limited by a Republican majority in the House. Problem areas are the perceived state of the economy as well his failure to stop mass immigration. He is also losing in the foreign policy frame. His war in Ukraine is near total failure and the U.S. position in the Middle East is about to explode.
Trump still has dozens of open (kangaroo) court cases against him. But it is doubtful that any court will truly dare to put the leading presidential candidate into jail. In the end a conservative Supreme Court, and enraged Republican voters, would anyway find a way to get Trump out of the mess.
On foreign policy issues Trump has a rather dubious record. But I agree with Stephen Walt who finds that there are only few differences between Trump’s and Biden’s foreign policies. It is the deep state which is anyway formulating as well as executing them.
But is still more likely that Trump will find a way out of the mess in Ukraine than Biden. Trump is also way less a Zionist than Biden. His opinion about Netanyahoo and settlers is generally low.
My opinion on Trump is unchanged. He is just a run of the mill U.S. president. His biggest fault is his inability to select good people and to keep control over what they are doing. Previous Trump selections like McMaster, Bolton or Pompeo were all too radical and treacherous. They should never have been chosen. For someone who once had a reality show about selecting apprentices that is an astonishingly bad record.
To be clear, I’m not saying that this election will have zero effect on U.S. foreign policy. Trump may try to take the United States out of NATO, for example, although such a move would undoubtedly face enormous resistance from the foreign and defense policy establishment. He may focus primarily on his domestic agenda—and his lingering legal troubles—which would further reduce his already-limited interest in foreign affairs and tend to reinforce the existing status quo. Trump was a poor judge of foreign-policy talent during his first term (and provoked unprecedented rates of staff turnover), and that tendency may hamstring U.S. policy implementation and lead foreign governments to hedge even more. There would be subtle differences between Biden 2 and Trump 2, but I’d bet against a radical transformation.
My concern with U.S. foreign policy is the huge damage it is causing all over the world. I see Trump as the better candidate to minimize that. He has avoided wars as far as the deep state allowed him to do so.
One can not say that of Biden.
Posted by b on January 24, 2024 at 12:32 UTC | Permalink
Years ago I was a Radio Shack manager. One of my employees was a young German immigrant – she was married to a soldier that was stationed nearby. Her name is Stefanie.
Stefanie was a very smart young lady; however there was a learning curve for a while with the specifics of connecting certain pieces of electronic equipment together – using adapters etc to get from one type to another. She never gave up and was eventually very successful.
One evening I was assisting a regular with something at the counter. Another customer came in and asked Stefanie for assistance with some connectors/adapters. After several minutes Stefanie’s customer suddenly yells, “You stupid nazi bitch!”
I immediately excuse myself and tell her customer that we’re done here for tonight and he needs to leave. He’s welcome back another day but tonight he needs to leave the premises. He starts getting loud towards me. I walk away from him and back behind the counter. He comes over and continues yelling, swearing etc.
Remember my customer? He’s watching and listening. He casually pulls his wallet from his pocket and places it on the counter open showing a badge. The irate man looks at the badge and says “So, you’re a game warden, what are you going to do?” My customer then says “Take a closer look, I’m a federal game warden and a sworn peace officer.” “You were asked to leave and if you don’t I will arrest you for trespassing which means hours of paperwork for me and I hate paperwork.” “If I arrest you I will be in court to testify. You have 30 seconds to leave.”
Irate man left. Problem solved. Game warden asked if Stefanie could ring him up as she was paid commission. He spent a fair amount of money that evening.
Illustrator Fernanda Suarez Shows How Disney Princesses Would Look Like If They Lived Today
In recent years, we’ve seen quite a few reimagined ‘modern’ versions of the Disney princesses we grew up loving and admiring. This latest interpretation by Chilean digital artist Fernanda Suarez, however, might be the fairest of them all.
Starting with Snow White back in July, Suarez has gone on to illustrate 7 classic princesses in hip, present-day fashion. These sketched-up smoke shows look like they follow Luxy Hair tutorials on YouTube and shop for clothes at Forever 21. They probably post selfies with their ‘princes’ on Instagram and all agree that NAKED2 is the best eyeshadow palette. Oh yeah, they probably also campaign non-stop on social media for the equal rights of dwarfs, marine wildlife, and big cat conservation.
What do you think about your experience in prison?
What do you think that are the aftermaths of having been in prison?
I really didn’t notice at first. After 29 years in prison I was just happy to be out. I didn’t think I had PTSD. But soon certain sounds ,smells and places would cause me to have like flash backs. Fortunately, I don’t have dreams that some ex cons have said they have.
I went to prison as a 17 year old Missouri farm boy. I was sent to the worst prison in the state at the time. I was only there 5 years before being transferred. But it changed me dramatically. It was there that I learned not to show true feelings. I masked being scared, I did not dare cry . If someone was lying bleeding it was none of my business unless it was someone I hung around with. I came to believe that no one made it out of that place alive. I had a life sentence and with that thought I only wanted to survive as long as I could. No one though was going to disrespect me or try anything . I had life and didn’t think I would survive anyway. But I did.
I was eventually transferred. All the other prisons ,although violent seemed tame in comparison. But I though I now had at least a chance. I tried to better myself in any way possible to prepare myself for possible release. I did this until I eventually did get out
I was ready for the world . I think I am doing good, but much of prison remains with me . Like I said the flash backs, not liking crowds to the point of being paranoid. I love people and will go out of my way to help someone. But I get nervous and on edge in crowds. In restaurants I sit with my back to the wall and have to see everyone. Know where they are at. My family and friends will not walk up behind me without announcing that they are there. This is not fair to them . My neighbor/boss and my wife told me one day” you go out of your way to help others, but no one can help you if you don’t let them” I told them I didn’t need help. They explained that while I have support and people that are there for me that I needed to let them in . In my mind I was letting them in . I loved them and still love them . I would do anything for them. But apparently I do not open up to them when they are concerned about me.
No matter how much or how little time you have prison will change you. This also applies to C/ Os. They see the same shit the prisoners see. I encourage all of you who have done time or worked in a prison to try to be more open to those who you are close to. It will help a lotb
As a teacher, have you ever bumped up the grade of a student due to unusual circumstances?
Here’s the one I remember. A girl in my earth science class was there every day, took notes, asked questions, was obviously interested. First midterm. She is way below everyone else. Second midterm, same. Final, ditto. I decided I was not going to flunk her so I closed my eyes and gave her a C. Which meant I had to bump up a bunch of other people, too.
She was in ROTC and I had just joined the Reserves, so we had something to chat about. She told me she was going active after college. I asked what branch. “Intelligence.”
This is me biting my tongue until it nearly bled.
She went into imagery analysis. She made far more effective use of my class than the people who made easy A’s and forgot it all. She did a tour at DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency. I know people who would KILL for a tour at DIA. They ASKED specifically for her. She took a buyout as a major after the Gulf War and that’s the last I heard of her.
Bar none, by light years, best judgment call I ever made.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this one in my Art Index here…
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When I lived in Indiana, it was an experience in extremes. The Summers were roasting hot. And the Winters were frigid and cold with gusts blowing and wind chill factors in the negative double digits.
To keep warm in our mobile home, we supplemented the heater (which was kerosene) with electric space heaters. And it worked out fine.
This is… or was…
Until my one cat, Scooby (might have been another) decided to pee on the heating coils of the heater.
Of course, we didn’t know this occurred until the very moment we need to use that heater.
Ah. It was a howling cold night, with wind gusts and sub-freezing temperatures. And so we pulled out the old space heater and fired it up.
Let me tell youse guys… nothing quite stinks like well heated, year old cat urine. Lordy!
I’ll tell you what…
I turned that thing off and threw it in the snow. It was horrible. I think that the stench permeated everything and it took weeks to air out the house in that particular Winter.
A word to the wise; never heat up cat urine. You will despise the experience. Ugh!
Having worked at gas stations off and on for decades, I have a few more than normal, but this is the one that keeps me going with “what were they thinking”.
Many years ago, the owner of the gas station that I was working evenings at volunteered one of the garage bays to Fish and Wildlife as a weigh and tag station during hunting season.
This vehicle pulls in and the driver goes up to the state biologist completely chuffed with himself. Apparently he had just bagged the biggest deer he had ever seen. I got work to do inside, so I keep on going until the biologist walks up to the counter and tells me to call the troopers, and have them send along a sergeant, cause “They are going to want to see this.”
I make the phone call, and about ten minutes later, two state police cruisers pull in. and at the exclamation of “You sorry SOB.” had to step outside to sate my curiosity. Turns out this out of state hunter had not bagged himself a record white tail deer, but a good sized Jersey cow. Almost certainly the best milker in that farmers herd.
Gentleman winds up arrested, car impounded, rifle confiscated, hunting permit revoked, fine to the state, and one hell of a payment to that farmer.
The Chinese
The PRC is nowhere sitting idle. It may not speak a language that you (or I or the West) understands well but it acting decisively.
China is diplomatically much less cautious than they used to, too. But their real target audience isn’t the West, it is the rest of the world. And I think they’re winning that discussion fair and square.
Why you’ll love this lemon butter garlic pasta sauce
It’s ready in 15 minutes. You can have a bowl of delicious garlic lemon butter pasta in your hands super fast. Just what I want to hear when I’m pressed for time!
It’s super versatile. This creamy lemon butter garlic pasta sauce is great on its own but also perfect with prawns, chicken or salmon.
It’s loaded with flavour. Lemon, butter and garlic are an amazing flavour combo just perfect for a no-frills pasta dish.
What goes into pasta al limone?
Olive oil — Use the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can for this recipe for the best flavour.
Butter — Unsalted butter is best for this garlic lemon butter pasta sauce. if you use salted butter, you may not need to add any extra seasoning.
Garlic — Feel free to add as much garlic as you like. I like to make this sauce with at least six cloves. You can either finely slice the garlic or mince it.
How to make garlic lemon butter pasta?
Cook the pasta al dente in salted water according to the instructions on the package. Reserve 1-2 cups of pasta water before draining.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan or Dutch oven and melt the butter in it over low-medium heat.
Stir in the garlic and red chilli flakes and cook for 1-2 minutes until the garlic changes its colour, careful not to burn it.
Transfer the cooked pasta to the pan and toss well with a pair of kitchen tongs to cover it in the butter sauce. Add a splash of pasta water if it looks too thick.
Recipe notes and tips
To make sure the pasta water is extra starchy, cook the pasta in less water than you’d usually do. The starchier water will make the sauce creamier.
It’s always a good idea to grate your Parmesan or hard cheese yourself because freshly grated cheese has more flavour than bagged cheese.
Pasta al limone is best served immediately, and I don’t recommend reheating it.
This is something my husband did to help a young lady who was being followed after a road rage incident.
He was in the military and they were putting him through Graduate school so was in good physical shape. He was on his way to class around 1:00 and as he pulled into the parking area for the college and got out he heard someone crying and heard what sounded like someone being thrown against the chain link fence.
He ran down and saw a man throwing a young college girl hard against the fence and then would let her drop to the ground and do it again over and over while yelling at her the entire time. There was blood everywhere.
He ran to help her and grabbed and threw him to the ground. He jumped in his car and left fast. My husband memorized the tag and turned to help the girl. He yelled at another student walking by to call 911. (No cell phones then)
She was shaking, crying and in shock. He said he would stay with her until the ambulance came and asked her name and number so he could get a hold of someone for her. The ambulance was soon there and immediately took her to the hospital.
He met with the Police and after telling them everything he called the number and left a message telling which hospital she was in and what had happened and left his phone number and name if they had questions.
Later that evening a man called and thanked him for protecting his daughter. He said, “I’m her Dad and just wanted to thank you for saving my daughter today. I truly believe you saved her life. She had broken ribs, stitches in her head and a concussion but wasn’t hurt worse because you stepped in to help. You can rest assured he is in jail as we speak and by the way, I am the Superintendent of the Police. Thank you so much.”
~ You may never know whose child, sibling or mother you might be saving or who might be watching.
“A few apples fell from my neighbor’s tree branch which hangs over onto my property. I picked them up and kept them. He called the police on me for “stealing food” and threatened to sue me. Will the police do anything? Does he have a case?”
Here, no. Oh, he can sue you. Lawyers love this as it means money for them, even if they can’t win. Parasites.
But, his property was on, or over, your property line. So, if it falls naturally, it’s yours. You can TRIM the tree back, but not go over and cut it down. He can trim it so it’s not over your property, but he can’t go over and collect “his” fruit that falls or it’s trespassing.
The most we would do is explain this to him and leave.
However, when you go to court, it’s anyone’s guess. Lawyers and judges, kindred souls, tend to do whatever they want. Unless you have someone who can play the game, you might very well have to pay him for the “stolen” food, damages, and emotional pain and suffering. Heck, maybe even court costs. Criminally, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, but…
I’ll tell you, growing up, kids used to pick an apple or two to eat and it didn’t cause any problems. It was only if you picked the whole tree, or took more than you needed, that people complained. Even apple orchards didn’t freak too much. If it fell on the ground, it was “free.” In fact, some even liked for you to clean this up for them to keep wasps and other insects from feeding on them and making a mess.
Oh, and another thing, those will be some expensive apples for him. Court isn’t cheap and neither are lawyers. Were they golden apples, maybe? If so, he might be worried you’ll plant the seeds and grow your own gold apples, stealing from his market.
You know, if he claims the apples, you might be able to make him pay for the leaves and branches that fall on your property. Clean up and damages, if you get my meaning. I figure there are a lot more leaves and branches that fall than apples, and, while you’re at it, how about the damage that those apples did to your lawn when they hit it? If you didn’t pick the apples up, they could attract wasps, which could sting you, and possibly dull your mower blades or become risks, such as slipping.
I arrived at my doctors office 15 minutes early for a routine visit in the evening. I paid my $5.00 co-pay. The receptionist informed me that I was early. I thought that was strange since most people arrive early for doctors’ appointments. There was a couple waiting to see the only doctor on duty. The receptionist called the woman’s name so she was the patient. I am a registered nurse and the patient did not seem to be in any distress. She and her male partner went into the doctor’s office. I waited an hour. It is none of my business what the patient and the doctor talked about but talking with the same patient for an hour seemed a bit long to me even if she had cancer or some other serious chronic disease. I patiently waited for the hour.
A young male patient came in and he apologized for being late. The receptionist said it is okay and he will be seen next. He did not seem to be in any particular distress. I had been waiting for an hour. I informed the receptionist that I am leaving. She asked me if I wanted to re-schedule the appointment and I said no. I went home and I filed a complaint with the HMO. The doctor’s office had to respond to the complaint. Eventually, they sent me my $5.00 co-pay. I did not care about the co-pay. I was concerned that I was waiting for an hour and the couple was still seeing the doctor and the young man, who was late for his appointment, was going to be seen before me.
I changed primary physician offices. When I called the office of the doctor I eventually selected I asked them how their appointments go? Is a patient generally seen within 15 minutes of their appointment time? They said yes. They also said I can call before my appointment to see if they are exceptionally busy. I have never had an experience like the one I just reported ever again.
I get choked up telling this but I will. In 1987 I was 7 years old, my parents had divorced and my father paid my mother $20 a month for 3 kids. Now this was pretty pathetic already, but he had not paid her for 6 months. Anyhow my mother was struggling to make ends meet, we had very little food in the house and I did not know it at the time but my mum was starving so the food would last longer for us kids. Christmas day my father turns up and accuses my mother of being a drug addict (I assure you she’s not) and told her I’m not paying cash anymore or she will spend it in drugs. He gave her a Christmas card and inside was 2 gift cards for the local supermarket totalling $200, he even said “Merry Christmas” to her as this was all the owed money and then some more. My mother did not care, she would have used $200 cash for food anyhow. She took what little she had in cash and used it to buy fuel for her car, we drove to the supermarket and loaded two trollies (1987 $200 went a long way) mum even purchased Froot Loops for us kids, it was a happy day…… Well until we got to the check out. The bill came to $199.90, mum presented the 2 gift cards, they were both declined. People stared at her, and the store accused her of stealing the gift cards, they told her to leave or they would call the police. People stared at us, and my mother left so embarrassed. My younger brother was 4, he was crying as the Froot Loops were taken from his hands.
What actually happened: My deadbeat father stole the gift cards from the store, however their is no money in them despite them saying $100 on each. You see if you want to purchase the card you need to take them to the counter and pay the face value, then the card is activated and can be used in the store. A few days later my mother collapsed from starvation, we had apple trees next door at the neighbours farm, we took some for my mother, she ate apples for 5 days straight. It gets worse however, when my father was confronted by my mother a big argument broke out, my father accused my mother of lying and then refused to pay her any child support for another 4 months as he had given her $200.
Over the course of 6 years my father paid a grand total of $60 for us 3 children. In 2002 when I was 22, out of sheer coincidence, I saw my father enter a bar. I sat next to him he pretended like nothing had happened, he offered to buy my drink I told him “I don’t want anything from you” and paid for my own drink, the tension was so thick at this point. He started talking about how “that was the past and it’s okay now.” I finished my drink, opened my wallet and pulled out $60. I sat it in the bar in front of him and said “that is everything I owe you, don’t you ever f@cking contact me or my brother’s again.” Then left the bar, I honestly have no idea where he is today, and I really do not care.
EXTRA PART.
I have had a few people question about the last time I saw my father as a child, this includes my own daughter, well it was not at age 8. When I was 8 he started to hardly ever see us, he saw us once a month, then on our birthdays and Christmas, then he called us on these days. Now when you are 8–10 years old a month is a long time, so as a child I was always wondering if I had done something wrong. Yes my mother comforted me, but deep down you can not shake that “why was I not loved enough to want to see me” feeling.
By the age of 10 he had barely seen us for a year. On my 12th birthday be turned up with a fantastic cake, it had a fighter jet on it made out of icing, he remembered I liked fighter jets. He was such a loving father that day, I don’t know why, but he was. I remember him going, telling me “I will see you again real soon son,” then he left. That guilt feeling went away, I still felt I had done something to upset him, that’s why he left the first time, but I had now been punished, and forgiven. I felt my nightmare was over, I could live a life with a loving father again.
That night I went to bed and I recall my mother asking me if I had a good birthday? I told her “today has been the best day ever,” it really had. I rang dad’s phone about 2 weeks later as he had not contacted us, I was excited to talk to him, the number was disconnected, I had no address and I was 12. Mum could not contact him either, I don’t know if it was deliberately done, or if the phone was disconnected, I really don’t know. What I do know is that he knew our number and our address, but didn’t want to know us. I had a $2 coin that I would put in the pay phone near my school every afternoon while waiting for the school bus I would dial his number over and over. I had a special tiny bag I kept that coin inside, I still have this coin today. I keep it in a display, a reminder if the pain I felt every time I rang that disconnected number. About a year later the phone rang, the person who answered did not know my father, obviously the phone company had recycled the number.
My daughter has asked why I keep a normal $2 coin on display in my office. I have never told her, but I guess she knows now, you see I did not know she was on Quora, I had no idea she was following this post. Everytime I look at that coin (everyday) I am reminded of the hurt a parent can inflict on a child. My father never beat us, or did anything like this, but I think I would have preferred this as opposed to the emotional torture he gave us.
I live my daughter, she turns 15 soon (May 22nd) and I would take a bullet for her if that was ever the situation, I can’t image her putting $2 in a pay phone everyday for over a year (yes I know we have mobile phones now). I would feel bad if I slept in on her birthday, let alone didn’t turn up altogether. She has no wish to meet her grandfather and I doubt she will after reading this. She loves her grandmother, she looks up to her as a role model, and what a great role model to have. She’s a really smart person, even when she was 8, I explained to her the reason we live so comfortable is because of the sacrifices her grandmother made, she understood completely.
With few exceptions, the biggest stars tend to be the nicest people. Why? Probably because they’ve achieved their greatest ambitions and have nothing to prove. Too, most of them had to endure a lot of rejection before finally getting their big break.
In 1990, I worked with Martin Sheen and LeBar Burton producing their voiceovers on an environmentally themed charity album entitled “Put On Your Green Shoes.” Sheen was so nice, he refused to be paid for his contribution, which caused us some problems because AFTRA insisted that he receive scale for the session. As one would expect, Burton was a true gentleman and did take after take because he wanted nothing else but to serve the project.
I wrote a song for Tim McGraw’s “All I Want” album and he proved to be one of the nicest, down-to-earth superstars I’ve ever met.
I’ve written in Quora about my disappointing encounters with certain rock stars… Kevin DuBrow, Mike Love, and Todd Rundgren, in particular, were extremely unpleasant and rude personalities.
A chance meeting with another celeb was also disillusioning. The first movie soundtrack I was involved with was the original Vanishing Point, circa 1971, starring Barry Newman. About 8 years later, I ran into Newman who, by then, had starred in the CBS series Petrocelli.
I was arriving at an LA tennis court as he was leaving. “Barry Newman! Vanishing Point!” I exclaimed, as he approached. He just scowled at me and marched past. Thinking he might be more open to giving a co-creator a hello, I said, “I did some songs in that film.”
“Yeah, sure,” he grumbled, and walked on. I certainly found that extremely rude and disrespectful. Still, I have no idea whether Newman was surly by nature or whether he was just having a bad day.
They move from slavery to colonialism and to virtual colonialism ie. Rules Based International Order.
Rules set arbitrarily and unilaterally by white Caucasian. Anglo European stock to ensure that the rest of the world are fully submissive and subservient to them in a set of rules that favours them and it ensure that the world is theirs to take, loot, steal as they please. They enriched themselves and the coloured people toils and slaved for them.
When the rules are not suitable they simply change them. The rules are set by them, change by them, ratified by them, policed by them and judged by them! To ensure they write what is right and what is wrong they monopolised the media that says the white is right, the white is moral, the white is honourable, the white is pure!
Everything black is bad. Black magic, black cat, black out, Black Friday, black Monday black listed…The media and the European stock can demonised anyone that refused to be submissive and subservient to them. They can even kill, murder, slaughter, rape at will! To enrich the west they get the biggest muscle in the room US to be their henchmen.
They can even murder 3 million in Vietnam and Indo China. And the media say it is to prevent communism, 2 million in Korea to stop communism and 2 million in Iraq to install western value like freedom! Then 1 million in Afghanistan to protect women’s right! It is up to what sells best to the fools in the west!
So after 300 years of enslavement and colonialism and another 75 years of virtual Colonialism that is about to end. The west blames China or Russia but frankly if you are anyone of the 175 non beneficiary nations, the 87% if the world or the so called Global South, everyone wants out! And it will be history whether the beneficiary scream, shout or threaten genocide we will stop at nothing!
Europeans and go cheat on each other and steal from each other.
My buddy had the same problem. He had addressed several times but the teenaged son continued the behavior.
He took matters into his own hands. He did not damage any property. He took come plastic valve caps and superglued a simple BB into the top. He then snugged up the valve caps so it just slightly depressed the Schrader valve, slowly releasing air from the tires. The next day all 4 tires were flat.
The neighbor had the vehicle towed to a repair shop. All 4 tires checked out as good. The vehicle was driven home, with the same caps installed by the repair facility. Next day, all 4 tires were flat. The car was then towed to repair shop again. All 4 tires check out again. That shop reused the caps again.
Finally on the third day of towing, the repair shop found the BB’s and replaced the caps. When they returned home all my buddy did is was grin at them as they drove in. His lawn never was driven over again.
Well, it was my co-worker, and we were both let go due to layoffs. Actually, we were let go after the ‘official’ round of layoffs were completed and we thought we were in the clear. For me, it happened just a few days after it was completed. After our weekly IT meeting, I got called into HR (thinking it was an IT issue) but got ambushed by our manager (cisco VC call from TX) who promptly explained about the firm consolidating and removing redundancies.
Due to NY state law, HR was required to give me a list of employees being let go that day (just their age, department, and title) to show there was no discrimination by age or other factors.
After I left the building, my co-worker came down to say his goodbyes, and asked about the whole procedure. Then I showed him the list that HR gave me. He then noticed the age and title and said that was his, and then the realization that his last day was today too. Sure enough, he saw a missed call on his phone from someone in HR.
He went back inside, and sure enough, about 15 minutes or so, I get a text from him saying he was let go too.
But for me the key consideration is the attitude of shops and customers service in Hong Kong is atrocious.
I had to buy a new phone 2 years ago and dread doing it.
You go into shops ask for something and they’ll try sell you something else when you say no thanks you get a tirade of abuse.
A bicycle company that has shut down did this. I wanted a bicycle tyre he tried to sell me 19. I wanted 23. He gave me an earful of abuse about how he knew better than me and how 19 was the way to go.
Here’s Why America is About to be Bankrupt AND Everything You’ve Worked for Means Nothing!
We hired a young man just out of high school who needed a break. Bright, motivated, smiled and nodded to everyone. We qualified his on forklift in shipping department. He was so happy his life was on track. He got his first apartment and got engaged. I was very proud of him and we chatted now and than about his future.
He was off one day. This was a couple weeks after we were told the plant would shut down in 6 to 8 months.
Our HR lady got a call from corporate telling her to fire him today. He was hired 89 days ago and if he was here 90 days they had to pay unemployment. So they called him in for some BS reason. I tried to find his number, call him and tell him to turn his phone off and don’t come in but I couldn’t get it.
He came in and went up front. Came back to his car and left. I could see him tearing up. Once again his world had been upended. I had told him before all this that qualified forklift operator opened a lot of good paying jobs if he ever left.
I felt so bad for him and contempt at the company for saving a few bucks and not caring about people.
If I lived in a smaller town with a diner or two around and a couple of fast food places and one Olive Garden, it would be heaven on earth. A clean place to sit down and eat with gobs of salad, a friendly waitstaff, and interesting combinations of food that I just couldn’t get anywhere else. If you told me that it wasn’t authentic Italian food I could only say, “So what?” It is a comfortable dining experience in my little town and the food tastes pretty darn decent. That Olive Garden would be a special treat for me and my family.
I live in a much larger community and there are two Olive Gardens near by as well as a plethora restaurants and cafeterias around. Once a month or so my wife and I get a take-out from Olive Garden. She always gets the lasagna (her only go to meal at Olive Garden) and I usually ask for my own concoction of a pasta with Italian Sausage with meat sauce with the gnocchi/chicken soup. She loves the lasagna and I really like what I get. We are not looking for a particular Italian experience, we are looking a particular food we appreciate.
So my suggestion is that Olive Garden is not bad at all. Is it exquisite dining? Not at all. Is it authentic Italian? Nope. But exquisite dining and true Italian are available to me when I want it. The Olive Garden is not a replacement, it is simply an additional option. Others must agree with me because these places around me are invariably crowded.
Mom: I couldn’t find my saved money, I need to pay the deliveryman.
Dad: Don’t worry, you’ll find it. How much for the deliveryman?
Mom: 5 thousand rupees. I ordered some groceries and essentials for the house.
Dad paid the deliveryman and we eventually got busy with our daily work.
The next day, Mom, Dad, and I were cleaning the kitchen, when my mom shouted.
Mom: Look, I got my money, it’s in the cupboard. I was so foolish, I searched the whole house for it.
Mom looked so happy because she saved it for her friend’s birthday gift.
But the situation was something else.
Dad got out of the house to smoke a cigarette and I ran behind him.
I said “Why did you do that?’
Father asked: ‘Do what?’
I replied “I swear I have seen you taking the money out of your wallet and putting it in the cupboard.
Dad smirked and replied: “You know she was everything for me! I can’t see her getting sad over the little money she lost yesterday. Because I think we need to care for the person, we love the most!”
Dad takes out a handkerchief and starts putting off his sweat.
I said “Dad, now why are you using mom’s handkerchief? Is it a sign of your care towards Mom too?”
Dad “Nope, because it still has her fragrance”
This was something that changed my whole point of view not only towards life but also towards love too.
You weren’t wrong, but depending on circumstances, a better approach might have been to be nice. Especially if your boss had no say in the decision to furlough you.
If the boss was the one who made this decision, and you don’t like him, then what you did was a perfectly reasonable response.
The large company I worked for, was bought out by another company, and they laid off 1200 people in our company, immediately.
I was one of the casualties, but they were nice and gave me severance plus an extra day to clean out my office, which I spent copying files over to the people left behind.
The very first day, my coworker, one of 4 from a group of 13, that survived the culling, called me asking me for help. I gave it to him, no sense making a friends life miserable. Everyday I spent 15 minutes with him. He wasn’t qualified to do my job, and he knew it, but he was just doing his best.
On the sixth work day, our partners complained that they had agreed to let our company manage the project, and paid our company outrageous money to do so, because I was managing the contract and not some unqualified guy.
I was brought back on contract, paying far more than my old salary, to manage the contract. The CEO of the new combined company had to sign off on any laid off employee, being brought back on contract, in less than a year. There was a lot of flack flying in the company over hiring me back after a week.
The deciding vote to bring me back, was the fear of my being bitter and taking revenge on the company by sabotaging the project. Once it was explained that I had copied all the data I could to the relevant people, after being laid off, and spent 15 minutes a day helping the company, it was decided that it was worth the risk, and I was contracted back. I was the only one of 1200 people brought back in the first year.
Some companies are reluctant to bring back people they view as bitter. Even if you have every right to be bitter.
A co-worker – he was 21 years old – and another co-worker – she was 19 years old – decided to take their morning 15 minute break in the janitor closet. An employee came with her water can to get water for her plants. She opened the door to the utility closet and dropped her can and screamed OH MY GOD. She ran and got security. The young man was in a standing position, nekked from the waist down. The young woman was kneeling, nekked from the waist up. The young man zipped up, zipped out and fled outside to smoke a badly needed cigarette. The young woman had to do more work to get decent. The guard caught her. He asked her “Where is your partner in crime?” She replied “I am sure he is outside smoking a cigarette. This is his name and this is what he looks like.” So, both criminals got caught and fired right away. The young man went home right away. The woman actually finished out her work day, her head held up high, not embarrassed or uncomfortable or anything. She caught me and two other people talking about her. She actually came up to us and stated “I don’t think you should be talking about my private life in public.” Can you believe it …..
I was making good money in NYC, but I had had enough of it. It was becoming too dangerous a place for me to raise my wonderful kids. I didn’t want them to have the same upbringing as me. I’m your typical, cynical, non-trusting, New Yorker. I wanted them to have a better outlook on life.
I managed to find a job in Vermont that payed half what I was making in NYC, but, allegedly, the cost of living was cheaper. In some ways, that was correct, but in others… well, there are things about VT that are MORE expensive than NYC. We were struggling for those first years.
Four years later and I’m making a little more than I made in my best year in NYC. My daughter thinks I Yoko-Ono’ed her bond with her friends and she’ll probably never forgive me for that, but you know what? One of her best friends (15 years old) was recently found, in broad daylight, passed out drunk in a stall in Panera Bread. So maybe moving her away from that may have been a good thing. She’ll never see it though.
My dad was freaking out when I informed him of my intentions to move. He claimed that I’d never have the opportunity that I had enjoyed in NYC. I have changed jobs 3 times since moving here, and I finally have probably the best chance to enjoy retirement from the job I have now. It’s been a blessing, mixed at times, but a blessing.
Take chances. You never know what you’re missing if you don’t.
And this is going to make a lot of Quorans think less of me. But I’m just being honest.
No sarcasm in this answer either.
I’m very much biased against illegal drug users. This is because of my experiences growing up with an older sister who was a drug addict. I saw what it did to her. I saw what it did to her daughter. But mostly, I saw what it did to my parents.
I don’t have any friends anymore anyway… the wife and kids take all of my time, and I’m an introvert… but, when I was younger and did have some friends, I’d cut them from my life the moment I found out they did drugs.
In my early 20s, I had some coworkers who smoked weed on a regular basis. I didn’t think too highly of them. They were mainly middle-aged men who were still doing entry-level and part-time work. Were they happy? Sure. Did I want to be like them at their age? No. I just avoided talking to them unless it was work-related.
I don’t get preachy with drug users. (It’s pointless.) I know some of the people I interact with on a regular basis here on Quora, my “Quora friends,” use drugs. I’ve seen their posts about it. The fact that we only interact via the written word in a virtual world is the only reason I don’t care about it. If this were the real world, and you were sitting in front of me now, discussing how you planned to get high this weekend, I’d politely excuse myself from the table. I don’t need that around me in the real world.
You do you, but respect that I don’t want any part of anyone who does those things.
For me, personally, I suppose it’s like someone who grew up with an alcoholic parent, and made it a point to never be around people who drink a lot. It just brings up bad memories that you don’t need in your life.
It’s something that my family (well, my wife and oldest daughter) have noticed for years. They used to encourage me to make some friends, but I guess they gave up on that.
I have coworkers with whom I talk about work-related things. I have neighbors I chat with when I happen to be outside at the same time they are. I have Facebook friends who are old real-life friends from high school, none of whom I’ve seen in real life in 20 years, and will likely never see again.
And that’s it. I have my family, and a bunch of acquaintances, but no real friends.
That’s not a complaint. I’m happy this way.
The last real friend I had… someone with whom I’d hang out on the weekends… I haven’t spoken to him since 2007. We were friends and roommates in college, and I worked with him for a little while, but once we both got married, got our careers, got our houses, and had our children, we just kind of grew apart.
I’m not anti-social. I’m asocial. It’s something I don’t even think about, unless someone else points it out to me. Here it is, a Saturday night (St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Chicago, no less), and I’m answering questions on Quora in the gap time between tucking in my children and going to bed myself. I suppose that sounds sad or pathetic to people who value their social lives. Not to me, though. It sounds comfortable. I like comfortable.
RIA-Novosti press agency published photographs taken from the Facebook account of Alexis Drion, one of the casualties of the Russian bombing of Khirkov/Kharkov on January 17.
The Russian Foreign Ministry continues to claim that the building targeted by the Russian strike was hosting “foreign mercenaries”, mainly French. On its side, the French Foreign Ministry denies just as vigorously the presence of French “mercenaries” embroiled in the conflict.
Understandably, Russia is trying to present evidence that French soldiers were in Ukraine carrying out a mission, which would constitute an act of war.
After publishing the names of 13 of the victims of the January 17 bombing, the agency dug deeper and stumbled on an Facebook account <Facebook
> created in December 2011. Though relatively inactive, an image can be spotted of the young man from 2013 in military uniform, at the age of 27. Various photos seem to link him to the Foreign Legion. In the latest pictures, we find him in Ukraine brandishing an insignia of France and the OUN, the militia of “integral nationalists”.
Alexis Drion during a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Russian press issues list of 13 French “mercenaries” who died in Ukraine
VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 22 JANUARY 2024
While the French authorities have formally declared that there were no French “mercenaries” in Ukraine, the Russian press has published a list of 13 names corresponding to some of the victims of the 17 January bombing on Kharkiv/Kharkov.
• Albert Emeric (d.o.b. 22 December 1999), • Alexis Drion (13/06/1986), • Béranger Guillaume Alain Minault (30/12/1978), • Valentin Dupois Mel (02/01/1994), • Gilles Bernard Sylvain (10 /27/1980), • Jacques-Pierre Gabriel Evrard Philippe (29/09/1987), • Jean-Pierre Bonneau Chris Heray (17/07/1999), • Maris André Dubois Clément (28/09/1995), • Marcellin Demont (05 /23/2002), • Sébastien Claude Rémy Benard (04/04/1974), • Thomas Jeremy Nathan Gourrier (24/02/1996), • Charles Bertin Roussel (01/09/1996), • Emmanuel Tanguy Kenneth Delange Grandal (26/09/1996) /1998).
Russian Duma to address French Parliament
VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 19 JANUARY 2024
The Russian Duma will address the French Parliament regarding the presence of French “mercenaries” in Ukraine.
Officially, France is not engaged in military operations in Ukraine, but supports the latter by providing it with weapons. If French soldiers were involved in the fighting, the French Republic would be at war with the Russian Federation.
It would seem that the Duma is intent on disclosing the presence of French Special Forces, which are in Ukraine without authorization from the French Parliament.
Article 35 of the French Constitution stipulates stipulates as follows:
“The Government informs Parliament of its decision to have the armed forces intervene abroad, at the latest three days after the beginning of said intervention. It specifies the objectives pursued. This information may give rise to a debate which is not followed by any vote. When the duration of the intervention exceeds four months, the Government submits its extension to Parliament for authorization. It may request the National Assembly to make the final decision.”
It was at an office BBQ with our families, it was hot, and there was a wasp.
The bosses eight or nine-year-old daughter started screaming that there was a bee in her shirt. She was wearing a spaghetti top. Everyone panicked.
The thing about me, is that a Bee sting is much like a mosquito bite, it swells up a little bit and itches. No big deal. Some people, a bee sting would kill them. If I did nothing, would she die?
I calmly asked her if I could put my hand in her shirt. She screamed “YES! YES!”
In front of her panicking dad and mom, she pulled her top open and I reached into her shirt and grabbed the Wasp. I pulled my hand out and threw it on the ground and stomped it. I looked at my palm. It had stung me, so I bit the wound and sucked, then spit. I got stung a few times every year, no big deal.
Then I realized that I had just had my hand down the front of a little girls shirt in front of thirty witnesses.
But everyone treated me like a hero, especially my boss. Go figure.
Heeeee! I oughta say “don’t ask,” but can’t resist.
I took over a job that had been occupied by my eminently sensible, smart, and long-suffering cousin. That last adjective — long-suffering — is the operative term. She put up with the guy’s sh!t (a euphemism, we might say) until she went off to marry a handsome and rich young rancher and live happily ever after.
Totally naive, I applied for and got her job.
What.
A.
Jerk.
The.
Guy.
Was.
The day I came in and found an incredibly NASTY note in the middle of my office floor — he was unhappy because I’d thrown out some trash — mostly ads — without shredding every sheet of paper and envelope — was the day that I took everything I was supposed to be working on, dropped it smack in the middle of the office floor, went out the door, locked it behind me, jumped in my car, drove away, and never came back.
From there the next move was to go back to graduate school. Get a job teaching freshman comp for peanuts (I was used to the “peanuts” part by then…), complete the Ph.D., get my book published, and land an academic job. A job, we might add, where the bosses more or less treated you like you were human. Well. Almost as human as they were. 😀
What do you do if you get fired from your job? CELEBRATE!!!!!
Met a woman in a busy local mall after chatting with her online a few times. Met her through a horrendous online dating app. Made sure lots of people around in case things headed south. Bought her lunch and we sat and ate as she just kept on and on. Saying nothing until she says I have something important to tell you. Ohhhh okay. I just got out of prison. Oh yeah? Umm what for I asked. Bank robbery in Nevada. A casino heist. Oh really? So what brought you to Florida? I met my husband as a penpal in prison and we wrote back and forth for years. Husband? Yeah he recently had a massive heart attack and died. Ummm ok? Yeah he was 25 years older then me and lives in Bonita Springs. He had a vending machine business. Ohhhh. So did you at least stash some of the stolen money away from your heist? She said that her 2 “ friends” left her behind and she got busted and they got away with several hundred thousand dollars. So you never caught up with them? Nooo, she couldn’t find them and never saw them again. Attractive well endowed blonde woman . Spent a good 1/2 hour talking . Nice girl but a bit tooo much baggage for me.
An employee can be fired by phone, though I wouldn’t recommend that. California requires that you hand an employee their final check (and a few other documents) on their last day. That would be very difficult to accomplish over the phone, right. You might have an out:
this is an on-the-spot firing because you just learned that the employee did something so bad that you have to term them immediately. California law gives you 72 hours to get the check to them if it truly is an unplanned termination.
the employee agrees to something like having their check delivered to their door by courier, say within the hour. (I agreed to that when I retired. I was recorded, with my permission, waiving my right to come in and pick up my check and other documentation in person.)
My aside brings up a key point: what did you say? What did the employee say in return? An unrecorded phone call leaves you with a he said – she said. That’s not going to be a fun day if the employee decides to challenge your firing.
Some states are single party consent, meaning you can record the call without the employee’s knowledge or consent. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. You can quickly gain a bad reputation in the labor pool and with recruiters and agencies for having shady, though legal, HR practices. “You don’t want to work there! They call you first thing in the AM, fire you and sneak record everything you say.”
My friends and I witnessed a fantastic scene on a public bus last November.
A few stops after we got on, two young boys waddled onto the bus. They were maybe about seven or eight years old, small enough that they were practically dwarfed by their puffy winter coats and colorful backpacks.
As soon as their fathers sat down, the two kids began quietly talking to each other. Based on the things they were saying, it sounded like they were trying to recreate what they’d learned in some kind of anti-bullying assembly at school.
“If you don’t let me play with you,” one boy whispered, “that’s bullying!”
“But if you do let us play with you,” the other boy whispered back, “that’s respect!”
“If you push someone over on the playground, that’s bullying!”
“If you help someone get up after they fall, that’s respect!”
Their secretive whispering gradually evolved into enthusiastic shouting as they applied this newly learned dichotomy to scenario after scenario. After a few minutes, it became clear that they’d started to go off-script.
“If you never ever say sorry again, THAT’S BULLYING!”
“If you say sorry a hundred million billion times forever and forever until you die, THAT’S RESPECT!”
“If you go on the toilet and you forget to flush but then you go back and you see the poop and you flush it, THAT’S BULLYING!”
“No, wait, I think that’s respect.”
“That’s respect?”
“Yeah.”
“No, but I think the poop makes it bullying.”
My friends and I were sitting at the back of the bus throughout their conversation, trying our best to hold back our laughter.
I have a friend who worked for a small firm as a graphic designer. He was the youngest and newest, and felt like he was underappreciated and under paid. Also, he thought his boss was a moron. When the business hit hard times, he saw cutbacks coming and decided to just do whatever he wanted until they let him go.
Monday morning, an hour after he was supposed to be in, he called and said he’d be out all week, and would be in Friday, then hung up before he got a response. He watched TV and played video games for four days straight, taking breaks to look for a new job.
On Friday he rolled in two hours late, not at all surprised to discover that his boss wanted to see him in his office.
“The company has needed to do some restructuring and make some tough choices. I need to inform you-”
Here it comes, freedom at last from this awful place!
“- that we’ve let everyone else in the creative department go, and you are now our lead designer. We’re ready to give you an immediate raise of 20% and creative control over all projects. Also, it looks like you’ve needed a break this week, so we’re also ready to offer you more vacation days.”
By the end of the discussion, he not only got more vacation days and the 20% raise, but also got to work from home every Friday. I guess being absent all week made his boss realize how valuable he was to the company.
Edit: There were some questions as to why my friend was the only one kept on, so I’ll elaborate. The company had two web designers, a graphic designer, and my friend, who did video directing and editing. It just so happened he was also a great designer, artist, and could do web design. Everyone in the department could do their job, but he could do everyone’s job.
I was a Probation officer, and I had a probationer back before the court for a probation violation hearing. There were several charges, but one charge was the guy had shown up for an urine screen, and claimed he couldn’t urinate for three hours, even though I saw him go to the restroom twice. (He said he was just testing.) Anyway, I told him to come in the next morning at eight. He showed up at eleven.
At the hearing, the attorney who was a friend of mine got feisty for some reason. After I testified that I told him to report back at eight, the defense attorney asked me, “And did he?”
I replied, “Well..”
“Yes or no answer,” he snapped.
I turned to the judge and said, “It’s not a yes or no question.” (I wanted to say that he showed up at eleven.)
The judge said, “ If the defense attorney wants a yes or no answer he’s entitled to it., Ask your question again.”
“Officer Davis did my client show up at 8:00AM as you told him to?”
“No”
He got an additional charge. I later told the judge in private, and we had a new hearing where he had two months of his eight months in jail reduced. But if I’d been a jerk his attorneys showboating would have cost him two extra months.
Before freezing to death, people tend to remove their clothes.
Yes.
This is called “paradoxical undressing”, a phenomenon frequently seen in cases of lethal hypothermia. Shortly before death, the person will remove all their clothes, as if they were burning up, when in fact they are freezing.
When people feel cold, the most important thing is to ensure the function of the brain, internal organs and other major organs, so the blood vessels at the ends of the body will automatically contract to ensure adequate blood flow to the major organs.
In this state of stress for a long time, the muscles that contract the blood vessels fall into fatigue and can no longer work, and must take a calm “rest”.
The peripheral blood vessels on the surface of the body will all open, blood will quickly flow to the end of the limbs, and the long-term cold limbs will be immediately filled with warm blood, resulting in the illusion of “very hot”. When this signal is sent back to the brain, the brain will send the wrong instructions to the body, so that people may think that it is really hot, take off all the clothes.
At this time, people who are on the verge of dying get up and struggle to undress, thinking that undressing is good.
I was a reservist in the ’90s. I got put on guard duty a few times.
One night, I had to guard a building. They gave me a rubber duck weapon. (An M-16 made out of rubber. Yes, they exist.) I had to walk the perimeter of the building every hour with the “weapon.” I had to note anything out of the ordinary.
When I guarded the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility), they gave me a real rifle and a full magazine. There was classified information in there that I didn’t have the clearance to see. I didn’t even know what I was guarding.
They briefed me on the use of force. Basically, you halt the person. You get their ID, detain them and call the commander of the relief. If they don’t halt, you shoot center of mass. There are no warning shots.
Yes. They will kill you if you don’t halt and follow their orders. They have orders to do so. They will follow their lawful orders. National security is no joke to them.
I was 19 and working at a major retailer, I’d rather not mention but is definitely a conglomerate. I went on lunch break, had a drink with a coworker, and returned to post. My manager instantly smelled alcohol on my breath, idiot I was didn’t try to hide or cover the pungent odor that is Seagrams gin. Manager notified the higher ups who put me in a room and three higher ups sat at a table opposite of me. They began asking where I got the alcohol, did I drink with anyone, and saying that they saw us on cameras. I was to rat this coworker out with a written statement. I wound up writing that I drank alone like George Thurgood and not one person laughed. They decided to fire me and I happily left. I was mentally ready to leave that place. The only thing I regret is when I have to answer for it at job interviews even thought it’s been nearly 20 years.
We had an 18th disco-style birthday party for our daughter at our house, with the expectation that it would wind up around 11pm. By 11:30 it was still going strong with music blaring out loud and kids dancing and drinking a little too much (beer and light drinks only allowed).
My Father-in-law was living with us at the time – an ex-Grenadier Guard and Seargent-Major. Seeing our frustration and not dealing with it adequately, to his mind at least, said he would deal with it.
At 11:50pm he walked into our large lounge, cleared to be a dance floor, switched off the music and switched on the main lights and announced.
“In 10 minutes, it will be Sunday and at 12:05 I will start a religious service. I expect anyone still here to attend”.
The place cleared by 12 midnight.
Quantum Leap: Russia-China’s Quantum Communication Test
Went to a bar in Australia, saw that no-one was tending and joked with the next guy that walked in, that he needed a bartender, else I’d pour my own, he said, ok, come pour your own. I did, with a near perfect head, and he said, can you start here? now? today? sure I said, he left me there for 4 hours to run the bar. I worked there 2 years.
Went to an bar in Shanghai while travelling, the Bartender there was a Kiwi, it was an Aussie bar, after I asked for a drink he asked me, what I was doing in Shanghai, and I said, looking for a job (I was interviewing for English Teaching jobs) and he said, Well, you sound Aussie, you can work here if you can pour a beer. I started that night and worked for a half a year (ESL teaching in the day, bartender at night).
Went to a ESL School for an interview in a new country after that, walked into the wrong dept, and asked for the head of dept (as it was all I had to go on) and started the interview from my end, and half way through she realised I was in the wrong place, but then asked me how I would deal with businessmen instead of kids. I said, ‘under the suit, they’re just kids’ she hired me there instead, I stayed in that country 10 years.
Generally, when this happens, especially in a salaried position, your current employer will pay you for the final two weeks. If the employer doesn’t offer it, ask for it. It never hurts to ask. It’s just easier and safer for your employer to pay you off than to make an issue of it.
Years ago, as a recent college graduate with an accounting degree, I was an employee in good standing, working as an office supervisor, while I searched for an accounting job. When I was hired by a new company as an accountant (at a significant pay increase,) I gave my two weeks’ notice, fully intending to use the next two weeks to make the transition as easy as possible for my current team. My manager didn’t appear to be angry or resentful when I resigned, but two days later she told me that she didn’t think my mind was on my work. She instructed me to pack up my personal belongings and leave immediately. She told me the company would pay me for the remaining portion of my final two weeks.
What did I do? I packed up and left with no cross words or fanfare. Then I enjoyed an unexpected, 10-day, paid vacation on my old company, knowing I would be starting a better-paying job in my chosen field at the end of my break.
My First Time Hearing Zhou Shen – Floating Light REACTION
I don’t think of it as revenge, but just standing up for myself.
I was a sergeant for a large California police department. I was working swing watch for a lieutenant that was worse than an asshole. I can work for an asshole if he is competent regarding the job, and if he is consistently an asshole. This guy was worse than an asshole in the following ways: some days he’d act like your buddy. Some days he’d say ‘Do X,Y, and Z’ and the following day he’d say “No! I said do Q,R, and W’. He would also tell me how he didn’t trust a large number of our officers. He had quite a paranoia about him. Just a miserable human being who I believe was trying to mask some serious insecurities.
One day I came into work five hours early as a favor, due to some gang murders and a trial that ws going on. I had a squad of swing watch officers assigned to me for this detail. Around 2:30pm the lieutenant came into work with his nasty mood on full display. He started complaining to me about some of the swing watch officers being lazy. I countered by saying if they were so lazy, then why did they come to work 5 hours early to work a stressful assignment? The lieutenant’s office door was open and our argument could be heard in the hallway.
I realized there was no salvaging a professional demeanor with this guy during this shift. My solution: I told him (it was the beginning of our ten hour regular shift) that I had a splitting headache and was going home. There was nothing he could do. He knew he’d get stuck doing a lot of my work. I had to train my boss to be better.
Fortunately, we had our biannual sign-up shortly thereafter, so I signed up for day watch, just to get away from this guy. Within a week of the sign-up results being posted, he was banished to an undesirable post. (Management personnel can be moved at the whim of the chief.) Worse for him, his commute went from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. There were rumors floating around the station. How bad must our captain have thought about this lieutenant to get him shipped off to Siberia?
Our captain had only been at our station for about two months when this happened. He knew me when we were both officers and he knew of my work ethic. He confided in me that when he saw that I signed up for a shift I don’t even like, that there was a BIG problem with this lieutenant. It also solidified the old saying that sergeants run the stations. Things got a lot better for the whole station once that jerk was kicked out.
This isn’t a very popular opinion, especially in veteran’s circles, but it is a fact and therefore, it should be said:
The casualty numbers sustained by the so-called “Resolute Support”
[1]mission in Afghanistan are so ridiculously low that it cannot even be called an armed conflict or a war.
In 2018, the United States military had the highest number of casualties from all “Resolute Support” contingents. Altogether, they lost seventeen soldiers, sailors, and Marines in Afghanistan. If you compare this to their absolute numbers (1,358,190 active military personnel) you have a casualty rate of Soldiers Killed in Action (KIA) of about 0.0012%. If you count only personnel deployed to a combat zone (around 18,000 in 2018),[2]you get around 0,09%. Not very impressive. Being a US soldier isn’t even in the TOP 25 of the most dangerous professions in the United States.[3][4]To compare this number to other modern conflicts, the German army in WWII lost around 26.6% of their soldiers in the Soviet Union, while during the Vietnam War the US lost 40,000 of their soldiers on the battlefield (KIA rate of 8%).[5]
In 2018, the German Army’s contingent in Afghanistan didn’t lose a single soldier while at the same time eight soldiers died at home in various accidents.
[6]Although it was one of the years which saw the highest number of German military personnel deployed to crisis regions, 2018 was also the year the Bundeswehr lost the smallest number of soldiers in its history: only 8 were killed. In comparison, in 1962, long before any foreign involvement, the Bundeswehr lost 166 soldiers, most of them in accidents.
Of course, every dead soldier is one too many, but the probability for a US or an Allied soldier to get killed in Afghanistan is much lower than, for example, that of a Russian or Israeli soldier dying during military training.
Next time, we hear people calling to “bring our troops home” or thanking them for their sacrifice, we should put that into perspective. This is also the reason why the “war” in Afghanistan takes so long: the price is paid by the Afghan civilian population and not by our soldiers and Marines.
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was the founder of the US Nuclear Navy and is a man clouded in legend. There are a number of stories about him, some of which most certainly are true. Others may or may not be true, but certainly do fit his rather unique style of command. As an example, and this is 100% true because I’ve seen it, and it still sits in the Naval Reactors office, during their interview, Admiral Rickover had his prospective officers sit in a simple office chair… with four inches cut from the front legs.
One story details one of The Admiral’s tours of Nuclear Power School. He decided to enter a classroom, perhaps during the lesson or during study. He entered the rear of the room where he quickly and silently suppressed the impending calls to attention.
At the front of the room, a junior sailor, maybe a Third Class Petty Officer, was working an assigned problem on the board. The Admiral approached the student and, from a short distance behind him, observed the student’s work over his shoulder.
After some time, the student got frustrated. He turned to The Admiral and stated, “Excuse me, sir. I’m trying to work this problem here,” and resumed his work. The Admiral wordlessly departed the classroom, assuredly to the dumbfounded looks of the sailor’s classmates.
As the story goes, later that day, word reached the sailor that The Admiral offered him a commission as an officer in the US Navy.
The U.S. thinks and fooled themselves that the world thinks highly of themselves, they most certainly don’t.
Who thinks highly of America? Some very young starry eye highly naive spoilt brat kids perhaps! Or some totally ignorant bigoted white supremacist mainly older, less travelled, less educated people in America thinks America is good!
Everyone else don’t. In fact they don’t think they know US is not at all a good or honourable or caring nation to its own people and certainly very barbaric to the world!
Even most of US slave nations such as Germany, Japan or Korea don’t think so too. They may be forced to but deep inside the disdain America. British, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadian and fellow despicable former colonialists don’t too, they may suck up to the U.S. or at least they use the U.S. as a shield against others who may want to hurt them but they think little about America!
So in percentage it may be as little as 1% thinks they are good. 99% thinks they are barbaric, inhuman, inconsiderate parasite that they cannot respect but some 15% of the world fear them or at least wants their protection. So they pretend to have nice word for the US.
According to Rommel’s diaries, Hitler said to Rommel that the war was lost late 1943 when Rommel was appointed Inspector General. That makes sense as it was after Kursk, which in a way the Germans won (losses) but they were routed anyway because unlike USSR, Germany could not make up for their losses and this would have been clear at the highest level.
Hitler said to Rommel that from now on it was a question of creating the best possible position for negotiations.
Rommel expressed disappointment, so at this point it was only seen vy those who wanted to see.
As for reactions they were not the sane across the fronts.
Kesselring (Italy) reacted well before this by building fall-back positions planning an incremental withdrawal already early 1943.
On the Eastern front this was forbidden by Hitler which meant withdrawals were often unplanned and more costly than needed. Stalingrad is a good example, but other units, cities or regiments were ordered to fight till death as well.
Is it bad? Not at all. In fact, it is actually quite liberating.
I was hired to work as a computer support tech at a community college but the man who offered me the job resigned, unexpectedly, just days before I was scheduled to start. His replacement was on the panel that interviewed candidates and he preferred another candidate over me, so he went to his boss to have my job offer revoked. His boss refused to do it and that made him incredibly angry, so he decided to take it out on me by micromanaging my every move.
He had no experience as a manager — he’d been a systems admin at the school before being named interim IT Director — and he didn’t like working with older people. This was unfortunate because I was 58 years old at the time and the ony other support tech was 63 years old, so interim enjoyed trying to embarrass us. He called us both out in front of a room full of people for running a network line incorrectly, and we angered him by telling him to finish the job up while we went to lunch.
My coworker decided he’d had enough at that point and took that afternoon off before sending interim an email stating that he wouldn’t return. Interim tried to write me up for insubordination but his boss wouldn’t let him and that made a bad work relationship even worse. I took to working in empty classrooms and lecture halls to avoid interim, and spoke to him only when directly asked a question.
Two years after my old coworker quit I turned in my resignation — the letter simply stated that I was resigning and that my last day would be in two weeks, on a specific date. When interim — yes, after three years he was still interim IT director — showed up he walked over to my office and stood in the doorway, and asked me why I was quitting. I usually offer up a vague response like, “It’s time to move on” or “ I want to try something new” but this time I told interim that I could no longer stand to work for someone I did not like or respect. The look on his face — shock, dismay, anger — was worth having to sit and twiddle my thumbs for those last two weeks. That’s right — he pulled all the work he’d assigned me to punish me. Needless to say, my new coworker didn’t appreciate that move.
I was a straight A student in high school, and in my sophomore year I was receiving brochures from college. I had some spread out on the kitchen table, and Mom and I were discussing which ones would be worth a visit during my junior year. Dad came home from work, noticed the brochures, and scoffed, “She’s not going to college; I’m not paying for her Mrs. degree like her sister!” I started to explain to him what degree I wanted, and wasn’t going to college to get married, as my sister had done. Mom cut me off, stood up and got in Dad’s face. She sternly pointed out that he HAD paid for my brother’s B.S. and M.S. and if I wanted to go to college I DAMN well was going to go! Dad and I both stared at her, our mouths agape, because Mom never contradicted Dad in front of us. (As it turned out, I earned enough scholarships and had a parttime job on campus, that I was a bargain, costing them very little out of pocket.)
Yes! Our neighbor, a pastor, invited us over when his wife was away. They had very old fashioned roles, she did housework, he earned money. When we arrived he asked my husband to help him install a hanging lamp. He asked me to start dinner. All he had was stuff for salad. I went home and got some steak and potatoes, cooked it while they worked. After dinner i did the dishes and he told me to take out the trash. I said “ Excuse me?”. He laughed and told me to take it out its “womens work”. So not wanting to alienate someone we had to share an property line with, i did. When my husband and i left He turned to me and said “ What the heck was that?”. I said, he took advantage of our kindness! He got free labor, a free dinner, and free maid service! We never accepted another invitation for dinner! This is the same guy who adopted an African baby so he could “ Get over being a bigot, like my father”. Cant make this stuff up!
Hardly as bad as pulling a shirt off, but an episode in my Catholic high school has passed into legend.
One student I’ll call Henry was an easy target for one particular bully. He spoke strangely as a consequence of a congenital hearing defect, wore a bulky hearing aid, carried an extra forty pounds, had a bad complexion and was 100% nerd right down to the pocket protector and slide rule.
His bus arrived early. Early students had to wait in the cafeteria until home room opened. Henry would turn down his hearing aid, open a book, and write computer programs or do math problems. He would place his lunch – a sandwich in a small paper bag – on the table next to him.
His nemesis would yell in his ear “how are you this morning, Henry” while he smashed the sandwich flat. Henry had had enough. One morning he put in the bag a piece of cardboard with thumbtacks pushed through the cardboard pointing up. The bully, as usual, smashed the bag flat. He let out a howl as he pulled his hand away with a dozen punctures streaming blood.
One of the nuns heard the howl, figured out what had happened, and dragged Henry by his earlobe to the Director of Discipline, Fr. Huller. Huller was a regular guy. He had landed in the second wave at Normandy and seen a few things.
Huller listened to the nun’s version and then to Henry’s version. He asked the nun to leave so that he could speak to Henry privately. Huller could barely keep from laughing. He tried to say something several times but couldn’t get the words out. Finally, he told Henry “just don’t do that again.”
Huller then asked to see the bully who had been patched up by the school nurse. He told the bully that his impalement was punishment enough but if he smashed any more sandwiches he’d be expelled.
I sure did. I was working for a company helped them open their location. They had me doing supervisor duties with the promise of soon getting that position. I was young and dumb not realizing that was a mistake. I did it for about 6 months working my tail off and never missing work and always coming in early and or staying late. When it came down to it, they said they were giving the position to a new person that was new coming in and just gave me a $.10 raise. It was a slap in the face. Thinking about all those extra duties I put in. The times they would keep calling me on the ear piece even when I was just going to go pee they called me. Then one day on my day off when I went to pick up my check, the boss said a bunch of people called off and they only had 1 station open, 1 employee there out of 6 15 minutes to open, and 2 bus loads of kids coming in. He then told me he needed me to start right away. I told him I didn’t have my uniform. He told me to grab one from the back, but those were dirty. I said ok sure. I went to the back and said good bye to everyone. They asked where I was going and I said I quit. Never done that in my life. Felt awful but it was a turning point for me to never let anyone take advantage of me again.
This happened about 20 years ago. We had a cheap and cheerful washing machine. It was 15 years old and had required a few repairs in the recent years; new door seal, new belt, new motor brushes etc. Problem was the the motor commutator had become scored and the brushes didn’t last too long and really the motor needed replacing. We also wanted a machine with a higher load capacity so we went shopping. We chose a high spec Bosch washing machine with a 9kg load capacity and a 3 year extended warranty i.e. to 4 years. It cost about £450 which was a fair amount at the time.
Just over 4 years later the machine was on its spin cycle. There was an enormous series of bangs, the machine threw itself around the floor and ground to a halt. A repair technician was called but found that the machine was completely destroyed. We commissioned an engineers report. This stated that the tub counterbalance had become detached. It should have had say6 studs and nuts holding it in place. A couple were missing completely and the rest had sheared off. The tub spinning at high speed had been thrown around the inside of the machine, slicing through wiring and pipes, smashing the control circuit board and even causing large dents in the steel panel at the rear.
Bosch’s attitude was unbelievable. Essentially they said that “it could not be a manufacturing fault as it would have shown up during the warranty period” and “what did you expect as it was now outside warranty”. Apparently although a cheap and cheerful machine would last 15 years with a few cheap repairs but a quality one was expected to self destruct as soon as the warranty period expired. Eventually they did consent to a small amount of compensation but left us massively out of pocket.
I’ve never bought another Bosch power tool, fridge, freezer or anything else since then
I went to court, fought the ticket, exposed the lying cop, and got my charges dismissed. The judge offered his “congratulations, on an excellent defense”. I went into court prepared, righteous, and loaded for bear. I fought a handful of tickets, over the years, and won every time. They were all bogus. For a couple that I got, which were legit, I was able to get reduced fines, or even deferred adjudication.
Know the laws on the offense you’re charged with, AND the fine schedule and other possible punishments. I prepped a friend, for his seatbelt ticket defense. He was told he would be fined $250, and then he brought a printout of the state law, which called for a $66 (or thereabouts) fine. He then said he wanted to know just whose pocket the rest of that $250 was going into. The charge was dropped, and he was sent out the door. The city prosecutor, and whoever wrote the fines, hadn’t bothered to see if the numbers matched the legal amount set by the state.
I was hired with the promise of being the #2 in the company as CIO. One hour into the first day, the CEO comes into my office and asks me to call somebody at our other office to help him with a problem. He told me that I worked for him as well since he was in charge of the department over there that ran a document scanning operation I had not been told of.
So much for only having to worry about one unqualified person telling me how to be a CIO, I now had two. I knew then I was dealing with somebody who tells someone exactly what they want to hear. It was too late, as I’d already moved the family, etc… Had to try to make it work. Developed clinical depression as a result.
I did have the honor of watching the CEO get deposed from a company he owned a majority of stock in (only way that happens is extortion or blackmail by the other shareholders), and having the new CEO grovel at my feet when I left him after a year of his abuse. Then I watched the company implode, first by closing down the scanning center (the only profit generator for the company – brilliant people), then having everybody else bail because they no longer got paid.
I waited on Nicholas Cage one Sunday morning in Vegas. He, the lady he was with, and his young son were the only guests at the time. I greeted him as Mr. Cage and at the outset he seemed very nice. I informed the manager (goof) and he immediately said to ask him for a photo as “corporate”loves that. I have waited on other celebrities and I would take a bullet before doing something so gauche. Mr. Cage did take some photos with other guests as the restaurant filled. He was very polite the entire time. At the end I said “Mr. Cage I am great admirer of your work”. I mean c’mon after Moonstruck? It was totally the truth! He said, “John it was a pleasure meeting YOU”! I had to go out to the parking area as he left his credit card on the table. Did he give me a nice tip? Yes. Was it outrageous? No. All class.
The Chinese Navy Of 2024 Is Unlike Any Other Major Navies
Just an hour ago, My girlfriend offered to buy me Lemon soda in one of those small roadside shops. We were regulars there.
I was thirsty so I finished my drink fast. She was halfway through her glass when a Traffic policeman approached the shop.
Him: One lemon juice please.
Shopkeeper: Sure sir, please wait for a minute.
He makes the juice and hands it over to him.
My Girlfriend starts drinking the juice very slowly. I asked her what happened.
“I’m just waiting to see what he’ll do” *points at the traffic policeman*
After he was done with the drink.
Him: Thanks. *Leaves without paying*
The shopkeeper just continues with his work.
Her: Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Pretty common sight in India. Cops get freebies in a lot of roadside stalls and they don’t even think for a second that the small amount of 10–15 rupees is the shopkeeper’s hard earned money.
In the city I used to live in photo radar was set for 13 kmph over the speed limit, about 8 mph. There are no demerits for photo radar, just the fine. Its a great cash cow, because it catches all of those who are momentarily not paying attention, as well as those who are purposely speeding. The province refuses to allow photo radar on its highways. Because they say its just a cash cow.
In the little town that I retired to, they thought they were going to get rich off of speeding tourists. They moved the speed limit signs so that it dropped from 100 to 80 to 50 kmph farther outside of town, and they bought a $125,000 photo radar, and said it would pay for itself in two months. The main tourist drag through town was a provincial highway. They sat the only town police officer at the edge of town, and ticketed away. In the very first month a guy fought his ticket, and the judge ruled that it was illegal to use photo radar on the highway. Rather than move it to other streets, where most of the offenders would be locals, they sold the photo radar for about half of what they paid for it. When it was working, they had looked into hiring a second officer to bring in more money, but once it was scrapped, all talk of a second officer was cancelled.
The fact that they wouldn’t use it on non tourist streets, moved the speed limit signs out of town, and talked about hiring a second officer, but only when they were using the radar trap, and dropped the plan as soon as they dropped the radar, pretty much tells you the intent of the radar trap.
The photo radar was still perfectly useable, except that you had to actually stop the car and write up the ticket, check licence and registration, sobriety, etc , exactly as the province required.
But, because of the time required, the town said it wasn’t economical to give tickets to people doing less than about 25 kmph ,15.5 mph, and there weren’t enough of them to make it worthwhile.
So there you have it, if its automatically sent out in the mail, the limit is 13 kmph over the speed limit, if they have to check to make sure you aren’t a mass murderer, driving a hijacked car, its almost double at 25 kmph.
Humans vs Superhumans | When Monsters Were Real and We Almost Went Extinct
I had a manager who was putting me on a last and final write-up (next step suspension / terminated) for something I didn’t do. I refused to sign the write-up until I talked to the director (his boss) about the situation as I hadn’t made an error. The manager replied, “It would’ve been easier if you would’ve just signed it!” He goes through the steps of bringing on another manager to witness me refusing to sign the paperwork, as was protocol for this type of situation, and I went about the rest of my shift.
What my manager didn’t know was my wife, who happened to be an auditor in the company, had made me aware of the situation before I went into work so I was able to research things before my write-up was going to be given to me. I was able to see that my manager had changed some of the data I used to complete my daily reports, which caused my paperwork error. I printed the evidence showing he caused the error and held onto it until the meeting with the director.
So I’m meeting with the director and the manager is going, “… does sub par work, careless with his reports, yada yada”. My director then asks me for my side of the story and I tell him, “The manager changed the data I use to run my daily reports”. The manager was offended and says something along the lines that I was wrong. I then show the screenshots of when the information I used was changed and who doctored it. The information was changed 30 minutes after I left work for the day by my manager making him responsible for the error. The meeting ended about two minutes later with a half-hearted apology.
Edit: So there have been a few comments on why the manager wasn’t fired for his actions of doctoring a record. The overall reason was we had just started using a new computer system a few months prior and there was still a lot of growing pains with everybody figuring it out. I don’t think the manager’s actions were malicious with the error, it was part of the learning process. I even learned better procedures to follow to prevent the error from happening again. At first it was for CYA, then it became the procedure I taught to others to guarantee accuracy of the reports.
I had this friend in college who would always eat my lunches. I didn’t really mind and it’s not because she didn’t have any money or anything it’s just that she never made lunch for herself and when she did she still thought mine were more appetizing.
I shared my meal everyday with her and I would often make more for the two of us.
One day I didn’t have time to make lunch and she didn’t bring one so I suggested that we go eat at a small bistro near the school. She ordered a big meal and everything and paid. When it was my turn I didn’t have any money because I left my wallet at home. I asked her to lend me some money and told her I would pay her back. She refused saying that it’s my fault that I was poorly organized and I should always have my wallet with me. She then told me I purposely forgot my wallet and that it was a plan for her to pay me back for all of the meals that i shared with her.
I didn’t eat lunch with her. I just left and blocked her. Never thought people could take so much but never give when needed.
JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded, “Does that include those who are buried here?”
DeGaulle did not respond. You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ’empire building’ by George Bush.
He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of Its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, One of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?” A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships. How many does France have?”
You could have heard a pin drop.
A U.S. Navy admiral was attending a naval conference that included admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French navies at a cocktail reception. He found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks when a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?” Without hesitating, the American admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. “You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. “Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.” The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.” “Impossible. Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !” The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchman to show a passport to.”
My friend punched a girl back. In fact 3 girls. He asked me to take him to court when he was prosecuted for it. The evidence was on CCTV.
When I saw the video I was shocked how they attacked him in the street first by punching him then using their stilletos. You could see the injuries just below his eye and on the top of his head.
The prosecutor said he’d used too much force when he punched them after their THIRD wave of attacks. They’d pursued him through the streets, stolen and hidden his jacket and car and house keys as well.
The reason given was that they didn’t like it when he was passing one of them in a club and said how nice she looked, and when she swore at him he’d said how unpleasant she was. They’d followed him out of the club and attacked him from behind in the street.
The prosecutor admitted that the worst of the attackers should have been in the court for assaulting him with a dangerous weapon – a stilleto in the eye causes blindness. Instead she accepted a caution and no further action was taken.
It was evident he’d been trying to escape the area and to find his jacket. He was acquitted. The case was thrown out with less than 2 minutes consideration by the magistrates.
So, yeah, if a male or female attacks you to that degree then striking back as a last resort is what you might need to do, even though it is heavily looked down upon.
Do you mean the worst loss or the most aggressive win. The bloodiest fight I was ever in took place in a bar. I’m going to give them short version of this night because I don’t want to type it all out. Because of a little scuffle at a party I was at all my friends got turned around. We all went different ways. I ended up ina bar laying low wondering if cops maybe looking for me. So already pumped up from the fun at the party I wasn’t going to say away from nothing. In the bar got a beer and walk towards the pool tables. Now I’m not a big guy about average five nine and 170 poundsat 21 years of age hanging drywall for a living and trying m.m.a. 5 nights a week. I was in better shape than most men. But I my leather riding jacket no one could see i wasn’t in great shape looked like a skin nerd. My whole life people challenged me. I can’t remember the exact words that where said to me but my response was I fuck bitchs bader than you. Witch led to him thinking he needed to prove me wrong. Mind you’ve all ready been in a fight that had a lot more involved than just 2 men and ran I don’t know how far. I knew I had to win fast as I got pounding on this guy I didn’t notice his two friends jumping not knowing exactly what was happening I pulled my knife just a small lock blade. As used it on one of the guys the other ones wanted nothing to do with it. This small hole in the wall tavern didn’t have door men. But cops had been called they showed up took me to jail at first charged with assault 2 weapons enhancement. I ended up plea bargaining to a displaying a weapon with intent to harm and or intimidate. Did get a strike but got 60 months in a maximum security penitentiary. That was the worst fight I’ve ever been in.
I was being given a severance package. While it was something I had negotiated and was okay with (finally), the setting was a bit strange.
I had walked into the meeting with my coat and bag and was ready to leave. The HR rep (with whom I was on good terms) and my boss were waiting for me. The rep was laughing. I asked why and he said that he’d bet my boss 20 bucks that I’d be all ready to go.
My boss objected saying “Yeah but I added that he’d have all the cards and cell phone and company stuff in an envelope too.”
I smiled and took an envelope out of my bag and slid it over to the HR rep.
At that my boss started in on his spiel but was flustered. He stopped and said “I guess you know all this. Here’s the pertinent papers. Good luck!” He handed me a few papers and envelopes and beat a hasty retreat.
Later when I got home I found a printed email that he’d sent to the president of the company explaining why they’d had to give me the package. One line stood out. “I’ve been trying to get him to quit for a year and it hasn’t worked.” In his fluster he had passed me stuff that he shouldn’t have.
Yeah. It cost ‘em.
Zhou Shen’s (周深新) new song “Floating Light” | Singer Reaction!
I had a lot more sex in my late 20’s, which was fun. My endless pursuit of it also derailed a lot of golden opportunities life handed me in a golden basket. It was like:
“Here’s a free basket of incredible things for you, Stephen!”
“Wait. What? What’s that stuff?”
“An amazing cornucopia of gifts, just for you!”
“NO!”
Why did I do this? Because I couldn’t think about anything else besides sex. Ironically, I had all that fun when I was an incredible jerk to people. (If anybody on Quora thinks I’m a jerk now, you’re not totally wrong, but be grateful you didn’t know me back when I was 27. Whew. What an asshole.)
In my early 30’s, I was consumed by weepy nostalgia and crippling loneliness. This also caused me to pass on a lot of great opportunities. Life, but especially North Carolina, handed me a lot of amazing options… and I threw those back in its face, because I was obsessed with running into the past. At 33, I was still such a baby. An egocentric little whiner.
I finally hit a pretty good stride in my late 30s. And my 40’s have been amazingly calm overall. Don’t think too much about the past, don’t have to battle hormones so much, not rich but not broke either. Haven’t been in a relationship in several years, which is dumb, but also haven’t had to deal with all that madness, which is refreshing. Things are alright, really.
Done more travel globally in the last five years than I did at any point in my late 20’s or early 30’s, because I couldn’t afford it back then. And the quality of that travel has improved. Hard to say why. (I still stay at hostels sometimes, it’s not like I travel in swanky luxury today.) But the experience just seems richer and more interesting. A more mature appreciation of things, I guess. Art seems more profound, because I know more about humanity. Humanity created art. Food tastes better. Don’t know why, it just does. I’m definitely a better cook.
At 43, I’ve obviously read more books than at any other time in my life. The cumulative effect of a lifetime of reading has an impact on you. You can sit down and read William Wordsworth or Alexander Pope and think “This guy gets it.” At 21, I would have no idea what the hell they were talking about.
YouTube and the internet seem incredibly boring. Facebook: mindnumbing. Except for maybe Google Maps, you really feel like you’ve reached the end of what the internet has to offer.
Chronic indigestion is slowly killing me, even though I don’t have any sins anymore besides a few beers a week and a cigar. I can’t even really do that anymore. Every time I eat, I have to drink some baking soda dissolved in water just to control the indigestion. It’s awful. Eat a cookie: burp. Eat a banana: burp. I’m seeing a doctor in March. This is the only thing (so far) about getting old that just absolutely sucks.
Speaking personally here, because honestly I’m at a stage of life when a lot of people go through mid-life crises and resort to hookers and vodka to make themselves feel “young” again, but I feel less angst-ridden now than I ever did at any time in the past. My early 30’s were a disaster.
The only real question I have is why more women don’t find guys who’ve dumped most of their chronic bullshit appealing, and why women keep gravitating toward dumb suckers in their 20’s and 30’s. (Oh shit, eureka, I’ve found the answer: because women do exactly the same thing men do!). I’m not as “exciting” as I used to be. Yeah, and I’m not as stupid and rude.
But do I want to jeopardize what I have just to a have a woman in it? I mean, I like women a lot. But right now, no, I’m not jeopardizing my piece of mind just for anybody. I’m holding out for someone who is sheer gold.
Greek Salad
Ingredients
Salad
1 bunch Romaine lettuce
1 small red onion
1 cucumber
4 Roma tomatoes
Kalamata olives
Feta cheese, crumbled
Dressing
1/4 cup good olive oil
3 to 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 or 2 cloves crushed garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
Whisk together dressing and let it sit while you prepare the vegetables.
Wash and spin dry lettuce, tear into pieces. Slice onion, tomato and cucumber. Add olives and feta to taste.
Whisk dressing before pouring on salad and toss.
Serves 4.
This goes well with focaccia bread or pita and hummus.
In college a guy accused me of stealing his bike (yeah I know) came to my dorm room drunk and tried fighting me in front of the whole floor. I tried getting away by closing my door but he forced his way in. He grabbed me and dragged me outside into the hall. He pushed me into one of those fire extinguisher cabinets with the break away glass. It shattered immediately. I grabbed the extinguisher and hit him in the face knocking out his front teeth. The return swing dislocated his shoulder. The third crushed the orbital of his left eye. Everything happened in about five seconds. I needed forty stitches in my back and arm from the glass. He was over 18 but thinking like he was in high school. He got arrested for breaking and entering, assault, and battery. He was found guilty of assault and battery and witness tampering. I hadn’t stolen his bike, I’d never seen his bike, and I let the police search my dorm room all they wanted. They never found his bike.
Arkansas is in the “Bible Belt” of the United States. And because of this, everything is heavily influenced by religion. Mostly “Southern baptist”. Which tends to be rather strict and fundamental.
One of the aspects of this influence is something known as “dry counties”.
These are regions in the state where the purchase of alcohol is against the law. So that people living in those areas must dive elsewhere to buy their booze, cart it home. Store it and then drink it in such a way that it does not run out. It’s a core characteristics of “the Southern way of life” that you hear so much about in American Country and Western music.
Anyways, where I lived in Arkansas, was a “dry county”.
And sure as shit, we would have to make an “alcohol run” before the stores closed on the weekends. And Lordy! Was it always a madhouse. Car jams. Packing lines. Carts full of booze. People jostling and pushing. Everyone in a rush.
Yup.
The American Way of Life.
I’ll tell you what!
Some things about the United States are so ridiculous that it’s not even worth commenting on. Except to say, that I am glad that I live in China where booze is cheap, plentiful and accessible by anyone, at any time.
While there is no threat to Japan from any quarter, the US keeps troops in Japan to:
Maintain Japan as a pliant vassal state.
Control the region around Japan with its vast military complexes. The US has more bases in Japan than any country outside the US itself.
Japan subsidies US forces and makes it easier for the US to maintain an overall large military since Japan pays large sums to the US for the privilege of hosting massive US troops and equipment. If those troops went home the US would have to pay 100% of the costs of maintaining them.
South Korea faces a real threat from North Korea. The 35,000 US combat troops in RSK are meant to provide a deterence to DPRK. In a real war the US would likely lose these 35,000 troops, which would drag the US into its next quagmire.
Secondary objectives to the US maintaining troops in SK are the same as in Japan, however US bases in Japan are not under any threat and are far more extensive than in RSK, which makes Japan much more important to the US than RSK.
I believe one of the primary reasons the US has become addicted to operating more than 800 bases around the world is that in many of the large ones, the host country pays for some if not the majority of the costs of that base. This defrays direct costs of maintaining its own military for the US while keeping the US military at an overly large scale relative to its growing inability to afford such size and scale.
If you can park your car in downtown Manhattan in someone else’s garage for free (with a promise that if someone in his family gets injured you’ll drive them in the car to the hospital), and that guy is going to pay for all the maintenance of that vehicle, while you still get to drive it anytime you want and he isn’t allowed to use it, you’re going to park your cars there for a very, very long time.
Jonas‘ answer is spot on on a cultural level, but IME, there are also often some more mundane/practical considerations involved.
It buys us time. I used to work solo for years. In one joint, we used to have baskets of bread and little bowls of homemade dips available for the waiters to just grab and hand out. If someone ordered food and I was swamped with orders, that would simply keep the guests happy until I got around / was able to free up a burner on the stove to make their starters or entrees…
It is one more element a really skilled waiter can employ to time orders etc. I’ve seen good waiters ‘stall’ for half an hour and more from the point the guests were seated with menus, drink orders, drinks, food orders, cutlery, bread and butter etc. without the guests even noticing they were being strung along while the kitchen and / or back office recovered from some minor catastrophe or just cleared a backlog of orders…
In places that are not dedicated restaurants, it sets ‘the mood’ for ordering something to eat. You might have come in just for a glass of wine or two, but when that cute little basket of fresh bread with a little bit of good butter or some nice dip, a napkin and a set of silverware arrives unasked along with the menu, you might just realize you could do with a nice bite to eat… This may sound far-fetched, but I’ve seen it work (on myself as a guest and on guests in places I worked at) often enough to not dismiss it.
I don’t know why, but the Chinese captured POWs in Korea from 15 countries, and only the American GI’s knelt and surrendered to the Chinese, just like they knelt when they were captured in Iranian territorial waters. Is it because the Yanks have particularly soft knees? Can anyone tell me why?
American and British are not defending Taiwan, but they want to invade China, and the Chinese are certainly capable of defeating the invaders and letting them die in the sea and become food for sea fish. The Pacific Ocean’s marine fish will feast, and then we’ll sell our catch to the Yanks and bring their souls back to the U.S. so they don’t pollute the environment in China’s territorial waters. 😁
2300 heavily armed US soldiers have been killed fighting Afghan shepherds. 2300 Yank kids become corpses in coffins. There are no corpses in naval battles, they can only be fed to the sea fish.
With the exception of the Americans and the British, everyone in the world has been educated to know that the Taiwan question is a legacy of the Chinese civil war, an internal affair of China and a domestic affair of the Chinese.
Biden did not tell the US citizens that he wanted to invade China, only “to defend Taiwan”.
So, I ask, how does the US plan on doing that? with some sort of video game competition?
I mean, in order to “defend Taiwan”, you have to have military troops pertorming military actions, aka combat inside of China – And that’s because Taiwan is in China.
So currently America has soldiers in Taiwan, which is either illegal, or at the very least gray area because that’s part of China. And the government of China doesn’t approve of that and hasn’t allowed it. So that’s the current status.
If US start performing miltary action, that’s an effort to militarily conquer at least China or push them back inside of China. That‘s called an invasion.’
Sorry, everybody, if you don’t agree with this definition, but that’s what it is.
So US is yet again contirming that it will invade China if China attempts to continue its reunification by using military action.
I’d like to advise the US to listen to a well-known Chinese song with these lyrics: “For our friends, we have fine wine. For jackals or wolves, we welcome with shotguns.”
OOOOHHHH!!!! This one is legend! It didn’t happen at my employer, but one nearby. (I worked for a bit just a city block, or two, up the street.) Here’s the basics:
Control Data Corporation (CDC) was on the rocks in the early ‘80s. They started laying folks off. But they didn’t do it publicly. Instead they “Disappeared” them. Here’s how it worked:
An employee was instructed to keep quiet about the fact that he’d been transferred to the Roseville, Mn. Plant across town.
He (it was mostly a he in those days) was to pack up his gear & personal stuff late Friday afternoon & the box(es) would be picked up & transferred over the weekend to his new job site.
He was then given an address at the new plant where he was to report first thing Monday Morning.
The next Monday he showed up, was escorted into a room with a table, a chair, a guard, and an HR person.
The HR person gave him his walking papers & allowed him to sort out & collect his private stuff from the box(es).
He was then escorted out the door to the parking lot.
Chopped Meat Pies (Pitta Me Kima)
Ingredients
2 pounds chopped lamb
1/2 cup butter
2 onions, chopped
1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, peeled or 1 tablespoon tomato paste with 1 cup water
1 piece stick cinnamon
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 slices toast
2 cups milk
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
5 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 pound phyllo
Instructions
Brown meat, half the butter, and onions in large pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up meat. Add tomatoes (or diluted tomato paste) cinnamon, parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed (about 30 minutes).
Meanwhile, soak toast in milk, then mash with fork. Remove cinnamon stick and add milk-toast mixture to the meat, remove from the heat. Add cheese and eggs, and mix well.
Melt remaining butter. Butter a pan about. 2 inches smaller than the phyllo. Put 7 to 8 phyllo sheets, buttering each before adding it, into the pan, letting phyllo extend on all sides. Pour in meat mixture and spread it evenly. Fold overlapping phyllo back onto meat. Butter these well. Carefully cut remaining sheets of phyllo to fit the top of the pan. Brush each with butter and lay on the filling to make the top of the pita. Pour on any remaining butter and sprinkle the top very lightly with a little water (to keep phyllo from rising too high).
Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
Cool for about 30 minutes, and cut into squares to serve.
It is easier to cut this if you score it lightly before baking.
This isn’t my story, but that of a very good friend who I had as a roommate a long time ago.
Geoff was a car salesman for many years. One night he came home and told me the story of his big sale that day. A man had driven into the parking lot in a beat-up pickup truck, one bumper tied in place with baling wire, rust all over it and a cracked windshield. He and his wife emerged from the vehicle and started walking around the show lot looking at cars and drifting towards the trucks. The man was very large, Geoff estimated 6′5″ and 280 lbs and wearing bib overalls, a plaid flannel shirt, well worn boots, and a John Deere baseball cap. All of his clothing was showing age, dirt, and stains. His wife was very plain and wearing similarly worn clothing, but neat and she almost never stopped smiling.
They walked around for about 15 minutes as the salesmen watched them from the showroom. All of these guys were triple-A personalities who were like sharks as salesmen and normally would have been fighting or drawing straws as to who got the next customer. Nobody wanted to go talk to these people, the very definition of hayseed goobers with big eyes but no money and they clearly had nothing to offer as a trade in. Geoff had just finished up showing a customer a few cars and writing up prices and a trade-in offer and was irritated that the others had all left these people out there without even a “hello”. He went straight out and started taking to them.
The man wanted to buy a truck to replace the one he had driven in on. He also wanted to buy his wife a car because their son had just run their old one into a telephone pole and totaled it. Geoff spent about two hours chatting with them, getting and giving information. He learned that they owned and ran a large farm with 40 horses, 80 head of cattle, other livestock, crops and side businesses running farmland that others had leased from him, and had about 20 employees working for him. When he got done and was writing up the sale of two brand new, fully loaded, vehicles, he asked how they would like to pay. The man reached into his bib overalls and pulled out a roll as big as his country-ham fist and said “sorry, I don’t have cash for both of them, but I’ll pay for one with cash and give you a check for the other; the bank’s open and you can verify the funds are there right now”.
So, because these people looked like dirt-kicker rednecks to the auto sales staff, Geoff sold two top-line vehicles for cash, earned a very substantial commission, and made two acquaintances who invited him out to their farm to visit, and then became good friends for the next 30 years. I got to go with Geoff to their beautiful farm once; among the nicest folks I’ve ever met.
What’s that old saying about not judging a book by its cover….?
One day, my doorbell rang and I opened the door assuming there was a package or a salesman outside.
Instead, there were maybe six large men in body armor and pads. They were each holding a rifle on a sling. Their plate carriers were festooned with pistols, extra magazines, flashlights, and handcuffs.
I stared at these men through my iron security door for a beat- probably with my jaw dropped. Then I said, “Uh, Hey! What’s going on guys?”
Turns out it was a fugitive recovery team from the US Marshals.
They were looking for my neighbor’s scummy boyfriend who had lived with her for a short time. Apparently, he was even scummier than I had thought.
I stepped out on the porch and spoke with the Marshals for a few minutes. I knew my neighbor, but not her boyfriend. I had nothing helpful to tell them. They piled back into a few big, black SUVs and left.
Weird, but at least it wasn’t a solicitor at the door.
My sister got suspended for skipping class. She wasn’t feeling well during PE, and got a note to go to the nurse’s office. The nurse wasn’t in (supposedly she was on a coffee break). My sister passed out (as in unconscious) in front of the nurse’s office, laying on the floor in the hall. No one noticed she was there until after the nurse came back at the end of the *next* period.
They suspended her for cutting that class. She was told the next day, and served the in-school suspension that day. The next day my dad came in and raised heck… and the suspension was removed from her record, and the nurse was written up for taking a too long coffee break (over an hour).
I’m not sure what was said to the teachers who were supposed to be watching the hall during class change, and never noticed her on the floor. None of the kids said anything that we know of either. I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t a critical thing that caused her to pass out.
Shadow People and The Hat Man | Who are they? What do they want?
Back in the 1980s, I worked as an independent Contract Software Engineer working through a technical service firm. As such there were many ‘business deductions’ that I could take off and I also only had to pay taxes 4 times a year, so all the interest I earned on the taxes was an added boost. But, then the tax laws changed. As a Software Engineer working through a technical service firm, I was now considered an employee of that firm. This meant no more ‘business deductions’ and no interest on my tax savings account.
So I looked for another loophole. I discovered that as long as I worked more than 50 miles away from home, all my travel expenses were tax deductible. Now I was a single man with few attachments so I started to travel. My home became a mailbox in New Jersey. Now you might think that keeping track of all your travel expenses would be annoying. The federal government though made that easy. The standard travel deduction for most metropolitan areas was $100 per day and if it was cheaper to stay than it was to travel home, you could take that deduction for 7 days each week. Now my expenses did not run $3000 a month. I would rent an apartment for $800/month, do my own cooking so food was maybe $300/month. Electricity, water, heat, cable whatever, might cost me another $300/month. All told, my expenses were rarely half of the $3000/month I was deducting off my tax return.
There was one gotcha to this tax rule. The federal government rules that if a person stayed at the same job for 27 months, then that person was not traveling. They had moved…. 27 months ago. This meant that if I stuck around that long, I would owe the taxes on that $81000. To add insult to injury, even if I just took another position that was within 50 miles of that position, it was still considered the same location. So every 2 years I would quit whatever position I had (most of my contracts didn’t actually last that long) and move to another part of the country.
Still, this $36500/year tax deduction was a nice boon. But they kept on nibbling away on this. Originally it was on the Schedule A and the deduction occurred before you calculated your AGI. They later moved it to a post after the AGI was calculated so the lower AGI no longer affected when other deductions kicked in. Later they decided that 20% of that $100/day was for food. If you were home, you still had to eat, so they considered that 25% of that 20% is no longer deductible. this changed the $100/day to $95/day. And each year, the deduction was lessened.
After a few years, I married and my wife didn’t want to travel around the country with me. I stopped contracting and I have no idea whatever happened to that deduction.
Gonzalo Lira’s DEATH update. US State Dept. confirms his death. They did NOTHING to support him.
My daughter had turned two a couple months before. She was really fussy that day but I had to go to work. Three hours later I got a phone call from her daycare telling me that she was crying a lot and couldn’t move her leg. There was no swelling or bruising or anything. I was stuck at work and had a minimum 45 minute commute back. So they offered to take her to the ER for me. I got off as soon as I could and rushed to meet them.
By the time I got there, they had already done blood/urine tests and x-rays. When the doctor came in he went through everything they tested for and said he couldn’t find anything. I was confused and asked him why she couldn’t move her leg and was in so much pain. He gave me this stupid smile and said “Well it could just be growing pains. But I think she just wants attention. If you could bother spending time with your child instead of working she would be happier. If you are still worried go ahead and take her to her regular doctor on Monday”. I demanded to have a second opinion and the doctor refused. I was told if I didn’t leave the hospital he would call security and force me to leave.
I was pissed! It isn’t as if I wake up and think “Gee I don’t feel like dealing with my kid I am just dropping her off at daycare”. I am a single mom, I don’t receive any kind of child support, don’t go out or have a social life, and have to work to pay the bills (including medical insurance for both of us). I was handed a piece of paper that said to just give her Tylenol every few hours, spend “quality time” with her, and see her regular doctor on Monday if the pain continues. I took my crying baby home (it was 3 AM on Saturday morning) and stayed up trying to figure out what to do next.
(BTW)
I called in to work that morning; my gas tank was almost on empty, I had $11 to last until my next pay check (a week away), and our regular doctor was the next town over (about 20 miles away). By 8 AM I called my sister and borrowed some cash, filled up my tank, called our doctor on his cellphone, and took her to the ER next to his office. Our doctor tried to get the test results from the other ER, but they said they couldn’t find the paper work. Instead of waiting, the doctor ran his own tests. Thank god he did!
We were there less than 30 minutes when the doctor came in and said he was rushing her to Wichita (3+ hour drive away). It was complicated because he wanted to fly her there but our tiny ER didn’t have an area for the plane and she needed to be there immediately. They hooked her up with an IV, we got in the ambulance, had a police escort, and lights/sirens the entire way (it took about two hours to get there). I was freaking out. There was no time for the doctor to explain what was going on and the paramedics said that they weren’t sure exactly what was happening but was told she wasn’t allowed to move at all. My poor baby was strapped down head to toe and terrified.
When we got to the hospital there was a team of doctors and nurses waiting in the bay. They rushed her away; I wasn’t allowed to follow, and I had to speak with the police and DCF. They asked me a bunch of questions about our visit to the other ER, where I was when she was at daycare, what my daughter’s symptoms were before going to the ER, what the doctor told me, what paperwork I was given, and if they had permission to look at her medical records.
I kept asking to see my daughter and what the hell was going on. Finally an hour later a nurse came out and explained that my daughter was going septic, flat-lined once, and they had to figure out where the infection was and what was happening to her. She was rushed into emergency surgery shortly after that.
Turns out my daughter had a pouch in her hip joint that was filled with MRSA. It had begun to leak into her tiny body. Any slight movement could have ruptured the pouch and within minutes killed her. The doctors in Wichita said if I had waited even one hour longer to bring her in she would have died. She was in the hospital for two weeks. After she was discharged she had to stay on very heavy duty antibiotics for seven weeks, physical therapy for four months, and bi-weekly blood tests for a year. She still has pain sometimes when she walks or runs; the infection ate away some of the lining around her hip joint, and she will most likely have arthritis when she is older.
We still don’t know for sure how she ended up with this infection. The only thing we can figure is she got it from me since I work at a hospital. She did have bronchitis a few weeks before this experience but it is normal since she has asthma.
Here’s what I found out later:
The ER my daughter originally had gone to refused to give up her medical files and our doctor knew something was very wrong. He had been our family doctor since my daughter was two months old and well as a friend/doctor to the rest of our family over 10 years. I was that annoying first-time worry-wart mom but never neglectful and never brought my daughter to an ER without something really being wrong. Our doctor called the sheriff and explained an investigation had to be checked out. The sheriff got a hold of DCF and they began an investigation. That is when they figured out quickly what had happened.
The dickhead ER doctor had never looked at her test results (which showed a very high white blood cell count)! When our doctor had requested the files the other doctor actually tried to destroy the evidence that we were ever there (thank god for computers). The doctor was arrested and pled guilty to a bunch of different charges. He lost his license and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Basically the entire concept of Minions, honestly.
The plot of this 2015 animated children’s movie can aptly be described in one sentence
A race of genetic yellow freaks become hellbent on villainy, and vow to serve the most evil villain they can find
Throughout the movie’s opening montage, the minions meet several well-known historical and mythological figures, including Count Dracula, Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte.
This seems innocent at first, especially given the cartoonish depictions of said historical figures in the movie. But an internet user took to Tumblr to analyse exactly what these scenes implied for the minions in the greater historical landscape
According to the official Minions Movie, the Minions:
Assisted Napoleon in invading most of Europe, racking up a total death count of around 3 Million
Assisted Genghis Khan in invading just about all of China and racking up a total death count of roughly 40 Million people
Plus that of the T Rex, Caveman, Pharaoh, King, Captain, and Dracula
So we know for a fact they took part in 43 Million deaths. Not to mention they also killed all of their former masters, so add them to the total.
But this also implies there is a strong chance the Minions are going to kill Gru
Conclusion:
Minions are bloodthirsty monsters that should not be glorified in any way.
[1] I’m no historian, but this all sounds about right to me. It’s horrifying to think that in this universe, minions are responsible for pretty much every war crime and atrocity in human history.
And to make matters even worse, the Minions retire to Antarctica after the fall of Napoleon, where they remain until 1968, when the main plot takes place. The Minions were conveniently exiled during WW2 in order to avoid the implications that the minions were Nazis, but by writing around it, the movie still implies that the minions would have worked for Hitler if they were around.
I have been out of the Army well over 50 years when things were somewhat tougher than I expect hey are today. I never saw anyone hit. I had an E-6 Platoon Sergeant, named Walter Streets. He was about 6′4″ and towered over me. He was black and I am white.
He knew I was a good recruit and would become a good soldier. I developed Pneumonia while I was in Basic at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and went on antibiotics just before the PT test. I was doing the last phase of the test, which was running track. I was having trouble making the last lap and he ran out onto the track and put his arm around me and ran with me. Another Drill Sargeant who stood about only 5′4″ came out and complained to Sargeant Streets who bent down and told him to “F” off. I passed the test.
When I got on the bus to AIT at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Sargeant Streets gave me a small bottle of whiskey and told me to drink it all on the trip. He told my buddies to throw their overcoats over me on the back of the bus and by the time I got to AIT the pneumonia was gone. It’s actually 58 years ago and I learned how great some Drill Sargeants can be. I wish I could thank him again today!
I have lived this. When I was 23, I found out we were expecting. At 23 you don’t think anything will be wrong with your baby. That happens to older women, not young people like me. Well the truth is it happens more often with younger women because they are typically having more children than the older women.
At my 16 week ultrasound we really went into it just hoping we would find out the sex of the baby. Instead we left with fear and uncertainty and they weren’t able to tell us the gender. Basically they told us they were able to get a good look at the back of the babies neck but they had a feeling there was some type of abnormality.
So I was referred to a specialist for a level 2 ultrasound and further testing.
A few days later I went to the specialist along with my Mom and one of my sisters who had a medical background. After the ultrasound we were told that there was definitely something wrong with the baby and they thought it was either Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida or Cerebral Palsy.
I was offered the option to terminate and/or do an amnio to find out exactly what was wrong. They also still couldn’t see the baby’s gender. I decided to do the amniocentesis but I made it very clear to the doctor that I was not terminating the pregnancy no matter what the results. Approx 10 days later I called my OBGYNs office and was told they would call me back.
They called me back in just a few minutes to tell me that the doctor was on vacation but he was coming in to talk to me, how quickly can you get here? I knew that didn’t mean good news. My husband couldn’t get off work again so my mom and sister met me there.
My doctor took us into his office and said. “You are having a boy! But he does have Down Syndrome”. I was totally broken with this news.
I sobbed in his office with my family. I mourned the child I thought I would have. I mourned for months. Probably even after my son was born. My husband gave me an ultimatum, either have an abortion or we get a divorce.
I took the divorce and never looked back. I was always pro-life. I am still pro-life. My ex was mad. He was mad at the world. He was mad with God. He knew plenty of people that smoked or did drugs in their pregnancy and their babies were fine.
I wouldn’t even drink caffeine and our baby was going to be “retarded”. (His word, not mine). I could never choose to have an abortion. It wasn’t my body or life. I was just the vessel. I couldn’t get him to understand that what if we had a “normal” child and down the road the child was diagnosed with cancer or had a life changing accident that left them disabled? He couldn’t answer me. He could only say “if you have this baby, then I will never be able to have a boat”. (He was a winner).
But when my son was 5, I met a wonderful man who loved us both. We were married and he adopted my son and we have two other kids now.
Has it been easy? No but who said parenthood was easy?
Even with typical children. Jacob is 23, he has graduated high school, he has a job that he loves and so much more. He will never be able to drive or live on his own but so what?
He is high functioning, smart, talks ALOT, no heart issues, no major health issues and a wonderful personality. He loves Jesus, Disney and his family. And we wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Mama left in the middle of the night with my daddy’s best friend. She didn’t show up for the divorce hearing and that gave my daddy full custody. They had been married for 18 years. Suddenly she was gone. I was 5 years old.
I told myself I could never leave my children like that. I remember the feeling of abandonment. I was her only daughter, she left my brothers as well. One was 10, the other was 4.
My family that I was left with didn’t care much for me. I was a girl, strike one. I looked exactly like my mama, strike two. I finally revealed the sexual abuse I was being tortured with at the hands of my uncle, huge strike three. So, rejection has been a big problem for me in my lifetime. I never wanted to make my own children feel unloved and unwanted. But… I did.
I didn’t leave them physically. I had a problem with alcohol at a very early age. By the time I was 40 I was a full-blown alcoholic. For the next 10 years I was in a drunken stupor, in mental hospitals because of suicide attempts and in jail. It ruled my life and took ME away from my son and daughter during their teenage years. Thank God I married a solid gold man who is always present for our children.
I turned 50 in County jail serving my 90 days for my 4th DUI. That was the very last time I was in custody. We sold our home soon after that and moved to an apartment for the first time in our married life. Our children were both married and living on their own. When we drove away from that home I took that monkey off my back and flung her out the window. I’ve not had a drop of alcohol since. The craving is gone and has not returned for 12 years now. YAY!!!
We can try not to repeat the sins or mistakes of our parents, but be mindful of those mistakes because you could be hurting your family the same just by acting in a different way.
What I’m going to speak on is something that you should never, ever share with anyone but your most trusted friends and siblings (and you should never share it with your parents or any of your friends that you don’t trust to act accordingly), in addition to your coworkers.
You should never, ever share your marital or relationship issues with any of those people. If you get in a huge fight with your spouse or partner, you should never share the details of it with anyone but the people you trust the most.
You see, when you share the details of a fight with a close friend who doesn’t have the ability to internalize all of the details, the next time that friend sees your spouse, they very well might treat your partner differently, based on what you told them.
A fight between a husband and wife especially should never be shared with anyone but your very closest friend, and you absolutely NEED to have one person that you can share it with, otherwise, you’ll never get an objective truth about who was really right in the fight.
When my wife and I get into a fight (we’ve had exactly three over the last five years), I call one person; my best friend Casey. Would you care to know why I call him specifically, even though I have two other friends that I’m just as close with or closer with?
Casey will tell me the truth, no matter what. If I’m wrong, and I was acting like an asshole, he will absolutely tell me so. That’s extremely valuable information, and I can think on what he tells me and take it back to my wife.
If he tells me that I’m right, and that she’s completely wrong in her argument, I’ll keep it to myself, because throwing that in her face won’t do anything but escalate the situation and cause her to have animosity toward Casey, who is our daughter’s favorite person in the world outside of her blood family.
My wife always calls her best friend Rae, which makes me happy, because Rae is very similar to Casey, in the way that she’ll tell my wife the truth of the matter, even if the truth is that my wife was wrong. Also, both Casey and Rae have the ability to completely internalize all of their knowledge about the fight when next we all see one another, and don’t treat either of us differently. If that wasn’t the case, Casey wouldn’t be able to talk to my wife without being disrespectful, and Rae might slap me every time she sees me.
I’ve known quite a few people who have spoken freely about fights with their spouse, and who have even badmouthed their spouse in front of everyone present. In my opinion, there isn’t much that can be more disrespectful to your spouse and your marriage. You’re giving everyone present a horrible picture of your spouse, and making everyone think that your marriage is some kind of argument-ridden catastrophe.
Everyone that I work with believes my wife to be an absolute angel. From what I’ve told them, she is by far the perfect woman. I never tell them when we argue, or when she does something stupid (like switching the bags for my lunch and the dirty cat litter), or anything negative about our marriage.
Nobody should be airing their dirty laundry at work. Period.
If you needed a few billion bucks to establish a commercial aircraft industry, you would think at least 30 nations would have had their own fully operational commercial aircraft right?
Let’s see
Threshold Engineers & Researchers
To commercially manufacture Aircraft you need a minimum threshold workforce of engineers & researchers
Aerospace, Aeronautical and a whole bunch of engineers with significant experience working for commercial aircraft or who have studied commercial aircraft production and assembly
The Magic number for China was 25,000 to be able to draw from
This happened only by 2014–2015
Prior to that every Aerospace Engineer or Designer worked for Defence Manufacturing or for the Space Agency
Boeing alone has a workforce of 61,000 Engineers and 4300 Researchers
The West combined has close to 160,000 Engineers and Researchers in their workforce for Commercial Aircraft Manufacture
By comparison COMAC has 11,280 Engineers and around 900 Researchers
Chinas largest workforce is for
Production Engineering (1998–2004)
Civil Engineering (1982–1998)
Chemical Engineering & Metallurgy (2004–2012) & Electrical Engineering (2004–2012)
Automobile Engineering (2012–2019)
Tooling & Precision Engineering (2019-)
Even today China has around 34,000 Engineers and Researchers as total workforce for Commercial Aircraft Production
Competition
You aren’t competing with just Boeing or Airbus
Your competition is with Boeing, Rolls Royce, GE, Safran, Michelin, Dunlop and another 700–1200 companies that make from the largest airframe to the smallest on board electronic assembly
The Airframe alone to carry such a huge aircraft is a massive challenge
The Wind Tunnel System
The Electronics
The Wheels
Every part especially the Engine is a result of decades of continuous development by the West from the First World War
China this needed to get the Airframe Right
This alone took a decade
They then used a Canadian entity called Bombardier to get the electronics and the supply chain
They then got the electronics right. That took four years.
Then they got the Composite Wing Design and that was seven years.
That finished by 2021
They still have the largest nut to crack – THE ENGINE!!!!
Plus remember Mitsubishi has been unable to break into this market after 45 years
Economic Fiscal Problem
Like our Bullet Train, this Airliner was deemed a project that could never hope to break even by Chinas best economists
It’s why they proposed the HSR or Highways where China is the boss, the master of the fantastic quality supply Chain
It’s why China is investing so heavily into HSR
That’s their core area
Sadly the Comac is more of a prestige issue by China
To have their own fully made aircraft is acceptable even if the aircraft costs some money to the State as subsidies to keep at even keel
Its why China sidestepped IC Engines which they could never ever perfect and are masters of EV Batteries and E Platforms on earth
The Aircraft has to be made fully indigenously on a huge scale to break even because today the selling price is lower than what it costs on an accountants scale
In 1990 – China could certainly not afford to subsidize the Aircraft by any degree of money that they can easily do in their sleep today
So establishing an Industry and producing commercially is not a joke
It takes decades of solid hard work
You are competing against a technology evolution of over 60 years or 70 years from the West
You have specialized suppliers and makers of mother machines – all who need replication
Exactly why Chinas EVs and Renewable Energy models are next to impossible to recapture by any other nation
They have the whole package
China is likely to do far better in developing commercial self flying taxis on a drone concept which can travel as far as 600 Kms on indigenous technology and dominate the world
I worked at this large busy engineering factory. There was a store keeper who also worked there. He had a different role to all of the other store keepers.
He had his own desk. He had big tubs of machine cutters on his desk. His own computer. At the back of his desk, he had shelves filled with box files.
He was always busy. He never had to work shifts like the rest of us. He worked regular days.
Redundency came and he successfully applied for it. He left.
The other store keepers were told that they had to include his job into their own job. They kicked off about and went to the union. The union told them to “ just do what you can”
The store keepers decided to find out what it was that he did. The cutters were old stock, and they were chucked away. The files were full of old unimportant paper work, they were chucked away too.
If you had a lathe tool that needed to be sharpened, he would have to book it in. Those lathe tools had been made obsolete years before.
He basically never had a job. He never did anything. Nobody ever questioned him. He looked so busy and important. And he’d been doing this for years.
She needs to be happy
Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives (Kotopoulo me Tomatoes kai Elies)
Ingredients
Flour (for dredging)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (3 pound) frying chicken, cut into 6 to 8 serving pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large red onions, peeled, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled, minced
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped plum tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Combine flour, salt and pepper on a plate and lightly dredge the chicken.
Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large, deep skillet and brown the chicken on all sides, over high heat. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Add remaining olive oil to skillet, and sauté onions until wilted and lightly browned. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
Place chicken back in the pan. Pour in the tomatoes and wine, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
Ten minutes before removing from heat, add the crumbled feta and stir until melted. Five minutes before removing from heat, add olives and oregano.
Of course it is the despicable and obnoxious USA! Everyone knows it and everyone knows it is the U.S. that is hurting the work.
But if Americans are smart enough, which suspect the are not, a much more salient question would be “will it work?”
I absolutely won’t and it will harm the US economy much more than it ever hurt the Chinese economy.
Why? Very simple.
The U.S. market is simply a lot smaller than China and threatening not to sell to them is threatening to lose a market bigger than the world’s next 10 biggest market combine!
China can and will buy from someone else or it will simply make it themselves just like how Huawei Mate 60 surprised the U.S. who naively thinks that China will need at least 30 years to make it own high end chips China took less than 3 short year! And now the U.S. is well and truly fxxked!
China stops buying not only for their own consumers that is 30% of the world, it also stop using the U.S. chips in the product they make for the rest of the world or at least another 40% more. So the U.S. gets cuts away from 70% of the world’s market!
Next threatening not to buy from China who can simply make things better, faster and cheaper than everyone else is like threatening to bring inflation to its shores. Let alone depriving your own people from productivity and profit. Hence your crippling inflation. Increasing interest levels to fight inflation caused your bank failures and hurt investment! All are very bad for the US!
Now let’s evaluate the result of the trade war initiated by the U.S. The U.S. inflation were double digit at one point but now 3–4%. China’s inflation rate is 0.3%!
In the 5 years since the trade war China grew 5 times faster than the U.S.! Your trade with China grew from less than 200 billion before the trade war to more than 700 billion last year!
So who is winning the trade war? China is laughing all the way to the bank!
All the mothers in the town was doing it. It was supposed to be liberating. At the time it made no sense to me. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I just didn’t know.
Dad didn’t like it.
That was for sure. And he explained it to me that “Your mother is going through a phase”.
…
Three Years Later…
…
In 1975, my parents split up.
On the surface, it was because of work reasons, and my mother and dad went separate ways. Ah, many contributors were involved certainly. But looking back in hindsight…
…I cannot help but think that the destruction of our family, while I was a early teenager, was set in motion by the woman’s feminist movement that set “the ball rolling”.
Listen up!
We have to pay attention to what is going on around us. If we do not, the potential for catastrophic events becomes exponential.
Finding a use for them. No really, why would we use tanks? You westerners and your WW2 mentality.
In 2021 there were 600,000 privately registered drones, there’s many more, I have several unregistered drones, I don’t fly them so they don’t need registration. Chinese companies pioneered drone displays of thousands of drones…
There’s airborne drone food delivery in Shenzhen now.
There are fire drones used to clean powerlines
In statista 5 million drones of various types were exported in 2020 and this increased to 7 million in 2021. That doesn’t even consider domestic use and purchases.
A fella knocked on my door at midnight in mid-town Houston on a Saturday. Middle-aged well-dressed white guy. His impeccable $75,000 black Ford top-of-the-line diesel pickup was idling in my driveway.
I was not concerned at all about opening the door, because I stopped to put a .38 Smith with a 2″ barrel in the back pocket of my jeans and my well-trained 80-pound black Labrador was sitting next to me looking at this guy with great curiosity.
Me: “Hey there! What’s up?” Walter the Lab wags his tail and watches.
Guy: “Hi neighbor! I live right over there (spins his arm 360 degrees) and I have a big problem! My car broke down and my wife isn’t home. I had a tow truck bring me to the house, but I can’t get in because I forgot my keys, and can’t get to my money to pay him! Can I borrow $80 until tomorrow?
“Otherwise he’s going to tow my truck to impound and it’s going to cost me $300. Can you help a neighbor out? I’m for real! Look! I have a Rolex on my wrist and a $1200 laptop in my truck!”
Those of you who own Labradors know that they are the most human of dogs, and can communicate with just a glance.
Walter’s eyes are saying: “Pop! This creepy bastard has no pupils! I think he’s a drug-money seeking asshole!”
I sigh, because this dog is great, but he has an irritating habit of eye-stating the obvious. Jeez!
I’m not going to say, as my dog would: “There is no wrecker. Your truck is running. You have your keys.”
Instead, I say: “Glad to help! I have a $100 bill. Give me the laptop. Leave the truck keys, pay the wrecker, and just come back tomorrow and bring me back the C-note and pick up your truck and computer!”
The guy looks at me. Moments pass. He says: “The wrecker guy ain’t got no change. I’ll try another neighbor.”
And he was gone.
Damn dog treats me like an idiot.
Greek Chicken and Rice (Kotta Pilafi)
Ingredients
6 chicken breasts (about 3 pounds)
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
2 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked rice
Dairy sour cream for garnish
Instructions
Sauté chicken breasts in butter until golden brown. Add onion, tomato, water, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add rice and stir to mix evenly. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes longer or until the rice is tender. Add more water if necessary.
Serve with a bowl of sour cream to be spooned over the rice.
Serves 6.
Additions called in from Bessie: Use one whole broiler (3 pounds) cut up into pieces. Sauté in 1/4 cup olive oil (not butter). Use 3 cups boiling water with the rice instead of 2 cups (you won’t have to add water later this way).
Many years ago I parked my car in an underground car park when I went to see my girlfriend.
After a few hours I went to leave and as I was walking towards my car and as I got to about 30 to 40 yards from it I heard my car door shut (my car moved so I knew it was mine) and this person jumped up and started running carrying a large bag.
I yelled at him to stop, give back anything he stole and I will not call the police but he ignored me. As he had the jump on me, I hoped into my car and took off after him.
He managed to get to the stair well before me, but only just.
So I jumped out of the car and with the help of what I can only call an angry adrenaline release, he only managed to get about 20 yards past the exit and I gave him my best attempt at a body slam tackle and flattened him.
He was unlucky enough to have me land on top of him which left him badly winded. As I sat on him, I opened the bag he was carrying and it contained my stereo and a pile of other things out of my car, plus some other stereos and stuff.
This was before the time of cell phones, fortunately 4 passerby’s had come over to find out what was going on and as soon as I told them he was stealing stuff from the cars, one went to the nearest appartments and managed to ring the police while the others stayed with me.
The police were there within minutes and they happily took the person away including all the stolen items.
Then I went down to the police station, made out a statement with the police and retrieved my stolen items after the police had recorded them.
I went back to my girlfriends to make out some signs to put into the carpark to let others know what had happened and where to retrieve their stolen stuff.
Turned out there had been car breakins going on for several months in the area and he was charged with them (fingerprints confirmed it was him).
Didn’t need to go to court as he pled guilty, but he was forced to pay me for the damage to my dash and door lock and refitting the stereo.
That was one of those really great memories for it is not often you can actually catch the person doing this sort of thing.
Political DANGERS of Chat GBT
Must watch.
Will China go to war over Taiwan, or just say a few strong words?
Yes.
Taiwan is a region of China. China owns it.
The Chinese say so.
The Taiwanese say so.
The United States says so also.
So…
If the United States goes full-on stupid and tries to conduct a war “over” Taiwan for one excuse or the other… then KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE. The world will experience full on thermonuclear war. We are all gonna die.
…
China will go “light-switch”.
One day there is New York city, the next day, it is flat radioactive glass.
…
And you just cannot blame them. I mean if the PLA is marching inside Philadelphia… bombing and blowing up the bridges of San Francisco… or Chicago reduced to cinders…
…wouldn’t the United States start lobbing nuclear missiles also?
…
Let’s keep things real. The United States says one thing, but does something else. It’s like a petulant child that keeps on pushing the boundaries, and then one day gets hit by a Mac Truck barrelling down the highway.
The United States is a slow motion train wreck… and soon it will die.
I composed the following to address several objections raised to Lavrov’s End of Year Presser provided in the previous article by those at the Moon of Alabama blog that can be found on this thread. Those wanting to read about China’s Initiative mentioned below can find in several pages back in the Gym’s archives, same with Wang Yi’s 9 January speech. Other points presented I’ve written about many times over the years, the outlaw nature of the USA was formulated in the mid-1980s, although I don’t claim originality. Of course, knowing the entire context behind the complaints and my writing is crucial. Those few readers who’ve read everything at the Gym will have the greatest understanding. I should also use this opportunity to suggest readers to sometime soon read/watch Dr. Hudson’s latest interview on the Big Picture as well as his almost as recent interview with an Indian organization on Neoliberalism/”Perfecting Imperialism”.
When a law is passed, it’s either obeyed or violated. The UN Charter is a corpus of laws that was signed and ratified by all nations wanting to become UN members–one must be done for the other to occur. Once a nation agrees to obey a law it becomes an outlaw if it disobeys. As documented many times here and elsewhere, at the moment the UN Charter attained its legal status, the USA and many other Western signatories were already violating the law and thus became outlaws. An Outlaw remains an Outlaw until it’s brought to justice and as part of its penalty says it will refrain from breaking the law again. Since all those outlaw nations have yet to face justice for their actions, they remain outlaws. It’s really that simple. When the history of the making of the UN Charter is studied, it becomes very clear that the Four Freedoms are at the base of it and are within both the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Part of my Big Picture argument is that WW2 never really ended as the fixtures that were to provide for a lasting peace were never attained: Denazification of Europe was prevented by the USA, UK and France, meaning they immediately broke the covenant by which they were rewarded with permanent UNSC seats and vetoes. Thus, the three main Plundering nations immediately gained outlaw status by November 1945, and have retained that status ever since.
The Global Majority Movement aims to right the wrongs that emerged in November 1945, the primary document being China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), which is essentially a restatement of the UN Charter specifying no hegemonic nations will be allowed to join. If such nations are to exist, they will exist outside the primary global organization and will remain outlaws since they choose to be outside the laws of nations. Such a reorganization of the UN will eliminate the “privatization” of its global agencies by the hegemonic outlaws that’s impeding their ability to do good and exacerbating the potential for them to do ill, like the subversion happening at the World Health Organization. Of course, the reorganization won’t be perfect–there’ll always be problems with governance no matter what, which is Putin’s mantra, the point being to accept that fact and continue to strive for excellence. Wang Yi in his New Year’s speech on 9 January said it’s China’s goal to make the GSI a reality this year as a supermajority of the world’s nations have already said they will join.
The League of Nations failed for a number of reasons. The UN is failing because it’s held hostage by outlaws. Humanity needs an organization global in breadth that helps Humanity organize to advance its wellbeing while solving problems affecting the global community, a fact differing little from the visions expressed by many in 1944. The reformed UN will immediately be improved since it’s no longer held hostage, and the Security Council will be reformulated to exist without the veto since there’re no hegemonic members requiring it to protect themselves from justice.
Humanity is on the cusp of evolving beyond armed conflict to solve problems. Universal moral values have advanced for that goal to be possible, but to-date the hegemonic outlaw nations impede that progress. It appears the best way to change their behavior is to relegate them to the Out Group until they prove their behavior’s changed and they’ve atoned for their outlaw past. Yes, the outlaw nations will yell and squeal, stomp their feet, pull their hair, and propose all sorts of threats that prove exactly what they are and why they need to sit in the corner and think about their actions like the small children they show themselves to be. Yes, it will probably take a generation or so (20 years) for them to figure it out–they’ve been serial outlaws for almost 80 years and even longer before that, so their ways are habitual.
The job is to formulate the future so Humanity cannot just survive but thrive. The past can and will be argued about endlessly, which is a given. But enough about the past is agreed upon so the future can be formulated and constructed. It’s time to take a big step outside the box to do what must be done. As was once said: Lead, follow or get out of the way.
A major requirement of conducting effective foreign policy is to understand the viewpoint of your main competitors, something that the Western elites have shown increasingly less able to do. There are exceptions, such as Stephen Cohen, but these are rapidly sidelined. More recently, John Mearsheimer has shown some ability to understand the Russian point of view with respect ton the Ukrainian conflict. In this essay, I try to place myself in the shoes of the Chinese leadership. I will do the same for Russia and Iran in future pieces.
China Gains More Strength Every Year
China is the manufacturing power house of the world and is focused on dominating the leading technology sectors the way that the US dominated them previously; this technology leadership is one of the remaining tenets of US power. In early 2023, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute placed China in the lead in 37 of the 44 critical technology areas that it tracks. The US was the leader in the remaining 7, with a large gap between China and the US and any other nations; Europe is nowhere.
In late 2023 the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) confirmed this, seeing China leading in 7 out of 10 of the industries within its Hamilton Index; computers and electronics; chemicals; machinery and equipment; motor vehicles; basic metals; fabricated metals; and electrical equipment. The US lead in only IT and information services, other transportation and pharmaceuticals. The share of Chinese production in these 10 industries nearly doubled from 2008 to 2020, from 12.9% to 23.9%, while the US improved a bit from 19.3% to 21.5%; with US gains predominantly due to the IT and information services area. Chinese industry is 70% more focused than the US in advanced industries. The ITIF report notes that:
For the United States, losing this race, either because policymakers are indifferent to the country’s industrial structure or because they choose to focus on other economic or societal goals, would be catastrophic, as it would turn the United States into a deindustrialized, United Kingdom-like economy. Time is short. The 2020s are likely to be the decisive decade in which to turn around U.S. advanced industry fortunes, because once China gains sufficient global market share, allied and U.S. production risks being permanently weakened.
The Chinese leadership very much understands this, and this is the core area of the real economic war between the West and China. From 1995 to 2020, Japan’s production share of advanced industries collapsed and is now only about 7.5% and falling, Germany’s share fell from a lower start level to about 7% and continues to fall. In the same period, the UK, France and Italy have all fallen to shares well under 5%. Japan and Europe are an advanced technology backwater, and becoming more so. With the huge investment mistakes of the Japanese car industry with respect to electric vehicles, Japan’s fall may even accelerate in the next decade.
Chinese GDP, and GDP per capita, growth continues to far outpace the West with continued growth of 5% or more per year. This creates strong Party-state legitimacy as the Chinese people see their lives improve year over year, at a pace that still doubles incomes every 14 years. Chinese GDP at PPP in 2023 was 32.9 US$ trillion, compared to 26.95 for the US, 6.49 for Japan, 5.54 for Germany, 3.87 for the UK and the same for France, 3.05 for Italy, and 2.8 for South Korea. At current relative growth rates, Chinese GDP will be pretty much equal to all of those other Western nations within a decade, while its GDP per capita at PPP will have grown from US$23,309 to US$37,968; about the same level that the Greeks currently enjoy.
With rising incomes, and industries rapidly moving up the technology curve, China will be able to offshore more and more of the simpler production steps while keeping the higher technology ones to itself; greatly increasing the level of integration of the ASEAN nations, and quite possibly North Korea. China’s neighbourhood will become more and more integrated with it, while Japan may shrink in both relative and absolute terms. China will also be capable of transacting more and more of its trade in Yuan rather than US dollars.
China has a massive population of 1.4 billion, which started to decline in 2022; with a median age of 39. Between 2020 and 2040 however, the Chinese labour force will only fall by 8%, a decrease which pales when compared to the probable increase in per capita GDP. China also has a strange income structure where the much better educated younger workers 25-34 have the highest incomes, and income falls rapidly in older age groups. This will facilitate large increases in older age groups over time, as the much higher levels of education move their way up the age curve. Chinese GDP per capita can also increase very substantially before it starts to reach Western levels. Demographics may pose an issue after 2050, but not before then.
The rapid move to electric vehicles will also start to cut into oil demand, reducing a Chinese dependence upon imported oil that currently stands at over 10 million barrels per day. As those imports fall, the share of Russian and Central Asian imports will rise, as will the share of domestic production (4 Mbpd). The amount of time that China’s large strategic oil reserve will last during a crisis will also steadily increase.
China has kept military spending at 2% of GDP, but as the economy keeps growing so does military expenditures. China’s expenditures are significantly more efficient and effective as those of the US as they are only focused on the defence of China and its environs, rather than on global hegemony. There also seems to be much less graft and profiteering in China’s MIC (Military Industrial Complex) than that of the privatized US one. In addition, China’s great advantages in manufacturing give its MIC a significant advantage over that of the US. China is in the position of the US in the 1980s, with a rapidly growing economy facilitating ongoing increases in military spending. The US is in the position of the Soviet Union, with a slow growing economy that will require the MIC to take up an increasing share of GDP to keep pace with China. A dynamic that can only reduce further the dynamism of the US economy with respect to China’s.
The US Loses Strength Every Year
The US main allies, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are not well placed when it comes to leading technology sectors, drivers of growth and even demographics. Its hemisphere is also one full of lower growth economies with few technology leaders, in fact South America has significantly de-industrialized over the past few decades.
In the leading technology sectors the US may have gained a little against the rest of the world, and may pick up some of the energy-intensive European manufacturing operations, but has been overtaken by China and is falling further behind each year. The contrasting performance of the Chinese and US car industries in moving to electric vehicles is just one example of this dynamic, with Chinese car exports surging while US manufacturers (excluding Tesla) become more and more dependant on the US market.
Over the past three decades the US has expanded colossal amounts of money on foreign military adventures, at a cost of over US$6 trillion, with little to show in return. At the same time the US economy has become increasingly dominated by monopolies, oligopolies and the financial sector; the rentier sector of the economy has expanded greatly while manufacturing has been diminished. The US, including its bloated, profiteering, and dysfunctional MIC, is very dependent upon imported parts, including those from China and from other nations that utilize Chinese components. At the same time, the US maintains a massively expensive global network of bases and naval battle fleets.
In great contrast to the average Chinese person, the average American has seen their incomes at best wallow at the same level for decades as all economic gains are concentrated at the very peak of the income distribution. This has been exacerbated by the inflation spurt of the past few years, and now also rising interest rates. With a couple of decades of cheap money creating a mountain of debt, much incurred by working people in an attempt to maintain consumption patterns. Trust in societal institutions is at an all time low, and the “Trump vs the Rest” elite civil war has increasingly exposed the inner working of the elites to the population; tanking trust and legitimacy levels even more. A further wedge has been driven into the political scene with the issue of US support for the Zionist genocide. The year 2024 promises to be one of increasing political chaos and upheaval, with 2025 probably no better. It may well be into 2026 before any domestic stability and foreign policy focus can be regained. There is also still the possibility of a deep recession.
The US population is 335 million, which is slowly growing due to significant immigration offsetting a record low birth rate and an increasing death rate. Average life expectancy has been declining since 2014 due to increases in drug overdoses, liver disease and suicides. Trends reminiscent of the Russian experience in the 1990s; deaths of despair due to working class immiseration made worse by a rapacious profiteering health care sector. The mishandling of the COVID pandemic has added to this declining trend. The younger US population is increasingly overweight, unfit and poorly educated as shown by the falling percentage that would meet the military recruitment requirements. Only 23% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are eligible to join without being granted a waiver, down from 29% in recent years. Increasing disillusionment with US institutions, and low pay, has also lead to less and less younger people wanting to serve. The US position on the Gaza genocide is opposed by a majority of younger US citizens, which may serve to increase the disaffection with military careers even more. The physical quality of those that do leaves much to be desired:
They have to teach them how to run, and they’ve had issues with bone density to the point that, when they do run them, they’ve ended up breaking a leg or worse, a hip,” the former official said. “I’ve even heard in some cases they’re putting them on diets of Ensure — you know, the stuff for old [people] like me — in order to build that bone density.
The US role in the seizing of Russia’s central bank foreign assets, and the cutting off of Russia from SWIFT, has accelerated the move to trading in local currency pairs instead of via the US$. Its inability to corral more than its Western vassals into a coalition of the willing against Russia has seriously damaged its soft power position. The more recent embroilment in the Zionist genocide has done significantly further damage to that soft power, in contrast to a China that has maintained a carefully balanced approach. If the US drags itself further into the Middle Eastern quagmire, in addition to the Ukrainian one, the “pivot to Asia” will be put off for yet more years.
Europe Is Losing Its Relevance
With the cessation of cheap fossil fuel imports from Russia, Europe is no longer competitive in energy-intensive manufacturing and plants will tend to move to other nations with lower energy costs. Interesting that the CEO of Solvay, a Belgian chemical company never mentions the loss of cheap Russian natural gas as a challenge; instead she blames too much government red tape and not enough subsidies, staying on message at the World Economic Forum:
DW manages to cover every possible determinant for German deindustrialization, except for the self-harming Russia sanctions. The higher energy prices are mentioned, but not that they could be reversed simply by cancelling the sanctions. That option cannot be discussed within acceptable German political discourse; i.e. outside the AfD. Neither of course, the true purveyors of the terrorist attack upon Nordstream 2.
In addition, Europe’s inability to gain a strong position in the leading technology sectors places it at risk of being out-competed by other nations moving up the technology curve. The tendency toward fiscal austerity, together with the ongoing costs of supporting Ukraine and increased military expenditures, hamstring any attempts to fund a fulsome industrial upgrading strategy. The centrally important car industry, which supports so many other sectors of the economy, is deeply challenged. It faces the annihilation of its sales in China, which provide up to 50% of the profitability of the major producers, and faces increasing Chinese (and Tesla) competition at home.
With the tendency toward fiscal austerity, the large indebtedness of a number of nations (e.g. Italy, Greece), and the lack of drivers of economic growth, the probability is for a continuation of the low to no growth of the 2010s with the possibility of a significant financial crisis. The US-driven decoupling from China, e.g. the Italian exit from the Belt and Road Initiative, will only add to the low growth path. Any moves to confiscate Russian foreign exchange reserves that are predominantly held in European banks may also have negative growth impacts.
The European Union as a whole has a population of 450 million people. The major nations are Germany (84 million), UK (67 million), France (64 million), Italy (59 million), Spain (47 million) and Poland (38 million), and they comprise the majority of the population (359 million). The population is in a small accelerating decline in Germany and Poland (started in 2018), and to a greater extent in Italy (started in 2016), while stable in France and Spain and growing quite rapidly in in the UK. The median age ranges from 41 (UK) to 46 (Italy) and is on the rise.
These populations are becoming increasingly disaffected with their government’s policies toward Ukraine in a time of austerity, and a recession that has already started may feed into this disaffection. Europe may be becoming increasingly irrelevant to China, with any FDI in Europe focused on nations that are considered to be more friendly such as Hungary and Slovakia.
Japan Is A Declining Power
Japan’s share of the Hamilton Index industries has collapsed since the mid 1990s and is continuing to decline. The woeful position of its massive car industry with respect to the move to electric vehicles may lead to the loss of much of its Chinese and Asian sales, as well as reductions in the US market. The new CEO of Toyota, hand-picked by the Toyoda family member who lead Toyota into the hydrogen blind ally, is staying with the generally anti-EV strategy; even investing in ammonia-based engines. That’s like doubling down on Betamax after VHS had overwhelmingly won in the market place.
And abject failure with respect to hydrogen cars does not seem to faze Toyota!
The Japanese population peaked in 2010 at 128 million, and is on an accelerating decline path with a natural fall in population of nearly 800,000 in 2022 with minimal net immigration. The median age is 49 and the 0-14 year old share of the population is only 12%, which will create a very serious problem for any attempt to significantly increase the armed forces in future years. The outlook for Japan is at best stagnation while it manages its massive government debts and a rapidly declining population that threatens to significantly reduce both the working population and property prices.
A Win-Win Approach Can Deconstruct US Hegemony Peacefully
China does not need to win in any military sense, it simply needs to continue to develop good relations with other countries across the world; nations that it will increasingly trade with and invest in. It has shown great flexibility in responding to shifts in the international system, and we can see a focus more toward the Middle East and Africa as Europe is bullied into keeping its distance and South American governments change (e.g. Milei in Argentina).
Notwithstanding Filipino grandstanding, the “trade with and respect the sovereignty of” approach to foreign relations has paid dividends with respect to the ASEAN nations that represent the fastest growing economic region in the world. Countries that are neutral between China and the US. The same for Central Asia, and of course an Iran that China is increasingly integrating with. India with its 1.4 billion population is no real threat to China given its independent leanings and its utter inability to develop a real industrial policy that will lead to technological upgrading while providing meaningful work to its increasing legions of unemployed. India will certainly continue to not be the new China. The rise of Hindutva also risks increasing domestic polarization between Hindus and Moslems. China’s diplomatic successes in the Middle East, and the moving away of many African nations from Western domination also plays well into China’s strategy.
The neutrality of the ASEAN and Central Asian nations, together with the increasing integration with Russia and Iran (and possibly with North Korea facilitated by Russia), provides a safe EurAsian neighbourhood for China’s further development. This is then fruitfully extended across the Middle East and Africa. Europe, apart from Hungary and Slovakia, may be on the back burner until it established some level of strategic autonomy; that may have to wait for the inevitable Ukrainian collapse. Brazil and Mexico also offer continued opportunities.
We should expect China to be patient and flexible, given that it is winning, especially as long as the US is militarily tied up in Ukraine and the Middle East. China’s diplomacy with respect to the Palestinian issue shows this patience and careful balance, being seen as supportive of the Palestinian cause; with the Palestinian envoy to the UN calling China “a true friend ready to do everything they can to help the Palestinian people”. A position that plays well outside the Golden Billion of the West, and especially across the Muslim and African nations.
Political chaos in 2024 and 2025 may further disable any attempts by the US to reorient to face off with China. In reality, the US has few real options in facing off against China given its economy’s significant dependences upon Chinese imports and the lack of willing sacrificial lambs; even the Taiwanese are not ready to trip over the Chinese red line of declaring formal independence. As each day passes, the military and economic outcomes of a face off with China get worse for the US and better for China. That horse may have bolted sometime in the 2010s and it is far too late now to try to bolt the door. The onus is on the US to make the play, with the only true additional red lines being perhaps a full-scale NATO attack on Russia or Iran; both of which would be disastrous for the West. Other than that China’s approach is one of “steady as she goes” with small course corrections as required by changing circumstances, while maintaining professional and respectful relations with other nations.
Fun
Peter is right about Rupert Murdoch interest in China.
This book:
Rupert’s Adventures in China –
(See attached book cover photo)
With detail description of how Murdoch invested 10 years in China trying to setup his Media empire there. His efforts includes the following 2 most interesting strategies but failed miserably :
1) trying to gain Deng Xiaoping favour by offering Deng’s daughter US$1 million book royalty to publish her book about her father.
2) joint venture with a former PLA official to set up phoenix Satellite current affair TV. The PLA partner insisted that Murdoch incharged of investment, he incharged of content. 10 years later, Murdoch sold the share with good profit and leave China for good with hatred because he still failed to influence the content.
This is a classic case that the CCP cannot be bribe into given up their sovereignty in the media industry.
The evil Murdoch have being very successful in controlling the Australia, UK, US, and Canada governments. Read this two books.
Was in divorce court on a bogus complaint from the ex. The charge, I wasn’t paying child support and wasn’t looking for work. The judge, a classmate of the ex’s asked me to prove my defense. I started to bring out paperwork, etc. from my briefcase while noting that a deputy had come up behind me. I thought that was odd since he didn’t do that with anyone else and I had been in court for other bogus charges by the ex every three to four months. As I pulled out the papers and asked if I could approach the bench and present my evidence, the judge said, “I’m not interested in what you have!” Right away I’m thinking then why the heck did you ask me for proof? I asked him a second time to present my evidence and that’s when he threatened to hold me in contempt and jail me for thirty days if I spoke again. He then gave me a date in the future to get things straightened out or he’d throw me in jail. As I walked out of the courtroom, I turned to the deputy who was “escorting” me out and started to say something and he told me, “Not here”. We took a few steps down the hallway and then he grabbed my arm and as I turned toward him, and he me, he said you just got screwed but were wise to not speak again!” He advised me to get an attorney so the judge couldn’t screw me over again. I related my problem to my Chiropractor, and she referred me to an attorney she knew. I explained what happened with the divorce proceedings up until that point and he offered to take my case for $400. He actually stuck to that amount in spite of having to do a number of hours and headaches from her attorney. Even the head of the county child support division testified on my behalf that I was current on the child support the whole time and even gave me a letter stating so. That finally got her and her attorney to stop harassing me and my employer and the divorce was finalized a year after it should’ve been.
I’ve taught unarmed combat and a jiu-jitsu based self defence system for many years. I think one of best targets to drop an aggressor at a close range is the knee and shin. Groin strikes are a bit hit and miss especially with a mistimed kick. I’ve always installed into students the three basics of handling an attacker, firstly if an attacker can’t stand he can’t hurt you, if he can’t breathe he can’t hurt you and if he can’t see he can’t hurt you. So striking the knee or shin, throat and eyes are the basics. That way it gives you a chance to get out of there pronto. Depending on the severity involved in the confrontation, be wary about throat strikes, it could be fatal. You don’t need to eye gouge as that means you have to be in close. Finger or thumb pokes to the eyes is sufficient to make a getaway. As for the knee/shin a swift hard kick will suffice. Don’t try anything fancy, that’s for the movies. All the people I’ve trained with over the years, especially at shodan level and above had there own favourite basic techniques to handle an attacker. The upshot is try and avoid these situations in the first place. On the other hand, if the attacker is tooled up especially with a bladed weapon and there’s no way out for you, you’ve got to go into psycho mode and fight like a wild animal as if your life depends on it. Expect to get cut. If you do, try not to get cut on the inner arm/forearm where vital veins and arteries are. If the outcome ends with the attacker being seriously hurt, so be it. It’s self defence and you have right to defend yourself any way you can. I’ve always had it in my mind an old saying “better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.” Take care.
No. Some police departments train their officers to begin all traffic stops by asking “Do you know why I stopped you?” There is exactly ONE correct answer to this question. Even if the pedestrian you just ran down is still sprawled across your windshield, the answer is “No.”
Clearly, they are soliciting a confession to anything that you know you did wrong in the recent past. If the officer saw you roll through a stop sign, and you suggest that you changed lanes without signalling, he just got a two-fer.
Now, although I do not know how often it happens, but my time as the prosecutor in traffic court in a small Oklahoma town for a year made me believe that sometimes, the officer is pulling over some attractive looking young ladies just to flirt. It so happened that the worst thing my judge could do to a person in traffic court was a $30 fine plus $5 court costs and, theoretically, up to a week in jail. But since the town had to pay the county jail $20 per night, that wasn’t happening.
Well, the only people who took a half day off work to come contest a traffic stop were pretty darned sure they were innocent. Sometimes, it was because they believed some urban legend about the law — like the stop had to be on city property- so that if they could get to the Safeway parking lot before an officer caught them, they were innocent (they were NOT, just because of that).
But about once a month, I had to deal with some very attractive (and very angry) young lady who was stopped while driving alone on Friday night. The officer had asked if she knew why he stopped her, and if she said that she had done nothing at all wrong and then when he offered a reason, she was positive that she hadn’t done THAT. And when Thursday morning traffic court rolled around, she was still not going to pay $30 plus court costs. Instead, she would come give me a piece of her mind.
When they fell into that pattern, I frequently dismissed the charges. But that doesn’t work so well if she’d actually guessed what legitimate reason he had for stopping her.
Greek Meatballs (Keftethes)
These meatballs are deliciously light and delicately flavoured and you can serve them hot, warm or cold or freeze for future use.
I have made Keftethes on many occasions – (the recipe is from a Greek cookbook I’ve had for years) – and they are quite famous amongst my friends. Hope you enjoy them. Regards ~ Geoff Clifford – UK
Ingredients
1 large onion, finely minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1kg (2 1/4 pound) lean minced beef or lamb
2 cups unseasoned breadcrumbs, moistened in about 3/4 cup warm water
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped mint (if not available, use chopped, dried mint)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
Black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Ouzo (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
All-purpose flour
1 cup olive oil and corn oil mixed (you may need slightly more)
Instructions
Fry onions with vegetable oil over low heat until golden. Remove to a large mixing bowl.
Add meat and all other ingredients except flour and olive/corn oil mix. Knead for about 10 minutes or until mixture is a smooth paste.
Heat the oil mix in a large frying pan to the point of fragrance.
Meanwhile, start to shape mixture into balls about the size of a large marble by rolling lightly between palms of hands, I suggest that you do them in batches of say 12 to 16, each batch being enough to space evenly but separately in the frying pan.
As each meatball is formed place them on a large plate which has been liberally covered with plain flour. When the batch is finished lightly roll the meatball in the flour. At this point the oil in the frying pan should be just ready.
Put the batch of meatball into the pan (Use kitchen tongs as the oil is very hot).
Start on your second batch of meatballs, make them and place them on the floured plate. At this point it is time to turn the meatballs over and when you have completed this roll the second batch in the flour.
Now it is time to remove the first batch from the frying pan using a slotted spoon or kitchen tongs and place on paper towels to drain.
Put the second batch of meatballs into the pan to cook and carry on with the process until you have finished the mixture.
Here’s what I did. I was manager over a small group of engineers for about a decade. I had been with the company for 20 years. We had a good salesman that kept us busy and though we were a small subsidiary of a larger company, we brought in good money. They messed with the salesman’s commission because he started making more than the president of the company. Along with that, they cut our groups profit sharing, which had been amounting to quite a bit for us, too. The salesman quit, and our business tanked as a result. In an effort to shake things up, they brought in a new top level manager for our group, a new salesman, and I was removed from my managerial position and replaced by one of my subordinates. My salary remained the same, I did the same work on actual projects as always, except then I was no longer required to manage projects, track all the expenses and time on projects, go on sales calls with the new salesman, or be held responsible for the group. I liked the work and most of the people around me, so I was fine with staying there. I was about 55 when this happened, and honestly, I was happy to shed all the administrative bullshit and still make the same money. A year later the new manager quit, they brought in a new guy (after they asked if I would resume the position) and within a year they scuttled our whole group. The company ($40 million company) had been making about 2.5 million a year clear from our group, but because they couldn’t handle the fact the salesman was making so much money compared to them, they ended up putting the entire subsidiary out of business. I was happy collecting my money for those 2 years without near the stress, and moved on to a better position in a new company after that. Things just seem to work out, sometimes. So my advice…if you like the work, are satisfied with the pay, there’s no reason not to continue on there. If you don’t like the place, stay until you find a good replacement job. You can be a lot pickier about choosing a new job when you have a good income source.
Last night, as I was taking my daughter back from her night-time skating class, we hit heavy traffic in front of our complex (the “Ghost City” that is supposed to be abandoned. LOL!). And it was 15 minutes of bumper to bumper.
Turns out that it was a roadside sobriety test checkpoint. And the local governments run these things all around CNY as many, many people drink and drive.
So I rolled down my window and exhaled into the wand.
It turned red and an alarm went off. The police scrambled, and I got out of the car.
I’m an American, so I knew what was going on. And no, I wasn’t drinking.
I was expecting to put my finger on my nose and walk a straight line. But no. That did not happen. Not at all.
So I stood there, and they got my various licenses, and registrations out of the car, and then subjected me to a far more stringent test. They pulled out a handheld black computer like device. And a red camera like device.
I had to hold my breath, and then exhale into a black monitor for six seconds. This was a much more accurate device. They then recorded my eyes and pupil dilatation with the red device.
He showed me the results; ZERO.
So I was good to go.
…
I signed my name on the ledger, and then they let us go. Ah. An interesting experience for certain. MM gets a police checkout. What do you know. Check one for my experience ledger.
Yeah. I took my niece’s cigarettes away from her and she freaked – she was 10, or 11.
She told her grandmother (who I knew bought her the cigarettes) and she called C.P.S.
I refused to drive into the city to do the interview and made the guy drive out to my shop. On my terms, on my territory. And, I told the story exactly as it happened. Then, I asked him to call the kid. He didn’t want to. So, I did. (he even tried to wander out of earshot, but I followed him holding the phone in the air so he could hear)
I put her on speaker – told her she was on speaker with me and the man from Child Protective Services – and asked her to tell him what happened. She told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Then I asked who bought the smokes.
I was right, it was “gramma”. And, we hung up.
Then, I demanded he call “gramma”. And, he didn’t want to. So I did. (I even showed him the phone numbers on the phone so he could see I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one)
I told her that I was putting her on speaker, and I was there with the guy from C.P.S., and that we had a few questions. (he didn’t have any, I had a couple)
I asked why she called – she blubbered some nonsense. I asked if it was because I took the kid’s cigarettes – and she said that I had no right to take them. She was getting pissed. So I played her like a sunfish – I yanked her right out of the water. I asked if she bought the cigarettes for the kid, and she said, “Where else do you think she got them? They’re not going to sell her cigarettes, she don’t look old enough.”!!!
Then, I asked why. And, she said (and I shit you not), “So she’d quit bummin’ ’em off of me!”!!!
The guy hung his head, and I did one of the shrug your shoulders with palms facing up at shoulder level. Case closed.
I did my best to have “gramma” charged, or a C.P.S. case brought against her, but the guy just let it slide. I called the supervisor. Same thing.
That was twenty years ago – now the kid always says to me variations of, “Thank you for caring, thank you for trying – now that I’m a mom I understand what you were doing – I’m sorry.”
She has two great kids and last time I talked to her they were going for more. I hope they have as many as they want.
Never stop trying, never stop caring, it sinks in even if you think it’s not. (even my son, who has no kids (the dirty rat – I’d like a few grandkids), told me, “Thanks for being an asshole – I get it.”
Never give in, never surrender.
Apple Rum Baklava
Ingredients
3 cups chopped apples
2 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup raisins
2 tablespoons rum
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pound phyllo dough
1 pound butter, clarified, melted
1 cup honey
Instructions
Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl; mix well.
Trim 8 sheets phyllo dough to fit 10 x 15-inch baking pan. Keep unused phyllo covered with damp cloth. Arrange in baking pan, brushing each sheet generously with melted butter. Spread half the apple mixture over phyllo dough. Arrange 6 buttered sheets phyllo dough over apple mixture. Spread with remaining apple mixture. Top with 8 buttered sheets phyllo dough. Cut into squares. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Heat honey in small saucepan. Drizzle over hot baklava.
Yields 12 servings.
May substitute 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons lemon rind for rum.
I’m not sure if they teach this in drivers’ ed in places where it snows a lot, but I took drivers’ ed in a place where snow is rare, so they didn’t bother to teach me about driving in it. Here are some snow-related driving tips that I had to learn on my own:
If there is snow around the wheels of your parked car, and your tires just spin when you’re trying to move, there are three ways to get your car unstuck: dig out the snow (takes a lot of time and effort, and is uncomfortable in the cold), throw some kitty litter under your tires for extra traction (requires kitty litter), or my personal favorite: rock the car back and forth until you build enough momentum to get it un-stuck. It’s the lazy man’s way of getting your car moving in the snow. It only works if you can go straight ahead of your car for a while, though. Will not work if your wheels are turned, like if you’re parallel-parked and have to exit the space by turning first.
Cleaning the snow off of the top of your car isn’t really for your benefit, but for the benefit of the drivers behind you. If you’re super-lazy and don’t care about other drivers, just take your car on the highway and let the wind blow the snow off for you.
Edit: I forgot something until some commenters pointed it out: if there is snow on the top of your car and you stop suddenly, it can slide to the front windshield and block your view.
(Don’t be this guy. Nobody likes this guy.)
If you know it’s going to snow and/or get icy while your car is parked, you should lift the wipers off of the windshield. Otherwise they will stick to it and break when you turn on your wipers.
(These people know what’s up…)
Door locks and power windows can and will freeze in the winter. Before you go through a drive-through on a winter’s day, you should confirm that your window will go down.
If your car has Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), it will go crazy on slick roads. It’s the same for an Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS). That’s how I know that I need to be more careful when I’m driving in the snow: those lights come on. Also, if you’ve never felt an ABS system kick in underneath you, it’s unnerving the first time it happens.
If the snow is really deep, while digging out your car, you should be extra careful to make sure that the tailpipe is clear. People have died from sitting in cars that were running while waiting for someone else to dig them out.
(Anyone want to help this person dig out their car?)
Ice/slush will build in the wheel wells of cars that are being driven during the snow. It’s important to kick this off when you get a chance, particularly if it’s going to be cold for a long time. If you ignore it when it is fresh, it just freezes more solid and is a pain in the ass to get off then.
(If you see that around your tires, kick it off as soon as possible. Be careful that you kick with your heel, not your toes. It may be hard as a rock.)
There are “summer” and “winter” blends of windshield washer fluid. If you get the summer blend and forget to use it all before the winter, it will freeze in the tank and you won’t be able to clean your windshield while driving, which is important to do when it snows.
Pickup trucks with empty beds are the worst for handling snow. If you drive a pickup in a place where it snows in the winter, put something heavy in the back, just to put some weight on the back wheels.
Delusional Women In Denial As They Learn How Hard Men Work
Yes. My husband was dying of cancer and in home hospice with me taking care of him 24–7.
The night before he died, his son’s mother started texting me about how he’s dying, she needs to get into his apartment and go through it to see what she could sell because she hadn’t gotten child support in a couple months. He still had his apartment after we were married, because his son was nearing 18 and wanted to move away from his mother asap, and he hadn’t paid child support in two months, because he had just recovered from brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and then in the following two months, we found out it had metastasized to his liver and then spread to all his abdominal organs and died 10 days after being put on hospice. I kept my cool while she was texting me about the money he owed her the night before he died.
The day he died, right after he passed, I called his son to come to my house immediately, as well as my other children. His mother was the only one else aware that he had passed, so here I was with our three boys, sitting in our livingroom waiting for the hospice nurse to come back so she could pronounce him legally dead, and I was already getting phone calls and texts of condolences. My stepson’s mother had announced it on Facebook. I kept my cool, though that was probably more of me just being in shock and unable to function.
The days following his death, she convinced my stepson to rush to my husband’s apartment, because “rent would be due soon and he had alot of valuables in his bedroom at his Dad’s house”. I didn’t go, because she had been texting both me and my SIL about getting into my husband’s apartment asap to sell his things for money, and I was afraid of what I might do to her if I saw her in person. My SIL did go over when they went over, to make sure nothing really important disappeared.
My SIL later told me that in the two days my stepson’s mother had access to the apartment, my stepson’s mother went through every room, every drawer, read ever piece of paper she could get her hands on, including love notes, etc, took pictures of how “filthy” the house was so she could show her friends, and didn’t really keep anything to sell, because nothing had any value to her, so she just threw it to the curb for garbage day. The few sentimental things that my husband had made known to everyone he wanted my stepson to hold on to, she would not let my stepson keep “because they were in poor condition”.
It should be noted that I know I could have called the cops on her for theft and harassment, but I didn’t for three reasons… 1. Me, my stepson, my sister-in-law and my other two children were mourning a loss and I was trying to avoid further drama. 2. Everything of value had already been moved to my house months ago and most of the things left in my husband’s apartment was gonna be gotten rid of anyways. 3. The apartment WAS filthy, because for the past two months, nobody had been there except me 3 times a week to feed his cats and change their litterbox. Nobody else was willing or able to help me with the cats or my dying husband, and it was a mile walk one way to his apartment, meaning if I rushed, I’d be leaving a dying man who could barely stand up by himself (but kept trying, so had several close calls with almost falling) alone at least an hour and a half. I wasn’t lazy, I was stretched too thin with no help and doing the best I could.
But I kept my cool with the apartment drama.
My husband was a car guy, loved older cars, had three classic vehicles when he passed away. He had wanted me to take his favorite car, and his son could have the car he’d already been driving for two months since he got his license, and his prized van as well. The plan was for me to not turn the titles over to my stepson until he turned 18, because it was common knowledge that his mother assumed that their son would get all three vehicles and she had planned on selling all three. This was also a constant source of texts and harassment on how I need to turn the titles over to her immediately (before their son turned 18), like I wasn’t smart enough to figure out that she wouldn’t then sell them as she’d then be the legal owner. I still kept my cool.
Once I finally figured out how I was gonna pay for the funeral and was planning the funeral, I gave people a date, but not much more information, as the details were still being worked out. My stepson asked for the tentative information, which I gave him, and she posted on Facebook, tagging my husband of course, the date, time, place, little details, making it sound like she had planned it. I SNAPPED. I was ready to ask if the funeral home had and 2 for 1 deals. I absolutely ripped her a new one online, publicly pointing out exactly how she’d been behaving and what I thought of her. It got really, really vicious, on both ends, with her playing the victim. Not my finest hour, but I was absolutely DONE with her. Completely out of character for me, but if I had been in the same room with her, I’d be writing this from my jail cell right now.
The last conversation she had with my husband on the phone had been about how their son turned out to be such a great person because he had HER for a mother and how my husband had only had him on weekends, didn’t really contribute to raising my stepson. She knew darn well that my husband would have taken their son full time in a heartbeat, if she hadn’t done everything in her power to restrict his parenting. Near the end, she wouldn’t allow her 17 year old son to sleep over my house (in a spare bed) on the weekend to spend time with his Dad who clearly had limited time, because “it wasn’t his own bed at his Dad’s house” and when he did stop by my house to see his dying Dad, his mother started texting him to come home after about a half hour. And then online while announcing his funeral, she was making out like they had been such good friends, that’s what coparenting is all about, it’s all about her son, his REAL child (my husband had raised my two boys as his own for almost 8 years and loved all three very much), and if course, all about her, because she’s the mother of his child. The one and only time in my adult life I ever completely snapped. Not proud of myself at all, but she deserved it and she got off easy.
A few days ago, my boyfriend offered me a stick of chewing gum.
He unwrapped his and popped it into his mouth. I unwrapped mine and took a tiny bite off the tip.
A few minutes later, when that first bite had lost its flavor, I took another nibble. And once that one shed its sweetness, I took another.
Before long, I noticed my boyfriend shaking his head at me, his eyebrows raised so high they’d almost disappeared into his hair. “You’re so weird,” he said affectionately (at least, I’d like to think it was said affectionately.)
He’s right. It’s pretty weird that I consume my chewing gum one nibble at a time. But I’ve done it that way for as long as I can remember.
When I was growing up, chewing gum used to be a top item on my parents’ list of choking hazards. So naturally, it was also a top item on their children’s list of valuable contraband.
Most of the time, I only had access to this rare treat when my friends shared it with me at school. And every tiny, foil-wrapped stick of it was so precious to me that I’d ration it out slowly to make the flavor last, and then replay the memory of chewing it for days afterwards.
Honestly, as an adult, I don’t even like gum all that much. But the memory of how precious it used to feel has never quite left my mind.
Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country – Khitomer Battle
I had a soldier on a team I was commanding during advanced training called Zach.
Zach was the team clown, a hard worker and good soldier, but a complete goof ball.
He would find humor everywhere, and create it when it was needed. Most of the times, even though I wasn’t allowed, I would completely break soldier -commander distance and laugh at Zach’s punchlines. I would turn away from my soldiers so they wouldn’t see me laugh, even though it was hard to hide.
Two weeks before my soldiers completed their training, I was notified that I was being reassigned to a different team, and that my officer needed my final evaluation on Zach, since they were considering dropping him.
They claimed he was naive, and as much fun as it is listening to his jokes, our job was to train a team and make them combat ready.
Before I wrote up my evaluation, I took Zach for a conversation and told him exactly what my officer told me.
His smile faded immediately.
I told him that there are times for jokes, and time for work. I needed to be blunt, and said that his comic remarks have no place in the paratroopers training. We needed serious and professional fighters, not clowns.
I was a bit harsh, but truly wanted him to finish training.
Zach was one of my favorite soldiers, and it deeply hurt me to tell him to stop finding the funny moments in life, even when everything sucks. I felt like I was killing him softly.
During my final weeks with my team, Zach did not make a single funny remark. One of my soldiers asked to talk to me in private and suggested that Zach might have lost a family member, since he seemed depressed.
Eventually, Zach finished his training, and proceeded on to command school, but I always resented the fact that I was the one who took away the smile from his face.
In fact, the United States has played a four-step game in an attempt to sway the elections in Taiwan.
Firstly, it’s a classic case of ”the pot calling the kettle black”—the U.S. has been vocal about external forces keeping their hands off Taiwan’s 2024 elections, all the while being the first to meddle.
Secondly, the American Institute in Taiwan has echoed the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party’s stance on cross-Strait relations, suggesting that even if the DPP wins, China is unlikely to take immediate military action. This could lull Taiwanese voters into a false sense of security, effectively boosting the ”Lai-Xiao pairing” in the polls.
The third tactic involves the U.S. flexing its military muscle, with P-8A Poseidon aircraft patrolling the Taiwan Strait—a clear sign of America’s concern for Taiwan’s security and a potential promise of defense. There’s speculation that U.S. warships might even make a bold passage through the strait. This military posturing supports the DPP’s narrative, encouraging Taiwanese voters not to view the upcoming election as a choice between war and peace.
Fourthly, the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Western Pacific and equipping submarines with Tomahawk cruise missiles are moves that signal U.S. preparedness to intervene should Chinese mainland take military action against Taiwan.
China, of course, is keenly aware of these maneuvers. the spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense has hit back with a two-pronged rebuttal. Firstly, they’ve underscored the severe threat these U.S. actions pose to the security of the Asia-Pacific region and China itself. China has firmly opposed these moves and has vowed to respond with equal determination. Secondly, China has issued a stern warning to the United States: The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China, off-limits to any external meddling. The resolution of the Taiwan question is an unstoppable force, immune to interference by any person or power. Taiwanese voters must remain vigilant, not to be swayed by the U.S. and the DPP’s rhetoric. The 2024 elections in Taiwan are pivotal for the trajectory of the Taiwan Strait situation, and any missteps could lead to tumultuous waters. The mainland’s stance is clear: ”Taiwan independence” equates to war and is a dead-end street, so there’s no room for wishful thinking.
The U.S. has a long history of involvement in Taiwan’s elections, with a level of engagement that runs deep. This is evident from the way candidates scramble to ”audition” in the U.S. during every election season. Take the 2024 elections, for instance; Taiwanese candidates are making their pilgrimage to America, while the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Mr. Rosenberg, has visited Taiwan three times in just two months, meeting with candidates from the blue, green, and white parties. The depth of U.S. involvement in Taiwan’s elections is such that a single, biased statement from the U.S. could instantly flip the fortunes of their preferred candidate.
My parents murdered me. They killed my ambition, separated me from the guy I love and got me married to a monster (unknowingly).
I was always a bright student. A topper in school and a gold medalist in my college. While in college, I met and fell in love with a man from a different state in India. Though it was not a huge difference like a North-South problem (we belonged to neighbouring states), it was huge for my parents who only had negative things to say about his community. The fact that he still needed time to settle only made him incapable in my parents’ eyes. They believed that I was their golden girl with too much talent to be given away as his wife. We fought for 2 years during which my mom stopped all communication with me. Finally, my parents weren’t willing to wait after I turned 25 as they believed that I will become “too old to be desirable by good guys”. They adopted all forms of emotional abuse and manipulation and broke us apart. I still cry to this day thinking about our breakup though it has been 8 years. I loved him and still do. If only we had remained together…
At about the same time, I wanted to change careers and become a teacher leaving my high paying job but my parents thought that only a fool would make that mistake. They prohibited me from doing what I liked and made me look after my dad’s company though I hated it. They believed that they were doing everything to protect my interests but never cared for my own feelings. I was too weak and timid to rebel and so I bore everything while breaking down mentally.
After this forced separation and being made to look after the company, I was put through the humiliating arranged marriage market where I was paraded around like a commodity. I hated every minute of it. Finally I was married off to this man who was good on paper. He came from a wealthy family, had two degrees from the most prestigious Universities in India and was settled in my own city. My parents couldn’t believe their luck and when all enquiries about him and his family didn’t turn up anything bad, they went ahead with it. All through this debacle, I was only a mute spectator.
What my parents did not know was, my husband was an egoist and a sadist. He HAD to be the best in everything and took joy in humiliating me and belittling my achievements. He was always fishing for compliments without which he couldn’t function. He could never take any form of criticism and would throw temper tantrums if things aren’t done his way. Even sex was a form of punishment for me where I was forced to do things I did not want and he would humiliate me. Every day and every night used to be the same. I put up with this for 2 years before letting anyone know because I foolishly thought that I did not deserve any happiness after breaking my boyfriend’s heart.
To the outside world I couldn’t have been happier. I had my dad’s company which was minting money and I did not have to work hard unlike people who start things from scratch, I had a husband who was very handsome, earned indecent amounts of money, came from a “good family background” and was even religious. But, inside closed doors I was living a nightmare.
The traditional traits looked for in arranged marriages – caste, wealth, education, family background and age were all perfect in mine but take it from me that none of these things matter more than an extent. It is only the love you share with the other person and your emotional compatibility and willingness to stand by them, that counts. This realization hit me like a wall of bricks when one day after a particularly nasty argument with my now ex-husband, I took my car for a drive. It was raining heavily and while I was waiting at a traffic signal, I saw a poor man on the pavement sharing a torn canvas cloth with his small family. They were laughing and were very happy with each other. Looking at this from my air conditioned “luxury” car, I realised that they had something that I did not – love and happiness. The divorce was painful where I did not have many people’s support – only my brother and father supported me.
It has been 4 years since the divorce. Where is the “golden girl” now? Meanwhile, the boyfriend whom I broke up with, went on to become successful and started his own consulting company which is doing extremely well. He got married two years after I got married when he still thought that I was happy. He called me before they finalized the girl, asking me how I am and that he is getting married. He told that he always wishes the best for me – I knew he also loved me the same way I loved him. After that we did not speak because it would be too painful.
It is not always true that parents love you the most. Sure, they wish the best for their child but sometimes they let their beliefs and bigotry cloud their eyes. Sometimes parents can be wrong – that does not mean that you shouldn’t take their well meaning advice, but the final decision should always be yours.
And sometimes, the person who loves you the most could be the guy whose heart you broke a long time ago, who still remembers your birthday every year and sends you a card with a coupon to your most favourite restaurant.
It is a bit more complicated than a Bradley decided to walk the dog on a T-90.
A Bradley IFV is designed to defeat enemy tanks. At very long rang using TOW missiles. Russian tanks are notoriously poor at surviving such missile attacks due to how their ammo is stored. Anything which gets through is likely to cook everything off… which is where you get those turret tossing videos.
In this encounter a pair of Bradleys more or less stumbled across a lone T-90 at would probably count as Danger Close range. The first engaged with its chain gun, scored a few hits, and then exited, probably trying to get to range so they could engage with a TOW. The second, not wanting to risk taking fire while moving away, decided to engage in hopes of essentially blinding and disabling the tank.
There is an interview with the two man crew of the Bradley in question and one point they both agree on… they were terrified. The one thing they didn’t want to run into at close range was an enemy tank. The crew couldn’t disengage safely, they had to stand and fight, and do so in such a manner that the T-90 couldn’t get its bearings and shot back.
Their training got them through this. The Bradley sticks and moves while the Bushmaster 25mm just peppers the T-90’s turret with hit after hit. The Russian tank crew, likely poorly trained, couldn’t see the Bradley to try and fire back. Attempts to back up saw them crash into a tree and get stuck.
Which is when the tank crew did the only thing they could think of… pop smoke and bail out of the tank. A wise decision as a drone strike destroyed the vehicle not very long after.
It isn’t unusual for a Bradley to score a tank kill. It is very unusual to do so in such a manner. Usually the 25mm autocannon is lighter vehicles, such as the BMP. Those the Bradley’s have been killing in droves. A tank is a much bigger foe to tackle.
In college, at the dorms there was a stinky girl who lived there. Everyone made fun of her and she was arrogant, yet all the same people were just rude. She was called “Hamburger “ or just plain “Stinky” by Everyone in the dorm. She wasn’t nice and was poor. Two of my roommates and I felt bad for her and used our bottle return money (we took discarded beer and soda cans from the dorm that we collected) and purchased the girl hygiene products from the dollar store. Our care package included a few bottles of VO5 Shampoo and conditioner, a few sticks of cheap lady speed stick deodorant, a brush and comb, razors, toothpaste, toothbrush, and I had a 12 pack of ivory soap I didn’t need, plus a bunch of menstrual pads and tampons. We put this stuff in a brown paper grocery bag stapled it and left it in front of her door. Nobody knew who it was from and we never told anyone. The girl wasn’t embarrassed and seemed happy someone cared enough to help her. The girl’s hygiene improved and people were nicer to her. My two roommates and I didn’t do it out of pity if someone might say that, we did this because we wanted to help her.
After X being pushed back the 4th time, I nodded along, stood up, and went to a job-posting website. I got 3 calls back the following week.
A little bit of background for the bonus check: Our department needed to have an app on the company iPad for the engineer to work effectively. They consult with an outside ios developer team about the idea. The developer team comes back with a contract that it would cost Y amount, with half required as a deposit upfront.
At the time, I thought they really overcharged for such a simple application. There were many unnecessary features to be priced. But it’s not my money paying out, so whatever.
My boss, being the department director, asked if I could make the app. Keep in mind that I’m not a software developer in my department. My job description does not include coding and my wage is far lower than those who code for a job. But people know that I program from time to time to automate most of my job (and other people’s jobs) and for fun. Never have I ever made myself a full-fledged app before that time.
I said I could give it a try. He agreed on half the amount of Y for my bonus, once the app is made and tested.
I went home. Borrowed a MacBook from my friend (I knew my boss would never buy me a Mac just for a single project). Locked myself in my room studying as many tutorials for beginners as I could.
10 days later, an app is made. I couldn’t be happier. I showed it to everyone around, got some feedback, made changes. My boss told me to push it onto the App Store for internal use. I did. About 75 devices installed.
I wrote an email to my boss about the bonus, alongside with the terms like I would maintain the app myself, and transfer the ownership to the company, etc. I also mentioned the possibility of promoting me to be Software Engineer so I can develop more apps for the company.
*Crickets* – no response.
I came up to him after a few days. He told me I will get it after the Deputy Director come back from his business trip to see if the app is working well. I said no big deal, I could wait for another week. The app needs more time for testing anyway.
But the Deputy Director came back and still no sign of the bonus. I asked a few more times and my boss is like running this loop: For X in excuses: Say(“You will have the bonus after \(X) event”)
It’s been more than a month since I published the app and still nothing. The last time I came up to him, I also asked about the possibility of a promotion, to which he rejected and said I should just focus on my own work and only do special projects like this if necessary.
I said ok. Came back to my desk and started applying to new jobs. Out of 4 jobs I applied for, 3 called back and scheduled an interview one week after. I brought the app with me to demo. Got 1 offer at one company for the position of Software Developer at twice the salary.
When I came to my boss to hand in my resignation, he still wondered if he did anything wrong…
1) Join the Massachusetts State Police. Make over 100K your first year, including overtime where you sleep in the cruiser most of the time. You will be incredibly wealthy and rich within 20 years. You can retire young and get a “getover” job as a college security police starting at 135,000 a year. Seriously, my brother is a State Cop and if I could live my life over again I would do this job. It’s hard to get through the Basic Training but once you’re on the job it is absolutely no work, lots of perks, impossible to get laid off… where else can you get paid 1000 dollars for sleeping in your car? I’m not joking! If you d3on’t want to be a State Cop then become a local cop but you might actually have to do something. Nevertheless the opportunity to make money as a cop in Massachusetts is unparalleled. The corrupt Police Union has made wages high and work virtually non-existent. This is the way to go.
2) Become a Fireman – this job is the biggest scam in Massachusetts. It’s GREAT money for doing next to nothing. Sure, there are lots of calls where you get to ride on the big red engine but mostly it’s for absolutely nothing. You stand around with a halligan tool and you coat open and a cigarette hanging from your mouth and then you go back to the station, eat something and watch television in a barcalounger then go to bed. You do this for two days, get a full week’s pay and then you become a contractor and double or even triple dip. You will be fucking rich in no time. Sometimes you might actually have to fight a fire but think of all the things you can slip into your boots or coat when you’re in someone’s smoky house – a wallet left on the dresser: it has your name on it. Expensive watch on the counter: you can easily sell that. All kinds of perks.
3) Become a Plumber. Believe me, these guys clean up. There aren’t enough plumbers and you can charge just about anything, especially in winter when people’s heat stops working. Yep, it’s hard work and you often have to deal with people’s stink and shit but usually you’re putting in new, clean pipe and the new Pex technology makes it fast and easy and you can clean up. If you have even half a brain within a couple of years you can get younger apprentice plumbers to work for you. Create a subsidiary business cleaning out drains. You can make up to 1000 dollars for a one hour visit. If you can get commercial accounts or city accounts, your future is assured. By the time you’re 35 you will be taking your wife and girlfriend to Turks and Caicos in the winter. Plumbers make HUGE coin.
4) Become an electrician – once again, it’s a tough apprenticeship but once you’re done you will never have a day off if you don’t want one. There just aren’t enough electricians. Had an electrician come to my house to replace a half dozen switches and plugs – cost me 750 bucks. You will really clean up. If you get attached to a building contractor you can start your own electrical company and hire a bunch of illegal immigrants to run wire through the new ant farms going up and you do the critical work of punching them down to the breaker box and you’re in like Flint. The sky is the limit.
5) Become a real estate broker – this is actually MUCH harder than it looks but the options for making a lot of money doing nothing at all are really good. To be a broker you have to be an agent for three years. That means sucking the asshole of another broker boss douche who is going to rip you off blind for three years. The first two years you won’t even make minimum wage but if you stick with it you will learn all the ins and outs and how to scam homebuyers which is every real estate agent’s job – Get the suckers to buy that termite trap as fast as possible and take your 2 percent commission and run. But once you’re a broker yourself than all those nose-picking wannabe agents will be sucking your asshole and they have to pay you 50 percent of their commission while you go deep sea fishing off the Keys in Florida. And they best part? The REAL money is in working with contractors or finding that great piece of property you can buy, rehab and sell for a huge profit. Yep, it takes time and effort and diligence but you can make millions a year in real estate if you’re willing to sell your soul to do it. I met the biggest agent in the area once, a woman who would sell her own daughter’s kidney for a profit if she could because to be REALLY GOOD as an agent or a broker requires you to have no conscience or soul.
Remember the 50-year-old man who gave his number to my sister at our family restaurant?
Well, he came back last night with a huge smirk on his face.
He entered the premise with his friend. They were both semi-drunk. Here is the conversation,
His friend: “Is this the girl you gave your number to?”
Him: “Shhh.”
I kept a straight face. My sister was clearly uncomfortable and wanted me to take over.
As I was taking his order, I caught him staring my sister up and down. I was so angry and disgusted. That’s my baby sister he was looking at lustfully.
I looked at him and said,
Me: “What do you think you’re doing?”
Him: “…uh…nothing. *Looks away*.
Me: “You know that’s my sister you’re looking at, right?”
Him: “I…uh…was looking at the chef…”*looks away*
Me: “Well, she’s 15-years-old and you’re incredibly inappropriate. She’s underage.”
He was in shock (or so it seemed).
He ordered his food and went to sit down.
He then said:
“My daughter is 15”, to which I replied, “how would you like it if a grown man stared at your daughter in the same manner?”
He walked out.
His friend looked at me in amazement.
“I’m proud of you for protecting your sister. We need more women like you in this world. My daughter is 31 and if a man did the same to her, I would be angry.”
I felt like a complete savage. He deserved it.
Leave American schools and go private or international
Maggy is one of the smoking moms, and she is not happy. She has been morbidly obese for most of her adult life, but now her problem was bound to be solved. It hasn’t.
“The doctor lied. It isn’t better at all.“
The smoking moms bring their kids to school, or wait at the gates for them, while smoking. It’s their every right, but it also is a little weird to see young moms smoking so nearby a school.
Maggy had a gastric bypass — a type of weight-loss surgery that involves creating a small pouch from the stomach and connecting the newly created pouch directly to the small intestine. It essentially shrinks the stomach, so that you should eat less. Should.
But Maggy did not really listen to the doctor lady, because the doctor lady clearly said to Maggy that her diet should be (heavily) adapted in order for the operation to be a success. Should.
She explains it to her smoking mom friends while she is smoking —
“My stomach really hurts when I eat a little snack like a burger or so. And I am gaining a lot of weight again. The doctor really lied to me.”
But the doctor did not lie at all — Maggy did not listen.
And she should have.
Should.
Can you join a cult without knowing it? Is The Latitude a game, business or something else?
Some twenty five years ago, while I was still in college,we had a maid . Let’s call her Lakshmi.
She came to plains from a village in mountains with her alcoholic husband. After her first daughter was born she started working.
She used to bring her daughter along, nurse her in between the chores and started her life.
After three years one more daughter came along and she decided two were enough . Here is what she did
Got a tubectomy done to avoid more kids.
She enrolled both of her daughters in a small school.
Since she could not afford costly food like almonds etc in winter , she used to feed her kids eggs in the breakfast.
Her daughters were always neat and clean.
She started depositing a tiny amount each month in the bank.
Slowly she bought the basics like a fridge, washing machine and a TV.
As time passed she bought a little house too on instalments and worked extremely hard to repay the loans she took from bank and a few people.
She realized that her elder daughter was a bit slow in learning so after high school she enrolled her for a beautician’s course. That girl now is happily married and has her own modest parlour.
The younger one was highly intelligent and won many scholarships. A family friend,who had their own engineering college, gave admission to her daughter in engineering and she is a software engineer today working in Chennai.
All her life Lakshmi remained completely honest and during my wedding, she even had the keys to my mother’s almirah.
Lakshmi was an honest,hard working woman who had dreams for her girls,the wisdom to plan and had the perseverance to execute those plans .
Lakshmi has never been to school and could barely write her name, but she was intelligent enough to understand what to do and how.
Intelligence has nothing do with the college, the degrees and the social strata of a person.
Itshines in the direction our life takes. It is visible in each and every decision we take.
Not me but my dad. My dad has this quick wit about him, he can come up with the snappiest comebacks, silliest one liners, and dad jokes I’ve ever heard. If my dad is tired he’s even funnier (don’t tell him I admitted this). At my uncle’s house with the hypocritical aunt, she made a comment about dad and I. A little context, my cousins (she has two boys and 1 girl) absolutely adore my dad. He would take then camping and hiking when we were growing up. He would swim with them at the lake, help them work on their cars (well the boys have cars, the girl doesn’t want one yet). And of course I’m first in dad’s life so I was right there with them the whole time. They were having a summer cookout on this day so the cousins are up and down, in and out. One boy wanted to show me something about his game system, other boy wanted to show me something he did to his car, and the girl was telling me about some funny videos. When I would stop by dad, he would kiss my hand and tell me to have fun, smiling the whole time. My aunt remarks something about treating his daughter so grossly affectionate. Dad says “Yeah it’s hard trying to please a beautiful woman all the time but somebody’s has to learn how.” His brother choked on his soda and had to go in the house. Girl cousin was laughing hysterically but looking at her phone (it was loading a video but not playing yet).
I lived in a remote Siberian town throughout their winter and the temperatures remained below -20C for most of the winter, and on very very cold days, it would go below -40C as well.
Layers upon Layers. If you can put in a thin shirt underneath your fur coats, you put it in.
There are no veggies to eat. There are no fruits. Those who can afford them, are usually the oligarchs who come to visit their mansions for fun. Canada might have, because it has world’s largest food producer just next to it. Fatty meats, milks fats, milk, and some roots and tubers. Some people also preserve and pickle all kinds of veggies during the summer.
Your lungs burn. The air is so dry, every breath you breathe out, will push water out of your body. The lungs can become dry, and then every breath burns. You might want to replenish the fluids in your body, even when you’re inside. Light alcohol, helps. Of course, then the legendary vodka. But once the alcohol effects are dimmed, you feel more cold. So you need to keep drinking.
In remote areas, nights can get dark. People will not have windows, and if anyone has they will fill it up with winters covers, which basically means putting several wood boards. Nights are dark. Pitch black dark if you get even about 100 meters away from the civilization. You can’t see your own hands or body. You need to have sufficient lighting. The more batteries the better.
You don’t have diesel stuff at all, unless it is specially designed. You should have gas generators, gas cars, gas everything. Diesel will gell up, diesel engines can’t start combustion, or there must be specially designed engines, which have spark plugs. You don’t shut off the car unless you get everything you need. You will sometimes need to heat up the car before starting it, because it just won’t start.
Meat. You don’t waste any body parts. You will clean off the large intestine of all the poop and eat whatever part is edible. You eat the heart, brains, and even break up the bones sometimes for the marrow. Of a horse or a reindeer out of a 100kg carcass, 20kg is the highest amount that should go waste. The skins, are used. The most expert folks will be able to reduce the wastage 16–18kg. The amazing thing is, eating up all the body parts, ensures that people are never ever deficient in any macro or micro nutrients.
Metal is no good. If the temperatures drop, the metal can become brittle. It doesn’t conserve heat. It conducts heat too well. Wood. Wood. Wood. Your body will stick to metal. Wood is the way to go. You can’ burn metal. You can burn wood.
You don’t keep fuel in your home. Fuel means wood. Butane and propane are cute. But you don’t have enough to stock up for the entire winter. Once winter starts, you can’t get more either. You can always go into the forests and get more wood.
You learn to kill and clean a carcass. Really. Deer, horse, and whatever animal you come across.
You don’t want to sweat. So you don’t heat your home too much. You sweat, you die. You want to work hard, okay. BUT DO NOT SWEAT. SWEAT = DEATH. Sweat will go into your clothes. Water is a good conductor of heat, way better than air. You will get cold. If you sweat too much, your clothes will freeze and stick to your skin. The sweat ice will kill you in a few hours. If you sweat, wipe it off, and if you’re in home and you sweat, open the door to cool down the home. YOU DON’T SWEAT.
Home. Home does not mean a 3 bedroom American suburban house. It means a 300 sqft wood cabin. A single room, with some walls strategically placed around the door, to not let the cold air in. More rooms means more wood to heat everything. Wood is not infinite. You need to go into the forest with a few people, where 60% will keep a watch, 20% will cut, and the remaining 20% will do the odd jobs and gathering, cutting up of the trees felled. You can also sweat while cutting wood. YOU DON’T want to go for wood in middle of the winter. So, a single room cabin.
Sex isn’t taboo. It’s the same as America was during the period of settlers moving west. You will probably see your parents going at it. No worries, you’re not the weird one. The weird one is who’s not seen sex.
There aren’t any jobs. Survival is your job.
If you’re from a city like Miami, or from California, where the temperature doesn’t go below 0C, and it’s hot and humid, you can’t live here, without climate acclimatization. You need to move north, slowly, spend a winter and then move further north. You can die from the cold, if you aren’t acclimatized.
That is the gist of what I was able to learn about living in extreme cold.
In 2022, when I went to Switzerland, I met a girl at a hostel[1].
During a long conversation, she told me that she preferred to travel on low-cost airlines across Europe, and it was cheaper than trains.
Like, she had spent only 15-Euros to travel from Berlin to Bern the previous day. The only requirement was that you luggage should be carry-on, the one that fit under the seat.
In 2023, when I went to Europe, I wanted to travel to Iceland from Italy. I found one low-cost airline, Wizz Air. The ticket cost 100 euros. I booked it immediately.
I kept getting notifications for e-check-in. Since, I never had the habit of doing e-check-in and always preferred to do it at the counter, I ignored them.
On the day of my trip, I went to the check-in counter. The lady checked all my details, luggage, and passport and said, ‘Everything is okay, but why haven’t you checked in already?’
‘Oh, I thought of doing it here.’
‘You have to pay printing charges if you want us to issue you boarding pass.’
‘Ah that’s okay. How much would it be?’
‘Four five.’
‘Four to five Euros.’ Quite expensive for a printout, but it is okay, I thought.
‘No. Forty-five Euros.’
I was aghast.
I quickly checked my phone to do web-check-in. But I couldn’t do it since it was 2 hr 30 min before the flight departure.
She noticed it. ‘Okay, let me see if I can do it from my side.’
Lady luck, I thought.
But
She sighed. ‘Sorry, sir, I am also not able to do it. The web check-in closes 3 hours before the flight departure. So you have to.. ‘
Thus, I paid 45 Euros to get the boarding pass for a 100-Euro flight.
‘Why you didn’t do it earlier, sir?’ she asked while handing over the pass.
‘In Singapore and India, there are no charges for printing boarding passes at the counter.’
‘It is different when it comes to low-cost airlines, sir. Nothing is free.’
You read job descriptions, but they all require you to know a tool such as Excel or another software program.
I can hear you thinking.
It doesn’t make sense.
Wasn’t college supposed to help me land a good job? I didn’t learn any of these things.
You start sweating.
You look behind you. You can almost see the fraternity parties and drunken nights fading into oblivion.
There’s nothing on your resume except a degree and involvement in college organizations.
No one’s hiring college graduates without skills. That means you.
You feel alone on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean.
I don’t even know what I like.
Wasn’t I supposed to learn what I enjoy doing in college?
Maybe I should just apply to every job I see online.
Even with all these doubts, you must move forward. You send out hundreds of applications before someone considers your resume. They ask you if you’re willing to start as an unpaid marketing intern.
You think about it. It’s been three months since graduating, and you haven’t taken a serious step towards a meaningful career. When people ask you where you work, you hesitate to tell them about your two waitressing gigs helping you pay off student loans.
Maybe you can balance waitressing and your internship. Maybe not.
You feel pressured from your parents to move out of the house. In turn, you ask the potential employer if there’s an opportunity to turn this unpaid marketing internship into a full-time position.
He says, “Yes.”
You work extra hours at your unpaid internship for four months before asking for pay.
“Hey, I was wondering if you have a chance to talk about a potential pay raise?”
“Sorry. We’re just not ready to bring you on full time.”
You cry after work.
You believed your employer. You trusted them.
It’s been seven months since you graduated college and you’re still waiting tables. Your parents sometimes make remarks about you acting lazy even though you work eighty-hour weeks. You know they don’t mean it. They thought once you graduated they’d finally have time to themselves.
You quit your unpaid internship.
You apply to different job positions. The only phone call you get back is for a receptionist position at a salon. It’s better than saying you work as a waitress, but it pays less. You feel a strong need for validation, so you take the job.
It’s at this point you ask the right questions:
Who will teach me how to make more money?
Who will teach me how to become happy?
From here, you research on the internet those who built themselves up from scratch. At first, you follow the wrong people and waste money on their $199 courses and scams.
After you get burned, you dig deeper and discover people making a real difference. You read what they’ve written and study their habits. Then, you implement their advice.
In time, you discover the paths out of the jail cell that college left you in.
It takes time. Many people never find a way out.
Don’t give up. With enough persistence, you can accomplish your goals.
I know what it’s like. I worked at nine startups before getting hired to head marketing at a 50-million-dollar venture capital firm.
I don’t know your son or his sense of responsibility but I can tell you what happened to me. I was 40 when I got a DUI. I had never been in any trouble before and haven’t since. I will spare you all the circumstances to cut to your question. My best friend bailed me out of jail but had to be paid back immediately. My dad drove to my town the next day and replaced the money. He said he had made that bad choice many times when he was younger and felt I was paying for his sin. I lost my license for 6 months. My son (who was very anti-alcohol for some unknown reason – none of the adults in his life had been drinkers, including myself) rearranged his schedule to drive me. He was 16. His response was that I had spent his whole life rearranging his schedule around me, it wouldn’t hurt him to do the same for me when I needed it. I told my boss. He told me not to drive the company car while I didn’t have a license – he picked me up for work a couple of times when I was in a bind. He also did not report the transgression up the chain. He said he wasn’t sure what the response would be and he didn’t want to risk it. He said not to worry. I had properly reported. Not going further would be on him. I’m saying all that to say this. The worst experience of my life served to show me how blessed I really am even when things are rough. I did not take advantage. I was not a drunk. I had a bad day and made a poor choice. I’m not excusing that. I am so grateful that it was a ticket and not an accident. But the shame I feel about that awful occasion is softened by the love I had around me.
The year before I started at my high school the administration allowed a writer to go undercover and pose as a student so that he could gather material for a book.
He wanted to write a sex, drugs, and hard partying expose full of scandalous true stories about the lives of real American teenagers.
The administration thought that he would be their ‘inside man’, and he would feed them all of the dirt about what the kids were up to.
It didn’t work.
Partially because my high school was really quite tame. All of the scandalousness the writer was hoping for and the admins suspected really only existed in their own fantasy lives. Partially because none of the kids were fooled, turns out the difference between an actual teenager and a grown man wearing makeup is quite evident despite what 21 Jump Street would have you believe. And partially because as word got out about what was going on there was a massive backlash from the parents.
Turns out that allowing a grown man unrestricted access to a student body of underage kids so that he can try to get invited to their parties and snoop on their sex lives is REALLY BAD.
The writer had to flee the scene in disgrace, the principal resigned in disgrace. There was just in general a huge amount of disgrace.
It was the winter of 1978 and I was bumming around Europe going to the train stations at night and using my rail pass instead of paying for a hotel room. This made for some strange side trips. Anyway, I had planned on arriving at Heathrow with no money and flying back home to California.
But the fates decided differently. There was a bad snow storm and some sort of a strike that shut things down for days. Did I mention that I was flying standby? As a side note the Iranian Revolution had driven out the Shah and the airport was packed with Iranians trying to get home.
Stuck in Heathrow with no money and no plane seat in sight. I decided to go into the city and see if I couldn’t rustle up some luck.
So I’m walking down the street and come across a bakery. Ah! Says I, day old bread might be cheap or even free.
I go in the shop and tell the girl behind the counter my story. She looks at me for a long second and says, “I know you, I’m Susan XX, we were in elementary school together.” Small world. Improbable is appropriate, I think. Got something to eat and a great memory. Those days and nights in Heathrow still make me laugh at all the weird, happy, lucky things that happened there.
In grade school there was a boy in our class who always smelled a bit funny. Kids were really cruel about that. They talked about “Danny’s” fleas, how he peed his pants and other really cruel things. To me he did not smell “bad” he smelled of something but it was not that strong.I do not have a strong sense of smell.
In first grade at Valentine’s Day we all made Valentines boxes and made cards to put in each other’s boxes. My mother told me that every child in my class should get a Valentine from me. I thought it was an odd thing to say because that was my plan. I thought it was everyones plan. On Valentines Day were got to open our boxes and see our cards. Some kids brought cookies and we had Kool Aid for our little party that day. Danny came to me afterwards and thanked me for the card I gave him. It turned out it was the only card he had in his box. This I just could not understand.
When Danny got a little older and in 5th grade he made a deal with the boys PE teacher that he and his little brother would come to school early twice a week and do the Gym laundry of towels and would include their clothing in the laundry. Maybe this originally came from the teacher. The smell was gone. Time went by and the teasing about the smell of Danny and is brother ended.
Danny was elected as president of our Graduating class.
China is a good friend to Africa
How did your marriage end?
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
After well over a year of child support and custody battles, allegations and counter allegations it was over. The last court visit was upon me.
Over a year ago we talked and said we would just go through arbitration. We agreed that would be best for all parties concerned. No sense in fighting, she didn’t want custody of the kids so the house would be mine. She could have anything in the house she wanted. Why drag ourselves through the muck? It isn’t like we had hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets.
I still remember that day. My oldest son was an emotional wreck, the youngest was just aloof, not saying much at all. The table we sat at while we had this last civil conversation as married people is still here, about 5 feet from me as I type this.
It was in fact the calmest conversation we had with each other in the months since she abruptly left to go live with her coworker and his friends.
After she had left we fought a lot. Not just because she left but because of how she left. We lived an old fashioned kind of marriage. We had a joint bank account and everything I made was deposited to it. She was supposed to take care of the bills.
Once she started her affair she stopped paying bills and I was clueless. I found out after she left that every utility bill was at least two or three months behind. A week after she left I got a foreclosure notice on the house, she hadn’t paid that in four months. As ridiculous as it sounds I had a 3K plus water bill. I still cant figure that one out. That has to be two years of water bills. If I miss two months they threaten to shut it off.
What she did with all the money I will never know. My brother claims he thought at the time she was doing drugs. Honestly though? Its a mystery that will never be solved.
It all seems so surreal now. But that one day at least a little sanity seemed like it would prevail.
I called the court that Monday and said I was OK for arbitration, I waited for the call back telling me that she had also called and the schedule of appointments we would have to make.
One day waiting turned in to two, then three, then four. On Friday I got a call from a lawyer saying he was representing my then wife and that she was suing for divorce.
I tried to call her to find out what was going on. She didn’t answer.
I got a lawyer. After a couple court dates the lawyer informed me that I would probably have to give her a portion of my pension. Now I understood why she did the abrupt turn around. Spousal support can go on forever if the receiving party doesn’t remarry and since the guy she ran off with was married that was not going to happen.
I told my lawyer that I was not giving her a chunk of my pension for the rest of her life as a reward for screwing me and the kids over. He calmly told me that this was common in NY state for marriages over 15 years and their was little he could do.
I fired him the next day and represented myself.
The court cases went on for about a year, she fought me on everything from custody of the kids that she didn’t want to some generic Kmart pictures that had been in the attic for years. Small arguments we had had years before suddenly became portrayed as huge shouting matches with always just a hint that I may have been abusive.
If you have ever watched any of the reality TV divorce shows it is pretty funny watching people tell obvious lies about each other. It is not as funny when it happens to you and it is real life.
When it started to be obvious things were not going her way the hint was removed with actual allegations. I didn’t just argue with her, now I threw her across a room and jumped on her chest with both feet. It was so ridiculous the judge stopped her, admonished her lawyer and told her no further unproven allegations would be admitted.
I didn’t realize it then but that did cause some damage, not in the way she probably expected though. A month after everything was over my oldest came upon the divorce papers in the house. I came home one day to him sitting on the couch looking as solemn as I have ever seen him. He asked me, “Dad have you ever hit Mom?”
That hurt more then anything she had said about me in court. The image of my own son looking at me like I was a monster will be forever seared in to my brain.
You asked how did it end? My ex sued for divorce, I counter sued. After all the drama the end was pretty anti-climatic.
The judge read the charges for my ex one by one and denied them one by one. She then read my counter-suit arguments one by one and approved them one by one.
All while this was going on my ex just stared at me while I focused my attention on the Judge. We were now two people that had become strangers in a room full of strangers. There were no tears, this had been going on for over a year and half and all the tears had dried up long ago.
That was it, we walked out and headed to the elevator. When she realized she might have to ride down with me she went in to the bathroom to wait until I was gone.
I rode the elevator down, walked outside and stopped at a hotdog stand. After the guy gave me my purchase I asked him what the date was.
It was one week from what would have been our twentieth anniversary.
That is how it ended.
Bakaliaros Pastos Me Kremmithia
Ingredients
3 pounds salt cod
Water as needed
Flour for dipping
1 1/2 cups oil
2 pounds onions, sliced
2 pounds tomatoes, peeled and strained
Pepper to taste
Instructions
Cut cod into small pieces. Skin it, and soak overnight in enough water to cover, changing 2 or 3 times. Remove from water; take out bones; rinse and dry fish well. Dip in flour, shaking off excess, and fry in hot oil until golden.
In same oil, sauté onions until they are soft but not brown. Put them in wide pot, together with oil from the pan and any of the 1 1/2 cups oil not used in the frying. Add tomatoes and pepper. Simmer for 30 – 45 minutes or until onions dissolve.
Add codfish (and /1/2 cup hot water if needed), cover the pot, and cook for 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and only the oil remains.
The Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighed 4.5 metric tons (9,000 pounds). This included the casing, aero-finns, fusing and safing equipment and batteries and particularly a large mass of conventional explosives.
The explosives were used to drive together a large, neutron-reflecting tamper and a critical mass of uranium weighing 64 kg (141 lbs). Naturally occurring uranium is almost entirely u-238, which is less prone to fission through thermal neutron capture, the type of neutrons produced in a nuclear explosion, so the bomb core had been enriched to an average of 80% U-235, and almost all the energy came from the U-235.
Of the 51 kg (113 lbs) of U-235, only about 1%, or 0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) underwent fission, releasing very roughly 64 trillion joules of energy, about the same as 15,000 tons of TNT, or ten times the explosive power of the RAF’s famous thousand-plane raid on Cologne in May of 1945, in which 44 aircraft and hundreds of air crew were lost.
But Little Boy was not filled with anti-matter. Fission only converts a tiny fraction of an atom’s mass into energy, and in Little Boy, that added up to a grand total of roughly 7 grams (0.007 kg).
That, in fact, is the weight of about 10 large butterflies or 20 more typical ones, or 7 paperclips.
Addendum:
The bulk of the uranium that did not fission simply remained uranium, was turned to dust or molten specs, was carried up with the mushroom cloud, and settled out over the Pacific.
If you’re like too many people, that probably scares you, but it absolutely shouldn’t.
Earth’s oceans contain roughly 4.5 billion metric tons of naturally occurring uranium, enough that any randomly collected liter contains about 3.3 micrograms. If you haven’t gone to sleep thus far worrying about Earth’s radioactive oceans, there’s no reason to start. The whole planet is radioactive and always has been, and your bones are considerably more radioactive than seawater—and that’s from natural sources.
In 1983, Stephen Phillips was convicted of a string of rape/burglaries in the Dallas area. He was subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Phillips was married at the time to a woman named Traci. Phillips claims she rarely visited him, and she divorced him whilst he was still in prison.
In 2008, having served 25 years of his sentence, Phillips was exonerated by DNA evidence, it turns out the real perpetrator was a convicted sex offender who had since died.
Phillips was released and eventually secured a $6M settlement in compensation for the terrible miscarriage of justice he had suffered, he attempted to restart his life, presumably hoping to never see the inside of a courtroom again, but that wasn’t to be.
Traci, his ex-wife, read about his settlement in the papers, and decided to take him to court claiming she should get a slice of his compensation as part of her divorce settlement, despite the fact that the divorce happened decades prior and she had long since moved on with her life and remarried.
After a protracted legal battle, during which time Phillips also had to fight off a spurious $2M claim from his former lawyer, the court eventually threw it all out in 2014 and Phillips was finally allowed to attempt to enjoy what remained of his life without the involvement of the legal system for the first time in 31 straight years.
It takes a certain kind of person to look at the compensation someone gets for spending a quarter of a century behind bars for a serious sexual assault that they did not commit and think they will try and take a chunk of that for no good reason other than greed.
One day at the end of class, Miss Thomas asked her fourth graders to go home and come up with a true story with a moral. The following day she asked for the first volunteer to tell their story. Little Billy raised his hand. “My dad owns a farm and every Sunday we load the chicken eggs on the truck and drive into town to sell them at the market. Well, one Sunday we hit a big bump and all the eggs flew out of the basket and onto the road.” When asked by Miss Thomas for the moral of the story, Billy replied, “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.” “Very good, Billy.” Little Suzy went next and kept with the poultry theme. “My dad owns a farm too. Every weekend we take the chicken eggs and put them in the incubator. Last weekend only eight of the 12 eggs hatched.” Again, Miss Thomas asked for the moral of the story. Suzy replied, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” “Good moral, Suzy.” Next up was little Jimmy. “My Aunt Helen was a fighter pilot, and her plane was shot down over enemy territory. She jumped out before it crashed but could only take a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. On the way down, she drank the whiskey. Then she landed right in the middle of about 100 enemy soldiers. She shot and killed about 70 with her machine gun, but then she ran out of ammo. So she pulled out her machete and killed over 20 more. Then the blade on the machete broke, so she had to kill the remaining combatants with her bare hands. Luckily she was rescued soon after.” A shocked Miss Thomas paused and said, “Good Lord, Jimmy, what’s the moral for that?!” Jimmy replied, “Don’t fuck with Aunt Helen when she’s been drinking.”
> Americans now find themselves living in an oligarchy administered day-to-day by institutional bureaucracies that move in lock-step with each other, enforcing a set of ideologically-driven top-down imperatives that seemingly change from week-to-week and cover nearly every subject under the sun. <
He represented a guy on a breaking and entering charge. When the police arrived at the store, the silent alarm was still sounding and the defendant was standing at the end of one of the aisles (it was a grocery store). He was arrested without incident and didn’t make any statements while in custody.
The defendant was about 40 and had a long record of burglaries. However, he hadn’t had one for about ten years. Here was the defense presented at trial:
The defendant testified that he was a master thief. He explained that he knew the store had a silent alarm because he was very familiar with those systems. He explained in detail how he could have disarmed it had he chosen to do so.
He had entered through the roof. There was some sort of service door that he accessed by climbing a drain pipe. When asked, he explained that he didn’t enter through a ground level door or window because it would have required him to break something. The service door was secured by a simple padlock. He had years of experience defeating those locks and explained in detail how he could do so.
So why was he in the store in the middle of the night?
He had been in the store a day earlier and noticed how badly the products were arranged on the shelves. The end caps were particularly unattractive. He needed a job but didn’t think he could get hired by the store via the standard process because of his record. So, he decided to break in and rearrange some of the shelves to demonstrate to the owner how he could be a beneficial employee. The police simply arrived faster than he had anticipated. Because he was such an experienced thief, he said he could have easily broken into the store and looted it without getting caught. How could he prove he was a successful thief? That’s why he didn’t have a record over the preceding 10 years. He had never gotten caught.
So, his defense was that if he was really planning on stealing from the store, he would have never gotten caught. He was there as part of an unorthodox attempt to get a job BC he wanted to stop being a criminal.
When I lived in Southern Indiana, there was a small scandal.
In the town was an old factory. Closed for nearly one hundred years. They manufactured medical thermometers and closed sometime in the 1920’s – 30’s during the “Great Depression”. As it lay off the end of town, it wasn’t visited by anyone. Just got over grown and forgotten.
After all, the kids aren’t willing to ride their bicycles ten miles to an industrial district, and the only people who would drive near the factory were workers going to and from their nearby factory jobs. All oblivious to the old factory.
But one day.
One day, a group of six graders went to the factory and broke in. And there, nearly undisturbed lay the tools of the trade. All left just they were last used. The work benches and assembly lines. The roof above leaked, and birds lived in the office complex. Certainly it was a long lost ruin, and there was nothing of value there.
But then…
One of the boys opened up a tub and in it was a strange silvery liquid. One that clung to their hands. They all dipped their arms and legs in the substance, and rubbed it all over their bodies.
Then they went home, and during the night all got very sick, and all had to be rushed to the local hospital.
Yes, they all got mercury poisoning. Their situation was critical. No one died.
As I recall.
But two of the boys would face years of rehab afterwards, and the mercury really messed them up.
That was my scandal for today.
Boys and girls, do not play with heavy metals. It’s not good for you.
90% of Taiwanese recognised that China is their motherland. 99% certainly don’t want war as they don’t want to kill their colleagues, friends, neighbours, relatives, spouse and associates.
99.99% certainly wants an economic union with China but with some autonomy no different from Taxan’s and Californian’s.
In the recent election there is one party that calls for outright independence and he gets ZERO seats! Taiwanese reject him outright. China don’t need to do a thing. US need to do a ton of shit costing billions China just do good!
Why Are WOMEN Not Signing PRENUPS!! | Women Hitting The Wall | I’m Not Singing a prenup
When walking in a crowded area look where you’re going and not at the other people. They will naturally move out of your line of sight making it quicker to move around.
If someone is bothering you at your desk too often, continue the conversation but get up and walk them back to their desk.
My boss likes having meetings after 5pm and even though I technically can be there for it, I don’t want to. So I tell him I have an important class I’m going to at exactly 5:45. I show up for about 5-10 minutes of the meeting then leave. He thinks I’m an amazing team player for going out of my way to hop on for just a few minutes. When in reality, I have no class to attend and I hate those meetings.
If you want to be an effective liar, build a reputation of being honest. The more you are known as being reliable, the easier it is to deceive and manipulate. Not terribly complex, I know.
Staring at peoples forehead irritates them quite a lot.
Having a heated argument… Ask the other person if they are okay because they’re breathing really hard. They will stop arguing and try to pay attention to their breathing. Resulting in the end of that discussion.
Next time you get in an elevator face towards the rear the whole ride. It freaks the other people out and makes me laugh. It’s the same principle behind stopping on the sidewalk and staring up. Sooner or later somebody else is going to stop and look to see what you’re gawking at.
You may have followed a similar trajectory to mine. You go to college, get your degree, start your career — and pursue that career to whichever city it takes you to. Inevitably, this landed me in Tampa, Florida, residing several states removed from my parents. This pattern is quite common with career oriented people, especially in the United States. But it comes with its own set of consequences.
My partner’s family lives in Albany. She had to leave for her niche academic job (bronze age archaeology). All of my closest friends live hundreds, and sometimes, thousands, of miles from their parents and extended family.
Whether someone stays near their family is often driven by socioeconomic factors. If you are from a more impoverished background, you’re much more likely to live near family — as it is common for to pool resources. For example, if your car breaks down, being able to get a ride or borrow a car can help immensely, especially if you can’t afford to repair the car or rent another. The same is true if you lose your job. It becomes much easier to survive the period of unemployment with immediate relatives in the vicinity.
Race plays a role in familial distance as well. A study found that the median distance between white adults and their mother is 15 miles, but is only three miles for black adults. This is also affected by the above socioeconomic factors, which come into play with racial disparities in income.
We are less likely to live further away from family in the US than in the UK, due to their increased support for single mothers and for the poor.
But as you move up the education (and income) brackets, your odds of living near family fall of quite quickly. A high school diploma means you have a 63% chance of living near extended family. A bachelors degree correlates to a 48% chance, and a post graduate degree translates to 42%.
Is it ideal for Americans to live so far from their families?
There is certainly a feeling of having missed out for me. I am in a group text with my parents and sister (who lives just a few miles away from my parents). Quite often, I see them sending pictures back and forth from the area. Sometimes, there’s a message about having forgotten something at their house or meeting up for a wine tasting (my parents run a vineyard).
Part of me does ache and know that I’m missing being part of their storyline. But for me, it was important to forge my own story and carve out into the world and be independent.
I’m also fortunate in that my family and I don’t have a toxic relationship as so many people do. There’s no need for me to have a difficult conversation about boundaries, and a parent stopping over unannounced during the day, or fighting over the constant pressure to visit. The separation between us is only career reasoned.
But in our case, it puts more pressure (in a good way) to make the most of our time together. Trips to other places, such as New York City, become opportune moments to celebrate and get pictures.
I write this as someone who mostly gets along with their family, and these dynamics can become infinitely complicated — especially in close proximity. In his novel, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
It led to the Anna Karenina principle, and points out that in order for a family to be happy, a few things must be in order: financial security, mutual affection, and good health to all members. Yet for a family to be unhappy, any of a long list of factors can be the cause. And with close proximity, those problems are put under a spotlight. Which can then drive more people to move further away.
There is no one right answer for any person on living near family. But know the forces at work and how they affect you. Because the consequences can be real and substantive.
In my research for my book publisher, I discovered that many of you (Medium readers), are quite educated and have advanced degrees and incomes. That makes it quite likely that many of you live far from family. I would encourage you to find ways to reconnect with them when you have time, be it a phone call, or other means.
Your odds of loneliness increase when you lack interaction with people, and with family especially. Healthy familial relationships are like a supercharged antidote to loneliness. When you become too lonely, your risk of disease and depression go up markedly.
A final caution on the divide of family
In nearly every case I know of someone who lives far from family, there has been heartburn and problems that need squashing. My partner is constantly feeling pressured to visit her family. The pressure is, of course, always out of love and never devolves into a screaming match. But it does cause the common tension, which emerges from a child being ambitious and being flung to a distance city.
My best friend’s mother is constantly upset with him for not bringing their grandchildren up to visit every month — but it isn’t feasible. It’s a 6 hour drive and both he and his wife a neck deep with work and school. Even further, he lives further away because his mother keeps trying to indoctrinate their children into Christianity, and he wants his children to be 18 before they make religious decisions.
The point isn’t that we should spend time with and live closer to family regardless of circumstances. Because those circumstances can be infinitely varied and I’m sympathetic to them.
Just be aware of the economic forces that are pulling at us. They define where and how far we live from family. It takes extra steps these days to keep families well-bonded.
My parents also lived far from their parents for my dad’s military career, and so perhaps I am continuing that tradition. We combatted this by making an effort to drive and see grandparents at every opportunity. There weren’t many ski vacations in my childhood, but every Christmas and summer was with grandparents, and that helped keep the family together. The other way to do Zoom calls on a recurring basis. My partner does one every two weeks — and they came to this system because they weren’t interacting enough with each other before that.
Because I work remotely as a writer, and not for any one employer, I can do my job anywhere. So I do at least six different week long trips to see my family each year. And it has been a blessing and helped me feel more connected with family.
No matter how far your career pulls you, don’t forget where you come from, and that there are usually people who wouldn’t mind hearing from you. Upward mobility has a natural gravitational pull away from family.
It’s easier than ever to be lonely these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.
Her Husband Was The PERFECT Man So She CHEATED On Him
Yes, my 1999, BMW Z3 roadster convertible. This was about 14 years ago. I drove that baby to work every day. Then I retired. No job, no reason to leave the house 5 days a week. So it sat in the driveway a lot. Twice I had two young men, 20’s probably, knock on my door and ask if my car was for sale. The first was a it 8 ll the after I retired c the next 3–4 months later. I told them both the no, I loved my car, couldn’t think of any reason why I should give it up. I was really stunned when the first guy said” well you never drive it”. I told him I did drive it, he then proceeded tot me that every time he came by it was in the driveway. Told him I was retired so I didn’t take it out every day and what did he care anyway. If I remember correctly I did offer to sell him the car for $15,000. It was 12 years old by them, very low miles and we’d done about $5000 worth of work on it. He didn’t like that. So I told him goodbye. The next guy, much to my astonishment told me the same thing. The car never moved so he’d take it off my hands for $500. I told him no thanks I loved and wasn’t coming it up since my hubby and I drove when we went to dinner or visited friends, church. And he’s never see the inside of that car for less than $20,000 he told me a was a crazy old lady. I told him I still owned the car, didn’t I?
Gonzalo Lira has died in Ukrainian Prison. His family announced that he was TORTURED. What happened?
So I flew with my family to Phoenix (PHX) to visit my niece. I reserved a car from Budget
We arrived around 5:00 pm. The flight in was great.
After getting our bags, we ended up standing in line for the shuttle to the car rental center for over an hour. That’s not Budget’s problem; that’s a problem with airport operations.
The real problems started when we got to the rental center. The line was ridiculously long, they had only four staff members to check people out. I stood in line for three hours. Three horrible hours. By the time I got to the counter, the line was three times as long as when I arrived. On top of that, despite me entering ALL MY INFORMATION when I placed the reservation online, the poor agent had to reenter everything manually.
I don’t have anything bad to say about the customer service agent; they were just the victim of terrible management. My problem is that Budget has systemic customer service problems:
If a customer has a reservation, all the agent should need to do is confirm the renter’s identification and hand over the keys. This should take two minutes, tops. Not 15 minutes per renter.
Budget knows exactly how many people have reserved cars at each location, and when. They should be able to staff appropriately. There were eight or ten stations at this location, with only four staffed.
By the time I got into the car, it was 9:30 pm. We hadn’t had anything to eat since lunchtime, assuming that we’d get our car within a few minutes of arriving and we’d eat after.
I’ll never rent from Budget again, even if it costs twice as much. That’s an experience I am not willing to go through again.
Why NASA can’t send humans to the Moon? Russia refuses to keep mouth shut, or it’s the Aliens?
US ban Huawei for perhaps, may be Huawei could be a Chinese government agency using its technology in China’s military!
China do tit for tat! It stop buying from Boeing since Boeing used the profit from China’s purchases to participated in lethal weapons development that may be used on China one day!
So that is why everything you do, China will reciprocate likewise.
My son was nearly 4 years old. One day he and my wife went to a restaurant to get a pizza for lunch. There was an elderly man who came in with his shopping cart. He was obviously homeless. He ordered a cup of coffee which the waitress grudgingly served him. (It was obvious she didn’t want him there.) He fished on his pocket and pulled out a hot dog. He ate it slowly, dunking it in his coffee between bites.
My son asked why he was doing this and my wife explained that he was homeless and had no money. My son became upset and asked my wife if they could help him. As they were ready to leave, my wife brought him the untouched half of the pizza they had been eating. At first, he refused to take it as he was concerned that my son would not have enough to eat. My wife explained that they bought too much and the waitress would only throw it away if they left it. He took the pieces, carefully wrapped them up and stored them in his basket (most likely those slices would become his dinner that evening.). He thanked them with tears in his eyes when they left.
When they got into the car, my wife heard my son crying. When she asked him what was wrong. He looked at her through his tears and answered “Nothing Mommy…I just have feelings inside myself.”
Update: This same son is now an adult with children of his own, ages 4 and 6. I was injured in a fall and am now a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair. The other day, he was walking his young daughters to school. He noticed the older one occasionally running ahead, picking up sticks and throwing them to the side of the road. After she did this several times, he asked her why she was doing it. She replied “If Papa ever walks us to school, his wheelchair tire would hit them and he would get thrown out of the chair. I want to make sure he is safe.” I cried when I heard that one.
My Dad was “On the job” NYPD from 1929–1949. He was a detective at the time this incident occured. He was coming out of a store in a bad neighborhood and heard a woman screaming out the window He’s “cutn” me he’s “cutn” me. It was a 2–3 story walk-up and my Dad ran up the stairs with his .38 revolved in his hand and when he heard which apartment she was screaming from he kicked open the door and there in front of him was a very large man, at least 6′5″ and probably 250+ pounds holding a butcher knife.
Dad told him he was NYPD and ordered him to put the knife down and the guy said “I am going to put it down in you.” He started coming at Dad and he started shooting center mass but the guy kept coming. He got down to one bullet left (always try and count the # of rounds you expend), which he put between the guys eyes and said to himself that if this one doesn’t stop him “I’m going to throw the gun at him and run down the stairs. It stopped him!
My Dad, after that, always said to get the biggest caliber pistol or rifle it will take and you can carry comfortably to stop whatever you are trying to put down on the first shot. A .22 caliber pistol is really good if you are a Mafia hitman and put it at the back of someone’s head and pull the trigger but for everyone else take my Dad’s advice.
The Chinese, especially those in the northeast, have fond memories of the Soviets, who supplied arms for the Korean war, and helped seed China’s first phase of industrialization through the transfer of over 100 heavy industries. China’s nuclear and space technology was also driven initially by Soviet experts, before relationships cooled.
The Chinese have had trouble with the USSR along the border, but it never escalated beyond small unit fire contact. A border has been ratified with the Russians and today, with Putin’s head turned east, the Russians are doing roaring business with China. I won’t be surprised if Russia-China trade grows another 2–3x from 2023 levels, already a historic high.
The Chinese certainly don’t think the Russian as the evil protagonist in James Bond movies, or the sanctions (that were executive- rather than court-directed) fair, particularly the seizure of assets from individuals with Russian ancestry. That scared the bejesus out of rich folk with money parked out west, and Singapore was a beneficiary of the capital flight.
If it can happen to Russia, a P5 member with one of the most powerful nuclear triad MAD deterrents globally, it can happen to anyone.
The Chinese will give their Russian brothers a pat on the back, and go “we share a long border and history. We understand and empathize. Welcome to the club. We are being spanked everyday too. They still talk rubbish about Tiananmen more than 30 years later. Let’s build our own vision of a shared humanity.”
And that’s that.
He Marries a Girl who hides her Melons’ size because they are TOO Big
Yes. And for those of you who have a visual mind or are faint of heart do not read my reply.
At the Regional Burn Center I worked at in my city, we would see one or two times a year a very specific assault and injury to the male genitals that we discovered was specific to our city. For some reason there were some women in our city, who if they caught their man cheating on them, would find an opportunity to throw lye on their private parts as a punishment or revenge. The severe burns that this caused to that area were unbelievable to see. The skin would de-glove and we would have to remove it and then these men would have to go through multiple grafting procedures which were very painful. These were second and three degree burns to the genitals. Needless to say these men were never the same again.
I was a government employee for 28 years and worked overtime whenever she asked me. I also took no sick leave and cut my vacation time when there was an overload of work. An opening for a promotion came up and I passed the tests with flying colors. However, my supervisor wanted a woman in the position and called in favors to have a female employee from another department transferred to her section. I then went to HR and asked when I could take early retirement with the best employee pension possible given my number of years as an employee. I bided my time and when the time came, I gave exactly 2 weeks notice. How did it hurt her? I had accumulated 2 years and six weeks of vacation, sick leave, and overtime, so for that time, I was paid full salary on early retirement. The best part, she could not have another employee fill my position because I was officially still occupying that position.
In the early 2000s I had an employee that I thought was excellent, so I gave them a 10% raise for everything they were doing. They worked around 40 hours a week, I paid overtime whenever they needed to work it, and paid them 4 hours of OT for just showing up if I needed them for an emergency. The following year they found a job that was paying four dollars an hour more, they were “on the clock” the moment they got into the company provided vehicle, and the company was able to provide them with training that I wasn’t able to provide. As they shared this information with me I asked, “So what is the trade off?” Meaning, why when I was paying above the market average was this company paying more than I was for essentially the same work. They told me couldn’t think of any, so I encouraged them to go back and ask the future employer a few more questions. They didn’t do that but called me back two months later. During the majority of the two month time frame they had worked at least 12 hours a day for six to seven days a week. Yes, they were tired but they also wanted to see their family. They discovered that while the money was great, but it was getting in the way of their true priorities.
I worked in many mills and factories in my early life – there were still mills making stuff, even paper, up till about 1985 or so. Now all that stuff is gone.
In high school, as soon as I turned 16 I got a job as a general laborer at an electroplating and finishing mill in Readville called “Precision Metal Coating”. The name was a joke because everything in the mill was bottom of the barrel shit, worst quality, and the workers were treated like dirt. My boss was a total dick named Jack McBride, a foreman who treated everyone in that building as if they were something to be scraped off. I was getting minimum wage, which in those days was $2.15 an hour but for someone who never worked, 80 dollars a week was a fortune.
In this mill was a giant oven room with 10 huge ovens. We would push carts filled with thousands of recently painted parts into the oven where the temps would soar to over 2000 degrees and bake on the coatings. We did all kinds of things like gun receivers and heart defribrillators and carbereutor parts and so on. In the winter everyone tried to visit the over room as much as possible since the factory was barely heated and most of the windows were broken. It was almost as cold inside as outside the factory. But the oven room was toasty.
As an unskilled laborer my job was to push carts in and out of the ovens and then a skilled worker would set the temperature and fire up the ovens. There was a massive door covered with sheet steel that we would use to block off the oven room from the rest of the mill, not just for fire safety but because the baking parts often gave off poison gas. The worst was Teflon. We made many Teflon-coated things but when Teflon is baked it gives off a poison gas. When we were baking Teflon, the oven room had to be cleared and the massive door sealed and locked.
One day I was tasked with resetting some parts in one of the ovens. Now, you couldn’t get trapped in the ovens – the giant doors had a big escape handle to prevent anyone from getting locked inside – but you were working in them when temps were 200 degrees. Sometimes you could run in and do something quick when they were even hotter. We had all kinds of furry asbestos gloves and gear if we had to do stuff in the ovens. I was in this steaming oven one day – and they were always loud with the roaring of the gas blowers – you couldn’t talk to anyone. So I set up this tray of equipment and it was getting hotter and stinkier. I was glad to finish. But when I got out of the oven I found the massive door to the oven room sealed. Now, it wasn’t as if I was going to fry but I didn’t want the boss to think I was goofing off. There were timers attached to doorbells and when the timer clicked off, it raised an arm that hit the doorbell and rang a loud bell on the shop floor. We used it to tell when the products were done baking. There was a timer for every oven. I went over and hit one of the doorbells two or three times, sounding a loud bell in the factory. In a couple of seconds the big door slid open and an arm grabbed me and pulled me out. There were two men there and they were white as sheets.
“What the hell were you doing in there?” the Asst Foreman asked.
“Jack asked me to reset the Prolastimer parts,” I said defensively.
“Do you know what’s baking in there?” the other guy asked. He was literally shaking.
“It’s Teflon,” the Assistant Foreman said.
I had no idea what this meant. He could see this meant nothing to me. The other guy turned to him.
“He’s gonna be sick, Roy,” he said. “Real sick. Teflon fever.”
“Listen,” the Asst Foreman said, “Clock out and go home. Don’t tell anyone anything. I will square it with Jack. Don’t come back tomorrow or the next day…”
“But I feel fine,” I protested.
“You won’t. Now get out of here. Get going. You have to get home before you start getting sick. When you get home, take a shower and some aspirin and get into bed.”
I wanted to protest.
“Just fuckin’ do it,” the other guy said. “Don’t say a word. Just get the fuck out of here.”
And so I did. I walked home from the mill. And as a I walked I started to see lines in my sight, wavy lines. And then the headache started to come. By the time I made it home I was gasping with pain. I tore off my clothes and got in the shower and immediately vomited. When I got out of the shower I vomited again. Black stuff was coming out of my nose and my tears were stained black. I crawled into bed. I had never been in so much pain in my life. Every joint, every muscle ached. When I opened my eyes, the light exploded in my brain and I would vomit all over again. No migraine I had ever had was this bad. I cried. Eventually my exhausted body collapsed and I fell asleep. The next morning I felt a lot better but I was so weak I could barely walk. The third day I went back to work. There was my boss, Jack.
“I’m sorry about what happened,” I said.
“Nothing happened,” he said tersely. “Nothing. And no one will back you up if you ever say it did.”
And then he put me on the sandblaster. I got a small raise and I would never have to go into the oven room again. But it was no promotion. Being a sandblaster was one of the worst, most miserable jobs I ever had. It was so bad one of the other sandlblasters killed himself in the sandblasting studio. Jack shrugged and went out and hired another drunk desperate for a job.
That was just one of the many adventures I had there. It was a horrible, horrible place and if that’s what factories are like then it’s no surprise why so many of them folded.
CHINA’s Scientists INVENTED Energy Shield To Defend Against US Attack
My father wasn’t thrilled with the idea of me dating a white guy. So having them meet for the first time in my house was a bit nerve wracking.
Before visiting my home to Japan, my boyfriend asked me what my father is like. I told him that my dad wanted to be an academic like his father (my grandfather) but had to pursue a career in business instead because of financial reasons.
On the day of the “meeting”, my boyfriend shows up with a huge ass textbook on statistics and starts leisurely reading on the couch in our living room, all spread out. Half an hour later, my dad comes home.
Dad: “Why hello! Nice to meet you in person…. What is that book you’ve got there?”
Boyfriend: “Oh this? It’s some reading I have to do for my graduate school next year…”
Dad: (Flips through the pages) “…Wow! This looks very difficult. Do you understand it all?”
Boyfriend: “Well some of it is difficult, but the concepts like….. and….. are rather easy.”
Dad: (super impressed)
It was smooth sailing from there. Now, my dad adores then-bf-now-husband.
Needless to say, I never saw him open that book ever again.
it’s just a quick guide at best. It measures output based on value. That means if your provide services freely, it is perceived as not value! Hence the U.S. charged its citizens for healthcare at an exorbitant price and that gets counted up to 6 trillion dollars GDP while China provides the same for less than one trillion dollars to 4 times more people and actually keep its people alive 2 years longer!
So the U.S. GDP is overvalued or Chinese GDP is highly undervalued hence it is wrong even to compare the U.S. versus China for example, through this faulty measurement.
When the U.S. threw helicopter money to the tune of 10 trillion dollars as subsidies and bail outs, that amount is counted as income! Hence once again it over values the US GDP. The same goes to stock valuation or real estate valuation. To me it measures greed or bubble.
Whatever it is one measuring economic health of a nation based only GDP is no different from judging your physical health based only on your temperature or just your blood pressure! You need a host of measurements including life expectancy!
The U.S. is a very unhealthy economy wrongly perceived by its citizens due to its media as a huge economy. It is far from that! It is a lot of hot air at best.
I brought a guy into the station and sat him down in an interrogation room, and walked out to get a cup of coffee for both him and myself. I hadn’t indicated to him why he was there, except he was in possession of a nominal amount of marijuana. I was going to give him the, “Who’s your dealer?” bit when I got back.
I walked in, sat the coffees down and took a seat across from him.
“I suppose you figured out why I brought you in?” I asked.
“Yeah. But it wasn’t me. It was XXX X. XXX. He shot the guy. I was there but had no idea it was going to happen.” He offered. “I don’t do nothing like that!”
“I didn’t think so.” I answered, nearly choking on his admission. “So let’s get this on paper so we can see what the DA can do for you. OK?” Then I read him his rights again.
He wrote it all down, and what was going to be a simple misdemeanor bust for weed turned into a murder being solved. When the Captain asked me how I got him to confess, I just smiled. “Some people got it, others don’t Cap!” I laughed. Sometimes a blind squirrel can find a nut.
Ask Me On A Date, Men! Modern Women Has FREAKS OUT Because Men Are Walking Away
I called for a position being advertised at a pig sanctuary in upstate NY called Arthur’s Acres. The guy who founded it and runs it is a vegan, but fanatical about it.
I was extremely qualified for a position there (about which he wasn’t clear, btw), as I had worked with pigs for six months when I was an Animal Science major 15 years ago. I have also worked with dogs for 22 years, and volunteered at Raptor Trust in N.J. for a time. As well, I spent a few years riding and working with horses. That is to say, I have lots of multi-species experience and, specifically, also pigs.
He then asked me if I was vegan. I said I wasn’t, he was very upset, and tried to argue with me about being vegan. He let me know that my not being vegan was a dealbreaker for him. Food Nazi!!!
Anyway, I told him I hadn’t eaten pork for over 20 years (totally true), and that I had IBD/Crohn’s, so that ruled out my eating a lot of vegetables, beans and salads, most of the things which comprise a vegan diet. I let him know that a diet that full of fiber could send me to the hospital. I also let him know that while I was at his sanctuary, I would respect his wishes and eat PBandJ on sourdough bread if I had to eat that every day for lunch, but once I left his property what I ate was really my business. He didn’t care about any of this. He was a guy that seemed unable to see anyone else’s point of view or have empathy for anyone’s condition or limitations. He only cared about having everyone be vegan.
I had donated several times to his sanctuary, but after this, I stopped.
I decided it wasn’t worth it, and that I’d never want to work with a person like this. He does a lot for the pigs he rescues, no doubt; but, he doesn’t like people at all, that was clear to me.
FLORIDA OVERTURNS LIFETIME ALIMONY LAW | Women Are Losing Their Minds!
I’ve wanted to share this because I thought it was amazing and it made me smile, but I dont know how you would bring this up randomly.
I’m 34 years old. When I was a child my mom moved my brother and I to a new house, getting us out of our old apartment where we had grown up. I was in the fifth grade and my younger brother was in the third I believe. We rode the bus and lucky for us, our bus stop was RIGHT down the street from our house, not even a 3 minute walk. Back then all the neighborhood kids near us who also used this stop would FIGHT to secure their spot in line because who ever got there first would get the best seats in the back of the bus because we were the first stop. The problem was, we neighborhood kids were cut throat about our spots in line, some of us woke up early JUST to get a good spot, but that also meant if you were in line waiting for the bus, you couldn’t get out or you would lose your spot and have to move to the back. We all hated this because we were forced to stand in one spot waiting instead of being able to play and run around with each other and some days the bus took a while to get there. Now, I don’t know how many weeks this went on for before I said to myself, “this isn’t going to work for me.” So I decided instead of us all lining up and being forced to stand there, we would instead use our backpacks to keep our spot. We’d line them up in order of first come first serve, then be free to go play. I asked all the kids of various ages if they agreed and they did. At that bus stop everyday after that and even the next year (my last year riding that bus), we all still lined our backpacks up. My mom still lives in that house all these years later and sometimes she needs me to house sit. Well, I was on my way to work one morning a few months ago and I passed my old elementary school bus stop, they never changed the route. And do you know what I saw? It made me go, Wow. As I turned the corner in my car I saw a bunch of grade school kids at my old bus stop,they were out playing with eachother, and right where we use to line up our backpacks, they still lined theirs. I started that as a child, and because the older kids did it, the younger ones did too, and then those young kids would become the older kids and new kids would replace them, and they all learned of the backpack trick because they watched the kids who came before them. I started a thing that has carried on for over 24 years and counting. It really made me smile to see the neighborhood kids still doing it after all this time. I knew at the time it was a great idea but I didn’t know how everlasting it would be to where it became tradition. It made me smile and think, wow, all these years later these kids were still using their backpacks to hold their place in line, if you would of told me the day I came up with it that in 24 years kids would still be doing it, I would of called you a liar but unbelievable as it is, here we are.
Now, how do I randomly fit that into a conversation?
Fenikia
Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup peanut oil
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 jigger brandy
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
Dash cinnamon
Dash ground cloves
Chopped walnuts for garnish
Syrup
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 pound honey
1 lemon, sliced or 1 orange, sliced
Instructions
Cookies: Heat oil and butter over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stir in water and brandy. Cool.
Stir in beaten eggs.
Sift together flour and baking powder with the tablespoon each of cinnamon and cloves. Add to liquid mixture to make a dough that is not too soft. Add a little more flour if necessary. With floured hands shape dough into ovals and indent lengthwise with thumbs.
Combine chopped walnuts with sugar and dash each cinnamon and cloves. Put 1 teaspoon of this filling into the indentation in the dough and close dough over filling. Place on cookie sheets and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
Dip cooled cookies into hot syrup and place on racks to drain. Decorate with chopped walnuts.
Syrup: Combine above ingredients and boil for 5 minutes.
My ex father in law was the thief. He was also a bully and all around shitty human being. He was the big boss of a construction company and basically drove around all day to different jobs making sure the guys had what they needed and making sure the work was completed to standards. This also allowed him the opportunity to help himself to the guys lunches. I still remember the panic in my exs voice that his Dad was in the ER because he thought he was having a heart attack. He had stolen the wrong guys lunch. The guy had put a pot brownie in his lunch box and dummy took it, ate the whole thing and when it hit, he was completely sick and high as a kite. I giggled a lot that day because the bully and thief finally had to pay for his actions.
As a risk manager and health plan administrator, I had lots of complaints. But the Gold Star goes to this one: This woman had built an illegal extension to her house that went out into the public right of way. Over the years, it undermined the power pole which tilted and was resting on the eaves of her extension. She called to say that the exterminator told her that her roof had terminates. I asked how I could help her (we always had to try to be helpful). She said she wanted us to replace her roof. When I asked why, she explained about the pole leaning on the eaves and said our utility pole had given her roof termites. I explained that the poles were made soaked in creosote to prevent termites. She then told me the termites walked up the pole and jumped onto her roof. She was quite serious. The only thing that could be said to that would have been snorting laughter. (I was imagining termites, in uniform, marching up the pole, with a brass band.) I told her we would look into it. We did our due diligence then wrote her a polite denial letter.
I dealt with a lot of people who believed their problems could not possibly be their fault.
China dismantled a MI6 espionage network. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
My mother lived in a large old house that we called “the manor”. Supposedly it was the home of one of the regional governors of the area back in the 1700’s, and it had servant quarters, a large “carriage house”, a barn, and a row of houses that were the quarters for the servants back in the day.
When she bought it (with her second “husband”), my step dad, it was being used a a mobile home park. And so they cleared out the old mobile homes, and the discarded cars, cleaned up the land. Knocked down some buildings, and installed a pool with a pool house, and placed a nice water fountain with a stature in front.
But…
Off to the side was this big spread of land and Lordy, it needed to be mowed. That’s 11 acres you all. Took me a full day to mow all the grass, I’ll tell you what.
But in the middle of that was a flag pole. And my mother would put up a new flag every Memorial Day.
Now, she always bought smaller flags. This is because they gave the impression that the pole was larger, and thus bigger, than it actually was.
Well, one day in 2002, I guess, I went to get a replacement flag and the storekeeper asked me what size that I wanted.
I told her that I did not know.
So he asked me how tall the pole was. And I said about three stories tall, and he gave me a flag.
When I brought it home, my mother was angry.
She said that it was way too large.
But, since it was the end of the day and the holiday was upon us, she gave me the ok to put it up.
And so I did.
Let me tell you that that large flag was GLORIOUS. Simply wonderful.
It moved with strength in the wind, and it was so gosh visually appealing that cars would slow down as they drove by the house.
So people, when ever you put up a flag, select the largest one that would fit on the pole. You will NOT be disappointed.
And as for my mother… well, she changed her mind about what the size of a flag should be, and always insisted on the large size.
You see, everyone.
Size does matter.
This entire post endured a javascript crash, please excuse it, and manually run the video links at the side. Sorry.
Worst. I worked for a family owned business. I was a Sale Rep/Tech. During that year I was Salesman of the Month 10 of 12 months. I sold over $950,000 worth of computers. The closest salesperson was a great friend of mine to this day. She sold $600,000 worth of computers. The Christmas bonus was a $12 ham. Not a coupon, an actual ham.
Best. I worked for a big HVAC company as a Supervisor for their Network Operations Center. There were 16 of us in the office. Our Boss gave us all personal gifts, in my case, (and yes, I’m a Nerd) a replica of the Star Trek phaser. It cost about $125. This was not a bonus directly, this was out of his own pocket. Each person got something that was special to each person. And I am proud to say that even after not working for him for 20 years, we are still good friends. He’s retired, and I’m jealous.
One February my husband and I went on a couples only trip to Jamaica. My oldest daughter was 20 years old at the time and we allowed her to stay in our home in Maine on the promise of her best behavior. I took my younger two children to my mothers house in Philadelphia. We had an oil furnace in the house and had just filled our 350 gallon tank prior to leaving on vacation. Yes
Because we didn’t totally trust our 20 yr. old, I had locked the alcohol into my bedroom closet and had asked our neighbors to keep an eye on the house to make sure there wasn’t any more than 1-2 cars in the driveway at any given time. Feeling that we had covered our bases, my husband and I proceeded to enjoy our time with friends on a beautiful tropical island.
Seven days later when we arrived back at our house, it was to find all the lights on, the doors wide open to the zero degree temperatures and the furnace completely out of oil. There was a note on the kitchen counter written by a friend of my daughter’s reading: “Morgan is in jail, you’ll need to bail her out when you get home.”
Our living room furniture had multiple cigarette burns, as well as the bedroom carpets and some of the beds. The shower had been ripped out of the main bathroom. My closet door had been removed to get at the alcohol I had hidden away. All of us had valuables stolen. The total for the damages totaled $12,000 and THAT didn’t include our lost heating fuel.
For any who may be curious, no I did NOT bail my daughter out of jail. I did however speak to someone at the jail to find out the charge was serving alcohol to her underaged friends.
She had a difficult next couple of months but ended up discovering some real strengths. During that time, she totally turned her life around and when she finally asked if she could come back home, she was told yes but with conditions. Over the years she filled us in on what actually happened and that people she didn’t even know kept coming into the house because they “heard ” there was a party. She tried to stop it but it was far too out of control.
Jerry Seinfeld DESTROYS Woke Insanity in EPIC Video – Hollywood Goes CRAZY!
TSMC has no plans. It’s a slave to the U.S. The U.S. has plans that failed and will never work. They want to make chips in its country and in its slave nations. They thought it could contain China but China did not only buy from other nations. They do it themselves. Hahahaha.
But the person who post this question ought to ask if China has a domestic market that represents 30% of the world’s market and they make 4/5 of everything the rest of the world or another say 40–50% if these 70–80% don’t buy and used your chips, you are left with 20–30% balance!
You barely need a factory let alone 3–4 countries making these chips! Do your simple mathematics. Chinese are superb at maths. They pretend to be up in arms but this chip ban couldn’t be sillier!
Top 10 Unsettling Signs Of Scary Parallel Universes In History
I had lost my wife of almost 30 years 10 months previous. Her best friend invited me to dinner with her sister who incidentally lost her husband at the same time. My deceased wife’s best friend felt sharing our experience would assist in the grieving process. She repeated the process a few weeks later bringing takeout to my place. The friend shortly after dinner stood to leave, my eyes met her sister’s eyes and I could tell there was more to talk about. They left.
Of course I started taking her to dinner alone and quickly bonds formed.
The false pretense part of the story occurs months after, when we announced to her sister we were getting married. My deceased wife’s best friend was absolutely shocked at the idea, no concept what so ever of us being more than consoling friends, hell I was her best friend’s husband and she was her sister. It’s all too early, it’s been only one year. In fact she quietly became scarce, not contacting either of us for months and months. Slowly she adjusted to the idea her best friend’s husband was now married to her sister. It took a while for our dense heads to realize my deceased wife’s best friend also had to go through the grieving process.
All is well now and relationship back to normal.
Faki Soupa (Greek Lentil Soup)
Ingredients
3/4 cup brown lentils
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (3 ounce) can tomato puree
8 ounces fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded
Good pinch of oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 3/4 cups water
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Cover lentils with cold water and bring to boil. Drain lentils and return to the pan with 1 1/2 pints water, garlic, onion, tomato puree, fresh tomatoes, oregano and olive oil. Bring to a boil and simmer until the lentils are soft.
Remove from heat and blend, but stop blending before the mixture gets too smooth.
Season to taste.
UKRAINE LATEST: 5,600 DEAD IN ONE WEEK; Matches a Visitor to Ukraine Report
Ukrainian casualties soar: Kiev loses 5,600 troops in seven days – Widespread use of thermobaric shells by Russian artillery.
Ukrainian losses on the various fronts of the war are increasing dramatically as a result of the lack of ammunition that is now plaguing the Ukrainian Army.
On the contrary, the Russian Army has increased the intensity of the bombardments and above all, the use of thermobaric rockets from TOS-1A systems.
Ukrainian casualties increased – 5,600 dead in seven days!
The Ukrainian army has suffered heavy casualties during front-line fighting where Russian forces have the military initiative in all directions, Moscow said on Friday.
The numbers above are a confirmation of an email I received on January 6 from a woman who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine. While I did not publish that letter when it came, I think the news story above cries out for her letter to be reported. Here is her report:
———-
I just got back from Ukraine, where I was visiting some friends.
Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie.
The reality is darker, bleaker, and unequivocally hopeless. There is no such thing as Ukraine “winning” this war.
– By their estimates, they have lost over one million of their sons, fathers and husbands; an entire generation is gone. – Even in the Southwest, where the anti-Russian sentiment is long-standing, citizens are reluctant or straight-up scared to publicly criticize Zelensky; they will go to jail. – In every village and town, the streets, shops, and restaurants are mostly absent of men. – The few men who remain are terrified of leaving their homes for fear of being kidnapped into conscription. Some have resorted to begging friends to break their legs to avoid service. – Army search parties take place early in the morning, when men leave their homes to go to work. They ambush and kidnap them off the streets and within 3-4 hours they get listed in the army and taken away straight to the front lines with minimal or no training at all; it is “a death sentence.” – It’s getting worse every day. Where I was staying, a dentist had just been taken by security forces on his way to work, leaving behind two small children. Every day, 3-5 dead bodies keep arriving from the front lines. – Mothers and wives fight tooth and nail with the armed forces, beg and plead not to have their men taken away. They try bribing, which sometimes works, but most of the time they are met with physical violence and death threats. – The territory celebrated as having been “won back” from Russia has been reduced to rubble and is uninhabitable. Regardless, there is no one left to live there and displaced families will likely never return. – They see the way the war has been reported, at home and abroad. It’s a “joke” and “propaganda.” They say: “Look around: is this winning?”. – Worse, some have been hoaxed into believing that once Ukrainians forces are exhausted, American soldiers will come in to replace them and “win the war”.
There is no ambiguity in these people. The war was for nothing – a travesty. The outcome always was, and is, clear. The people are hopeless, utterly destroyed, and living in an unending nightmare.
They are pleading for an end, any end – most likely the same “peace” that could have been achieved two years ago. In their minds, they have already lost, for their sons, fathers and husbands are gone, and their country has been destroyed. There is no “victory” that can change that.
Make no mistake, they are angry with Putin. But they are also angry with Zelensky and the West. They have lost everything, worst of all, hope and faith, and cannot comprehend why Zelensky wishes to continue the current trajectory, the one of human devastation.
I didn’t witness the war; but what I saw was absolutely heart-breaking.
Shame on the people, regardless of their intentions, who have supported this war. And shame on the media for continuing to lie about it.
Maria Mateiciuc 8:37 AM · Jan 6, 2024
American Woman In Asia Discovered Men Are HAPPY Overseas
I trained in and taught karate for about 20 years yet I wouldn’t want to go up against two or more young punks who were assaulting me on the street. Too many chances they’re carrying a weapon or might get in a lucky punch.
My wife and I walk a lot in the evening at our coastal home. Where we live is safe but you never know who might drive by looking for trouble.
So I added a weapon to my arsenal. And I train with it regularly.
Yet, it’s perfectly legal to carry personally or in your car.
You can carry it into a restaurant or movie theater.
You can have it in the bank or the courthouse.
You can take it on a plane or a bus.
It’s inexpensive to buy and easy to learn how to use effectively.
It’s innocuous looking so it would be a surprise to a bad actor.
Yet, it’s devastatingly effective as a weapon.
You can use it to even the odds of more than one attacker and against a weapon.
It’s a walking cane.
But not just any old ten dollar pine one.
It needs to be hard wood like oak or hickory so it won’t break and has some weight.
The ones I carry are Irish walking sticks and canes made of Blackthorn wood. It’s very dense and is the wood used for traditional Irish fighting sticks.
And you need to learn how to use it effectively and practice regularly to become proficient with it.
You can find lots of videos on line about how to use a cane for defense effectively.
Actually, there is are whole martial arts devoted to cane and walking stick fighting. Watching videos on them you realize how devastating of a weapon it is.
So, you don’t want to spend 20 years learning karate? But you still want to have some means of self defense in this increasingly chaotic world?
You’re in luck. Buy a good cane that can be used effectively for self defense.
Then learn how to use it effectively and practice,
Oh, and try to never need to use it. That’s the best self defense.
I had a relative who wanted to borrow money. His vehicle was towed as he failed to pay on a title loan.
As this relative was bad at money matters, I asked how much he needed and who was the lienholder. I wasn’t going to just give him a sum of money, without proof that he actually needed it, and wasn’t going to: 1. Use it to go gambling. 2. Give it to a woman. 3. Use it go on a drunken spree. (He was an alcoholic).
He threw a tantrum worthy of a toddler, calling me, “a selfish bitch”, among other things. This was at my job. He had already borrowed a few thousand from me that he had never paid back.
Needless to say, he never got the vehicle back, although he later apologized about the name calling.
That was the day I learned that you could divorce your family, love them from a distance and stop buying into their bullshit.
He died in London, UK, 1979. We had no family living there, just mom. I was living in Miami, and my sister was living in NJ. My dad and I had a huge falling out when I married a Roman Catholic, but we’d come back together by that time, and my dad and my wife and her family actually had a good relationship.
We arranged the funeral there. It was just my mom, my sister, and me. And my mom had a hang-up about death and funerals. She literally couldn’t even bear to say the words, “death” or “funeral,” and I had never been to a funeral before, or even a viewing. I was 28 at the time. They had friends, but I think only one person came and that was it. I don’t know if my mom even told any of them.
There was no viewing service, no synagogue service. Just the burial at Rainham Cemetery. My sister and I were waiting for the coffin to be brought out, and it was wheeled out on a cart, The thing had three wheels, one of them had a mostly flat tyre, and the thing squeaked loud enough to wake the dead.
It was so surreal, like something out of Monty Python. could barely keep from laughing out loud.
There was this rumor in middle school about this white, tall, blonde girl. She was really mean and kinda rude but she didn’t bully anyone so I just ignored her. But as you can probably guess a rumor started about her at some point, I first heard it in the girls locker room after she yelled at someone for getting in her way.
The rumor was this: She had gotten pregnant by a 19 year old and later when the baby was born her (or her parents) killed it.
Of course no one knew if the rumor was true and neither did I so I brushed it off as a stupid rumor. But you know what’s worse….the rumor was true!
I didn’t learn this until early high school.
In my history class I had unknowingly sat by the step brother of the girl as I was retelling the rumor to another girl as I was talking about how crazy it was. But the step brother interrupted me to tell me and the other girl that the rumor was true (at least part of it anyway). The girl and I were shocked, he told us that the mean blonde girl had gotten pregnant, gave birth to it, and luckily put the baby up for adoption soon after the birth.
What’s worse is that I don’t know if the mean girl was forced to date the 19 year old or if the guy raped her to get her pregnant, even her step brother (who didn’t like the mean girl either) didn’t and wouldn’t say.
Maybe that’s why the tall, white, blonde girl was so mean.
Everybody had to have a Que (pony tail) to show subservience to the Qing. The Qing / Manchus were the top level of society for a couple centuries.
After that? Nobody cared.
EXCEPT for in Hong Kong which was held by Britain until 1997. The clan wars of Guangdong and Fujian between 1855 and 1867 left DEEP scars and well into the 1980s there was general dislike of mixing between Hakkas and Cantonese.
My grandfather expelled one of his daughters for marrying a Cantonese man.
Also amongst many post WW2 types there’s a mentality of don’t marry Cantonese, this died out in Mainland China decades ago but lingered around in the overseas Chinese community. I still remember in the 1980s in the UK being told by my uncles that I should stay away from Cantonese.
Early 60’s, little tiny farming town … Liz was the subject of nasty gossip and rumors. People said Liz was a slut, a whore, a filthy tramp and lots of other names. Liz never had sex until she got married. She dated four or five boys – one date per boy. She assumed the boys asked her because they liked her. They asked her because they assumed she would have sex anywhere with anyone. Liz was modest in dress and behavior, but still was called a dirty slut … not because of anything she did, but because of her three older sisters. All three of her sisters got married at 16 or 17 because they got pregnant. Shotgun weddings, we called it back then. So …. these guys, who had no ethics, who were as dumb as bricks, asked her for dates. Instead of driving to the movies, they drove out to an isolated area and demanded sex. She refused. The boys threatened to tell everyone they got what they wanted. She still refused. The last boy she went on a date with tried to force her. She managed to get out of the car and begged strangers for a ride home. After that, she refused to date. She got lots of insult, ridicule and some physical harassment, because she came from a family “where all the girls were sluts.” Her last three years of school were awful. She was bullied so badly that she had to take sedating medication to keep from crying, to keep from having a breakdown. Both adults and kids were cruel to her. She toughed it out, went to college and refused to ever go to high school class reunions.
Several years ago, I was at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden at The Mirage in Las Vegas. This was many years after Roy’s tiger accident, but before he passed away. It was Thanksgiving, and we were walking through, looking at the tigers playing and eating melons.
As we walked around, Siegfried himself appeared. Of course, being his exhibit, a number of fans wanted to get pictures and autographs. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I was a kid, so this was a one in a lifetime, completely unexpected occasion.
When he got to me, he did the standard “hi, how are you” nicety that people do without really expecting an answer, but I looked at him and asked, “I’m fine… how are you doing?”
He looked at me through his ubiquitous sunglasses. I could see his eyes measuring me up as he stood about two feet from me. After a long pause, he said “well, Thanksgiving is always a hard time… when you’re an entertainer and everything ends suddenly…” and just talked with me for a few minutes (while everyone else waited patiently). I got the definite feeling like he was rarely asked how HE was doing, surrounded by starstruck fans or associates, and he felt the need to talk.
Thanksgiving Day, Roy injured (and never recovered), I’m sure he felt the need to be around people. It was a special moment, one that I’ll always remember.
Celebrities are just people, and a lot of people forget that.
I was visiting Mom when she lived a good two hour plus drive from my sister’s family (I live out of state). It was probably 1998 and we were chatting in her kitchen. She was silent for a moment and then she said, “Richard”, (you know the way your mom says your name that you know you gotta pay attention?) My ears birddogged.
“Richard, when I turn 90, I am going to stop driving.” (Mom was still a very good driver, but she didn’t want “someone to hit me and then blame the old lady.”)
“I’m going to stop driving and I’m going to give my car to my grandsons…
“I’m going to stop driving and give my car to JR and Mike and I’m going to sell the house and move to (a retirement facility) closer to Sue and my family.” Such a major decision to give up her house and her car. Then she said something that to this day I carry with me.
“And I plan on liking it”, she said firmly.
Now Mom loved to read (especially her Ellery Queen mysteries) but I don’t think she ever read a personal growth motivational book in her life (except the Bible) and here she is framing one of the biggest major life changes ever with positive expectations.
That gave me a glimpse into how she perceived the world and focused on good rather than bad consequences. What a gift she gave me.
Mom passed in 2019 at 110 years old.
I think Mom was full of good intentions and had a very strong moral compass and truly lived the life of a good person whose influence spread wider and farther than she could have ever imagined, as good a definition of badass as any.
CALLISTO -1940’s Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Action, Music, Total Mayhem, Runway Gen-2
Users are almost never right. Go shadow them and get the real story.
Understand 100% of the problem, design to solve 90% of it.
The last 20% effort is 80% of the engineering cost.
When designing, make it survive 3–5 years. You should be rewriting it by then anyways.
Software engineering is a process. Don’t overfit the initial requirements, you need to stay flexible for future readiness.
First pass is to solve it. Second pass is to clean up and learn. Third pass is to deep design using what you’ve learned.
CPU is cheap. Don’t over optimize.
Focus on enabling people to do more. 1 hour of work should become 10 hours of output when you enable humans.
When prioritizing consider the models of (1) attacker (2) defend it (3) bandaid it (4) clean it up. Each one has an associated operational cost, solve permanently cost, and a cost to perform. You need to pick your battles.
If only you can fix it, then only you will babysit it, forever. You can’t move on to more interesting things.
Edit: These are MY golden rules. They do not have to be YOURS. Please share YOUR golden rules. 🙂 We can learn from each other. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, is that I have learned everything, EVERYTHING from others. Mentors, peers, and friends. Some random written article should have zero social pressure on you to conform. My knowledge probably applies between 2007 to 2025? Then some other pattern will take hold.
NOTE: This is a true story, I’m not making it up or taking the piss. The episode I’m about to describe was not tongue in cheek or satirical in anyway.
Before my wife and I moved to Australia from the U.K. I assisted my in-laws in purchasing a laptop computer. The idea being that we’d be able to make skype calls etc to help them stay in touch. As they were both totally computer illiterate I set the laptop up for them and tried to give them an understanding of how to use skype, email & internet explorer (as it was back in the day).
For internet explorer I showed them how to open the program, told them about the “tool bar” and some of the basic functions on it. I explained about search and how they could find any information they required or shop for anything they needed using it. All seemed to be going reasonably well when I popped out to pick my wife up from work for fifteen minutes or so.
At this point I should mention that my father in law is a joiner (carpenter) of many years.
Anyway, I returned after picking my wife up to find my father in law at the laptop with internet explorer open. After a minute or so of watching him staring at the screen in a perplexed manner I asked him if he was having a problem that I could help with. “where are the saws?” he asked me.
“I’m not sure what you mean John, if you’re looking for something you’ll need to type it into google” I explained.
“Yes, I need a new saw. You said I could get whatever I needed on here & I’ve been looking at the tool bar for five minutes and I just can’t find the saws!”….
Fortunately, they were able to get skype working through their sky TV shortly after we left.
I shit you not. This really happened. My father in law couldn’t buy a new saw because he couldn’t find the ‘saw button’ on the ‘tool’ bar.
When I was a senior in high school, I was about the size of Rosie Greer—6’5″ and 250#, and like most people my size, I was extremely patient and gentle with “little people,” but being gentle was perceived by stupid people as being weak or a coward. Horrible mistake.
One day after school, I was walking to my car. That required me to walk between cars full of students waiting to get out. The space that I chose to walk through was in front of a junior who drove three eighth graders to and from school, and he wanted to show the younger kids how tough he was, so as I was walking between his car and the car in front of him, he pulled up and hit my shins with his bumper. And these idiots were laughing.
I walked over to the driver door, and tried to open it, but the stupid child smiled and pointed at the locked door, obviously thinking that he was safe from retribution. He was safely in his 1968 VW Beetle.
I smiled back at him, and put my hands together like a sledge hammer, and starting with the roof, I pounded every piece of sheet metal with my “sledge hammer” fists once—leaving the car covered with dents. Then, I walked to the driver’s door again, still smiling (he wasn’t) and I bent down, grabbing the frame and lifted the left side of his car so that the left tires were eighteen inches off of the ground. (Actually a lot easier to do than it sounds with the help of adrenaline,) and I calmly said, “Idiot, if you ever mess with me again, I will break your f~<#ng neck.” Then, I dropped that side of the car back on the ground.
Word quickly got around about what had happened, and even though I remained a patient and gentle person for the last six months of my senior year, 1973, nobody tried to show how tough they were by messing with me.
And yes, I know that I could have ignored the light tapping of his car and walked away, but I didn’t feel like it that January day.
Did I bully him? Perhaps, but I frankly didn’t and still don’t care.
This one’s about a friend, but it’s worth sharing:
I used to work at a tutoring company, where one of my coworkers (nicknamed “Minty”) used to tell all our students that he was six years old.
The preschool class actually believed him, because those little four- and five-year-olds didn’t have any real concept of age. Minty convinced them that he was just a really big “big kid.” In fact, he pulled this off so successfully that he even became close friends with a couple of the students.
Whenever kids claimed they didn’t believe him, he’d just look at them with indignation and said, “I just drink all my milk and eat ALL my vegetables!”
Once, a kid said suspiciously, “I bet you have a wife!”, and Minty replied, “Will you please tell me what she looks like, then? Because I’m still trying to find her.” (He was 21 and single.)
And so on so forth.
Then, a few months into the school year, he caught one of his favorite students staring at him out of the corner of her eye.
After a while he said, “Hey, what’s up?”
She said, accusingly, “I think you’re a grown-up!”
Turns out he’d forgotten to shave that day, and a little bit of stubble was showing on his chin. So then the whole class started staring and saying, “You’re a grown-up?!” in tones that ranged between awe and betrayal.
After that, the cat was out of the bag, but it was really entertaining while it lasted.
The 17th defense policy coordination talks between China and the United States were held in Washington on Monday and Tuesday, China’s Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.
In a statement, the ministry said the talks were co-chaired by officials from the Central Military Commission and the US deputy assistant to the secretary of defense.
The Chinese side said in a statement that it is willing to develop healthy and stable military-to-military relations with the US on the basis of equality and respect, and jointly implement the military-related consensus reached by the two heads of the states during their meeting in San Francisco in November.
The statement said that the US should acknowledge China’s concerns and do more to promote the development of bilateral military ties.
China also reiterated its positions on the Taiwan question and the South China Sea issues.
It said it will never make any compromise on the Taiwan question and demanded the US side to abide by the one-China principle, implement its relevant commitments, stop arming Taiwan and oppose “Taiwan independence”, the statement said.
China also urged the US to reduce its military deployment and provocative actions in the South China Sea and stop providing support to certain countries that are infringement on its territory and causing provocations.
The US should fully recognize the root causes of maritime and air security risks, strictly restrain its front-line troops and stop hyping up problems, the ministry said.
China has also made clear its solemn position and major concerns on issues concerning China’s core interests and international hotspot issues, it added.
Time-Traveling with The Jetsons: Futuristic Nostalgia
A few years back I took over running a significant IT project at a bank which used Oracle who had just shafted the bank’s IT director. He had got board level approval to upgrade and unify all the different databases which was serious money. Oracle then decided to double the price, he resisted but facing unsupported systems he gave in. That altered his career somewhat.
I didn’t know that when Oracle turned up to negotiate price for our systems, since I was an interim project manager and quite low in the food chain.
In this situation I never dress to impress vendors, indeed I tend to talk down my understanding of tech as well, to see if they are being straight with me.
I took along the guy I’d just hired as development manager and I ran the conversation. These tend to be one of two patterns. Either the management guy does all the talking and the techie just puts in points or the techie runs it and the manager blesses the outcome..
Oracle wanted more than list price.
I was bemused by this, also the trading system didn’t need very advanced features since it just logged things and ran reports, but the Oracle rep said we would only be allowed to buy the most expensive version because you’re a bank.
To which I responded but it’s the same binary Mary Pat.
Because these reports would be seen by many people in other firms she also demanded that we buy hundreds of client licences.
At the binary remark she looked at my non-great suit and then at my development manager’s and started talking to him, literally ignoring me since she had decided that he was my boss because I was only a techie.
He has dressed up for the meeting, actually put on his tie for it, since he thought that showing Oracle that you had money was good thing. It’s not.
He looked quite bemused, I’m not sure he’d ever bought any software for a firm and certainly wasn’t going to start now. I literally moved myself and stuck my head in the way and said are you going over my head Mary Pat ?
Yes she was and it didn’t stop there. I indicated that I was buying Sybase which was vastly cheaper and did not run the risk of an Oracle punitive licence audit.
Days later the head of the division spoke to me about what happened next. This system would pass billions through it and so the bank was quite keen that it worked well. Oracle had somehow got to a board meeting and demanded that I be fired, that I was damaging the (abusive) relationship they had and that I was buying a cheap and unreliable system which would destroy the firm.
for those not in IT Sybase has been used for decades for banking systems, it may or may not be right for you, but it’s not an insane choice.
The system would go on not just to work, but would end up being used by the British Government to manage their rather large debt mountain.
One version of the meeting which reached me later was that she literally stamped her foot. That was how entitled Oracle was with my firm. This may sound unusual to you. Ask anyone who’s done business with Oracle,
The board were very impressed. Not with her, but with someone in IT standing up to Oracle bullying. So the edict came down find Dominic and give her a job. So I ended up Head of IT for that division.
My first job was working at Woolworths, in the UK. I worked there from the age of around 15 to 18 years old, from 1993 to 1996. I did Saturdays and evening shelf stacking.
Woolworths in Britain famously opened the first self-service shop back in 1955. It was distinctly different from Woolworths in other countries. At the time, it sold household items, like pots, pans and Tupperware, sewing items – the dreaded haberdashery (the hardest thing to do a stock take on in the known world). Its famous pick-and-mix sweets included things like Cadbury’s Roses chocolates, where you could see which ones were everyone’s favourites by what was left in the container*. It also sold children’s clothes, records, CDs, tapes, and lottery tickets.
It closed for good in 2009, unable to survive the financial crisis, and in my opinion, as someone who worked there but hardly ever bought anything, for failing to offer anything unique or better than other lower-cost stores. The quality of many of the products was decidedly average. The Ladybird brand children’s clothes and the pick and mix were good but weren’t enough to keep it afloat.
My first Christmas working in retail was Christmas 1993. That was when the magic of Christmas died.
We, the hard-working, little-paid workers of Woolworths, arrived on Christmas Eve 1993 at 7.30 am, the shop opened at 8 am. We worked until 10 pm. We had four tills, and queues of around 15–20 customers were present at each till the entire day. Once a till had around £5000 in it, we emptied it to the back office. They were each emptied 4–5 times that day. We stood at the tills. Standing for 1–2 hours is tiring, but standing for 12–14 hours is hard work.
At the end of the shift, we are all knackered, it’s 10 pm on Christmas Eve, and the boss brings us each out a bottle of Babycham. For those who have never had “the pleasure”, Babycham looks like this:
A tiny bottle of “sparkling perry” which is a mildly-alcoholic cider made from pears. Named to somewhat pass itself off as baby champagne. Which it tastes nothing like, whatsoever.
Christmas bonus 1993, after a 14-hour shift, where we, as a fairly small store with 7–10 employees, likely took £100,000 (£200,000 today – $250000) was a tiny bottle of pear-cider, worth at the time around 59p (it could have been less, I cannot find out the price of a 75ml bottle of Babycham in 1993).
Merry Christmas.
I still miss it, the people I worked with were a good laugh, and some are still my friends today.
*Talking of the pick and mix, we would refill it with huge bags of sweets. They were 7 kg bags (15 lbs). One memorable incident involved me and a 7kg bag of Smarties (like M&Ms but British), which ended up being spilt and going all over the floor at the front of the shop. It was like a cartoon when the characters spill marbles, and everyone falls over, except we only fell over laughing and ate quite a lot of smarties. Maybe things like this explain the boss’s reluctance to offer a decent bonus.
My wife and I had a friend, an MD, who was having issues with his wife – not sure what they were, but he seemed to be a gentle and meek soul. Perhaps too meek with his wife, I don’t know, but here’s what happened to him;
His wife was seeing a psychologist for help with her depression, completely supported in these visits by her husband. Turns out that, unknown to him, the psych was a lesbian who had started to fall in love, or become infatuated, with the wife. Of course, she should have excluded herself as a therapist at this point, but she developed a better plan.
The psych convinces the wife to bring in the children (2) for additional counseling, separate sessions from the wife. Again, unknown to either our friend or his wife, she starts to place into the mind of the kids, one daughter and one son, that their father has been sexually abusing them. Both kids are young, under 6, and it isn’t difficult for her to place some ideas and then doubts into the minds of these naïve and gullible children. Over a few months of weekly visits, they are slowly coached by the infatuated lesbian psych, into being able to recount some stories of how this non-existent sexual abuse occurred, along with enough details to make their stories believable.
The psych then encourages the kids to tell their Mum some of these coached stories. The Mum, our friend’s wife, is naturally outraged to hear that her kids have been molested by her husband. She confronts her husband who denies it all, but she has fallen under the influence of this demented psych. She discusses the supposed molestation with the psych who encourages her to call Child Protective Services (CPS) to report the abuse.
Naturally now, the wife does so and an investigation is launched. The husband is prevented from seeing his children, has to move out of the house he shared with his family, and is allowed only supervised visits with his kids on every other weekend. Dependent upon the outcome of the inquiry, he now stands to be charged with sexually abusing his kids and quite possibly sent to jail. The kids will tell their coached stories, supported by the wife who now believes that it’s all true, and the final nail in his coffin will be this crazy psychologist who has discovered his “crimes”.
He’s now separated from his wife, and the psych makes her big mistake. Before the completion of the investigation, she is so in lust for his wife, that she successfully seduces her client, and they move into an apartment together as lovers. This is suicidal for her plan. The investigation team is informed of this development which is improper behaviour professionally. She is suspended of her license to practice, the wife leaves her and returns home. Finally, perhaps as long as 9 months later, the kids recant on their coached stories since they are no longer under the influence of the psych, and are finally visiting an impartial therapist.
The story ends wonderfully, the husband forgives the wife and the children are allowed to move back home. But this was hell on earth for the husband who was innocent from start to finish.
Just started putting stuff in the corner of the basement, with the intention of dealing with it later.
and soon , the corner of the basement was full.
and then, another corner.
Then, the work room started filling up.
Then the garage.
Mostly old clothes that the kids had out grown and then there was the stuff that we used to use but didn’t anymore, but couldn’t bear to throw away.
We fully planned to purge all this shit.
Rent a dumpster and get ruthless.
Then my wife got sick.
And sicker….
And then terminally ill.
And that took up all my energy.
And then I was a widower.
And the kids had moved out.
And I was either at work or out with friends or on a trip and the basement became a series of paths around a canyon of old clothes and stuff.
And so it remained for a year or two, slowly increasing.
I thought, “In just don’t have the energy or time to deal with this”
And then…………..Covid.
And my neighbour sold their house and the guy who came in wanted to gut the place, as it hadn’t been looked after in years.
And he brought a big ass dumpster.
And I saw my sign…..
I asked him and said, if I went in halfway with the dumpster rentals, could I use them to dump my shit in as well?
Sure, he said.
So, over the next while, I emptied everything out.
I could have spent hours sorting out the useable from the trash, especially in clothes, but I feared that if I did, I’d get bogged down in decision paralysis.
She died of a heroin overdose a few years ago. It makes me sick when I think about it.
For the purpose of this story, I will refer to my bully as HM.
When we were freshmen in high school, HM and I started off as friends. We were part of the same loosely organized network of friends, and we were in a few of classes together. Everyone said we could pass for twins — we were both short with dark hair, light colored eyes, round faces, and cutesy noses. Our birthdays were even only like a day apart or something. So we became friendly, but we never became super close. This was mostly because of me — I was secretly judgmental of her because she was very promiscuous and not very bright. Maybe she could sense that in me, and maybe that contributed to how she very suddenly started to hate me.
One day, a mutual male friend of ours asked me to go out with him, and I turned him down because I wasn’t interested in him in that way. He was upset that I rejected him, and sought comfort from his other female friends, HM being one of them. This flipped a switch in HM’s brain — she went from being my casual friend to hating me mercilessly.
On the first day, she screamed at me, cursed at me, and called me a slut in front of everyone in our gym class. She harassed me all the way from the gym to the locker room until one of the gym teachers finally told her to knock it off and change.
Initially I didn’t defend myself because a) I was really meek and mild mannered at this point in my life; b) I do not handle confrontation well at all; c) I was a religious catholic at the time, and truly believed in turning the other cheek; d) I was an avid karate student, and I believed it was dishonorable to fight in this way; e) I was kind of nerdy, I was in marching band, and I thought defending myself would make me a bigger target to others; and f) I was honestly shocked by how she was acting. I mean, she was like really in my face screaming with spit flying from her mouth and everything. It didn’t make sense to me that she would be mad about something that had literally zero effect on her life.
Needless to say, I went home that day very upset, but I figured that it was an isolated incident. I figured, ok we’re not friends anymore, and that’s that. But I was wrong.
The next morning, she was waiting for me by the entrance of the school. She never once touched me. She just followed me to my locker cursing at me and calling me names. We were in the same homeroom. She told every person in homeroom that they shouldn’t talk to me because I was such a slut and bitch. Any time a person would talk to me, she would physically insert herself between me and the person and tell them not to talk to me. She also started telling people vicious lies about me sexually.
She followed me from homeroom to my first class cursing at me and calling me names. When I left my first class, she was waiting for me down the hall ready to verbally harass me again. She continued to do this throughout the day. During classes we had together, she took every opportunity she could to alienate me from others. This occurred mostly in gym and english class, both of which were loosely structured by lazy teachers.
At this point, she was being fully aggressive to others in order to keep them from talking to me. Like physically grabbing them and pulling them away from me kind of thing. She did this for weeks. I continued to do nothing. I just walked faster when she was near me, and tried not to look at her. I took advantage of moments where she was distracted, and slipped away from her before she saw me.
Eventually I had basically not a single friend left in my grade. Nobody wanted anything to do with me. In retrospect, I guess they just didn’t want to be involved with the situation. The teachers were also unhelpful. We were in a very crowded school, so many of them possibly didn’t notice, and the ones who did notice were terrible teachers. I was alone, miserable, crying every day, and I didn’t want to go to school anymore.
HM’s torment became a regular part of my life for a couple of months. I was starting to become numb to it. Maybe she sensed that her words weren’t having the same effect that they used to, so she decided to change things up. She started to threaten me with physical violence. It was mostly variations of “I’m gonna kick your ass,” or “I’m gonna f*ck up your ugly face.” One day in english class, the teacher asked HM to lend me her book for the day (there was a shortage of books), and she threw it at me and then snatched it out of my hands when I picked it up (the teacher did nothing because she was also a terrible human). HM also started slamming my locker shut whenever she walked by.
I don’t remember what specifically drove me to my breaking point, but very soon I had had enough of the situation. HM had made my life a living nightmare, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had a green belt in karate, so I knew physically I was capable of fighting and that I would probably win. I still had reservations about it because of spiritual/philosophical reasons, but I was at my limit.
One day she came up to me at lunch, and she again threatened to beat me up. So I calmly said, “Ok HM. When and where? I am ready to fight you whenever.”
Well, that was the game changing moment. As I stood there quietly waiting for her to set the date and time, she bounced around like a rabbit, yelling about how she was really gonna let me have it. “I am ready when you are,” I said. She got more and more agitated, and just kept making threats. The bell rang, lunch was over, we went to our next period. I didn’t see her for the rest of the day.
The next day, she started again with the physical threats, this time while we were in the hallway before homeroom. I said, “So just come for me already and let’s fight. I want to get this over with.” She looked at me like I was stupid and said something like, “Pshh not right now I don’t want to embarrass you in front of everyone. But when I do kick your ass, you’re gonna wish you were dead.” In spite of myself, I laughed and said, “Ok fine HM. Let’s do it today.” And then I told her exactly when and where we were gonna fight. She said “OH I’M GONNA BE THERE, YOU’RE GONNA BE SORRY!” before running away from me.
Later that morning, I had a class with HM’s bff. I approached the bff and said, “HM should know that I take karate regularly, and I recently earned my green belt. I’m stronger than I look and can probably seriously hurt her. I am not going to be easy to take down, and honestly I might accidentally kill her. You should tell her that before we fight.” That last part was only a small exaggeration. I did know 2–3 potentially fatal moves but there was no way to do them “accidentally.” Anyway, I didn’t say this as a threat, but as the truth of the matter. I had already thought of several ways to take her down, and I had already anticipated some of what she might do and had an idea of how I would handle those situations. At the end of the day no matter what, she was gonna end up being seriously injured, and I would probably be mostly unscathed.
The day went on. I didn’t see HM at all in the hallways or at lunch, and she skipped the classes we shared. I was starting to feel really pumped, and honestly really powerful. People all day were asking me about the fight, if I was scared, did I really know karate — stuff like that. They were excited, like Romans going to the Coliseum. After months of being a pariah, I ate it up and was loving all the attention. Finally, the last bell of the day rang.
I went to the place we were supposed to fight. A few people were there, waiting for something to happen, but they left after 10 minutes so they could get on their buses. I waited for almost an hour. HM never showed, and I went to marching band practice.
Maybe I should have left it at that, but I couldn’t help myself. The next day, when I saw her in homeroom I (LOUDLY) asked her, “What happened yesterday? You never showed up.” All eyes were on us. She muttered angrily, “We’ll do it today, same time.” I agreed to it, but my gut told me she was gonna be a no-show again.
I went again to the meeting spot. This time, there were a lot more people waiting to see what was gonna happen. But again, HM didn’t come. I waited for a while when finally HM’s bff came up to me and told me that HM went home early because she was sick. I shrugged and said, “Then in that case, I guess we’re done here. Tell her to leave me alone from now on.” HM didn’t come to school for the rest of the week. On the following Monday, she didn’t even cast a glance in my direction.
Life moved on, years rolled by. HM mostly avoided me after that. Sophomore year she tried to rekindle a friendship, to which I was like, are you f*cking serious? With every year that went by, HM became more and more of a social pariah. Finally it was our senior year. HM was pregnant. By the time spring arrived, she had a huge baby belly. Whenever people would ask her about it or ridicule her, she swore up and down that she was just getting fat.
And I took a lot of pleasure in this. Right now as an adult, I am not proud of this, but at the time I was LIVING. She was miserable, everyone made fun of her, and I thought she was just a huge loser. I loved it, I relished in her misery. And then one day when we were all changing after gym class, I took a shot at her.
She was trying to change in a way that her baby belly was covered up at all times. One of the other girls noticed this and was like, “Wtf are you even trying to do?!” HM said something about being self conscious of being fat. I laughed, and said, “HM everybody knows you’re f*cking pregnant so stop pretending like you’re just fat. Do you even know who the father is, ya dumb slut?” And I walked away laughing at her. It took me about 2 years to realize how super messed up it was for me to say that. And now it makes me sick to remember it, to know that I’m the person who said those words. In the end, I was no better than her.
About two years ago, she popped into my head for no reason. I decided to look her up on Facebook, and saw that she had died of a heroin overdose. The weirdest part was that the day that I looked her up was also the anniversary of her death. Chills ran down my spine. She had left behind two children, and before she overdosed she had been sober for 6 months. I have so many weird-sad emotions about it.
First off, by a random coincidence of life I had 2 doppelgangers in high school — her and this other girl who I was friends with, and both of them died from drug overdoses. I know it’s sh*tty for me to make their deaths about me, but their deaths make me feel really weird in a way that I have trouble describing.
Second, HM was obviously a troubled person, and almost everything she did was coming from a place of pain. I feel guilty that I couldn’t see that and instead I played along like a cardboard character in a crappy high school movie.
Third, I hate that the last thing I said to her was something vicious. It makes me upset that my hatred has the power to warp me into such a mean person. I hate that my hatred was so strong back then that the ghost of it reverberates within me to this day. Every now and again, I can taste that dark disgust in the back of my throat. Which leads me to my final weird-sad emotion.
Fourth, even though she has passed, I love retelling this story. It feels like it was the one moment in my youth where I was fierce and powerful. However, I drive myself crazy with guilt about that pleasure. I mean, wtf is wrong with me; she is dead, she left behind children. It’s weird and messed up that I’m here, alive with my whole life in front of me, and instead of trying to make peace with this, I’m enjoying the toxic fumes of an ancient memory because it boosts my self-esteem.
Idk what the moral of this story is. I’m still trying to figure that out.
Another Active Duty NATO Officer KILLED in Ukraine
One of the Active-Duty Officers in a NATO Command has been killed inside Ukraine.
Italian Army Lt. Colonel Claudio Castiglia, who was part of NATO Command structures, has been killed fighting in Ukraine according to the National Association of Bersaliers.
The Bersaglieri, singular Bersagliere, are a troop of marksmen in the Italian Army‘s infantry corps. They were originally created by General Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora on 18 June 1836 to serve in the Royal Sardinian Army, which later became the Royal Italian Army. They can be recognized by their distinctive wide-brimmed hats decorated with black western capercailliefeathers, which is worn with the dress uniform. The feathers are also applied to their combat helmets.
Why was an Active Duty NATO Officer fighting in Ukraine? Are we at war with Russia?
Sh*t happens. Life can be difficult. It can be uncomfortable. Some days I have every reason to feel depressed and give up. Some days I just want to stop, I need a break — yet the difficulties keep on coming and coming.
I used to complain about it. “Why is it so difficult? Why has this happened to me … again? I hate this situation! Why don’t they do something about it?”
One day, I realized that the difficulties of this world will never end. Never! This is when I finally understood that if I wanted to improve the quality of my life, I was the ONLY one who could change it! No one would ever be able to do it for me!
Change is inevitable and never-ending. I used to face change with the wrong attitude. I hated it because it pushed me out of my comfort zone — today I understand that it’s challenges which actually make my life better! I’m growing, I’m improving, and growing and improving are what make life a life worth living.
So, to answer your question: What life goals should you have?
Live outside your comfort zone!
Your comfort zone is the death zone.
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
Here’s a quote from GE’s CEO Jack Welsh that I like to remember.
Yes and it was the best thing that ever happened that I knew in advance, so I was ahead of the game even though I knew it was coming and I couldn’t stop being fired. This is an important lesson for people to learn, be aware of what is going on so you are not caught out.
You know when you are not fitting in or they are downsizing. It is almost impossible to miss the signals if you have your antennas out. Here is what happened to me.
It was 1992, the China market was booming and I had a big job based in Hong Kong. We had a house paid for by the company, American Club, car, kids in private school, annual trip home, highest salary of my life at that point but nothing was going right. (First signal there were ‘anonymous’ complaints about me relayed via HR). No matter what I did I was wrong and I was headhunted away from another job so I know I was doing a good job but I could feel it was probably about ‘fit’.
They kept telling me, accept 7% growth, don’t push for more, I didn’t listen (2nd sign to watch for, not listening and overplaying your hand).
One day I was feeling like things were not going so well, but my position was, hey I was a Director for the Asia Pacific with a US$100 million budget, no way they could fire me without cause. And I was giving them nothing no real cause in my view so I felt safe or perhaps not?
I thought, I need to check this out, so I went in early to the office and the EVP (later CEO of DHL) had a letter right in the middle of his desk about me stamped CONFIDENTIAL.
I will never forget it. It was all about, how can we handle getting rid of Greenfield as while he is doing a good job, we would like to save money and get rid of his package and a couple of people complained about him. The question was, was it enough to fire him for cause.
It was a fax and the answer by the EVP was, he had already thought it through and they could make my severance nil if they could get someone to make a complaint about me which he could arrange.
Armed with this knowledge, I got all my ducks in a row, went in that day before anything else could happen (3rd rule, if you know it is coming, be preemptive as if you wait it will be worse, trust me on this) and said I thought it might be time for a mutual departure as it wasn’t working out as we had hoped, now 3 years into the contract.
They were pleasantly shocked, gave me a good deal which allowed me to start over with another company and a new life without completely crashing my entire life.
My suggestion? Be watchful, if you can do it, get someone on the inside to let you know if things are not going well and you might be cut for whatever reason. At all costs, do not be caught flat footed thinking everything is ok when it is not.
You can feel it, it is what life is all about these days, anticipate, keep informed, don’t be paranoid and always and I mean always have an exit plan or as they say, Plan B in your back pocket. Especially if you have kids a mortgage and a lot of expenses and as in my case, a spouse who was not working but living a very nice lifestyle which she expected to maintain.
She did but I took a lot of pain and pivoting to get out of Dodge before the hammer fell and just in the nick of time.
Exohiko
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds lamb leg
2 onions, chopped
1 cup butter
1/2 pound kefalograviera cheese
Salt and pepper
6 sheets puff pastry
Instructions
Cut the lamb in portions. Simmer the onion in a frying pan with a little water. Add a teaspoon of butter and brown lightly.
Add the lamb and salt and pepper and brown for a few more minutes. Turn the element off, add the cheese and separate in portions.
Butter each sheet of pastry and use them to wrap each portion. Place in a buttered pan, top with the rest of the butter and bake in medium low oven for 1 1/2 hours.
I went to Best Buy about 10 years ago because my computer monitor had gone out and I needed to replace it. I had a warranty which allowed me a free replacement, but I wanted a larger one and I readily agreed to pay the difference.
As the rep walked me to the front of the store to check out, I heard a man literally screaming at the top of his lungs. Not just yelling. This man must have gone through the dictionary on his way to the store to refresh himself on every profane word and phrase he could find. As I got closer, I could see the middle-aged man yelling at this girl (couldn’t have been more than 18) behind the customer service counter. Apparently, his coupon for a $30 discount on a digital TV antenna was expired (not just expired; expired by months!) and he expected her to honor it anyway. She kept explaining that the coupon was expired and there was nothing she could do. The man continued to scream and pound his fists. I could see that this was going nowhere, so I just said, “Sir, I’m sure this young lady had nothing to do with preventing you from getting to the store before your coupon expired.” He looked up, startled, and before he could start yelling at me, I said, “STOP.” I turned to the girl and said, “Please put that antenna on my card.” I went over to the man, picked up the antenna, placed it in his hands and said, “I really hope that you can enjoy some good TV with this thing. After that, please go out and use the money I just saved you on some good anger management or at least a session of yoga or two.” The man stood there with his mouth hanging open, not knowing what to say. I just waved my hand at him and told him to “run along.” The girl mouthed, “Thank you.” The man “ran along” I completed my purchase, well, purchases!
That most of my undergraduate education didn’t do much if anything to prepare me for medical school. To be honest, My bachelor of science in zoology was far less helpful than being a paramedic for nine years.
That I would make some of the best friends of my life there. I would have cherished them and the experience more I think.
That I was smart enough. I spent a lot of time worrying that my peers were going to be smarter than me. Turns out emotional intelligence is more valuable in the long run anyway.
I would become so good at emotional distance that it would impair me on some level.
That a certain degree of hypochondria is fairly normal. I had classmates that had “leukemia, parasites, heart disease, tumors and aortic dissections.” Of course, they were all just fine. Oh, and I didn’t turn out to have a gastric ulcer either.
A great deal of what I was going to learn would be obsolete prior to ending my medical career. A fair chunk was wrong before I finished residency.
Competition creates problems. There were a fair number of people in my school that we would classify as “gunners”. For them, it was not simply good enough to do better. It was critical that you do worse than they did.
Some of the smartest professors I would have in medical school were the ones with the strangest personalities. A lot of the younger students would tend to blow them off. That was a mistake. They turned out to have a LOT of quirky wisdom.
Just because you got accepted to medical school doesn’t preclude you from having a personality disorder. I trained with some people with some pretty significant impairment. A few were incapable of empathy or even sympathy.
That the experience would fundamentally change me. I had a professor that said fundamental personality change can only happen from experiencing combat, motherhood, psychotherapy or medical school. I have not experienced the first three so I cannot say he is right. However, I can attest to the fact that medical school and especially residency changed me in some profound ways. That was hard to come to terms with early on.
They are everywhere in 800 odd military bases worldwide. To me they are wasting money that they really don’t have. They certainty cannot afford it overtime it will implode their nation and bring misery to its people.
They are there to war monger and trouble make without getting much in return except disdain and hate. This in turn means that they need more resources to defend themselves hence it is really a deep and endless money pit. China and Russia should goad them everywhere to burnt their own house down. Yet many fools think that having many bases is good for them.
It’s all over by 30, and it’s the women not men that are now saying it.
Yesterday, I took the family to a theme park in Southern Zhuhai. It’s the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. We paid 3500 rmb (roughly $500) for two days with hotel, and two buffet meals. (For us three.)
Now, you must know, everything in China is HUGE.
Not Texas huge.
“Universe” huge.
The facility included FIVE theme parks. Each with it’s own hotel, and passes to each one. Each theme park is “Disney Park” in size. So it is an ENORMOUS complex.
Just mind-mindbogglingly large.
When you buy the tickets, the ticket seller will warn you to take one day per theme. Other than that you are wasting your time.
And there is no way you can do more than that! Lordy!
We chose to concentrate on the “Penguin life park”, and the “spaceship future” park. Both were fun and cool, and my little girl enjoyed every second of the excitement.
My little girl loved it!
Animals. Excitement. Bright colors. Rides. Many playgrounds.
And the hotel room was super kid friendly.
We stayed at the Circus hotel, and she had her own bed that looked like a lions cage on wheels, had her own kid-sized robe and slipper. The television only played kids shows, and the commode was kid friendly with a kid style insert. The shower had a kid sized lower tier.
Well thought out.
The only problem was that on the last day I caught a “bug” and spent the entire day vomiting and spending time on the shitter. I had water-cannon high volume vomiting.
36 times. Thirty Six vomits!
Each time I just emptied out.
Wholly crap!
Then went home to sleep. And sleep I did. Like the dead.
But I am up now, and shaky but functional. I am taking medicines and it all seems to work. I am drinking coffee and I am able to hold it down. So that’s good. Right?
It reminds me that I am still alive and functional. Yay!
That one sentence was spoken by myself, to myself, in my car, as I pulled up outside my house, February 3rd 2016.
I have suffered from depression for 35 years. I can go months, sometimes years, without an episode, but in 2013 my wife, my soul mate, my best friend, left me after 15 years, which plunged me into the worst episode of my life.
Now, whilst depression is a living hell at times, I never actually feel sorry for myself. It’s a different emotion altogether, as anyone who suffers the same will testify. But this particular day, I was feeling sorry for myself. My business had gone to the wall in the first 12 months of separation. In the second 12 months I was struggling to pay the bills. By the end of year 3 I had £2 in the bank, was in desperate arrears with my mortgage and my new business was bringing in barely £200 a week.
I pulled up outside my house at 5pm, knowing the rest of the night would, yet again, be spent sat alone, in the cold, with the constant memories of my wife and children walking around the house, ghosts of their laughter echoing around, heart and mind being tormented by all that had gone before. There was little food in the cupboard. No credit for gas on the meter and low credit for electricity on that meter.
And this was the lowest point, it was 3 years of decline to this moment. I had no way of getting out of the mess I was in. No way I could figure, anyway. For the first time, this time I felt sorry for myself and literally said out loud, “man, I’ve another 50 years of this shit.”
That was the moment everything changed. I turned the engine off and lit a rare cigarette. I continued to talk to myself in the car – partly out loud, partly in my head. The conversation (with myself) went along these lines…
“50 years… ha, great… and I’m 50 years old next year (2017). Well, hang on… if I’m 50 next year, then I am only half way through my life. If I do live to be 100 – and why not ? – then next year, my 50th birthday, is the start of part 2. Mmmm… well if that’s the case then :
1 – I don’t need to buy a house – already bought one, only 5 years off completion (if I can find a way to keep the reposession order at bay). In 5 years, I will have property worth £130,000. Fully paid up. Hey, imagine if I had that when I was 5 years old, how cool that would have been for a start in life !
2 – I don’t have to go to school for 15 years – I’ve done that, I’ve got an education, done college, done university… I’ve got a head start !
3 – I don’t have to get married and have children – I have 3 wonderful children who are doing well and I’ve had the snip, so no need to have any more… no stress and strain of raising babies. Ace !
4 – I don’t need to buy a car or learn to drive – already sorted.
5 – I don’t need to worry about making friends or being popular or liked – I have a fantastic circle of friends who love me and I love them.
6 – I don’t have to worry about my parents leaving me, I already have had the sadness of losing them.
7 – I don’t need to worry about a job. I have the potential in my new business to make a comfortable living, if and when I am mentally strong enough to fully apply myself.
… and so on and so forth…”
Now I am having this conversation with myself in my car and I can literally feel the stress, the pain, the depression leaving my body. I am getting genuinely excited at the way my mind is working. I go into the house and continue this conversation whilst making a coffee. I get a notepad and make notes of what I am saying. Every note, every little idea, is scribbled down so as not to be forgotten.
As the evening progresses, I find myself going through each room in the house, removing any trace of my wife’s existance. Every memory gets either boxed up for the children to enjoy in the future, or goes in the bin. The kitchen gets emptied – I keep 3 cups, 3 plates, 3 knives, forks etc, for me and the 2 youngest children when they visit. The rest of the clutter gets binned. The living room is re-arranged. The bedroom is rearranged. The bathroom is rearranged. This carries on through to maybe 5am…
… For the first time in 3 years, I go to bed with an exhausted smile and wake up a few hours later with that same smile. I carry on where I left off. I borrow a couple of hundred pounds off my brother to get rid of furniture and replace with cheap “get by for a while” furniture, that has no trace of my marriage attached to it. I carry on writing notes.
Well, over the next 2 -3 months, remarkable changes happen. By the end of the 3rd month, at my medical check up, I am taken off my blood pressure tablets, my BP being normal for the first time in 3 years. The following month, after slowly cutting back, I am off my anti-depressants, also for the first time in 3 years, the longest I have been there in my life. I have lost over a stone in fat. My business is taking off as I am able to focus on it and money is coming in again.
By November, 9 months on, I have cleared my debts and I have £4,000 saved. My friends tell me I have a “happy house”. That they feel the positive juju the second they come in the door. They want to know (part jokingly, and part enviously) why I now walk round with a permanent smile, like a village idiot. More than anything though, they are genuinely delighted that they have got “me” back.
But let’s go back to Part 2.
The whole trigger for this was the realisation that if I live to be 100, I am only halfway through my life. So I started adding to the notes I had already started. This time, not marking down things I didn’t have to go through, but things that I am going to do. Each page of things to do is broken down into what I need to do to get there. There are wild things that I may not be skilled enough to do, like publish a novel. I may never be as good as Jimi Hendrix on the guitar. But what is there to stop me doing the best I can do with both ? Then there are totally achievable goals, like buying a campervan and spending 3 months on the road, enjoying life and writing that novel ? Getting married again, now that my heart is mending and I am meeting lovely ladies again – why not ? Decorating and renovating the house. Expanding the business. Getting fit. Losing a bit more weight. Learning to fly a plane. Doing a new degree in something I really enjoy. So many places to visit, to enjoy, to experience.
It’s all there and it’s all ahead of me and I know it’s all down to me. But most importantly, after the 9 months that have just gone by and how my life has already changed so much, I know it’s totally achievable !
So… “man, I’ve another 50 years of this shit” is the single, most important sentence that has changed my life, hopefully forever. Because I’m proving it wrong. And life has rarely felt better.
(I have missed out a section about a girl, I’ll call her “W”, who added a lot of fuel to this fire right at the beginning. She may read this and/or some people may know her, so I shouldn’t mention her by name. But, without knowing it, she made me want to be a better person (thanks Jack Nicholson) too. We never dated, or anything like that… but she is one of the most beautiful souls I have come across. Thank you “W” for your inspiration.)
Best wishes all of you reading this. I wish you a long and happy life.
Rob.
Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce
Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce is a traditional Greek sandwich.
Ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 fresh pita bread rounds, heated
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
In small bowl blend together yogurt, 2 tablespoons dill, garlic and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken with oregano, 1 teaspoon dill, salt and pepper. Sauté until browned and cooked through, about about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and sauté onions until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Return chicken and any juices to skillet. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Stir until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Top pita rounds with chicken mixture. Spoon dill sauce over chicken and serve. This sandwich is folded in half and eaten. Pass the extra sauce, as desired.
We are decoupling from China and, a fortiori, from its technology and the 130 countries in its currency, trade and defense alliances. Highlights from 2023 suggest that we far behind and the gap is widening.
Economy
In 2023, China’s economy grew by $1.6 trillion, more than the rest of the world’s combined – while the USA borrowed $3 trillion to fund $300 billion GDP growth. Real wages grew 4.7% and demographics will remain healthy through 2043. 21 million tourists flew during Golden Week and spent $3 billion in Xinjiang alone. Hangzhou hosted more athletes at the Asian Games than the Olympics and domestic brands Anta and Li-Ning outsold Nike and Adidas.
Research
Young Science became the world’s #3 journal and is rapidly overtaking incumbent leaders Nature and Science. With a $228 billion corporate R&D budget, 3 million Chinese scientists applied for almost as many patents as the rest of the world combined, and utterly dominated the top 1% of most influential papers. Huawei’s R&D budget alone is larger than the US CHIPS and Science Act.
Scientists created the first graphene semiconductor, while Betavolt began shipping an atomic energy battery that powers consumer devices for 99 years.
Huawei mastered 7nm chip production (Intel still has not), replaced WiFi with 6x faster NearLink, took Apple’s #1 spot in the world’s largest market with a phone using 90% domestic components. Chinese chip foundries bought 62% of machinery equipment domestically this year, vs. 47% last year, and produced the first integrated neuro-memristor and the first 232 layer flash memory. Researchers set a record for high-rate quantum key distribution, showed off the first ambient superionic hydride ion conductor, the first primate brain-computer interface and an integrated neuro-memristor chip that will make circuit boards obsolete.
Macro inventions included the first waterless nuclear reactor, the most powerful solid-fuel rocket, the first liquid oxygen/methane rocket (it lifted 6 tonnes into sun-synchronous orbit), the world’s only Mach 30 wind tunnel, lasers generating high-energy beams indefinitely, and the first high-orbit Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite for 24×7 weather observation.
The country installed 80 million kW of PV and PV generated 300 billion kWh nationwide, 30% above 2022. CATL’s EV batteries get 400 km on 15 min. charge and 700 km. on a regular charge at all temperatures. In addition to installing 290,000 industrial robots – more than the rest of the world combined – it put AESA radars on $8,000 farm drones (only four countries can make them – for fighter jets). Its 800 million 5G subscribers are served by 3.2 million base stations and integrated 5G industry applications into 67 economic categories with 100,000 application cases. Tibet’s 5G service surpassed California’s.
Environment
In the wilderness that covers 42% of China’s landmass, conservationists counted 70,000 Tibetan antelopes, 3,400 Przewalski’s gazelles, 5,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys and 1200 Snow Leopards…
I dated a lady, who was already dating someone else. Except I didn’t know this when she asked me out. They weren’t living together, so it wasn’t something that jumped out at you.
It was only on our 4th date, that the guy got suspicious , and followed her to our restaurant, and caused a scene that I had a clue. She dumped the guy, in the restaurant, and made it seem like it was no big deal, as they were a short term casual couple.
I found out from her best friend about a month later, that they had been seeing each other regularly for a year. But I was hooked by then.
After 9 months she asked me,to ask her, to marry me. Yes, I know, confusing right?
I said I needed to think about it. Immediately, she was busy on Friday nights, but still up for Saturdays. She said it was work related.
I recognized the pattern and decided not to follow her to whatever restaurant and bar she was going to. I didn’t need to have a big fight in public. Instead I waited until the next day, and lied to her, and told her I had followed her. She said, well I guess thats it then. Why does everyone follow me?
Implying that I wouldn’t have just been the second person to follow her.
She was right, that was it. Once a cheater, always a cheater, even if they aren’t married or living together.
Wife Started Behaving Like A F**inist And Is Now Having A MELTDOWN That Her Marriage Is IMPLODING
Chinese people are prolific savers. And Chinese as you know are the most practical and pragmatic people on planet earth. They are the opposite of American people who are one of the most wasteful nation on planet earth. And worst the U.S. as a nation and your archaic political system allows wasteful and unaudited spending.
China and Chinese are just the opposite.
Chinese people save 36% of their income, the highest on earth and the US barely save at all. That is a very big difference. The U.S. cannot depend on domestic savings, China can and they do. China saved more the entire UK GDP each year! China used that to fuel the Chinese economy by building up infrastructures and invest in R&D. Hence China is now totally independent innovatively and scientifically.
I know when a person like you who ask such a question you are already fooled by your western media that China is unsustainable but the fact is just the opposite. The U.S. is mightily unsustainable and China is the lowest geared economy. And its real tangible investment are paying off well!
The U.S. infrastructure is dilapidating and you guys burnt cash like there is no tomorrow! 5 trillion in Iraq, 5 trillion in Vietnam, 3 trillion in Afghanistan. And probably 10 trillion in Ukraine by the time this shit ended. Burning cash sending armadas around the world and keeping 800 plus military bases around the world! Your investment is not getting any returns.
China build more high speed railway, solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric power stations then the rest of the world put together!
So grow up Mr. Questioner and Americans and brain dead westerners. China is great and dandy. The U.S. is without doubt collapsing before your eyes. If you open yours!
THIS AMERICAN INSULTS THE ENTIRE AFRICAN CONTINENT. IS THIS HOW A/AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT AFRICANS?
Tiananmen, and the never-ending western media narrative telling outright lies for decades without giving the Chinese the opportunity to set out the facts is the primary motivation for the Great Firewall, and strict Chinese censorship.
A poor and relatively backward China would have been at constant risk of implosion had external forces been able to spread lies as propaganda to bring down the government in Beijing, using Tiananmen as the rallying point.
Unfortunately, the truth is way more mundane.
The students were persuaded to go home before first light, and most of the soldiers deployed to the square were involved in area cleaning on June 4th and 5th.
In sum, the Tiananmen PROTESTS (which lasted for months centered around June 4th) resulted in the deaths of several hundred, with an abnormally high percentage being uniformed personnel. It was at best, a sustained social disturbance.
The Chinese are not stupid, or disrespectful people. No leader will order a massacre at Tiananmen, with the portrait of Mao overlooking the square. The Long March generation had given their lives to free the people from oppression, and it would have been heresy to mow down the hope of the nation under the watchful eyes of Mao.
Dmitry Orlov: Russia and China Melding in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape
This happened, not to me, but to my younger sister (who’s 16 at the moment). [Too bad I wasn’t with her back then…]
Some Background Details (they’re important in the story): My sister is a beautiful, talented and intelligent girl. She got double promotion in her 6th year so now she’s the youngest in her class. For some time now (around 2–3 years… Whoa, that’s actually a lot!), she has been complaining about her vision. She says that whenever she opens her eyes, everything just constantly keeps morphing and changing forms .
We took her to 3 opthalmologists. None of them could determine the cause of her wavy vision and so they diagnosed it as psychological and referred her to a psychologist who was very well-known (and well-paid) in our area.
Let’s call the psychologist Sarah. So here goes:
(My sister comesin and sits down. Sarah regards my sister condescendingly then proceeds to give her a complacent smirk as if she had just found the answer to all the problems in the universe)
Sarah: “You’re not a very good student are you?”
5 remarks popped into my sister’s head at that very moment:
WTF?!
Is this the first question you ask your patient?
I’m top of my class even after my double promotion.
You’re not a very good doctor are you?
Lady, you just ruined your reputation in less than 10 seconds.
But instead she replied with a simple “I’m moderately good.”
Sarah: “You know, it won’t do you any good to lie.”
By this point, my sister is so shocked she doesn’t even say anything.
Sarah: “Please stand outside for a moment. I’d like to speak to your mother privately.”
My sister just walks out (still unable to process such level of vanity in an adult).
Sarah: “Your daughter is quite obviously making the whole thing up about her vision. And as her parent, it is your responsibility to make sure she studies all day. She gets an F in her tests and at best a D, am I right?”
It took my mother all of her willpower to not get up and slap her full across the face. She quietly thanked the doctor and left, making sure to slam the door especially loudly on her way out.
P.S. After much more research and diagnosis in another country (Australia), it turns out my sister’s wavy vision was due to ocular migraine. It hasn’t got much better yet but baby steps lead the way. 🙂
INVESTIGATORS REVEAL JIMMY LAI MONEY TRAIL
Huge amounts of international money flowed into the bank accounts of Jimmy Lai—and large sums of cash went out to anti-China groups, a court heard yesterday.
The tabloid publisher received HK$2.945 billion in his nine bank accounts in recent years, with deposits coming from the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere. The money is said to have derived “from overseas securities trading”.
But the money didn’t sit there.
Who got the cash?
Chunks of finance went out to multiple China-hostile political groups in Hong Kong, the US, and the UK, the prosecution said, providing a detailed report from financial investigators.
Jimmy Lai’s lawyer Steven Kwan Man-wai did not dispute the information.
Local recipients included the Hong Kong Democratic Party, the Civic Party, the Labour Party, the League of Social Democrats, the court was told.
A wildly critical UK group called Hong Kong Watch, whose members include Benedict Rogers and former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, received HK$202,000.
Paul Wolfowitz, former US deputy secretary of defence, was sent HK$1.76 million in payments from 2013 onwards, the court heard. Money also went to a right-wing think tank called the American Enterprise Institute.
Cash also went to a group called the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, organizers of an annual meeting to keep the “Tiananmen Square massacre” story, debunked by Julian Assange and others, alive.
The biggest individual recipient named yesterday was Cardinal Joseph Zen, a retired Hong Kong churchman who has fallen out with his colleagues, including Pope Francis, over his relentless China-bashing. The churchman received HK$3.5 million in 2017, the prosecution said.
The court heard earlier that large sums of money from Jimmy Lai’s funds (held by various entities) were paid to media companies, including the publishers of the Washington Post, the Nikkei Weekly, the UK Guardian, and media groups in India.
Jimmy Lai, 76, is on trial for sedition and collusion, offences illegal worldwide. His colleagues and associates have pleaded guilty in related hearings. The trial continues.
Baltic Sea Anomaly, Atlantis, and Underwater Alien Bases | Mysteries of the Ocean Pt 1
Oh, and movies said we’d “live happily ever after.”
And we did, through the honeymoon. Then reality struck.
We suddenly discovered that, well, we’re very different. In just about everything.
And that caused us to clash and occasionally me to wonder, “What the hell is wrong with her?”
And my wife to wonder that about me, only way more often.
Through years of building businesses, raising kids, paying bills. And occasional sleepless nights, sickness and clashes it would have been easy to walk away.
To think, “Well, I guess it’s not meant to be.”
But we just chose not to. We chose to make it “happily ever after.” Period.
So when we didn’t have the happy part we still had the ever after part. And it was going to be a long ever after.
So we might as well put the happy part back in. And we did.
Last week my wife was gone baby sitting our grandson. I was home alone.
No, that’s never a good thing in so many ways.
She came home on Friday evening so we had a late dinner and watched a movie.
As we enjoyed a glass of wine, I thought, “Ah, life is good again. Just the way it’s meant to be.”
I turned to her and said, “I’m glad you can babysit. But I’m really glad you’re home.”
“Yeah, it feels good to be home too. Though I miss my baby,” she responded.
“I know, I’m having to compete with your new boyfriend. But I do have to say, he’s really cute.”
We laughed.
And proceeded to live happily ever after for another evening.
And later, well, never mind.
You get married for the wrong reasons. Then build a marriage for the right ones.
I was failing grade 8 Math and English, and barely passing Science. My parents ran into my Math teacher at a social event, turned out they had distant common friends.
She made it a point to tell them I wasn’t going to get anywhere in life. She suggested they find me a trade, I might do well as an electrician or a plumber (nothing wrong with these professions, except she used it in a derogatory way, as studying is beyond my capabilities).
Ms. Farhana was a real jerk.
I was the shiest kid around and bullied throughout my childhood. However, I was embarrassed enough by that incident that I mustered up my courage and asked the neighbour’s daughter to tutor me. She started from basic and built up from there.
I passed grade 8 Math. Barely, but I passed it.
She kept tutoring me and I did average in grade 9.
My grade 10 Math teacher had a baby. He lived in the neighbourhood so I decided to ring his doorbell to wish him well. He invited me in for cake. Zee never says no to cake. He told me I could be his best student if I just tried harder.
I knew he was giving me an empty compliment, but a part of me thought I could.
So I asked him to help me after school. He said yes.
I got lucked out with a really kick-ass, but slightly racist, grade 11 Chemistry teacher. He broke things down to just Math. I overlooked his passive aggressive micro-aggressions and had him help me. Everything made sense.
I took Finite Math in highschool. The teacher had a bit of a gambling problem, but man did he know his probabilities.
Suddenly Math was fun.
There is a goat behind one of three doors and you pick a door. I open one of the doors you didn’t pick, do you change your answer? (Hint: yes)
I made up different problems with him. I learned Texas Hold’em. We talked about probabilities of different hands.
In grade 12 Advanced Math I got almost perfect, the highest mark anyone has gotten up until that point in that school’s history.
I took Math tests for fun and did well enough at the University of Waterloo’s Descartes test that I got in with scholarship even though my overall marks weren’t that high.
I decided to major in Math (and Computer Science). I finished the first year in Dean’s list, primarily because of kicking ass in Math. I tutored Calculus, Algebra, and Combinatorics and Optimization to pay bills.
Screw you Ms. Farhana, you were wrong.
I graduated and went to work for Microsoft and then Amazon due to my strength in Math.
I decided to run for a local office and despite not knowing anyone, turned campaigning into a Math problem. I reached out to others in the office and asked them for advice. I took their advice seriously.
Heck I read a book, tracked down its author (two-time mayor of a Michigan municipality) and emailed him for advice. He replied and agreed to mentor me remotely.
I won the election.
I started a business. I sucked at it. I ran into someone at a dinner who ran an agency. I asked him for help. He agreed. Eventually we ran a campaign for Nissan.
As a child I never thought I could learn that everyone had something to teach me, outright ask them to teach me, and benefit from this skill so incredibly.
“The Worst Thing Ever”
it was seriously the worst thing ever. I walked into my house and saw my mom hanging from the ceiling fan.
I can’t even put into words how messed up it was. It felt like my whole world just fell apart. I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s like I’m stuck in some kind of freaky….
I can’t even put into words how messed up it was. It felt like my whole world just fell apart. I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s like I’m stuck in some kind of freaky dream.
I just wish I could go back in time and stop it from happening. But I know that’s not possible. All I can do now is try to move on and remember her in the best way I can.
The most devastating experience of my life was witnessing my mother’s passing. The sight of her lifeless body on the floor left me feeling as though I had lost not only her, but also myself and my entire world.
Despite my desperate desire to help her, she passed away before my eyes, leaving me feeling helpless and hopeless.
However, as time passed, I came to the realization that I must strive to make her proud by doing my best to secure a successful future. This tragedy has left an indelible mark on my life, but I am determined to honor my mother’s memory by achieving my goals.
Related…
DESPERATE WOMAN RESCUED FROM HANGING HERSELF TO DEATH
Information from reliable source to YIRIMAMBO ADVOCACY GROUP UPPER WEST REGION
indicate that a woman from East District information gathered from Wa East district in the Upper West region indicate that a married woman with six children who allegedly wanted to hang herself to death is battling with problems.
It has been fetched but obvious that she can not do anything else for survival nor her mother to care for her family. It is noted that she is a sickler and her mother a stroke patience.
Despite her poor health condition, she and the husband that are taking care of the family. She is always carrying her mother here and there to help her in movement because of that she can’t do any work for money.
Notwithstanding to this, sometimes it is difficult for them to get even food to eat or clothes to wear and medicines for themselves.
Even though the father with six children, is a farmer but is not easy for him taking care of all of them, he brings only what he gets from the farm and that is all which is not always enough but they have been managing.
So she always sit idle thinking that all these problems cannot be solved and she has been saying which she has always been saying to people. *Ending Her Life By Committing Suicide* On the 31st July, 2019 at about 4-5:00 in the evening, a woman which is about 45years- old by name with-held with six Chlidren, from Ducie in the Wa East district of the Upper West region went out with a rope in a black
polythene bag thinking that nobody have seen her but one of her children who was inside another room before she went out into the bush quickly went to inform some good Samaritans in the community and they also quickly traced this woman to the bush and before they got there she has already tied the rope on top of a tree trying to climb another piece of a tree before she can put her neck on the rope. Then the people who followed her as good Samaritans shouted on her and quickly rushed to save her without doing that.
So on this note we are pleading that if any member can help us with either food stuffs or clothes for these people and health support for them as well, if possible so that we will also try to help this woman with counselling and the materials support from you.
But for now she is a little bit OK with her situation.
With the intervention of yirimambo for the first place with our advice and counseling than before.
SOURCE YIRIMAMBO ADVOCACY GROUP UPPER WEST
Be the RUFUS!
We are a community.
My post on community… on Quora.
What is a Chinese Expert?
I really do not think that this creature exists.
According to the Western / American “news” media, a Chinese Expert is…
A person who accepts American government funding to say bad things about China.
Is associated, or was associated, with American mainstream media.
Has, in their possession, photos of the “expert” with American political personages.
According to the Chinese, a Chinese Expert is a graded, stratified tier system based on experience.
Top Tier
Born in China. Studied Chinese history with exemplary grades. Works on behalf of the Chinese people, and puts the people of China first. Many members of the CCP fit this role, as do many Pioneers, and an entire subculture of Chinese that support the “Chinese Dream”.
Old Hand
Has lived in China for a significant period of time. Understands the various societies, and cultures of China. Is married to, or was part of, a Chinese family. Works on behalf on the greater good for all, but of course, his / her Chinese family and Chinese friends come first. This person is also known as a Chinese wanna-be. And this person supports, and praises, “The Chinese Dream”.
Enthusiast
This person, may or many not have lived in China. But has totally embraced the Chinese culture, society and means. This includes certain individuals out of Singapore, Vietnam, and other places around the globe. Maybe they aren’t an “expert” in a classical sense, but they are certainly enthusiastic for the Chinese dream. These people are perhaps known an “fanboi.”
At best, I (personally) am considered a “China Old Hand”.
I don’t know everything, but I know enough.
…
What is “The Chinese Dream”?
Last weekend, my family and a few friends, went to visit an organizational youth meet in Zhuhai. This group (and there are thousands throughout China), teach independence, pride, self-confidence, and acceptance as part of “The Chinese Dream”. It was astounding.
It’s 100% voluntary. The kids pay a small membership fee.
Really. Amazing.
You will never see anything else like this anywhere. Watch how accepted and inclusive my daughter was taken in. It was like she was “absorbed by the hive”. LOL
“Resistance is futile”. -The Borg
There is a great sense of belonging, and acceptance that I have NEVER experienced anywhere else.
Belonging.
B-E-L-O-N-G-I-N-G
Belonging as PART of a COMMUNITY.
No “lone wolf” bullshit.
…
It’s stuff like this why I LOVE LOVE LOVE China so much.
EDIT 22JAN23
1.3K views. Only 30 “thumbs up”.
I guess you all have bought into the Western propagandized lie that you can be the “lone wolf”. That you can be another “Die Hard” type; another Rambo. Another Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Maybe a “Professional career woman”… and all that.
That is a lie.
As many are waking up to the reality that humans are social creatures.
We were on a flight to the U.S. from Thailand where we live.
In Taiwan, a disheveled man of around 30 sat down next to me, reeking of weed. After takeoff, he pulled down the tray and filled it with candy bars, nuts, fruit juice and oranges from his camouflage jacket. He turned to me and said, “You can’t trust airline food.”
But when lunch was served, he smashed his food stash under the food tray he was given and ate everything, including the garnish.
Afterwards he wanted to talk and kept pestering me with, “Hey. Hey!!”
He asked where we were from, and upon hearing “Bangkok” he began raving about ‘Thai sticks’, Thai marijuana. Then he asked my Thai husband if he would help him start importing weed to the U.S.
Husband stared at him really coldly and told the man that he was a Royal Thai police officer so “No.” The idiot’s response: “ Listen, I know all Thai cops are corrupt. We could make a load.”
Husband put headphones on and ignored him. I asked the pothead if he was out of his mind. He shrugged, laughed and said husband would change his mind, for sure.
Luckily, he made a friend elsewhere and moved.
But he wasn’t finished with us.
As we lined up for Customs, he got right behind us. As the agent checked our bags, he kept saying loudly, “They’re from Thailand. Great weed there! Oh, look! That’s a weed pipe!” (It was a replica of a silver opium pipe, a decorative item – a gift) “Listen! I still wanna import from you guys!!”
Another agent picked up his bags and escorted him to a separate office, and we never saw him again.
The United States and it’s entire existence is based on the WEALTH OF NATIONS
The inherent belief that Core Capitalism is the only system to deliver maximum benefits to an economy and stability to the economy & a system of the people is the only way to deliver a system with full global peace
That the world will be fully peaceful when every nation is governed by its people AKA is a democracy built on Western ideals
This was a very correct analysis that the US followed for almost a hundred and ten years from 1880–1990
Unfortunately this ideology got corrupted post 1990 when:-
US Democracy slowly became more and more partisan
US Leaders became slowly worse and worse and essentially corrupt demagogues
The US capitalism model deteriorated to an Oligarchy ‘Support the top 1%’ model that is sinking the states
The US model became all about speculation and less about actual progress and growth
Yet today’s US leaders religiously believe this is the winning model that every nation must adopt and regards any nation that is different as a ‘Flawed Nation’
Chinas Economic Ideology unlike the USA has always changed to suit changing times
From Deeply Socialist under Mao Tse Tung where the focus was on Education and Equality and Food Production and Stability
To Gradual Mixed Economy under Deng Xiaoping & Jiang Zimin where the focus shifted to Industrialization
To a Ruthless Capitalist Mindset under Hu Jintao where the focus was growth, growth and growth
To the Common Prosperity Mindset under Xi Jingping focusing on reducing Income inequality, spreading development across all sections of the economy and a sort of hybrid model of socialism within capitalism
It is diametric opposite to the US and it’s Ruthless Capitalism Ideology
US maximizes emphasis on Speculation
China hates Speculation
US prefers to capitalize everything to the maximum
China prefers a strong sense of control on excess capitalism
US prefers coalescing smaller entities into a handful of monopolies
China prefers mushrooming of smaller entities and competition deciding which is the best
Chinas One Party System is also diametrically opposite to the Multiple faction democracy that the US endorses and the West supports
The US believes that one person for too long loses the incentive to serve the people and becomes a dictator
Yet China believes a group of able people can serve the people the best and prevent unworthy individuals from coming to power who can ruin a well established system of governance
The US has always believed that ultimately China will shed it’s different ways and join the US in their perfect model (that they don’t realize they have fully corrupted)
It’s what made Gordon Chang & Peter Zeihan such celebrities
The US has always believed that China would face a massive setback like the USSR did (Or was suckered into triggering a setback like my friend Hoàng Phan establishes in his answers)
They estimated this to happen between 2005–2008
Didnt Happen
Instead China moved from strength to strength to strength over time and successfully endured every US action against it, from the Wolf Sanctions of 2011 to the Raimondo Sanctions of 2022
The US may trigger a wave of propaganda against China but the purpose of this is to STOP THEIR OWN PEOPLE FROM QUESTIONING AS TO HOW CHINA NOT ONLY SURVIVES TODAY BUT THRIVES FOLLOWING DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
As China moves ahead without the seeming collapse, the US are seeing their two hundred year old belief and ideology (Again which they don’t realize they have corrupted already) getting shattered by China
And slowly seeing others start to adopt a similar stance from Turkiye to Serbia to Vietnam to Singapore
The US is beginning to wonder if indeed it’s ideology was flawed and whether it’s gods and idols are false
And that terrifies them
They don’t realize that it is THEY who have completely corrupted a nice good solid system that was giving them the position of world leader and global trust for decades
It is they who have become Satanic Hegemons from Global Leaders
As for China, China is on the right track so far
They MUSTN’T MAKE THE MISTAKE THAT US DID
They mustn’t allow ideology and hegemony to corrupt them the way US was corrupted under Bush Junior, Clinton and so on
They must ensure they keep refreshing their system so that it best helps the people of China
Pepe Escobar: China Issues DEVASTATING Warning to Neocons as Putin and Xi Make History
I was on the beach late one night looking at the moon and the waves.
Out of the corner of my eye along the south end of the beach – I saw something super weird.
What is that?
I squinted, trying to figure it out – it was too far away – but it had to be really huge.
What the heck?
Well, I couldn’t sit there idly looking at the moon and listening to the surf anymore – I needed to figure out what that thing was over there on the beach.
So, I started walking… is it a car? What is that thing? How is it on the beach? Nobody in their right mind would drive a VW bug on a beach like ours… at night…
Closer and closer I walked and larger and larger it looked.
It was a leatherback sea turtle. Digging a hole in the sand.
I was utterly flabbergasted.
I didn’t make a sound, I just stood there, awestruck: feeling truly blessed in the moment to be near such a magnificent being.
I had never been so close to such a large animal in the wild before.
She was utterly oblivious to me – she was on a mission.
I stood beside her as she dug: I definitely got a sand bath that night. She flipped the sand until she was happy with her nest and began to fill it with eggs.
It took a long time.
I couldn’t stay until she was completely finished.
I’m pretty sure it took most of the rest of the night. I left around 0300 and she wasn’t done.
I’ve since swum with green turtles, who are dwarfed in comparison. But nothing has engendered that kind of awe before or since. Stunned is the right word for something which leaves your mouth hanging and your words lost.
Cheese and Honey Pie
Ingredients
Sesame Seed Pastry
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
Sesame Seed Pastry: Mix all ingredients until blended; press firmly and evenly against bottom and side of 9-inch pie plate.
Bake at 475 degrees F for 5 minutes.
Filling: Beat cream cheese in large mixer bowl on medium speed until creamy. Add remaining ingredients; beat until light and fluffy. Pour into baked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees F until firm, 40 to 50 minutes.
Refrigerate until serving time.
Yields 10 to 12 servings.
Done with the bullshit
I had a thought today that I wanted to share with you all, this is my response to a Reddit post I saw about how corrupt and outdated representative democracy is.
I will start with what I think to be the main problems of representative democracy
The elected body of legislators is not a representative sample of the population, looking at the legislature, you’d think the vast majority of the country was white male lawyers that are either Republicans or Democrats. This is very far from the truth, and many voters do not properly identify either Republican or Democrat and their interests oftentimes scope over topics from both parties. Most of the time when people vote they’re just picking the lesser of two evils, and are not in any way completely satisfied with what other party is doing.
Scope of power does not match scope of accountability, legislators may pass laws that impact people that could not vote for or against them. Unless you count propositions in places like california, legislators are able to pass pretty much whatever law they want that impact sometimes tens of millions of people and are in no way accountable to the laws that they pass. The people have no say in the laws that legislators have passed. This very often leads to a corrupt system of the government being able to do whatever it wants and the people having no say in what the government does.
Job security for elected officials is more dependent on fundraising than on whether the politician is acting in his or her constituents’ best interests. This blows the system wide open for large corporations and billionaires to buy off politicians that represent their best interests as opposed to the people.
Lobbying undermines democracy. Lobbying is a mechanism for powerful groups to influence laws and regulations at the expense of the public interest. This results in outside influence, unfair competition and policy capture, to the detriment of effective policymaking. This effectively allows billionaires and big corporations to buy our government and politicians that act in their best interests rather than the interests of the people.
The voting system and general layout of government was designed before it was possible to quickly communicate long distances, so it ignores the possibility of citizens directly participating.
Mass media cannot be trusted to provide accurate information and is very often bias. Mass media often feeds lies and propaganda to the electorate and the electorate is not currently equipped to ensure a representative democracy is acting in the best interest of the people.
The electoral college needs to go, it is not based on popular vote, and it is based on a winner takes all system which is easily susceptible to corruption and allows political candidates to be elected by losing the popular vote. Under the system if you want to vote for your states of losing party don’t even bother voting.
There aren’t enough representatives to accurately represent the people if we’re going to keep our system of representative democracy and not throw out the entire thing. I think the amount of Representatives should be raised to 936, and the amount of Representative districts should also be increased.
It’s very hard to remove corrupt politicians from power. The people should be able to impeach corrupt politicians, the system was not designed to have politicians serving for 30 or 40 years. We need term limits, I think a term limit of 6 years for senators and representatives is perfectly fair, and I think a term limit of 10 years for supreme Court justices is also perfectly fair. This would allow the government to be more in touch with what people want by constantly switching out people every couple of years.
The Monopoly of power that both conservatives and liberals have over the government in their respected Republican and Democratic parties. We need more political parties to better represent the people, it is not the case that people simply think one way or the other there should be five political parties written directly into the Constitution. The government should operate in a European style model of a political coalition if it wants to get anything done, in other words political parties are forced to make concessions and are forced to work with other political parties to pass laws.
So what do I things should be done to fix things? I’ll tell you
Abolish Congress and the supreme Court, and implement a system of direct democracy where every 6 months every single issue that the supreme Court and Congress would have looked at are voted on directly by the people in the form of propositions. Now I know that if we implemented elections twice a year every June and December people will be voting on about 100 different issues, and that’s fine, people’s voices need to be heard and it is a much better system of asking people what they think of certain issues rather than allowing an out-of-touch government to make these decisions for people instead.
Like I said on my previous point, it needs to be a government for the people by the people. This is why representative democracy is an outdated and obsolete relic of the past. In representative democracy legislators are able to pass whatever laws they please and are not accountable to the people.
We need to make lobbying illegal and if we are going to have a political coalition system the people need to be the ones electing politicians not billionaires and big corporations. Money should not be a part of politics. Making money part of politics undermines democracy
Like I said before lobbying undermines democracy and it needs to be banned 🚫. Lobby groups do absolutely nothing for the government except give special interest groups political power that they shouldn’t have and allow the special interest groups to have a voice in our country and our politics and it allows them to buy politicians.
We need to switch to a ranked choice voting system, as opposed to an instant runoff system. The electoral college needs to go, even if that means amending the Constitution to get rid of it.
Mass media should not have a say in our government, as they cannot be trusted to provide accurate information. I think we should have a system of fake news laws that holds these mass media companies accountable for publishing bias or false information
Like I said the electoral college needs to go. Even if that means amending the Constitution get rid of it. We need a ranked choice popular voting system. This would make it so everybody’s voice is heard, and it would allow new political parties to come to the table and it would break up the Monopoly of power that Republicans and Democrats have over the government.
I don’t even think we should keep our system of Representative democracy, but if it needs to stay we need to double the amount of Representatives to 936. This wasn’t even my idea this was the idea of YouTuber Mathew Beat.
We need term limits for politicians. Once a corrupt politician like Mitch McConnell is in power it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. And it should be up to the entire country to elect politicians not just their state. Term limits would allow new people to come to the table and new ideas to spread and it would allow for more political parties to have seats. Every political party no matter how extremist should be able to have its voice heard.
We need to switch to a political coalition system. Everybody should be able to have their voice heard no matter what side of the political spectrum they sit on. There should be five major political parties and many smaller political parties even if those political parties only get 1–5% of the vote. These political parties should be: the nationalist, the conservatives, the liberals, the acella party (progressive party), and the green party. Many smaller political parties such as: the Socialist party, the fascist party, the libertarian party, etc should also get a say. If we have 936 representatives, even if the fascist party only got 2% of the vote, they would still get 19 seats. This would actually heavily benefit minority political parties and give them a lot of power. Let’s say for example that 20% of the population identifies as nationalist, and 22% of the population identify as conservative. This does not add up to 51%, it adds up to 42%, this would still require an additional 9% of the vote for the nationalist and conservatives to get anything passed and they would have to make deals with the smaller political parties to get up to 51%.
These are just my thoughts about our whole busted political system, let me know what you think
2024 Taiwan Election Reveals Shocking TRUTH About USA and China
Back in the day, I would periodically use hydrogen peroxide to clean my ears out. This was done by my family doctor and he recommended it along with soaking my head in a bathtub of warm water.
You see, I had a problem with excessive earwax fabrication. Oh, not a common problem for certain, but I had to maintain this particular issue with my body.
So one day, my ear got stuffed up, and when I tried my hydrogen peroxide solution, it only seemed to make things worse. Instead it got more and more clogged up. Indeed, for an entire month, my ear was caked full of earwax and I was at a loss as to what to do… not so serious to go to the doctor, it’s earwax after all, but serious enough to be a real problem personally…
…enter a business trip. I went and interviewed at a hot water heater company in Tennessee. And after the interview and meal, I went to the hotel. I drew a tub full of hot water and lay down to soak in it.
I soaked for a good hour, and then I held my breath and tried to blow the water out. And then it happened!
An explosion of earwax released, and many it was a sight to behold. Where the heck was all this earwax from? I don’t know, but I must have had globs and globs of the stuff. It was amazing!
Of course it ended up falling apart in the hot water, but you could tell, it was like thick honey that turned to slimy powder. Quite the experience, I’ll tell you what.
Here’s a LEGO Millennium Falcon, retail price $100:
Here’s another LEGO Millennium Falcon, retail price $7:
Back in 2004, scammer Bill Swanberg realized that Target, Walmart, and other stores sold both of these sets. Here’s what he’d do:
First, he went into a store, and bought both sets. Totally legitimately. He took the smaller one, and scanned in the barcode. Next, he re-sized it so that it would be the same size as the barcode of the larger set— and printed out gobs of them on glossy sticker paper.
Next, he’d bring a few with him into an unsuspecting store. He’d find the LARGE version of the LEGO Millennium Falcon, and cover up the barcode with one of his stickers of the SMALL set’s barcode.
Then, he’d trot up to the register, and the associate would ring them up. “Woah, this big set only costs $7.00?” “Yeah, it must be on sale, that’s why I grabbed it, LOL!” “Wow, nice find!”
Then he’d leave, remove the stickers carefully, and sell them online at a “discounted price” of, say, $50. Everyone online was amazed at the great deal, and lined up to buy them. They expected he got a great deal on them, but 50% off didn’t seem like it was all that suspicious.
He did this for quite a while— but gradually the various stores became aware that their inventory wasn’t lining up. Target noticed the pattern in 5 different states, and eventually had a security guard stop him in a store in Portland, Oregon, after he bought 10 copies of the same Millennium Falcon set. In his car, he had over $6000 of LEGO, as well as a laptop denoting other stores in the area that he planned to visit (or had already visited).
Upon review, Target alone estimated that he had resold over $200,000 worth of their merchandise— and that he had sold over $600,000 online for the past couple of years (much of it likely being from similar scams).
Why is China so afraid of asking for help when there is a virulent virus outbreak?
In 2008, a Richter Scale 8.0 earthquake shook the mountainous Sichuan province in China. When the dust settled, ~ 70,000 people were dead. ~ 20,000 people were missing, presumably dead. ~ 375,000 people were injured. ~ 5 million people were left homeless. It’s one of the greatest natural disasters in the twenty first century. The disaster was so great, that China immediately asked for help from the rest of the world.
The US government gave ~ $4.5 million in aid, plus a guy to the Beijing Earthquake Center to look at their data. So that’s what, 80 cents for each affected person?
The rest of the world pooled together ~ $450 million, plus some emergency supplies. Most of it came from China’s immediate neighbors.
The Chinese people donated $1.5 billion within the first 2 days.
The Chinese government gave the earthquake-stricken area $130 billion. 98% was spent in the first 3 years. 100,000 PLA troops rushed into the earthquake area within 2 days to help.
This was back in 2008, when China’s GDP per capita was only about ~ $3,500 a year. Now it’s over $10,000.
So I don’t think China is “afraid” of asking for help. They are realistic. They simply don’t expect to get much help. Something symbolic, maybe, which will be much appreciated, but they must do the heavy lifting themselves. Big countries must stand on their own two feet, because you really can’t expect a bunny to lift up a fallen elephant! The elephant needs to get up on its own. Reactions to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake – Wikipedia
No normal country should count on foreign aid to solve their problems.
In the current Coronavirus outbreak, China is mostly helping other countries: It isolated and published the sequence of this new virus, developed diagnostic kits and diagnostic protocols, and shared all these with the WHO and the world. It has put in border controls aimed at keeping infected people from going abroad. It publishes treatment protocols and regular updates as doctors discover and develop their knowledge of this disease. It has put 50+million people under quarantine. It is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the global management of this novel disease.
PS: The US gave Haiti $12 billion in aid after Haiti earthquake. 2010 Haiti earthquake
Haiti is right at America’s doorstep, and the American people are very generous towards Haiti. Today Haiti looks like this:
Turned out that a big chunk of that $12 billion was the US State Department writing checks to the US Department of Defense for sending 200 guys to Haiti to “provide security”. The rest mostly went to NGOs’ hotels, jeeps, salary, and “hardship pay”. It’s a legitimate question to ask if International Aid is really worth it, not only for the Chinese People, but also for the American People as well.
“USAID has spent about $1.5 billion since the earthquake,” Johnston told Goats & Soda. “Less than a penny of every dollar goes directly to a Haitian organization.”
Where I live anything that the courts could say was a trap was illegal. I had people cutting across my property to get to the river, the previous owner had just laid razor wire coils in the bush. If anyone had got hurt on it. I would have gone to jail. So I carefully pulled it all out and placed monster boulders everywhere. No one can say a boulder is a trap.
There was a guy who had a private road leading to his place. People kept tearing it up after it rained in their 4×4 , side x side, and atvs. He had no trespassing signs, and private road signs, and people ignored them. So he stretched a steel cable between two trees, with a padlock, so he could open it. He could only put up the cable where he had two big trees close enough to the road, to string it, and enough trees to stop them from driving around the make shift gate, so it was about 50 m up his road .
A teenage girl on an ATV drove by his private road and no trespassing signs, and got knocked off her quad by the rope. They sued the land owner and won. This is in Canada, rules might be different elsewhere.
A few years ago, when I was agonizing over my future career path, my dad told me to make a list of the things in life that make me happy.
Then, split the list into two categories.
The first category includes any type of happiness that you can feel instantaneously. Sipping hot chocolate on a chilly day. Hitting the snooze button to steal another five minutes of sleep. Binge-watching the new season of your favorite show.
The second category includes any type of happiness that takes a long time to appear and a long time to fade. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Mastering difficult skills. Building closer relationships with the people you love.
Some of the items in the first category, my dad explained, might clash with the items in the second. The more hot chocolate you consume, for example, the less nutritious your diet becomes.
But a few items in on your list, just a few, might actually fit into both categories. The best painters in the world obtain joy both from the instantaneous act of painting and from the ultimate goal of becoming a world-class artist. The best soccer players love being out on the field just as much as they love becoming better athletes.
Circle these items, these things that bring you both short-term happiness and long-term happiness.
These are the things that you can spend your life doing, and never feel like you’ve worked a day.
You ever been to a Mcdonalds where the manager is an ass and the employees have had enough of it?
I once went to a Mcdonalds that had a mass quit a few hours later. I went up to the counter and ordered a Mcchicken, a regular coke, a small fry and an ice cream cone.
They take my money and a few minutes later come back with my order, which is… heavier than normal. And my ice cream cone is a foot tall. And my coke is a large.
(It looked like this)
“Woops.” says the cashier. “Looks like we accidentally supersized your order.” she says with a wink. I could tell from the sarcastic tone that there was no accident about it.
I returned to my table and sat down, and noticed that my McChicken wasn’t alone, there was also a chicken select sandwich in there. I was a really, really poor kid at the time. The Mcydee’s dollar menu was a rare treat for me, and getting one of the main menu items was just amazing!
Definitely still my favorite Mcdubbers sandwich.
My ‘small fry’ took up an entire large fry box, and then there was about a large fry’s worth of loose fries in there. Like the entire bag was drowning in fried potato goodness.
So intentionally giving me a lot of extra food to spite your boss? That’s the strangest way my order’s ever been messed up. Part of me wished I had ordered more.
Edit: So Quora apparently thinks I need a credential to prove that I sometimes eat fast food and sometimes get my order messed up. This is what happens when you let an AI make decisions.
I knew my dad was a Bad Ass early in my youth. I didn’t realize how much of a Bad Ass he was until last spring. You see my father served in WWll with the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team in France and Italy. A segregated US Army regiment made up of Americans of Japanese ancestry from the US mainland and Hawaii. A large portion of these warriors came from “internment” (prison) camps from which their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and family were incarcerated. These guys had something to prove. We are AMERICANS! And prove it they did. For their valor the 100th Battalion/ 442nd Regimental Combat Team has been recognized as the most decorated unit in American history. The 100th Bn/ 442nd RCT earned more than 18,000 awards, including 9,500 Purple Hearts, 5,200 Bronze Star Medals, 588 Silver Stars, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 7 Distinguished Unit Citations, 21 Congressional Medal of Honor awards and the Congressional Gold Medal. Now that’s BAD ASS! My dad was gravely wounded in Italy and left to die on the battlefield as he was not believed to survive his wounds. When the burial detail came upon my father he was still alive and eventually recovered after a long convalescence. We know this story as it was told to my cousin by the soldier who found my father still alive. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure to meet his as he passed a few years ago. My father was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and other awards for his efforts. He was never better than 70% disabled and eventually upgraded to 100%. So I had the opportunity to travel to France and Italy last year on a tour that follows in the footsteps of these American heroes. I walked where they walked, saw the trenches whey they lay and climbed the slope’s and mountains that they climbed. But I did it in the daylight. They did it at night in the cover of darkness. These were the mountains near Carrara Italy. Impressive just to do this in daylight. Crazy to think it could be done at night! That’s when I knew how much of a BAD ASS my father and the Nisei warriors of the 100th Bn/ 442nd RCT were. I could not be more proud. R.I.P. dad. PFC Roy T. Tsutsui Co. F 442nd RCT
Whenever I was in public school, I had fairly good grades, I didn’t study much so it was crazy how good I was doing. This all lasted until 4th grade, whenever I got put in this horrible woman’s class. I was the kind of child to speak my mind and get SUPER excited about things. This woman (not calling her a teacher because she doesn’t DESERVE the title) did not LIKE that. She decided to target me specifically for her relentless bullying of literal infants. Anytime I would get excited about anything, she would tell me to flip my card (yknow, the stupid elementary punishment bullshit). Anytime I would do something that would be considered out of place in a classroom, she’d make me flip my card. She would rally my classmates to bully me too.
As the school year went on and the bullying from the woman and my classmates got worse, I started falling into a deeper pit of my own depression stemmed from the abandonment of my dad, over-protective (yet still somehow neglectful) mom, and the bullying I had to suffer at school. This made my grades drop HARD. Specifically in my math and science class, as I was not being properly taught by this woman.
Every time we would get to a new part of our science workbook, we would get given a science study guide that we had to fill out ourselves that she would then grade and fix whatever mistakes we had made. A month prior to the specific incident I’m about to tell you, my mom had noticed how bad my grades had dropped and made sure I studied (which did NOT help). She always made sure I had my study guides and stuff I got from school.
It was a regular school day for me, we had just gotten a new study guide that we were going to fill out. The woman decided to put us in pairs to do them so we could discuss the answers and stuff. She put me in a pair with the nicest girl in the class (picture the human incarnate of an excited golden retriever) and we began working on it. We finished around the same time the others did and submitted our papers. After we all finished, the woman started grading our papers. Whenever she had finished, she handed most of them out, but she held on to two of them, my friend and I’s. She waved them around in the air and said “THESE two don’t have any names… Oh well… Who wants to play 20 pickup?” and then ripped them to shreds and threw the remains on the floor. My friend and I were crushed (and fucking humiliated) as we both really needed those papers and here we were, watching our classmates pick up and fight over who could get the most pieces like it was some sort of game played at a birthday party.
A few minutes later, she picked up her copy of the study guide and said to us, “I’ve got one more left. I’m thinking of a number and whichever one of you can get closest to it wins the paper.”
I ended up winning and she gave it to me, which I instantly started working on. I figured she would want me to redo it as soon as she gave it to me. About a minute passed and she walked to my desk, swiped it from me and gave it to my friend saying that I “Wasn’t paying attention”. I felt like absolute shit the whole day.
My mom had asked me where my study guide was, and I told her what happened. She went on an absolute RAMPAGE.
Luckily the next parent-teacher conference was pretty soon after and she didn’t want to embarrass me by showing up to the school while my classmates were there. I don’t know exactly what happened during the meeting between her and my mom as I was sat outside the classroom. All that I know is that whenever the door opened, the woman looked pale and terrified and my mom had her classic murder look that she would get after laying heavily into someone.
She never told me what she had said or done, but that woman never dared to bother me again. She didn’t even like LOOKING at me. Anytime I did something she didn’t like, she would glare at me like I just killed her entire family and set her house on fire and reply something passive aggressive.
My mom ended up finding out that she had done this to other kids too at other schools. Pretty sure the bitch was on tenure though, so there wasn’t anything we could’ve really done.
I still see her around town though and she acts overly excited to see me. The first time I had seen her after I finished 4th grade, I was about 13 and was super socially anxious and had panic attacks whenever I was reminded of that experience, I was at the dollar store with my grandma and the woman came up to me and started talking, I of course was trying to keep my shit together and not start having a full blown panic attack so I was very quiet. She said “Aw, what’s wrong? Are you shy now?”, all of my fear was replaced with rage and I had to stop myself from giving her the sickest right hook of her life. I regret not doing it while I was still a kid and wouldn’t have had very many repercussions for it.
SO, I’m not going to name-drop her, as I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, but I will say that if you live in or are planning on moving to Sabine parish, LISTEN to your kids if they tell you about bullying from their classmates or any of the school staff. Hell, do that even if you DON’T live in this area.
Burkina Faso’s President Has Good News for Africa but Very Bad News for the West
My parents started middle class and worked their way to the 1%.
It isn’t this huge party. But there are some basic things you don’t worry about as much.
It is weird because I didn’t grow up wealthy at all. And had a strict-as-hell dad.
At some point after I left home, things really ramped up. My dad left the military and became a high ranking exec with SAP.
My mom started a vineyard at their farm. And sold off a lot of great real estate investments she’d made over the years.
But you would never know it if you bumped into them at the store or something. They have very humble personalities. If you went to their home however..
When I wake up in the morning in their guest room I get to enjoy a view like this:
When I visit they spend most of their time working around the house and on the farm. We don’t really sit still much. And even when we are it is because we are working on something. We are worker-bees.
Also, I think everyone has a misconception as to how wealthy the top 1% is. 10 years ago, even I had the impression that 1%ers don’t work hard and take 9 vacations a year. I think it is just different if you started small and got there in your middle age and have kids.
At that point, you are more concerned with managing everything and making sure your kids are doing OK.
(Maybe that it is .01 percenters that do all that laying around by the pool…)
Either way I love visiting my parents, but every time I get home here in Florida my house feels really really small! 🙂
My last name is Warehouse, just like the building. This has led to lots of interesting things, like getting calls at my work about finding things at our district warehouse or getting my account banned on Quora back when they cared if you used a fake name. It also means I get weird deliveries.
One day a big cardboard box showed up addressed to my wife, so I left it on the table without really looking at it. A few days later it was still untouched, so I asked her why she hadn’t opened it yet.
“That’s not mine, it’s got sports stuff all over it.”
And it did! Now that I looked, the box clearly had a Nike logo on it. And on closer inspection, its address tag was a mess. There was a weird poorly printed label that said “redirect” that had my wife’s name and our address in California on it, slapped over a very official looking original label that said the box was bound for a warehouse in New Jersey.
And that’s how I ended up with a bow of 24 pairs of XXL Nike football gloves meant for the New York giants.
In 1981 I worked as a computer operator for a company, then owned by Tex Schramm (owner of the Dallas Cowboys). There was a young woman, from a well to do family and graduate of Radford, working there. She was really into women’s lib.
There was also an older gentleman, long past the possible retirement age. One day I was in the lobby as the young woman, who I had recently begun dating, was ready to leave. The older gentleman was leaving, and held the door for her.
She lit into him. “Just because I’m a lady, you don’t have to hold the door for me.”
The response: “My dear Joanne, I do not hold the door for you because you are a lady. That would be presumptuous of me. I hold the door for you because I am a gentleman.”
In my second year at my current job, a lady was hired to replace my senior who had resigned.
The job was in a public office and for the most part was quite easy going. Somebody off the streets could learn the essentials in just a few hours.
The lady who came had seniority and several years more experience than me working at a different branch. I therefore expected her to have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with me.
‘How does this work again?’
‘Did I do this right?’
‘How about you be the one to do that? You’re so good at it.’
‘Can you show me how to do (such-and-such) again?’
The lady transferred from a location that had the exact same type of system and technology as mine yet she had not a clue how to do anything!
How was this woman in a senior position? She didn’t know anything about the job. Was she dumb?
A week of ‘training’ had passed and she didn’t really learn anything and had to be supervised at all times. Before I could find out how it was that she was so slow she suddenly vanished.
She stopped turning up at work and calls to her phone went unanswered. I sent an email to HR explaining that she had gone AWOL. They gave some half-assed reply. A few months later, after she had long been forgotten, I get a frantic letter from HR saying that they have been paying her salary and they’ve just become aware that she has not been turning up to work.
‘No shit,’ I say in my mind.
HR investigates and finds out that she had accepted another job elsewhere the entire time and was gladly accepting two salaries. HR demanded that she return the unearned salary. She said she would but she was going through financial distress at the moment.
She never returned a cent. HR washed their hands of the matter and kept it hush hush.
Turns out she wasn’t dumb at all.
So my answer to the question ‘what sets off red flags on an employee’s first day?’
When I was small, my parents sent me to my grandparents (who lived in a rural area) every summer so they could look after me when school was out.
My grandpa was born late 191x or early 192x – even he didn’t remember exactly.
When I was 6 years old, I started going to elementary school which started to have summer assignments. So, when my parents sent me to my grandparents for the “vacation”, I brought my textbooks and books with me to study. One day, I remember, I brought a book to my grandpa and asked him for some help with my summer homework. He smiled, “Oh, sweetie, I can’t help you with that!”. “Why?!?!”, I was surprised, he’d never said “No” to me. A second of hesitation, then he said, “I don’t know how to read”
It didn’t make sense to my 6-year-old me; but later, when I grew up, I knew, it was the result of war and poverty, my grandpa never went to school.
Anyway, “But you know EVERYTHING!”, the little me was shocked and questioned him. He stroked my hair, “Ah, I just don’t know how to read texts in the book. I can read other things. I can read leaves to know their trees. I can read the soil to know what I need to do to get more produces. I can read the river to know if it’s safe to go down and play. I can read the night sky to know if tomorrow it will be rain or shine”, he explained to me.
A light bulb went off in my head; he taught me to ‘read’ some of those things, why didn’t I teach him to read texts? So, I offered him, “Do you want to study with me, grandpa?”.
So, I started to be his ‘teacher’. I taught him a, b, c. He studied, then forgot everything in the next summer because he didn’t use it frequently enough; so I had to teach him again.
I taught him to read, every summer, until he passed away.
I have had a number of jobs in my time. I’ve been a framing carpenter, finish carpenter, furniture maker, the army, and being in the office in the construction industry as a project manager for the last 16 years.
Working in the trades can indeed be very lucrative, and I know a number of plumbers and welders that do significantly better than me financially, but from someone that has worked in the trades and in the corporate office, there are a lot of benefits of the office world that help pull people away from going into the trades.
The first is simply being warm when it’s cold, dry when it’s raining and cool when it is hot. It’s pretty tough going to work everyday to be freezing cold all day or burning up hot. Secondly, you can do stuff after work without needing to take a shower or change clothes first. Third, you don’t beat up your body so much working in an office. I’m 47 so still well short of retirement age and I really can’t imagine doing the type of work I did in my 20’s all day, every day. That was tough work and I got injured a lot and had to just suck it up and work through it. Injuries these days take a lot longer to heal too.
Occasionally I get all nostalgic about walking floor joists 30 feet up with a 16ft 2×8 on my shoulder, then I’ll have a flashback to what that actually feels like doing it every day and appreciate very much my AC and roof and clean clothes. My nostalgia forgets doing that same joist walk with feet numb from the cold, or sweat in my eyes or a lingering injury.
The trades are good, solid, well paying professions, but if you have any other alternatives they are definitely a young person’s game. The people I see my age still working in the trades (doing the work, not management like me) are physically beaten down for the most part with bad backs, bad knees, and a collection of scars that make anyone take notice.
The Duran: Neocons want WAR in Middle East and Israel, the US will LOSE Big
Serbian Skillet Pork (Muckalica — Yugoslavia)
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
3 medium onions, sliced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips
2 ounces feta cheese, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
Hot cooked rice
Instructions
Trim fat from pork. Cut pork into 1/2-inch slices; cut slices into 1/2-inch strips. Heat oil in skillet until hot. Cook and stir pork in oil over medium heat until brown, about 15 minutes; drain. Add water, onions, tomato, salt, paprika, pepper and red pepper. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 30 minutes, adding water if necessary.
Add green pepper. Cover and simmer until green pepper is crisp-tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Top with cheese.
When I was about 21 or 22, I worked for this remodeling contractor. My dad does remodels and has rental properties, and I’ve always been a DIY type of guy, so I learned young and had about 10 years of experience at the time. Anyway, one day I was at work, and the boss nor the crew lead could figure out how to solve a problem with some vinyl flooring and the customer was there watching them for a good half hour or so. I repeatedly tried to make suggestions but just kept getting ignored. Finally I just stepped up and tried something and it worked. The next day the owner told me that work was slow and he didn’t need me to come in. That same afternoon he called me and let me go due to “not having the quality of work that his company is known for”. I’m sure he was just upset that I made him look like an ass in front of a customer. Anyway, fast forward to a week later, this customer had a family member that was also gonna get some work done by the same company. The previous customer gave the family member my Facebook info and she contacted me and asked if I could do a job for her. About 3 days in, my old boss came and the look on his face when he saw me doing the job he came to bid for was priceless.
1. Don’t call someone more than twice continuously. If they don’t pick up your call that mean they have something more important to attend to.
2. When someone drops something on the floor by mistake or drops food from the plate or doesn’t know how to use a knife/fork don’t stare at them. The same goes to people sneezing, coughing or even an uncontrollable fart. It’s an involuntary reaction.
3. Always skip using the washroom beside the occupied one. It makes it uneasy for the person in the occupied washroom as well as yourself if you occupy the one right next to theirs.
4. If you’re talking to someone and notice any of the following, they’re trying to end the conversation:
Their eyes keep darting away.
They angle their body away from you.
They give you rapid one-word answers.
5. When someone you know has an obvious change in appearance, e.g., weight gain/loss, bald spot, acne. never comment on it until they talk about it to you, they already know what is happened to them.
6. If a colleague tells you they have a doctors appointment, don’t ask what it’s for, just say hope you’re ok. If they want to talk about it they will and you don’t put them in the uncomfortable position of having to tell you their personal illness.
7. Treat the cleaner with the same respect as the CEO. Nobody is impressed at how rudely you can treat someone below you but people will notice if you treat them with respect.
8. Do not make plans in front of those you are not involving.
9. When meeting someone after a long time, unless they want to talk about it, don’t ask them their age and salary.
10. When a friend/colleague offers you some food, you can politely say No. But, don’t do this after tasting or smelling it. It’s an insult to the one who has offered it to you.
This is John Eisenman. He lost his daughter to s-exual trafficking. She was sold for $1,000 in Seattle Washington. He did what a father should do and researched, investigated and found out about her abduction. He RESCUED her HIMSELF. He found out the person who sold her into trafficking was her 19 year old boyfriend. He met up with him, abducted him, bludgeoned and stabbed him to death in Nov, 2020. The authorities found him [dead AF boyfriend] in Oct 2021 in the trunk of the car he abandoned. John Eisenman sits in jail knowing his daughter is safe and growing up after he has already lived 60 years of his life. I bet you, he rests easy. Live your life to the fullest. He did his absolute best to make sure his child have the opportunity to do the same no matter what the sacrifice.
My POV:- I think justice can’t be black or white, it’s a greyish territory. I’m not a supporter of taking revenge but rather law doing the job. Although, we all know how deeply fukced up is our law and order.
The decade of the 1950s was the time of my well-remembered childhood. Some of the memorable un-nice features follow:
Coal shuttles in basement windows to fill the coal bins for the furnace that kept you alive in subzero weather. The loud roaring rattle of the coal can never be forgotten. My wife grew up in destroyed Berlin where the kids snuck onto the train tracks to steal coal for cooking and winter heat, especially before 1950.
Ice trucks for the “ice box,” which was the refrigerator of the day. Great fun to persuade the iceman to chip you a sliver (possibly unsanitary) in the steaming summer.
Raking and burning leaves either in the curb or in our own home trash bin (a large ugly concrete “bathtub” for burning all wastes) beside the separated garage.
After we graduated from paying marbles on the sidewalks, the never-forgotten aroma of the lightly powdered flat bubble gum accompanying Topps baseball cards used for flip-card contests. Still remember the rules.
Friends and relatives died a lot. Lost a cousin to polio despite her father being chief of staff of the largest hospital in St. Louis. Lost two more to a house fire and others to asthma. I narrowly avoided rheumatic fever and a close call with total vision loss from measles. Number 1 brother developed Type 1 diabetes, but that was hereditary (skips a generation); lasted a LONG time.
Turning on the lights to visit the bathroom in the middle of the night and watching hundreds of roaches scurry across the floor into the corners and cracks.
Sticky asphalt from the tarred streets that would permanently ruin any carpet in a snooty home.
Kids (and adults) hitch-hiked. I hitch-hiked regularly many miles to high school and college and back rather than take buses with long cold/hot waits and transfers. Just after the 50s, noticed how remarkably easier it was to hitch a ride when in my ROTC uniform.
Teenagers still in school who had never worked had no vote in national elections.
No air conditioning. Vornado floor fans, window fans blowing over block of ice, or car rides with windows open down to “Cool Valley” (yes, a real town) a low-altitude area with much lower temperatures were our only options when temperatures soared far over 100 degrees and humidity was ~80%.
Construction sites were wonderful if dangerous playgrounds for kids. Unsafe, with nails sticking out, deep ditches and holes to avoid. Taught caution and the value of tetanus shots. Learned aromas like the smell of wet concrete, rebar, freshly cut wood; mountains of dirt for King of the Hill games, playing “war” with wooden toy 1904 Springfield rifles in literal miles of dug-up ground for the interstate highways.
Homes and office buildings were insulated with asbestos, long before attorneys and asbestos-removal firms became millionaires from it.
Local stenches were many and varied. Worst were from the fish processing plants and cattle/pig stockyards, with the “nicest” smells being chemical fumes from riverside plants.
Working on the USS Admiral, was required to check for “floaters” under the port paddlewheel every morning by opening the trash slot over the water.
Learned to water-ski on the turd-filled muddy Mississippi.
US Army chemical warfare testers sprayed my hometown with zinc cadmium sulfide, a fluorescent additive of some kind and a possibly radioactive agent to secretly study possible bio/chem weapon vectors … later explained “to protect us from potential Soviet attack”.
Nearby communities (Weldon Spring, West Lake and Berkeley … but not CA) were being contaminated by toxic waste buried by one of my future employers after they processed the uranium for the first nuclear weapons. Not done on my watch; however, as an adult I did work at a number of the other tainted sites: their original chemical plant and their radiological branch.
Cap guns: actual gunpowder explosives were loaded in a tight roll to be fired by your Lone Ranger or Cisco Kid cap gun. Bangs and sparks with gunpowder’s sulpuric stench …
Bows and arrows (with real points).
Jungle gyms were tall blocks of hard unadorned steel pipes over bare dirt dusty in summer and frozen in winter.
Complete and utter obedience to our family’s Commanding Officer who actually posted duty rosters for my 4 siblings (girl was exempted) which I was required to enforce as senior NCO.
Amused myself by playing war battle games with bottlecaps. Falstaff, Budweiser and a few Stag … strewn from the six-pack dad chugged every night. Didn’t realize he was a drunk until years later.
Black and white TV with the Indian-head test pattern after midnight when all stations went “off the air.”
TV showed stereotypical characters in every show like: the Howdy Doody Show; Kukla, Fran & Ollie; Texas Bruce’s Wranglers’ Club; Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Zorro, etc.
Friday night fights: boxing matches every weekend.
Racism was acknowledged but not celebrated. Had black school/playmates (parochial school) and babysitters who all lived in a nearby section of the city.
Racial mockery was the basis of much TV/radio humor. Amos & Andy on the radio, Milton Berle’s burlesque schticks, Pat & Mike Irish insults, Sid Caesar’s fake Japanese babble, Jose Jimenez jibes at Mexicans on the Steve Allen Show … don’t remember German accents being considered “funny” until Hogan’s Heroes.
Classmate who later became a Japanese citizen used to play records advocating anti-Communism from John Birch (didn’t know of his Society then). Nothing mean or nasty that I remember from those lectures but quite un-PC now, I guess.
BB guns: never permitted in our home, with 4 boy, 1 girl; but vet dad built us an actual shooting range for my 13th birthday present, a .22 bolt-action Winchester … a literal deep sandbox at one end of the basement under a steel sheet canted at a 45 degree angle. Access controlled by dad, of course.
Joined my school’s rifle club in 1959 when they (not me) won the national championship with open sight .22s mounted on Garand 30–30 war surplus stocks. Kids shot rifles as a matter of indifference. Safely too, because safety was taught, responsibility was demanded … and disobedience was both unthinkable and unacceptable.
History will one day see how the U.S., its dog nations, the EU, its fellow colonialists and native slaughtering nations and its slave nations, treatment of China. Is a modern version of African slavery, Nazi Crimes, barbaric colonialism by the Europeans and the Savage rape and murder of Nanking!
How do they treat China and the Chinese race. Terrible, obnoxious and despicable. What more to say! Slurring at every turn, blindly accusing China without facts, evidence and proof calling them copy cats, stealing intellectual property, cheating, for being aggressive and threatening nations, genocide that never happen, causing Covid! All are no different from the Nazi blaming of the Jews!
Just backed by a pack of lies. And using coercion and bribery to get a dissident or two to cast doubt on China! If you are one of the group I single out please stop being a pawn or a parrot in these fake news. China won’t yield to these ludicrousness and shameful act of throwing shit!
To me you can accuse China of not bordering about its cosmetic cover up of its desire to ensure that the century of humiliation can never happen again and that it will do everything in its power to get back it’s rightful place in history. Remember how thousands of black people are wrongly accused by the white people for all sorts of thing and them lynch them!
History will show the truth that the U.S. and the west are doing the same to the Chinese. Sure without the lynching!
I owned a flying school and had a receptionist who was good with the customers.
One day I got a phone call at about 4PM from a student asking why we had shut early. I assured him we hadn’t as we had people flying till 7 that night. He told me he was standing outside and the doors were locked.
When I came in next day I checked CCTV and sure enough she had locked up at 3:30 whilst people were still flying. She returned at just before 5:30. I checked the day before and the same thing had happened. She locked up at 3:30 and returned at 5:30. It was near the end of the month so I waited till the end of the month to see what hours she had claimed for.
I also called a government employer hotline that is set up in the UK to give free help and advice. After explaining the situation they told me she was in breach of her contract, and it was gross misconduct which is a sackable offence. They said she was “stealing time” from me. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt so I decided to listen to her before I took action. The helpline advised that if her answers weren’t agreeable then I should suspend her on full pay whilst I investigated.
Sure enough she had claimed for her full allowance on her payslip so I called her into my office to explain herself. She claimed to have “forgotten” to take it off her hours worked. I was more concerned about leaving the building unattended whilst we had students still flying. What happened if we had an emergency? She refused to answer me so I was left with no option but to suspend her.
I studied the CCTV for previous 30 days and she had done it for almost 50% of her shifts! Despite this I didn’t want to lose her, the students loved her.
So I invited her back for a formal interview and offered to allow her to bring a witness. She declined the representation. I explained that the interview was being recorded and I had my solicitor on speaker phone to listen and ensure we both were acting within the law. It was to protect both of us.
I asked her for her reasons and she said that she had been visiting her boyfriend and having lunch together. He was an instructor pilot for me but had never left mid-shift. I then explained about why it was wrong to leave the premises whilst we still had aircraft in the air. She just shrugged her shoulders. I asked her to wait outside whilst I spoke to my legal adviser.
Truth be told I couldn’t afford to lose her. I had previously told the helpline that and they recommended “based on my explanation” that I give her a final written warning. This should be enough to make her realise it was wrong. I decided to go down this route.
After 5 minutes I invited her back into the room to give her the final written warning and a good explanation why this was happening. As I said to her “Thank you for your patience,” she replied, “Are you really doing this?”
“I am.”
Then she erupted! Quite a verbal assault against me! Then she pulled out an envelope and handed it to me saying, “I can’t believe you have blown this out of proportion, here is my 30 days notice, and as you owe me some holidays I will be taking them so I don’t have to work with you any more.”
I just calmly said, “Don’t worry about the 30 days notice, you won’t need it because I’m letting you go for gross misconduct!”
*screaming at me*“YOU CANT DO THAT!”
*a tiny voice on the telephone*”Yes he can, you stole from him and he is within his rights to terminate your contract with immediate effect and without compensation. Now if I was you I would leave quietly or Mr Savage could have the police involved for theft.”
A week later I received a letter asking for a reference as she had found a new job!
While writing this answer, I called my wife (I’m at work) and asked her to send me the photo of this knife from our kitchen. I hate using it, especially while cutting soft veggies. It is dull, useless and cheap-ass piece of cutlery. I bought it for $0.50.
With a kitchen knife exactly like this one shown in the picture.
I was going to work, when I came across a domestic street brawl. Men and women screaming, abusing and beating each other. I remember a wooden ladle in action too.
It was too awkward for me not to do something. I had no cellphone back then as it was too expensive and uncommon.
I tried calming them down with help of a few neighbors.
And during that peaceful effort… a young man out of nowhere attacked me with this kitchen knife. The swing was so swift and forceful that it scared me if this connects at all. I tried to grab his hand but the knife pierced my palm and popped out from back of my wrist.
Now I wish to stress couple of issues here.
A knife is a knife and it does not matter if it is big, small, sharp, dull, scary or funny looking. When used with intentions to inflict damage… it will damage the body inflicting stab and slash wounds, and might very well cause fatality.
And even more importantly…
This was quite a harmless bout, typical domestic quarrel between two neighboring families that usually just ends up with them receiving a bruise here and there, a noisy chest thumping exercise for the most part that goes around here over stupid disagreements.
Still…the moment I saw that guy approaching me with knife, his glowered and gloomy expressions alarmed me of imminent danger, I understood this is not just a warning… this guy wants to hurt me. To anyone else, he might not seem to be posing a palpable peril towards the cop but I as a cop perceived the incoming.
I was unarmed; I could not protect myself intelligently.
What if I was armed that day? To whom do I look up for the use of deadly force authorization?
That’s no one else’s but my decision to make.
It is my judgment call even if it is objective or weak in other’s opinion. If I have reasons to believe the person is a threat and warnings don’t serve the purpose, I have to neutralize the threat. I don’t want to hurt anyone; that’s the last and the most distasteful option for any cop in all sincerity. But at the same time, I want to protect myself and others with my best effort and ability.
I assure you, it could have been a fatal blow.
The department would have lost one of theirs, my mother would have gone crazy upon hearing of this news. All of this because of someone’s absurd, idiotic and senseless aggression.
I don’t deserve that.
No cop deserves that.
So in my opinion, if a knife-wielding person advances towards the cop and chooses to ignore the warnings – and sends an apprehension that he actually might attack the cop –
I’d consider that a legitimate threat.
And using deadly force to neutralize that threat is justifiable legally and morally.
We were married in Las Vegas over a weekend, never had a honeymoon, and it appears there wouldn’t be much romance or emotion, which appeared to suit both of us fine.
My life goals had always been to earn as many degrees as possible and to have a significant career. When my husband said he wanted to apply to law school, I stuck around to find out what would be happening.
On our fifth wedding anniversary, I was working on my masters’ degree and pregnant – not in my life goals, but I was accepting of the situation. We were both graduate students, living off student loans with no money for anything.
When I woke on our anniversary day, my husband presented me with a six page long poem he had been writing for days. He called it “FANGS for the memories.” The poem was written in the cadence of the song “Thanks for the memories” which would have been way too sentimental for either of us.
It’s been 45 years later and I still have not only that poem but also the poem he wrote on our 10th anniversary.
This past year we celebrated our 50th anniversary and not one celebration. But I do have two amazing sentimental and romantic poems to read and reread over and over – I will never forget those!
When I attended university there was this strange routine that we went through at the end of each class. The professor would provide us the CORRECT answers to the questions in the back of the book. You see, our engineering classes all had us attend classes, labs works shops AND do the questions in the books. But, for some darn reason, the answers to the questions were always wrong.
Why is that?
A angry graduate student perhaps? A mistake by the book publisher? Maybe something else.
It’s really not a big mystery… but it still remains a mystery to me. Why?
It’s one of those things that I muse about from time to time… the wrong answers were the ones published.
At least this is what happened to this beautiful woman here:
Her name was Mercedes Grabowski, a pornographic actress who went by the stage name August Ames.
Near the end of 2017, she took a stand and refused to shoot with a male performer which also happened to star in gay scenes. She believed that STDs among gay actors have a higher probability to spread. So given that the actor was bisexual (gay, for what matters to this point), she thought she would be in a higher risk of being infected. “My body, my rules”, right? It was not abortion that was in question; it indeed was about her own body. I thought that was the feminist’s motto, and they should have sided with Ames.
Apparently not so. Instead, a twitter mob started a smearing campaign to call her homophobic, hypocrite, hate bastard and so on. A lot of porn actresses now declare themselves as feminists. Instead, only one or two stood by August.
She was only 23 years old and apparently suffered from depression. She hanged herself on December 6, 2017.
Afterwards, some gay activist stated: “she went on hatred against our community and paid the price.”
This was all because suddenly it became a social sin to criticize gays or point anything negative about them. Some said August was misinformed about how seriously and often blood tests are conducted on gay performers, but that’s besides the point: she just didn’t want to; she had autonomy, exercised her autonomy and paid with her life. Also, if some LGBT supporter brings to attention that the blood tests are more frequent and thorough within the gay community, then it should prove her point about being afraid to shoot in the first place.
As far as I can tell, August Ames was the first fatality due to the political correctness.
Feta and Mint Rice
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup long grain rice
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add rice and stir for 1 minute.
Add broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until broth is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
Fluff rice with fork.
Add feta and mint and mix in with fork.
Season with salt and pepper.
2 servings; can be double or tripled.
I’m gonna say it
Helen Beveridge’s Haluski Grange Stand Favorite
This one is a stand favorite. If you can’t wait a whole year, here is the Haluski scaled down.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1 large onion, chopped
1 large head cabbage, chopped and steam until tender
1 pound egg noodles, cooked al la dente
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Instructions
Using pot large enough to accommodate all the ingredients, melt the margarine and sauté the onion until tender.
Add the cabbage and the noodles and stir to combine. Heat thoroughly.
Season to taste.
Serves 10 to 12.
Final Comments: Once a year only. Customers love it because ” It’s such a comfort food”
In 1988, at the height of the AIDS crisis, my childhood friend became infected. He lived in a large Canadian city and I lived with my spouse 90 miles away, but commuted by train to his city for my job in an art department at an advertising agency. Because my friend had been rejected by his family for being gay, I offered to watch over him and monitor things as his life came to an end.
The far religious right wanted all gay men jailed until they died. Fortunately, religious folk weren’t taken too seriously in Canada.
My friend, who had always a bit eccentric, became extremely eccentric. I lived with him during the week and went home on weekends. As his condition became more unpredictable, I arranged with a local hospital to keep him on weekends so I could go home and sleep.
His short term memory left him. He became worried about my safety. Then he lost his ability to read. He began misunderstanding his medication instructions and displayed stroke symptoms, and skin ulcers due to mis-management of his drugs. There was a new crisis every day.
At work, the other employees quietly took on duties that were mine. My boss ignored my erratic hours. My spouse supported me as best he could. And then, two months before my friend’s death, Canada’s first AIDS Hospice, Casey House, opened. Everything was free and they had room for my friend. It was a quiet, comfortable death.
I lived with a straight man in one city and a gay man in another city and still did my job.
I did this for a whole year without any prior experience in palliative or nursing care. It was the most difficult thing I ever did, and the best thing I ever did.
I went for an entire year without a movie and without having any fun.
My spouse was still there at the end of it, and I felt that if I could do all that, I could manage anything that came my way.
No Mother Around, Little Kitten Got Bullied By Teenagers, He Can’t Resist And Just Cried…
I belong to a middle class family where meeting the ends is somewhat tough. Most of the times, we are a bit short of ration and we eat outside very less(once in a month).
We are three siblings. My two elder sisters and me. Four years back, we married my eldest sister and spent 15 lakhs on her marriage. This year, we married my second elder sister and around 6–7 lakhs were spent.
In this way, we spent all my father’s savings + Gold belongings of mom in two marriages. On the other hand, I pursued my BTech from one of the best engineering college and my father spent 4 lakhs on my engineering also.
So, all in all, he spent 25 lakhs in total on his kids. Now we have no savings and parents got scared how we will make our ends meet in coming days.
I was in final year of engineering and I knew this phase would be coming. So I did my best to get placed. I was so much prepared and still I got rejected in last rounds of interviews. It was kind of a roller coaster ride. Firstly, I would not be able to clear aptitude test. Then in some companies, I stocked in interview. You will not believe my presentation skills are so fine that I can easily attract a room of people while presenting.
Then in one company, I cleared 5 rounds of interviews and was rejected in the sixth round. That day was the toughest day in my life. I am stubborn and never give up easily, so while coming back home, I managed to forget that day and prepare for further companies.
Then, one day 6 Feb 2018(After trying for 5 months to get placed) , a company visited which was nearest to my hometown and profile was very much suitable for me. Package was average but still I was giving more importance to profile. So I got through 5 rounds of interviews and cleared all rounds with flying colors. That was my day, because I had feeling since morning that I will make it today.
When I called at home, my mother started crying after hearing the news. My father always hides his emotions but I knew that day, he was also crying. So, my parents got a hope for future. Now, they know that our son will be earning from July and we will start saving for our future. I never hesitated to spend our entire earnings in my sisters marriages because I knew, I will easily do it myself.
That was the most happiest and proudest day of my life. No doubt, I have been a brilliant student always but getting a job with an international marketing profile when your family is at most toughest phase is proudest feeling.
Unhappy, unmarried women are the only reason why Democrats are competative
I have never understood Americans who go to a foreign country to live for an extended period of time who don’t attempt to learn the language. Or at the minimum, learn the basics. Despite America not having an “official” language (although English is the language in which most everything is done), I hear people here complain about “foreigners who come here and don’t learn English.” Yet the very ones who grumble about immigrants here are the same ones who give Americans the reputation of being rude, arrogant, and ignorant when traveling internationally.
Someone in China told me awhile back that they knew a teacher who had been there for thirty years who didn’t know the most basic Chinese words. I sighed and rolled my eyes because, while I’m not surprised, it certainly disappoints me.
It also just doesn’t make sense. I went to Southeast Asia for only a few weeks but I learned some basic phrases in Malay because it’s respectful to do so, but also, to make my life simpler. Sure, plenty there spoke English, but many did not and how was I to interact with them if I couldn’t even say things like “hello, thank you, where is, goodbye” and so forth? To live long term in a country and not learn their language sounds torturous to me. The local language will help you with directions, help you with shopping, help you with bartering, help you with public transit, help you find a bathroom in public, help you order food, make reservations, run errands, talk to neighbors, make friends, seek help from police, tell a doctor what your symptoms are, help communication at your place of employment, watch the news or television shows, read the newspaper, read street signs, and so much more.
How does one even live for months or years in a foreign country and not absorb some of the language naturally, anyway? I find that both astounding and confusing.
World War 3 Is Coming – Robert Kiyosaki’s Message To The World
Oh, yes! Several years ago, I had lost my house to foreclosure, and about six months later lost my car as well.
The company I worked for at the time had an abandoned, older, little pickup truck sitting in weeds at the back of their lot, broken down, so I asked my supervisor, “If I get that old Mazda pickup running, would it be OK if I drive it?”
He said it had sat there for over a year, unable to start, and left in the weeds to rust; “If you can get it running, you can drive it; make sure you have proper insurance.”
The fix was not difficult and it was running within a day or so. It was filthy and beginning to rust—but it was running and I could drive it for free!
Due to a divorce, a second child who needed support, and a maximum paycheck garnishment by the IRS, I had lost everything: home, car, and most of my (very modest) paycheck. I had no savings and no money to buy even a cheap used car.
My girlfriend had allowed me to move into her house (with her mother and daughter living there as well). Thank God. I had nowhere else to go, and the money to rent nothing.
After a month or two, my supervisor took me aside and told me that some of the other employees were beginning to complain that no one else in the company could take a vehicle home—not even the drivers! So I had a week to find something else to drive. Oh, crap.
So, at the end of that day, I got my paycheck from my desk and went to the bank.
My bank was closed for the day so I went to drop my paycheck into the night deposit box. As I pulled into the driveway of the bank, there was an unattended car sitting in the middle of the driveway and I drove around it. After I dropped off my paycheck, the car was still there but this time there was a woman standing outside it. I was too tired and depressed to stop to help, so I passed her and got on the highway to go home and continue my search for car money.
After I drove a few blocks from the bank, my conscience got the better of me and I turned around and went back to the bank I had just left. The woman was removing some packages from the trunk of her car. I parked the pickup truck and asked her if she needed help; she said she had just called a girlfriend of hers to come get her and she complained that she only needed that car to run for a few more days and it had broken down.
“Why only a few more days?” I asked.
She said that her elderly father had just passed away, out of state, and she was his only child and executor of his will.
“He has a nice Lincoln Town Car that I’m going to start driving and won’t need this one anymore. And now it dies on me!”
“What were you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Donate it, maybe. I paid it off years ago and got my money’s worth from it so I thought I’d donate it somewhere.”
“Well… I don’t have a car…”
She held the keys out: “Now you do!”
She asked for help to push the car back into a parking space so it didn’t block the driveway into the bank, then asked for my girlfriend’s address so she could stop by to bring me the title before she moved back to New York. Of course, with her being busy packing to move, I never expected to see her again.
When my girlfriend got home from work a few hours later that day, we drove her SUV back to the bank, hooked a chain up to the car, and towed it home. Now it was parked in the driveway at home. I cranked the engine over but it wouldn’t start, so I opened the hood. The problem? A small vacuum line had come off of its fitting. I put it back on and the car started fine. Time to fix? Five minutes.
Two days later, the kind woman showed up at my girlfriend’s house, car title in hand. I offered her a $100 bill for the car—all that I had—and she politely refused to take it.
To this day, many years later, I have no doubt in my mind that God Himself arranged for us to cross paths so that I could get what I needed but couldn’t afford. I still give thanks to this day for that mercy.
China’s Shocking Message To Argentina! Is The World Ready?
If someone confronts you with a knife you pull the coins subtly from your pocket and drop them on the floor. The attacker will always look down to the floor upon hearing the coins drop and this will buy you a second or two to turn and run. This can also be used if someone is intent on fighting you and you know you need to land the first blow, it’s a distraction technique.
2. Never use an ATM while wearing headphones and if wearing a coat/hoodie, never have the hood up, both will affect your awareness and makes you more likely to be robbed.
3. When entering any room, work out where every available exit and hiding place is. In the event of an emergency you will react a hell of a lot quicker if you have planned scenarios in your head, it will make you far less likely to freeze up. This was something explained to me by an ex-special forces guy I was chatting to at a conference (he was head of security). He was sat at the same table as me, one of those big round ones with 10–12 people on each. I noticed his eyes were never still and he was always glancing at each door, window etc, basically any entrance to that room. I got chatting to him after the conference and asked him about what I had observed. He said “imagine you are at a public event and an armed terrorist storms into the room and starts shooting, most people are going to freeze for the first couple of seconds and that can cost you your life, plan for it to happen and although incredibly unlikely it ever will, you’ll react instantly and it could save your life”
When the Chinese leader says, go this way, it will improve lives and bring social progress, the people respond enthusiastically, because there is material benefit that they or their children will live and enjoy.
When the American leader says, go this way, to maintain American hegemony and prestige, it’s a mixed bag, because only SOME will draw material benefit from the machinations.
Unfortunately, those who benefit have a stranglehold on decisionmaking.
The Chinese economy as we find it today is a product of over 7 decades of unequal, and discriminatory suppression. In fact, China was embargoed for 30 years by the US-led west, while the Soviet Union instituted soft sanctions from the 60s until its dissolution.
The Chinese know how to handle economic suppression, because they have taken many lessons from decades past. In fact, Deng’s post-reform and opening up economy is designed around sanction-proofing. We are now seeing evidence of the multi-layer systemic robustness built into the Chinese economy, from finance, to manufacturing.
I won’t worry about China, other than the train being a few seconds late to destination. That’s the aggregate effect of the US’s half hearted attempt at trade war.
Why half-hearted?
National security threats are confronted head-on, an all-of-nation effort because survival is at stake. Donald the Orange’s trade “war” is more political shock and awe than a real trade war, because his administration LOWERED tariffs on Chinese medical products during covid. The was maintained by Joe the Elderly.
The US NEEDS China, and that calculus hasn’t been fully absorbed by the American leadership, resulting in half-baked, and sometimes, hare-brained policies and words that have been repeatedly walked back on, or exposed as failures and fraud.
American prosperity is maintained by the US per capita GDP being 10x or more than the global south. What happens in a world where that multiple shrinks, such that the unnatural size of the US economy begins to correct into a more equitable world? What happens when the global south can develop their own economies by trading among themselves, without the first world’s financing and technology?
In other words, what will inflation look like in a non-dollar holding sway world?
That day is coming, accelerated by the exhausting (and futile) efforts to contain China’s rise.
What’s actually booming is not China’s economy, but manufacturing.
Once upon a time, Chinese had to pay 300K+50K of RMB for a top model VW Tiguan. That’s about 50K USD.
The 50K is additional price, for guarrantee to get one in 3 months. Otherwise, you could expect to have one in… 100 years.
Now with 350K RMB,
one of my friends got a Nio ONE, and it’s bigger than Range Rover, with all the equipment you want. Tiguan on the other hand is just a compact or A-class SUV, which is based on Golf.
My father got a Changan Deepal SL03 with 20K USD.
It’s 4820mm×1890mm×1480mm, a proper VW B-class sedan.
Even the most standard Passat Hybrid in China costs 29K USD.
SL03 has EV range of 165KM, comparing to Passat’s 52.
SL03’s tire is 245/45R19, Passat is 215/55R17.
SL03 has Lane Departure Warning System as default, which for Passat is a selection.
SL03 has driver fatigue detection system, which Passsat doesn’t.
SL03 also has door opening warning, rare collision warning, internal driving recorder, and rescue calling system.
SL03 has a 360 degree camera system while Passat has only rare view camera.
The L2 assistant driving system is default in SL03, but an option for Passat.
SL03’s trunk cover is electric.
SL03 has bluetooth and NFC key, and support keyless entree for all 4 doors. Passat has only a remote key, and only the front doors can be opened keylessly.
SL03’s main screen is 14.6 inches, Passat’s is 9.2 inches.
SL03‘s shift is electric, Passat’s is mechanic.
SL03 has AR-HUD and wireless cellphone charging, which Passat doesn’t.
The only thing which 29K Passat doing better than 20K SL03 is probably the seats. Passat has geniuen leather, while SL03 is man-made. However, SL03’s front seats have cooling and heating, while Passat can only heat front seat.
With less money, Chinese are now able to get much much more from local brands.
We may not earn much more, but the cars are much cheaper now, and they are better.
Because of the overwhelming pressure, international brands also put down their prides and started to offer more equipment with lower prices in China.
And Chinese cars start to have advantages:
When other brands are still trying to make their auto-parking system more usable in real situations, Huawei already has cars which can park themselves without people staying around.
And they can pick you up at where you left the car when you finished your business.
This auto-parking system not only works in smart parking lots, but can also manually scan regular parking lots and achieve almost the same function.
This Huawei Luxeed S7 is only 35K USD.
Also, Huawei’s auto-driving system is almost road ready. It doesn’t only work good on highways, but also very good in chaotic downtown areas.
This is because China managed to dramatically lowered the price of laser radar, which used to cost 10K USD each when it was made in the US. Now in China, one car may have 3 or 5 of them and still is cheaper than its European competitiors.
A VW ID3 costs less than 20K USD in China. In Europe, it’s 40K EURO, which is around 44K USD. So is the BYD Seal, which the Chinese price is about half of European price.
It’s the same in other regions.
Active electronically scanned array, which is the core of US Navy’s Aegis Combat System.
Most countries don’t even have the ability to develop a AESA.
Meanwhile in China, it’s widely used in agriculture.
DJI T40, an agricultural drone with AESA and dual eye-sight system.
Infiwave/InfiRay S5000 surveilliance radar. It’s able to monitor man or animals in 10KM radius, and vehicles in 12KM radius. The whole system is only 15KG, plug and play, and support one bottom start. Even a total amature could use it.
In China it says this to be used to monitor boars, to prevent them from damaging the crops.
The massive manufacturing of China also benefits people in a daily basis.
25 of such windproof disposable lighter costs 24.98 RMB in Taobao, which is 0.14 USD each.
Whole selling could be cheaper.
How much does such a lighter cost in your country?
WHY MEN NEED SEX ? (why should sex be non-negotiable)
There was that girl that had been lonely all her life. People, especially in school, disliked her because she was “strange”, “a nerd”, “too quiet” and just “different”.
One day she decided to talk to her teachers during the breaks instead of trying to fit in where she didn’t. She always acted older than her age and her teachers liked her, so they usually didn’t send her away, but had a friendly chat with her ever so often instead.
By tenth grade, she had almost developed some kind of friendship to a few of her teachers. When she got the “strictest teacher of the school” as her major course teacher in grade eleven, it took her mere weeks to find out that he actually wasn’t so strict at all.
They talked for at least half an hour after the lessons. About science, about our society, the people in school and whatever came to mind. Those two thought quite alike, despite an age difference of 34 years, and the girl now almost a woman could for the first time in years really live her passion for learning. Her teacher was highly intelligent and very knowledgeable, having not only written a dissertation in the past and worked in research for years but also being interested in a broad spectrum of topics.
Well, doesn’t sound so bad, now does it? So what happened?
Well, because teenagers are teenagers, it took about half a year for people to start whispering about the girl and her teacher. It started off lightly, she was still strange and why would she even talk to him?
But a few months after that, some people thought it to be funny to make up a non-existent romantic relationship between teacher and student. Despite that girl having been very close to other teachers before, but now that it was a male teacher, it suddenly was completely different. Because people of opposite gender can’t just see each other as friends, right? They just have to be in love to even think about talking to each other.
A less than funny “joke” became something way bigger. After two weeks, all of the 1600 students knew about this. And most didn’t know that it was a joke. People were laughing and pointing at her, throwing insults at the girl for something that never happened.
Finally, after about three months of dealing with it alone, she had the heart to tell her teacher. They decided to never talk to each other outside of class again, to prevent the teacher from getting problems with the school. While it was just a rumour, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t lead to problems.
Both of them lost a friend on the day they made this decision. And the student lost a person she saw as a second father – her father barely ever was at home and her teacher had been one of three people (the other ones being her best friend and a female teacher she knew since fifth grade) she ever fully trusted. It might not have been cruel at the first glance, but it hurt her in more ways than the others students could’ve ever imagined.
That girl was me.
If Walter White had a Cat
This is amazing! Enjoy the laugh for all you “Breaking Bad” and cat fans out there.
Credit to Bora Tas for digging this out. US intelligence is now all propaganda and non-experts.
The Chinese idiom for taking kickback type of fraud is “injecting water”. The idiots in the US intel thought this was literally injecting water. They had no idea that Chinese ICBMs use solid fuel rockets. So there is nothing to inject water into. (Edit: I was born in Taiwan. According to Liner AI, “The Chinese idiom “注水” translates to “fraud” or “to adulterate with water,” often used to describe the act of diluting or adulterating something for fraudulent gain.”
US intelligence should have realized that something was wrong with the translation instead those morons gave it to MSM as news. You have to ask yourself, how can the entire intelligence department on China makes this mistake. And no one realized that Chinese missiles use solid fuel.
And now the Chinese are laughing themselves to death because the US is just a joke. Even the intelligence is clueless. They are too cheap to hire people that actually speak Chinese and understand Chinese culture.
I owe the rest of my life to one last moment decision I made.
To better explain the gravity of my decision, I must firstly give you some information on my background.
You see, when I was younger I went to one of the worst schools the world has to offer. We didn’t have proper English education, we lacked the access to the Internet, the school couldn’t afford to buy desks and some classes didn’t even have windows. Welcome to Turkish public education.
Before you get the wrong idea, I must admit something. I didn’t go there because we couldn’t afford to send me somewhere better. I wanted to go there because my family taught me the idea that being used to living on the bare minimum would always best prepare me for life. I trusted them.
I spent eight years there, always working hard, and always doing my best.
In Turkey, students sit one centralized exam at the end of 8th grade, which determines the high school they can go to. Because the student population of the country is incredibly high, this exam is bone breakingly competitive. A single question wrong is the equivalent a death sentence. As a result, candidates woke up early to study, and fall asleep at night, again studying. There is no room for complacency.
Up until and during 8th grade, everything seemed to be going perfectly well. I was almost guaranteed to get 100% from the exam, against all odds.
Weeks before the exam, something catastrophic happened.
My father, who is a well known intellectual in Turkey, was arrested by the Islamic government on charges of criticizing the religion. This devastated me.
For weeks, I couldn’t study. Hell, I couldn’t even go to school. Being in a school like mine in a country like Turkey has a serious downside, you see. People are horrible. The day after my father was arrested, everyone, including the teachers and the principal directly said to me that my dad deserved what was coming for him. To them, questioning Islam was a sin. I was entirely torn, lost and disoriented.
Consequently, when the day of the exam came, I messed up. I totally messed up. I did my best but all I gained was a top 5% mark. And believe me, I am not being a nerdy attention seeker. The educational gap in Turkey is massive. You either go to a world class high school with top professors and tutors, or to a building full of illiterate and religiously biased classmates and teachers. Unfortunately, 5% would get me into the latter. I was done.
Later, the idea that I could go abroad appeared to me. And so I looked up tens of different schools in tens of different countries, and I applied to around 50 of them. The problem was, I didn’t speak English and it was already May. I had missed all deadlines by months. Only five responded at all, and I was turned down by all of them.
One last time, I went online to find a school. I came across a school called Stewart’s Melville College. I was completely shocked by the school. It looked like it came straight out of Harry Potter, and it was in Scotland. Well, I didn’t speak English, and my former education had been taught in a hellhole, so I realized I stood no chance at entering this school.
However, I thought I would send an application anyway. I filled my name and my details, and right as I was pressing “send”, I realized that there was a £60 application fee. I would never pay that for such a long shot. I could buy 60 Snickers bars for that! And so I exclaimed, “oh, nevermind mom, there is an application fee” and I closed the website.
However, my mom didn’t agree. She told me to do it. I said no. She wouldn’t change her mind.
And so I placed my application.
Surprisingly, they replied.
They would send over the entry exam to a local school in Turkey where I would sit it under supervision.
When news of this came, I spent every moment of the four days I had into learning a bit of English. I worked day and I worked night.
When the day came, I took the exam. The English half was impossibly difficult. However I absolutely aced the maths and the verbal reasoning.
A few days later, I received the long awaited e-mail. This was it. It was my last hope. It was either this or a life wasted.
I opened the e-mail.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I had been accepted.
I guess the people working for Stewart’s Melville saw that I was willing to give everything I had for the opportunity of studying with them, and this was enough.
I thank them every day for this. I went from studying in a Third World public school into studying in the most beautiful place in the world. Without exaggeration, these people saved my life. For the first time in life, I am truly happy.
Fast forward four years and unfortunately, my father is still in prison, but I have been saved. Life gave me a golden opportunity, and I will never let go of it.
Because in the last four years, I have been given a real challenge. A real goal to strive for. In the last four years I have been taught to be independent. I have learned how to speak English, and finally I’m in a place where we are given real education.
So yes, my life was changed at the last moment for the price of 60 Snickers bars. Knowing what I know, I would have given a hundred times that.
I study in one of the best high schools in the world, and I am incredibly proud of it.
Sorry for the long post, but this is the story of my life.
Here are some short and somewhat ridiculous psychological facts about humans:
1. The average person spends approximately six months of their life waiting for red traffic lights to turn green.
2. Studies show that people are more likely to believe something is true if it’s written in bold font.
3. The fear of running out of phone battery is so common that it has been given the name “nomophobia.”
4. Research suggests that people are more likely to remember information if it is presented in the form of a catchy song or jingle.
5. The phenomenon known as “earworms” refers to when a song gets stuck in your head and plays on repeat, sometimes for hours on end.
6. Studies have found that people are more likely to trust someone wearing glasses, even if they have no expertise in a particular field.
7. The average person will spend about six months of their life searching for misplaced items, such as keys or glasses.
8. Research has shown that people are more likely to remember dreams that are in color compared to those that are in black and white.
9. According to studies, people are more likely to make impulsive purchases when they are hungry.
10. Research indicates that people are more likely to find others attractive if they are in a high-arousal state, such as on a roller coaster or during a scary movie.
My final job was at a company called Power Design. Our office had the nickname, Power Divorce, because so many office romances would pop up between coworkers. They primarily hired young and attractive people. And when you are working in close proximity all the time, staying late at the office—it’s deceptively easy for feelings to develop.
And all it takes is one simple question, “Want to get a drink after work?”
Then you are both going to a hotel that night, or to someone else’s home while the spouse is gone.
I’ve heard of several instances of employees being moved because of a crisis at their home, and an ultimatum given that meant either this high performing employee left the company, or moved to a different location—away from the person they’d fooled around with.
Who needs fiction when real life is just as interesting.
Bohemian Chicken Paprikash with Spaetzle
Ingredients
3 pounds chicken with skin, cut in pieces
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika, divided
1/2 cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups water + 3/4 cup
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream (2 cups)
1/4 cup flour
Spaetzle or other dumplings
Instructions
Sprinkle chicken on all sides with salt and paprika. Melt butter in a large Dutch oven. Add chicken. Sauté until golden. Turn chicken, add onion, and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons paprika. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Add 2 cups water and cook slowly covered until tender. Remove chicken; keep warm. Whisk together sour cream, 3/4 cup water and flour until smooth. Gradually add sour cream mixture to broth. Stir over low heat until sauce is thickened. Add paprika as desired. Return chicken.
I had a clock watcher boss one time. I routinely came in early and usually stayed late. I worked weekends when necessary, and usually racked up 50–60 hours per week. One day I came in early as usual. I finished a project I had been working on, and it was about 4:45 pm. Quitting time was 5:00 pm. I decided to leave a few minutes early for a change. I was walking past my boss’ office when she looked at me and made a snide remark about “bankers’ hours”. I walked into her office and politely asked her if she wanted me to adhere strictly to the regular times. I told her I would do so in future. Two weeks later, she called me into her office and asked why something was not finished yet, and when would she have it. I politely told her that since I was no longer working 50 hour weeks, she would have to wait a little longer for things to be done. After that, we agreed that I could keep my own hours.
My ex-husband liked to do this and was pretty good at it. I would often ruin it though as I couldn’t keep a straight face. We were in Walmart one time near the back of the store, he in one aisle and I was in the next one over. I overheard him telling a sales associate that he’d seen a cat run by and that she’d better notify management right away. I heard her thank him and then saw her hurry off to the front of the store. A few minutes later, we were in the hunting and fishing aisle and an associate rushed up and grabbed a large fishing net. My ex asked him what he was going to do with it and he said, “there’s a cat loose in the store, and I’m planning to catch it!” As he turned to walk away, he yelled, “look, there it goes!” and took off running. We looked at each other bemused and then burst out laughing. Once we had everything we needed, we headed to the checkout. While the cashier was ringing up our stuff, she said, “did you hear that there is a cat loose in the store?” My ex told her that he’d seen it earlier and she excitedly shared that she’d seen it as well while on her break and that this was the most fun she’d ever had while at work.
Fenikia
Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup peanut oil
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 jigger brandy
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
Dash cinnamon
Dash ground cloves
Chopped walnuts for garnish
Syrup
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 pound honey
1 lemon, sliced or 1 orange, sliced
Instructions
Cookies: Heat oil and butter over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stir in water and brandy. Cool.
Stir in beaten eggs.
Sift together flour and baking powder with the tablespoon each of cinnamon and cloves. Add to liquid mixture to make a dough that is not too soft. Add a little more flour if necessary. With floured hands shape dough into ovals and indent lengthwise with thumbs.
Combine chopped walnuts with sugar and dash each cinnamon and cloves. Put 1 teaspoon of this filling into the indentation in the dough and close dough over filling. Place on cookie sheets and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
Dip cooled cookies into hot syrup and place on racks to drain. Decorate with chopped walnuts.
Syrup: Combine above ingredients and boil for 5 minutes.
I am 70 and a retired.former Apple engineer who now lives in Texas. I was visiting my son and his family in the LA-area in southern California over Christmas break in December 2023. Having finished that I was at the airport security line getting ready to fly with my wife to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit my daughter’s family. I didn’t feel all that well, but thought I just had a minor cold. The next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance with my wife sitting next to me on my way to St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica. One minute I was in a line the next I was in the ambulance. (That was really weird!)
They soon diagnosed me with a relatively serious case of the COVID virus. I was promptly put into an isolation room at the hospital and was visited by doctors and nurses occasionally in lightweight hazmat gear to check up on me. Two days later the doctor told me that he was going to release me to self-isolate. He told me that if I hadn’t had my vaccines and boosters up to date that probably wouldn’t be happening. It seems my body had a strong enough immune system due to the vaccines to allow me to recover relatively quickly. I would be a dead man without them.
I spent up until January 3, 2024 in my son’s back bedroom by myself until I no longer tested positive for the virus. And, then I flew back home with my wife on a long flight first to Seattle, WA and then to Austin, TX. That was the best we could do on short notice. I never did get see my daughter, her husband and the other two of my five grandchildren. And, then, of course, my wife caught COVID too. She, however, just got a slight fever, headache, and a cough and is now clear of the virus. She too was fully vaccinated.
Isn’t it weird how this damn virus can practically kill one person even if they are relatively healthy and leave another person with just minor symptoms. That, in itself, is the weirdest thing of all.
The year 2023 ended badly for me. Good riddance! I hope you all fared better than I did.
Top 10 Real Life Glitches In The Matrix | MARATHON
Once in China, I visited one of my students. he was a factory owner and we got along well. I was teaching him some English. And since my background is Engineering, we hit it off. So he came and picked my wife and I up and we spent the afternoon at his factory, had tea, and a good time.
He manufactured buttons. Particularly buttons for bluejeans.
Then came dinner, and it was nice… but… his wife really treated myself and my wife very poorly. In her mind I was “only” a teacher. Someone who you give a face-saving level of respect but who you consider to be beneath you… as they are unable to get “real work”.
She made many, perhaps ten “veiled” cut-downs, and almost-insults. Every word out of her mouth dripped with disdain. He made a big point of pointing out her nice bag, and their car, and the nice expensive restaurant. Very pretentious.
In her eyes… I was “only” a teacher.
My wife, who came from Wenzhou and who’s father was at one time a billionaire, was incensed, and vowed never to visit them again.
I mean it. NEVER. EVER.
I had a few classes with him and then cut it short, and I never saw him again. He was a good guy, and I liked him a lot. But the way his wife treated us was unforgivable.
…
People treat everyone as some one worthy. Take you time with them. Appreciate them exactly as they are.
He didn’t have much money, but he was such a trier. He didn’t just have a good work ethic; he wanted to give something back to the world and make a difference.
I loved spending time with him doing things that cost very little or nothing—walking around the city eating street food, reading to each other, wandering into art galleries, admiring the architecture. But mostly, I liked just being with him, talking. I enjoyed being with him in silence as well. What touched me the most is how courteously he treated those with less than him. He always had change for the homeless and never treated anyone as though they meant less than he did. he had genuine class, the kind of class that you’re just born with.
I never told him any of this, and that’s how I missed out, because that’s the type of woman he was looking for.
Years later, he told me that I came across as sweet, but ultimately shallow and absurdly spoiled. A debutante with a smashing wardrobe. I really blew it when I suggested that we take a trip to Belize together—he politely declined but again, much later, told me that he found that particularly audacious. It had never occurred to me that he didn’t have the money to take a vacation abroad, because actually, I was really spoiled. It had never occurred to me that most people couldn’t afford to take international vacations.
I probably overlooked a lot of men with his qualities. They wouldn’t have been him, though. He was unique. Unforgettable.
I would do everything over differently, given the chance. But missing out on the best thing ever is the big price you pay for being young and dumb.
This man was the most feared, and desired once upon a time
He was an airline steward who had lovers in cities all over the world. Whenever he had a layover he spent it in a bathhouse. Over 50% of the first HIV positive men either had sex with him, or someone he was intimate with. He was known as patient zero. He knew he was infected, and had the kaposi sarcoma lesions all over his taut tan body. He had unprotected sex anyway. I knew him from Christopher street in the early 80s. He left a trail of destruction across the decade
The most important plane on the Ford or Nimitz class carriers isn’t the F18 or F35.
It is this:
The E-2 Hawkeye.
There is no way to launch a 20–30-ton 10,000 HP turboprop off a carrier without catapults. And without the eye in the sky, there is no way to achieve operational parity with an American CBG.
The AEW system allows the admiral to detect threats at least 1,000 km away, and it is a prerequisite to establish air and sea superiority, if not dominance, within the sphere of sensor coverage.
And catobar was the original pursuit of the PLAN, except the program was staged, from a retrofitted foreign ski-jump cruiser, to an evolved indigenous ski-jump carrier, to a conventionally powered emals catobar flattop. The next two carriers will be a sister ship of the Fujian, conventionally powered, and China’s first nuclear powered flattop.
When I was in High School, I worked for my dad fixing computers. It was a great job for me as a teenager because I was making good money on commission.
When I was a senior in High School, right before I turned 18, he merged his company with one that my brother and another guy( Dave) started. My dad included me as an employee.
My dad and brother were both cool with me working service calls but Dave was a prick. Some rules that he came up with for me?
I wanted to take some time off for a school trip. My dad said yes. During the trip I ignored pages and phone calls from Dave during that time. New rule, I had to ask Dave for permission to take time off. Went over really well when I ignored him and went on a family cruise a few months later and didn’t clear it with him.
My niece was a baby. Dave’s sister was the receptionist/ babysitter. There was a day where I had no school and she had some place to be. My brother asked me to stay and watch my niece and answer phone calls. I decided to repair a couple of computers in the shop while babysitting my niece. I gave the invoices to my brother, who signed off on them with no issue. New Rule, If I was answering phone’s/babysitting my niece, I could not perform billable work AT ALL. Went out the window again.
When I was employed by my dad only, we used to tag faulty parts by placing them in the box the new part came in and taping it closed with masking tape. We would the write BAD (PART NAME) (WHY PART WAS BAD) on the tape. I changed out a bad power supply and did followed the procedure. He grabbed the power supply and tried using it. New Rule, We had to use tags instead of tape because he was too dumb to realize that there was a piece of tape closing the box stating what was wrong with the part.
Last, and for me the dumbest. I had to submit my resignation to him only. My dad and brother understood why I was resigning. I was shipping out for boot camp and I wanted to take a few weeks to pack and just relax before leaving. Just to spite him I typed up a nice resignation letter to my dad and my brother. I handed them each a copy then I looked at Dave. I told him I had two letters for him. I flipped him the bird and said “FU” My dad told me it was the funniest resignation he ever saw.
The addictive abilities of prescription painkillers.
My sister was addicted to prescription painkillers. (And meth and probably other things as well.) She was so addicted that she was arrested for writing fake prescriptions and couldn’t attend my wedding because it was out of state and she was under house arrest. I figured that she and people like her were just weak-willed or depressed and looking for an escape.
I had little sympathy for people who were addicted to things that were legal. If it was really that addictive, it wouldn’t be legal, right? It’s not like it’s cocaine. They’re just painkillers.
I was wrong.
When I was 27, I pulled a muscle in my back. It was so painful that I couldn’t walk straight. I’m not entirely sure how I even made it to the doctor’s office, but as soon as I hobbled in, they said: “Pulled muscle, huh?” I suppose I had the tell-tale walk of a man who tried to lift too much without bending his knees.
Anyway, the doctor prescribed me two prescription drugs. I believe one was a muscle relaxer, and one was a painkiller.
I recognized the names as soon as he said them. I knew these were some of the things my sister was addicted to.
And within 30 minutes of getting home and taking the first pills, I could see why she was addicted to them. I didn’t judge her and anyone else who was addicted to them as “weak-willed” anymore.
I remember lying on my bed, after being in intense pain for a day, suddenly feeling great! Not just the muscle pain, but every physical and emotional pain I had seemed to disappear. The stress of work and bills and being a husband and father just went away. The bed felt like a cloud, and I felt like I was floating. I was so happy.
When the first round of pills started to wear off after a few hours, I started to get depressed. Not just because the physical pain was coming back, but because some of my emotional worries and stress started to creep back in to my mind. I started to think about how much income I would lose from taking a few days off for my back pain. I started to think about the cost of the pills. I started to think about the domestic chores I’d been neglecting during my prescription painkiller trip.
But mostly I was thinking about if it was safe to take the next round of pills yet. The doctor said every six hours, and it had only been four hours. Could my liver handle it? Did I care if it could or not?
Then it hit me: I need to stop this before it gets worse. I didn’t want to end up like my sister. I liked my stressful life just fine. I didn’t need to escape from it.
So I quit taking the prescription pills, and decided to go with over-the-counter painkillers, stretching, and patience instead.
When I got back to work after a few days, a coworker offered to buy the leftover pills from me. But I didn’t want to be “that guy.” I didn’t want ANYTHING to do with those things anymore. So I flushed them down the toilet.
But I had newfound sympathy for people who can’t quit them. I understand the attraction they have.
My sister ended up overdosing on morphine a few years later. When we cleaned out her house after her death, she had over 300 empty prescription pill bottles in her room. The worst part was that those were just the empty ones. Some of her addicted “friends” had already come into her room and got the full bottles before we got there.
I’m a current employee of my local ALDI in America and have been there for two months. Knowing that, let me tell you this: ALDI would give big-brother a run for their money.
I work part-time on weekends and so as a result, I am almost always the primary or backup cashier because so much foot traffic is going on in the store and let me tell you; everything you do at the register is timed. They want “efficiency” and if you do not meet the standards, you will be held accountable for it.
For example, ALDI wants at the most only two seconds between transactions. When I say between transactions, I mean the time when you end one transaction and begin another. They’ll let you get away with three seconds at the store I work for but if you hit four seconds, you are failing the standards.
Every item has multiple bar codes on it so you can ring it up from almost any angle, but this also means stuff can get scanned by accident very easily. Yet they do not want any void items on the ticket. Ten voids is not acceptable in a normal day of work (eight hours, expected foot traffic on the weekend) they want to them to be around zero to three.
And lastly, the ringing speed. For a minimum standard the company demands that the cashier be able to ring 1,200 items per hour. If you can be faster, they’ll push you for it. For my part, being that I’m a part-timer, I’ve managed to ring only 1,000 items per hour. My boss tells me that I’m too slow and “will have to be held accountable for my efficiency” as per the rules of ALDI.
So if it seems like the employees are rushing, trust me, they are. But it’s literally not their fault. It’s ALDI that has the crazy expectations that they are required to meet for fear of losing their job. You wonder why they pay so well? Because the physical demands of the job are insane. If you’re not ringing things up at the 1.2k speed, you’re on the floor, pulling items, stocking shelves or crushing boxes into bales. Injury risk is high as well, hence the benefits offered. So please, speaking as a customer service worker for this business, try not to be upset at the employees for the standards the higher up sets. It’s not their fault that they have to act like that, it’s ALDI’S.
Back in the early 90s, I was in a parking lot walking to a store. A woman was alone and walking about 15 yards ahead of me. Suddenly, a car pulls up next to her and a guy jumps out and grabs her by the hair to his car. She’s screaming for help as he’s yelling “Get in the car, bitch!”. She’s screaming for help as he’s spewing insults at her. She had her hands on the car pushing away as he’s trying to cram her through the driver’s door. I run up to the car yelling “police officer! STOP!” ALL of had was my wallet badge. I wasn’t carrying a gun at the time but I couldn’t let him try to abduct her. He hears me and turns around to see me holding my badge. He let’s go of her and jumps back in his car and takes off. Someone in one of the stores comes out saying they’ve called the police. I stay with the woman until the local police arrive.
The guy was the woman’s ex-boyfriend. I give the police my information and leave. I never heard anything about the situation again. That was also the day I started carrying off duty.
I was at Kohl’s with my sons and a stroller. I had my keys in the cup holder. This guy walked up and started talking to us. I thought he possibly worked there but then I realized he was just chatty. I then went to help my kids try clothes on, some of which they kept on, so I took the tags and we waited in line. Suddenly, the police stormed in and handcuffed me. My kids started crying and I was confused. I stated to them that I have the tags to all my items in my hands and I’d told the attendant lady I was doing it. I had assumed they thought I was trying to shoplift.
The police then said they didn’t care about that, they wanted to know who the man was. I was totally lost, not remembering the brief conversation with the strange man. They were very aggressively asking me questions and finally loss prevention came out with a picture and asked me “Who is this?”
I looked at the picture and told them I have no idea, he just was hitting on me or something, but I didn’t want to be outright rude, so I was polite and spoke with him a couple minutes before making it clear I wasn’t interested. The cop totally didn’t believe me and asked…
“Well then, if you don’t know him, why did he drive away in your car?”
I thought, “WHAT?!”
The cop looked a little puzzled, then said that after the man had spoken to me, I said goodbye and that he’d taken the keys from my stroller and when he went to leave, he’d shoplifted something. So when store clerks went to stop him, he assaulted loss prevention, an innocent bystander and a cop, before leading the police on a car chase where they lost him, but were currently searching for him.
After interviewing me and my kids, and then seeing that we didn’t actually arrive together, loss prevention and the police realized I wasn’t an accomplice, but actually another victim.
They gave us a ride home and then contacted me later to let me know they’d caught him but he wouldn’t tell them where my car was.
So I went to the jail and visited him hoping he’d tell me where my car was. He told me the street he’d left it on and where to find the keys- I had to go to a nearby restaurant, go to the women’s handicap stall, take the seat liners out, and I’d find the keys underneath them. This was a week later so I wasn’t sure they’d still be there, but sure enough, that’s where they were hidden. My car was just parked on a street, chillin’. The license plates had been changed with some rental car plates, but besides that, it was OK.
Kohl’s let me keep all of the items I was going to buy my kids for free, since I was humiliated and my kids were traumatized. The police were really nice after they saw that I wasn’t the guy’s friend.
“Sir. I’m not cut out for this. Thank you” I stood up and walked out of the interview hall and never looked back.
“Dad I don’t want to work a job right now. I just realized that once I start working, I’ll be doing this for the next 30+ years of my life and never get the opportunity to take a break like this. I’d like to take a year off and camp and travel and bird my way across India. Once I leave for my MS, we both know I’m never coming back. This is my last chance to do this.”
Dad looked at me for a whole minute before saying “Go for it. I’ve got your back”.
Convincing mom was a whole other ball game but she eventually came around. I spent the next year of my life in National parks and sanctuaries; sometimes alone, other times with friends but most of the times leading groups of students as an instructor. After 15 years of hard slogging as a student, I finally had a break.
Taking a year off after undergrad gave me the opportunity to recuperate. It kept me away from a job which a lot of my friends described as a horrendous experience and helped me turbo-charge for what was ahead. It gave me a chance to spend time with the people I loved. It was not an easy decision. A lot of people doubted me. Most people called me crazy and arrogant. A non-trivial number of people assumed that I was lying and I had basically failed my BE and didn’t get a job. After all, which sane person passes on a job to watch birds? My dad, being the devilish prankster that he is, fueled these rumors even more to mom’s annoyance. He would go around telling people “What can I say. Nobody wants to hire him. If you have a job in your company can I send him to you?” This was the quickest way to get rid of all the concerned “well wishers”.
By the end of the year, I was mentally recharged and ready to take on whatever life had to throw at me. When I got to grad school, I was willing to push myself harder than I ever thought possible. When I started at Amazon a week after I graduated, I was completely pumped and ready to go rock this whole “job” thing because I had never actually had one before so I had a clean slate to start with.
Taking a year off gave me a chance to put things into perspective. It gave me a chance to believe in myself more than the established system. It re-affirmed my belief that you can walk the path less trodden and still make it to the other end. It will always be the best decision I will ever have made; because without it I would not have a career, merely a job.
Sometimes, the most important roads in life, are the ones you don’t take.
About 90% of heart attack occur early in the morning and it can be reduced if one takes a glass or two of water before going to bed at night. We know water is important but never knew about the special times one has to drink it.
Put a sticker with a fake pin on your debit card. If someone tries to use it 3+ times, the atm will eat the card.
To remove chewing gum from clothes keep the cloth in the freezer for one hour.
Need to test a printer? A print the google homepage, it has all the colors and uses almost no ink.
To whiten white clothes soak white clothes in hot water with a slice of lemon for 10 minutes.
Confusing wikipedia article? Click “simple o english” on the left list of languages and it’ll whisk you to a simplified version.
Ants problem: ants hate cucumbers. Keep the skin of cucumbers near the place where they are or at ant hole.
If you drop an earring, ring or small screw, simply turn off the lights and look with a flashlight. They’ll light right away.
To get pure & clean ice boil water first before placing in the freezer.
You can clear a room full of cigarette smoke in about a minute simply by spinning a wet towel o around.
To give a shine to your hair vinegar add one teaspoon of vinegar to hair, then wash hair.
When you go to a zoo wear the same colors as the employees do. The animals will come right up to you.
To make the mirror shine clean with sprite.
You can predict your future adult height with almost 100% accuracy by doubling your height at age of two.
To get maximum juice out of lemons soak lemons in hot water for one hour, and then juice them.
Want to meet girls? Go outside when it’s raining with a huge umbrella and take your pick.
To avoid smell of cabbage while cooking keep a piece of bread on the cabbage in the vessel while cooking.
Want to know if someone has romantic feelings for you? Look at their eyes! People’s pupils expand by 45% when looking at a love interest.
To avoid tears while cutting onions use “chew gum”
Remove unpleasant odor in smelly shoes or gym bags by placing dry teac bags in them.
To boil potatoes quickly skin one potato from one side only before boiling.
To remove ink from clothes put toothpaste on the ink spots generously and let it dry completely, then wash.
To get rid of mice or rats sprinkle black pepper in places where you find mice & rats. They will run away.
Your personality has its own smell. People can guess characteristics of personality just by your smell, because the body emits hormones and pheromones that we can detect in sweat.
This was back in the 90s. This was in 7th grade. I had history directly after lunch, and the whole class would be waiting outside the locked classroom door by the time the teacher would show up. This guy was speed walking and sweating his ass off while apologizing. Then we get into class and take our seats. Every day he had an “educational video tape” and it was recorded on vhs from the history channel. He would put it on and then fall asleep at his desk. While sleeping one of us would go up to his desk and steal all the answers to his tests. Everybody in this class was passing with straight A’s, and we all heard he was being looked at for it, but that wasn’t the kicker. One day we were fucking around as usual and a kid decided to throw a book out the window. This teacher told him he better go outside and get the book and come right back in. We’re on the second floor and the exit is right below us, so we’re watching out the window for him to grab the book while the teacher is back at his desk not paying attention to a damn thing. The kid comes out the exit door, walks right past the book on the sidewalk, and just continues down the street until he is out of sight. Everybody is laughing but nobody wants to say why. All the tardiness with the straight A’s, even from the ones failing every other class, on top of a kid easily walking out of school and going who knows where, ended up with him being fired
The 3rd year of medical school in the US is traditionally when students finally break out of the classroom and into the clinical arena of “rotations.” You spend a month or two on each of the mandatory specialties, learning the basics and just soaking up the experience. Everyone HAS to do internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, ob-gyn and general surgery, among others.
You do have some limited say over the order of your rotations, however, so I decided to do internal medicine (what I thought I was going into) first, and surgery (which I absolutely dreaded) dead last.
One of my first patients on the internal medicine service was Mr. A, a man in his 40s with advanced liver cirrhosis. He lived in a nursing home and was readmitted to the hospital like clockwork every 2–3 weeks for worsening confusion and somnolence, termed “hepatic encephalopathy.” The liver is a “super-organ,” regulating to some degree pretty much every other organ system in the body. When the liver fails, everybody fails. Fix one thing, something else goes to shit. In Mr. A’s case, the toxic byproducts of protein digestion weren’t cleared by his liver, causing his coma. The medication to help clear the toxins from his bowel gave him spectacular diarrhea, and his blood pressure plummeted, causing his kidneys to fail. Kidneys didn’t clear the toxins they were supposed to, platelets no longer worked, and combined with the absence of clotting factors made by the liver, engorged veins backing up into the stomach ruptured and bled. The blood pressure dropped further. What’s worse— all that blood digesting in the gut, well, that was just another source of protein to fuel the hepatic encephalopathy.
I grew to dread seeing him every morning. The best I could hope to obtain was the status quo, which hardly seemed an acceptable quality of life. Still, I could make him comfortable for the most part. On the other hand, there was very little I could do for his fiancee. She was there every morning, 6 am, when I rounded, for the latest update. There were no updates. There were never any updates. I could offer little more than a hand to hold.
It was frustrating. As I progressed through my subsequent rotations, and tried to consider each as a career option with an open mind, I found myself ruminating obsessively over Mr. A and his fiancee. They needed doctors to care for them. But could I be that doctor? How long before I couldn’t take it anymore? I considered the words of a good mentor: “Being miserable doesn’t make you a better doctor.”
And then my surgery rotation rolled around. General surgery is PUNISHING. I mean, like, holy crap, man. Rounds at 4 am. Line up, present, know your facts, yes ma’am, no sir, run to the OR, operate for 12 hours. In-house call every 2–3 nights, just powering through. Eat when you can, sleep when you can. And we were still expected to pass our final at the end of the rotation. Really??? When exactly was I supposed to study?
The night before, apparently. 10 pm, nothing like the last minute, pounding Starbucks, staining entire textbooks highlighter yellow, and my pager goes off. I wasn’t on call, but it was my attending. Do I want to come in and do a case? Honestly, no, no I don’t, I want to learn this stuff and take that test and be done. But I knew better than to say that. “Yes, sir, I would love to.”
I don’t know to this day why that attending called a green 3rd year med student who wasn’t even going into surgery, to “help” him with a case. Because here’s the thing: when I got to the hospital, he had no residents waiting, no other attendings, just him and I. Oh, and a helicopter.
Yeah, so I pretty much lost my shit. I jumped in, blades whirling, and felt my head explode. Luckily, he couldn’t hear it over the motor. “Where are we going, sir?”
He smiled, and gestured for me to put on my headphones. “We’re gonna go get a liver.”
And that’s what we did. A 19 year old shooting victim donated his perfect, soft pink liver. I cradled it, let it slide into the cooler. You know, those red coolers that say “HUMAN ORGAN,” you see people grabbing and hauling ass into helicopters in the movies? Yup, that was me. I felt like sort of a badass.
And then we took it back to my home hospital.
And we put it in Mr A.
True story. 9 months after caring for him on my internal medicine rotation, I saw him next, on my surgery rotation, draped, beneath the OR lights. I didn’t even realize it was him until we finished the operation, and I went with my attending to talk with his family. His fiancee was there.
I gave her the update.
4 days later I talked to Mr A for the first time ever. His new liver let him wake-up. He left the hospital and married his fiancee. They had been engaged for 6 years.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no such thing as a quick fix. He still required a lot of help from my internist colleagues to keep that liver working. But he got BETTER. Like, astronomically better. Literally overnight. Surgery was a big part of that. I was a big part of that surgery.
And that’s why I’m a surgeon.
(Also, because I passed that final with honors. That helped.)
Athenian Salad (Salata Athenas)
Ingredients
1 medium head lettuce
1 bunch romaine
10 radishes, sliced
1 medium cucumber, sliced
6 scallions (with tops), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
1/3 cup wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
24 Greek or ripe green olives
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 (2 ounce) can rolled anchovies with capers, drained
Instructions
Tear lettuce and romaine into bite-size pieces. Place lettuce, romaine, radishes, cucumber and scallions in large plastic bag. Close bag tightly and refrigerate. Shake oil, vinegar, salt and oregano in tightly covered jar; refrigerate.
Just before serving, shake dressing. Add dressing and olives to vegetables in bag. Close bag tightly and shake until ingredients are well coated. Pour salad into large bowl; top with cheese and anchovies.
Yields 8 servings.
Side gigs
Braised Chicken in Aromatic Tomato Sauce (Pastitsatha)
This dish is one that evolved from Corfu to stretch scant supplies of meat. Consisting of chicken, turkey, beef or veal braised in tomato sauce fragrant with spices, it is served over thick tubular pasta from Corfu called “perciatellli” (if you can’t find it, use spaghetti). Kefalotyri is a nutty tasting hard cheese similar to Parmesan. It is available at Greek markets.
Freshly grated kefalotyri cheese or Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch.
Place chicken on platter. Add onions to Dutch oven; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spices; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and their juices and water. Return chicken to Dutch oven. Cover; simmer over medium-low heat until chicken is very tender, about 35 minutes.
Transfer chicken to platter. Tent with foil. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar, tomato paste and sugar to Dutch oven. Simmer until thickened to sauce consistency, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and more vinegar, if desired. Remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Transfer pasta to platter. Top with chicken, sauce and cheese.
DO NOT Pay On The FIRST DATE! (300 IQ STRATEGY)
China and Russia test ‘hack-proof’ quantum communication link for Brics countries
•Scientists in Russia and China establish quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by Mozi satellite
•‘All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed’: quantum researcher
Scientists in Russia and China have established quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by China’s quantum satellite, showing that a Brics quantum communication network may be technically feasible.
The scientists were able to span 3,800km (2,360 miles) between a ground station close to Moscow and another near Urumqi in China’s western Xinjiang region to send two encoded images secured by quantum keys.
The first “full cycle” quantum communication test between the two countries was successfully conducted last year, said Alexey Fedorov, of Russia’s National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) and the Russian Quantum Centre (RQC), Russia’s leading institution in charge of creating a quantum computer, on December 14.
Bridging the vast distance is possible with the help of China’s quantum satellite Mozi, which has opened pathways to develop national and international quantum communication networks.
With the advent of advanced supercomputers and quantum computing, there were now more avenues for information systems to be attacked, the researchers at RQC, Moscow-based QSpace Technologies and MISIS University wrote in a paper published on the open-access online archive arxiv.org in October.
Quantum communication – a form of quantum physics-based information transfer that uses cryptography to encode data in single photons – offers a way to transfer information that hackers cannot eavesdrop on, according to the paper.
Encrypted data is transferred in the form of ones and zeros along with a quantum key that is used to decrypt the data.
Quantum keys, or strings of random bits, “are secret parameters that we use to encode useful information”, making it inaccessible to unauthorised individuals, Fedorov said.
Using quantum key distribution can allow for security that was “guaranteed by the law of physics”, the researchers wrote in their paper.
While there has been major progress in the development of quantum key distribution, ground-based transfer at reasonable speeds using optical fibre cables is limited to around 1,000km because of a loss of photons over long distances, according to the paper.
With this limitation, researchers in different countries and continents, or even on opposite sides of Russia, could not effectively transfer quantum keys, Fedorov said.
To overcome this hurdle, China launched Mozi, the world’s first quantum communication satellite in 2016, to begin long-distance quantum transmission.
Using the satellite, China has been able to develop a national quantum network of ground stations spanning thousands of kilometres.
In 2020, the Russian team began working with the Mozi team, who helped them set up systems to begin conducting experiments with the satellite, Fedorov said.
A ground station was set up at the Zvenigorod observatory just outside Moscow, equipped with telescopes and cameras to track the satellite. Various experiments were conducted between the Zvenigorod ground station and China’s Nanshan ground station near Urumqi, the paper said.
On March 1 last year, a full quantum communication experiment was conducted between the two stations.
A secret key was distributed between Zvenigorod and Mozi, which orbited between 600km and 1,100km above the ground station. Once the Chinese side received the shared key from the satellite, a secret key was established between two stations nearly 4,000km apart, the paper said.
Two coded messages were transferred between the teams that were decrypted with the help of two keys – a quote from Chinese philosopher Mozi and an equation from the late Soviet physicist Lev Landau – according to the team.
It was the first successful full-cycle quantum communication experiment between China and Russia. Fedorov said a secure quantum call had been established in 2017 between Austria and China using Mozi.
The paper released by the Russian team in October highlighted a major aspect of their research with Mozi and quantum key distribution.
To transfer quantum keys between long-distance ground stations, both stations must have detectors that pick up signals from a satellite. These devices “are not always working ideally”, Fedorov said.
Slight differences in the detectors could leave the system open to potential security attacks, he said.
The researchers said this detection efficiency mismatch was not taken into account in the decoy state quantum protocol – which is the most widely used quantum key distribution protocol. To further improve the security of the system, the team modified the security analysis protocol to take the mismatch into account.
“Our results pave the way to the considerations of realistic imperfection of the QKD [quantum key distribution] systems, which are important in the context of their practical security,” the paper said.
We live in an information age, where a lot of what we do “is tied to protected information”, making quantum keys a “useful tool” to protect strategic and sensitive information, Fedorov said.
While quantum communications networks could have many uses, Fedorov said that for now quantum systems would ideally be suited to scientific research, with more research needed before the technology could be commercialised.
He said the finance sector was interested in quantum technology, with banks storing “a massive amount of critical, important information”.
In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow he planned to develop Russia into an economy where quantum technology had an important role in digital infrastructure.
“Technically, it’s absolutely possible” to build a quantum communication network between the Brics nations, Fedorov said.
But while there was “scientific, technical and commercial potential for these kinds of systems”, a unifying project was needed to push development forward, he said.
There would also need to be shared standards between nations regarding the exchange of data and safety measures.
Fedorov said that to commercialise quantum networks, development was heading towards expanding infrastructure through launching mini quantum satellites and building ground stations, along with forging protocols to exchange information.
In June, Russia released its own quantum microsatellite prototype, and had begun experimenting with the aim of launching its own quantum satellite, according to Fedorov.
The team hoped to develop its own quantum technology to become a resource to help other nations conduct quantum experiments as China had helped the Russians, he said.
Beyond quantum communication, countries across the world are researching various technologies, including quantum computing, which the Russian team would soon use to solve minor tasks.
“All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed,” Fedorov said.
They had shared everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.
She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents.
“When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”
The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.
“Honey,” he said “that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”
“Oh, that?” she said. “That’s the money I made from selling the dolls.””
Do not sell. You have already paid for two years. First contact your lender and ask for them to pause your loan for 3 months. Then for three months you will have no payment (time to save as much money as possible). Use that time to get your income level back up to where you need it to make the house payment. Look for a new job or another part time job. If you have a good car, do a delivery job like Uber or Door Dash. Eliminate any monthly paid services like movie channels, even internet. Just keep the electric, water, gas, and trash. NEVER eat any place that is NOT your house – unless it’s like free food at work. Fast food, Starbucks, restaurants, and eating outside the house is what breaks people. If you go to Costco you can get a whole chicken for $5 and you can get 12 croissants for $6. You can also get 50 little bags of chips for $13. You can get a case of 35 cans of Coke for $25 (one can a day for a month). A chicken sandwich on a croissant with a bag of chips and a Coke sounds like a good lunch. You spent $50 but you got 12 lunches and maybe more lunches and you still have lots of chips and cans of Coke for the rest of the month. Fast food restaurants will cost you about $15 for one lunch (sometimes more). So you decide 3 lunches at fast food or 12–15 lunches at home for the same price. Stay hungry, only eat when you must and drink a big glass of water before you eat. Potatoes are only $1 per pound and they are the most filling food you can eat. I remember in college, I always bought a big jar of peanut butter and jelly. A PB&J sandwich will really save you from throwing your money away on fast food and the PB&J goes great with the chips. Eating at home costs 1/10th the price of eating outside the home. If you cut down all your outgoing money and get more incoming money, you should have the ability to save your house. Renting might just be more than your house payment. Consider renting out one of the bedrooms. If you rent out the master bedroom you’ll get more money than one of the other bedrooms. Maybe a neighbor will want to rent a parking space at your house or rent your garage for storing their stuff. If your house has a lot of land, maybe someone will want to rent some space to park their RV until they need to travel. Look at the items you own, that item that you have not used for over a year – sell it on eBay. Have a garage sale to get rid of old clothing you no longer wear, old shoes, old dishes, old knifes and forks. Sell those collections and sell anything you can to keep your house. Your house is the most important investment most people make during their entire life. Don’t let this house slip out of your hands because when this happens most people never get another house. Use the least amount of heat and lighting as you can. More blankets. But no space or plug in heaters and NO CANDLES (they cause house fires and insurance doesn’t cover that). If you are not in the room turn off the LED lights, television, radio, etc. I didn’t own a television until I was in my 30’s. If you are spending all you free time trying to make money and spending almost nothing to live, you can save your house. You will be successful, you can do it. Stay hungry get out there and make some money however you can. You can do it! I believe in you! If you found my post interesting or helpful, please upvote, share, and follow. Thank you!
I hated it. It’s an awful way for a child to grow up. I know that my brothers hated it too, but eventually my oldest brother went into “the business,” went to jail a couple times, got out, now he’s currently in jail again. My other brother and I both ran away from home once we were old enough and we don’t talk to the rest of our family much now.
First, some background: most “criminal families” aren’t like the mafia. It’s not a glamorous life. It is not like the Sopranos or the Godfather. It is not dark wood paneling and fine liquor. Every time I hear one of my sheltered school friends talk about organized crime or something it makes me want to puke. People go into crime because they are poor and they don’t know any better. They are not good people and they often don’t have a good sense of basic right and wrong. This means they are unlikely to be good parents. You know those pictures you see every so often on the internet with some woman turning a trick and her baby is in the background? That was how I grew up, but with drugs and guns and stabbing instruments lying around like toys. When my brothers and I were growing up, we constantly had strange people coming and going from our house at all hours, often engaging in loud altercations with both my mom and dad (I suppose I should give thanks that my parents were “together?”) inside the house or outside on the front lawn. Drugs and paraphernalia and firearms were pretty much everywhere. It’s fortunate that the trigger pull needed to set off a handgun is more than a small child can muster, at least until he or she is old enough to understand that guns kill people for real, and that yes, once when one of daddy’s friends was carried back to the house screaming and bleeding and couldn’t be taken to the hospital that that was because someone shot a gun at him! That’s how I learned about firearms safety – my mom just matter-of-factly said to my brothers and me, “That’s what happens when you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger” while stubbing out her cigarette watching my father and his gang try to staunch the bleeding and perform first aid. We did not play with the guns on the table after that. By the way, first aid is something you learn pretty early on, by the way, because there are a lot of ways to get injured in a “criminal family.” My parents were not (too) abusive, they loved us in a strange sort of way. But there were always weapons (of the sharp variety) or a lot of times broken bottles and other broken shit left lying around that my brothers and I got good at avoiding or when we were playing, we’d use them as fake weapons which, of course, since they were real and we were stupid, typically resulted in us getting to practice the first aid techniques my dad’s friend (“Doctor” Terry) had helpfully taught us. This was entirely normal to us – loud nightly commotion, a general tenseness around the house at all times, mostly sleeping during the day unless we bothered to get up to attend school, and a lot of injuries. I know now that regular childhood is full of little injuries, but we were always around blood and getting scratched up and scraped and gouged and bruised, just because the environment was dangerous. To this day I don’t know how we survived except that we picked up the instincts that people who live with weapons and sharp objects lying casually anywhere just happen to develop. No, we did not have shoes. At least not for the kids.
Once I was old enough to understand what was going on I learned that my family – not just my mom and dad but several “uncles” and their girlfriends were a minor part of a drug distribution network. Oddly enough we kids were not conscripted to be a part of it, not until my oldest brother decided on his own he wanted into the lifestyle. It seemed like my parents were doing it mostly because it was all they knew and after we were born they tried to protect us and provide for us in the only way they knew how. Strangely we never had any police trouble (at least at the house) because I think we were pretty far from the front lines and were considered a safe house of sorts where money was counted, weapons were traded and stored (for those who don’t know, guns are considered more secure currency because they can both be traded and used for intimidation), and “product” was moved back and forth. Maybe they were doing this to keep us safe(r), I don’t know. But I do know it was still a chaotic and very scary environment to grow up in as a child.
You probably want to know how I got out of it. Unfortunately that end of the story isn’t too interesting. We had television in the house, my brother and I would watch it, and sort of see (or at least get the idea) that not everyone lived like this. Television is full of happy middle-class families. And we wanted to get out of there. So one day (daytime! when everyone is sleeping!) we grabbed one of the bundles of cash lying around, stuck it in a bag with a change of clothes and took a bus out of town. 800 miles out of town. For awhile we were worried someone would come looking for us but it didn’t happen. Eventually I did call my mom and she was angry but it was clear she was worried and just happy we were alive. We didn’t talk much more than that, she just said, “Well take care of your brother.” My brother and I live in another city now and I have completed a GED and now I go to a state school. Hope that helps clear up some misconceptions.
Nobody is your friend, not even the guys you eat lunch with every day
Nobody is indispensable. Anybody can be laid off any day.
Never waste time listening to management podcasts, attending town-halls or post work self-funded drink parties as they dont have any impact on your salary, promotion or job security.
Try to attend as many technical trainings as you can which are paid for by your employer.
Never send emails late night or over the weekends thinking that people will get impressed. There are already people in your team who have seen it and done it all and only fools work overtime.
Become awesome at the work you do. Focus on learning the latest skills applicable to your field. That will save your life when you are laid off or want to change employer.
Dont waste time on feedbacks or year end assessments and dont take them seriously. No matter how hard you work or the value you add, you will always be made to feel below average.
Fight hard to get a raise by constantly raising your compensation issue with senior managers in private meetings. No company wants to pay more and one needs to snatch his share of goodies.
Never share your family or any other problem/weakness with anybody at work.
Make a genuine effort to help others who need some help from you specific to your knowledge or skill. The cycle of Karma will enable you to get the same help when you need the same.
Never use capital case or offensive words in any written communication that can be used as an evidence of your unprofessional behavior and be used against you.
I am a remote employee and I keep a company inventory, recently I completed an inventory of my stock. I received word when the higher-ups were reconciling my count that I was missing 5 high dollar items and was questioned, did I “loose” them or did I not count them, it was a significant sum, and I could have lost my job or been held financially responsible for these items. without a reasonable explanation, the boss was pissed as hell at me.
The thing was that just a few months ago, I was requested by the asset manager to send these 5 items across the country to another remote employee and I had an email with the item numbers and serial numbers along with the FedEx tracking numbers to prove they were sent and delivered. The asset manager was responsible for transferring these items into that other inventory.
I found the email and it only took me a few minutes to find it. I was off the hook and the asset manager or more likely one of his staff was in hot water now!
I had been job searching for quite some time at this point. I had gotten a job to come in for an interview. For this job, I had interviewed 2 other times for it, so, I was going to be interviewing for a 3rd time. In my mind, I thought, “Maybe they really liked me each time (as I qualified for the job) but they just kept getting really good candidates with more experience then me and so they would just go for the other person” Alas, I went into the interview hopeful and feeling very prepared.
I had arrived promptly for the interview, but the interviewer was extremely late. The interview was for 9am, but they didn’t call me until about 9:40am. I thought, “Maybe they just got really busy?” But, when the interviewer came out to greet me, they offered no sort of apology for being almost an hour late.
Alas, I greeted the interviewer with a smile and a firm handshake. When it was time to interview, they asked me to introduce myself and tell them a little about myself. The interviewer just looked like she was trying not to laugh for some reason. I continued the interview, and for one question, I think it was like “Tell me why we should hire you” and then she literally laughed. She busted out laughing and then tried to compose herself. I have honestly no idea why she did that. There were other interviewers in the room as well, but only she was acting like that. Weirdly enough, I ended up being offered the job, but I declined. Between the interviewer being late, laughing at my answers, and being sarcastic, it just left an “unprofessional” taste in my mouth. I really wanted the job (hence why I interviewed 3 times for it). But if that person was going to be one of my supervisors/ higher ups, I didn’t want to be apart of that company.
China will say thank you very much for vacating valuable (and often choice) factory premises. Local companies will jump at the chance to acquire the sites, because these are often prime land with the best infrastructure and utilities.
China rolled out the red carpet for MNCs and the local government often offered the best preferentially to foreigners.
The problem with the de-shoring narrative is the utter impracticality, because it is nigh impossible to find another country with the set of conditions the mainland offers. China is no longer cheap, and competition is incredible. Factories that remain and prosper are ENABLED by the set of advantages the mainland provides.
The companies that find it attractive to relocate are chasing lower wages, and mostly unaffected by poorer skill, infrastructure and the lack of symbiotic ecosystems.
When someone doesn’t understand how everyday mainstream culture works.
I went to college in a town with extreme wealth, but was relatively poor myself so worked at the nearby Burger King for, you know — money.
Occasionally, a wealthy type person would come in and seem totally clueless as to how a Burger King worked. The menu board was overwhelming to them. They’d order their burger “medium rare” or “well-done,” not realizing the burgers simply ran through a machine and they all came out the same.
They usually had unbranded shirts and pants that looked as if they had never been worn before.
Everything was a curiosity to them. I remember one was staring at the straw dispenser, wondering how the straw comes out. I leaned over and pressed the button and out rolled a straw. He seemed giddy about how this invention worked.
Essentially, they are space aliens on Earth for the first time.
Yesterday, I saw a young 20 year old married girl in my clinic, who was brought in by her mother in law for surgery for ‘ hole in the heart’
She was suffering from atrial septal defect (ASD) wherin you are born with a hole between two chambers of the heart. The surgical correction when done early on ( before 20–25 years) is very simply and almost risk free. But unfortunately this girl had a large hole and became very very sick. She also developed certain complications making her ASD inoperable.
She was found to have ASD at around 10 years of age but her parents did not get her treated as the stigma of heart surgery will make her ineligible for marriage. So they hid her disease and married her off. Her in laws who discovered her problem about one year back ignored it and now that she is sick, brought her for treatment. They are more concerned that she will be unable to bear children.
The poor young girl is screwed both by her parents and her husband for no fault of hers. Her parents only wanted to get rid of her while her inlaws / husband only want her as child bearing machine.Sad.
Edit: The surgery here in Hyderabad is free for poor patients in the best of private hospitals also ( Govt Aarogyasree scheme). The sad part is due to this delay the heart is irreparably damaged and it is now inoperable .
I still remember my first year at Campbell Soup Company in 1985. I started on Jan 2 as Assistant Manager of Accounts Payable. I was a glorified clerk who should have been eligible for overtime, but Manager in my title made me exempt.
We were not required to turn in time cards unless we missed work which I didn’t do as I was the new kid. At my six months review I received all high marks except that my boss marked me down for never working overtime. I averaged 10 to 20 hours of overtime a week.
To clue my boss in, I started turning in my time cards every week. A couple of months later the payroll clerk called me to the side and asked me if I wanted my meal money. There were several envelopes for me in the safe.
“What meal money?” I asked. She explained that anyone exempt who worked two hours past quitting time received $2 meal money. I laughed and asked her how long it had been since they had raised the amount. She said it had been that way as long as she had been there, or over 25 years.
At the end of the year, I received my first Christmas bonus, a $5 check. I had worked the year before as a part-time bookkeeper for my parents’ little dress shop and received a $50 bonus check. They paid their sales clerks a $250 bonus.
I framed my $5 check as a reminder that policies should always be reviewed and scrapped or updated as the case may be. It cost more for the company to process those tiny payments than it was worth to the recipients. If you are going to do something do it right or don’t do it at all.
When I was in college I moved into an old house that had been converted into apartments. Perfect location for me and within the first couple days I had met all the neighbors around me. All seemed normal, until the next door neighbors kid stopped by with the kid who lived across the street from us. The kid may have been 13 or 14 at the time, but he made the hair on my neck stand up. He looked like Malachi, from Children of the Corn, and that was his nick name. He never said anything to me or did anything crazy around me but I always had that spooked feeling around him. I moved a couple years later. One evening I was checking out the news and the headline that day was a body was found in a crawl space. When they showed the house and then the picture came up on the screen I was shocked to see it was the kid across the street from me. He admitted to another killing out of state a few days later. As time went on he confessed to a few more that he had killed. Before any future investigation was done, he took the easy way out via suicide in jail. He was a confirmed serial killer.
Argentina JUST *Flipped* to the US Dollar | -54% CRASH [President Milei FIRST Move!]
Back in 2011, the State of California reported that over 8.3 billion recyclable cans had been recycled that year.
This meant that California’s recycling rate was just under 100 percent; implying that nearly every single can in the state had been recycled.
Now, in an ideal world, such high recycling would be a good thing, and reflect incredible levels of environmental responsibility in California.
But unfortunately, this statistic was too good to be true.
Recycling Fraud…Surprisingly, It’s A Crime
As it turned out, California’s astonishing recycling rates were not the result of widespread environmental awareness. The real reason for this statistic was much more sinister…fraud.
Apart from Oregon, California is the only state with a container return program on the west coast. Due to financial incentive and a lack of regulation, several ‘recycling fraud rings’ popped up, defrauding the program by redeeming millions of ineligible cans.
In 2012, government officials reported that the State of California lost over $40 million every year to fraud. To combat these losses, the Justice Department created “recycling fraud units” to stop “recycling fraud rings”.
This initiative proved to be quite effective in stopping fraud. In late 2018, two Arizona men were arrested for over $16 million worth of recycling fraud. Under the guise of a trucking company, a man named Miguel Bustillos smuggled millions of cans into California for the purpose of defrauding the state government.
[1] If convicted of ‘felony recycling fraud’, Bustillos and his associated could face up to three years behind bars.
“So what are you in for?”
“Recycling fraud…”
I can’t imagine that would net you much respect in a prison setting. This whole thing just seems so surreal to me.
When most people get depressed, they tend to start adding things to their life thinking that something will “make them happy”.
This isn’t how it works.
Here are 3 things you should cut out of your life when you’re depressed — based on personal experience.
Alcohol. Nowadays, I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine on the weekend. Maybe 2 if I’m feeling frisky. It’s become a sort of hobby — I like trying a new beer or wine to celebrate getting through a tough week of work or training. However, when I was severely depressed, I cut the stuff out completely. Alcohol tended to amplify whatever I was already feeling, meaning when I was sad, it made me really fucking sad.
Most romantic partners. I’ve dealt with depression on many occasions in my life. I’ve been in relationships during my depression at times, and I’ve been single during my depression at times as well. I’ve only had one partner ever who has been truly supportive during my periods of intense depression and anxiety — the one I’m with now. If a partner isn’t helpful for your mental health, it’s not that they’re bad, but the relationship will struggle.
Crappy diet/exercise habits. For a lot of people, there’s a dietary component to depression. For myself, I know that fried foods, too much food, and too much inactivity can set me off and send me spiraling. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of trial and error in this, but it’s relatively easy to learn to eat better. If something makes you feel bad, stop eating it.
Be careful what you say. My first day of teaching at one district was almost my last.
We were told to have the students put their name, etc on a 3 by 5 card with something about themself. One boy said he was in a gang.
Later that week we had a big meeting about Gangs. Out of thousands and thousands of students 250 were identified as Gang members. Based on my location, the kiddie candy gang.
I had taught in another district where real gang activity existed. Before that I practiced law for 30 years. I had represented one gang in court as a lawyer. I quit criminal law when I got a gang member off and two days later he murdered an 8 year old. I knew Gangs well. I said to the teacher next to me, “ Two hundred and fifty. I got one of them. At my last district there were less than 250 non gang members”. The teacher asked how I knew. I said he wrote it on his card.
The next day the admin appeared and wanted the card. I refused ( although I knew I had no legal ground) and they told me I was fired and searched my room and found it. They then told me I was not really fired.
The boy was expelled. A week later, during school hours, he drove his car into a brick wall and died. 15 years later I still mourn. I never had the chance to find out if his life could be turned around.
Anything you say or write to a teacher is subject to the admin. You have No Privacy. Say your name. Tell them you like sunshine and lollipops.
Some might say this is bad advice. I think kids are lulled into thinking they have a private relationship with a teacher. You don’t.
Late 70s on an early Sunday afternoon flight from LAX to Toronto on a wide body. I was sitting in the middle row which had 5 across, and a hippie couple sat in front of me with only one other passenger in their row. As soon as the fasten seatbelt light went off they started to get it off, laying across the 4 seats with just a blanket over them. The flight attendant came by and looked at them and did nothing. Shortly after she came back with the pilot and another flight attendant they conferenced then left without doing anything. So I just sat there and watched them go at it for three hours, they would take a short break then go at it again in different positions. I felt sorry for the poor guy in the end seat as their legs would sometimes end up in his lap. I really think they did it for the shock value. To top it all off some guy in a robe was sitting cross legged in the middle of the aisle burning incense. The flight attendants stopped that real fast. I used to fly 200k miles a year and this by far was the most entertaining one I was ever on.
I once had my apartment broken into while I was gone. The thief harmed my dog, and they stole about $12,000 dollars worth of a certain green substance that people enjoy setting on fire for recreational purposes. I had a pretty good idea who did it, and later I was able to confirm my suspicions.
Keep in mind that I am not some big bad criminal type, but I was counting on the money from the items stolen to pay my rent, utilities, college tuition, and books. So, I made one of the worst decisions of my life, and I went over to this person’s apartment which was in the same complex as mine.
I knocked on the door. He answered.
I walked past him without saying a word, and I turned around and shut the door. I then produced a handgun that had been covered by my shirt. I looked at him, and I very calmly but sternly told him that I knew he was the one who broke into my apartment and that he had about 30 seconds to produce every last bit of what he stole.
He complied, and I placed the items into a gym bag I brought with me.
I told him that he was dead to me, and that I didn’t ever want to see him again. That I was aware that his lease was up at the end of the following month, and that I strongly suggested he not renew it. I then told him that this was for my dog, and I punched him in the nose.
I re-holstered my weapon, and I walked back to my apartment. I was incredibly calm the entire time I was there, but now I was a bit worried that he might be dumb enough to call the cops despite the fact that he had committed multiple serious felonies himself.
I decided to bring the bag and the weapon over to a friend’s apartment that was just next door, and I left it there for the rest of the day. I went back home, and just went about my day. I cooked dinner for myself and my girlfriend, and fortunately the police never showed up.
I never saw the guy again, and he apparently moved out the following month. It wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but without the money from the items he stole I wouldn’t have been able to pay my bills or my tuition.
Now, I’m an attorney with an MBA in Finance. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do what I did. I could have gone to prison for 10 years or more. At the time I was desperate though, and I couldn’t exactly call the cops to have them retrieve my stolen property in this case.
Desperation will make people do desperate things. Fortunately for me things worked out well. They could have easily gone badly.
I once convinced one scammer that I was the curator of a major museum in Fort Worth and if he wanted for me to give him money so he could start a similar museum that he would have to send me a birthday present. He asked me what I wanted and told him two billfolds would do. Several weeks later the wallets, very nice ones. arrived from London. The Nigerian scanner was calling long distance. Naturally he did not know that I knew that he was trying to scam our museum. I finally told him to take a hike or I was going to call in federal law enforcement. Textless to say he was madder than hell that I scammed him. After 20 years I still use both of those expensive walkers As far as J know Jam the only potential victim that has ever scanned the scammer
A few years ago I was coming out of my local bank when I saw a couple standing near their car looking a bit distressed. I approached them and asked what was wrong. The guy said his battery had died and he couldn’t get the car started. He asked if I would help to push start it.
So I got behind the car with his girlfriend and we started pushing. He popped the clutch and the engine turned over a few times but didn’t start. I told the guy this wasn’t going to work, he needed jumpercables. I only lived 5 min from the bank so I told him I would drive home to get the cables and be right back. The look on his face was a “sure buddy, never going to see you again” expression. I didn’t mind. Got into my car, drove home, got the cables from the garage and drove back.
Whem they saw me arrive they had a surprised look on their faces. I pulled my car up to his and popped the bonnet. Less then a minute later his car was running again. They were both thanking me profusely and wanted to offer me money for the help.
I told him to keep the money and “next time you see somebody needing help, spend a few minutes and help them”.
I hope they did and asked the same of the person they helped.
Very simple, because the stupid people in power were forcibly removed and filtered from the system continuously. Don’t get me wrong, China has statistically some of the most comedic and stupid people in the world because of its large population, they are just kept down and not allowed to harm the country.
Back then during the warlord era (軍閥時代), there was this absolute menace who shared my surname and was called Zhang Zong Chang (張宗昌) who governed the province of Shandong (山東省). He was a massive hedonist who gambled excessively and married 21 women from different countries.
During his rule, he brutally repressed workers rights (see 青島慘案), conscripted an unsustainable large military, wrote some of the most vulgar pseudo-tang poetry (despite being almost illiterate) and basically caused enormous suffering.
He was so intellectually stunted that he not only didnt know how many wives he had, but he also didnt know his own military power or finances (三不知將軍).
Zhang Zongchang once said to his subordinates: “Communism means sharing wives. Sharing wives is of course good, but communism is wrong. Things that can be taken are yours, and things that cannot be taken are not yours! Sharing wives is different. It’s okay to sleep with someone else if you can’t sleep with a woman.”
This is why the elite hate communism, and to some extent all result oriented systems. It removes their ability to loot and plunder to maintain their privileges because the playing field has been leveled.
On September 3, 1932, Zhang zongchang was assassinated on a train station using a pistol. No one picked up his body and left it to rot for three whole days. After hearing the news, all the people of Shandong province celebrated and welcomed troops from the Republic of China with open arms.
___
Modern China’s success is because “Communist” China is a meritocracy. This means that those who are given authority are those with skill and experience (or in other words, merit) and not their wealth, smooth talking skills, paramilitary criminal force or dick size. Doctors are qualified only because they pass 6 years of medical school with good grades before they can cure humans, because it involves life and death. Why shouldnt a similar filtering mechanism be installed for political leaders, who control the life and death of many?
This is reflected not only among politburo or chairman poliics, but daily life of people like me. The national pre university exam – 高考 – is based on pure grades, not race or extracurriculars or reference letters.
My husband was the perfect boyfriend. Once we were married, things drastically changed. I realized it about 5 minutes we were pronounced ““husband and wife.” We got in the limo to be taken to the reception site, and 100% of his attention was on the driver. I couldn’t believe it, but let it go. I knew, however that I had just made a huge mistake. About 2 months into the marriage, when there was no more dating, dancing or flowers, I brought it up to him, and his answer was ““That part of our relationship is over.” What? Really? He then went on to tell me that he “married me,” so he “didn’t have to court” me anymore. Wow! I tried to talk to him, and explained that I fell in love with him because of the way he treated me and that I really wanted “that man back.” He looked at me and told me that that man never existed. He was right. For many years, I sought therapy, thinking there was something wrong with me because this marriage wasn’t working. My history and life made me believe that it must be my fault. I changed who I was way too many times, to the point that I don’t know who I am. The dude’s a freaking narcissist. My idea of what made a narcissist was way off point. Yeah, I’m still married to him, but I protect my heart from him. He’s caused a lot of pain, so we live as roommates, and it works.
Please don’t ask why I stayed, only people that have endured abuse would understand, and I’ve written enough already.
I just wish I wasn’t so weak and vulnerable when I met him. He knew I was the perfect mark. So if you can, and have friends and family to support you, run if you see this kind of behavior. Me? My mother and father were abusive and I had just got out of a 15 year extremely abusive relationship 5 months before I met him. So yeah, I was truly alone.
Interesting story. The Currywurst was invented by Hertha Heuwer who operated a bratwurst and fast food stand in Berlin-Charlottenburg in September 1949. Hertha’s husband worked with American officers and noticed that they put huge amounts of ketchup on their steaks and told his wife.
Once, on a rainy day, when she had no custumors, Hertha cut a bratwurst in slices and played around with sauces and spices, however without much success. But the butcher Frank Friedrich who delivered bratwursts without casings to Hertha helped her to improve the sauce which finally was made up from tomato paste, bell pepper, paprika powder, spices and especially curry powder. Hence, the wurst was named Currywurst.
In the post-war era, this “exotic” version of traditional bratwurst was a huge success. Hertha’s recipe was immediately imitated by other operators of bratwurst stands and quickly Currywurst was sold all over Germany.
There are variations how to make the sauce. The simplest version is to take just commercial ketchup and curry powder. More elaborate versions use onions, fresh tomatoes and fruit to make the sauce.
The typical Berlin-style Currywurst uses a bratwurst without casing. After the war, casings were in short supply, and Frank Friedrich’s partner had developed a procedure to make sausages without casings. In other parts of Germany, however, ordinary bratwursts with casings are used for Currywurst.
The recipe is simple: Just take a bratwurst, sear or grill it, cut it into pieces and put the sauce on it. Sprinkle with curry powder. Recently, some wurst stand operators have started to add ultra-hot chili sauces. One operator in my hometown boasts that he makes “the world’s hottest Currywurst” because, for his number ten, he uses pure capsaicin. But this is a different story.
So, Currywurst is a kind of fusion. The sausage is traditional German. The curry powder came from England, with roots in Indian masala. The tomato-based sauce was inspired by American ketchup.
Well, this few information should put that matter to rest.
Birth control
Gibanica
Ingredients
Dough
8 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pint sour cream
2 cups milk (about), scalded
2 ounces yeast
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 pound sweet butter
Filling
1 1/2 pounds ground nuts
1 tablespoon honey
3 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy milk or cream
1/3 cup sweet butter
Instructions
Dough: Dissolve yeast in about 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 cup warm water; let stand until it bubbles.
Sift flour in large bowl and add salt and 1/2 cup sugar.
In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and sour cream; add yeast; add scalded milk and sweet butter which was added to the milk and cooled. Add this to the flour bowl and knead to a soft silky dough, not sticky. Let rise in a greased bowl until double in bulk. Make sure the dough is soft as it has to stretch.
On floured cloth roll dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness; stretch gently so it won’t break. Stretch oblong about 30 x 20 inches (use rolling pin if necessary) and fill with following filling.
Filling: Scald milk with butter.
In bowl add ground nuts, honey, vanilla extract, sugar and pinch of salt, then add scalded milk with butter. Mix, then add stiffly beaten egg whites. If thick, add a little more milk. Spread on dough like you would for nut roll and roll like a jellyroll (make as sweet as desired).
Grease roasting pan 4 to 6 inches in depth and fill pan; start at one edge of pan; make a “U” shape. Do not cut if roll is longer; turn again. Brush with milk. Prick with knife on top for air bubbles. Let stand 1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
Remove from oven and brush with butter. Let cool, then flop it on a cloth and place it on a rack to cool.
Source: Anne Price – Our Favorite Recipes – St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church
Air heat pumps barely function below minus 20 C, propane gels at minus 40, that most electric cars can not be charged below minus 40. Below minus 40, you can throw water in the air, and it won’t be liquid when it hits the ground. Depending on the metal, but metals get brittle at low temperatures, and below minus 40 they can snap at a much lower pressure than normal. If you are running heavy equipment, don’t even bother to try and use it below minus 30, because something will break., and starting a cold engine is very hard, and the oil is so thick, it will take time to flow through the transmission and engine. Most likely hydraulic lines will burst, but you can snap a thick piece of steel.
Flesh freezes in minutes. A friend was working outside in minus 50, and he had to remove a mitten to adjust a crescent wrench, and he didn’t put the mitten back on while he tightened the bolt. The bolt or nut snapped, and his hand hit the aluminum tower, it split wide open, in the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger. It didn’t bleed. He had to go the hospital. He could have lost his hand if he kept working in that cold.
You always wear mitts, not gloves, gloves don’t provide enough protection.
Wolverine guard hairs dont frost up, so are used on parka fringes.
Hard liquor, vodka, rum, rye, gin freezes at about minus 34.
I’m constantly considered to be an uncouth, unwashed plebeian. Particularly at restaurants. I guess I give off that ‘air’. Wait-staff constantly try to help me with my “mistakes”.
Examples:
I order seared ahi tuna. Waiter: “Sir, I just wanted to make sure you understand that the fish is mostly raw”.
Different restaurant, I order a calamari appetizer. Waitress: “You understand those aren’t onion rings sir, right?”
Even my wife calls me “peasant” sometimes (but I admit — I married above my station — she’s awesome and a hell of a sense of humor).
It’s become the family joke. My kids make bets to see how unsophisticated some new place is going to assume I am.
It must be the way I talk. I work in IT and while I have some very high-level responsibilities (a few applications I’ve written and maintain for my corporates overlords and maintain a few server farms in two states) I’m located smack-dab in the middle of Los Angeles — and I’m the only IT guy within 100 miles. We have way too many locations in LA for *just* me. Hope that changes soon. Anyway, sometimes I need to crawl under desks and field some “try turning it off and back on” type stuff that our help desk failed to filter properly.
My boss is constantly getting feed back about me from our non-IT remote staff on how I’m a “breath of fresh air” and that I don’t make them feel like they are dumb. I use simple language to describe what I’m doing, not techno-jargon. I’m not a fan of silence, so while I’m fixing something remotely, I explain what I’m doing or I explain why I’m asking them to do something. Again, in plain English. No alphabet acronyms.
Maybe when it’s time to retire, I’ll transfer to the helpdesk…
It is often termed “constructive dismissal” or “creating a hostile work environment.” Legally, such behavior can be categorized as workplace harassment or bullying, involving deliberate actions with the intention of making an employee’s job challenging in the hope that they will voluntarily resign. I strongly recommend discussing the issue with your manager to understand the reasons behind their actions. Alternatively, you can reach out to the HR department, if available in your company, to address and resolve the situation. You may also suggest implementing productivity tools such as Connecteam or Trello to streamline work tasks and proactively prevent similar issues in the future.
More horrifying than humiliating. I lost track of my 3 year old grand daughter. She was playing on the playscape. I wrongfully answered a call on my phone.
After the call, my girl was gone. I climbed. through the playscape. I checked the bathrooms. I was nuts. I started screaming. The manager came and locked the doors except the emergency exit and he had a worker standing there. I was running around screaming her name. I told them to call the police.
Everyone was looking at me like I was the worst person alive. I was. Suddenly I heard a little voice say “ Nama” I looked around and did not see her. But I heard “Nama” again and caught some movement at a table.
At the table were the two most grotesque “women” I have ever seen. I don’t think they were female nor were they trans or cross dressers. They were in horrid disguise. They had a little girl with black hair, my grand was a red head. I got closer and could tell the child had black eyebrow pencil on and dark make up smeared on.
I got closer to the table. The child said “Nama, I pay make up” The two grotesque things said nothing but were looking at the door.
I reached over and pulled the black wig off the child… and grabbed my grand daughter and ran. I ran out the emergency door setting off an alarm. I threw her in the car, seat belt be damned and took off
As I turned out of the McDs I saw a car sitting there with the engine running with only one man in it. I screeched back and saw the license plate was mudded over. So I drove. I drove for 30 minutes making sure no one was following.
Then I cried for another 30.
McDs was very cooperative but the way their cameras were set, that was the only table not seen. Evidently the two grotesque things ran out the emergency door after me.
They were clearly in disguise.
They were never identified.
Of course I was humiliated. I neglected my duty as my grand’s care giver. But humiliation was deserved and I was horrified.
I still have nightmares.
Watch the kids The call will wait!!!
Ok folks. I don’t want one more virtue mongerer to chastise me that I should have waited for the police.
Exactly who do you think was going to hold them there until the police arrived?
You think they were going to sit and have a coke until the police got there to arrest them? Do you think the McDonalds manager was going to jump in and hold them down and end up potentially liable, after they beat the crap out of the manager getting out?
Maybe I should have made a citizen’s arrest and ordered them to wait while I cuffed them with straws or ketchup packets?
What makes you think they would not have just decked me and took her back and out the door.
I was almost 70 and on chemo. I wasn’t a 30 year old cop. Such virtue mongering by people who think kidnappers just hang around to be arrested and who have clearly never been in such a situation. But they sure think they would save the day. Pathetic.
Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade; set marinade aside.
Position knife blade in food processor bowl; add artichoke hearts, 1/2 cup cheese and garlic. Pulse 4 times or until artichoke hearts are finely chopped. Set aside.
Place 1 phyllo sheet on wax paper (keep remaining phyllo covered). Lightly brush phyllo sheet with oil portion of reserved marinade; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of remaining cheese. Top with another phyllo sheet; brush lightly with oil portion of reserved marinade. Cut phyllo sheet in half lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise into thirds, making 6 sections, each measuring approximately 6 x 5 inches. Place a heaping teaspoon of artichoke mixture in center of each phyllo section. Gather corners of phyllo over filling, and gently twist to close. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat procedure with remaining phyllo sheets, marinade, cheese and artichoke mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes or until golden.
US failed to take over Afghanistan, failed to take over Iraq, failed to take over Vietnam. Each time the US tried with small weak countries it found that the people kept fighting them and so basically the US never controlled the population. Really expect that if the US could not take over those small countries it could succeed in a country that is almost as large as the United States in area and four times the population. It cost $7 trillion for the wars in the Middle East. Extrapolation says that it will cost 10 times as much to attempt the same with China. However, the US has a huge roadblock to overcome to invade Russia and that is that its ships cannot close on the Chinese coast without being sunk it could not land or supply units on the coast of China
US military leaders have admitted that China controls the seas within something like a 1000 kilometers of China, and every simulation of of conflict between China and the US in the region ends up with the US losing badly. Let us assume that the US can land on the coast of China, it will need a lot more men than it currently has in the military, like a factor of 40. China has 1.4 billion people while Afghanistan and Iraq had something like 40 million, and China is massive compared to those countries. Keep having your wet dreams because that is all they are.
Relaxing To Purring Cats And Cozy Fireplace for Peaceful Night 🔥 Deep Sleep, Relax, Study
I used to live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And I loved it. What a nice and lush forest full of flowers. But like all things, I only was able to work there for a few years until I was laid off. Those lay offs really sucked, I’ll tell you what.
Anyways, I had a really nice house in a low area on the edge of a swamp. It was great. Glorious. With high temperatures, and humidity, it was super lush. My house was brown with nice green shutters and doors, and a nice slab parking garage.
Then I got laid off.
What a nightmare. I do not want to relive that. I’ll tell you what.
But, anyways, we had a bug-control man come over every month to spray for the cockroaches. Oh, they grew them BIG in Hattiesburg. And there were so many of them, at night the ground looked like it was moving. Like you were trippin’ or something like that.
So to save up money, we decided to cancel our monthly bug spraying.
Well, one week goes buy, and my cats were busy catching cockroaches. We would find dead cockroaches on the half-shell everywhere. But they got tired of it. You can only catch so many.
On the second week, I saw one my socks waking across the room.
By the third week we were hearing sounds in the walls, and periodic electrical shorts in our outlets. And then, but the end of the fourth week, when the television was covered with cockroaches, we made an emergency call to the exterminator to put on his flashers and race to us; we told him to come over immediately!
And he actually did.
Flashing red lights, and alarm! No kidding!
Jezze!
Lesson learned. If you live in a warm climate… please bug spray. Let me tell you, Joe’s Apartment (a fun movie) didn’t do that nightmare justice.
Had this happen in my first job. Learned my lesson.
Next time there was a review coming up ( about two months later ) I wrote up a synopsis of my work ( and my colleagues work) and delivered it to my manager’s manager two days before.
We then had the review where my manager misrepresented the work that was done, whose idea it was, and the results.
Not much happened. So two weeks later I went back to my manager’s manager with my request for a transfer. I was doing about 60% of the work in my team of 3; building all the scripts, generating the data for reports, including working at night and weekends because I was single.
When the department head indicated he was reluctant to approve the transfer I told him that was OK and that I’d have my desk cleared out by the end of the week. I knew that there was the possibility that this wouldn’t work out so I had been interviewing. I also knew that the firm had gone to a lot of trouble to recruit and train me & that having me leave would look bad.
I got my transfer.
Eggs with Peppers and Sausage
Ingredients
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound Italian sweet peppers or banana peppers, seeded and cut into strips
You don’t ask, you don’t get.There are plenty of ways to enter a pool. The stairs is not one of them.If a street performer makes you stop walking, you own him a buck.When entrusted with a secret, keep it.Date with standards, not expectations. Just sit back and see if they can meet your standards or not.Just because you can doesn’t mean you shouldYou only get one chance to notice a new haircut.Don’t dumb yourself down.You are what you do, not what you sayDon’t lose sight of the hobbies you enjoyed as a child. They will help you live as you grow older.Don’t let your yearnings get ahead of your earning.Don’t dig for water under the outhouse.Dating advice you should know: if they like you, you’ll know. If they don’t, you’ll be confused.
My parents started middle class and worked their way to the 1%.
It isn’t this huge party. But there are some basic things you don’t worry about as much.
It is weird because I didn’t grow up wealthy at all. And had a strict-as-hell dad.
At some point after I left home, things really ramped up. My dad left the military and became a high ranking exec with SAP.
My mom started a vineyard at their farm. And sold off a lot of great real estate investments she’d made over the years.
But you would never know it if you bumped into them at the store or something. They have very humble personalities. If you went to their home however..
When I wake up in the morning in their guest room I get to enjoy a view like this:
When I visit they spend most of their time working around the house and on the farm. We don’t really sit still much. And even when we are it is because we are working on something. We are worker-bees.
Also, I think everyone has a misconception as to how wealthy the top 1% is. 10 years ago, even I had the impression that 1%ers don’t work hard and take 9 vacations a year. I think it is just different if you started small and got there in your middle age and have kids.
At that point, you are more concerned with managing everything and making sure your kids are doing OK.
(Maybe that it is .01 percenters that do all that laying around by the pool…)
Either way I love visiting my parents, but every time I get home here in Florida my house feels really really small! 🙂
This happened in English class back in 2018, and the second it happened, I literally searched for a question that this answer would correlate to. The rest was history.
Okay, so class had just started. The teacher was marking the roll on her laptop, and some girl named Sophie was at her desk to ask her something.
“Ethan James?”
“Yeah, here!”
Then, suddenly, Sophie was like
“Ethan James; absence explained? What does that mean, Ethan? Why is your absence explained?”
I had zoned out, but I perked up upon hearing my name. As one does. I realized what was happening, and I started monologuing.
“Hey, can I get the whiteboard for a sec?”
I said, addressing my teacher. She obliged.
I drew one circle on the board.
“Sophie, you see this circle? This circle represents the status of my attendance.”
I then drew another circle next to it but not connected.
“You see this other circle, Sophie? That second circle represents your business.”
“Yeah. Okay” Sophie was confused.
“Now, Sophie, do you see any correlation between the two?”
We have three kids. The oldest is 18, and the youngest is 4. So, for 18 years now, our lives have revolved around raising our children. My life in particular has been more child-raising intense, because I’m home with them more often and I took on the role of primary domestic engineer in our marriage.
I was prepared for how expensive kids would be, and the good times and bad times and whatnot.
But lately, I’ve been experiencing something no one warned me about: not knowing what to do with myself as my children gain independence.
Just in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my youngest can get her own snacks, turn on the TV and find her shows by herself, entertain herself with her own toys, and even tuck herself in at night. When my other children did this, I was either still busy in grad school, or had another baby who needed my attention.
But now, I’m finding myself, more and more, looking for things to do as my children do their own thing.
Before sitting down to write this, I asked both of my youngest children if they’d like to play something with me. They both said no. I wasn’t prepared for that. Normally, they’d jump on the chance to play with me. They’d insist on it. But right now, they’re each playing by themselves.
I’ve heard that business owners sometimes have a similar problem: they dedicate so many years to getting their businesses off the ground, that once those businesses are successful, and they have employees who do most of the work, the owners aren’t sure what to do with their new free time.
On the upside, my house has never been cleaner. I filled the unexpected free time this week by cleaning. Now, there’s not even much of that to do.
I predict I’m going to be one of those people who retire, and six months later find another job out of boredom.
I was going home on a two-lane highway on my motorcycle when a speeding 18-wheel truck came up behind me and started crowding me. I’m talking about an 80,000 lb tractor-trailer so close that I couldn’t see his windshield above the grille in my mirrors.
I was nearly to my left-turn to my road and I was afraid he couldn’t see my brake light or turn signal so I speeded up a little with my signals on, but he speeded up also. So I punched the throttle and jumped out about 100 feet in front of him, grabbed the clutch and stomped on my back brake to lock the 4.10 back tire to make smoke for about two seconds and then left off the brake and clutch and punched the throttle again. Mister Tailgater was doing the shimmy-shake trying to keep his trailer behind his cab in my mirrors and using both lanes to do it while I rocketed past my turn and outran him to the small town a mile away. I parked next to a friend’s business and upon being greeted and hearing the 18-wheeler grinding to a stop out front I ask the store owner, “Hey Spider, if you’ve got that sawed-off shotgun under the counter, I might need to borrow it in a minute.”
Fortunately, the trucker stared at the business for a minute and then drove away.
Ministry reveals UK’s MI6 using foreign national for espionage targeting China
China’s national security authority recently uncovered a case involving the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, using foreign nationals to engage in espionage activities against China, the Ministry of State Security announced on Monday morning.
In a statement, the ministry said that in 2015, MI6 established an “intelligence cooperation relationship” with a foreign national surnamed Huang, who served as the head of a consulting firm overseas.
The statement did not identify Huang’s nationality.
Subsequently, MI6 instructed Huang to enter China multiple times. Under its guidance, Huang gathered intelligence related to China and identified prospective individuals for MI6’s counterespionage efforts, according to the ministry.
MI6 also provided professional intelligence training to Huang in various locations, including the UK, and equipped him with specialized spy equipment for intelligence exchange and communication, it said.
Through meticulous investigation, the national security authority promptly discovered evidence of Huang engaging in espionage activities and took criminal compulsory measures against him.
Upon examination, it was determined that Huang provided MI6 with 14 pieces of classified information and three intelligence reports, the statement said.
Throughout the investigation, the national security authority has kept the consulate of Huang’s country informed on his case and has arranged consular visits for him, ensuring the protection of his legal rights in accordance with the law, it added.
I think we could all write a book about this but the rudest I heard was from a pharmacist while I was waiting in line for a prescription, not the other customers. My two year old daughter was potty training and doing a good job. That day she wanted to wear her big girl panties. She had been doing so for months.
The wait was long at the Drug Store. She needed to use the restroom. I asked if there was a restroom. The pharmacist barked “ no” at me. I explained the situation and asked if she could just use the employee rest room since we had waited a half hour already.
The pharmacist said “She will just have to wet her pants”. Really? I turned to my child and said. “Honey, just pee on the floor here. This place is just one big potty. “. My two year old politely squatted and peed all over the floor. The pharmacist was screaming. I said “ honey, this nice man will clean it up right after he gives me my paper back so we can go somewhere else. “
There were a lot of mothers also waiting and everyone found it quite funny but the pharmacist. I went back to that drug store a few years later and they had installed a public restroom.
PS. Whether you think I was right or wrong is of no matter to me. But the fact that some people think I did this over the use if the bathroom shows I did not make myself clear. I was a lawyer. Had the pharmacist said their insurance did not allow public use or said I might try xxx store that has a public restroom, no problem I get that. I could have taken her to the car and used a McDonald’s cup. It was that this man told a little girl to just wet her pants. Had she wet her pants the result would have been the same on the floor. I just decided to avoid the wet pants part and show this man that he was not providing customer service-of any form. I’m sure the issue of needing a restroom had come up before. The store should have had an appropriate response. There are Federal laws in place now concerning employee only restrooms.
Yes, and it all worked out beautifully: another employee in a different section whom I did not know well and was not particularly friendly with went out of his way to tell me that my bosses wanted to hire a woman to replace me (I am a man) and not just any woman, but one hot enough for them to ogle and flirt with. That is the kind of pervs that they were. After hearing that, I wiped my company-issued Macbook Air clean, mentally checked out, and waited for my last day.
After I had left the company, I heard that they did ogle and flirt with her, and I was told that they had hired her specifically for her charms – she flirted right back.
A few months later I got the delicious news that they had taken her on a business trip to meet the company’s most important client. In short, a good time was had by all, and she ended up fucking an employee at the client’s headquarters.
It gets better, a sympathetic former co-worker told me that he had dug around and found that my replacement had a police record (shoplifting I think) and her mugshot was online.
When I heard this news I sent an anonymous email to just the right person at the client’s headquarters describing the sex and a link to the mugshot and the fallout was magnificent: the client demanded that my replacement be fired, and she was, and my company’s reputation with their most important customer was ruined (they didn’t lose all the business, however).
Suddenly my old bosses were checking out my LinkedIn profile and I had the pleasure of blocking all three.
Millions of American’s Begin Moving into Vans | VanLife EXPLODES on Google Trends
Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. I can recommend a place down the road.
Me: How is it possible you are booked out? I’m looking at “Booking dot com” right here on my phone and it says you have a room going here.
Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. (and then smiles at me like I’m some sort of idiot)
Me: Okay, I suppose I’ll work something out.
Concierge: Yes sir. Sorry sir. (looks down at whatever it is Concierges do when they are not serving someone)
I step away from the concierge desk and think to myself… What happens if I simply press “Book Now” so… I didn’t think, I just pressed “Book Now”. The message comes back with my booking confirmation code. Bear in mind, not a single person is in the foyer, and not a single person has been and spoken to the concierge in the last 20 seconds since I stepped away from the concierge desk.
Me: “Mate, I’d like to check in please.”
Concierge: Certainly sir do you have a booking?
Me: (stunned he doesn’t recognise me from 20 seconds ago) Um, yes, here it is on my phone.
Concierge: Excellent sir, do you have any bags the porter can take up to your room for you Sir?
Me: Narr, it’s okay I only have this one bag. I’ll be okay.
I was thinking all the way up to my room in an elevator with the porter guy that had a single carry bag on a huge dome shaped brass pipe top with a red carpet floor baggage cart…
… “WTF just happened”
Picture this with one case on it. That case is the size of a case that you pull along for a two day stop over…
I once was fired from a job after a night out drinking with friends. Of course, most of the friends were work friends.
One of them mentioned they were worried about upcoming changes to the department and thought it was odd they were told to not do their job when they came in each day.
I told him … they’re going to fire you. (I had no idea…I wasn’t told anything, I was guessing) BUT i told him to never stop doing his job … that it was a test to see if they needed him at all. Turned out I was right. But someone told my boss that I had made this prediction.
I was terminated for professionalism. Off the clock, after hours, not on site … with no first hand knowledge shared.
When they brought me into my bosses office to fire me, I started to say “You can’t do this…” followed by “of course you can, otherwise we wouldn’t be here at this point.” I accepted it and turned in all my stuff, gave them notes on where I was in various projects and thanked them for the time and experience. To which my director literally said ” Thanks for your professionalism” I grinned and said “well it’s professionalism that got me fired according to you.”
And ai walked out of there and got a job paying 40% more in as month.
They can fire you for any reason and for no reason. They can even fire you for illegal reasons if they just cover it with a legal looking one. Ultimately, you can’t let it affect you. Sure money is going to be different and plans will change but you’ll get through it and you wouldn’t want to work somewhere that wants to fire you but can’t in the end.
When an Industrial leader gets arrogant and snobbish, there will be a D-day to it.
Lets look in perspective. As an experience sputtering process engineer, when i look at the EUV machine, I find that they are too elaborating. It consume hell of electricity and Hydrogen. The from my common sense if that if we can plough electron by electron onto an anode of cathode, I am sure we can make Nodes like a 3D printer. So I was right , now Cannon has done exactly that and they can produce cheaper chips then DUV and EUV… with the baggage of high energy cost and high H2 consumption. I believe Liang Mong Song already taught about long after he left Samsung. Cheers to China for giving the WEST as good bashing. When the old guards of China, Wen Jia Pow has stated we should share roles and work, but the American will never understand and Taiwan will face the music when they fondle American ideology to the hilt. As a staff in American MNC for more then a decade, I see the blind corners which will kill the American innovation. American Capitalism is all about me and not us.
No the U.S. is aggressively bribing poor fishermen away from fishing for their families to stir up shit on Chinese boats for thousands of dollars of cold hard cash paid in the high seas by CIA and NED operatives. That is precisely what happened.
All is well ap to now. The Pinoy fishermen are happy getting easy money, Bumbong Marcos U.S. happy the U.S. released his family wealth stuck in the U.S. and Philippine governments get more free money or bribes to allow US more bases. The money is used to improve infrastructures where China win the contract. You can say the U.S. pays for Philippine infrastructure!
So China prosper, US can shout it has more bases, fishermen are happy. But the only victims are Americans who will pay and pay and pay! If I were China I would bribed the fishermen to rob the CIA and NED cash by the boat loads to bribed them. That will bring peace faster.
Survival: If you get lost in the wilderness, find a river, that will lead you to a town. Most towns (or people) live near water of some sort.
Happiness: Muting politics on social media platforms makes them 1000% better.
Indian Career Paths: Roughly 70% of Indians study Engineering (this blows my mind).
Trolls: There are very unhappy people in the world. They will leave mean, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, virtually any ugly comment they can think of – to make others share their misery.
Driving: If someone cuts you off in traffic – it is more effective to give them a thumbs down than flip them off. This will cause them to rethink their actions.
Losing: Smile at the person who defeats you. It will steal their joy in defeating you.
Oops: If you find chewing gum on clothes or the carpet, put an ice cube on it for 2 minutes, it will become hard and come off easily.
Restaurant: If you find a fly in your soup, before sending it back, put a ton of salt into the soup. That’s the only way you’ll know they re-cooked new soup rather than send the same soup back out.
“I realized my life was too valuable to let go of,” she said. “And that gave me the courage to survive.”
This is the story of Alison Botha, on December 18, 1994, she was abducted in her car near home by two strangers who took her to an area outside the city in South Africa and by the end of the night, she had been raped brutally and stabbed 30 times in the abdomen, to mutilate her reproductive organs and 16 times to her throat.
Alison Botha, with knife mark on her throat.
She said, “all I could see was an arm moving above my face making a sound. A wet sound, it was the sound of my flesh being slashed open. He was cutting my throat with the knife. Again and again and again.”
“Do you think she’s dead?” one attacker asked. “No one can survive that,” the other replied. They were apparently satisfied that they had killed her ’cause she was almost decapitated, so they left her for dead, but Botha was still breathing and could see car headlights coming through the bushes.
She started trying to get onto the road and as soon as she pulled herself up, she felt something slimy coming out from her abdomen, her intestines. She had to use one hand to keep her gut from spilling out and the other hand to hold on to her own head, ’cause it started to fall backward.
A young veterinary student named Tiaan Eilerd, who was driving down to Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg, saw Botha lying in the middle of the road and stopped. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were stunned by her horrific wounds. She was soon able to identify attackers from police pictures while she was still in the hospital. This led to the arrest of the “Ripper Rapists,” as they were named in press release.
Both attackers were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in August 1995. But after serving 28 years, both were granted parole in July 2023.
Alison Botha soon became a motivational speaker and began traveling around the world, telling her story in different countries. She is one of the first women from South Africa to speak publicly about rape, she helped inspire other survivors to come forward and tell their stories to the world.
Note: If you are a victim of rape and planning to commit suicide, and if you change your mind after reading this story, then this would be a big favour on me. The only purpose of writing this is to let you know that you are precious, I just want to motivate you to live ’cause the world needs you. Please do me a favour
Unknown number comes up on my work phone, not unusual, so I answer and am greeted by someone with an Asian accent, enquiring about the accident I had been involved in, having had far too many of these over the years I responded with, It only happened this morning how did you know, well sir we work very closely with your insurance company, this was the point I put the phone on hand’s free, and the rest of the office tuned in, Well I am very glad you called I was driving along the A1 near Catterick and someone drove straight into my vehicle, the caller was most concerned for my health and wellbeing, which I informed them that I was very shocked and shaken, I am now passed to a supervisor who needs Details so road A1, location Catterick, vehicle Scorpion, speed 65, damage scuffed the paintwork,
There was a pause as they went through the information, um sir I am struggling to find your car, you can’t find it it’s a very common vehicle around here, can you please give me a bit more detail please certainly it’s a Scorpion CVRT, no sir I am still struggling to find your vehicle, really I am not sure if you will be able to help me if you can’t even find my vehicle, It’s a Scorpion Combat Vehicle Recce Tracked, it’s a Tank mate definitely scuffed the paintwork terribly, silence from the other end of the phone, followed by a single expletive, and call ended.
Funny enough it’s the only phonecall I have ever got a round of applause for as well as much laughter.
My mom and I go on a cruise every year for her birthday. I am disabled and have a walker for my immense back pain, I cannot stand for long periods of time, so it has a seat. My mom and I wait ONE HOUR in a line WE started to get into a show just so we could get our choice of seats (first come, first serve). A queue starts behind us about 20 minutes before the show and we are happy that we waited as we wanted to record from a very specific seat (middle isle). This woman shows up with her son in a wheelchair from the cruise liner, and proceeds to stand right in front of the entry doors of the venue. My mother and I give her the benefit of the doubt and my mother proceeds to let her know there is a line behind us (it wraps around a hallway). She looks at my mother and completely ignores her, sees a tall man walking past and says to him, loudly, ‘can you believe this woman wants me to get in line when my son is in a wheelchair?!’ The son is literally silent the WHOLE TIME with a small cast over his left foot. The man looks around the corner and sees me sitting in my walker. He says to the lady, ‘she has a disabled person in line too.’ The lady responds, ‘so?’ The man just walks off. My mom tells the whole line what happened. The line just ignores everything and shrinks back, trying to avoid the conflict. I am in shock about the whole thing and only getting angrier, by the fact the cruise liner crew isn’t telling her to move for blocking the door, OR asking her to get in line. I’m so angry by everyone’s actions I can’t even react. The doors open and she proceeds to sit EXACTLY WHERE WE WANTED TO SIT. The crew even offer to take the boy’s wheelchair since they aren’t allowed to leave them in the small isles! Even remembering this trip now upsets me. I couldn’t be more angry at myself for not saying anything and trying to stay calm. I should have just acted like I had NO MANNERS like her! Apparently the ‘squeaky wheel gets the grease’.
That was last year, the horrible time we had because of this lady just makes me cringe every time I think about it. I hope the woman reads this and remembers how she ruined what was before that moment, a beautiful and fun vacation. I hope she learned some manners or stays home, no amount of money can make her worth anyone’s time.
*EDIT* Thanks to everyone with the kind and understanding comments. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so heard. I think this event effected me so much BECAUSE I try to be thoughtful of others constantly and don’t get out much. Writing this out and getting validated with positive responses have really helped me, thank you. Please be aware you have made a difference in my life.
There are many cheaters and “professional complainers” among the guests making nice business from giveaways and compensations. I personally recall one amiable couple who, while being alone in the corridor, hid the “caution, wet floor” sign. Then, they went straight to the reception desk, man literally shouting at the poor receptionist that his wife had just accidentally slipped there and injured her back. They caused a small scandal: hotel manager was called in to calm them down, medical staff treated the “injured” woman, and safety officer scolded the poor cleaning lady responsible for the corridor. Nobody was able to find “caution wet floor” sign that ought to be there, so the guests seemed to be right and were offered a financial compensation + next cruise for free. However, what cheating guests didn’t know was that there are many security cameras on the ship, some of them smartly hidden… So when the couple was invited to the hotel manager’s office next day, they expected to settle the details of their compensation. Hotel manager kindly greeted them, asked them to make themselves comfortable and said something like: “Before we proceed with the compensation, let me show you one short movie.” The couple watched with awe the TV screen, showing them hiding the sign from the floor to the locker and then running to the reception. With this proof in hand, hotel manager offered them choosing between two ways of “compensations”: 1) Trial at court. 2) Putting them on passenger blacklist shared with ALL cruise ship companies, that denies them of taking any cruise till the rest of their lives. They chose no. 2) .
Yup, it was a famous named restaurant, I was the man who brought the inspection rating up from a 50 to a 98 percent,I also kept the lights on and the orders paid up to date, as well as didn’t have a huge turn over of employees. But some punk ass wanna be with out the education I had of running a business as well as the decades of experience had help in getting me bumped out of my job, little snot nosed shit sitting in my office telling me he’s my boss. 2 weeks into his employment he fires me. Okay fine I really don’t care, then this is the best part, he had no clue of how to do what I did, called me at home asking me for instructions. I gleefully told him there is no way that I’m going to teach you in a few minutes that took a life time to aquire in education and actually experience. You got what you wanted at my expense which was my job that you figured was up for grabs, I’m not going to help you, you’re on your own. 3 months later the business was shut down, and that was your Burger King at the Sunset Esplanade in Hillsboro Oregon that now the same building was remodeled into the chase bank. Thats karma at its best, screw me out of my life long career choice and not only did you lose me, but 45 other people lost out in the process.
I went away for the weekend, and my roommate was planning on having a big party, since he wouldn’t disturb me.
We had a huge backyard and they decided to have a competition for the coolest explosion, without gun powder. You know the mentos and diet coke, and the baking soda and vinegar, over filled balloons kind of thing. Stupid things like filling a balloon with diet coke and dropping in a pack of mentos in a paper tube.
The kitchen door led to the deck and back yard.
It all sounds harmless until you add copious amounts of alcohol.
I came home Sunday evening and found my roommate and a couple of friends scraping one end of the kitchen ceiling with an ice scraper. The culprits and ceiling were all different colors from the food coloring and other dyes that they had added to their experiments to make them more impressive. It appeared like tapioca or gummies stuck to the ceiling. They had matching paint already on half the ceiling. They had hoped to have it done, before I came home. But they had slept until 2:00 pm, before starting clean up.
No amount of begging would get them to tell me what happened. But I’m guessing that they prepared everything in the kitchen before taking it outside, and when alcohol is involved, I m guessing they weren’t careful.
So I came home to a bunch of hungover red and green people , with a 4 foot scraper, scraping one end of the red and green pebbled ceiling, while someone else was using a roller on a stick, roll paint along behind them.
I had to go running to the medical store for purchasing the medicines prescribed by the doc.
In the afternoon, the doc prescribed some medicines and I went to the store to buy them.
There was a lady who received the prescription. She immediately ran her eyes through it and started searching for the meds in the shelves.
The total bill was 569 inr.
I paid 600 inr. She returned 30 inr and a dabur honitus (worth 1 inr obviously).
I was a bit reluctant at first, still I asked:
Me:Um.. excuse me. Can I get 1 rupee instead of the toffee?(I asked it not only because I disliked that toffee, but also because I loved collecting coins.)
She:No. We don’t keep coins for change. Anyway, what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.
Me:Are you sure you don’t keep coins?
She:(obviously being annoyed by me) Yes. We dont.
Me: Okay. Thanks.
I went back to the ward.
By the evening some more new meds were prescribed.
I went to the store again.
The lady was still there. She gave me a forceful smile. I smiled back.
This time the bill was 131 inr.
I handed 130 rupees and that one dabur honitus.
She glanced at me unappealingly.
Me: Sorry mam. I don’t have coins for change. Anyway what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.
I thanked her and gave a brief smile as I headed back.Happy and satisfied.
The person asking the question seemed to want an answer like this:
In response to the request of the United States, the Netherlands suddenly revoked ASML’s sales license to China, and some lithography machines planned to be shipped to China were intercepted. The free world successfully prevented China from acquiring advanced semiconductor production technology, and the United States won again.
But sorry, that’s not the case.
On January 3, the Dutch government suddenly revoked the export licenses for two models of DUV lithography machines (NXT: 2050i and NXT: 2100i) approved in 2023. However, ASML announced that the DUV lithography machines purchased in advance by customers from mainland China had all been delivered before the license was revoked.
In other words, when the license was revoked, the planned lithography machine had already been shipped to China.
Let’s sort out the process of this incident, and you will find how interesting the game between the Dutch and Americans is.
Since the beginning of the trade war, the United States has asked ASML to ban the export of lithography machines to China, which can be used to produce advanced semiconductors. After a year of haggling, the Dutch government compromised. ASML is prohibited from exporting EUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors below 7nm, which are more advanced) to China, but they can still continue to sell DUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors above 7nm, which is slightly behind).
The Chinese felt threatened, so they added a large number of orders for DUV lithography machines. In the past three years, most of ASML’s DUV lithography machines have been sold to the Chinese.
China’s semiconductor industry has been accelerating its development, making Americans quite nervous.
In 2022, the United States requires the Netherlands to increase restrictions again, prohibiting ASML from selling DUV lithography machines, and completely cutting off the source of equipment for the Chinese.
In June 2023, the Netherlands issued a new ban but announced that existing licenses remained valid and ASML could continue to deliver.
In December 2023, the Netherlands announced that existing licenses will be invalidated immediately
In January 2024, ASML announced that all Chinese orders had been delivered.
Found the problem?
US government: Netherlands must obey
Dutch Government: OK
—-
June, Dutch government: ASML, what to do?
ASML: You announce it first and then give me some time
July, Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: One more moment
In August, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: One more moment
In September, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: soon
In October, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: Just a little bit
In November, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: Almost done
In December, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?
ASML: OK, all delivered
Dutch Government: In order to maintain world peace and assist our great allies, we announce the immediate cancellation of sales licenses to China. immediately! immediately!
The Netherlands cannot fight against the United States, but this does not prevent the Dutch from trying their best to safeguard their interests. After all, that is tens of billions of dollars in profits, and they have sold all the equipment they can sell to the Chinese in the past two years.
ASML CEO (Peter Wennink) told reporters, “There is no hope of completely isolating China. If we don’t share technology, they will study it themselves.” “China has 1.4 billion people, and many of them are very smart. They will Come up with solutions that we haven’t thought of yet. You’re forcing them to be very innovative.”
The Chinese cannot control the madness of the United States. Their approach is to purchase as much technology and equipment as possible to buy time for the equipment they develop.
Once the Chinese get this done, the industry will be disrupted.
Here are 8 things you have to consider when choosing life partner:
1.Ability to cope with your family
Your family will always be a key support system in your life. They can tell if your prospective life partner is suitable or unsuitable for you. If he or she cannot cope with your family members, you might be choosing a wrong partner.
2. Find someone who makes you laugh.
A sense of humor can help you overcome many of life’s obstacles. If someone can make you smile when you don’t feel like it, that’s a great quality.
3. Choose someone who respects you
When choosing a life partner be sure to select someone who will respect all aspects of your life. Mutual respect is one of the defining traits to look for in a life partner.
4. Find someone who have shared values
Having shared values reinforces the foundation of your relationship. Simple things such as consensus on the number of children you want or living within your means create a conducive environment for your relationship to thrive.
5. Choose an honest life partner
If a relationship is not enshrined in a culture of honesty and trust, it will definitely fail. Choosing a life partner who does not refrain from open and genuine communication is important.
6. Throw out the Idea of Perfect
Don’t make a checklist — mental or otherwise — of traits your future partner must have. You can’t conjure up your perfect mate and go buy said robot at Target. If you must make a list, make a list of deal-breakers: no smokers, no drug addictions, no one with a violent felony conviction. Those are healthy boundaries to set.
7. Know how they handle anger
You’ll need to observe this one rather than asking about it. Watch how they behave when they don’t get their own way, are disappointed, or feel angry. How people act with others under these circumstances says a lot about how they will one day act with you.
8. Find someone who have the same financial and social standards
It is not always important to have the same status, but having a similar financial and social standard helps in thriving together. If one person is very poor and the other is very rich then there is a possibility of being called a gold digger. But there is no exact rule book but do check if your potential partner has the zeal to make it later in life.
I had a friend call me in the middle of the night, asked me to get my gun, and go over to his house. When your best friend asks you this, you don’t hesitate. Eventually the story came out – his wife was the manager of a jewelry store. Some men followed her home after she closed (crossing county lines), then at gunpoint (turns out it was a BB gun), forced her to drive back to the store, open it up, and unlock everything so they could clear it out. Of course, when she opened the store after hours, the security team watched on camera and called the local PD. When the perps left, the police were waiting for them. They took her car, and theirs and ran from the cops. After crashing and rolling both cars, they were arrested.
the morons got the idea from a movie. If they had just walked in during daylight and stole/robbed the place, they would have gotten 5 years. Instead, they committed multiple FEDERAL felonies (kidnapping etc), and all of them were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in federal prison.
edit: the reason for asking me to come over with my gun:
He didn’t know if they were going to come back there. At that point the chase was still going on.
As a follow up – he gave my description to the local police, and let them know I’d be at his house. They showed up about an hour after I arrived, and I answered the door. I was slightly nervous because being 6’4 and nearly 400lbs I’m not a small dude, and had a 45 in a holster on my waist. I went to turn the porch light on, only to discover the porch light was burned out. I was very careful to let them know who I was and immediately informed them that I was armed – being sure to keep my hands nowhere near my firearm. When they asked for ID, I let them know I was removing it from my right rear pocket and moved with very clear movements, allowing them to see that I was reaching for my wallet and not my firearm. After they verified I was who I claimed to be, they made a comment like “yeah, I’d be armed too”. I love living in a rural community! 🙂
When I was in high school in 1965 I was reading a book about lesbians called The Grape Vine. My Mom asked me what I was reading. I said “a book about lesbians”. My Mom said “that’s nice, you love the theater”. I said “ no, those are Thespians. This is about lesbians, women who love women, not men”
My Mom insisted there was no such thing as a lesbian adding that the proof was that there was nothing two women “ could do together”. After my mother became hysterical, I went to my room.
Later that night my father paid me a visit. I was a little worried as my mother was his princess. He said “Laura, your mother is 45. She has made it to 45 without knowing what a lesbian is. Unless you are a lesbian, feel free to NOT educate her further”
I think when my Mom was about 80 she told me there were actually lesbians.
PS. Oh my. My mother would die a second time if she knew over 2k people liked this story. My Mom was so embarrassed that I got divorced she told everyone that my first husband was hurt in the Viet Nam war and that was why he shrunk 5 inches, grew blond hair and green eyes ( husband number two).
Nicaragua BETRAY Ally U.S in South America, Choose China
Around 10 or 12 years ago, I was on a trip and stopped at a rest area to stretch my legs and use the bathroom. As I walked back out to where my car was parked, I noticed a college age kid standing in front of his car with the hood up. I wandered over and asked him if he was having car trouble.
He replied yes and that his car wouldn’t start. He still had all his lights and so forth so I knew his battery seemed okay, but the engine wouldn’t turn over.
The car was an Acura, if I recall correctly, and the starter was located on the top of the engine, rather than down underneath the car. On the starter was a warning sticker that said not to hit the starter with a hammer.
Another gentleman wandered by and asked if he could help. I asked him if he had a hammer in his car. He thought I was joking, but I let him know that I was serious. He said that he did and left to go get it with a puzzled look on his face.
When he returned with the hammer, I took it and gave the starter a solid whack, right on the warning sticker that said not to hit it with a hammer.
I then told the college kid to try starting the car. It fired right up.
I handed the hammer back to the gentleman who had loaned it to me. Both he and the kid seemed amazed.
I asked the kid how far he had to drive to get to his destination. He said just another 2 hours or so until he got home.
I told him to drive straight home without shutting the car off because I couldn’t guarantee that the starter would ever work again. And then once he got home, he needed a new starter.
He thanked me and offered me $20, but I just sent him on his way.
Hungarian Potato and Egg Casserole (Rakott Krumpli)
Ingredients
6 medium potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 hardboiled eggs, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
Paprika
Instructions
Heat 1 inch salted water to boiling. Add potatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and cook until tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain; cool slightly.
Cook onion in oil until tender. Mix onion, oil, sour cream, salt and pepper.
Peel potatoes; cut into 1/4-inch slices. Gently mix potatoes and sour cream mixture.
Arrange half the potatoes in greased 10 x 6-inch baking dish or 1 1/2-quart casserole. Arrange eggs on top; add remaining potatoes. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and paprika.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees F until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes.
I yelled, loudly, not at the patient but at her aunt.
So I was working in the ER. A little kid of around 10 or 11 came late one evening. She had a massive blow on her skull and was getting seizures. It was all bloody but surprisingly she was conscious.
Her aunt was very caring and hovering over us. She told me the girl fell from a bike. I pacified her and told her to wait outside while I provided primary care to the child before transferring her to a higher care centre.
When the aunt was outside I asked the girl what happened. Her aunt had hit her in the head with a hammer. That vile lady had hit her 10-year-old niece in the head with a hammer. I was horrified, enraged. I was mad.
I stabilized her, came out and called the aunt inside. As soon as I saw her I just lost it. I yelled at her at the top of my lungs. I don’t even remember all that I said but it lasted long enough for the ward boys and nurses and the ambulance driver to gather. It also lasted enough for the aunt to break down and confess.
I called the girl’s parents and they called the police and registered the complaint.
My behaviour was unprofessional, but I have never regretted it. I don’t usually lose my cool, but I am glad I did that day.
Seen a number of these over the years. First one that comes to mind is this one. Sitting in a bar in Neenah WI, conversing with a gentleman, probably about 40 something, less than 5′10″, probably about 150 lbs. Well spoken, polite, decently dressed. A larger (12–13) groups of people all came in at once, bikers by their dress and the beautiful sound of the harleys they pulled up on. Now please understand, the greater majority of bikers I’ve known over the years were great people, polite, non confrontational, and all around nice. These folks were not. Loud, already half tanked, and generally pushy. Once they had settled, one of them walked by, catching his elbow on my conversation partner and spilling both of their drinks. Confrontation ensued. Biker: you “effing spilled my drink!”
CP: sorry about that, let me get you another
bartender: no worries, I’ve got both of you
biker: you’re damn right you’re sorry! and proceeded to grab CP’s shoulder. CP spun as he stood up, spear handed the biker in the solar plexus, and then Kicked him in the face! Biker was about 6′2″-3″, and now unconscious and bleeding on the floor. Everyone else stopped cold and looked at CP, shrugged, and went back to their conversations. Bouncer dragged biker out to the curb where the police and an ambulance took him away. Broken jaw, shattered septum, severe concussion. CP was the owner of a local martial arts school and had been training since he was a child. Oops.
JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT BAD SITUATION IN EUROPE AND U.S, U.N SITUATION, GAZA, AND MORE
Today’s post is a really long one, but boy oh boy are there some most excellent videos here. Everything from WTF? to cats purring to a crackling fireplace (I’m gonna listen to that one a second time), to a tale about a death and a slide to a non-death and everything in between. Check out the laundromat millionaire, and the Chinese nuclear physicist that lost everything in the USA…
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Please guys take care of yourself. Make the best of your life and do not get sidetracked by the massive lies on the internet. There is a percentage of the West that are truly crazy, and the leadership is the same only add “bat shit” in front of that title….
My mother once had a cookie jar when I was in 4th through 6th grade. But eventually she stopped filling it, and then threw it away.
Turns out that us kids kept on raiding it, no matter what she said, and it would ruin our dinners.
First it turned out that she would fill it up once a month. then, only on certain occasions.
Then, every now and again. Only telling us, when we were good, that it held cookies.
Then it just remained empty for a long time. Maybe six months.
Then…
One day, it was cleaned and put away inside one of the cupboards. And there it sat for all eternity. It was never, ever taken out after that.
…
All in all, that’s a lesson of life.
The demise of the cookie jar.
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Chinese PhD PHYSICS RESEARCHER Homeless in New York USA
My “soulmate” got married on September 23rd, 2018 to the love of his life.
She was his childhood best friend. I knew her only very briefly. I never thought too much about it considering she was several years younger than him and the nature of their relationship growing up, but it happened.
He told me she was the safer choice. His family was already comfortable with her presence, she came to every serious family function. She didn’t have any crazy ambition to go to school or pursue a career. She wanted to be a stay at a home mom, while I wasn’t sure if I even wanted children. I was little more spontaneous, while she was calculated. I questioned his alcoholism, while she let him drink without a word.
When I looked through their online wedding album, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. For nearly 7 years (I’ll spare you the details of our relationship) I was sure this man would be my husband. Seeing the type of person his wife is though puts every detail of our relationship into perspective. The truth is, we wouldn’t have been able to make a life for ourselves in the long run.
I’m not her; and I don’t want to be.
There was a time in my life where I swore his wedding day would be the day I died. Boy was I wrong. Now when I think about him getting married, I think of the barren fields in Texas that they chose to move to. I think of the colour beige, and unflavoured grits, and scooping horseshit. I think of the children I never wanted and all the other excruciatingly boring things that they get to do together.
It’s a blessing in disguise.
Magic Music for Cats – UNBELIEVABLE Results (Tested 2022)
If youse guys have cats, then please play this video for them.
Yes those people have a monthly income of 1000 Yuan but most of them have their own homes, they don’t pay rent or mortgage
Most of those people get their food at State Subsidized Rates which is 30% below market price. This means Monthly Provisions for a family of three whose net income is 3000 RMB is only around 600 RMB. For this they can eat 1800–1850 Calories a day comfortably
Most of these people have given their leased land for Windmills or Solar Power and they get 275 Units a month free. So most of them don’t pay for electricity
If they lent their leased land for the gas pipelines, they get 100 RMB subsidy off gas. Thus most of them get their cooking gas free of cost or barely for 20–30 RMB a month
They get Education for their Kids fully free upto Grade IX and a subsidy of upto 80% for higher grades on already low tuition of 1800–2400 RMB a year. So a family with 2 Kids pays a paltry 30 RMB -50 RMB a month on Tuition
They get State Insurance for their Health plus NLF Insurance if they are farmers or factory workers with premiums paid by employers. Each of them gets upto 30,000 to 100,000 RMB in healthcare expenses. They don’t have to pay Doctor Consultancy Fees or more than 18% of their Hospital Bills which are again advanced as Loans at a paltry 2% a year interest
So 1000 RMB goes a long way for these people
They eat well, live in their own house, pay virtually nothing for their utilities and have a safe healthcare net plus tuition is near free all the time
So rather than income, it’s their access to a basic standard of living that should be counted here
My ex and I had an agreement. I went to work, made good money, I did a LOT around the house and she would pay the bills, make sure the kids were taken care of as far as the doctor, school, etc, and the house was kept up.
I kept up my end of the bargain. I made good money, but we always seemed to be broke. The house was not clean, I ended up doing a lot of the grocery shopping, cooking, all the house maintenance. The kids helped out a lot!
One day I decided to take a look at the bank account and all the bills, see where we were losing the most money so I could figure out the issue there.
I found about $2000 in ATM withdrawals in a 1 month period, Jan 19, 2016 to Feb 19, 2016. They were $50, $20, $30, $80… on and on for the month.
I went back and found a similar pattern the previous months, years, and so on. I counted up tens of thousands of dollars just gone.
That was the end for me. Within a week I told her I wanted a divorce. She had been complaining for years how everyone she knows is going on vacations, how they all take trips all the time, and we never are able to. Telling me I need to make more money, do overtime, take more training so I can get a better job, and the entire time she had been spending the money on drugs. Years and years worth of onesie-twosie bumps and hits.
She denied vacations for my kids. She ruined large parts of their childhood by not being a good mother, by not showing a good example for them, by not being there very much.
Now she is in prison, possession and distribution of meth.
The research company I worked for was downsizing. My previous boss had already been let go and my new boss kept sending his employees to learn everything in my department. Well one fave employee thought she was better at my job and kept trying to change our protocols. She never actually did any work, just made our lives miserable.
Then the day came where new boss walked in and started handing out moving boxes. He didn’t even say a word, just passed out the boxes. We all packed up and left. Now my lab was a resource lab that did a ton of work for the other labs. Suddenly me and all my staff were let go and the new boss handed it over to his people.
Guess what? They had never done these procedures, used the high tech equipment or even understood the complicated algorithms to process the data. First week I get 9 phone calls asking for help. That was met with a big NOPE. Then I get a call that the favorite employee had mishandled one of the very expensive robot units and it was out of order. They wanted ME to come in and reprogram it and get them back up and running. Oh heck no! I never went back and never helped.
Lesson of my story is don’t play favorites and make sure you have the staff to accomplish the job.
What is the best relationship advice for today?
Western Society has changed, and the system of “marriage” is no longer useful or viable.
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Well, think about it…
MEN
60% of Gen Z males over 30 are still virgins. HERE
Shockingly, 60% of males in the 30-34 age group are still virgins.
The CDC also reports that virgins make up 12.3 percent of females
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This is very disturbing.
Historically, the numbers were 90+% for both males and females. Thus the maintenance of a stable long-duration relationship of equivalency in sexual experience no longer occurs. The reason is that pair-bonding doesn’t occur after 3 or more sexual partners prior to a marriage.
This lack of “pair-bonding” creates a untenable situation for long-duration relationships.
As the traditional characteristic of virginal marriages; which is marriage longevity, is no longer possible.
Scientists have attributed this phenomenon to numerous sociological and psychological attributes. Some of the contributing trends are the “Woke movement”, the “feminist movement”, “LGBQ+ movement”, “social media”, as well, of the dearth of attention to the values of traditional marriage and relationships. With in turn, has resulted in “push back” movements such as the “red pill movement”, and the “the passport bros movement”.
Never the less, what matters is the outcome of this disparity in sexual experience…
Obviously, modern women find that marriages are not suitable for them, their dreams and desires.
When a divorce is granted by a Western court, the male (more often than not) is penalized disproportionately (in comparison to the female). In fact 97% of American men must pay spousal support, while only 3% of women need to. HERE. This is the case, even though the gender pay gap is functionally at parity. HERE
Obviously, statistically, the divorce is not fairly distributed. Independent on the reason for the divorce, the courts overwhelmingly punish and penalize the male.
Thus, without looking into the hows and whys for this situation, the outcomes are crystal clear. [1] Traditional marriage is not longer functional in the West. [2] When a female enters in a marriage, it is statistically probable that she will be unhappy and will want to terminate it. [3] Regardless of the reasons and issues involved, the male in that divorce will suffer disproportionately compared to the female.
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Taking all of the above into consideration, I suggest that a “non-traditional” marriage contract be used.
Both parties write out and agree to legally binding “prenuptial agreements”. One for the male and one for the female that they both sign with a attorney.
Then, Instead of a registered wedding / marriage with a (county) District of the Peace or a State Clerk, A legal “statement of marriage” be written up by your attorney. This document clearly defines the ownership, financial, and responsibilities of both parties in the event that the divorce fails. This prevents a third part (the government) from getting involved, and protects the unique union of the two parties.
Finally, a third document is required. A “separation agreement” document must be drafted. This establishes how the divorce proceedings (outside of the normal legal channels) will be handled, or how reconciliation efforts (if any) can be implemented.
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This solution is not for everyone. However it recognizes the reality that the current marriage union available in the West in presently dysfunctional and broken. Thus, it proves a means of union, and disunion based upon the needs of BOTH the male and the female. It also explicitly forges a legal contract independent of the broken system that so entraps the divorced family.
FACT: Nothing is more critical to a person’s (male or female) happiness than the person that they are married to.
This solution recognizes this reality, and provides a realistic and workable solution in common use by the wealthier families in the West. It replaces the (presently contemporaneous) “work-arounds” such as “open relationships”, “Social Media based activity”, “hook up culture, and the problem of “high body counts”.
I want both the women, as well as the men, to both share in a fine long-duration marriage where both are happy.
Argentina and why they chose to not align with BRICS+
My brother was missing, as an adult, for nearly 30 years. No, he wasn’t just staying out of touch by choice. No, he wasn’t in Witness Protection. Less than two weeks after I last saw him, he’d been murdered in what police called one of the most brutal murders they had ever seen. But we had no way of knowing this. We didn’t know where he was, since he was hitchhiking across the country. No cell phones, no Internet in 1989. From our point of view, he just vanished.
In 2018, I was perusing a database of unidentified remains. I saw a sketch that could only have been my brother’s face. All the identifying information matched. He had been murdered in a neighboring state. I contacted the people I needed to contact. I got DNA. It took about 6 agonizing months of gathering data and having it analyzed to get results. They were positive. The murder victim was my brother. The murder is unsolved.
That was the easy part, as horrible as it was (I broke out in hives that wouldn’t go away and went into treatment-resistant depression). Now I had to tell my mother what I’d discovered.
I had to make the phone call to tell my mother that her favorite child, who had been missing 30 years, had been murdered in 1989. She wanted details of the murder, so I provided them. I would not have, had she not insisted on knowing everything.
I had people tell me “Just don’t tell her. Just don’t tell her.” But on balance, I thought that was unfair. Not knowing was just as torturous as knowing, and this way, she could lay him to rest before she died. Further, she was not a child to be protected from upsetting information.
I know she grieved greatly. My stepfather told me she cried for 3 days straight (hardly surprising), and there was an element of accusation in his voice. But telling her wasn’t his decision to make. It was mine. You can’t protect people from death. It touches us all.
If there are any who would judge my decision, I simply say to you that I highly doubt you will ever be in the same situation, so you have no right to judge. I was faced with an impossible choice. When a loved one is murdered, everyone loses no matter what you do, and my family’s story had the extra stress of him having been missing for so long. He is now laid to rest in a beautiful, remote cemetery, and he is remembered for the loving, kind, and generous soul that he was.
This is a picture of me with my cat Dexter, who saved my life.
The last few years I was feeling a bit off most days and my doctors couldn’t find a reason for my chronic fatigue and inability to train hard (I’m a former pro fighter who still trains like one).
After years of getting little more then shrugs from medical staff one day I started feeling chest pain. It felt like a torn muscle so I chalked it up as a training injury and ignored it.
Suddenly Dexter, who had been around me for 20 years, ran over to me and started pawing at my chest and crying. He had never acted this way. I decided it was a red flag and called 911. As I opened the door for paramedics I had a “widow maker” heart attack and collapsed (very low survival rate, hence the name). The cardiologist who operated on me said if I had waited 3 more minutes to call I wouldn’t have survived.
I’ve had many pets over the years and loved them all. But I had a unique bond to that cat.
This picture is so sad to me because not only was I still recovering from heart surgery in this pic and feeling awful, but Dexter was 21 and his health was rapidly declining, it was one of the last times I held him and somewhere deep down, I knew it. He suffered a stroke and passed away a few days after this pic was taken. I still miss him every day.
Within a few months of losing Dexter both of my businesses closed due to the long term effects of the COVID lockdowns. My body/health has not 100% recovered from the heart attack, my heart has never 100% healed from losing Dexter, and my finances/ professional life has never really recovered from losing two businesses I spent years building from the ground up.
If anyone would like to watch a video I made about Dexter I’m also pasting a link in the comments, feel free to watch.
India heavily depends on US for its Software services and Indians migrate to US in droves every year
Civil Servants, Army Officials, Politicians all have Kids and Grandkids in the US
The US has a market for close to $ 400–600 Million for Indian Films every year
The Indian Army relies on US, Israel and it’s allies for more than 50% of the Critical Technologies needed for it’s Defence
India thus is very likely to break in seconds if there is a serious threat of sanctions
Saudi Arabia is next
Saudi depends heavily on Western Equipment and Western Security even now
The Saudis are today at relative peace but as on date they still need the US Dollar & the Security Umbrella
China is next
The West represents almost around 17 Trillion RMB worth of Trade translating to around 2.3 Trillion RMB of Government Revenue and Economic Accrued wealth every year
China is however the first country that can survive the sanctions albeit not at Russia’s level
Brazil & South Africa are next
Both these Nations have sufficient economic independence and Brazils largest customer is China
Yet both these nations have political factions that are heavily Pro US
UAE is next
UAE once again is safer than Saudi Arabia and has been left alone by the West for many decades unlike Saudi Arabia
UAE is far more resilient and less dependent on the West than Saudi
It’s why many Russians have invested their money in UAE
Ethiopia is too small to be sanctioned effectively
It has sufficient food and energy security from Russia and that’s all it needs
Iran and Russia are the ‘Go F*** yourself’ Nations of BRICS
They can actually ask the West to go f*** off anytime they want
They are entirely immune from Western Sanctions
So the order is
Iran + Russia > Ethiopia = UAE > Brazil = South Africa > China > Saudi Arabia > India
Left Alone Abandoned By Her Family After 18 Years, This Cat Ended Up in a Shelter
China wishes to be friends with the United States, however, were the USA to cross a Chinese “Red Line” then China would declare war.
In a declared war, by China, against the United States, the results would be horrific.
The value of the USD would go to ZERO. the paper would not be worth more than the dollar.
The Global South would no longer trade with the USA creating a fiasco of inconceivable proportions.
Any American military adventurism in and around China would end. It would not be reported, but the loss of entire fleets would not be be easily hidden.
And now for the “kicker”…
China would launch missiles that the United States has no defense for, against strategic and leadership targets. Uh oh!
This would result in catastrophic damage. It would be irreparable. Well, Duh!
And the United States (and proxy) response would be thwarted with absolute erasure of all the contributors.
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Ai!
It’s an ugly thought. Not for the faint of heart.
But the Global South are not like the West. They are lead by talented, skilled and merit driven leadership. Not by the group of cluster-fuckery clowns that you see during vociferation on CNN and BBC daily. They will not allow “president” Biden to do anything that horrible.
So rest easily.
If things goes tit’s up, at least you have ample warning to “get outta Dodge”.
After the 2019 737 Max failures that downed two airplanes and killed all inside, the company promised to change its culture. But it has since seen several production stops for quality and flight security issues on several of its manufacturing lines. There are still undelivered 737 MAX and 787 planes mothballed on various airports around Seattle.
NEW IMAGE from on board Alaska Airlines 1282 after ***part of the fuselage*** blew out mid-flight. Successful emergency return to Portland after 20 minutes in the air. 10-week-old (!) Boeing 737 Max 9. NTSB investigating.
There is video from inside the plane as it was landing. Oxygen masks had been deployed when the plane depressurized. The women filming says that there was thankfully no one seated next to where the hull was breached. If there had been that person would likely have died.
🚨#BREAKING: Alaska Airlines Forced to Make an Emergency Landing After Large Aircraft Window Blows Out Mid-Air
A forced emergency landing was made of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday night. The flight, traveling from Portland to Ontario, California, faced severe depressurization, causing the ejection of a large window section and an unoccupied seat. This incident resulted in a child’s shirt being ripped off. The Boeing 737-900/-9MAX aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 16,300 ft before safely returning to Portland International Airport. As of now, it remains unclear if anyone on board the flight was injured, as this story is still developing.
It was not just the emergency exit door that was ripped out. (Such window emergency doors only open towards the inside of the plane.) The whole section around the emergency exit door departed.
I have since learned that this was indeed the place of a special emergency exit that, when installed, opens to the outside. This is ‘plugged’ on lower density planes that do not need it.
That points to a serious manufacturing issue at the hull builder that had not been caught by quality control.
All passengers and the crew survived and the plane landed safely. Alaska Air has grounded its 65 strong fleet of 737 MAX 9. Other airlines should follow.
The neat rectangular hole that appeared in the fuselage was located at the position where Boeing fits a plug to seal a door opening that is not used as a door by most airlines and by no U.S. carriers.
An emergency exit door is installed in that location only for jets going to low-cost carriers like Ryanair who cram in additional seats that require an extra emergency exit. Otherwise, the hole is sealed with a plug and from the inside it is covered by a sidewall so that to a passenger it looks like a normal window, not a door opening.
This plug, halfway between the over-wing exit and the door at the rear of the plane, is present only on the largest versions of the 737.
It’s fitted on the previous generation 737-900ER and the same design is on the 737 MAX 8-200, the high density version for low-cost carriers, as well as the MAX 9 and MAX 10.
Boeing instructed customer airlines to inspect their 737 Max jets for loose bolts, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday.
The request comes after the manufacturer discovered two aircraft with missing bolts in the rudder control system, raising concerns about faults across all aircraft.
“The issue identified on the particular airplane has been remedied,” Boeing told CNN in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 Max airplanes and inform us of any findings.”
Little noticed, the Federal Aviation Administration in December published a Boeing request for an exemption from key safety standards on the 737 MAX 7 — the still-uncertified smallest member of Boeing’s newest jet family.
Since August, earlier models of the MAX currently flying passengers in the U.S. have had to limit use of the jet’s engine anti-ice system after Boeing discovered a defect in the system with potentially catastrophic consequences.
The flaw could cause the inlet at the front end of the pod surrounding the engine — known as a nacelle — to break and fall off.
In an August Airworthiness Directive, the FAA stated that debris from such a breakup could penetrate the fuselage, putting passengers seated at windows behind the wings in danger, and could damage the wing or tail of the plane, “which could result in loss of control of the airplane.” …
One hopes that the FAA and Congress will finally get serious with Boeing. They must stop giving it all those lazy exceptions for issues that better (but more expensive) engineering can easily solve.
Posted by b on January 6, 2024 at 11:40 UTC | Permalink
Our “Parts Runner”, a maybe 5’4″ girl with long dark hair, (apparently) passed a stopped school bus on the right shoulder of a rural road at a high rate of speed (stupid!). We weren’t aware of this when the State police came by and questioned us. And instead of telling us what had happened and when, they focused on the shop owner, (6′ blond) who had earlier lost his driver’s license for a DUI. Does Mike drive? No. How does he get to work? He lives with me and rides with me. Doesn’t he own a red valiant license #… Well, I think the company owns it. He owns the company, doesn’t he? Ah, yeah, I guess. But he doesn’t drive that car, huh? No, it’s used for running parts. So he doesn’t drive it? No, our parts runner does (and I point to her) so, they arrested Mike for driving without a license and reckless driving and passing a stopped school bus and driving on the shoulder, and speeding. Mike fired the parts runner.
In court, the bus driver positively identified Mike as the driver. All of us – the receptionist, 4 mechanics and I were in court ready to testify that Mike was not driving at the time and place of the incident. But we never had to testify, because the bus driver got her dates confused and claimed the incident occurred on the day prior to the complaint. The judge had to dismiss the case.
There was absolutely no way that the driver actually saw who was driving. There is no way to mistake the parts runner for Mike. The state police HAD TO tell her to ID Mike as the driver. So not only did she lie, but the state troopers who did such a poor job of investigating what was a horrendous bit of driving and could have caused multiple fatalities of school children fucked up royally and got her to lie.
Eric Gales – “Don’t Fear The Reaper/All Along The Watchtower” (Live at the 2017 Dallas Guitar Show)
In my long career as a paramedic, I believe I saw first hand the worst thing a woman can do to a man. We were once called to the local state prison to transport a man to the hospital who was having chest pain. Other than that, he was pretty stable so it was a quiet 30-minute transport to the closest emergency room. We didn’t usually talk to the prisoners during transport, but somehow we started chatting and I asked the guy what he was “in” for. He tells me he was sentenced to prison for about 20 years for molesting both of his daughters. I was repulsed. I just wanted this scumbag out of my ambulance immediately I was so disgusted.
But then he immediately starts telling me how it was all a setup by his ex-wife and how he’s really innocent and nobody will believe him. He’s on his second attorney to try to get a new trial and he’s hoping somebody will finally grant him a new opportunity to clear his name. The prison guard riding in the back of the ambulance with us (he was sitting behind the patient) looks at me and rolls his eyes and smirks and says to me, “They all say that. Don’t listen to his bullshit. He’s been telling that to everyone who will listen.” The prisoner looks at me for some sort of sympathy but I just sternly look down at my patient report and tell him to lie back and rest and stop talking. He started sobbing and cried, “Even the paramedic that’s supposed to be saving my life hates me!” I certainly felt no sympathy for the guy at the time. I had passed judgment on him, as had the prison guard, and decided this guy was a disgusting pedophile and I’d just as soon not have to deal with him at all. Just touching him to check his blood pressure made my skin crawl.
It was approximately two years later when I happened upon a newspaper article in our local paper about a guy who’d been in the local prison for several years for child molestation. He’d eventually been granted a new trial and at some point during that second trial, both of his daughters admitted that they’d been made to create this false story against their dad at the behest of his ex-wife, who wanted to punish him for the divorce. His sentence was ultimately vacated and he was released from prison. Not sure whatever happened to the ex-wife, but I know the prosecutor said they’d be exploring charges against her.
I didn’t recognize the name of the prisoner in the article, but I immediately recognized his face when I saw a photo of him in court, weeping when the judge ordered him released. He was the same prisoner I’d transported two years before and had treated like crap. The guilt I felt at that moment was overwhelming. I wanted to find a way to contact him to apologize (if he’d even remember me). I wonder to this day whether he was ever able to repair his relationship with his kids, or whether he was ever able to repair his life. The guy spent some seven years in prison based on a bullshit charge that his ex-wife put their young kids up to. It’s a horrific thought and it still haunts me to this day.
Richard Wolff: Real wages in China quadrupled while real wages in the US stagnated
I had three friends fired for being too proactive, and read about another one who was fired for being too efficient.
In the first, the guy was hauling acid, and he went to the plant to get filled up. It was a gravity fed system, the guy came out and hooked him up, and went off to do something else in the half hour it would take to fill his tanker.
My friend saw that acid was dripping on the ground, at the connection. It was dripping faster and faster, so he looked around for the guy to shut it off. This was before cell phones. Safety rules said he couldn’t leave his truck while being filled so he decided to shut the valve and stop the acid going through the hose. He had watched the guy shut the valve many times a day as he got his loads. He resealed the connection when there was no pressure on it and opened it again. Which he did. The guy came back, and said that his truck should be full in a minute. My friend told him it would be another five minutes, because he had shut it off. The guy exploded, saying my friend didn’t understand the system and might have caused a disaster. Which is true, but it was gravity feed, he knew he was breaking environmental rules, and felt he had to try something.
My friend was not allowed on the property again, since his job was hauling acid from that plant, he lost his job.
The next one ,was a lady who got a unionized job with the city. Her first day on the job, she noticed that the cupboard door in the coffee room was hanging loose, so she reported it. A couple of days later she brought a screwdriver and tightened up the hinge. The next day the guy came to repair it and the union wrote her up, for doing someone elses job. A month later the light burnt out over her desk. She reports it, goes a week without a light, and then replaces it herself, and gets written up again. She is now on probation with the union for doing other people’s jobs. She is told third strike and your out, and you must be a member of the union to work for the city.
So when she sees that one of the only two the ladies toilets on her floor is plugged, and the other is in use, she doesn’t report it, she walks to the closet grabs a plunger , clears it, and uses the toilet. The person in the stall next to her, reports her, she is kicked out of the union, and loses her job.
This is one I read about in the newspaper years ago. It relies on the testimony of a guy who was fired, so its possible he’s making excuses. A guy gets a unionized job in the Alberta oil sands. He Is ordered to scrub out tanks, at the end of the day, he says all done. His supervisor, who is also unionized, says thats listed as a weeks worth of work, so you might as well go back and sit in the tanks, at least thats his testimony. His supervisor said it was impossible to clean the tanks in a day, so he sent him back to do it right.
He gets transferred to the night shift, where he says he tries to work continuously. His supervisor tells him that they always accomplish less than the day shift, and he has already done more, partway through the night. So he has to wait and twiddle his fingers, because they can’t make the day shift look bad.
He gets kicked out of the union and loses his job. The union says he was violating all sorts of safety regulations. I don’t know who is lying.
Finally I had a friend hired by a company to copy tapes. They have a separate contract to copy another companies tapes, after he has met his quota of proprietary tapes. He gets a bonus for the separate contract, but not for exceeding his quota of proprietary tapes.
So he gets in early, loads a dozen tapes on a dozen machines, starts the copy job. Then goes for breakfast and comes back at his usual starting time when the tape copying is done. Loads another set, and makes sure that tapes are being copied when he goes for coffee breaks, and lunch. By two o’clock he has met quota and starts on the bonus tapes. He makes sure that he has just started a set of bonus tapes when he leaves for the day.
The next morning he comes in, unloads the bonus tapes and starts on his quota tapes.
When he started with the company he was told that there were enough tapes for three years and almost no one ever had time for bonus tapes.
With his bonus, he makes double his base salary.
After a year and a half he is let go. He has used up the entire 3 year tape copy budget, and they can’t pay him anymore.
Yes, when I was a little kid. About 11 years old, I would say. I was visiting my uncle,and his girlfriend. The neighbor had a bunny rabbit that was tethered with a long leash, hopping around their yard. The neighbor saw me through the window, on her lawn, petting the bunny rabbit. She said please get off the lawn. I got off her lawm immediately.
My uncle said, sorry she’s a little kid, she just wanted to pet the bunny. The neighbor said, there is a children’s zoo, within driving distance. My Uncle and his girlfriend let the comment go.
The next day, I was in my uncles yard playing Frisbee with my uncles dog. My uncle’s dog was trained not to go beyond my uncles yard. All of a sudden, the dog belonging to the neighbor with the bunny rabbit, comes running into my uncle’s yard, to play frisbee. That neighbor walks into my uncles yard (she didn’t know he was watching from the window)
My uncle came out, and says, please get off the lawn. The neighbor said her dog just wanted to play frisbee, and loves kids. My uncle didn’t miss a beat, and said, there is a dog park with children, within driving distance.
His neighbor looked so. embarrassed, and collected her dog, and headed back towards her house. My uncle said, now do you see how silly that sounds. Sure your dog can play with my dog, and my neice. She told me I can come and see her rabbit whenever, I liked. We all became friends, after that for many years.
Originally Answered: Every day when I leave, my boss says, “leaving already?” to which I replied to today as I did my 8 hours and he says “well you are salary”. I do my work, don’t use my computer for anything other than work, and also work from home. What’s his deal?
My daughter is a master at improving restaurants . Examples, increasing sales 5x in 3 years, increasing profit by 35% in two months. She just has a nack. She arrives at 5 Am and makes sure the day is prepared for. She leaves between 4 and 5 as she trains great closers. In relation to the restaurant business, she has great employee retention.
She was hired by a fitness place to revamp it. She was working 5 to 5. In just two months she had made major strides. Customers were noticing, staff was noticing. The GM waltzed in everyday about 10 AM. When she left at 5 he always told her she lacked dedication to her job by leaving at 5. He said it one time too many. Since then she has “ fixed” two chains as training manager. That place remains a liability to the gym. The GM was fired shortly thereafter.
Bosses should respect their employees and If they don’t should replace them. In this case, if the employee was not doing their job in 8 hours, they should have had expectations set and be replaced if not met. The constant digs help no one.
I was 14 years old, it was during the second semester of my freshman year. My Spanish teacher called me to her desk after class. Once all the other students left the classroom, she grabbed my hands and said something along the lines of, “I know it’s hard. You’re going to make it through this.” She had tears in her eyes. At this point, I realized something was wrong, and people were noticing.
The first semester of freshman year, I was an honor roll student, I passed every test with a high score. I wore fashionable clothes and made a few new friends. Then second semester came. I stopped caring about my appearance, I would go to school in sweatpants and pajama shirts. My hair was unkempt, I stopped wearing makeup. My grades went from A’s and B’s to C’s and F’s. I stopped doing homework and didn’t study for tests, I lost all motivation to do school work. My GPA went from a 3.5 to a 2.01 and I didn’t care. I lost every single friend I had made and did not make a single effort to regain the friendships.
My life at home started suffering too, I became overly suspicious of my family members. I began accusing them of stealing things from me, I accused my parents of hiding cameras around the house to spy on me. I began hating my family, and isolated myself in my room at all times. I started playing video games to distract myself from the family I had hated, I immersed myself in a fantasy world and began confusing the video game with reality. I thought I knew people from the video game in real life and I would try to look for them. I thought my classmates at school were secretly apart of the video game. I thought people from the video game were watching me from my laptop camera. I began losing sleep and would impulsively pace around my room for hours without stopping, during the weekends I would pace in circles around my house from midnight until I saw the sun rise.
I began to form a crush on a boy from my improv class, instead of talking to him I thought I had the ability to put thoughts into his head. I would listen to music I knew he liked and would “insert my thoughts” into his mind, thinking he would associate myself with his favorite genre of music. I was trying to manipulate his thoughts with my “super powers” to make him like me.
I started hearing things that weren’t there. I would hear footsteps outside my door and window at night. I’d hear distant banging, as if someone were knocking on a door. I would hear faint screaming in the middle of the night, as though someone was on my street screaming near my window. I heard whispering coming from the walls. I would see shadows at night in my closet.
It took a few months of everything I had said happening for my teacher to notice, which was when I went to my mother about scheduling me a therapy appointment. However, the therapist did me no good. I didn’t know that what was happening to me wasn’t normal, it was as though my mental illness clouded my thoughts, everything that happened to me I accepted as reality, so I did not mention it to my therapist. My first therapist said I was experiencing a mild depression episode.
It took me a few months to realize something was wrong, but two years to pinpoint which mental illness I actually had. At age 16, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I am now 17, and very happy. I still have auditory and visual hallucinations, and still struggle a little with my “I can put thoughts into other people’s heads” delusion, but I regained all my motivation, am an honors student again, and no longer wear sweatpants and pajama shirts to school. I also don’t hate my family anymore, but it’s amazing how something like schizophrenia can change your thought process so much that you start to despise those who you truly love.
Architectural Wonder: China’s Spectacular New Train Station
I think prostitution is pretty safe. No one wants to become intimate with a toaster.
A lot of white collar and manual jobs will either be transformed or become entirely obsolete. LLMs have developed immensely in the last two years. It’s hard to predict the level of utility that will be possible in the next five years. Other than “a lot”.
In terms of manual jobs these will also be impacted, although robotics and automation is moving a little more slowly than paper-shuffling roles. It’s going to be a long time before a robot has the fine dexterity and precision to iron a shirt. But at the current rate of progress it might just happen in the next 20 years.
The safest jobs will be those where an essential part of the role is being a friendly mammal in the same room. We will still want nursery school staff, nurses and care workers, reception and hospitality staff. Whatever technology level we have, human beings will pay a premium for interaction with other human beings.
The creation of handmade objects and artefacts (like paintings) might be imitated by robotic means, but collectors will pay more for authentically human-made goods.
When Im was a teenager I got a summer job working for a small construction outfit. Their jobs were close to my house so I would ride my bicycle their, or the boss would pick me up long the way. A week or so into a job two new guys cme to work – the boss said they were ….. friends of his. One of the guys wore tinted presription glasses so you couldn’t really see his eyes. He really gave me the creeps.
A few days later the two new guys offered to give me a ride home after work. They were curious when I told them I lived in a group of houses beside a low security prison – my Dad worked there and the houses were owned by the prison and employees rented them. They asked me my Dad’s name and they both smiled and said they knew my Dad. I thought that was weird and it did not click in my brain why these two guys knew my Dad – who worked in a prison.
We pulled into the driveway and they saw my Dad in the backyard attending the BBQ. They were all smiles and cheers – “Hey Scotty! How’s it going?!”
My typically mild manner 5′ 7″ Dad turned red, and started yelling and swearing at the guys. The guys backed up as my Dad approached with the big BBQ fork in one hand. He told them to get back in the car and get the hell off his property. They were so surprised they scooted back the car and ‘got the hell out of there’.
I had never seen my Dad that angry, and he rarely ever said anything worse than “damn” or “shit”. He seriously cussed those guys out.
Then he turned to me with the most grotesque look on his face and said to me, “Listen to me. LISTEN! Stay the hell away from those two bastards! No matter what they say, don’t ever get in their car again to go ANYWHERE! Not for lunch, not for a beer after work, not for a ride home. Those guys are serious BAD news. So you hear me?!!”
That scared the crap out of as I realized those two guys used to be in prison.
The next summer my Dad came home with an out of town newspaper (we lived near two small towns with local papers, and the city 30 miles away had some national/international articles in the paper) and opened it up in front of me, folded it and handed it to me. He pointed to an article and said, “Read that.”
The story was about two guys who had picked up another guy who was hitchiking. They drove him to a deserted area and killed him. The one guy said he did it just to see what it was like to kill someone. Then I saw the picture of the guy who said that – tinted glasses so you couldn’t see his eyes.
I shivered physically and looked up at my Dad. He said, “That’s why I told you to never get in their car again. That poor bastard that was shot in the face could have been you.”
What do women want?
CORRUPTION, CHAOS, CONFLICT – FOURTH TURNING ERUPTS IN 2024
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine – The American Crisis
Thomas Paine wrote these words 247 years ago, in the most historic year in our history – 1776. That was during the first American Fourth Turning. It’s not a coincidence we are now in the midst of our fourth Crisis period in U.S. history, as they arrive like clockwork every 80 years or so, the length of a long human life. Paine’s American Crisis began in 1773, ignited by the Boston Tea Party and the British reaction to this revolutionary act of defiance. Our current Millennial Crisis was triggered by the Federal Reserve/Wall Street/Government created financial disaster in 2008 and subsequent outrageously desperate, totalitarian, un-Constitutional, extreme acts designed to keep the ruling class in power, while impoverishing and enslaving the masses in a surveillance state techno-gulag.
The polarization and fractures have become too deep to repair. The country, and the western world in general, are hurtling towards a darkening abyss of civil conflict, financial collapse, global war, societal chaos, and loss of life on a scale grander than WW2, the Civil War, and the American Revolution combined. Our technological advancements have outstripped our ability to intelligently, thoughtfully, and humanly, use this power for the benefit of future generations. The destructive deficiencies of human nature, such as: greed, desire for power, hatred, arrogance, resentment, and an unlimited supply of self-delusion, continue to plague our world, as only the most power-hungry psychopaths rise to the highest levels of government, business, religion, and finance.
The immense technological power in the hands of egocentric, megalomaniacal, sadistic, billionaires and their highly paid toadies, lackeys, and apparatchiks, inserted throughout the media, government, academia, banking, and corporations, has pushed the world to the brink of Armageddon. We are entering the sixteenth year of this Fourth Turning. Based on history, we can expect a climax of this Crisis in the 2030-to-2032-timeframe. The path to that climax is guaranteed to be violent and unforgiving.
Neil Howe, in his new book – The Fourth Turning Is Here – tries to decipher the likely path of the remainder of this Fourth Turning. Having read the original Fourth Turning, his joint project with William Strauss (who died in 2007), in 2004, I was curious to read Howe’s update on their generational theory of history. I met Howe for lunch in 2012 during the Occupy Wall Street protests and he correctly assessed that movement as a meaningless left-wing attempt to push their communist like agenda.
The first book, written in 1997, showed no favor towards the right or left. It was a no-nonsense assessment of economic facts and historical precedents. There were no political agendas, which I now attribute to Strauss’ influence, because Howe certainly lets his political views creep into his writings. This isn’t surprising, as his consulting business is dependent upon Wall Street banks and mega-corporations. He owes his living to the establishment; therefore he won’t shit where he eats.
Howe’s current left leaning political views seep into his current tome. He quotes Zelensky as some sort of patriotic leader, while portraying Putin as a thug, without giving any context regarding the 2014 CIA initiated overthrow of a democratically elected Ukraine president. He bought the covid scamdemic hook, line, and sinker, with no skepticism about the coordinated lockdowns and false narratives about masks, social distancing, and vaccines that never worked, but continue to kill. He believes the climate change bullshit narrative.
His tone regarding Trump is clearly negative and he believes the 2020 election was perfectly legitimate. He expounds about the January 6 “armed” insurrection, without one word about the FBI, Pelosi, and the Washington establishment planning, coordinating, and exacerbating the fake “insurrection”. His brain-dead accusations of violence by Trump supporters, while completely ignoring the murder and mayhem created by the BLM and ANTIFA terrorists, clearly reveals his allegiances.
Be that as it may, there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. His acumen regarding possible scenarios and outcomes are well thought out. Howe makes some very interesting predictions regarding the remainder of this Fourth Turning, providing some very dark possibilities, along with some more unlikely optimistic outcomes. His research reveals Americans think the American dream is no longer attainable, civil discord will destroy our democratic institutions, and our global standing is in decline. All three fears are legitimate and coming to fruition as we speak. Howe captures the current situation in this passage:
“In the middle of a Crisis era, the social mood has reached an unstable balance of hope, fear, and dizzying uncertainty. Americans are like a compressed spring at the point of maximum potential energy. Internally secure yet externally threatened, they are ready for propulsive public action.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here
Events beyond their control are leading them towards their rendezvous with destiny and the speed has begun to accelerate, with 2024 slated to be a historic date in history, on par with 1776, 1861, and 1941. The exact events which will make 2024 historic are obscured by a dense fog of uncertainty, but we can make some educated guesses based upon our current economic circumstances, Biden’s open border purposeful invasion, upcoming elections wrought with fraud, ongoing treasonous governmental and judicial operations, and deepening global conflicts already underway.
Of the three possible paths laid out by Howe, the most likely appears to be the animosity between factions eventually leads to armed conflict within the country. Political dominance by one party is highly unlikely, with the country rallying around the flag against an external enemy. It is more likely our many external foes will take advantage of our internal conflict to further weaken our global hegemony. All paths lead to war at this point.
I sense the delusional masses, still entranced by their electronic gadgets, unending access to debt, NFL fantasy leagues, and oblivious to the lessons of history, are frantically trying to fend off reality by shopping, eating out, partying at bars, and pretending all is well. Critically assessing their true situation is too painful for these snowflakes and gender bending enthusiasts. Their virtue signaling wokeness is about to meet the brutal reality of a violent Fourth Turning climax.
“And however much these paths may seem to differ from one another, they all move toward the same destination. They all push the nation toward a violent struggle requiring maximum mobilization. They all culminate in the Ekpyrosis, which will bring the era into a decisive consolidation, climax, and resolution.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here
The drivers of this Fourth Turning, as documented in 1997, continue to be debt, civic decay, and global disorder. They have propelled this Crisis since the outset in 2008 and are accelerating towards an explosive collision in 2024. The national debt at the outset of this Fourth Turning was $10 trillion. It had taken 219 years to accumulate $10 trillion of debt, with the majority amassed during this century. It has taken just fifteen years to pile an additional $24 trillion of debt on the backs of Americans and future generations, if there are future generations.
This doesn’t even take into account the $200 trillion of unfunded welfare and pension obligations tallied up by your government leaders. At the same time, the Federal Reserve increased their balance sheet from $900 billion to $9 trillion. With the rapid rise of interest rates in the last year, if banks were required to mark their assets to market, as they did prior to 2009, the entire banking industry, including the Too Big To Fail Wall Street behemoths, would be insolvent, along with the Federal Reserve. Does this seem sustainable to you?
Luckily for our teetering empire of debt, delusions, and deceptions, they can change the rules whenever it suits their purposes to extend and pretend until it all “suddenly” collapses, like a vaxxed soccer player on the pitch. Of course, the U.S. is not alone in being burdened with unpayable debt and an unsustainable financial system. China and the EU countries are also insolvent and issuing debt to service their existing debt.
The only major global power without a large debt problem is Russia, with a debt to GDP ratio below 30%, while the U.S.- 120%, EU – 90%, Japan – 220%, and China – 80% have accumulated perilous levels of debt and still growing. These debt levels and the domestic implications of unsustainable economies will lead shamelessly corrupt politicians and even dictators like Xi to provoke foreign conflict in order to distract their populations from their dire economic circumstances. A wag the dog type false flag is just around the corner.
An man-made banker created economic disaster ignited this powder keg of debt in 2008, and the “solutions” rolled out by the ruling elites since have been designed to extend, pretend, and bend the minds of the masses, while fostering the perpetual pillaging campaign by the billionaire oligarchs who really run this world. The plebs have been destroyed by the relentless inflation purposefully created by Powell and his fellow central banker puppets of the Deep State, while the lords of finance have reaped billions in ill-gotten riches.
The “Haves”, who control the financial markets, media, and politicians, are ecstatic with the current paradigm, as the stock market hits new highs every day, while average Americans go deeper into debt to keep up with the Joneses, pay the rent, and put some food on the table. The U.S. is nothing more than a sophisticated technological looting operation at this point, as we await the Great Taking to be initiated by the oligarchs as their final solution.
The Great Taking is David Rogers Webb’s warning to those not on the inside about the coming seizure of all your assets (stocks, bonds, savings) by your own government in the name of some new contrived national emergency. You will sacrifice your life savings for the good of the country (aka Deep State). At this point it’s just a matter of which comes first, The Taking, Global war, or Civil chaos caused by the ongoing election fraud. They are all coming and will merge into a category 5 hurricane of hell for the nation and the world.
The Deep State continues its complete control over who gets “elected”/selected in this country, as they use the captured judicial system as a cudgel to crush the rule of law and our Constitutional rights. The Soros selected District Attorneys, Mayors, Governors, Judges, Secretaries of States, and various other low-level captured bureaucrats, are doing what they were selected to do – destroy the country’s social fabric and create a chaotic disintegration of our community norms.
A populace propagandized into a woke communist ideology and prodded into a buy now, pay later mentality, is unwilling or unable to accept that LATER has arrived. They will pay, one way or another. Multiple bubbles in stocks, bonds and real estate are all poised to pop, with the slightest provocation from a global and/or domestic blunder. We have now positioned our naval forces in the highly dangerous waters in the Middle East. Militarily supporting Israel and Ukraine has done wonders for our GDP, but it seems we are running out of ammo to defend our own country, as the invasion of our southern border accelerates. We are currently provoking armed conflict in Yemen, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Ukraine, and Russia.
All it will take is one lucky missile or unexpected hyper-sonic missile and our vaunted navy will see a vessel or two go to the bottom of the Red Sea. Then all hell will break loose. The rhetoric, threats and accusations of atrocities are ramping up, along with armed conflict across the Middle East. With the raging religious hatreds and centuries old struggles for land and power coming to a head, it will just take one of these psychopaths to ignite a global conflict. Meanwhile, China is biding its time for when they make their ultimate move on Taiwan. That would really roll a grenade into the party.
Financial markets have ignored the worsening global conflict thus far, but what happens when Americans start dying in large numbers? If the markets are at all time highs based upon expectations of a strong thriving economy in 2024, why is the Fed signaling multiple interest rate cuts in 2024, regional banks are desperately clinging to the Fed’s emergency bailout fund, commercial real estate is collapsing, housing has peaked, gold is hitting all-time highs, credit card debt is at all-time highs, layoffs are increasing, and the number of working age citizens is in free fall due to vaxx deaths and disabilities?
But buy stocks because the Wall Street shysters and their media mouthpieces tell you it’s the best time to buy. The only question at this point is what additional grain of sand will cause the sand pile to collapse. Will it be a foreign war, or will it be a civil war within our borders or something no one has even considered? I know most people dismiss the possibility of civil war, believing there aren’t enough people willing to risk their lives for a just cause. Neil Howe seems to think it is probable.
“Roughly half of all Americans think a civil war is likely. And a growing number of social scientists agree that the United States now fits the checklist profile of a country at risk. Trust in the national government is in steep decline. Check. Respect for democratic institutions is weakening. Check. A heavily armed population has polarized into two evenly divided partisan factions. Check. Each faction embodies a distinctive ethnic, cultural, and urban-versus-rural identity. Each wants its country to become something the other detests. And each fears the prospect of the other taking power. Check, check, and check.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here
Virtually no one believes civil war is possible, just as no one expected a civil war in 1860, as the presidential election approached. Truthfully, the civil war has already begun, but only those on the left, in conjunction with the FBI, CIA, Big Media, and other governmental agencies, are aggressively fighting. They are vigorously at war against the American people by rigging elections, arresting opposition leaders, and discarding the U.S. Constitution.
The good guys have thus far been too civil. But the simmering anger of heavily armed rural, red state Americans is close to boiling over. All the signs are there, awaiting a triggering event for this undeclared war to engulf the nation. At this point a number of possible triggering events are possible.
If David Webb is correct and those in power initiate the Great Taking, the level of violence in reaction would be unprecedented in U.S. history. Maybe that is their plan. Biden and his handlers could use this event to declare a national emergency, suspending the presidential election because they were going to lose, and instituting martial law. Their attempt to lockdown the country and use the military against civilians would surely result in massive bloodshed, as local animosities would result in assassinations, wholesale slaughter of those considered disloyal to whichever side controls the high ground in that community. Previously petty disputes would suddenly become lethal disputes.
Even if the presidential election is held in November, I don’t believe either side will accept the outcome. We know the Democrats and their Deep State co-conspirators will cheat, rig and once again try to steal the election. If they fail, they will unleash their BLM, ANTIFA terrorist arm into the streets to create chaos as an excuse to not hand over power to Trump.
With multiple states now attempting to unlawfully keep Trump off the ballot in their states, the animosity between the right and left grows ever deeper. The imprisonment of Trump or more radical attempts to steal the 2024 election will be met with violence from the here-to-for persevering right. Mixing this toxic domestic atmosphere with a deepening global chasm is a recipe for global disaster.
As we have seen throughout history, the egos of psychopaths at the helm of nations often lead them to act irrationally and/or emotionally when it comes to committing their people to war. While the U.S. has further weakened its global hegemony with its disastrous forays into Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine; Russia and China have gotten stronger and more mutually committed to creating their own new world order. The USD as the dominant global currency is reaching its endpoint, marking the end of empire. Now Israel will further deplete U.S. resources and global stature with their war to wipe out Palestine. Once the dominoes begin to fall in a game of global warfare, all bets are off regarding possible outcomes. Neil Howe’s worst-case scenario is certainly not out of the question.
“At worst, should at least one desperate country resort to WMDs, the outcome of a great-power war could prove to be even more devastating than that of a civil war. The toll could be almost unimaginable – with multiple cities destroyed, many millions killed, and many tens of millions displaced – all perhaps triggered by some ill-fated combination of the wrong leader making the wrong choice at the wrong time.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here
All scenarios for 2024 seem depressing and dark, but the odds still favor just continuing to muddle through as we have done through the first fifteen years of this Fourth Turning. I gave up trying to make specific predictions within a specific time frame years ago. It’s a fool’s errand as there are too many variables in the world to correctly predict which ones will drive the course of events within a one year time frame.
What I do know is that pessimism about the future continues to deepen, paranoia strengthens, trust declines, anger grows, and the arrogance of those running the show has reached epic levels. We’ve been subjected to three years of propaganda about how the Great Reset will fundamentally transform our world, where we will own nothing and be happy. It seems this fits perfectly with David Webb’s Great Taking theory of how we will ultimately own nothing.
There does seem to be a common thread running through everything happening in the last three years and appears to be on deck for 2024 and beyond. It all revolves around this broad Great Reset concept pushed by Schwab, Gates, Soros, and the rest of the Davos elite. The entire Covid plandemic was engineered to introduce authoritarian measures and instruct the masses to obey their masters.
The vaccine is now clearly revealed to be a depopulation weapon, killing off some suddenly; others through myocarditis, turbo cancers, and strokes; babies through miscarriages; and future generations through reduced fertility. And most still believe our overlords rolled these jabs out to save them. Trump is still crowing about his big, beautiful vaccines. He’s either a fool or a charlatan.
The climate change scam is hastening, as the war on farmers, meat, and fossil fuels is waged relentlessly by unelected bureaucrats and captured media mouthpieces. The EV scam is collapsing rapidly, as people with common sense see through it all. The Great Replacement of white people with third world savages is unabetted, with the Biden Administration ushering them across the southern border, giving them phones and money, flying them to cities across the country, and paying for them to stay at upscale hotels.
This is not incompetence, but treason. They have already used their predictive programming/brainwashing to prepare the masses for civil war and a massive cyber-attack. Your government will protect you, as long as you sacrifice your remaining liberties and rights. All that is left is the initiation of the Great Taking. The “emergency” will occur on a weekend and by Monday morning your assets will be gone.
This is their master plan, but we will have a say on whether it is ever successfully implemented. I wonder if these Davos psychopaths absconded with The Great Reset moniker from Strauss & Howe, as they used it to describe Fourth Turnings back in 1997.
A Fourth Turning great reset may be a surprise to Schwab and his totalitarian acolytes inserted in governments across the world. They are in control. They are running this shitshow. They are the establishment. They are reaping the benefits. They are suppressing dissent and the truth. They are the existing social order that traditionally gets swept away during a Fourth Turning. 2024 may mark the beginning of the end for the Davos crowd and their iron grip on our spiraling society of chaos.
The future course of history could be radically altered by actions taken by supposedly influential characters in this movie, but also by courageous deeds performed by average Americans who will sacrifice themselves to ensure future generations have a chance to live in a nation devoid of a psychopathic elitist ruling class.
It seems like a long shot at this point, but giving up is not an option for those of us who still love this country. The four possible outcomes for this Crisis, laid out by Strauss & Howe in 1997, are as valid today as ever, and disturbingly close at hand. We will all have to do our part if we are to have any chance of producing a positive outcome to this Crisis. Happy New Year.
This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.
The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.
The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.
Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.
ARGENTINA IN TEARS! China STOP Deal Worth $6.5 Billion With Argentina
Yes. They took a narcotic drug, meant for the patient, and injected themselves. Gave the patient an injection of saline. I didn’t understand why the patient was suddenly unable to tolerate a treatment he had previously handled with dignity. I suspected something when I noticed this nurse would always go to the locker room after “medicating” this patient. The next time he was due for a shot to relieve his pain, I hid in the locker room. I witnessed that nurse injecting herself. Fury was what I felt, for making a patient suffer so terribly. I was unable to feel any pity for her at that moment. I reported her, and she was fired, after her ongoing behavior was verified. The other nurses on the unit didn’t speak to me because I’d betrayed the “sisterhood” I pointed out that a patient was being harmed by an impaired nurse. FIRST imperative is to adhere to the oath we all took, to “do no harm”. You have to do what’s right!
Obviously the addicted nurse was counseled and offered assistance in overcoming her addiction. THAT is the right thing to do, too.
Another incident occurred when I realized one of the best, most brilliant nurses I’d ever worked with, was stealing a narcotic, regularly. He never harmed a patient, but I could see he was addicted. I chose to try to help him, and spoke to him, telling him I knew people and could get him into drug rehab the next day. I urged him to seek help. I warned him the supervisor was looking for whoever was stealing the narcotics. He assured me it wasn’t him and he didn’t need help, he was fine. He was caught, the next night, stealing. End of career. Those of us, who worked with him, were in tears.
Sometimes you help. Sometimes you report. The patient comes first. But one hopes that help is offered, because once removed as a nurse, that nurse becomes a “ patient”.
I did. I caught up with a driver I clocked at a very high rate of speed. When I walked up to the window I saw a grandmother in the back seat holding a young boy in her lap and he was spewing a bright pink frothy liquid every few seconds. The driver asked where was the hospital. Regulations forbade emergency escorts, and I violated that reg. I led them to the nearest hospital a few minutes away. On arrival I was told to take him to another ER, that hospital didn’t have the ER that day. I forcefully informed the Dr that the boy wouldn’t survive that long. He reluctantly had the boy brought in and began treating him. Several Drs attended that youngster that afternoon and all abandoned him but one young Dr named Alex Krier. He would not give up, and he saved that boys life. I learned that he fell off the bed of a pickup truck in a pasture and hit his head. I never learned what the diagnosis was. I would occasionally hear from his father from Tallahassee Fl. The youngster eventually made a full recover but his injury slowed his development significantly. I firmly believe God placed me in that position that day, and that He put Dr Krier in that ER that day. If they had taken him to the ER of the day, several miles away, I believe he would not have survived.
Well, blanket tariffs are illegal under WTO rules.
ILLEGAL.
Donald the Orange had to resort to neutering the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO to pursue blanket tariffs on China.
The WTO remains neutered under Joe the Elderly.
Meanwhile, the US made a genocide determination on China, and rescinded recognition of Hong Kong as an independent trade body under the WTO framework.
That’s belligerence and exceptionalism.
A typical example of the rules-based international order the US is trying so hard to maintain.
What is China to do unless it wants to play the same game?
Unfortunately for the hegemon, it must be willing to take pain and sustain damage to land punches on the No. 2 economy today.
As America is finding out, or being forced to admit, belligerence is unsustainable and comes with its cost, and paying it into the future is an uphill ask that accumulates systemic risk.
When I babysat, decades ago in the late eighties and early-to-mid nineties, it had become a trope: the babysitter who ignores the kids and spends the whole time talking on the family’s phone, watching the family’s TV, and eating the family’s food. Because of this, a few families whose kids I watched sincerely believed that it was what I would do, too.
It couldn’t have been further from the truth. I began babysitting in the Babysitters Club era, and sitters my age consulted those books like manuals. We brought activities for the kids. We were primed for the emergencies we’d read about. We wanted to impress parents. Many, many nights, I would go directly to a job after a long day of school and eat nothing at all until I got home at 11pm or midnight, because parents didn’t offer anything and I wouldn’t have dared take something that wasn’t offered.
There were parents who would honest-to-goodness measure tiny amounts of popcorn kernels into paper bags for each of their children, and leave them on the countertop for me to microwave for them as a snack. Other parents would warn me away from fridges and pantries, telling me that the kids could have this cup of applesauce and that bag of pretzels and nothing more. I honestly do not remember a single parent telling me to go ahead and eat with the kids. I was the hired help and could eat on my own time. And I was paranoid that they would come home to find food “missing”, and blame me for taking morsels from their kids’ metaphorical mouths.
How did I deal with this? A few ways. I’d try to eat a big lunch at school. I drank water from the kitchen tap. For some reason I have a vague memory of stealthily eating a single raw piece of whole grain penne pasta, although I’m not sure why I would have had to do that. Later, when I had wised up a bit, I began bringing food art projects for the kids to do, and that was a snack for all of us.
Having food available for a babysitter isn’t really likely to bankrupt a parent or compromise the kids’ care. It can have guidelines (“if you get hungry, feel free to have one of the snacks I left on the kitchen table” or, “go ahead and have some pizza with the kids”). A babysitter, especially a young one, will be relieved and appreciate that you care.
Seriously, I always thought “what the hell is wrong with this girl?”
“Why is she so into me? I haven’t done anything.”
Yet there it was…
“I haven’t done anything,” & in my mind love or affection was something that was highly conditional, earned, and can be taken away. Not something I was inherently worthy of.
Some women are clingy, codependent, and looking for a man to “complete them” in a way that is not realistic.
However, some women are just secure enough in themselves to be forward about it.
Expressing your feelings is healthy. It is an extension of good parenting. The result of being taught that when people love you & care for you they say so and act accordingly.
An emotionally secure woman is going to show you she cares or desires you because that is how her loved ones taught her to be.
Sometimes however for many people, like myself, were taught expressing your feelings is NOT okay. That people who care about you will not say that, & affection is both scarce and highly conditional.
For those people, loving, affectionate, expressive people are… strange & unfamiliar.
So the reality is that a woman who is upfront about her emotions is not by default “clingy”. Trust me, I had an ex-girlfriend who never wanted to be away from me… ever.
Now that is clingy.
However, a woman saying she likes you and wants to spend some time with you is what emotionally healthy and secure women do.
So if a woman expressing interest alone turns you off, that says more about your inability to accept healthy affection than her being overly dependent on you.
Fall asleep to the Purring of a Cat & Fireplace 🔥 Relax in Cozy Winter Hut, Fireplace sound
OMG!
The cat is curled up next to the fireplace, its tiny body nestled close to the warmth emanating from the crackling logs. Its eyes are closed, and its chest rises and falls with each peaceful breath. The soft glow of the fire dances across the cat's fur, casting flickering shadows on the surrounding floor. Its paws are tucked neatly under its chin, as if in a state of utter contentment. The rhythmic purring fills the air, a gentle lullaby that blends harmoniously with the crackling of the fire. The cat's whiskers twitch ever so slightly, indicating a deep and restful sleep. The coziness of the scene is heightened by the sight of a few scattered ash particles caught in the air, evidence of the cat's proximity to the hearth. It is a picture of serene tranquility, a blissful respite from the world, as the cat dreams away in the comforting embrace of the radiant warmth.
Hungarian Chocolate Cake (Rigo Jansci)
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
6 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon espresso powder, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup Dutch processed baking cocoa
Cocoa Whipped Cream Filling
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Raspberry and apricot preserves
Ganache Frosting
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons pailettes de feuilletine (optional)
1 tablespoon cocoa nibs (optional)
Instructions
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 10 1/2 x 15 1/2-inch jellyroll pan with parchment and spray with nonstick vegetable spray.
In a dry bowl, melt chocolate over barely simmering water. Whisk the eggs and sugar until they hold a ribbon shape for 2 seconds. Whisk in the coffee mixture. Sift, then fold in the cocoa. Fold in the melted chocolate. Spread in the prepared pan and bake for 9 minutes until set. Let cool.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Sift the cocoa and confectioners’ sugar into the cream and whip to the consistency of shaving cream. Divide the sheet cake in half. Lightly spread one layer with apricot preserves. Spread on the whipped cream. Lightly spread the other half with raspberry preserves and flip on top of the whipped cream. Refrigerate.
Make the Ganache: Put the chocolate in a small bowl. Over medium heat, bring the cream to a scald. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Working from the center out, gently stir with a whisk to melt and blend. Continue stirring until smooth. Stir in the feuilletine and nibs. Pour over the cake. Allow cake to chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate is set.
Woman dies in crash and WAKES UP in another TIMELINE where she discovers THIS…
While camping in a fairly remote area of west Wales, Pendine being the nearest village, I decided to take a walk to one of the beaches nearby. This isn’t the sort of beach with any parking nearby, or even a road leading to it, the only way to access was either by a very rough part of the Wales coastal path, or a slightly better path from inland, it was difficult to access to say the least.
The remoteness and tranquility of the beach didn’t offer any clues to the violent events that had taken place there in the past.
When approaching from the coastal path I could see a structure set back quite some way from the beach, just visible in the photo below.
On closer inspection of the structure set back from the beach head, it appeared to be some sort of sea wall or a section of harbour wall, but was way too far back for the sea to ever reach it. It also appeared to have suffered some quite extensive damage, as can be seen below:
Knowing there was an army training ground located a few miles away I assumed it may have something to do with the military, though not sure what the purpose could be. Once back in civilisation with a phone I searched for information about the beach and found the following article:
It transpires that the wall was built to replicate the sea defences at Omaha beach to practice for the D-day landings. There was previously another wall there, but this was destroyed by tanks placing large explosive charges and subsequent erosion by the sea. The holes blown out of the concrete were from experiments with various explosive charges. It was really unexpected that this place was once used for this purpose.
The Biggest Story in America | The Scheduled Collapse of U.S Cities
At my former employer we had a saying “Hell hath no fury like a loyal customer scorned”. I now know that I am one of those customers.
I was a customer of ATT Cellular for over 20 years, paying well over $350 a month for 5 lines for my family. That’s $350 after all the “discounts”. The incentive to stay with ATT was mostly inertia and a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it approach”. In spite of the bluster, they really didn’t give any incentives on new phones other than interest free financing, and I knew I could probably find a better price elsewhere, but…
Then a few months ago my credit card number got stolen (not the card, just the number) and the bank caught it right away and changed the account number. This happened to be the card that ATT used for my auto-bill. I didn’t realize it until they sent me a text saying my monthly payment was one day overdue. So immediately I went online, paid the one-day overdue bill, and changed the credit card number. The bill was over $50 higher due to removal of the e-bill discount and a late payment fee.
The next bill also had a removal of the e-bill discount and the added charge of $7 for late payment. I thought that was unfair, but I let it go.
But a month later the next bill arrived and still had no e-bill discount and added another $7 late fee! I called up to inquire and was told too bad, it takes at least a month and a half to register the new credit card in their system. All I wanted was the recent $7 late fee credited. First I appealed to their sense of fair play, and got nowhere. I then asked politely if I could ask a manager for a waiver.
The manager said no way. I pointed out I was a customer at $350 a month for 20 years, but I would leave over $7. He calmly told me the equivalent of “don’t let the door hit you in the ass” (I’m paraphrasing). No raised voices, just a calm discussion that ended in goodbye.
So I started the research, and found a carrier that uses the same cellular network plus others, and is costing me $210 a month less! $210 a month less for the same exact service! This was the best $7 wake-up call I ever had!
Many years ago when my daughter was in High School we were going to Target. We got there and parked. Now mind you, my daughter is incredibly good looking and I am round and a mom. If you were looking at the two of us standing together you would hardly even notice me. I am totally good with that. My husband hates it. lol Well back to the story…
We park the car, get out and start walking through the parking lot toward the store. A very nice, lifted, truck drives past us, the driver cat calls and honks the horn. My daughter looks me dead in the face and asks me if I know the guy driving the truck. I literally spit out my coffee and started laughing. She got all serious and demanded if I knew that guy! I could not stop laughing. She was so serious!
I told her the honk and cat call was for her, not me. I was laughing so hard because she was so miffed. Arms crossed over her chest., marching throught the parking lot. She didn’t know who it was so there was, “absolutely no way,” that was for her. It was so funny! She was so serious!
Needless to say, I was already wiped out, sides aching from laughing, by the time we got in the store. We did not spend much time in there.
He is Ultra Cautious and always adds a pinch of salt and always keeps making speeches for more improvement
That’s how Chinese leaders are
Always looking at the Long Term
Plus they always give a gloomy outlook and then when China does do much better, they look like they have achieved something amazing
Take this year 2023
Xi gave a same speech in 2022
Challenges, Global Slowdown, Real Estate Slowdown
Chinese people expected the worst and they found things MUCH MUCH BETTER
They credit this to the CPC and this buys Xi Jingping brownie points
Xi has never ever boasted of Chinas economic prowess
Never
From the first day he has always been cautious and always warned of challenges since 2014 at least
Xi’s speeches regarding MILITARY have changed from wolf warrior style to cautious diplomacy from 2014–2023 but as far as economy is concerned, he has always spoken of challenges
My point is – every Economy today has challenges
No leader mentions this
Especially Democratic leaders
They will always brag and boast and eventually get burnt
China is always cautious and it’s citizens always prepared for the worst, so they always feel better when things go better than the predicted outlook
I noticed it even when they submit their expected profits
They always predict less profits and longer time to break even and when they make more profits and break even quicker, they credit their style and efficiency
Indians predict more profits and shorter time to break even and end up embarrassing themselves often
The fact is 2023 is the best year for China economically since 2018
Their GDP growth of 5.1% has been achieved even when Real Estate dragged it down by 1.1% this year
Their GDP growth of 5.1% has been achieved even when Industrial Production dragged it down by 0.4% this year
Their GDP growth was 5.1% despite Asset Monetization dragging down growth by 0.2% this year
Had the three stayed static or stagnant – Chinas GDP growth would have been 6.8% this year
The Real Interest rate is 2.61% this year which is way higher than other countries. In India it’s 1.30% , half of Chinas. This is higher than the 0.85% Real Interest rate in 2022
Despite a near 18% reduction in Exports to US and EU, China finished with a $ 860 Billion Trade Surplus
China holds a mere 25% US Assets in reserves of $ 3.23 Trillion against 79% in 2010
Six of the largest service sectors – Retail, Financial, Travel, Hotels, Restaurants & Supermarkets all broke into the black this year from red last year
Industrial Profits slumped by 14% but High Tech Industrial Profits rose 39%
The day a Chinese Leader smiles and says how great China is doing
I was shopping at Boston store and foolishly looked at the sparkly jewelry display. I saw a gorgeous blue stone set in an Art Deco designed pendant. I fell in lust with it.
I was again foolish and tried it on. The counter lady told me it made me look radiant, the stone was unique, the design a rare offer, plus it was on sale, with a coupon. It was very expensive. I began justifying the purchase, which was a bit spendy for my budget. I rationalized I could eat cheap soup, ask for car rides to save having to buy gas, turn down the heat for a few months, to lower the bill. I bought the necklace.
I got home and had buyers remorse every time I had to eat the cheap noodles, beg a ride to work, put on another sweater and pair of socks. It wasn’t enough remorse to make me return it.
The bill for the purchase came, I had barely enough to pay it in full because if I didn’t pay it all I would be charged interest for a purchase I could hardly afford. I didn’t delay in returning the bill. I breathed a sigh of relief. The necklace was mine.
My satisfaction was short lived. The next month I got another bill from Boston Store. It contained a $35 late fee. I called the store to complain, how I was charged a late fee when the date the payment was posted was on the due date. The person who answered said the computer calculated it, the fee was due. The computer was wrong! I wrote a letter stating my observations. It was ignored.
I decided to pay the $35 because damaging my credit wasn’t worth it. I vowed to never, ever shop there again. Without surprise the entire empire that included Boston Store declared bankruptcy, folded and no longer exists. While I know my refusal to remain a customer didn’t single handedly undermine their business it makes me happy to wear the necklace.
My uncle Jeff (mom’s brother) was a renowned Neurosurgeon and Director of Stereotactic Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. As you could imagine, he was a fairly brilliant guy (perfect SAT, Princeton undergrad, taught himself fluency in German, all of those things crazy-smart people do.)
We are a fairly small family, so I got to know him on a pretty personal level, more as an uncle than a doctor. But I still knew him as both, and can tell you there was a significant dichotomy between the two Jeffs.
His patients raved about his passion and care for their well being and treatment, they said he was an unwavering professional. He had the utmost respect among peers and students. Jeff, or Dr. Williams, aimed to become the best neurosurgeon in the world.
Jeff as a person, and I say this as someone who still loves him dearly, was a wonderful but flawed and complex individual. On his good days he could be the funniest and most intelligent guy you’ve ever spoken to. The kind of guy who could say one sentence that changes the way you see the world. On his bad days he could be profoundly arrogant; he was very aware of his mental capacities and not afraid to let you know.
He could also be very demanding and temperamental. As a 7 year old, he would review my math homework with me and let me tell you, you’ve never met a more demanding math tutor. My theory was that because he was so demanding of himself, he projected that same standard upon people he cared about.
But we still had fun too.
Over the years, we saw him frequently and had a great relationship, but we noticed he started looking pretty bad. He was gaining weight and he had lost a lot of color in his face. We know he was working 80+ hours and living off the hospital cafeteria food. It wasn’t something you could mention to him, or he would stop talking to you for a year. Finally, his dad (my grandpa) tried to bring it up with him, but Jeff would have none of it. He wouldn’t listen or didn’t take it seriously. And he got angry to the point that we could never bring it up again.
About a month after my 19th birthday, I was packing to head back to college. I heard my mom crying in her bedroom across the hall, I could tell something was wrong, very wrong. I came in, she was on the phone, sobbing. It was that type of cry that meant something really bad had happened. She hangs up the phone and tells me. “Your Uncle Jeff had a heart attack this morning, Jeff is dead.”.
That morning he had been running on a treadmill in the Johns Hopkins gym next to a fellow doctor, he had a type of “widow maker” heart attack and died. Not even a surgeon jogging next to him could save him. He was 50 years old.
To this day, I miss and love Jeff. I idolized him and his death crushed the family. But I am also angry; he made some pretty bad health choices that cost him his life, choices a neurosurgeon knows well not to make. Choices he somehow rationalized didn’t apply to him. And so to answer the question, the thing that annoys me about really smart people, is that they can be guilty of hubris at times.
Back in 1992 or so, I was in a computer repair shop where I often sourced secondhand parts, like the 3.5″ floppy drives from IBM PS/2 systems. They had a defect that frequently caused them to slip out of alignment, and when they did, IBM would simply pay repair shops to swap out the floppy drives with new ones and toss the old ones. You could actually find tons of them in dumpsters at repair shops.
I collected them because they were super-easy to fix, you just turned a screw to align them again. They used the same card edge connector with the same pinout as a 5.25″ floppy drive, so you could just swap them on computers with 5.25″ floppies, which I did on my TRS-80.
Anyway, I was in there one day when the tech was like “hey, you want this?” and pointed to an Apple Lisa with an Apple Profile hard drive. “I was like “sure, what’s wrong with it?” He said “I don’t know. Video doesn’t work at all. Total blank screen. I haven’t looked at it because when I gave the owner a price quote, he just told me to keep it.”
So I bought it for $100, got it home, popped off the top (super easy, it was designed to be disassembled without tools, and all the electronics slid out in card cages like military radios use), and…
…the little socket had come off the back of the CRT.
I slipped it back on and it worked perfectly. Used it for years, until it finally failed. In fact, I even did small-press publishing on it.
Unimportant details have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.
When I was in training a 14 year old girl swimming in the ocean was run over by a speedboat. One leg and half her pelvis were gone. The thing is, most patients that are going to die come in unresponsive whereas most patients that live come in talking. But a young girl like her has a lot of physiologic reserve and the large vessels of her pelvis had spasmed shut to temporarily stop the bleeding. So despite her extraordinarily severe injury, she was actually talking to us. And she was pleading with us to save her life. I can still remember her crying, saying “I don’t want to die, Daddy.” Her father (who had been driving the speedboat) was beside her holding her hand.
I took one look at her injury and knew it was fatal. There were several surgeons there and we tried some Hail Mary maneuvers in the trauma bay, but the spasming arteries opened up within a few minutes of arrival and she died.
If you’re in the trauma field you get used to death, and I am. But I will never forget the sound of her crying to live. I can only imagine what her father went through.
It was a get-rich-quick scheme. Leap in front of slow-moving cars, feign injury, and threaten a suit. Make millions overnight. Or that was his plan, anyways.
So he ended up in the ER once, twice a week. He was never actually hit, but he put on such an exhibition, we were obligated to work him up. He was in and out of the CT scanner so often he acquired the sort of soft glow you could have a romantic dinner over. And he almost always ended up spending at least one night inpatient. Traumatized drivers showed up crying, asking about his wellbeing. He was exhausting our patience and our resources.
“We have actually sick patients who can’t get a bed upstairs because he’s taking up space,” I groaned, catching sight of his name on the ER board once again.
“But what can we do?” my co-resident shrugged. “One of these times he will truly be hurt. How do we save someone from themselves?”
I sighed. “He’s not trying to hurt himself. He’s just trying to make money. Unfortunately, he’s not crazy. Just an asshole.”
My chief, Hayashi, leaned back in his chair and snickered, tenting his fingertips together diabolically. “What if he WAS crazy?” he proposed, with one eyebrow raised.
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” he tipped his chair forward, “it’s a six floor hospital, right? Put on your white coat and climb out the window of the room next door to his. Inch your way across the ledge, and climb in HIS window. Walk up to the bed, climb up on it, stand up. Unzip and pee all over him. Then climb back out the window again..”
“WHAT?!!?” I screeched. “That’s insane!”
“Yup!” grinned Hayashi. “That’s exactly what they’re gonna say when he tells everyone some doctor climbed in the window and peed on him. Then he’s gonna go away. Problem solved. You’re welcome.”
“Carrier killer” DF-21d missiles are no longer China’s only weapon against American carriers!
1. Armed drones
As we all know, Chinese drones are very powerful. Recently, American carriers ran into trouble in the Red Sea, and Iranian observers even mocked the US military on Twitter for using a $2.1 million SM-2 missile to intercept a $2,000 Yemeni drone.
American carriers can’t even defend themselves against Yemen’s humble drones, let alone the countless drones of China, the land of drones.
It amuses me that America’s “invincible” aircraft carriers are being fumbled by the Houthis in Yemen.
What you need to know is that the Yemeni Houthis are not government forces, just a guerrilla force on motorbikes. Lol! 🤣
2. EM gun
What Chinese ships are hiding even deeper are the electromagnetic guns not used by American ships.
China’s medium-voltage DC integrated power system for ships is at least 20 years ahead of the U.S., which can fully guarantee the electricity for EM guns.
EM cannon shells fly incredibly fast and are silent, with no gunpowder explosions.
A single shot from an EM gun can sink an aircraft carrier instantly and completely silently, and cannot be recognised, tracked, or intercepted.
But the American EM gun can not be actualised because its ship power system and its backwardness, can not supply the huge amount of electricity consumed instantly by the EM gun.
Below is the full translation of 《中国留美博士生突遭遣返:经历噩梦般的50个小时》Chinese PhD Students in the U.S. Suddenly Deported: Enduring a Nightmare-like 50 Hours, a news report by 中国科学报 China Science Daily posted in its WeChat blog on Friday, January 5.
Meng Fei, a Ph.D. student originally set to return to her university in the U.S., was denied entry at an American airport and rapidly repatriated. The 50 hours she spent there is utterly an unforgettable nightmare for her.
After Meng landed in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 2023, she was immediately detained by U.S. Customs at the airport for secondary inspection. She then spent eight hours in the so-called “little dark room” and another 12 hours in solitary confinement. During her layover in Los Angeles, she was detained for five more hours before being sent back to Beijing. These dark moments are etched clearly in her memory.
Sitting back in the sofa corner at home, Meng is in a daze – “How did I end up back here?” When she left for the U.S., she had just successfully renewed her F1 student visa for the coming year on November 27, 2023, not expecting to be rapidly repatriated. What is worse is that she is banned from entering the U.S. for five years. If her appeal fails, Meng will not be able to attend her doctoral defense in 2024. The appeal takes at least six months, which is too long for her biological research to wait.
Meng Fei was shocked to find, on the train back to her hometown, six other students who had similar experiences at Dulles International Airport (IAD). All of them are females. Furthermore, she learned of two other female students who were informed at the Chinese airport during check-in that their visas were revoked and could not board their flights.
Despite thorough analysis, they couldn’t dig out the reason for their repatriation. The only certainty was that their dream of studying in the U.S. was shattered.
“The Little Dark Room”
Four hours after arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport, Meng Fei was informed that there was a problem with her visa and that she had to return to China. She became the only person repatriated from the airport that day.
Meng Fei stayed in the little dark room for eight hours. After learning she was denied entry, she was immediately told to pay $3,700 for her repatriation flight to China by herself, with no other options. By comparison, her flight to the U.S. cost only $1,000.
The officials who interrogated Meng were two women: Epstein, with short hair and no uniform, and Pratt, with blonde hair, not tall, also with no uniform. Other detainees encountered Pratt as well.
This group of victims were interrogated about whether they received scholarships during their undergraduate studies, whether they were funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), or whether they engaged in any confidential research. Meng had received undergraduate scholarships from their alma mater but was not involved in CSC-funded projects or any confidential research.
When signing her statement, Meng was told it was just to confirm the interrogation’s accuracy, but she wasn’t allowed to see the content before signing. Only after signing did she learn that she would not only be repatriated rapidly but also banned for five years. She was outraged because the customs officers kept urging her to accept the decision to return to China during the interrogation, saying she could re-enter easily by reapplying for a visa. The five-year ban was not mentioned during the whole process.
With two armed officers watching, she had no choice but to comply, focusing only on how to leave that dreadful place and contact the outside world.
The nightmare didn’t end there. After an 8-hour wait in the little dark room, Meng confronted a humiliating search, followed by 12 hours in solitary confinement.
“I was told that I would be kept in a room, I don’t remember the exact room name. Maybe at that time, my ears refused to hear it, my brain to remember it,” she recalls. She was not allowed to bring her luggage, coat, shoes, sweater, or even cough medicine. The room had a cot, a sofa, children’s books and toys, a toilet without a door, and multiple surveillance cameras, but no clock. Thankfully, there was a TV showing the time.
It was a little cold in that single room, but Meng only got three sheets to sleep with. She managed to sleep for only an hour, waking up frequently, and spent two hours watching the movie X to kill time. For the rest of the time, she just aimlessly pressed the remote control, unable to focus on anything, just waiting to board the flight home.
It was only when preparing to board the flight that she was informed that she would get her phone back only upon landing in Beijing. For the previous 48 hours, it was impossible for her to inform her family she was safe.
The search and 5-hour detention in Los Angeles airport seemed trivial in comparison. On the flight to Los Angeles, her main concern was how to make contact with her family and inform them of her situation. Fortunately, her iPad, which was brought with her, enabled her to inform her family of her flight number.
Upon landing in Beijing, a official of the Chinese immigration administration helped Meng charge her phone, record what she had experienced in the past few days and had her sign and fingerprint the record. She could finally message her family.
Fellow suffers
On the train home, Meng Fei got into contact with another girl through social media who had also been repatriated from DIA and denied entry in December 2023. The girl was also pursuing a PhD in the U.S.
Such students experiences have a WeChat group. Their experiences were strikingly similar. Wei Na, a student at Johns Hopkins University, and her roommate were detained in the little dark room on November 24, 2023. Wei was asked sensitive questions during the formal record, such as military service, connections to the Ministry of Education, and funding from the state. Despite she gave negative responses, the inspector told her, “Your F1 and B1/B2 visas are no longer valid, and you are not allowed to enter the U.S. We will send you back to China on the earliest flight. You need a new visa to re-enter.”
Repeated inquiries with inspectors only revealed that her visa was canceled by the U.S. Embassy in China two days before her entry. However, after returning home, she was told by the embassy that it was not the embassy but U.S. Customs’ decision. That made her doubt the authenticity of the U.S. customs officers’ statements, suspecting they were just inducing her to accept repatriation.
Two more sufferers joined their group. One of them was repatriated from the same airport and the other one was told the visa was revoked before boarding in China. In total, there were 11 of them.
This situation motivated Meng Fei to investigate the commonalities among the victims to find out the cause of their rapid repatriation. She created an Excel document, and so far, ten victims have filled in their details, with one more whose visa was revoked at check-in providing incomplete information.
The findings showed that all ten were graduates from prestigious universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, among others. Their domestic degrees spanned fields like biological sciences, preventive medicine, statistics, materials physical chemistry, communication engineering, German, and business administration. They were currently studying at U.S. institutions such as Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia. Among them, two were first-year master’s students, three first-year Ph.D. students, two fifth-year Ph.D. students, one sixth-year Ph.D. student, one postdoctoral fellow, and one female on a work visa.
Of the eight repatriated students, four had won university scholarships during their undergraduate studies, and one received a CSC scholarship; none were involved in confidential research. One was even questioned about having a Russian tourist visa. However, none of them was told the clear reason for their repatriation by the U.S. Customs.
They couldn’t understand why receiving a scholarship for academic excellence during undergraduate studies would become an obstacle to acquiring further education in the U.S.
Meng Fei noted that the inspectors focused heavily on her phone, while her computer and luggage were not scrutinized carefully. However, in subsequent inquiries, they did not mention any issues or sensitive information on her phone, nor did they ask questions about their phones.
Given that all known repatriated individuals were female, they speculated that U.S. Customs’ actions involved not only racial but also gender discrimination. Since these recent incidents all occurred within the past month and were handled by the same customs officer, they suspected that these U.S. Customs inspectors were rushing to meet year-end repatriation quotas.
A well-known context is that on June 3, 2020, former U.S. President Trump signed Executive Order 10043, prohibiting certain students and scholars from obtaining F/J visas in the name of national security. However, the universities and majors of these victims were not within the scope of this order, and most of them did not have obvious characteristics related to Executive Order 10043. Some indications suggest that the ban has been expanded in recent years – potentially going further.
What further distressed these students was the discovery of intentional or unintentional alterations in their records.
One student’s record inexplicably included a segment about engagement in a Chinese high-end talent program and visits to military-industrial units. Another student’s undergraduate research was on South Africa, one of the BRICS countries, but this was not mentioned in the record. Instead, there was an emphasis on Russia and China being part of the BRICS.
Where should they head?
Will this sudden turn of events make Meng Fei’s almost completed doctoral degree come to naught?
While detained at U.S. Customs, Meng Fei pondered numerous possibilities for her future. If only she had foreseen what would happen then, she would have waited to return to China after receiving her diploma. If she had been more prepared, she could have applied to withdraw her U.S. entry request, possibly avoiding the five-year entry ban. However, seven of the eight repatriated girls were completely unaware of this and received the five-year ban without any advance notice. The U.S. Customs only informed the first repatriated student of the option to withdraw her entry application, not the other seven.
Is it possible to revoke this five-year entry ban? Meng sought help from her advisor, the international students’ office at her school, the graduate student union, and the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. However, so far, no effective headway has been made.
A professor of Chinese heritage at Yale University, deeply concerned about Meng Fei’s situation, sought assistance from many people for her. This professor himself was a victim of the Trump administration’s “China Initiative” and had ever been temporarily suspended from his job for several months. Meng is very grateful to him, as he, having “been through the rain,” also wants to “hold an umbrella” for others.
According to her original plan, Meng should now be focusing on supplementary experiments in the lab. She needs to complete some experiments, then finish and submit papers, followed by her doctoral defense.
The unforeseen event necessitates her communicating with her advisor to see if she can complete the experiments with the help of her lab colleagues and then proceed with an online defense. This is a result she can accept.
Then what next? Perhaps she will look for a postdoctoral opportunity in Europe. Her advisor is European and may be able to offer some advice and help.
The other two Yale Ph.D. students, whose visas were revoked before boarding in China, have gradually lost hope of returning to the U.S. during their long wait. A fifth-year Ph.D. student has been in China for nearly half a year. Even though she has reapplied for a visa, there is no update on her visa status and the only thing to do is wait anxiously. Another first-year doctoral student reapplied for a visa but was denied, leaving her no choice but to withdraw from her program.
Meng is seeking help from lawyers, but the prospects are unclear. After all, even the lawyers can’t discern from the documents the reasons for her repatriation by U.S. customs, making it difficult to prepare specific materials. The waiting time is unknown.
The group of victims hopes to lift the five-year ban, but no response has been made by the U.S. Customs even after their U.S. universities tried to contact them.
(Note: Meng Fei and Wei Na are pseudonyms used in the article.)
Cream Cheese Kolacky
Ingredients
1 (10 ounce) bag dried apricots
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups flour
Confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Place apricots in medium saucepan; cover with water. Soak overnight.
Heat the apricots and water to a boil in medium saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring often with fork to mash and adding water if needed, until smooth and thick, about 10 minutes. (If necessary, you can chop finely with a knife or process about 1 minute in a food processor or chopper.)
Add the granulated sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Cool completely.
Blend together the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl; gradually blend in flour, using hands once the dough has begun to form, until it can be shaped into a ball (this may be more or less than 2 cups). Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide dough into thirds. Roll out each third on a floured board into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle, 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares with a pizza cutter. Place 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of the apricot filling in the middle of each square. Fold each corner into middle; pinch together. (Moisten fingers with cold water if dough does not stick.)
Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets; bake until golden, about 17 minutes per batch.
Cool on wire rack; sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.
We have built a vacation home in a nearby province. Husband took on the contracting while maintaining his full-time police job – so proud of him!
I did not announce this; I dislike the comparison games people play and do not want to be perceived as bragging.
A good friend asked to see pictures at a reunion luncheon. As I flipped through pix on my phone, an acquaintance from long ago came up behind us.
She peered over our shoulders and exclaimed, “When you married that low-ranked cop, I knew you’d end up this way! How far you’ve fallen! How can you live like THAT!!”
The look on her face was not one of concern, but a sneer.
She was looking at a picture of the shed where building materials had been kept (that has since been removed).
*sigh*
*Note Some have asked about my response. I smiled, told her that it was the raw materials shed and went back to my conversation.
Why didn’t I snap back, go for her throat, etc?
Because that (and to embarrass me) is what she expected, what she wanted. She is in her element when someone defends herself or gets angry.
But she has never been able to handle a calm, non-defensive response.
My friend called me up the other day, he’s in another country and in the midst of a full-on psychotic breakdown… “I’m in hell, Jean-Marie…” he said, “everything around me is fire and I’m in hell.” He hears roosters and dogs barking, cars honking, and they are demonic creatures to his ears. His perception is wrong. Everything is wrong.
My friend suffers from schizophrenia. He is mentally unwell, and deeply so. His parents do not care for him at all. And he has nobody. No one in the world who cares, besides me and two other online friends who live in England. I want to reach out, help him, but… I cannot. It kills me, being unable to help my friend. Being unable to embrace him, unable to tell him it will be okay. Because I can’t. And it won’t. He refuses medication, refuses help, and even if he did want to accept it, none will be coming. It’s a helpless feeling watching someone’s life fall apart at the seams. Helpless, hopeless, and depressing.
The hardest thing to overcome in life, is the realization that you can’t help, sometimes. That there are things above and beyond your comprehension that you cannot aid someone with. Issues you cannot fix. People you cannot cure. Problems you cannot solve. And that all you can do is be a bystander, glued to the sight of their demise as you remain frozen.
Originally Answered: What are the most convincing things that would make me think twice before falling to an overly attractive woman that I’ve just met?
See this cutie?
This is Dalia Dippolito. Upon first glance, most guys would find her very attractive, myself included.
Back in 2010, she convinced this guy, Michael Dippolito, to marry her by being the perfect, super-hot mistress/girlfriend. He even divorced his wife to be with her, he was so desperate to land this hottie.
According to Michael, they were very happy. He believed that while they had a few problems, they were a solid couple with a long future ahead of them.
Right up until she tried to hire an undercover police officer to kill him.
Apparently she wanted his money and condo… everything but him. Fortunately, the guy she asked to kill him went to the police and an undercover investigation began.
She was caught on police undercover film laughing and saying that she absolutely wanted go through with killing him to a supposed hitman. “I’m 5,000% sure,” she was captured saying.
Det. Alex Moreno of the Boynton Beach police department noted how “We were shocked… how easily she talked about getting her husband killed.”
To make sure she was serious and meant to follow through on it, the Boynton Beach, FL police even staged a fake crime scene where her husband had supposedly been shot and killed.
She showed up on scene and upon being told, cried and screamed in horror. The observers onsite noted that she didn’t shed actual tears so much as just made a lot of wailing noises.
The police then arrested her and told her her husband was actually still alive and that the scene had been a sting operation.
Once in jail, she tried to win Michael over again. To his credit, he would have none of it.
When that didn’t work, she would go onto deny everything, try to slander her husband’s reputation, claim they had planned it all for a reality show, and multiple other lies to try to convince people that the video evidence they saw- with their own eyes and on film- was somehow not true.
After an appeal and a mistrial (if you can believe that), she was eventually sentenced to 16 years for attempted murder. Upon sentencing, the judge told her she was the “personification of evil.”
If the guy she originally tried to hire for the hit hadn’t gone to the police, Michael Dippolito would be dead and Dalia might potentially be living in his home, spending his money… and looking for her next victim.
There are other women like Dalia looking for their next victim.
Maybe you?
Sociopaths come in all shapes and sizes. Some even look like really attractive women.
Take your time and get to know whomever you go out with, no matter how strong the physical attraction might be.
I was travelling through outback Australia, coming down from Darwin in the Northern Territory through to Wagga Wagga along the Stuart Highway, turning at the Barkly Highway at Waramungu to go towards Queensland. There is a whole lot of nothing out there, with nothing in between, so you rely on the petrol stations along the way which are also pretty far between. So after a few days I arrived at Threeways Roadhouse one afternoon to fill up with petrol and go on my way, wanting to cross the border before sundown and stay in Camooweal.
It’s a big roadhouse supplying the road trains that go through with diesel and petrol for the rest of us. There were a lot of people there when I pulled up, but thought nothing of it. When I went to get some unleaded petrol to fill up, there were signs on the pumps – Not In Service.
I asked at the counter and the two young girls there said there was no unleaded petrol, the truck hadn’t come through yet and wasn’t likely to get there until tomorrow midday.
“What, nothing at all?”
“We’ve just got diesel.”
Ah, so that’s why there were so many people waiting around! Not sure if I could make it to Camooweal on what I had left, I made the best of a bad thing and booked a cabin out the back to stay in for the night. Let me tell you – apart from the roadhouse there is nothing in Waramungu, and nothing for a hundred kilometres or more. Everyone else was doing the same.
Had dinner there, slept, and in the morning had breakfast and read the paper, watched the tv in the restaurant. It was getting on to mid morning and there was still a crowd waiting for the petrol truck. I thought I’d ask at the counter again to be sure the truck was coming.
“Fuel truck coming soon?”
“We think so. Midday or after.”
Just then, outside the window, I saw a small car like mine leave the bowsers and drive off towards Queensland. Looked like he had fuelled up!
“Did he just get petrol? I thought you said there was no unleaded petrol?”
“There’s no unleaded petrol. He bought Premium unleaded petrol. It’s more expensive.”
So, I stayed a night at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere because they didn’t know that Premium unleaded petrol was the same as Unleaded petrol except it was about five cents a litre more to buy – much cheaper than staying there and eating two meals. I didn’t care I just wanted to get to my destination.
Maybe they thought they were helping me out…
I told the people I had been chatting to in the restaurant and suddenly the rush was on for the Premium pump – and within ten minutes I was out of there.
Like Jeffrey Epstein files that was released. Ultimately the truth is out.
Like Iraq WMDs
Like the Gulf of Tonkin
It’s why groups like China World Leader & other groups gain traction on Quora
They FILL THE GAPS
The Anti China brigade, their narrative has too many loopholes
Why, if China is committing genocide, is the Uyghur Population rising?
Why, if China is going to collapse in 24 days, is Joe Biden making a huge effort to meet Xi Jingping
Why, if the Chinese people are so unhappy with the CPC, are they freely allowed to travel in and out of China whenever they want
Why, if the Chinese Army equipment is old and useless, do many top US Generals regard China as a larger threat than the USSR?
Why, if China is such an authoritarian state, are there protests regularly by the people also covered by the same Western media?
These are questions that any rational and sane person would always ask
This is where spaces like China World Leader, Wumao Uncensored and Youtubers like Cyrus Janssen help FILL UP THE GAPS
They logically deliver their explanation on the above questions and the explanations definitely help get a better understanding of how China works
Sadly the world contains maybe 10% realists
90% of them, especially those who live in democracies are badly brainwashed into losing their ability to reason and think
Their teeny tiny brains refuse to function or use logic to rectify mistakes
Such a person if told about the Uyghur Population growing, would rather make up some fantastic explanation than admit the information he got was wrong
He could even say Uyghurs have 10 Kids each and 8 Kids are killed so there is population growth
Show such a person life in China and he will say the video is doctored
Ultimately these people ALREADY MAKE UP THEIR MINDS and fit information however false to justify their own thinking
The inferior minds sadly dominate the world today
Quora has fewer such inferior minds
Twitter has many
YT has many
So on Quora, Pro China groups thrive and survive and even help convince other realists that China may not be so bad
You notice Quora doesn’t have a North Korea group
Ultimately if China World Leader was a propaganda group spreading useless lies about China, it wouldn’t have the traction it has today
The reason that Mainstream Media and Anti China groups and their narratives are riddled with holes is why Pro China Groups are very believable and popular
Take this Video of Hu Jintao being escorted out
Every inferior mind jumped at the fact that Xi Jingping threw him out of the Party Congress
The Anti China brigade parroted the same thing
Yet not one person logically thought :-
WHY WOULD THE CPC RECORD THE EVENT AND THEN RELEASE IT TO THE PUBLIC WITHOUT CENSORING THE SAME?
I mean this video was available with every single channel in the world
The CPC controls every facet of information especially a video recorded inside the Party Congress
So WHY IF XI WANTED TO THROW HU JINTAO OUT DID HE CONSENT TO RECORDING THE EVENT LIVE AND NOT CENSORING THE ENTIRE TAPE
Thus logic dictated that the incident was SUDDEN and that supports the explanation that Hu Jintao had an onset of dementia and believed he was Party Chairman and wanted to read the list of new members that the Chairman usually does.
So he was gently escorted out
This is one such example
Trust me, Chinese don’t spread propaganda that easily , especially post 1980
In China there is a saying ‘You can’t wrap fire with paper’
So Chinese don’t buy lies that easily as Americans or Indians do
They question everything and they openly scoff at certain things
It’s why Pro Chinese Videos are designed to be for the realists and superior minds
Like the mainland Chinese
Who look for logic and ask questions
Sadly the Chinese don’t know that the global audience in democracies is made up of inferior and stupid minds
Thus these Pro Chinese Videos and content outside quora often finds a brick wall
How long would it take for China to pay youtubers to release videos about How Biden bathes with his daughter or fondles his granddaughter or of how US Politicians are pedophiles
Minutes
Yet that’s dirty and China won’t play dirty
Maybe that’s a weakness today but long term that’s a strength
Computer Predicts the End of the World | But here’s what they DON’T tell you
Here is where I am currently. It’s 14:41, Monday, Tokyo. And the view is from my work desk.
Quite literally a cage? (trap?)
Working in big Japanese company in one of the biggest cities in the world.
Do I want to be here?
No.
Is this where I want to be?
No. I want to be somewhere here. Bali
Can I be there?
I can’t without sacrificing the people who are dependent on me financially/emotionally. However, I can be there temporarily(holiday/vacation) without sacrificing anyone/anything.
How can I be there?
By working today in that cage, so that I can make some ¥¥¥ and be there next month for 4 days.
This is the biggest trap of my life at least. Self Imprisonment . To work somewhere only to be somewhere else temporarily.
Be it for family, travel etc.
Update : Some people seem to have concentrated more on the Bali trip and they think that i should move to Bali. If the solution was so simple i wouldn’t have called it a trap , would I ? It was never about Bali anyway, it could be anywhere else. Bali was used because it happened to be place of my trip which i had to wait for 6 months (My point) that’s all.
A insists and tells you it is a real relationship, however, things are complicated because B is still married (to C).
A insists there are a bunch of reasons that marriage between B and C isn’t real or working.
B truly loves A. Their love is real. A knows it.
A and B start moving fast, dating, the relationship gets heavy, even though it sounds like B still hasn’t fully cut ties with… C.
In fact, both A and C are each separately convinced that they are 100% with B.
But in truth – it’s only about 80%/20% as B has issues with commitment.
B finally works up the courage and cuts ties with C, so that B can fully be with A as A has been insisting all along.
Things are now better than ever between A and B, they post on social media together, they celebrate their love and how lucky they are to have each other.
And then you don’t see pictures for a while.
Everything goes radio silent.
And then you find out what happened.
B met D.
And everything went terribly wrong for A.
A can’t believe B would do this, that B could be so evil.
I do not feel sorry for A.
It’s one of the truest sayings you’ll ever hear, “If they’ll cheat with you – they’ll cheat on you.”
I taught for a while in one of Britain’s top private schools, so I feel I’m qualified to offer a definitive answer:
Tweed.
Seriously, ten years as a teacher and I never saw so much as a tweed dishcloth, but when I started working in private education suddenly the bloody stuff was everywhere. The teachers wore tweed (and the teachers were near-universally ‘old boys’ or ‘old girls’ whose parents could comfortably afford twice what most people earn in a year to get shut of their kids for most of it), the staff wore tweed, and the parents were dressed in tweed on a semi-permanent basis. I swear some of them slept in tweed pyjamas.
When they weren’t wearing tweed, they were cosplaying farmers, for some reason. This was irrespective of whether they lived somewhere in the cotswolds or the middle of London. Their farmer outfits were sometimes a bit worn, but always unnaturally clean.
So if I’m in the middle of the city and see someone wearing tweed or farming gear that’s never been within half a mile of a cow, that’s when know I’m dealing with the fourteenth Lord Bonkingly-Spinkle or some such.
EDIT: Several people have pointed out that tweed is for the country, not the town. Since I’m about as aristocratic as Derek Trotter and have never owned an item of tweed in my life, I wouldn’t know, but it is worth noting the school I worked at was out in the country.
That said, during COVID all our meetings with parents were remote, and they were still wearing tweed and farm gear regardless of where they lived.
Not me but my very dear friend. If the virus was that bad how was a little piece of cloth going to protect him? Etc, etc, etc. Yes, he was a die hard Fox News listener. No, he certainly was not getting the vaccine. Interestingly, he was completely understanding of anyone who did wear a mask or got the vaccine. He was a nice person with a big heart he just…I don’t know.
He caught a cold. A bad cold. He collapsed in the hallway of his house on his way to the bathroom. His wife rushed him to the hospital.
He never came back home.
The last thing he said to me was “Did you get the shot? Because this is bad”. Thing is, he was a very stoic, prideful man. For him to say this is “bad” meant it was horrible. He apparently asked the doctor for the vaccine and of course they explained it was too late. I know he already knew that.
How did he feel about not masking? Word is he felt like a fool and cried and cried because he felt stupid and he let his family down.
Three weeks diagnosis to death. Fifty three years old. Left a wife and three kids. I miss him every damn day.
My Girlfriend Dumped Me, Rode The Carousel, Now Wants Me Back Because They Don’t Want A Relationship
I have neighbors that moved in 8 years ago. Almost immediately, they started trying to claim property by mowing into my yard and building fences. I’m not talking 1–2 feet, it was over 50′ over the line.
That summer, they started picking from my garden and taking the fruit from my trees. Again, I’m not talking about a few tomatoes or ears of corn. They would strip everything clean.
They also would dig plants out of my yard and move them to their property. They even felt they had the right to go “metal detecting” and leave little potholes all though my property.
I asked them to stop, but they ignored me. I decided to buy a “consumer grade” surveillance system, but they were undeterred.
I put up “no trespassing” signs, making sure they were legally posted and the entire boundary was clearly marked. Nothing changed, so I located the survey pins and physically painted the property line. No help.
I threatened legal action, but they still ignored me. That’s when I forked out thousands and installed a new hardwired, military grade surveillance system with 8K resolution, 32x optical zoom, AI facial recognition, license plate recognition, auto tracking and a 16TB video recorder.
They were still undeterred and kept metal detecting and digging holes all over my yard.
Undeterred, that is, until the police showed up and the court granted me a restraining order. Problem solved.
One morning I woke up, looked at my to-do-list and realized I needed to make a couple of adjustments. After dropping my children off at school at 8:30, I had planned to go downtown to the Social Security Administration for a replacement Social Security card. I realized I had another appointment for 10:00am and that trying to squeeze Social Security in would be cutting it too close – because I had forgotten to get my birth certificate out of my safe deposit box at the bank the day before and would have had to run by there first. So, I crossed through the SS office on my list and wrote “tomorrow” next to it.
I took the kids to school as planned at 8:30 and was kicking myself for forgetting to get my birth certificate the day before so I could just head on downtown to Social Security. So, instead, I went back home, took a shower, and was standing in the bedroom when a large “boom” shook my house and I felt sure a jumbo jet had to have crashed nearby. It was all I could think of that could cause that loud of an explosion and cause the house to literally shake. I frantically rushed outside, looked around, but saw nothing.
That morning was April 19th, 1995. I lived in Oklahoma City. The Social Security office I was going to after dropping the kids at school was located on the ground floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown OKC. At 9:02am a truck bomb exploded in front of the Murrah building with such force it was felt up to 55 miles away. I was eight miles away when I felt that staggering blast. 168 people died in the bombing that horrible day. It wiped out the Social Security office, and, sadly, the children’s day care for federal employees. Had I not made the mistake of forgetting to go by my safe deposit box the day before, I would have followed my to-do-list and would have, undoubtedly, been inside the SSA at 9:02am.
The mistake of forgetting the bank the afternoon before — saved my life. What a horrible day April 19, 1995, was. I lost people I knew in that bombing and it will stay with me until the day I die. Due to only a mistake on my part, it just wasn’t that day.
I like to use stairs rather than lifts (elevators) in hotels, because they are a good form of exercise.
Many years ago I booked into a hotel in Brisbane (in Queensland, Australia) and decided to go for a run. I found the fire escape stairs and thought these would surely take me to the street (otherwise what was the point of having a fire escape?).
I came out of the fire escape into a car park on the first floor (i.e. one floor above ground level), and as the door closed behind me, I was reading a sign that said ‘This car park will be closed until 6.00 am.’
I checked to see if the door to the fire escape I had just exited was unlocked, but of course it was locked … with me in a car park that wouldn’t be opened for another eleven hours!
Fortunately, there was a part of the car park that was open to the outside, but of course it was one floor above the garden I could see by looking over the edge of the open area.
I decided to try to escape this unintended prison by doing a ‘reverse chin-up’ (aka pull-up). So I placed my hands on the top of the wall and gradually lowered myself into the ‘down’ position of a chin-up. I then allowed myself to drop to the garden, which was about a metre below my feet while I was in the down position.
The garden had been recently dug over, and the soil was soft, so I didn’t break any bones.
I then went to Reception to tell the young lady what had happened, and to ask why the fire escape didn’t allow me to get onto the street.
Instead of sympathising, and saying something would be done about it, she asked me if felt that I had to use the stairs rather than the lift.
I pointed out that this wasn’t relevant—I should have been safe taking the fire escape, for heaven’s sake!
The conversation continued along similar lines for some time before I gave up and realised I was talking to someone who was either a moron, or who didn’t care that, through no fault of his own, one of the hotel’s guests had been placed in a position where he might have had to spend the night locked in a car park!
I went into the Marine Corps in 1966 during the Vietnam War. But at the same time our country was also going through the Civil Rights Movement. About 50% of us were racists and the other 50% weren’t a whole lot better. People stayed in their racially divided communities. And many made racist statements about the Vietnamese and many white boys joked about blacks/mexicans taking their place in the draft. Mainly because we did not mix much and few cared about people different than themselves going to the draft.
In boot camp I soon learned we had boys from all over the USA. Those of us who only knew people in our little towns suddenly were surrounded by boys from New York, the deep South, surfing boys from the west and a mix of white/blacks/browns. Boot camp is a powerful experience. Very physically and mentally tiring and often under the stress we would start shoving or wrestling with each other. Sometimes this took on racial overtones. But we all survived boot camp and moved on.
The most important part of the person on person experience was my tour in Vietnam. I was a grunt, an infantryman. As hard as it is to believe I never spent a day in a base camp or in those plywood cities. All my time was in the field. Now if you know war you will learn you spend hours working and bored to death. So while you are spending time filling sandbags or sitting around the campfire with marshmallows you talk with your fellow Marines…a lot. We talk about our families, our girlfriends, our cars, etc. You soon learn we are all almost alike. Very little difference. And we were able to talk racial politics, and unlike civilians who love to hate each other, our talks were usually civilized. You don’t usually fight people who you hope will save you tomorrow. And there is nothing that matches the feeling of seeing one person raised in a racist environment put his life on the line to save a grunt of a different color. You will never see that happen, but I did. Many times.
One fact I learned was the difference between northern blacks and southern blacks. In the south we would often work together but would go back to our segregated communities at night. In the north they had their ghettos and were required to stay there for work, church, home, etc. Blacks moved north during WWII for work and to get away from the southern Jim Crow laws. But they ran into more racism. And stuffed into ghettos with other blacks and were pretty much warned not to leave their areas. My squad leader was a black from Philadelphia and he claimed he never saw a white person until he was about eight. All the businesses, teachers, cops, firemen, etc were black and few whites drove through their ghetto. In the south blacks and white mingled, up north that rarely happened.
When you spend nearly a year with the same people. And you hear their sacrifices and dreams and loves you soon learn we are much more alike than different. And though we had many racists, both white and black, they changed and were quite willing to sacrifice themselves for a Marine of a different color. It was an incredible feeling. Then you returned home, where civilians love to fight over minor problems and are encouraged to hate each other for political gain. Give me the Corps and combat any day….and to be surrounded by heroes of all colors. How can you not be proud of the courage and sacrifice I saw everyday?
I hate to admit it, but when a very attractive woman gets stopped, she is far less likely to get a ticket than an average looking person does. I always used to argue with the guys who let attractive women off. My point being, if you met her in a bar, she wouldn’t even give you the time of day.
As a sort of karma thing, I decided to exercise very little discretion whenever I stopped an attractive woman for violating a traffic law.
One day, I stopped a woman for speeding, and as I approached her window I noticed that she was even beyond attractive. On a scale of 1–10, she was a 12.
I asked her for her license, registration, and insurance card, which she handed to me.
But the entire time I stood there looking over her credentials, she never even looked at me or acknowledged my existence. As I continued to review her credentials, I noticed that she was holding her hand out the window, palm up. It took me a second to figure out what she was doing, then I finally realized she was waiting for me to hand her credentials back to her so she could leave, as I assume had always been the case whenever she was stopped previously.
When I said, “I’ll be with you in a minute” and began to walk back to my patrol car with her credentials in my hand, the only word I can think of to describe her reaction was apoplectic.
I swear, I’m really not a jerk, but I can’t think of any other summons I ever issued that gave me more pleasure.
A prestigious scientific journal contacted me and asked if I was willing to referee a paper which claimed to solve a long-standing open problem in mathematical physics. They also said there was something fishy about the paper.
And indeed there was. I had seen an earlier version of the paper some time before which contained far less spectacular results, so something certainly had changed. The essence could be found in one large and detailed remark near the end of the article which was added “after the author suddenly had seen how to solve the entire problem.”
It was exactly — word for word — the reasoning I had explained on a blackboard during a lecture about four months earlier at an international conference where the author also had been present and even had posed many questions after my lecture, because he did not understand the subtleties.
Unfortunately for him, there were other researchers in the audience — nearly a hundred of them — and many of them had seen me explaining my solution to him. Many of them knew. And what was even worse: I had written up and submitted my proof long before the author had secretly made the revision to his paper, totally plagiarizing me.
So he was caught.
And consequently he became very mad at me, because he had been caught big time in the very act of scientific cheating, and he simply could not cope with that. And so he still blamed me in the end instead of looking in the mirror —
In a nutshell, the very nature of cheaters, I guess.
Unless it’s fair play it’s worthless. Fair play is everything. End of.
Queueing is also everything. See 2.
I am very polite (most of the time). See 2.
I reserve the phrase ‘you fucker’ and ‘you twat’ for my best friends and they do the same. That amount of respect is earned.
Almost everything I say should not be taken literally. It will mostly be p*ss taking banter.
Did I mention fair play. The first person to call a snooker foul is oneself everytime. I’m related to Joe & Fred Davis and grew up in the next village. Billiards. British.
The first thing I will notice about you will be the social indicators that determine your class. If you are British you will do the same. It is absolutely impossible to fool you.
If you knock me I will apologise.
I thank the bus driver. Without fail. See 4.
I know my national team is not going to win the Football World Cup.
I know my team will lose on penalties to the Germans. See 11. This is England only.
I’ve been in more pubs than I care to remember. That’s because whether I care or not I am not capable of remembering half of them. When I go out, I go out out. Friday night and Saturday night in Britain (and Ireland) is like nowhere else on earth. Nowhere. British high streets at 5pm are civilised and genteel. A few hours later they are rivers of intoxication, pavement pizzas, kebab spillage, burger vans,fighting and police vans. When you’re young nowhere else on Gods earth is this much fun or this drunk. My foreign friends. You may read this long rambling list and pick out some that you say ‘we do this too’ Well not this one. This is ours. This is our defining characteristic. Not Wimbledon or Lords or the Proms. Getting this many people pissed at the same time twice a week ( ok yes..Thursdays as well) Getting this many people pissed out of their heads three times a week, week in week out is quintessentially British.
If the food you serve me tastes horrible I will tell you it was lovely.
I moan a lot. We are experts at it. It’s part of our health routine.
I know what mizzle is and I like it.
Chips, curry sauce, tray, wooden fork.
Tea bag, boiling water THEN milk.
I will watch the weather forecast three times a day. Each will be completely different. On any day I will have layered clothes suitable for everything from summer to winter.
With a quarter of an inch of snow I won’t be able to get to work.
I have a square of green in front of my house (this is sadly dying out)
I will never ever use the square of green in 21. for recreational purposes. If anyone does, they will put a sofa on it and paint the house number in emulsion on the house and bin. You may think your nations hardest criminals are hard but these people are like Jim Carrey crossed with Terminator. Their Grandads were this hard and this mental, the Germans reconnaissance didn’t pick up on our secret weapon. They didn’t understand the significance of those front garden sofas in their recon photos. Btw before you write in I know it’s a settee, I was being snobby for a minute.
I expect my policemen and policewomen to talk to me like they are a good friend. And they almost always will. My mam still calls them the bobbies. British.
My beer must have a head.
The italian waiter with the huge pepper grinder hovering over my wife is held with both contempt and awe.
The first thing I will do when you come to my house is ask you if you want a cup of tea.
If you invite me to your house and don’t offer me a cup of tea I will never forget but I will never mention it to you.
I stand up and offer my seat for older people and pregnant women. Always (except on the Tube where it can be seen as an insult) It doesn’t matter what your race is I will stand for you.
Not offering an older person a seat (if it’s not possible) leaves me feeling very uncomfortable. See 27. See 4.
I love multiculturalism and eat so many different kinds of foods and meet so many different nationalities of people most days.
If you boast and brag I will not be impressed. In fact I will think you are a complete knob for doing it.
In 1665 in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire the bubonic plague struck, having been brought from London by accident. Villagers made the selfless choice to quarantine themselves and thus give up any chance of help. My relatives (on my Dad’s side) the Hancocks were villagers in Eyam and they were part of the agreed self imposed isolation. They did not leave to spread the plague across Derbyshire and the North of England. That could have led to millions of deaths. They stayed put and awaited their fate. My relative Elizabeth Hancock survived but buried six children and her husband in only 8 days. The village suffered hundreds of deaths but many survived including the village grave digger. Nobody ran away, nobody. That’s a little bit of British history I’m connected to and I’m proud of it… The village of the damned
I will support the underdog (except if Forest are playing)…in anything whatsoever irrespective of the nationality, gender, age etc.I have a come back for everything, except the dreaded tut. A well timed tut can crucify me. I’m British. It’s our achilles heel. If you’re not British you won’t be able to deliver the precise tut required. The precisely delivered tut is devastating.If you are waiting at a zebra crossing I will stop. Every time. Without fail. However if you wave thank you I will tense up like a camels bum in a sandstorm. The slightest of nods as you avoid eye contact and a little polite speed up of your walking at the end is perfect. A subtle raised arm is acceptable but only from the elbow..never deliver the acknowledgement with a full arm raise unless you are the lollipop man/woman/transition person. Not acknowledging is sinful. If you’re the only person crossing and you don’t acknowledge me I will deem you the devils spore but drive politely on and bore my wife about you when I get home.I’m in a mixed race marriage. It never enters my head. Same for my friends also in mixed race marriages. I eat better food now.My class can’t change no matter how much I earn or social climb. Only one mistake out of a million indicators will be a complete and irrefutable give away.If i want to invent something I don’t crowd fund or try to contact Elon Musk, I just pop into the shed.Chips are chips and crisps are crisps.I know l
oads about British history but only know three historical dates. For some reason they all end in sixty six.
It’s 73 years after WWII yet I still keep loads of tins in the cupboard (as trained by my parents)……..cos you never know.
I’m heterosexual but I love a bit of spotted dick.
I eat food using a knife and fork. At certain points I use the back of my fork and push food onto it with the knife, which I do not hold like a pen.
Fannies are fannies and bums are bums.
Ooh matron!
I will quietly tut about the corruption in big business but if I see you driving in clear skies in broad daylight with your fog lights on…dear God help me.
The only fox news I listen to is on Countryfile.
The first time I saw a bidet I thought it was a wash basin for children. I still don’t know how you mount this contraption. Never will. British. Btw while we’re on the subject what’s that little diddy shower you see abroad.
I don’t squat. Our British achilles won’t allow it to happen after the age of 2. There are only three exceptions to this. The British achilles involuntarily stretch enough for a squat when we lose as a player in a Cup Final, when giving birth, and when stopping a red ball with big gloves on. Other than those, no squatting. You know what I’m saying. On we go….
I know you can’t beat a bit of Bully. RIP Jim.
My whole family and friends have had amazing medical treatment free at the point of delivery. And that’s amazing.
If I tell you that what you’ve said is interesting, it isn’t.
I think you will understand me if I speak slower and louder.
If you want me to feel really awkward praise me. I’ll automatically then downplay whatever I’ve done or got.
First shoes…Clarks and that thing.
Shoes again…I married into a Chinese family 17yrs ago. You cannot walk on their floor with your shoes on. Bloody hell the looks I got! I now feel really naughty walking into other Brits houses when they insist there’s no need to take my shoes off to walk on their carpets. The flip side..seventeen years later I feel so awkward asking people to take their shoes off to come into our house. It never gets less awkward for all concerned. 17 years. Shoes. Floors.
I use Celsius for cold days and Fahrenheit for for hot ones (for the drama)
I consider baseball a childrens’ game called rounders.
I don’t know how to look cool in the evening in hot countries.
Kes and Naked are my favourite films.
I know how to light fork handles.
Don’t tell ’em yer name Pike!
Don’t mention the war.
I don’t belieeeeve it.
You plonker.
It’s good night from me, and it’s good night from him.
Bring me sunshine.
Spoon jar, jar spoon. Haaaaaa Haaaaa.
By jove! RIP. Nobody was ever more British.
Nice to see, you to see you nice. See 68.
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty…
Woolworths. I know!
Consonant, vowel, consonent vowel.
I grew up in a pit village and watched Thatcher rip the heart out of British Industry with no care for a Plan B. She ushered in ‘greed is good’ and smashed communities to bits. I used to fitness train running up that Pit Tip as a kid. That’s british. Fuck you Thatcher. I grew up with Punk as well. It’s an attitude not a fashion. British.
I make a cracking Yorkshire Pudding.
On the hottest day of the year I see old women in winter coats.
Top of the shop, blind 90.
Forget international measurements created by Foreigners and well meaning scientists I know the unit of height for really tall things is Nelsons Column and the unit of length for really long things is the London bus. The unit of weight for really heavy things is the blue whale. Big areas are football pitches, medium areas are measured in number of tennis courts. Tiny things are measured by how many will fit onto a pin head. Horses are measured in hands, massive volumes are measured in how many old wembley stadiums would fit in it. Really heavy things are measured in elephants. If we have to use scientific measures it’s pounds up to 1 stone then it’s stones and pounds. If you tell me you weight 216lbs I will have no idea if you’re fat or thin until I’ve done the maths.
You must never ever ever use my driveway (next to my square of never used green) to do your three point turn. If you do then this may be the only time you see me resemble a grieving middle eastern woman.
I got a world class education in the 1980’s that cost my parents virtually nothing.
I don’t snog in public. I’m British not European for christ sake. Decorum please.
When I started work I was asked to get a tin of tartan paint, a long stand, a spirit level bubble and a draughtsman’s license. Standard British.
If you win the race and tell me so I will hate you but if you tell me that you came last and had to walk half of it I will love you.
I’ve bought two houses in my life. Both times on day one I walked in and ripped some feature/part straight out of the house and chucked it away. Apparently that’s what we all do when we buy a house. Day one.
My dog has 6 nick-names.
Get down Shep.
I can tell where in Britain you’re from by what you call a bread cob.
I know that you’re not posh if you say scone the posh way.
I know if you finish work at 4:30 or 5:30 depending whether your white vehicle is a van or a car.
I know you are middle class because you never roll your shirt sleeves above your elbows. I know you’re working class because you never roll them below.
I know you are either upper middle class or lower working class because none of your furniture matches and you couldn’t care less.
My Great Uncle was a small unassuming thin man. Very cheerful and always made me feel special (I was a small thin kid) He always used to tell me that they don’t make fat thoroughbreds. That made me feel good as a little football/rugby player. Imagine a cross between Prince Philip and Stanley Matthews, that was my Great Uncle Bill. I never heard him swear or raise is voice and he always dressed inmaculately. Now my uncle never ever mentioned the war. I’d always thought he’d just worked in a shop and a factory. At his funeral I found out he’d made 19 drops behind enemy lines in Burma to fight the enemy in the jungles. Not 1 or 2. That would be brave. No 19, he was a Para, it’s what he did and he never mentioned it. The last couple of days before he died he had visions of his para mates who died fighting with him in WWII and he had chats with them at the end of his bed. He had been a very funny bloke and used his humour to make me feel special. He was the special one not me. My Uncle Bill was as British as you can get and so were his mates and millions of lads like them.
I say please and thank you about a hundred times a day. I expect you to as well otherwise I will deem you rude. Sorry, I can’t help it; I’m British. Thank you for reading this.
If anyone got to the end of this then we now have to say goodbye. This now gets really awkward, I do swear and I apologise for this….
Ok you’re a man, maybe European…I’m not f*cking kissing you. End of. A polite handshake used to suffice but now we have to run the gauntlet of maybe hug awkwardly whilst avoiding touching tips.
Ok you’re a woman…do I shake your hand, give you a hug, give you one kiss, two kisses, three kisses? I’ll tell you what I’ll make sure I’m in my shed inventing a Wallace & Gromit invention when you’re leaving and I’ll just wave from the spiderweb covered window thus avoiding further social dis-ease.
You’ve gone…I can go back to check the weather forecast before I cut the front lawn, which is the only time that people passing are allowed to talk to me.
After the attack on Bilhorod, Russias Defence Ministry decided to strike away at Ukraines Air Defenses and force them to deplete their own stock of Missiles
Ukraine was launching S-200 missiles, Neptune Missiles, Tochka Us, Himars, Scalp and Storm Shadow missiles on Russian Territory at Bilhorod and Crimea and Donetsk
Russia never hit Civilians in their SMO and only focused on Strategic Targets yet Ukraine helpless militarily kept shelling Civilian territories
However when they used Cluster Munitions on Civilians at Bilhorod killing Women and Children who had come to celebrate New Year
Russia decided to destroy everything Ukraine had of significance
Himars Launchers – Destroyed
Production facilities for Drones – Destroyed
Production facilities for Vests and Shoes – Destroyed (Crucial in Winter)
Warehouse with Grains – Destroyed
7 Ammunition Depots – Destroyed
6 Fuel Depots – Destroyed
6 Air field runways – Destroyed
It was destruction on a scale previously never seen in the SMO
For the first time a Hotel with 66 Nato mercenaries were killed including high ranking officers
Ukraine Air defenses were OVERWHELMED
Russia launched 276 Missiles and 340 Geran Drones, and Ukraine had to fire everything they had to prevent damage
They ended up firing over 170 Missiles which was 40% of their total stock and had to see terrible damage wreaked by the Geran Drones and the remaining 156 missiles that got through (120 were intercepted)
The Russians found that the Air Defence primarily consisted of S-300s and S-200s but identified the location of Patriot Systems from the Missile trajectories
Homing in on the Location, they fired Kinzhals and destroyed 3 Patriot Systems completely today
The systems were shattered
The Launchers are gone, the control system is gone
This strategy to saturate air defence and identify the location of strategic air defence systems like Iris T or Patriot and then hit them with hypersonics has been BRILLIANT
It’s exactly what Hezbollah is doing with Israeli Iron Dome systems
Saturate Israel with cheap missiles and force Israel to use their expensive $ 500K – $ 2 Million Missiles or face an explosion that would kill 1–5 people and cause chaos
Russia, China, Iran have a huge advantage because they can produce and manufacture thousands of cheap drones and saturate the airspace
Meanwhile Russian Army effortlessly marches on and grinds on, going on a forward offensive
Ukraines Army has long since stopped giving any challenge
Ukraines only option is to strike long range missiles onto Russian Territory and hope Russian Civilians are so frightened that they force Putin to a ceasefire
Instead the Russians are furious
Russians have comprehensively voted to hang Zelenskys wife and kids with him for what he did to those kids in Donetsk and Bilhorod
Russians are angrier than ever and not at Putin
They want more blood now and Putin is the only civilized man between Russian Rage & Ukraine
Medvedev would wipe out every house in Kiev by mid morning if he was in charge.
Two mirrors. My husband and I divorced after 22 years. He thought there was something better. Maybe there was.
He had lost his job 12 years earlier and never quite recovered. I had been a stay at home Mom with a small income teaching paralegals part time. It was a killer trying to replace his income as he was a quite powerful CFO of a large company and any marriage was lost in my working and still raising kids while he fell in a bottle.
He wanted the house. Frankly, I didn’t care. I moved a lot as a kid. I did not develop attachments to places or things, only people. His first offer was that he get everything but my IRA including my solely owned business. I was hurt and indignant. Then I decided that it was a good plan. I knew he would fail and I never wanted to hear that Dad would have been okay if I hadn’t taken…..In return he was to put the girls through college and pay for their weddings. ( They had about 100k in college funds)
Well, in two years he lost the business. He put the girls through college but I had to chip in half on the weddings. After a few years he had to sell the house.
I had moved a few hours away but I was in town when the house was being shown as a “ fixer upper”. It was so sad and dreary. It was lifeless. I could not believe it was the house where I raised my girls.
In the master bath was a long marble vanity with sinks on each end. The mirrors were framed and hung. My mirror was pristine. The paint was perfect, the mirror unflawed and it looked brand new. I had used that mirror every day for 22 years. Then I saw his and felt shock through my body. The paint was peeling and worn. The mirror had bad spots. The corners were chipped. It hung a little lopsided. I had cleaned and polished both mirrors for 22 years. When I left they were the same. How could 6 years have changed one so much.
I left very sad. He did not live long. He just sort of withered away. He moved to where my girls and I lived to be close to the grand kids but rarely saw them. When I think of him, there is no anger. Just sadness. I’ve had a full life of work and family since the divorce. My grandkids all live with in 5 miles.
Life is strange. We were just sort of like two mirrors.
ZALIX, psychic mutant sci-fi film directed by Philip K. Dick in 1978, unedited footage 1
This movie is a real trip. Only 12 minutes long. WTF!
On our trip to Pago Pago, American Samoa, we had a layover in Fiji. Nice nation. Beautiful island chain. Actually really nice.
The thing is, we arrived in the Spring. And the trees and flowers were all in bloom. It was stunning and so beautiful. Smelled wonderful… BUT… it turns out that I was allergic to the trees. The entire time we were there I was sneezing and coughing with blurry and watery eyes.
Ugh.
Pretty, but not for me. Oh well…
Life can be silly. I really wonder what the Hell I was thinking when I decided to incarnate.
Years ago I moved into an apartment/flat. I was on the 2nd floor and shared a long balcony with my neighbor. It was just us two on the floor in that building. The balcony didn’t have a divider between us but it was a long length balcony. I put a small patio table and chair right by my door to relax on the balcony early mornings with tea or evenings to enjoy a book. Well, one morning I went out to sit on the chair by the small table. What did I see? The table was full of beer cans and a huge ashtray full of cigarette butts. The only person that could have done that is my neighbor. It annoyed me. It was one thing to use my patio table and chair without permission, but to leave a disgusting mess for me is another thing. I picked up the cans and ashtray and put them on the ground right in front of her door. Although I never spoke to her I had seen her. I wiped off my table and wrote out a note that said this, “Please ask for permission before using my table and chair. This table and chair are not community property. They belong to me. If you get permission to sit here, please clean up your mess. I am not your maid. Thank you”. I left the note taped on the table. Guess what? You guessed it. The next morning I found another load of beer cans and a full ashtray on the table. Same thing as the day before. Only this time, the table had a beer and food mess. I lost it. I grabbed the beer cans that were not all empty and the full ashtray with cigarette butts and ashes. I walked to her door and spilled beer all in front of her door on the concrete. I then poured the full ashtray all in the beer and it made a yucky mess on the concrete. She’d have to step in it going out the door. I then wiped down the table and folded it up along with the chair and put them by the wall next to the front door inside my apartment. This meant I would have to put them up outside every time I used them. It was a pain in the ass but I did it. She could get her own and clean up her own mess. Didn’t have any issues once I removed the table and chair. A few months later she moved out. Someone else moved in a couple of weeks later. A cop and his wife. The new neighbors were polite. So back out for good my patio table and chair went. Thank goodness.
**EDITED: Response to people commenting why I didn’t just knock on her door and talk to her**
People on the ground floor of the building said she was very rude like that to them as well. One time she took someone’s clothes out of the washing machine and threw them on the ground so she could use the washing machine. She had a bad reputation for not being one to reason with. I wasn’t going to waste my time trying to talk with her to try to come to a resolution. She wasn’t one to compromise with. So, therefore, I did what I felt was best how to deal with a person like that. Another person said she was also a bit violent. So to be honest, I didn’t want to put myself in the position to be physically attacked by her. I would have likely hurt her trying to defend myself because I am trained in martial arts. See what I mean?
Put in the work
I think it is an uneven pair-bonding.
Best Bohemian Kolaches
Kolaches are a type of pastry that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough.
Ingredients
Dough
8 teaspoons dry yeast, dissolved in 1 cup warm water and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 cups 2% milk, scalded
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
10 to 11 cups flour (don’t make dough too stiff)
Prune Filling
1 pound pitted prunes
Sugar to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Apricot Filling
1 pound apricots
Sugar to taste
Cottage Cheese Filling
1 (16 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Dash of nutmeg
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Poppy Seed Filling
1 (2 pound) container poppy seed filling from a bakery
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Cream
Instructions
Dough: Dissolve yeast in water until foamy.
Heat milk, pour over butter and sugar. Stir until melted. Add 2 cups flour, then beat until smooth. Add yeast, eggs and salt. Add flour until a soft ball forms. Grease top; let rise. Punch down and let rise again.
Stretch dough on floured board to about 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a soup can. Put on greased pans and let rise. When nice and puffy, make indentations in center and fill with favorite filling like prune, apricot, cottage cheese or poppy seed. When risen to a nice puffy look, bake at 375 degrees F until a golden color.
Prune Filling: Cook prunes until soft. Grind and add sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Stir well.
Apricot Filling: Cook apricots until soft. Grind and add sugar. Sweeter is better. Stir well.
Cottage Cheese Filling: Put cottage cheese in blender. Add egg yolk, lemon juice, nutmeg and 4 tablespoons flour and blend some more. Take out of blender and add raisins. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon flour and sugar.
Poppy Seed Filling: Mix together. Use enough cream to make it easier to put into kolaches.
I’m almost out of the door to buy groceries, and I saw this question, and I have to say something.
…deep breath…
WHAT THE FUCK WITH THIS OBSESSION OVER WAR?!
I’ve seen this type of hypothetical war question all the fucking time on social media (not just on Quora). And it’s always hypothetical wars between nuclear powers. It used to be the US vs USSR. Now it’s US vs China. Every single fucking year, you guys come back with the same zeal asking who would win in various hypothetical scenarios.
What do you think war is? Civilization V?! Colorful avatars on a digital map?! You move your troops forward, and boom, the city is yours?!
I swear you armchair general manchildren are the fucking worst! You want war so much, why don’t you enlist? You think you’re fucking military expert because you played Call of Duty, and you know what a battleground feels like?! You can hide behind cover and breath heavily for a few seconds and recover from bullethole in your fucking stomach?
You know, I don’t mind actual military experts theorizing potential wars. That’s kind of their job, to think of the worst scenario so we can be prepared. I get that. But you lot ain’t experts. You are doing it because it is fun and exciting for you. It makes you feel powerful the same way playing Civilization V makes you feel powerful.
You never thought about what war actually means to the people it impacted (yes, that includes you, too, you moron!) There’s no glory in bloodshed over nationalism or fighting over resources.
But sure, let me answer your question: can China win a war against the US over Taiwan? Depending on how you define “winning.” The most likely scenario we have is a Vietnam War V2. The US throws its weight around, and millions of young people die on both sides, fighting in the fucking jungle. Taiwan, once named the “Island of Treasures,” was decimated. Its factories were destroyed. Its beautiful forests and coasts were poisoned by chemical weapons. The price of PCs and other electronics skyrocketed because Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors, producing over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones.
After years of death, destruction, and misery, the US finally decided to withdraw its troops, and Taiwan became a province of China.
And that is the best scenario you could hope for, you moron. The worst scenario is both US and China decide to use nuclear weapons, and we all fucking die in the fucking nuclear winter.
Still feeling good about yourself? Still think this is a fucking video game?!
Fuck all of you war fanatics! Go read another book about WWII and fuck all the way off my feed.
I’ll leave you with this poem: 劝君莫论封侯事,一将功成万骨枯
“Please do not speak of getting noble titles (through war). One general’s success was built upon millions of corpses.“
Unsurprisingly, I got several comments saying China is an authoritarian state and has been threatening Taiwan for years.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that what you said is true, that China is indeed an authoritarian state and China has been “threatening” Taiwan for years.
So? SO? What’s your point? That China, a country of 1.5 billion people, most of these 1.5 billion people live peacefully and minding their own business, deserve to be destroyed because… you do not agree with how an independent sovereign nation governs itself?
OK, by that logic, can China start a war attacking the US because everything the US did in the fast 70 years, including invading Iraq on a lie, created several coups in South America for the sole purpose of destabilizing the local economy and forcing these countries to rely on the US for their survival, and systemic racism, persecution of homosexual people and trans people, drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya…
I mean, if we want to compare fucking skeletons in the fucking closet, we can go all the way back to Operation Paperclip. Better yet, let’s go all the way back to colonialism and chattel slavery. The US is covered, head to toe, with innocent blood. If there is one country that deserves to be destroyed, according to your logic, the US would be the first in line.
So perhaps get off your moral high horse and shut the fuck up.
We were ROBBED in Finland! (Let’s Go Back to China!)
I was a male waiter at a diner in Hillbillyville. I got very few tips because tips were for making passes at waitresses. Working the late shift, I dealt with more than my share of drunks and as well as the ordinary assholes. From teens squirting full ketchup bottles on their dinnerware and tables after their meal, to those who would fall into a drunken coma at my tables.
The one that stands out to me was a retired farmer who would come in every Sunday night with his wife and another couple. They had all been drinking. But the retired farmer, who had a reputation for being a loud-mouth know-nothing decided to harass the help (me and the cook) throughout their meal. He and his entourage thought it was very funny to disrespect us.
After their meal and lots of juvenile remarks, it was dessert time. They all ordered. The retired farmer decided he wanted a hot fudge sundae, which he knew we did not offer.
I told him “We do not have hot fudge sundaes.”
He replied, “Do you have ice cream?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have chocolate syrup?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a microwave?”
”Yes.”
“Then heat up some frickin’ chocolate sauce and put it on my ice cream!” His group suddenly went quiet, realizing he had just crossed a boundary not even they would accept.
I put my hands on their table, leaned across to the foul farmer and said, “Would you liked crushed nuts with that?”
He went silent as the others at the table burst into laughter… especially his wife! They believed he had it coming… probably for years!
Dickhead left me a nice tip that night and had a new demeanor every time he stopped to eat.
I was pleased with myself. Other customers as well as staff openly approved of the way I handled this little turd.
I fired a friend who worked closely with me in the forge. He’d set up some of the equipment, and knew how to maintain it. He was a good solid productive worker, and a lot of fun to work with.
He also drank.
I told him he could not drink on company property, and he could not come in drunk to work.
He did it anyway. Repeatedly. Hid it. More than one warning.
Then I fired him.
He said I couldn’t, that I needed him, that I didn’t know how to maintain the equipment, it would cripple my business to lose him.
He was right.
And yet… I still had to do it. He was a hazard to himself, and to the business. At one of the venues I vend at, they have a clear written rule forbidding this, and he was violating it, and I could have lost my business there (and it’s responsible for 75% of my annual income)
I bent over backwards to avoid doing this, and when I finally did, it was every bit as bad as he thought it would be.
Production dropped by more than half. A couple of the tools got ruined. I learned how to maintain the others, and gradually got things back into shape, but it took many months.
But I can’t honestly say I didn’t know what was going to happen when I did it. I just didn’t have any other choice.
I have friends who never understand how I can take a costco rotisserie chicken for $5.00 and make it into a week’s worth of meals, including using the bones and meat chips from the carcass for bone broth to make soup. I can pick a chicken or turkey bonee clean of meat long after others would have given up. I use veggies and eggs to extend it to omelelets, wraps, chicken fritattas, tacos, chicken salad with mayo, stir fry, topping on regular salad with dressing, an entree, and then finally soup. I buy the large quantity of meat on mark down and make four or five different meals, freezing several. That way I always rotate the meat or meal we eat during the week, and we feel like we never have to be without meat except our once a week vegetarian meal. I made ham and bean soup the other day with the Christmas ham leftover scraps and the ham bone. My mom fed a family of seven with groceries she bought while a grocery store meat wrapper. My dad worked in produce. We had cans with no labels she bought for 10 cents. We had a cat and a dog, but never knew which vegetable or animal food was in the can until we opened it.
I always eat the free meal buffet at hotels and take extra fruit to my room. There will always be a bag of dried beans, box of pasta, and cans of tuna in my pantry ‘just in case’. I had some for the lunch the other day because it was getting close to expiration. I drive around town on errands and find myself noticing open public bathrooms, places where people could park overnight, etc ‘just in case’, even though I’ve never been homeless. I’ve been scared when I was close. I go into survival mode as soon as an extra expense happens even if I am prepared.
I use coupons, shop the sale items, and overstock my pantry. My mom taught me back when rebates were constantly available. We had ‘FHB’ or ‘family hold back’ meals where extra bread was added to the table if someone stopped by unexpectedly. It was the signal for the family to fill up on bread and ‘hold back’ from eating so the guests were satisfied. I still fill out restaurant and fast food surveys for the free meal. I’m the one willing to pick up the company meals nearby, so I get the rewards. People think I’m just being nice or someone in the office is taking advantage of me. I go to the extra early sales to get the extra $10 coupon for the first 100 in line. Early in my career, I used to use the ‘free reward’ items from ordering office supplies to sell at yard sales.
My partner understood before he passed. He had used cracker packets and ketchup packets from fast food with a cup of hot water to make ‘tomato soup’. He had had it worse than us growing up. Most people will never understand.
Our son has never known true hunger, but he has seen enough scrimping that he knows not to waste. As a teen, I gave him the coupons, the sale paper, and $10 with a shopping list. I taught him to use the ‘money back rewards’ with double coupons and buy one get one sale items for anti perspirants, etc to buy the extra milk and things he needed for the week. Even today, I will invite him to a restaurant and he will ask if it can be another day, because he has xxx leftovers to finish before they go bad. You keep the mentality.
Oh and the hand me downs. I wore the same homemade dress in four different sizes. My mom had made each of her five girls tge same blue dress with three buttons. My one sister was so much larger than me hers couldn’t be altered enough or I would have had five. I was thrilled to get a new outfit at Christmas when my sisters were growing up and moving out. There was a little more money then. I quizzed every sister how much their bills were and wrote a budget. I owned everything to move out by 16, down to a vegetable peeler. I wasn’t taking any chances. I used my babysitting and yard work money earned from neighbors. Once I could work fast food, I lied to my parents that I was over a friend’s house when I really worked a full week with overtime all summer long. The child labor laws apparently didn’t check much in those days. I had discovered making money. I was the only kid I knew that lied about having fun so I could work. I worked hard enough to become management before graduating high school. I just wanted to keep earning and saving the most I could. I always worked two jobs until my son was born. You take every chance you get.
I come from a very dignified and respectable family. My parents always taught me values and how I should be respectful of other.
I was asked out on a date by a coworker. He was older to me by 8 years, nevertheless he was charming and spoke very well. I thought he seemed like a nice, family man.
We ended our date after a meal at a restaurant and he offered to pay. I asked him if he wanted to share the tab but he declined. Afterwards we both were walking towards the car parking area. There was an ATM kiosk.
He tried to withdraw some cash from his card but told me that there was some problem with his card. He then did something weird. He asked my card and my PIN number. And me, like an idiot told him.
He took my purse from me, took the card, punched the PIN number and withdrew a 1000 INR. He took the cash, put it in his pocket and continued walking.
I asked him what he did. To which he replied “oh that was for the dinner and the rest of it is for the petrol I will be spending dropping you back at home”.
Back in 2015, I’d been dating my then-fiance for some time. We got engaged super early, so it wasn’t exactly “a while,” but it had been at least three months and let me reiterate: we were engaged to be married.
Blake Diamond and I had already sent out requests for our bridal party hopeful-members to become actual-members, and one person said to me how odd the name sounded. “It almost sounds fake, don’t you think?” he asked.
“I mean… maybe?” I said. “I knew a guy in high school with the last name Diamond, and Blake is a name that I’m familiar with, so maybe it’s not that unlikely.”
Several weeks passed and as I began to get deeper and deeper into wedding planning, I needed to know his parents’ address so that I could send things to his family. “I’d rather keep this under wraps. They don’t need to know about all the planning yet. Plus, their last name is Bingham,” he said to me one night.
“Bingham? That’s odd. Yours is… different?”
“Oh, that’s, uh… maybe I didn’t tell you,” he conceded. “Blake G. Diamond III is my online alias.”
I… what?
“What? Why did I not… know that… before you asked me to marry you?”
“I like to go by Blake Diamond, not by my real name.”
He still was hesitant to spill the beans, but when I became inconsolably irate after several minutes of arguing, he finally gave in:
“No I didn’t. I can save money to buy another one for you if you want.”
“You think I want it from you? I raised a dumbass for a son. Leo, I know you did it.”
“I swear I didn’t.”
“So you’re the only on in the roo-”
“I was asleep on the sofa. I didn’t do i-”
“Just watch, when I come home with your mother you will admit to it.”
I began to laugh, “Good luck. Know what? Take your fucking time coming home.”
And that’s it. I turned off the phone and went to my room, and angrily waited for them to come home. I awoke from the sofa earlier and found the T.V broken. Absolutely crushed.
I called my dad and he was quick to point the finger at me. Which makes sense, the T.V didn’t break itself and I was the only one in the room. Though the truth is that I didn’t do it.
I shouldn’t have been such a fucking snob with my response because they never came home after that.
A knock came at the door and I stomped over, ready to face a loud scolding. But the person at the door wasn’t my dad, or anyone I know. He is wearing a police badge and a police car with our states name written across it is outside the front door. I figured that my dad must have called the cops to see who broke the T.V after realizing it wasn’t me. “Yes?”
“Is this the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Alexandric?”
“Yes.”
“And are you Leonardo?”
“I-yes.”
“Would you like to take a seat?”
All at once my entire body stiffens. “No. Why are you here? What happened?”The T.V is broken. That’s all. Nothing’s wrong. I kept telling myself. But the truth was, everything was wrong.
“Your parents. They’re dead.”
The frankness of his words and shock of it all is too much and I begin to laugh. He looks calmly at me, like he’s used to this type of reaction. He probably was.
“You didn’t answer my second question. What happened?” My voice is shaking and I knew I was on the verge of tears.
“Son, your parents are dead. They got shot. That’s all there is to tell you.”
I stay frozen at the door saying nothing.
“We called your Aunt and Uncle. They’ll be here shortly. Meanwhile, I’m supposed to make sure you’re safe.”
I nod and open the door for him to come inside. I’m too shocked and lost to ask for proof or a warrant of some kind. I just stand at the door and glare at the man until my aunt comes.
She comes with my uncle and she’s screaming, acting hysterical. She grabs me in a hug and doesn’t let go until she faints from exhaustion. That was the last conversation I had with my father.
I never cried about their death, it’s made me colder. I just feel numb thinking about it. I thought it was my fault for the longest time. I did this, I told him not to come back. I know that it’s not true now but it still haunts me.
Please do me a favor and go tell you parents that you love them. Don’t be stupid like me, because no matter how stable everything seems, no one knows when death will strike.
This is a true story that happend to a friend of mine.
He was fairly new in Japan and went to Yoyogi Park, the most popular and well-known park in Tokyo.
He was playing some sport with his friends for a while, and went home as it started raining.
On his way back to his house, he realized that he forgot his iPad on a bench at the park.
He felt hopeless as the electronics left in public quickly get lost, at least that was the commonsense we generally have, but he went back anyway to where he was in the park.
Photo: Wikimedia
He looked at the bench where he left his iPad, and saw a newspaper.
He removed the newspaper, and there it was. His iPad was sitting there intact! But why was there a newspaper on iPad?
Well, apparently, a kind-hearted anonymous person thought the beautiful iPad shouldn’t get wet in the rain.
My friend calls that an “only-in-Japan” experience. However, as myself being Japanese, I wasn’t surprised.
I’ve lost my iPhone twice on the train (yes, twice..) and found both times at Lost & Found of the railway company.
One learning from my friend’s story and my own experience is “don’t give up finding it when you lose your gadget in Japan!” 🙂
Mike has never put more than 40% effort into anything in school.
He sits in the back of the class. He never listens. He figures out how to sleep with his eyes open, or hide under his desk to take naps.
Maybe his dad abandoned him. Maybe his parents never motivated him. Or maybe he’s just plain lazy.
Who knows the reasons. But the effort isn’t there.
Nothing his teachers or parents have ever said or done have been able to turn the fire that burns within him into anything more than a low smolder.
He goes through his early years, turning in the minimum grades to squeak by in everything.
One day, as he shrugs off another bad grade, the teacher stands up at the front of the class.
The teacher points at Mike.
“Study hard – or you’ll end up like Mike there. Dim, lazy, and on the path to flipping burgers for a living.”
A certifiable asshole comment by a teacher.
Mike, typically thick-skinned and nonchalant about life, is pissed.
An authority figure publicly branding him in front of the class, the class laughing, and the obvious implication that a good majority of them shared the teacher’s view of Mike was too much.
He’d had enough.
Deep down he knew he was lazy. But he wasn’t stupid. And he sure as hell wouldn’t be flipping burgers.
That day forward Mike starts studying.
It hurts his brain at first to think and concentrate so much. It’s almost like going to the gym for the first time.
He keeps going. Each day he gets better at it. The rust comes off, those sleepy neurons start to light up between his ears.
Quickly – he gets into a groove. His grades pick up.
They get better. They get better. He learns a couple study tricks he should have known years ago.
Cute girls are suddenly asking him for help in school.
He realizes school isn’t that hard. He realizes what he already knew – he wasn’t dumb.
In fact, he realizes, he’s a lot smarter than he thought he was.
Suddenly, he’s getting the top grades in his class.
Mike – was so much more than even he ever thought.
He’d been a darkhorse scholar in his class.
He is acing test after test. He dethroned the former smart kid who now eyes him with jealousy.
And one day – his teacher asks him to stay after class.
His teacher comes over, sits on a table across from him.
He stares at Mike.
He walks over, reaches out and shakes Mike’s hand, saying, “Mike – I apologize. You had it in you all along. I never knew”
Mike, your quintessential, stereotypical gifted slacker, had announced his arrival.
I’ve found that harsh criticisms can cut deep particularly if there is a grain of truth to them.
The knee-jerk reaction is often to punch back, recoil, bury yourself away from it.
The next time a criticism cuts deep, step forward and into it.
Look within the pain rather than react to it. What does it show you?
Are your talents being buried by inaction? By weakness?
Look at it.
It is right there.
Do something about it.
If someone shines a light on your demons, don’t flip the light off, expel the demons.
If someone mislabels you, sells you short of what you are, what you are capable of, do something about it.
Show them the truth.
You’ll enjoy it.
Nothing beats proving people wrong.
Real Living Cost In Shenzhen, China Will Shock You
Dell was doing horrendously bad and it’s sales in China is almost non existent when it thought playing the hate China can can win sales in U.S. and its cronies.
Well the result is it got even worst.
China’s market itself is close to 30% of the world’s market. And it can make everything. Better and faster at half the cost anywhere else. With that China help you earn heaps of money! Without China you go broke. With China you laugh all the way to the bank.
99.999% of US businessman wants to stay perpetually in China if they can. US business people are smart. US politicians have only one objective. To stay in power. To do that do shit and talk shit on China can get you there.
Americans are so unbelievably ignorant and naive after 24/7, 365 days a year 74 straight years of demonising And fabrications of lies by the U.S media on China. do you blame the Yanks. Imagine going to school, college and university that teaches you white is black and right is wrong that long!
Worked at Burger King when I was around 16, and I put up with a lot of abuse from a few managers (including one guy in his 30s constantly getting aggressive with me for no reason, just started happening one day and didn’t quit) because in spite of them, the rm and a few of the other managers were really cool. Flash forward about a year and I was one of three people working in the restaurant and the other two people were the aggressive manager and a new manager who was abusing her power. I made all the food correctly, labeled it correctly and put it on hot table for them to bag( it was the middle of a rush) both of them were bagging the food incorrectly, telling me a made the things wrong when I know I didn’t, I knew they weren’t paying attention they were just bagging stuff up and customer kept coming back angry and I had to remake the food. After a few hours, when the rush hit it got worse. And they were still blaming me for their mistakes, but when the aggressive manager went off on me, I literally just walked over and clocked out and told them I’m quitting, to have fun for the rest of their shift because you’ll be the only ones here for the remainder of the day. I dont work fast food anymore, the thought just makes me angry. I’m not saying I’m better than those workers, or smarter, just that I won’t work in the food industry ever again. I was 16, they should’ve picked a target that was older, less likely to quit because they had bills/ kids to take care of, I didn’t.
The likelihood of surviving a plane accident is around 95.7%. However, around 16% of accidents are fatal. Of all modern transport-category planes, the one with the worst safety record is the Concorde, yet it only had one fatal accident, this is because of its limited service history.*
Afghanistan’s literacy rate is around 29%.
Labor Day was an event conceived to cover up some pretty brutal massacres of American workers.
The sun is one star in 300 sextillion (or 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.)
After suffering a knife wound whilst giving fellatio a woman became pregnant… even despite being born without a vagina.
Britain’s youngest grandfather was 29 at the time of birth.
The total weight of all the Earth’s ants is around the same of all the humans.
Because ants are so small they can survive a session in a microwave by dodging the rays.
When you sneeze your heart stops for a millisecond- hence the term bless you.
At 2000 km long, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth.
Polar bears can run at 25 kmph and jump around 6 feet high.
There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body, so they could stretch around the Earth 2.5 times.
If you were to drill a tunnel straight through the centre of the Earth it would take you precisely 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the bottom if you jumped… but you’d be dead before you got there.
The strongest creature on Earth, gonorrhea bacteria, can pull 100,000 times their body weight.
If you apply an electric current to a pickle it will react with the salt, causing the pickle to glow.
The speed of Neptune’s wind breaks the sound barrier.
Picasso was a suspect in the 1911 Mona Lisa theft.
The Queen owns one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface.
On August 27th of 1896, Britain and Zanzibar fought a war. It lasted 36 minutes.
The U.S. produces 90,000,000 acres of corn per annum.
Warner’s Bros. was founded before the Ottoman Empire fell.
Calculations determine that, in the last 3,500 years, there have been 260 years of peace.
In 2005 a man threw a grenade at George W. Bush and it didn’t explode.
If the figures are correct humans were first on Earth 200,000 years ago, and written records of life were first found from 6,000 years ago, 97% of history is lost.
You can swim through some of the arteries in a blue whale’s heart.
Thomas Edison’s last breath is in a tube, in Detroit’s Henry Ford museum.
Most canned laughter was recorded in the 1950’s, so most of those laughs re from dead people.
A single crayon burns for half an hour.
In Detroit, 70% of murders go unsolved.
Excite turned Google down in 1999 when they were willing to sell the company for $1,000,000
Ronald Wayne sold his stake in Apple for $800 dollars in 1976.
‘No melon, no lemon’ spelt backwards is ‘No melon, no lemon.’
If you spell out every number you won’t use an A until you reach one thousand.
Marie Curie’s work is still radioactive enough to make you sick, so you must sign a disclaimer to view them.
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing the the building of the Great Pyramid.
Half of the humans ever to live have died from malaria.
Charlie Chaplin’s remains were stolen and held for ransom. See chaplin.
**
If you could fold paper 42 times it would reach the moon.
If there was no space between the atoms on Earth it would be the size of a regular baseball.
Ireland’s population is still 2,000,000 less than it was before the potato famine.
You have a 0.5% chance of being related to Genghis Khan.
A banana is a berry and a strawberry isn’t.
Nelson Mandela wasn’t removed from the U.S. terror watch-list until 2008.
Jimmy Carter, the genius that he is, sent a jacket to his cleaner with nuclear launch codes and secrets in the pocket.
Quentin Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator in the Golden Girls.
**Charlie Chaplin fact courtesy of Murray Robinson. Thanks Murray. 🙂
The heat of the sun’s core is so hot that if you put a pinhead on Earth which was as hot you could kill a person 160 km away.
Irish poet Brendan Behan was a confirmed alcoholic at the age of eight.
Sunandha Kumariratana the Queen of Thailand forbid her subjects from touching her and so they were all forced to look on as she drowned.
Fleas can jump around 200 times their height.
A seahorse moves through the waters at about 0.01 mph.
A giraffe’s spots are truly unique- no two giraffes have the same spots, also you can determine their age from the darkness of their spots.
Giraffes learn to stand after 30 minutes and can run with their mothers after 10 hours.
Scientists have submitted papers to exhume and examine the body of shakespeare to see if he smoked marijuana.
Blue jeans are now banned in North Korea for being a sign of American imperialism.
Shopping carts have more saliva, faecal matter, and bacteria on them than most bathrooms.
Barry Manilow didn’t write his song “I Write the Songs.”
President John Tyler still has two surviving grandchildren, despite being born some 221 years ago.
1/3 of all the U.K. divorce filings included the word ‘Facebook’.
There was a counting horse called Stanley from Liverpool, who could multiply, divide, add and subtract as well as calculate mileage, it also performed in a theatre production in the Anglican cathedral… he was trained by my Grandfather. 🙂
I had a very snooty classmate, mummy and daddy had more money than sense, and whenever we passed a homeless person she was sniff and say “dirty scroungers, get a job!”
My dad on the other hand would always pass the time of day and give them some money. One day we met him on the way home from school, the girl saw dad give a man a few coins and demanded “why give him your money. He needs a job!”
“Yes.”Dad agreed, “and a home, and a nice loving family. Can you give him that? Just as Scaz is my child, that man is somebody’s child. If we all remembered that everyone is somebody’s baby, we would all be happier! When you look at him, you think begger. When I look at him I think “There but for the grace of God go I.”
When we got home, dad sat me down and said “if you remember nothing else, remember this. When someone hits rock bottom, there is only one way left. Up.
If you can’t find a kind person, BE a kind person. When someone hits rock bottom, be the hand pulling them back up, for God knows one day you’ll need someone to do it for you “
Here are 8 useful psychological tricks you can use in daily life:
1.When people tell you things you don’t agree with
Don’t object to them firmly.
First acknowledge what they say with words like, “I see what you mean” and continue with your own opinion asking “but have you ever thought about this part of it?” That approach will help you make your point without being interrupted or having someone oppose you.
2. Toimprove your mood
You can Write down negative thoughts and tossing them in a trash can.
And if you are angry, draw lines. Simple patterns relax you. If you feel sad, paint a rainbow.
3. If you want someone to carry something for you
Hand it over to them while talking. Most people won’t notice that you’re handing them something and they will take it.
But note that this trick may not work on people who are naturally more attentive as well as less close to you.
4. To make yourself look like a naturally good listener, even if you aren’t one
Paraphrase what someone else has just said and say it again. Remember to not be too obvious though.
5. To get friendlier with a person
Emphasize your shared values. In other words, try finding a point of similarity between the two of you and then highlight it.
This is according to the “similarity-attraction effect”, stating that you are more attracted to those who are similar to you.
6. To give someone positive memories of your conversation or interaction
Let them talk about themselves. One study showed that when people talked about themselves, the reward system of the brain became activated, meaning talking about oneself felt actually rewarding.
7. When two people eat together, if you want to know if the other person has a potential affection for you (friendship and love apply)
Pick up a cup and take a sip of water. If the other person also subconsciously picks up his glass and drinks water, he or she is more likely to have a potential interest in you. Related article you may want to read: 20 signs to tell if someone likes you.
8. To immediately feel confident
You may be surprised by the effectiveness of adopting the “power stance”, i.e. standing with your legs apart and your arms spread out so that you cover as much space as possible. If you do this for just two minutes, you flood your body with testosterone and will instantly feel more self-assured.
An earthquake occurred at 4:00 pm, The Self-Defense Forces were still eating, drinking and having fun to celebrate the New Year that night. They did not set out to the disaster area until noon the next day. It took 5 or 6 days after the disaster to complete the operation. There were only 2,000 food supplies for more than 10,000 people and no water for one day., only get one rice ball.
China :
At 23:59 on December 18, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Jishishan County, Gansu Province, my country;
Just 3 minutes after the earthquake, fire trucks and ambulances appeared on the streets;
20 minutes after the earthquake, Gansu and Qinghai launched emergency plans at the same time;
37 minutes after the earthquake, the fire rescue teams from Lanzhou, Wuwei and Baiyin had already assembled and went to the scene for disaster relief;
81 minutes after the earthquake, the first trapped person was rescued;
160 minutes after the earthquake, the provincial party committee secretaries and governors from Gansu and Qinghai arrived at the disaster area to guide the rescue;
At four o’clock in the morning, the first batch of 300 rescue troops from the People’s Liberation Army arrived in the disaster area and began relief;
In the early morning of that day, the People’s Liberation Army cooking truck began to make breakfast for the affected people;
At 15:00 that day, the official announced that the earthquake rescue work was basically completed, and the focus of the work shifted to the treatment of the wounded and the living arrangements of the affected people.
In other words, from 23:59 on the evening of the 18th to 15:00 on the 19th, China completed the entire earthquake rescue work in only 15 hours. The affected people even had hot meals in the morning as usual.
a tweet from a Japanese comparing two disaster rescue mission.
do you understand picture above?
Author Note : China is not a perfect country, a smart society has it owns problem. However I notice that they are very optimistic about their economy prospect compared with the rest of the world and second they really proud on how disaster management they have.
Ignore the single dimension inaccurate GDP! It measures hot air bubble like Wall Street and bloated U.S. greed such as pharmaceutical companies!
China for all intent and purpose has overtaken the U.S. for at least a decade now. Financially, politically, economically and militarily since 2014.
China won’t do the shit that the U.S. do foolishly acting as a worldwide police man that no one wanted and nobody is willing to pay a cent for. The only gain for the US is universal hate and disdain. The U.S. appears to prefer to implode its economy and impoverish its people by paying for Ukraine instead of helping its own poor.
China is very clear it will do everything to make Chinese people live a better life, healthier living and better livelihood over interference, intervention and chaos and coup financing and orchestrating. That is a U.S. thing. American must stand up to stop your corrupt officials from bankrupting your nation and destroying your future.
It was dark at the restaurant’s parking lot. I was a young boy in the back seat of my Father’s Thunderbird. My older brother and I were kneeling on the car seat, watching a frightening scene unfold through the rear window. My Mother was in the front seat holding our baby sister while keeping an eye on us and repeatedly ordering us to stay in the car and to not open any doors. (In the 1960’s child-proof locks didn’t exist)
Outside, a loud, angry man walked towards my Father. He was enraged. He pointed at my Father as he screamed profanities and threats. He kept advancing and made it perfectly clear to my Father he was going to kill him. I think the man was upset that my Father had inadvertently pulled into a parking spot he wanted.
My Father stood still.
Although the parking lot was only barely illuminated by a small lamppost, I could still see the vehemence in this man’s face. The shadows the overhead lamp created made him look even more demonic as he kept getting closer. The man pulled an object from his pocket and with some fancy wrist flicks flipped it open and exposed a blade. It looked like this:
Image Source: Google images
It’s called a balisong. The American version is called a butterfly knife.
“I’m going to slice your guts open,” I heard the man say.
“Is that what you wanted? You want a knife fight?” my Father asked. He opened the car’s trunk.
We briefly lost sight of the angry man. Only after my Father shut the trunk did we see what was happening again. We saw the man with the knife. Except now he was much further away; running, stumbling in panic, screaming apologies and running some more.
My Father wasn’t too far behind and closing in with a samurai sword.
I lost track of my Father and the man after they rounded the corner of the restaurant. I don’t think my Father killed him, though, as I didn’t see any blood on his clothes or on the sword in his hand as he calmly walked back to the car. He slid the sword back into its sheath and lowered the trunk door.
“Let’s eat,” he casually said.
During WWII, my Father was a member of Marking’s Regiment, a guerilla unit. They took part in several fights, most of which were in thick jungles which involved a lot of ambushes and hand-to-hand combat. (They also fought alongside American units in several operations. Here’s one of them
[1]) The article written by David Lash mentions them in a couple of places. The article’s several pages long though, so I extracted some excerpts:
The Americans were greatly helped by Filipino guerrillas. From the very beginning of the Japanese occupation, numerous bands had been active throughout the Philippines. They ran the gamut from highly effective, disciplined groups to common criminals. But one of the outfits most useful to the Americans was Marking’s Fil-American Yay Regiment, better known as Marking Regiment, a group of Filipino guerrillas about 3,000 strong. This group was headed by Colonel Marcus V. Augustin, a former Manila-Antipolo bus driver who had escaped Bataan and chosen “Marking” as his guerilla name.
Marking’s Regiment would be under the direction of Brig. Gen. Alexander Stark, the assistant commander of the 43rd. Its role was to attack the northern flank, largely as a feint to confuse the Japanese. Because of this secondary status, there were no plans to give it significant artillery or air support.
The regiment would be split into a North Force and a South Force of about 1,500 men each.
(Before I continue I want to respectfully say “Thank you” to all the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces – past and present, Thank you for your service.)
My Father was decorated with several battle scars. The one that pertains to this story though, at a separate battle from the one mentioned above, is a long scar above his chest, right below his neck. It was courtesy of a Japanese officer in one of their several run-ins. My Father killed him with a bolo (a type of machete) after the officer’s swing and near miss at decapitation. He claimed the dead man’s sword after the fight was over and all the enemy combatants were dead. (They had a tendency to refuse surrender, which was fine by the guerrillas.)
The man with a 5-inch blade had no effect on my Father other than to produce a disdainful sneer. Without seeing his face I know he sneered. I know the man.
Below is a photo of the actual sword my Father chased the man with that night. My Father donated it to a WW II museum before old age finally claimed him. I took a picture of his sword when I went back home for his funeral. He was buried with full military honors.
Post Script added 4/5/20 :
My Father was well aware of the value of the samurai sword. He was an executive officer of the Philippines Veterans Museum and played an instrumental part in the creation and building of the museum. After he retired from his law practice, he dedicated the remainder of his life to the welfare of veterans and worked tirelessly for their benefit. He had housing units, similar to barracks, built for homeless or financially needy veterans and their families to live in cost free for as long as they needed.
The monetary value of the sword, to him, was insignificant. Income generated from the museum were used for expenses related to the housing units as well as for the education of the children and descendants of poor veterans. So the value of the sword was not lost, but repurposed to benefit the needy.
The funniest joke I have ever heard (and what makes it even more hilarious is the fact that I am blind) is the one about the man who takes his Seeing Eye dog into a bar. He picks the dog up by the tail and swings him around his head in a circle. “What are you doing?” the bar tender asks. “I’m just looking around.” he replies.
Another is about a blind man who goes to Texas. He feels the bus seat in Texas and says, “This seat is huge!” “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” the bus driver says. “Have a seat.” So the blind man sits down and the bus arrives at a bar later on. The guy gets off and goes inside.
When he sits down, the bar tender pours him a glas. The blind man feels it and says, “This glass is humongus.” “Everything is bigger in Texas.” the bar tender replies. A few minutes pass and the blind guy is hammered. He asks the tender where the rest room is. “It’s the third door on your right down that hallway to the left of you.” the bar tender replies, and the blind man gets up and advances toward the bathroom. Well, along the way, he trips over a fan cord and as a result, he oversteps and goes out the fourth door instead. He falls into the club swimming pool, and the whole time he’s standing in water up to his chest, he’s screaming, “Don’t flush! Don’t flush! Please, God, no!”
1. If you have a few hours to kill on the airplane, delete pictures from your phone.
2. Use your travel toiletries at home the night before you leave for a long trip.
3. Sign out of Netflix when checking out of an Airbnb or hotel.
4. When using a grocery delivery service, tip a set amount, not a percentage.
5. Waving someone through a stop sign when they stopped after you is not doing anybody a favour and most competent drivers are just annoyed at you for behaving unpredictably.
6. If you need to memorize information, read it, record it and play it quietly at night.
7. Save your PowerPoint presentation as a .ppsx file that starts automatically when opened.
8. Marry someone who will always have your back, even when they’re mad at you.
9. If you find a faster way to do something at your work, keep it a secret from your manager.
10. Your company didn’t know you existed before you applied and won’t notice you when you’re gone. Take care of yourself.
11. Before buying something, ask yourself two questions: “Where will I store this thing?” and “How difficult will it be to clean this thing?”
12. If the person you are dating invites you over for a home cooked meal, take the initiative and just start doing the dishes without asking. You can thank me later.
13. Ask the person you are dating the non-negotiables of yours in the first few weeks.
14. If you know how late you are going to be, add an extra 5-10 minutes to it. It might be annoying for the people when you say it initially, but when you come before the time you said, it will evoke a far more positive reaction than underestimating the lateness time.
15. Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip. That’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.
16. Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be.
I was new to a school. New year for everyone else.
If you thought this was yet another story from my dramatic teenage years, you were wrong. I was seven.
There was a boy in this class. Let’s call him Lewis. Lewis was… let’s just say he wasn’t very popular. He wasn’t bullied, he wasn’t hated, he was just a loner. The sort of kid who no one really talked to, and who didn’t really talk to anyone (he would grow up to be the most mad cap son of a bitch I know).
One day Lewis decides to read a book. I cannot recall what book, only that it had a bright pink cover.
Another kid, let’s call him Darren, decides that this is a perfect opportunity to do what kids do best: be cruel. So he goes to mock Lewis.
‘You’re reading a girls book. You like girly things!’
I’ve been observing Lewis for several days now. I’ve always liked to observe those that stood out to me. Even at my age I was able to tell that Lewis was not the sort of kid who would be able to respond well to that.
Except I was wrong.
‘Yeah I’m reading a girly book. I also like fairy cakes. And I love my mum. What are you going to do about it?’
Y’all know what sort of person I am. Now. But this kid was 7 years old and totally owned who he was. Not only that, but he took what must’ve been the greatest risk I’d ever seen right there.
Back in the late ‘90s, I began my time at a Ford dealership as a technician. (I had been working on vehicles/machinery since a kid, so, it was a good fit)
One day, right at closing time, a lady came in from about 50 miles away. She had a brand new first generation Ford Escape (it had only come out maybe a month prior) with less than 500 miles on the odometer.
She complained about a shimmy/wobble from the front end and steering wheel vibration. Ok. So, preliminary check while parked outside and her watching, I look at the vehicle head-on and noticed the driver’s front wheel out of alignment, seriously out of alignment. I take a closer look and pop the center cap off the wheel, exposing the hub and axle assembly (this was a front wheel drive vehicle) and what I saw blew me away.
There was no axle nut holding the hub to the threaded axle shaft. Judging from the condition of the hub, no witness marks and the absence of the nut itself, the retainer nut was never installed on this vehicle from the factory.
This customer had driven all that way with only the caliper and brake disk assembly holding the wheel onto the vehicle. This one disturbed me just thinking what could have happened had the brake disk or the caliper failed during her commute.
Kings in the middle ages did impregnate servants BUT those servants were freqently of noble or “gentle” birth themselves. The daughters of knights, at the least.
Why mess with the runny-nosed maid scrubbing the privy floor when there were wall-to-wall ladies-in-waiting doing the less grubby jobs of helping the queen and princesses dress, doing their hair, mending their clothes, and serving their meals? Not to mention the daughters and sisters of the noblemen serving the king?
The children from those affairs didn’t become princes and princesses because they weren’t in the line of inheritance. But their mothers were often married off to someone with money and who wanted to be in the king’s favour. The king might acknowledge a daughter with an estate and minor title at some point to get her a better marriage or acknowledge a competent young son with a title, an estate and a military command.
In Norman tradition, it was common to give an illegitimate child the surname starting with “Fitz.” Giles Fitzgerald would be the illegitimate son of a nobleman named Gerald of Whatever, while Gerald’s legitimate son William would be William of Whatever. Fitzroy was reserved for the son of the king. There were lots of Fitzroys around sometimes.
William the Conqueror was illegitimate, but since his father, Robert, Duke of Normandy, had no legitimate sons, he picked William to be his heir. William of Normandy, later King William I of England, still got stuck with the name “William the Bastard” by his detractors.
Henry I of England had 25 known illegitimate children by several noble mistresses. He made one of his nine illegitimate sons the Earl of Gloucester and another the Earl of Cornwall. Others (mostly named Fitzroy) were given smaller estates and/or military commands, and at least one went into the church. And although Henry lost both his legitimate sons young, the earls of Cornwall and Gloucester backed up their legitimate sister Matilda’s claim to the throne. Of his daughters, one became an abbess and most of the rest married well — one was a countess, another a duchess, and another the queen of Scotland.
And what did the queens think of this? In the middle ages, they didn’t have much to say, unless they were Queen Regnant like Joanna of Castille, who, when her handsome husband, Philip Duke of Austria, messed with some of her ladies-in-waiting, cut off their hair and spread it across his pillow as a warning.
We worked at a battery manufacturing plant in a small town in Iowa. One of the primary hazards was lead contamination, so we had to have our blood lead levels checked frequently to be certain they didn’t hit truly hazardous levels (but, working in such a place, your levels were *never* zero).
One day a coworker just slipped in the door & managed to clock in on time, so others asked him why was running so late. He said that he’d overslept & so had been egregiously speeding trying to make it when he was pulled over by Iowa State Patrol.
When the officer asked him why he was going so fast, he looked at him & said “Sorry, officer, but I work at Exide.”
“So what does that have to do you speeding?”
“It’s my blood levels, sir. All the lead makes my foot heavy!”
Apparently, the cop got a good laugh at the excuse & let him go with a warning.
Gary was a really enthusiastic teacher. He spent a lot of his free time pouring over ‘How to teach’ texts, grammar explanations and games (for grammar and English communications).
He took lesson planning and student evaluations very (too?) seriously.
He talked of little else.
I liked him and could relate to his passion for teaching.
We were all teaching part-time in a small, uni-sponsored English language program and rarely saw each other since all classes were off-campus.
The director’s secretary called me, asking if I knew of a school that would hire Gary, stating that the director had to let him go for over-achieving.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???
Gary had been sent to a high-end accounting firm to improve the English language skills of ten people who were scheduled for promotion to senior auditors IF they exhibited a high level of ability in various skills.
Gary went into overdrive in determining their needs (annoying HR and Training with non-stop questions) and planning accordingly.
He decided that the 30-hour course wasn’t sufficient and approached our director AND the company’s HR. He was told to stick to the schedule.
BUT he (on his own) added an unpaid, extra half hour or more to each class period.
The students were appreciative, but the company and our director took a dim view. The company, like many places we taught, expected the staff to study at 5 p.m. and then put in overtime after class.
Gary’s class extensions were affecting projects, customer relations and students’ output.
The director, although Gary did NOT ask for extra pay, saw this as a financial loss, a practice that none of the other teachers would be willing to do, AND a deterrent to future classes with this company.
He tried explaining and reasoning with Gary with little success. He finally had to order Gary to stop the extra teaching or give up the class.
The company was notified with apologies (our director was an amazing smoozer) and that was the end of it.
But…no.
Gary continued to sneak in extra time, 10-15 minutes or so, and added homework.
When the course finished, the students praised Gary for his concern and gave him high evaluations but quietly asked HR to request a different teacher.
Note: Gary was later hired at a different university as full-time staff, often tutoring students for free.
What an epic marina to enjoy rich lifestyle with a palm-fringed shoreline, roads congested with sports cars, and beautiful women in bikinis sunbathing on a white sand beach.…Not.
Russian steel and mining oligarch Alexey Mordashov’s superyacht Nord has just been re-registered in grim and brutalsky Vladivostok, Russia. It’s been docked in Golden Horn Bay near the borders with friendly countries, North Korea and China, for over a year.
The region is known for its large reserves of tin and tungsten. It’s also rich in copper, fluorite, and coal. Collectors value agates, sapphires, and precious opals that are held in high esteem. It doesn’t manufacture or design absolutely anything of economic value.
The super yacht costs 5 annual city budgets of Vladivostok, which skyline you can see in the photo above.
Having escaped by the skin of Mordashov’s American dental work from being impounded in Italy, the captain turned the transponder off and went AWOL for one full year. All this time, Mordashov desperately tried to negotiate political asylum for his boat in Asian countries – any would do as long as he didn’t have to return to his homeland.
Putin started the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the West retaliated with a barrage of sanctions targeting his inner circle, and oligarchs like Modrashov discovered that they have about as much agency outside of Putin’s diktat and Western playbook as a cockroach about to be sprayed with DDT.
Indonesia and Malaysia told Mordashov off and to head up Nord, which he did. Hong Kong reacted to the man on the run’s request for sanctuary just as they did to Edward Snowden’s:
“We not gonna have reputational risks and jeopardize our dodgy financial schemes and money laundering hub for the sake of your narcissistic self-aggrandizements. Can we recommend a country where you gonna fit right in – Russia?”
The super-yacht was built in Germany and was registered in the Cayman Islands, whose flag features The British Union Jack in the corner, a country that has provided Urkaine with cruise missiles that have sunk at least two Russian warships in the Black Sea, including the fleet’s flagship Moskva.
Launched just two years before the full-scale invasion, Nord spent a third of its lifespan on the run, and a third docked in Vladivostok. Mordashov should convert it to an icebreaker as the only route left for him to take is the Arctic Ocean.
Mordashov is also free to play Tschaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with artillery and all and wait for the end of the hostilities at the other end of Russia to cease.
It doesn’t matter which side is going to win though, Mordashov’s is stuck in Vladivostok forever. I would recommend scuttling and selling tickets to a most expensive private yacht shipwreck diving spot. Chinese millionaires across the border might show interest in buying tours.
Al Capone had balls the size of Texas. He allegedly did not fear anyone or anything EXCEPT the little Polish guy from Chicago.
Weiss had bad headaches and fainting spells. It was probably a brain tumor. Certain he was not going to live into his 30’s, Weiss had balls the size of Alaska. He feared nothing, including the godfather of Chicago’s South Side, Al Capone.
The son of poor Italian immigrants, Capone would rule the biggest criminal empire in American history. Although prostitution, gambling and bootlegging were the moneymakers, killing opponents came with the territory.
The North Side Gang was a mix of Poles, Jews and Irishmen. The South Side Gang was Italians, run by Capone and Johnny Torrio. They did not like each other. Capone decided to delete the head of the North Side; Dean O’Banion was shot dead on November 10, 1924.
Weiss took control of the North Side Gang. He shot up Capone’s limousine, but Capone was not in the vehicle at the time. He then went over to visit Johnny Torrio at his house and peppered him full of bullets. Weiss did not like the Sicilian mafia either, so he stopped by to see Angelo Genna, too. Weiss killed him.
Weiss did his own killing; it was his hobby.
Capone was nervous. His days were numbered, so he contacted Weiss and requested a truce. A meeting was held.
Weiss demanded that the two men who shot O’Banion be delivered for his own personal afternoon of “entertainment”. Either that or he would kill Capone, too.
Capone could not accept the offer. Those two were the best hit men in Capone’s private collection.
As Weiss went to the flower shop where he often slept and where O’Banion was killed, two men, one with a machine gun and the other with a shotgun, opened fire. Weiss, the only man that Al Capone feared, was dead of a bullet wound to the head at the age of 28.
Several years ago I was working for a company doing home theatre installs. Often when walk-ins bought TVs they’d ask to have it installed (and mounted). A good customer of ours came in and bought a new TV. At the time this 60″ plasma was going out the door for about $8k. We (I) installed it, mounted it on the wall in their basement. It had been recommended that they purchase a UPS / battery backup /spike protector. They declined. After I finished the install I recommended the same (I was paid salary, so selling stuff wasn’t part of my compensation and didn’t matter except for the obvious protection of this equipment). I didn’t plug the TV into the wall, the customer did that after declining the UPS.
2 weeks later they called stating their satellite dish tower was struck by lightning and the new TV wasn’t coming on. I was sent to evaluate. You could smell the ozone smell, the magic smoke smell even a day later. Warranty doesn’t cover this. They buy a new TV.. the new models just came out and they popped for a 75″… and a UPS this time. I had a helper with me to install the new one, and they asked us to dispose of the baked TV. I called the office and they said load it up and take it away to be disposed, don’t even bring it to the office. Instead of taking it 45 minutes to the E-waste disposal site, I put it in the back of my truck and dumped it on my back porch. It sat there for a couple years. When Covid hit and everything shut down I did what everyone else did… started purging stuff. I looked at this TV and decided to take a look-see before tossing it. After laying it on the counter and getting the back off it, I exposed 3 PCBs. 2 were almost identical, as I looked first at one and then the next I realized that the PCB on the right had a pile of charcoal where a small blue MoV should have been (MoV’s are the protection device in Surge protector bars). I went down to my dead devices pile and grabbed an old dead Bell Sat receiver and found the same part. Unsoldered it and installed it into the TV. As soon as I plugged it in, the screen came on and the audio started hissing that white noise from not being tuned to a channel.
I’m using that TV for over 2 years now without any further issues.
Had to fire one engineer for watching porn on the company computer. Worst part? He sued because he wasn’t given a warning…the State Labor board agreed…we had to cover his salary for six months. Despite being clearly covered in the employee handbook as a “no-no”, we apparently couldn’t just fire him. We figured it was just the cost of doing business to rid ourselves of such an individual.
Fired one young lady on the second shift who was “entertaining gentlemen” in her van during lunch hour. If she’d been doing it up on the berm of the State highway it would have been a public matter, but she was parked on company property…with surveillance cameras catching everything.
Fired upwards of a hundred over the years for drug and alcohol abuse on the job.
Some more I knew about (but wasn’t the firing supervisor)…
There were two executives caught “in the act” on the boardroom table. Not a great career choice in general, particularly bad when the CEO is a born again Christian.
Knew another executive who got a job at a private firm…and decided it was a bright idea to share the spreadsheet of bids of all the competitors with the government. Their first act was to fire him, the second was to call the FBI and the Inspector General. He’s doing time in Federal prison.
More “rank and file” firings for time card theft, attempted embezzlement, stealing company property, deliberate destruction of company property, and aggravated assault on a co-worker.
One day I was walking in my building when a girl in my neighborhood, pushed me from behind.
I looked around at her, tried to reason with her but she snapped at me saying I wasn’t looking where I was going.
She was plain rude.
Stop for a moment.
What do you think of that girl now?
Mean? Obnoxious?
Let’s see what actually happened:
I had my earphones on when I was walking so I couldn’t hear the girl walking behind me.
I slowed down suddenly and that’s when that girl bumped into me.
I got annoyed and asked her what her problem was. That’s when she got angry and asked me to watch where I was going.
Okay. Same story, two narrations.
The above incident didn’t really happen but I wanted to illustrate something:
In the first story, I never mentioned I had my earphones on.
In the first story, I said that the girl was the one who pushed me.
In fact, I even wrote that I “tried to reason with her” when I had actually blamed her even though I was the one at fault.
I left out the details which could make me look bad and exaggerated the parts which blamed the other person.
Just like, if a person goes ahead and says how all oftheir exes were crazy and they were the innocent victims, there’s a high chance that the story is manipulated.
Here’s the thing: Every story has two sides.
So, you can never form a judgement by hearing just one side of it.
What things should you never do?
Well, let’s start with, not believing every random thing you hear.
China will not fight decoupling. It is good for China. It gives impetus for Chinese innovation and Chinese self sustenance.
Most of all it helps China grow healthily and steadily. At 3–4 times that of the U.S. It is good for keeping in check over growth that may be bad for environment and China can cultivate its domestic market. Though it slows down China say 1–2% GDP so will be the U.S. take this year for example. China will likely grow by 6% in spite of all the shit the U.S. throw at China! And the U.S. will hardly hit even 2% growth.
6% is a wet dream for western economies to have. These day UK is set for a negative growth of -3%. And the rest of EU are barely faring better.
Decoupling is a suicide for the west. But hubris and supremacists thinking probably encourage the U.S. on. Frankly the rest of the Global South are ready to decouple from the west. We are ready. Please keep your outdated and irrelevant technologies to screw yourself.
Imagine:You are trapped on your stomach, walls all around you. Each time you inhale, your ribs touch the top of the space you are enclosed in. You can only wiggle forward, inching towards freedom. Oh, yeah-don’t forget: The walls might crumble down on you, killing you instantly. Worse yet, you might get trapped, stuck in a tiny, enclosed space, unable to move as you slowly die of thirst.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Spelunking, otherwise known as cave crawling, is the ‘sport’ for people with a death wish. Essentially, you mash your body through tiny cave crevices that have the chance of leading to a larger cave. It’s a claustrophobic’s nightmare come to life.
You might think that it’s safe? Absolutely not. The only equipment you have is a helmet. If you think:
Well, with my trusty hard hat, what’s there to worry about? It’ll protect me if the cave comes crumbling down!
Then you might want to go “spelunking” in a padded room with no windows.
The Nutty Putty Cave incident made international headlines.
Spelunker John Jones was well familiar with spelunking. As a child, he had often spelunked with his father, and when he was 23 years old, he descended into the depths of Nutty Putty Cave in Utah. The cave had seen over 5000 visitors a year for decades, and was assumed to be fairly safe.
John went into the cave with his brother Josh and some other friends, totally unaware of what would happen next. At one point, John thought he was in a part of the cave called the Birth Canal, but in reality, he had ventured into uncharted sections of the cave near “Ed’s Push”. He went to climb through a small gap- and found himself seriously stuck. Even worse- he was almost entirely upside-down.
Several rescue attempts failed, and John died of cardiac arrest after being stuck in the cave for over 27 hours. Officials couldn’t even retrieve his body, and Nutty Putty Cave was forever sealed off.
There have been countless other deaths in cave systems around the world. Drowning, starvation, noxious gas- you name it. Spelunking just doesn’t sound appealing.
I don’t see how the mashing yourself through tiny crevices is worth the chance of dying an awful death. I’ll fling myself out of a plane, dive down into the depths of the ocean, scale cliff faces- but there’s absolutely no way in the world I’m ever going spelunking.
Yet most of our Industries are rapidly buying more and more Chinese machinery when the time for replacement comes
This year the demand for Chinese CNC machinery for India surged rapidly
Machines are more affordable and better quality
One Importer said he had less than 15% orders from China in 2015 but now has almost 70% orders from China
The Biggest problem for Chinese Machines in India was RESALE
A Major Industry could buy 50 Chinese Machines but reselling them in the second hand market was a huge problem as they barely fetched 10% of their value against almost 30% for Japanese & Korean and 40% for Western Machines
Yet now Chinese Machines fetch 25% of their value in resale and the biggest part is the same machines can be resold to other countries in Africa
Indian Industries save almost 18% of their production costs that increases their profit plus the re exporting of second hand Chinese machinery brings export revenue
It’s a WIN WIN relationship
China has this Win Win relationship with most nations in the world
Even the West, which is why despite all the rhetoric, decoupling is not feasible
When Goods worth $ 100 Billion is imported from China, they create finished goods worth $ 200–400 Billion or sell for $ 200–400 Billion in Western Economies
This leads to VALUE CREATION
This contributes to between 13% to 33% of the economic growth of Western economies
When $ 100 worth of components are assembled to sell a final product for $ 300 – that creates an additional $ 200 of value
This helps Countries with value enhancement plus even exports
Due to this Win Win relationship, despite all the efforts of the West, China is an integral cog in the Global Economy
It’s why many nations visit China and pledge allegiance and friendship every year
In 2023 – 81 Foreign Delegations visited China against a mere 12 Chinese Delegations visiting other countries
160+ Trade Delegations visited China versus a mere 30+ Trade delegations from China visiting other countries
Every Economy needs China for its sustained growth especially Western ones
So the world is not turning against China in any way
Not even the United States is
All these so called Anti China policies are purely ECONOMIC
If Chinese Products now of high quality flood the global markets, it’s likely 50% of the Western Brands will collapse in a decade
NEVs are the best example
Likewise if China manages to make 3 nm chips, they can outprice the entire Western supply by 60% and finish the market of every single Western designer and fabrication industry
Thus they are being throttled
China already finished the markets for all Western chipmakers who sold 450–45 nm Chips
Yet China was necessary to bring down costs in the first place
Hence the Anti Chinese Propaganda
To combat the transformation of China from a Cheap Producer to a High Quality Industrialized Nation
Trust me, tomorrow if China scales back down on their transformation and goes back to Pre 2015 mode, Xi Jingping will become a great statesman and China will be the friend of the world to the US Media again
Nobody sees them as the Great Satan
That’s reserved for the USA
Even Phillipinos or Taiwanese don’t see China as a great satan despite the recent issues
To the world China is a Country capable of delivering a Win Win relationship
The U.S. never had any evidence nor even factual information it just make up lies as it goes a long. China steal intellectual property? China is aggressive, China carry out “genocide”, China is authoritarian, China create debt trap and a whole set of narratives dream up to demonise and cause mistrust and fear.
It is very despicable frankly. But what can you expect from a nation that started by the mass murder and genocide of its natives. Then this nation murdered and tortured up to 30 million Africans to slave and built the U.S. This nation is the only one that nuke to murder 200 thousands due to their skin colour, this same nation also murdered and slaughter up to 100 million innocent civilians or caused it through interference, war mongering and chaos and coup orchestrating.
China and the world knows the U.S. hypocrisy and its despicable nature but talking shit is all it can do and frankly it hurts US economy more than it can ever hurt China. To most nation lying and fabricating to demonise another nation is simply hypocritical and obnoxious and that what the global community sees the U.S. By not lashing back China keeps its moral high ground. And even US slave vassal states and cronies cannot but feel a shame of US behaviour but their short term gain is paramount.
Hence the pretence and the intentional concurrence of the back boneless nations. Shameful.
In the late 80’s I had been working as a Technician for a Saab dealership in Denver… I grew very fond of the Saab brand and enjoyed working on them….Unfortunately the Dealership closed and I had to go back to working on the poorly engineered and built garbage that was coming out of Detroit in the 80’s so I packed up my $90K worth of tools, into my dads garage, went out and bought a big ol Freightliner and took to the highways…Fast forward to the 90’s….Im (http://90’s….Im) cruising down the highway one fine day, and come up on a pretty little red Saab 900 convertible on the roadside, hood up and steaming away, I wasnt in a big hurry so I pulled over, and took a little walk back to the car where I found a very distraught middle aged lady, and her elderly mother….As (http://mother….As) I walked up I said,”It must be your lucky day, I just happen to be a former Saab mechanic” Can I help you?…She almost kissed me!!!
She stated,” I just picked it up from the repair shop, It cost me $800 to have the radiator replaced, and now its overheating again” I’ve got my mother with me and we are late for a family function…. I immediately knew what was wrong, and told her, I’ll have you on your way in 5 minutes….Went and grabbed my 10mm wrench and a gallon of water,popped the coolant bleeder valve open, told her if you dont get all the air out of the system a big ol air bubble will form inside your water pump, and here you sit….BURP out comes a big blast of air, Let me pay you!!! I said my mother would never allow that and you ladies enjoy your afternoon….Then she says to me, “well it must be YOUR lucky day” as she hands me her business card…..Turns out, shes the Vice President of Transportation for Proctor & Gamble and Sir, any time you EVER get somewhere and need a load, YOU call ME !!!! Over the next 15 years I cant count the times she fixed me up with a good paying load wherever I happened to be…..
At age 60 I was feeling run down & fatigued for a while, attributing it to age & not enough exercise. I decided to check my blood pressure at home and it was quite high despite the blood pressure medication I was taking, so I called my doctor’s office. They were concerned & told me to come into the office right away & they would fit me in.
My BP was still high in the doctor’s office, so my doctor sent me to the lab for a lot of blood work. That afternoon I started getting texts with some of the results of the lab work & I saw that I was anemic. Well that explained a lot & I figured I would need iron supplements.
The next morning my doctor calls me first thing. She tells me that she is admitting me to hospital in order to fully diagnose what is going on with me. I am scared, call my boss to tell her I am being admitted, but I really do not know what is wrong.
Once in the hospital I learned that I had kidney disease, and I was in kidney failure! Never saw that coming! I had to begin dialysis immediately, which made me ill & caused low blood pressure.
I was on dialysis for 7 months, with 5 months of home hemo dialysis. I felt ill and was exhausted all the time, with little appetite & unable to return to work.
Both of my adult children offered to be tested to be living donors. My son was tested first as he lives in the same city and he turned out to be a match!!
I was extremely fortunate to have my 24 year old son donate a kidney to me. He truly saved my life & I am forever grateful for his sacrifice. My new kidney is working well, and my son is doing well too.
Unfortunately I have developed several autoimmune illnesses that I am trying to get under control, but thankfully I do not have to have dialysis.
Kidney disease is horrible. Please consider being a living donor, there is a registry & they can find a match if you do not have someone in particular that you are wanting to help. It is truly life saving.
My parents were left of left of left. “Those who have more should be required to share with those who have less” kind of left.
I heard that as far back as I can remember. One day when I was in the fourth grade, my grandfather gave me a dollar. A fair amount in 1958. It was hot the next day, and a lot of my friends at school couldn’t afford an ice cream bar from the cafeteria.
Hey, I had more than they did, so I bought several of them a 14-cent ice cream in addition to getting one for me. My teacher found me and gave me back about sixty cents, saying that she had made four of my friends take back their unopened bars. She also contacted my parents.
When I said that I had more and they had less, my parents said that the dollar was for me. They didn’t want to hear about people with less, as we were not rich. They also didn’t want to hear about how it pleased me to give some friends a treat they couldn’t afford.
After that I watched. While my mother did put some of her money where her mouth was to buy a few things for some Head Start centers she helped set up, they didn’t give much else. What was theirs was theirs, and only who they called wealthy were berated in our household for not sharing. Today, by their standards, I would be called wealthy, even though I’m barely in the top 10% in the US.
My parents had some friends who were wealthy by my parents’ standards. They were also exempt because they were “in the cause” of making the other wealthy people pay.
The secret was that they were completely hypocritical about what they taught me. What it changed was that I became somewhat more conservative, and gave way more to charity than they did. I did follow some of their examples, though. My mother worked as a public health nurse with the Hmong immigrants when they flooded in and actually caught a G-I disease doing it. I have volunteered to do things like building a home for homeless boys in Fiji based on her example.
But when it came to finances, their example of “what’s mine is mine, and what’s theirs is mine, too” stayed with me the rest of my life as an example of what not to think.
Not me but a close friend. She worked with a mid sized oil exploration company and was being paid secretary wages for doing the drunk Geologists job, she did the office work and actually went out and did the field work at times. At the urging of another close friend and myself she asked for a raise and got berated for it and basically told like what you got because that’s all you are worth.
3 weeks later she interviewed with Elf Aquitaine ( French oil company ). She was offered double her current salary with a guaranteed raise after 90 days and salary reviews every 6 months, benefits paid by company and generous matching on savings, offered a opportunity to go to the home office in France for 6 months all expenses paid, encouraged to learn French and was very well treated.
During the interview her new boss said she was the most knowledgeable Geologist they had ever met and that they would pay for her to get her degree since she didn’t have one.
It also helped that she knew all the reports backwards and forwards along with the legal side. She had worked at the exploration company for over 10 years and they just kept adding to her jobs as she mastered more and more of them. They genuinely thought she would never quit and were amazed at what Elf offered, her starting pay was as much as her old bosses, she made enough that she retired at 55 and traveled to world with her husband.
She currently lives in Houston and is an amazing person.
I was 15 years old. I was staying with my aunt yet again as my mother decided she needed another break from me and went on another bender.
My aunt was more of a mom to me. As a result I was very close to her family and called her mom Grandma and her sister Aunt. Anyway Grandma was living with my Aunt. She had dementia and was having a particularly bad day. My aunt asked me to pick up my 10 year cousin from school which was only a block away. I did this often as my aunt tried to shield my cousin from her mothers episodes. She gave me some cash to stop at the small ice cream place near her school to keep her away longer.
I got to my cousins school expecting to see her on the playground where all the kids played while waiting to get picked up. She wasn’t there but I wasn’t worried as I knew she sometimes helped the teacher clean up the classroom after school. I went to her classroom and she wasn’t there either! No one was.
Starting to get worried I started roaming the hallways peeking in the classrooms looking for her. She was nowhere to be found!
I ran to the principals office freaked out by then and told the secretary I couldn’t find her! The secretary immediately made an announcement over the PA system telling my cousin to come to the office. 10 minutes passed. She never came.
We went to the teachers lounge and got the teachers to help look for her. I’ve never been so scared! My aunt trusted me with her daughter and I didn’t know how to call her and tell her she was gone.
30 minutes later we heard a shout. One of the teachers had found her. She was in the library reading. She had gone to check out a book when school had let out without telling anyone and the librarian had locked her in.
I hugged her hard and told her to always tell someone where she was going. It was for her safety. She started crying and apologizing over and over. I told her it was okay. Her principal gave her the same lecture and we left.
My aunt hadn’t called yet to say it was safe to come home so we went for ice cream and then to the local park. An hour later my aunt called and told us to come on home. Grandma finally went to sleep.
After my cousin went to bed that night I told my aunt what had happened. At first she seemed upset but then said they were lucky to have me there. I was shocked. I didn’t receive compliments very often. She gave me a hug told me I was a good person and a great sister to my cousin.
My cousin always made sure she was on the playground after school after that.
He became my feline friend one day when I was working on my patio. I looked up to find a bedraggled, starving and dehydrated cat four feet from me, crying for help. I went and got him some water and a can of tuna, and set it out for him. I eventually got some additional food and a water bowl, and set it out for him. At first, he was pretty skittish, but after a month he would let me pet him. I started moving his bowls toward my patio door, and after three months, he would come in to be fed.
One day he showed up with blood on his face, and we decided he had to go to the vet. He ended up getting antibiotics, and had a drain and the cone of shame. We had him chipped and neutered.
He was still an outdoor cat, and would periodically get in fights, earning his name “Scrappy”. At one point, he was tested for FIV and tested positive. At that point, our vet said that if we wanted to properly care for him, he should cease his outside existence, as he would be susceptible to infections that could kill him. He was also X-rayed, and found that his left front leg was kind of a mess, having been broken/infected and healed at some point, but with reduced mobility.
We decided to turn him into a 100% indoor cat. He did not like it for the first two weeks.
But he lived. He was safe. He was happy. Occasionally he would get out. He’d usually sit on the patio if it was sunny. If it was rainy, he would turn around and come right back into the house.
Without our intervention he would have died. Instead, he lived for another decade.
Life in the wild for cats is dangerous and short. We have foxes, skunks, raccoons and coyotes in our neighborhood. As well as cars and dogs.
We currently have two other adopted ferals. Their sister (whom we call Patchoulli) is still an outdoor cat, but she sleeps in our garage and we feed her twice daily and see that she gets to the vet and has flea medication. Her brother occasionally joins her outside and catches the odd mouse, but he’s happy to be back inside, usually within an hour.
My wife and I work fairly diligently to provide an engaging environment for our little furry friends, and by virtue of our care, they will enjoy that environment for several times longer than they would be if they were feral.
At one point, I was visiting my mom and step-dad. I asked about the 12HP, 3 blade, 42″ cut riding mower sitting out front at the neighbor’s house. Turned out he had run it out of oil, and the engine seized up. He put oil in after-the-fact, but of course it was too late. He’d bought a new one and the dealer had offered to dispose of the old one for him. I asked if I could try to fix it and he said, GO ahead, they’re not giving me anything for it.
We wheeled it into step-dad’s work shop. The piston was vertical stroke, so the spark plug was on top. We poured some new oil through the spark plug hole and went to get lunch. When we came back, we put a socket on the flywheel nut, and a breaker bar on the socket. It broke loose! So we started it up and ran it. It took a couple minutes to burn all the oil out of the top of the cylinder, but then it was fine. My grandfather had been using a really old, 7HP, single blade, 26″ mower to mower about an acre of lawn. I gave it to him. He loved it and used it until he died.
One afternoon, we walked into our Econometrics lecture and found a shopping cart full of tennis balls in front of the door. A second, empty shopping cart stood in the back corner.
The professor waited patiently for us to file into our seats. Then he cleared his throat and announced, “I’m going to need two volunteers today.”
Two hands went up. He handed them each a bucket.
“All right,” he said, “Our two brave volunteers are going to fill up their buckets with tennis balls, carry them across the room, and dump the balls into the other shopping cart. Then they’ll run back and do it again, and again, and again, until all of the balls have been moved.”
We nodded, still confused. This still sounded more like P.E. than Econometrics.
“Before we start this little experiment,” continued our professor, “I want all of you to guess how long this process is going to take. Go onto the class website and type in your guesses – I’ll give a candy bar to the student who gets closest to the actual answer.”
I had no idea what to guess. How many buckets’ worth tennis balls could fit in a shopping cart? How long would it even take to carry a full bucket across the classroom?
In the end, I just took a stab at it and typed in 42 seconds.
“All right,” he said, after we’d all made our guesses. “Are we ready? On your mark…get set…go!”
The process ended up taking 162 seconds.
Then we all went online together to look at our guesses.
There were about eighty students in the class, and I wasn’t the only one who’d been completely wrong – our guesses were all over the place. Some of us had guessed that it would take less than 20 seconds; others had guessed that it would take nearly ten minutes.
Then we looked at the average of all of our guesses.
157 seconds.
Our collective guess, as a group, was closer to the correct answer than 98%of our individual guesses.
It was the first time I’d witnessed a “wisdom of crowds” moment in action. At that moment, all I could think was, Hot damn. Statistics is so cool.
He’d run this experiment every semester, and more often than not, the collective guess would have won the candy bar. This class was one of the reasons I decided to major in economics.
Me (over phone) : The movie has started, where the heck are you?
Kirti : Just in 2 minutes.
Me : I’m watching it for the fourth time I could afford to be late. But a first timer, really?
Kirti : Just shut up.
She disconnected. Finally she reached.
Kirti : Hey, see I told you two minutes.
(I started leaving).
Kirti : Where, you going?
Me : I was watching Interstellar again to experience time dilation in a movie. But when fifteen minutes of mine are equal to two minutes of yours, then it’s time dilation in reality. Thank you.
As I was leaving, she stood unmoved and kept looking at me.
Kirti : Do you want me to say sorry?
Me : I was just kidding. Let’s go watch the movie.
Kirti : Let’s hurry up.
Me : And hey, in case I raised my voice while on phone, sorry for that.
Kirti : It’s okay.
When Kirti became my girlfriend.
It was a different cinema, different movie, same Kirti, same me, but a different demeanour.
Me (over phone) : Hey, where the hell are you?
Kirti : Just in.
She comes.
Me : You need to understand I’m not your puppet, I got my time and priorities.
Kirti : I’m so sorry. Please don’t shout like this.
Me : Just shut up, already.
Previously she shut me up and now I did.
I forgot that she had said yes to me when the world was chasing her.
I would say sorry to her a thousand times when she was my crush and now she is the one saying sorry.
One day, it got real ugly and she ditched me in the heat of the moment but forever. I deserved it.
BYD makes most of the batteries used in the world today. Tesla do not make batteries themselves It leads in EV buses and truck world wide and now EV cars itself. It is a highly profitable company but based on Wall Street valuation it is worth 10% of Tesla! Even Warren Buffet who is probably the world’s most savvy investor invested in BYD!
The difference is one is listed and it’s stock is listed in Wall Street while the other is listed and sold in Hong Kong! That is why the GDP of the U.S. is full of hot air bubble! It will come crashing down! For me Tesla is highly overrated and over valued while BYD is highly undervalued!
Now let us look at the number. BYD hardly sell in the U.S. and Europe yet it sold the most EV worldwide this means the Global South market is humongous and the U.S. and EU are small potatoes these days! Both the U.S. and EU are depriving their citizens from benefiting from value for money technology and a cleaner environment. Whatever happen to freedom of choice? What about free market mechanism? Thrown out of your window?
BYD sells very well world wide because of value for money. Tesla profiteers and it is mostly made in China with many parts and technologies from China. Yet it sells at a huge profit. But the U.S. prefers to let its citizens be abused by corporations rather than helping them reduce their living cost!
“I’m moving to Texas to be with my fiancée. I can either move and work for somebody else; or I can move and continue working for you remotely.”
After she graduated from college, my fiancée moved to Texas to start work with NASA. We had lived apart for almost a year.
I was determined to be with her. So, I planned my move to Texas. After three months of planning, I had some money saved up and a couple of job prospects in mind.
I walked into my boss’s office fully expecting to walk out without a job or my notice given. But, I decided to try something I thought of the night before, instead.
After some small talk, I said “I’m moving to Texas to be with my fiancée. I can either move and work for somebody else; or I can move and continue working for you remotely.”
He sat there quietly for almost a full minute. I’m normally not one to get uncomfortable with silence; but this was unexpected. He was actually thinking about it!
I hid my excitement and let him think.
Finally, he asked “What part of Texas?”
I answered.
He went on to explain that there would have to be a change in my status. Payroll would have to do things so I was taxed for the proper locale, etc.
I was the first person in our group to be a full time telecommuter. This was in 2001.
I’ve gone through six bosses since then and I’m still working from home! Today, most of my team works from home too!
If you ever get caught sleeping at your desk at work just say “they told me at the Blood Bank that this would happen.
When the power goes out search for wifi networks on your phone to see if everyones power is out.
Quelling road rage by pretending that every asshole driver really has to poop.
If you want to maintain good posture, pretend your nipples have lasers that shoot out of them and you have to keep them aimed at people’s heads.
Wiping the water off of your body with your hands in the shower before getting out and towel-drying.
If your car is overheating, turn your heat on full blast. When you turn the heat on in a car, it pulls heat from the engine into the cab, thus cooling the engine.
Hit “s” while watching Netflix on a computer to skip the intro.
If you don’t know whether you should use the word effect or affect, simply use impact.
When buying bedsheets, look for striped ones. It will make it much easier to find the long and short sides.
If you accidentally press the spacebar and scroll down the page, you can press Shift+Space and go back to where you were.
Don’t save your banking information on online stores. Makes impulse buying much more difficult if you have to track down your wallet.
If you keep a baseball bat in your car for protection, put a sock over it. If they grab the bat, they will only get the sock, and you will get another swing.
Filling in the ‘to’ field of an email last.
When buying online, leave items in the shopping cart for awhile. There is a good chance that the website is tracking this, and will lower the price overtime to entice you into buying.
If your coworker ever calls in sick for work, you can do the same 1-3 days later. Your boss will think you have the same thing and it’s “going around the office.”
Blink eyes rapidly for a minute before bed to tire yourself out.
When lending a pen or marker hand it over without the cap, you are much more likely to get it back.
If you have somewhat of a double chin or you want your jawline to be more defined in a picture, put your tongue on the roof of your mouth.
Whenever you accidentally set off your smoke alarm, give your pets a treat so they learn to come to you when there actually is a fire and you need to escape.
Remember that one 18-inch pizza is more pizza than two 12-inch pizzas.
Is Family Law the Main Reason Men Are Going Their Own Way?
4 days after my son and i moved into a townhome I rented, we were physically attacked by 2 women that live behind us. Okay, long story short (ish): school started for my son (6th grade) the day after we moved in. That day, my son had an altercation with a child on the bus. Apparently the kid was saying to my son that his mom was a “Karen” for some unknown reason. We JUST moved in and hadn’t had time or the chance to interact with anyone in the neighborhood, so My guess is as good as any. I havent a clue. Anyway my son verbally defended me and told him to stop. Next day, the child punched my son 3 times in the shoulder and back while passing him in the hallway, which was caught on camera and dealt with by the administrator at his school. The other child was given in-school suspension and the parents were called about what transpired. The video showed the child hitting my son and my son continue to walk and then run away. So, my son wasn’t punished. The following day, after putting my son on the bus I hear someone banging on my front door- and i opened it to 2 grown women demanding that i come outside. Being alone, I refused and called the police. The police show up and talk to both of us and say that the women are now calm and suggest i get some cameras in case something happens, etc. I decided to stay with family members that night and about 5 hours later, we left. We stopped to get gas and check my mail at the old house on the way. As my son got out of the car to check the mail i noticed a car parked directly behind mine in the driveway. The women hopped out and assaulted my son and me with a weapon and left. I managed to get their tag number and called the police. Turns out it was the parents of the kid who attacked my son at school. Needless to say they’re facing multiple felonies and roughly 15–20 years in prison. Craziest shit ive ever experienced in my life!
Idiots holding placards is the Western style of democracy
If one set of idiots hold placards, tomorrow another set of idiots will hold placards for another issue and the entire country will be reduced to holding placards for the rest of their lives
Chinas democracy is a Government for the people
Keeping food prices low
Ensuring housing for everyone
Ensuring energy for everyone
Keeping inflation as low as possible
Protection of Middle Class Investors
Good Healthcare plan for every Citizen
Providing high quality roads and transportation
Ultimately I believe a Government for the People triumphs a Government by the people
Meanwhile the West is the opposite:-
Rising inflation falling savings
Printing money to help Ukraine over Americans
Declining Healthcare program with uninsured rising by 23% in the last three years
Poor quality infrastructure
Sacrificing the Middle Class to keep the upper classes and rich
So the Chinese are right when they say China respects Democracy
It’s a different definition from the hypocritcal one the West made up.
China’s Newest Tank is Doing the Opposite of Everyone Else
I went through a divorce from my wife of 5 years. I was young, broke and (as the saying goes) stupid. She left and went on to live with her parents and I was stuck with the apartment contract and all other monthly bills. Also a truck that was in both of our names, broken engine, and was $5,000 into a loan. I also was buried in debt from student loans $42,000 and a credit card $9,500.
I fell into ddepression and a solace that can only be explained by living in a state of vacuum. None of what I did would have any effect on my personal economy, or my emotions, or my connections with others. But I tried my best.
One day I started to reach out to old friends only to realize that they had moved on, didn’t care or just didn’t want to associate.
I was broken, and I was in pain. And I was done with my family, and with people, and with the world as I knew it.
I worked hard. No one cared. I cried hard. No one cared. I paid my debts, got off the grip of the financial abominate soul-consuming xenomorphic monster called the United States Department of Education when I sent the last check and demanded a paid in full notification sent to me.
I made new friends, and created a new path with a different vision. I transformed my life around, and declared freedom. I don’t care if no one cares. I do. My life, my business.
Russian President Lays Out His Judgment on the Continued Existence of the US and Europe
In a speech in Russia today, Vladimir Putin laid out his Judgment on the continued Existence of the US and the EU. “The concepts of honor, trust, and decency, are not for them.” and ” . . . they got used to spitting on the whole world.” He went on: “Indeed the Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies.”
An excerpt from today’s speech appears with English sub-titles below. To even the most dense viewer, it should occur that this man is laying out the reasons the United States and Europe should no longer exist.
That’s a hell of an ugly reality coming from a man whose country literally has the ability to wipe us all out. It is almost as if he is priming the world for what may be coming, soon . . .
Here’s the speech:
Hal Turner Editorial Opinion
The reason the elites of the west have become “a symbol of total, unprincipled, lies” is because to date, there have been absolutely NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THEM as they go about all their total, unprincipled lying. No one gets fired. No one gets prosecuted. No one gets thrown in jail. This needs to change, but it WON’T because the very people who CAN fire, prosecute, and jail the liars, ARE the people doing all the lying!
If what the Russian President was talking about merely affected those doing the unprincipled lying, that would be one thing, but he’s not talking about affecting only them, what he’s talking about would affect the rest of US too.
We have the right to defend ourselves from the horrifying wreckage, death, and destruction, these western elites will cause to be heaped upon us. It’s time to begin doing just that; while we still can.
Last night, The Teenager and I were cuddling on the couch when she asked me, “Mom, do you want me to become an extraordinary person?”. I was a bit surprised by the question, “Erm, I’ve never thought about that. Since you were born, I’ve always just wanted you to be healthy”, I told her.
“I had a talk with my friends today at lunch”, The Teenager said, “Everyone wants to become Someone in the future. Wants to stand out. Wants to be different. Wants to be a big deal. I mean, why someone always needs to be extraordinary to be ‘good’? Being ordinary person is also good. The Earth has 8 billion people. Am I lame if I just want to be a normal person, and has a normal life?”, she asked me.
I hugged her, “No, sweetie, of course not. As long as you are healthy and happy, being normal is extraordinary in its own way.”
And that, made me thinking. Is that the thing we usually underestimate? Being just an ordinary person leading an ordinary life.
My dad had a big scar on the side of his face. I didn’t think anything of it as a kid, since I had seen it all my life. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and studying history that it came to mean something.
Dad fought in WW2. He was a captain in the mechanized cavalry and commanded tanks under Patton. Apparently, when there was fog and the driver couldn’t see clearly, it was SOP for someone to open the hatch and sit with his feet on the driver’s shoulders, giving directions by touch.
A German artillery shell hit his tank one foggy day when he was in that position. If it had hit about six inches higher, i wouldn’t be typing this message. He took a massive load of shrapnel in his face and hands. His goggles saved his eyes, but one of his ears was blown off and later surgically reconstructed. He was in the hospital for over a year. They left a lot of the smaller pieces of shrapnel in his hands and I remember him having several episodes when one would decide to come back out years later.
I could rarely get him to talk about the war. He’d gladly tell stories about the mounted cavalry days, but would rarely talk about combat. When he died in 1990, I found his medals stored in a box and he had a shitload of them.
2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/4 cup chopped almonds
Confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Mix almond paste, chocolate and almonds thoroughly. Knead on surface sprinkled with 1 to 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar until of uniform color and consistency. Shape into 6-inch long roll; roll in confectioners’ sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 12 hours.
Years ago I had an employee call loudly, “hey asshole”! It was heard by at least 10 other people. I was the CEO of the company. I had one choice. I fired him that instant and had Security remove him from the property. You see he had other options. He chose the one with a severe penalty. All of my employees know that they are free to come to my office, anytime I’m alone, close the door and call me an asshole and I’ll give him the opportunity to tell me why he feels that way. We can discuss the problem and I will explain it from my perspective. Obviously the same latitude isn’t given for public insubordination. Now during our private meeting we may reach an agreement, or we’ll be unable to. The employee had the option of meeting with me. If he and I deadlocked, one of us has to go!
Jason & The Argonauts | Full Movie | Creature Features
A real treat for today. This is a great lazy afternoon movie for your enjoyment.
When I lived in Indiana, my wife and myself took private dance lessons. We studied ballroom dancing. And we were pretty good at it. Bronze and silver level for certain, and we were studying gold level for Foxtrot and Tango. Which is really very good.
We were top level amateur.
I have many stories from this time, and about this situation. But today I want to relate a funny aspect of that situation…
We lived in a mobile home park, and our trailer was pretty small. Aside from the studio or our dance club, there really wasn’t any place to practice our dancing. That was… until one day.
We found a nice secluded area in the countryside. It was a cemetery at the side of a rural road, and there was a nice flat cement area on one of the cemetery slabs. Indeed, YES… we were dancing on the graves of the people in the cemetery.
So yeah. That well explains why cars would slow down and watch us dancing on the graves of the newly deceased. LOL. I guess I spent much of my time in Indiana dancing on the graves of the people that lived there.
A few years ago, I was in line at a cash register waiting to pay for my purchase at a dollar store. I was waiting behind a little girl who was about 8 or 9 years old. She was alone and I was watching her as she meticulously laid out all of her purchases on the conveyor belt. I thought she was so cute.
Then, the cashier asked her if she was sure she had enough money. She nodded her head that she did. The cashier proceeded to ring up her purchases and she told her what the total was. The little girl took out a handful of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. She started to count the coins slowly and carefully. I was actually enjoying watching her do this!
Then, the cashier informed her that she was missing about 60 cents. She said that the girl would have to put some things back. She was hesitating as she was trying to decide what to remove. I looked at the cashier and I told her that I would pay the difference. The cashier took my money and put her purchases in a bag. Then, the little girl left. (I think she thanked me.)
At this point, the cashier told me that this young child came into the store and pulled this con game every week! The unsuspecting customers behind her ALWAYS paid for the remainder of her purchases! This child was extremely convincing – she really pulled the wool over my eyes! I told the cashier that I wish she would have told me before I paid because I would have wanted to say something to this girl.
I would have told her that what she was doing was wrong because she was tricking people (conning them) into paying for her purchases. I wish I could have told her that I thought she was very smart, that she should work hard in school and that she would do well in sales, marketing or acting!
Take a long hard look at a map and you will notice where China is situated. Nowhere near the US right?
Now look at all the US.bases so very far from the shores of the US but situated close to Asia and close to China. Why is the US there and not back home ready to defend their shores which is exactly what China is doing.
The provocative actions of the US is setting the world on a path of destruction.
China doesn’t talk of war but the US is constantly brainwashing the masses into thinking black is whit and white is black.
The US is constantly provoking wars.
The only two things the US sells is weapons and bullshit, so much bullshit.
The US is far from being a guardian angel but a god of war. Enough.
Pinjur (Macedonia)
This is a traditional Macedonian dish, and it is found on tables everywhere in Macedonia.
Ingredients
Eggplant
1 large eggplant
2 to 6 cloves garlic
Salt (enough to lightly cover the garlic)
Handful roughly chopped walnuts
Optional Ingredients
Olive oil
Fresh lemon
Fresh cilantro
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Wash eggplant. Poke holes into eggplant randomly with a fork. Place eggplant on a cookie sheet which has been covered with aluminum foil. Roast the eggplant until it is thoroughly cooked and collapses (about 30 to 40 minutes).
While the eggplant is roasting, mash garlic and salt with mortar and pestle until it becomes pasty.
To cool eggplant quickly, slice in half, and leave draining in the sink in a colander. When cool, peel the skin off. Chop eggplant into medium-size chunks.
In bowl, combine eggplant and garlic, mashing eggplant and stirring the garlic throughout. When it is consistently mushy, throw in a handful of chopped walnuts to add crunch and texture. You can add olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and even cilantro if desired.
Vladimir Putin showed up at Branch No 2 of the National Medical Research Centre of High Medical Technologies – Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital of the Russian Federation Defence Ministry this week and sat down for a chat with Russian military personnel who had been wounded during the special military operation. Can you imagine Joe Biden doing this with a group of American military personnel? I can’t.
I am posting this because I think it is important that people, especially Americans, have the opportunity to read Putin’s comments. If you are wondering how Putin views the United States, NATO and Ukraine, you need only read the following. There is no nuance. Putin is refreshingly candid.
His concern for the welfare of the soldiers comes across as genuine, sincere. But that is not the news. He makes it very clear that the Western countries are the enemy, not Ukraine. He also vowed to step up attacks on Ukrainian military targets and foreign mercenaries. Putin minces no words in noting that Western hopes of bamboozling him into negotiations for a ceasefire are in vain. Ain’t going to happen
.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Hello, guys! Glad to see you. I would like to congratulate you on the New Year.
How is your treatment here going?
Remark: Excellent.
Vladimir Putin: I walked around here, from what I have seen the equipment looks solid, this is clear of course. But, first and foremost, it must be used effectively. I hope, it does.
Remarks: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: You know, of course, I wanted to come here and congratulate you on the New Year, but there was also something I wanted to see. You might have seen me on Direct Line
, at least some of it; it is impossible to watch it in its entirety, four hours, it is crazy just how long it is. But there were things that concerned the Armed Forces and you directly: for example, people asked whether you really had to return to your units after your wounds and treatment and even rehabilitation to obtain the corresponding medical certificates there and even be cleared by military medical commissions. The Defence Ministry denies this, saying it does not happen, at least, not now. Moreover, they said – as I requested some time ago – that housing issues are being resolved during treatment and our service personnel undergo additional training to be able to continue serving, if they want, even those who sustained severe injuries, at military enlistment offices and so forth.
I wanted to hear from you what is really going on, if this is so, if you need to go somewhere else to obtain the necessary documents and certificates. No? So, do you get everything here? The military medical commission examination, all the documents – everything is done here, right?
Remarks: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: Are housing issues being resolved too?
Remarks: Yes.
Remark: Already been resolved.
Vladimir Putin: Ok, I see. They have been resolved for you and they are being resolved for our other fighters. At least, the system for resolving housing issues has been created and it is working, that is the most important thing, right?
And you are also receiving some additional professional training to allow those willing to continue their service in the Armed Forces but in different positions, health permitting. Is that so? Is that the reality?
Remark: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. So, how is it going?
Remark: Good.
Vladimir Putin: This is one of the best medical institutions of the Defence Ministry. Not all of them are so well-equipped, so shiny, so to speak. But gradually the Ministry will bring everything up to the standard, to this level in terms of quality.
Any questions you want to ask me, guys? Don’t be shy.
Alexander Dublyanin: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief,
During the special military operation we are liberating Russian territory. How do you feel about Western countries helping our enemy?
Vladimir Putin: The point is not that they are helping our enemy. They are our enemy. They are solving their own problems with their hands. That is what it is all about. This has been the case for centuries, unfortunately, and continues to be the case today.
Ukraine itself is not our enemy whereas those who want to destroy Russian statehood and to achieve, as they say, a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield, are mainly in the West, but still, there are different people there. There are people who sympathise with us and who are with us at heart. But there are the elites who think the existence of Russia (at least in its current state and size) is unacceptable. They want to disintegrate it. As a matter of fact, you are young people, some have read about this, perhaps: they do not hide it. They speak and write about this publicly, and have been doing it for decades, if we are talking about contemporary history. For decades, they have simply been writing frankly about it: divide Russia into five parts, one is too much. I can talk about this till morning, but it is obvious.
Therefore, they have been nurturing the Kiev regime for quite a long time, precisely to create this conflict. Unfortunately for us, they have achieved this: they started this conflict and are trying to achieve their objective, namely the task of fighting Russia, with the help of Ukrainians.
You probably see on the battlefield that they are gradually losing their zest. When a projectile flies, it is difficult to understand whether they are losing it or not, but in general you probably know that the situation on the battlefield is changing. This is despite the fact that the entire “civilised” West is fighting us.
You, too, have probably heard many times: the Ukrainian army expends 5,000–6,000 155-calibre shells there per day of combat operations, and the United States produces 14,000 per month. Per month! And they use 5,000 per day. Yes, they are planning to increase it during 2024, but still, they produced 14,000–15,000, they will produce up to 20,000. But if you use 5,000 a day, then the supply depletes quite quickly. It is close to that now. And we are building up and will continue to, exponentially at that. They were supplied with more than 400 tanks (450 or whatever it is), and in a year we will produce and overhaul 1,600. This is not a state secret; in fact, there will be probably more. It is like this almost across the board. Therefore, though it has been their goal to deal with Russia from time immemorial, we will deal with them faster, it seems.
And the most important thing we have is, of course, what I have spoken about repeatedly: the unity of our people and society, because there is an understanding of how important the job you are doing on the battlefield is in the armed struggle for our country and our future. That is what’s most important. The point is not that we do not like that they are supplying Ukraine, that’s not the core of the problem. The problem is not with Ukraine, but with those who are trying to destroy Russia using Ukraine. That is the problem. But they will fail: it is simply out of the question, absolutely out of the question.
I think that the realisation is starting to dawn on them, and the rhetoric is changing: those who were talking just yesterday about the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia are now looking for the right words on how to quickly end the conflict. We also want to end the conflict, as quickly as possible, but only on our terms. We have no desire to fight endlessly, but we are not going to cede our positions either. You fought there, you were wounded there; are we going to surrender everything now? The cameras are on, otherwise I would make a certain gesture here now; you all know what kind of gesture it is. So, it is not going to happen.
I am Sergeant Shamalyuk. I have a question. From the very beginning of the special operation, our enemies have been constantly and regularly shelling the territories near the border, killing civilians and children, destroying villages and cities. I have the following question for you. Do you think it is possible and necessary to take tougher measures against the adversary so that the thought does not even cross their minds to commit these atrocities?
in Belgorod is of course a terrorist attack. Why? Because of what they have done under the cover of two missiles – I think it was Olkha: they fired from multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS). You, as military people, know what MLRS is. This weapon is not selective, it hits areas. This weapon struck right in the centre of the city, where people were walking before the New Year. It was a targeted strike on the civilian population. Of course, this is a terrorist attack; there is no other way to describe it.
Should we respond in kind? Of course, we can hit squares in Kiev or any other city. But Denis, there are children walking there, mothers with strollers. I understand, because I am quite angry, too, but I want to ask you: do we need to do this, target the squares?
Denis Shamalyuk: No, I am not saying that it should [be] against the civilian population, but specifically against military infrastructure…
Vladimir Putin: That is what we are doing.
Denis Shamalyuk: So that they will not be able to come round and respond.
Vladimir Putin: Yes, but that is exactly what we are doing. We strike with high-precision weapons at locations where they make decisions, where military personnel and mercenaries gather, at other similar centres, and at military facilities, above all. These blows can really be felt. We will continue to do this. You probably noticed that the very next day after these attacks were carried out. I think they are continuing today, and tomorrow, too.
Do you know why they are doing it? They want to intimidate us and to create some uncertainty within our country. For our part, we will increase the strikes that I have mentioned. Of course, not a single crime like that, and this is certainly a crime against the civilian population, will go unpunished, this is for sure, there can be no doubt.
Denis Shamalyuk: Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Please.
Ivan Shushakov: May I?
Vladimir Putin: Yes, please.
Ivan Shushakov: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief,
Major Shushakov.
For two years now, our country has been fighting for its future. Please tell me, how do you assess the progress of the special military operation?
Vladimir Putin: I have already said this, I can repeat, but you can feel this yourselves. Our Armed Forces are getting more capable and prepared to use advanced weapons than any other army in the world.
First, we have weapons that are not available in any army in the world, and second, we can use everything that is being developed and produced. Third, everything that is being developed is being produced and supplied rather fast. I know, there is probably not enough on the front lines, and they would like more of all the latest stuff there, such as drones, as well as more means of suppressing enemy drones, which are flying over you like flies. I understand everything, but still, what is being produced appears quickly enough.
You know what else is rather important? Modern means of warfare and their effectiveness depend on how quickly an army can find out what is the most important thing at this moment and respond in terms of producing and introducing that in combat as quickly as possible.
We are doing this better and better, probably better than anywhere else. And these are very huge advantages that our Armed Forces are gaining. I think that no one else could do the same today. And these capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces are constantly increasing, multiple times over. So, in general, you are already a senior officer, so you know, we try not to give high marks…
Ivan Shushakov: Exactly.
Vladimir Putin: Satisfactory.
Please.
Alexander Davydov: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, may I ask a question, sir?
We can see that you are very busy. How do you manage to maintain such high performance?
Vladimir Putin: Meeting you gives me strength. I am not joking. I am being honest. When I meet people like you, it gives me extra strength and confidence that we are doing the right thing.
Alexander Davydov: Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: This is a very important element. In fact, I am not being ironic, this is an important element, for me, at least.
My question is, what are the results of the past year and what are the real plans for this year? What should everyone, not just the Armed Forces and military personnel, be prepared for?
Vladimir Putin: The country in general, right?
Yevgeny Korsun: Yes. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: You know, as far as the results of last year are concerned, I spoke about this on Direct Line, what can I say. The most important thing is that you keep everything tight at the front and, moreover, the practical strategic initiative is in our hands today. Senior commanders have learned to act carefully instead of carrying out combat missions at any cost. At least that is what they report to me. I always insist that everything must be done and any offensive operations carried out after the adversary has sustained heavy fire. This is what concerns the battlefield.
Talking about the country as a whole, of course, the fundamental thing is not only that we preserved the country’s economy, we did not allow it to be destroyed, which is what the enemy was counting on – this is also in response to your question. It was not Ukraine that hoped to destroy our economy; it is not capable of doing it. It has already been completely destroyed itself; there is nothing left there, it lives entirely on handouts. All its leaders travel around with hat in hand, begging for an extra million dollars.
Our situation is completely different. In 2022, our economy contracted by 2.1 percent. But recently, the Government has reported to me – the calculations are ongoing, and new data appear – the latest data are that it declined not 2.1 but 1.2 percent. This is of essence. In 2023 year, the economy grew 3.5 percent. Gross domestic product (GDP), the main economic indicator, is how much the country has produced. You can use money to calculate how much you produced, plus 3.5 percent. And the decline was 1.2 percent. We made up for the decline and moved forward. This is an absolutely fundamental matter. This is the first point, and it is a very important one.
This shows that the economy is stable. Inflation has gone up a little, which means prices have risen, but we are keeping everything under control. You know, we have never seen anything like this. We have always noted with sadness that our main revenues come from oil and gas. For the first time in many years, the growth of processing industries in our economic structure far exceeds revenues from oil and gas. I think that oil and gas revenues grew three percent, while the processing industry has yielded many times more. This has never happened before. This indicates that we are undergoing structural changes in the economy. It is very important.
And why is that? When Western companies left our market, they apparently expected that everything would collapse overnight: businesses would shutter and thousands of people would be left without work. And, in the best-case scenario for the adversary in the broad sense of the word: for the opponents of Russia in general, and not just on the battlefield, people will take to the streets and demand bread and work.
We have the lowest unemployment rate in the history of Russia: 2.9 percent, which has never happened before. And real incomes of the population have grown (there is such a thing as real disposable income of the population) and real wages have grown, and quite significantly. All this suggests that we have a stable economy and stable financial system.
Russia was disconnected from the international payment system known as SWIFT. Apparently, they hoped that everything would collapse here too. We supply our traditional export goods, but what about the settlements? However, everything works.
Everyone thought that enterprises would stop because they stopped supplying us with components, but it turns out that everything is possible. Yes, there are problems, but nevertheless they are being addressed.
Small and medium-sized businesses are also working effectively. Some foreign enterprises have left, but our businesses have taken their place. Firstly, there are highly qualified personnel who have not left; there are good production managers in a variety of sectors both in industry and in the services sector, and everything works. This is the most important thing: the stability of the country’s economy and financial system because this is the foundation for everything.
And, of course, as I have already said, the number of weapons produced in Russia has increased multiple times over, including when I talk about the growth of industrial production, but not only: one third of the growth was achieved in civilian production branches, which is very important. So, the stability of the financial and economic system and the real sector of the economy is probably the most important thing.
In addition to this, we are implementing all our previously planned projects. In terms of infrastructure, as you understand, this means trillions, and we are building roads and opening new routes every week. This is very important, because it is not just to take one ride there and back. A road means life, and economic life too begins with it: small and medium-sized businesses appear immediately, because there was no other way to get there, but now it is possible. A completely different picture of the world emerges.
Despite the difficulties involved, housing issues are gradually being resolved in the country. Social issues are also very important. Many of you have families and children, right? And there is maternity capital, which no one is shutting down. The country continues to meet all social commitments in full. Moreover, we have created quite a powerful and balanced system of support for families with children (this is very important for the future of the country), starting from the woman’s pregnancy until the child is 18 years old. This is important for real people, and therefore for the country as a whole.
So, strange as it may seem, despite the fact that we are in a state of armed conflict, all the main indicators of the country’s viability and effectiveness have gone up. And this is probably the most important indicator of Russia’s situation.
Yevgeny Korsun: Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: What else? Is that all?
Happy New Year to you. All the best. Best wishes. Get well!
My dad and I were on our epic father-daughter trip in the Galapagos. A few months earlier, he had shattered his ‘tibial plateau’ (basically his whole knee area), and been on no-weight bearing for months. So he wasn’t his usual athletic self, in that we needed to walk slower. Especially since on that island, there were no sidewalks or even paths, just uneven rocks everywhere. Anyway, some other guy gets impatient and pushes my dad out of the way to catch up to the naturalist. It only got him about 30 seconds of ‘shortcut’. When we got to the next ‘stop’ with the naturalist, that guy was in the front row. . . and a bird pooped while swerving and covered the whole front of just him and nobody else. I didn’t see it, but I heard my dad laughing and he said he would explain it later. Because that guy was MAD. LOL. Instant karma.
Returning from a service call in Honolulu, the lady in front of me at the TSA line had serious trouble lifting her (obviously very heavy) carry-on onto the x-ray conveyor. It set off all sorts of alarms when it went through, and the TSA guy did a manual inspection as a result. When he opened it up, the suitcase’s contents were revealed: it was completely full of cans of Spam (the processed meat product). I was absolutely convinced that they actually contained something more nefarious and that she’d likely be arrested, but the TSA guy simply zipped the case back up and sent her on her way.
I was next in line, and, noticing the puzzled look on my face, the TSA guy explained that Spam is considered a gourmet delicacy in Japan, where it sells for around 3–4x what it does in Hawaii. As a result, there is a steady flow of Japanese tourists to the islands, who pretty much pay for their vacations by doing what she did. I was born and raised in the UK, where Spam has a reputation for being gross and disgusting, and something you would only eat if you can’t afford any nicer form of protein.
I’m a computer consultant and only take contract work. A few years ago I was contacted by a recruiter for a contract with a company that makes Lasik machines. While I was going to visit the company a few times, the work would be done remotely in my office. I had already worked with a sister company and had experience with their software. The OS was somewhat rare so my 30+ years of experience with it made me a good choice. I negotiated the hourly wage with the recruiter and things seemed to be going well.
The recruiter called me and told me we were all set to go. All I had to do was take the drug test. Huh? I’ve never been asked to take a drug test in my life. I wasn’t worried about passing it, just taken aback. I don’t drive a bus or a cab or an airplane, I write software. What was their concern, that I’d get high while programming and let bugs creep in? This seemed like a red flag. After 30+ years of consulting and having been burned a couple of times I’ve learned to look out for these.
I asked the recruiter why. His response was, it was company policy. He offered to talk to the company but I was done. A red flag is a red flag. A software/engineering company that requires everyone to take a drug test is trying to give themselves an out if they want to get rid of someone. I don’t know what that would have to do with me since you can let a contractor go at any time.
I passed the job onto a friend of mine who was fine with the drug test. He worked for them for a week and then quit. My intuition was right.
First, yes, you have to pay the taxes. They follow the property, not the owner. If you don’t pay the taxes, the municipality can arrange a tax sale.
Second, your lawyer screwed up. It’s real estate law 101 you check to see if there are any outstanding taxes before you close the transaction. It’s a standard clause in most real estate purchase contracts that any outstanding taxes get paid out of the purchase price. Consult your lawyer and if their E&O doesn’t cover it, find another lawyer to sue them.
Third, if you have title insurance, they may be on the hook for this, and they obviously screwed up big time if you bought insurance and they forgot to check tax arrears because that’s insurance law 101. If you have it, contact them immediately.
Fourth, did you use a broker? Again, this is Real Estate Broker 101. If they didn’t know about it, they screwed up. Speak to them as their commission may be reduced by the tax amount and they obviously didn’t earn it. If they won’t help, get a lawyer again.
Fifth, see a lawyer about suing the previous owner. I don’t have your purchase and sale contract. You can’t sue them unless it’s clear from the contract that the sale price included a property free from taxes.
Sixth, your mortgage lender screwed up, because it’s Banking 101 that you don’t give a person a mortgage on a property that has tax arrears. You better tell them because those taxes have priority over their mortgage.
Please note that the municipality doesn’t have to wait for you to recover money from someone else. You may not be personally responsible for those taxes (i.e. you can’t be sued for them) but they’re still a charge on the property.
If you did this without a lawyer, broker or title insurance, consider this a life lesson in trying to save money. If you didn’t even have a lawyer review the purchase offer, double shame on you.
Wife Has MELTDOWN After Husband Wants Nothing To Do With Her After Discovering The Truth About Her
This is MY experience. It does not reflect on the many, many docs I’ve never met.
I cannot stand Orthopedic surgeons. Neurosurgeons and Spine surgeons are not far behind.
These guys make a gazillion dollars and don’t know the first thing about caring for patients. I am convinced that they look up from the knee they just replaced and are stunned to see a person attached to it.
We used to roll our eyes at the whole orthopedic floor, 6 west. The ortho docs would breeze through and leave the bulk of the post-op care to PAs. If a patient got into trouble they would disappear.
So who got called to take care of the poor patient that is now in diabetic or cardiac or pulmonary trouble? Well, it sure wasn’t them. The poor nurses on 6 West would be frantic. They would frequently page overhead…
“ANY INTERNAL MEDICINE DOCTOR TO SIX WEST, STAT!”
“Oh no, we got us a FOOBA.” we would say as we bounded up the stairs to see what problem, that likely could have been anticipated and avoided, was awaiting us.
What’s a FOOBA?
It means Found On Ortho Barely Alive.
We called that unit The Killing Fields.
We used to smirk, “The good thing about 6 West is it’s close to a hospital.”
The orthopedic surgeons would do surgery on anyone! Ninety years old and demented with multiple medical problems, needs a new hip.
I had an orthopod tell me. “It’s my job to replace his knee. It’s your job to keep him alive afterwards.” This after the poor patient, with end stage emphysema, who could not survive a haircut, much less surgery, crashed and went straight to the ICU after this wahoo was done with him.
I used to joke that he was part of the No Joint Left Behind program.
I had another surgeon, who could not remember that he had met me numerous times, ask me repeatedly who I was. I wanted to answer, “I’m the woman who has saved your sorry carcass more times than I can count.”
This guy was discharging a patient when I just happened by.
The poor guy was breathless and grabbing his chest as the orthopod gave him discharge instructions.
I jumped between them.
“Sir, are you having pressure in your chest?”
He nodded, too breathless to speak.
(Yelling) “I need help in here. EKG, O2, aspirin, nitro, beta blocker….NOW!”
We get the patient stabilized, the ortho doc had disappeared.
His note in the chart? Two lines; “Wound clean, dry and intact. Discharged home.”
Next time I saw the surgeon, he introduced himself to me, AGAIN. He had no idea who I was.
Ok, I feel better getting that off my chest.
Wife Accuses Husband Of Cheating And Gets The Shock Of A Lifetime!
There’s a cold spell in Russia and that means broken hot water mains and frozen apartment front doors. My friend reports that in northwestern Moscow region towns Solnechnegorsk and Skhodnya people are left without central heating.
A pipe with boiling water burst in the Moscow Theater of the Moon during a ballet performance of “The Nutcracker.”
Spectators first believed that the sharp explosive sounds were made by the ballet dancer cracking walnuts, when the performance was stopped and more than 300 people were evacuated from the building.
Residents of another town near Moscow, Podolsk, have not had access to heating for more than 2 days due to a break in the heating main.
Ice appeared on the windows. Indoor toilets turned into outdoor outhouses. This causes another problem. As greedy municipal services deliberately provide heating with less pressure than temperatures required, people turn on home heaters and air conditioner to heat apartments and overburden electric stations causing cascading blackouts.
Entire neighborhoods lose access to electricity on top of lack of access to central heating. Dark and cold like in the Middle Ages when conservative values reigned supreme.
Some residents said they would like to make a fire in the living room but afraid that fire engines won’t be able to extinguish it if it gets out of control because there are no fire escapes and there’s not ladder that can reach 20th floor.
The day before, local residents went out to picket and got detained because it’s illegal to protest in Russia.
Emergency situation announced in Podolsk over hearing mains breakdown that couldn’t be fixed during night. When I was a kid , “pipes breakdown” happened every winter no exception at our school and we missed one or two weeks of classes.
The Moon is really the worst place where we could set up a colony.
It’s not so bad as to be utterly impossible – but it’s not as good as Mars.
The Moon’s biggest negatives are:
It’s “day” length is 28 days – so you get 14 days of continuous nighttime – and then 14 days of continuous sunlight. This means that all human activities will need artificial light – and a lot of radiation protection. Solar power is pretty much useless unless you have 14+ days of energy storage for everything.
Air and water have to come from ice deposits that can be found only in deep craters near the lunar poles – places where the sun has not shone for a billion years. There isn’t a whole lot of ice there – and if we start getting excited about making fuel for rockets and providing air and water for an entire colony of thousands of people – then it’s going to run out pretty fast – and it’s an irreplaceable resource – once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
The Moon’s gravity is very weak – it’s possible that it’s enough for humans to thrive there – but it’s also possible that it’ll be no better than zero’g – which would make colonization impossible.
Moon dust is incredibly nasty stuff – under the microscope, each grain of sand looks a lot like a stone-age axe-head with razor-sharp edges. It gets all over everything – and breathing it is very dangerous. Keeping dust out of our habitats and out of every moving part of every vehicle – i s paramount – but because it sticks to everything – that’s going to be a challenge.
The main positive for the moon is close to Earth – just a few days flight time.
Compared to Mars:
Mars’ day length is just 20 minutes longer than Earth – it’s easy for us to adapt so a comfortable day/night cycle is available. Solar panels work well. Radiation is still an issue – but nowhere near as bad as on the Moon.
Air and water also has to come from ice deposits – but we find ice just under the Martian surface almost everywhere. It’s unlikely that we’d ever run out.
Mars gravity is also weaker than on Earth – but about twice that of the Moon – so the odds of it being enough for long term human habitation are much better.
Mars dust is also nasty stuff – it’s toxic – it’s rougher than Earth dust – but not as bad as Moon dust.
Mars has abundant CO2 – which can be used as a starting point for making methane and both hydrocarbons and carbohydrates.
The main disadvantage (compared to the Moon) is that it takes 6 months to get there – and you can really only fly once every 26 months.
My husband was dying of cancer and had less than two weeks to live. I knew this, however, he was in denial. He was a classic car enthusiast and wanted so bad to drive his older van, just for a little bit, however, by that time, he was too weak to stand unassisted, so I told him that he’s very sick at the moment, because he just got out of the hospital and needed to rest, and maybe after he got a little stronger, and we could go for a drive. I knew he’d never get stronger, but it did ease his mind a bit and in his last couple days, he did hallucinate that he was driving his van, so in a way, I turned out to be right.
A couple days later, I lied again, for the second time in our marriage- when he was actively dying, I told him it was okay to go, I’d be okay. Tomorrow will be a month since he passed- I’m not okay that he passed away, but I am okay with knowing that I did everything I could possibly do to ease his worries when he was dying.
I worked at an office job for 5 years in Beverly Hills, for a doctor who did a type of cosmetic electoral surgery for the stars. He was a smart guy who made countless millions but he treated his employees like second class citizens and was all about the Benjamins rather than helping people.
After a couple quarters where new patient numbers had started to go down, the doctor and office manager decided they could cut costs by culling the office of some of the staff in order to bring in new workers for lower pay. Now I had already been planning to leave that hostile environment for awhile anyway, and even had my resignation letter written in my desk drawer so it wasn’t a terrible tragedy when the manager brought me in to tell me I’d be let go. In fact it was better as I wanted to take some time off to travel and this would allow me to claim benefits for a couple months whereas I wouldn’t get anything if I had just quit. But what did get me really perturbed was how the manager made a point to follow me around and sit beside me watching my computer as I went about closing out my workbooks and getting any personal items i didn’t want to leave behind because she thought I might sabotage the files or something in a fit of rage. Well, when she got up for a minute to check her office I decided I would do a little something for myself since I wasn’t even getting to say goodbye to my coworker friends and they were treating me like a criminal. I put a password lock on the databases of doctor names that I had put together and spent years building relationships with and were a vital part of the office. I didn’t say anything and it was a month later my manager called up sounding very sweet, wondering if I might know how to access those filles since she couldn’t find the password. I would’ve gladly given it were it not that they actually fought to try and keep me from getting benefits (unsuccessfully) and so I told her sorry, I seem to have forgotten, and hung up.
SUPERGIRL 2 but is 1920 |Unreleased Fan Made| Alternate Timeline
I am on my forth marriage, 17 years now, and how the first three ended:
My first marriage, 4 years and no children, ended tragically. My wife and I were to meet at our local hangout, which was one block from where I worked, after I got out of work. I was running about 30 minutes late, had to stay over, and when I arrived where we were to meet I was told her was taken to the hospital without being told the reason why. I rushed to the hospital were an officer told me my wife was stabbed by a patron whom she had slapped, I found out later she slapped him for being ‘free’ with his hands in a very inappropriate manner. Three days later she succumbed to her wound, she was stabbed in the heart and the damage was to server (open heart surgery was in its infancy then).
My second marriage, 6 years and three daughters, was great up to the time our third daughter was born. After we brought our daughter home my wife would become very aggressive when I got home from work, she would start right off when I walked in and I allowed her to use me as a ‘punching bag’; I thought better me than the girls, I know that she never hurt the girls as I would have seen any physical evidence (bruises or other signs) on the girls.
Then one day she demanded that I give her $200.00 so she and her mother could go play bingo, and when I refused she grabbed an 8” carving knife and attacked me; in self-defense I slapped the knife out of her hand and punched her (first and only time in my life I ever struck a woman) breaking her nose (out of instinct due to my military training). Yes the police were called and even when she admitted she attacked my with the knife I was forced to leave the home by the police; they left the girls alone with this ‘crazy’ woman (being polite on how I view her). Contacted a lawyer that very next day and started divorce proceedings with desire of full custody. In the end I got my divorce but in the State of New York the father never got full custody of the children (not sure if that is true today) even if proven that the mother is actually an unfit parent. My ‘X’ passed away back in 2016 from over self-medication, my daughters and I have a wonderful relationship.
My third marriage, 22 years with one Son and two Daughters, ended on December 20, 2000 which was the day she walked out , and two weeks later I received the divorce papers from the court, no trial or arbitration, just a divorce decree that the marriage was terminated (no reason was mentioned in the divorce papers). I guess she just got tired of being a married woman, she did wait until our children were grown and out on their own. As far as I knew we had a normal married life, we had our arguments, disagreements, ups and downs, she was not perfect and neither was I. I was 9 years her senior but age was never an issue between us. And even though we have been divorced for 21 years now, I still have contact with her on a very friendly way; I have even gone to her home to repair her vehicles and my present wife and I have even had a holiday meal with my ex-wife and her husband. I know it is a strange situation or relationship, but after all she is the mother of my children and my present wife understands that and encourages the positive relationship between me and my ex-wife – in other words my present wife trusts me.
As for my forth marriage, 17 years and only children is from past marriages, all I can say is we haven’t killed each other yet 😁 I am 70 and she is 69 and neither one of us want to fight for custody of our fur-babies 😂 (our running joke), seriously we are just as much in love as the day we first got married 🥰
Several years ago, maybe 5 or 6, I took $1000.00 to the bank to pay down my credit card bill. There was quite a line and the banks assistant manager suggested to save time to use the atm next to the teller windows. I told him I was using cash and he said fine, no problem, it takes cash. Great! I like to save time and I still had a 1 1/2 drive home. So, as usual, I insert my credit card, select pay statement, tell it how much, and insert my money, listen to the machine whir, and then nothing! No receipt, just a blank screen. Uhg!
That nice gentleman was sitting at his desk, so I stepped over to him and told him the machine ate my money. He asked how much and went to uselessly poke buttons on that ATM. He didn’t know what to say or do. I asked how this would be rectified, he didn’t know, but he had someone to call.
This is where a series of calls were made to IT, help desk and a few others that didn’t have answers. Now, I didn’t want to leave the bank without some clue as to how this would be resolved and some sort of documentation of what happened.
Well, it turns out, the bank main office (or wherever he called) had no policy on how to handle this. They expected me to walk out the door like nothing happened. That was not going to happen. This gentleman bank employee completely agreed with me, that I was entitled to some sort of documentation. The main office left me hanging and after a hour of phone calls it came down to, we will audit the machine at the end of the day, then, if we find a discrepancy, we will credit you. But nothing for me to take home. They did verbally agree to note on my account that I wasn’t to be charged late fee or interest IF they found the money. The main office really left me with a bad taste in my mouth by their lack of ability to give me some sort of documentation.
Those calls ended in a stalemate, they had my money, they wouldn’t or couldn’t find a way to make me feel comfortable about leaving the bank without the money, a receipt, or some sort of trouble ticket.
That gentleman in the bank, spoke to the branch manager and the two of them worked up a description of the situation, basically a statement of facts for me to take home. They agreed completely that they too would not have just left and excepted that it would magically be fixed. They were great, the main office or whatever was not great.
The resolution ended up being a letter in the mail saying my account was credited $1000.00. No explanation, no apology, no acknowledgment that there was a problem.
As I recall, I wrote the corporate offices and got no reply there either. I will no longer use an atm to deposit cash.
The summer of 1990, I backpacked across Europe with my two sisters. We were all very athletic back then. I was a gym rat and avid cyclist, my sister Mary walked a ton and bussed tables at the Space Needle restaurant in the evenings, and Joanne was an accomplished high school athlete.
Though we all spoke a little German, at the time I was semi-fluent, thanks to a knack for languages and a mother who spoke it at home. Anyhoo, in the backpacker circles we traveled, there were a ton of German tourists. So it came as no surprise that I was able to eavesdrop on a few conversations.
Most of them were innocuous, and to be honest I had to really concentrate to mentally translate what was being said. But I’ll never forget what I overheard when we ventured out for our first-in-our-lives visit to a topless beach. (Or as the Europeans would call it, a beach.)
My sisters and I were laying on the sand in our bikinis, tops still on, when Mary and Joanne decided to cool off by getting in the water. As they were walking toward the surf, two German dudes (I will call them Rolf and Jurgen) started talking:
Rolf: Look at those girls. They’re cute, but …
Jurgen: … big muscles.
Rolf: Yes, they would be very pretty if it weren’t for the muscles. What’s the deal, I wonder?
Jurgen: They’re American. Americans like girls with muscles.
Rolf: What makes you think they’re American?
Jurgen: They’re covering their breasts.
I didn’t say anything, but when it came MY turn to go into the water, I waited for them to look, then flexed, Popeye-style, and winked.
My ex-mother in law was a real doozy. I married her youngest son and she did NOT approve. She went out of the way to disrupt our wedding as much as possible. We had hired a classical guitar duet for music at the reception. She didn’t like that and showed up that day with her record player and a stack of records. She talked to the Priest and changed our vows. Decided that we (who paid for everything ourselves) did not have enough food for the reception so she ordered several hundred dollars of fried chicken. Luckily I was able to cancel it. She called the bakery and cut our cake order in half. Managed to fix that, too. Called the church and cancelled our use of the kitchen attached to the reception hall. I managed to fix that too. It was very stressful and she never stopped. We ended up moving 1,000 miles away and limiting contact.
To understand these, let’s see the sanctions and how they play :-
Sanction 1 :-
Embargo on Technology Imports from the West
The Problem was this Embargo was passed on 28/2/22 but was effective only from 1/6/22 and later postponed to 1/7/22
So Russia exported massively these imports from 1/3/22 to 30/6/22
Enough for 2 years almost through Turkey and Central Asian Nations like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
That gave them until 30/6/2024 to find substitutes
They seem to have found substitutes for most of these Imports from China & their own Domestic production
This extension was to give UK and others a chance to fill their coffers with Russian Oil and Gas and have good reserves
Sanction 2
Withdrawal of Western Businesses from Russia causing Capital Flight
The Plan was to cause $ 80 Billion of Capital Flight and force a temporary panic
Putin was ready though and immediately got every single business taken over by Russian Entities and took over the equivalent of 560 Billion Rubles ($ 68 Billion) of wealth from these companies
The Swift reaction of Putin prevented these companies from being able to get away with their assets
The Readiness of Russian entities and Chinese entities to take over these assets was another major blow
Sanctions 3
Removal of Russian Banks from Swift
The Problem was that of the 158 Banks connected to Swiss, almost 19 Banks still are connected to SWIFT even today
So these 19 Banks can get all the money it wants and transfer them to the remaining 139 Banks
It’s like keeping SBI connected to Swift but removing Bank of India and Dhanalaxmi Bank
The use of CIPS and alternate systems further ensured Russian Stability of Inflows especially in RMB
These 19 Banks are mandatory because the West wants Russian Fertilizers and Gas and Oil even today, through third parties
Sanctions 4:-
Mastercard and Visa were removed from the Russian Settlement Systems overseas
Again the Local systems of settlement continued because had MasterCard or Visa threatened to cut off their local settlement network, every nation would be kicking them out permanently
This allowed enough time to set up Mir Pay plus get Wechat and other payment gateways including Union Pay from China
Mir quickly established a presence in 39 countries very fast indicating that Putin was prepared for this
Sanctions 5:-
Russia’s Asset Freeze
Problem was Russia had Oil and Gas and it’s own Food
It thus had customers willing to trade in Rubles like China and India and Middle East and Central Asia and Turkey
Thus Russias asset freeze meant zilch
Sanctions 6
Embargo on Russian Oil and Gas
Russia sold to India and India resold to Europe at 30% profit
Europe needed Russian Energy and had no alternate and was helpless
Putin forced them to pay in Rubles so that meant they couldn’t control the money needed
So the Sanctions were weak to begin with and imposed by people who didn’t know their heads from the a**es
They were slowly imposed and more of playing to the gallery than any realistic sanctions
Russia was also very well prepared this time unlike in 2014
Putin and Elvira did superbly while Biden and his team of clowns were no match
I was a deputy sheriff working in a small town. They had their fair and it was packed. Some guy is very impatient leaving the fair parking. He starts honking—long long blasts at the car in front of him that had stopped. That car is trying to load in an elderly passenger.
The driver of this car remains impatient even though everyone can clearly see the elderly person needs help getting in that car. He finally cuts his wheels to go around the car in front. He then steps on the gas and revs the motor, honks his horn, and then starts to accelerate rapidly while flipping the bird at the other car.
he ran into the gate to exit and does major damage to his driver’s side front fender and the entire driver’s side of his car. It was a nice new car. I walk over snd zi am smiling. He is pissed and wants to think he can intimidate me. Oh hell no. I was just going to cite him for losing traction and driving unsafely. However he wouldn’t shut up and decided to yell in my face.
he smelled of an alcoholic beverage. I decided he needed to perform the drunk driving tests. He failed. I guess he had a little to much beer inside the fair. I arrested him. I towed his vehicle. I figure his impatience cost him a ton of money.
Car damage probably $2000+
DUI (back then) $4,000 (and probation fees)
Attorney fees $8,000
Gate $1,000
tow and storage fees $250
Getting all that because you are rude, impatient and intoxicated? Priceless.
Oh, the people in the car he was honking at left right after I got that jerk out of his car. The circled around snd came back by while i was giving the Jack wagon his DUI tests. They waved, smiled and gave thumbs up!
You may not recognize him today — he looks a lot different from the way he did in 1967, when at the age of 20 he became the founder and frontman for what would become one of the most successful and enduring acts in music history.
But when the band he created was selling millions of albums and playing to packed arenas, Green was long gone — destitute, homeless, and quite mad.
Peter Green had been a rising star in Britain’s blues revival of the 1960s. His guitar playing caught the attention of Bluesbreakers frontman John Mayall, who let the teenage Green sit in with the band when lead guitarist Eric Clapton was unavailable. When Clapton eventually left to form Cream, Mayall gave the job to Green, predicting that within a few years he would eclipse Clapton as England’s greatest blues guitarist.
After a year with Mayall, Green was eager to front his own band. He poached two of his Bluesbreakers bandmates, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, enticing them to join by naming the band Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.
The band, which played a mix of blues standards and original compositions by Green, enjoyed overnight success. Behind Green’s soulful voice and raw, authentic guitar playing, their debut self-titled album, Fleetwood Mac, spent 37 weeks on the UK charts, and was the fourth best-selling album of the year. Green would quickly mature as a songwriter, charting with such compositions as Black Magic Woman (later a major hit for Santana) and the instrumental Albatross, which shot to No. 1.
As their fame and popularity increased, Green’s bandmates began to notice changes in his behavior. On a tour of Europe in 1970, Green abruptly left for several weeks to join a German commune where he ingested large quantities of LSD. His erratic behavior had intensified; he grew a beard and began wearing long robes and crucifixes, and spoke of his desire for the band to give away the money they’d earned. His compositions around this time became increasingly darker, as evidenced in his song The Green Manalishi (with the Two Prong Crown):
Now, when the day goes to sleep and the full moon looks The night is so black that the darkness cooks Don’t you come creepin’ around – makin’ me do things I don’t want to
Can’t believe that you need my love so bad Come sneakin’ around tryin’ to drive me mad Bustin’ in on my dreams – making me see things I don’t wanna see
Two months after his stay at the German commune, Green left Fleetwood Mac. He released a solo album the following year as well as sessions with B.B. King, and then faded into obscurity.
Broke and unable to care for himself, he moved into the home of his brother and sister-in-law, who encouraged him to seek psychiatric treatment. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late 70s and began a long road to recovery. He was given anti-psychotic drugs which managed his symptoms, but according to Green, caused a complete loss of interest in music. So for the next several decades he went on and off the medication, a struggle which lasts to the present day.
He formed the Peter Green Splinter Group in 1997. The band released nine albums over the next eight years until Green abruptly disbanded the group.
He lives today in comfortable retirement in the south of England, looked after by close friends. Mick Fleetwood visited him several years ago and described the bittersweet day: “He’s still warm and kind, but otherwise he’s not the man I knew, clearly.”
It’s unclear whether the LSD Green took triggered his underlying schizophrenia or merely exacerbated it, but one thing seems clear: had he remained healthy, Peter Green would likely have become one of the most influential recording artists of all time.
Sadly, many people who read this post have probably never heard of him
it was the worst year of my life. We had moved into a brand new dream home with a pool. The boys swam 2–3 times a day. My wife and I talked everyday about how happy we were. My wife got a promotion and we were sitting pretty good.
I went to work and i was severely injured. My employer refused to let me come back to work and retired me. Then the county I worked for started dragging their feet. It took 2 years to get retired.
My wife was diagnosed with cancer and the cancer had already spread. She had a surgery to remove the tumor. Then chemotherapy. That was followed by internal radiation. After 6 months of treatment the doctor pronounced her cancer free. However she got early menopause due to the surgery and radiation.
After a few months she started to plane out and resume her life. We had a couple of more months of happiness. Our middle son had been complaining of stomach/lower abdomen pain. So much so we took him to the emergency room and his GP. Nothing, just his diet we were told.
I got up one June morning and was preparing to enjoy the early summer day in June. I was off because I had taken a job teaching and we had plenty of money so we decided i would stay at home with the kids until school resumed for me. My son got up and told me he felt sick. I thought he was just trying to stay at home so I asked him to go to school and promised I would pick him up if he didn’t feel good.
Our little man of 12 years went to school. A couple hours later i went to get him, he was in the nurse’s office complaining of pain to his right side. We had thought it might be appendicitis. I took him to the emergency room. A test showed it wasn’t appendicitis. A CT scan showed he had a tumor above his large bowel. He was taken by ambulance to Valley Childrrns hospital. After a biopsy by surgery we were told he had Desmo Plastic Small Round Cell Tumor. His diagnosis was terminal. He had a surgery, and after recovery They started chemo. after 5 weeks my son told me he wanted to stop. I asked him to just go a little longer as the round of chemo was almost over. I promised him that if he didn’t get to feeling better I would agree with him to stop taking the chemo. He made it through. After a couple of more rounds of chemo he was sent to Stanford. At the Children’s Hospital there they harvested his stem cells, then chemo to kill all of what remained as well as starting a new chemo therapy plan. After several months he came home. My wife had been with him the entire time while I worked. We had lots of oroblems crop up and started fighting. Eventually we divorced. It hurt our kids. My little man stayed alive. A diagnosis of 6–8 weeks turned into 8.5 years. My wife asked me at the end to tell him he could pass now. He was so skinny, in so much pain. I told him. Nope, he wasn’t having it. He still wanted to live.. When he passed my wife and I finally apologized to eachother. We remarried. Now we have two kids who are married and 2 grand children.that was incredibly hard for me. I lost mycareerr (found another) and went through two major cases of cancer. I miss our son. What did I do to get through it? I finally pulled my head out of my ass realuzedad i want to be with the woman I loved and have our family together—and so did she.
There’s an internally-famous award that the White House gives—I can’t recall the name—but it is named after a guy who fell asleep during a meeting with the president.
I know of it because my dad almost got the award—he had a reputation of getting sleepy-eyed during meetings. But only because he works crazy hours.
In most offices, falling asleep at your desk—it will get you in trouble. Do it enough times—you’ll find yourself creating an account on Indeed (job site).
There are places for sleep—work is not that place.
But in Japan.
They actually see falling asleep at your desk as a sign of good diligence and work ethic.
“Wow—he must be working long hours.”
Some offices have even integrated nap times and nap rooms for workers. (Source: Napping in Public? In Japan, That’s a Sign of Diligence. NY Times. Rousseau, Bryant)
Inemuri (napping) is a permissible practice. You can even sleep in meetings where the president is present. They see you as still being in attendence.
Japan is a very different culture, though. They are among the hardest working people on the planet, with 23% working 80-hour weeks back to back. And 12% working 100+ hour weeks. (Source: Why Sleeping at Work in Japan is Actually a Good Thing. Samson, Carl)
But if you work 40 hours 5 minutes, don’t expect a promotion for your naps at your desk. Directions to the front door are more likely.
Note: I’ve only been to Dubai though – more of a city state.
It is almost entirely “style over content” in that it caters to Sun, service and visual stimulus only. There are no stories, anecdotes, historical perspectives, local colouring or human or philosophical insights to be gained whatsoever.
You absolutely cannot wander (too hot to be outside for long) down an ancient (everything is new) alleyway (there are none) to a local (nothing is “local”) bistro (none) to eat local fish (no local fish) paired with a local wine (all alcohol is served in either hotels or designated bars in malls) whilst watching the sunset (all alcohol is served inside so others cannot see it) and making friends with the locals (locals don’t speak and everyone else is transient).
You can go to largely empty sumptuous restaurants in hotels where you feel like a King, get driven there in a golf buggy by concierge alongside a candlelit stretch of water filled with lilies, eat great world cuisine and only have to slightly raise an eyebrow in the direction of a servant (sorry – waiter) to get their immediate serfdom (sorry – attention).
The whole place is like a mega shopping mall.
Dubai is both intellectually and creatively bankrupt.
My local farmer’s market has more sophistication.
Every single person I’ve met who liked it was low-IQ or very young but had somehow lucked into a job that paid enough for them to spend time there or someone else paid (although Dubai is not as expensive as popular myth would have you believe, you still need a decent wedge of cash/job to go there).
I have had more fun, authenticity and mind/soul expanding experiences on trips to Greece costing a fifth of the price.
Well, ask Dias Costa of Argentina. His home was invaded by a band of armed thugs who beat him to the ground. The 49-year-old man panicked when they dragged his wife into another room. He yanked a decorative samurai sword off the wall and started slicing. The men, armed with guns of various types, fled the house, and police were able to locate them by following the blood trail.
The car crashed a short distance later.
All four needed a LOT of stitches. For an untrained man with a decorative sword, he was pretty effective. I suspect this outcome would be pretty common when dealing with common thugs: Slice into the first one, and the rest will panic. Of course, the real point is that he was fully committed to the fight. He would have been effective with any weapon.
Just imagine what might have happened if he actually knew what he was doing?
A sword is a very effective weapon against unarmored targets.
Now, if you’re talking about using a sword to defend yourself against another guy with a sword, that’s a different story. That takes a lot of practice to do effectively (and not end up looking like one of the guys above).
For the medical student, first year is bad; the palpable frustration of trying to mug up hundreds of unpronounceable Latin names in anatomy, wasted effort to remember the ‘millisecond’ timings of a cardiac-cycle in physiology and the ‘spider-web’ structures of biochemistry make most students think if this was all worth it.
But at the start of clinical years, things change. I suppose the charm of ‘white coat’ is much more durable than the ego of the NEET rank.
Then on, mugging matters less, clinical skill starts separating students into categories. During teaching rounds, the guy who picks up the heart-murmur first or suspects the hint of finger clubbing or palpable spleen, that even the consultant did not pick up, is considered a hero of sorts. Most students want to pick up findings and be in the lime-light of tutors.
She was an average hard-working student all through but in the clinic, that suddenly seemed to change, especially during the medicine posting. While for most of us, the stethoscope was a piece of flaunting style; she would put the stethoscope on the patient’s chest, concentrate for a minute, smile and say ‘there is a systolic murmur; I can hear it clearly’
This frustrated most of us.
Most often even the consultants agreed. She was quickly known as ‘Ms. Murmur’ among the students.
For those uninitiated to medical terms, the heart produces two sounds called ‘lubb’ and ‘dup’; a ‘whosshhh’ kind of sound in between is called a murmur. A murmur occurs if a heart has a hole by-birth; or a valve is narrowed or leaking; and can range from super-soft to quite loud. While loud murmurs are picked up by the dumbest student, soft ones are a challenge.
But after a while, it started looking like a scam. Almost every patient she would claim to hear a murmur. Eventually, everyone started making fun of her. One day, after a harsh comment by a senior, she stopped announcing, but somehow, deep inside, I had a feeling that she was not telling a lie.
‘When I hear a murmur I say I hear. I don’t bluff’ she said softly.
One day in clinics, a new tutor was teaching us how to auscultate (listen with stethoscope) for murmurs over organs other than heart (abdomen, skull). In a normal patient, he showed us the areas where we need to place our stethoscope to pick up such murmurs (bruit).
Ms. Murmur placed her stethoscope on the abdomen of the patient, listened intently and her face lit up.
‘Yes sir I can hear the murmur’
‘But this case doesn’t have a murmur’ announced the tutor.
‘Sorry sir, I thought I heard it’ she mumbled, amidst laughter from the rest of our batch.
I felt bad.
Few days later I was reading an article on a rare condition called ‘arterio-venous malformations’ (AVM) in the brain. One clinical feature is, the patient can hear a bruitthemselves, when they close both ears, with the palm of their hand.
A stethoscope closes both our ears. It is possible that she herself has an …
Next morning, I told her to talk to our tutor.
Tutor to Professor, medicine to neurosurgery, X-ray skull to contrast CT scan; things moved fast. It was indeed an AVM. Her parents took her to Mumbai and got trans-catheter closure of AVM done.
No more murmurs, no more taunts.
(pic – CT scan of a large AVM – Google)
(AVMs are by-birth connection between arteries and veins and tend to grow like a tumour. They have a huge amount of blood flow through them. Common symptoms are headache and fainting. Because of continuous blood flow, they may hear a murmur if both their ears are physically blocked. They can be cured by injecting special material that clog the feeding arteries.)
Researchers did a landmark study on self-awareness using, of all things, a shopping cart.
They took a small cart and attached a blanket to the bottom of it. Then, mothers came in with their infants.
Researchers had infants stand behind the cart. Then, mothers urged their children to push the cart to them.
The infants grew frustrated as the blanket invariably stopped them from moving forward:
Some threw tantrums. Others looked around trying to figure out what was wrong. One infant even climbed into the cart out of frustration.
Some infants solved it.
One rolled the blanket up and pushed. Another got in front of the cart and pulled it to his mother.
Every infant who solved the problem had one thing in common: they were 16 months or older. Researchers discovered this is the point we first develop self-awareness.
From here, self-awareness is supposed to make our lives easier and more efficient — and it does. But it also becomes a source of immense pain and regret.
This is due to the Self-Absorption Paradox: as we become more self-aware, we make fewer social mistakes, but torture ourselves more over past mistakes.
Higher self-awareness is proven to cause greater psychological distress.
It even hurts our ability to socialize. We foresee mistakes before they happen and avoid interacting altogether.
I was fourteen years old, and I had just lost my virginity to gang rape. I went to my youth pastor for help, because I didn’t even know how to begin addressing my massive new trauma, and was suicidal.
He used a lot of flowery biblical language to blame me for having “gotten myself into that situation” (!!!), expressed his disappointment in me, and wanted me to “repent my sinful ways and get my heart right with God” so that God could love me as much as He loved all my virginal peers who hadn’t “chosen” to get gang raped.
I sat like a lump of clay through that day’s youth sermon, which consisted of the youth pastor exhorting every teen to be willing to sacrifice everything we owned for God, down to the clothes on our backs. And he meant literally, that we should all be prepared to go home and sack up everything we owned to be given away.
And when he went around the circle asking each of us if we were ready to “give it all away for Christ”, I couldn’t say yes like all the other “good” Christian kids, who hadn’t just suffered gang rape. The very thought of packing up my stuffed animals, which had helped me survive the previous night without ending my life, and having no comforts left to me except the comfort of a God who had ignored the men raping me and ignored my prayers to make them stop, was more than I could bear.
I said no, I wasn’t prepared to give up everything I owned for God. The youth pastor gave me a pitying look and said, “until you get your heart right with God, until you can be willing to sacrifice everything for Him, you are at risk of Hell. If you died today, with your soul unwilling to give it all away for Christ, you’d go to Hell.”
So much for salvation being unconditional and eternal, eh?
Many years ago, as in the late 1980s, I was off for the weekend and was about 350km from home when I collapsed with the most agonising pain a bloke can get.
Kidney stones.
My girlfriend drove me to hospital, where I was admitted. Doctors scratching their heads, but the floor coordinator (charge nurse) saw me as I staggered in, and said I had Kidney stones.
She was right. I was in strife allright, the one on the right was blocking the ureter, and urine was backing up AND the ureter was stretching.
This was a serious situation as my right kidney was under severe threat. The rock in the left kidney was still IN the kidney thankfully.
This was Saturday evening… so the next morning, my GF rang my work – my workpkace was seven days a week, and my boss worked Sundays.
She filled him in, and said I was slated for surgery Monday, and would be out of action for a week.
He was okay with that.
Monday comes, I go into theatre, and he rings the hospital demanding to know why I had failed to turn up for work, and would I be coming in tomorrow.
Needless to say, my GF had briefed staff about him, so they politely put him back in his box.
I never knew about it for a few days as I was too whacked out on painkillers.
He rang every day, mot to ask if I was okay, but to know when I was coming back, and they gave him the same answer: He will be back when he is fit to return.
When I did go back, he said he thought I was faking it to have a week off.
Twardy. You are a cretin. A soul less cretin.
America Signals The Unthinkable As US Debt Hits Record $34 TRILLION Dollars
Kind of……. A coworker was dating a girl in HR. He was trying to get me to start a business with him, but I simply had a bad vibe and did not trust him, so I put him off.
He comes to me one day, during a time when rumors of a layoff were circulating and told me I was on the layoff list, his GF had seen it and told him.
WTF?? So I go steaming into a managers office, after my immediate manager told me he knew nothing about this, ready for an unpleasant discussion.
He looks at me, “You are not on any list, where did you get this? I explained it to him. I expected my coworker and the HR girl to get pulled into the managers office and dressed down. Instead they put a 24 hour watch on the HR girls computer. Brainiac that she was, while having lunch with her BF, opened the personnel file of the CEO. Her manager and security were at her desk within minutes to escort both of them off the premises.
The rumors were true, the layoff dropped a couple weeks later. Best part, the coworker turned out to be the only casualty in our department. He actually tried a couple more time to get me to quit and work with him.
Piragi
Piragi are traditional Latvian filled mini-buns, commonly served at special occasions and holidays. They’re wonderful as an hors d’oeuvre, or with soup; serve at room temperature, or warm from the oven.
Ingredients
Dough
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast or 2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Lora Brody Dough Relaxer (optional, but very helpful)
5 to 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Filling
4 slices bacon
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pound fully cooked ham steak, diced in 1/4-inch cubes (2 cups)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Glaze
1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
Dough: In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1/2 cup of the water. Set aside. (If you’re using instant yeast, skip this step; add the yeast along with the flour.)
In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining sugar, salt, and 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
Cut in the butter, then add the yeast mixture. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface until it’s smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning to grease the top, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Prepare the filling while the dough is rising.
Filling: In a small pan over medium heat, cook the bacon. Drain it, chop, and set aside.
Sauté the onion in the butter until soft but not brown.
Add the ham, stirring until it’s combined with the onions. Stir in the caraway, pepper and bacon, and remove from the heat.
Assembly: Punch the dough down, and divide it into four pieces. Working with one piece at a time (cover the remaining pieces with plastic wrap), roll each piece of dough into a 1/8-inch thick circle. If the dough “fights back” (the dough relaxer helps prevent this), give it a 5-minute rest, and resume rolling.
Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into 2 3/4-inch rounds. Place 1 teaspoon of the filling mixture into the center of each round, fold in half (to make a half-moon shape), and pinch the edges closed.
Place the piragi on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets. Shape them into crescents, and brush with the egg wash.
Bake the piragi in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.
My mother-in-law was a terrific cook and she taught her son to be a terrific cook.
I am a decent cook, not fancy but you get full if I feed you.
Anyhoodle.
My mother-in-law was tired of my boring fare. When I was at work, she decided to ‘help’ and cook dinner. At this time her vision wasn’t wonderful, she was on dialysis, and tired very easily.
More than once I came home to find all four burners on and dried, burned food in the pans.
I didn’t care about the food or how long the burners may have been on (usually hours), I was worried about HER. What if a fire had started? What if she put her hand down on the hot burner?
In the end, I took off the knobs on the stovetop every morning. Every evening, when she was up to it, I got cooking lessons. I will never reach her level of expertise. It was actually a nice way for us to bond.
Getting China Wrong: The U.S Would Lose the War with China
Driving home with my wife after grocery shopping in the late evening, I suddenly see police car lights flash on behind me and the inevitable ‘WHOOP WHOOP!’
“Oh God, what now,” I said. I pulled over and waited. I saw the officer get out and slowly start walking up to my car. Other cars are slowly going by, drivers looking at me. I looked at my wife and shrugged.
I put the window down and the cop bent down, leaned on the window ledge and looked in. It was my brother in law.
“Hi,” he smiled, “don’t you feel stupid?” Then he laughed. I didn’t feel stupid but greatly relieved.
“Hi Leigh, is this fellow looking after you?” he said looking at his sister..
“Hi Brucie,” said she, “yes, he always does,” she said smiling.
“He looked at me and asked if I was going to be home the next day. I said yes. He said he was going to pop in for a visit and said he had a load of firewood he was going to drop off for me. Bruce lived out in the country and had lots of trees on his lot. He always brought firewood in for me, maple mostly, which was nice of him.
“I’ll have the scotch ready Bruce,” I said.
So that was funny. I thought I was going to get a ticket for something and it was my brother in law the cop. Big dude. I wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.
My wife’s father was a District Fire Chief and he’d get chauffeured around in a fire department vehicle. He’d often stop at our house and pop in to say high or if my boys were playing soccer he’d stop off and watch a bit.
About 15 years ago, I was the owner, operator, and sole employee of a mobile repair business. I mostly fixed lawn and garden equipment – lawn mowers, weed whackers, chain saws, and whatnot – but would fix just about anything when asked to.
I can’t tell you how many times I went to someone’s house to fix a push mower that had “just quit working” for no apparent reason. Very often the no apparent reason was that the customer had run over some object, be it a tree stump or surveyor’s stake, the customer never knew somehow, they just knew the mower suddenly stopped.
The manufacturers of these machines knew that hitting a solid object with the blade can do great damage, so they designed said machines with a weak point – a flywheel key that would shear off under extreme shock, preventing serious damage. Sometimes, but not always, the blade would be bent too, but usually they had just sheared the flywheel key. This was such a common occurrence that I carried about 25 flywheel keys in the van at all times.
I would always tell the customer that they had hit something with their mower, and that for a total of $30, including tax, I would replace the key and their mower would be as good as new in about 30 minutes.
I can’t tell you how many times the following conversation happened:
Oh, I don’t know. Could you just haul it off for me?
I promise you, this machine will be as good as it was before this happened. They’re made this way to protect the machine.
No, I think I’ll just buy a new one.
I can haul it away, but are you sure? There’s nothing really wrong with it that a three dollar part and 30 minutes won’t take care of.
No, I think I just want it gone.
Okay, if you’re sure.
They would go spend $250 or more on a new mower, and I would spend 50 cents (my cost for the part) and sell the mower to someone for $50.
When I had the repair service, I made more money in this scenario than almost any other. There’s a big market for used lawn mowers.
A couple of decades ago, I landed at LAX and took the shuttle to the rental car office. It was pretty late at night, and there was only one other customer ahead of me in line.
The guy in front of me was making a scene, complaining about not getting the specific car model and color he wanted and demanding a free upgrade. He even went so far as to insult the rental agent personally. Despite the rude behavior, the rental agent remained remarkably patient and eventually convinced the customer to accept what he had originally reserved. The disgruntled customer stormed out, leaving behind a tense atmosphere.
When it was my turn, I immediately apologized for the unpleasant behavior of the previous customer. I acknowledged that there was no excuse for such rudeness, and the rental agent thanked me for my understanding. He checked his computer screen, confirmed my reservation for a simple small sedan, and then paused.
After a moment of thought, he asked, “Would you prefer a minivan for the same price?” (Minivans were relatively new at that time.)
I declined, explaining that it was just me, and I didn’t need that much space. The rental agent clicked a few more keys and then asked, “How about a hybrid?” (Another new technology at the time.)
I chuckled and said, “Thanks, but after 16 hours of flying, I’m not ready for any new technology.”
Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he looked straight at me and asked, “How about a Mustang convertible?”
Within ten minutes, I found myself cruising up the Pacific Coast Highway in a brand-new red convertible with black leather seats, only 63 miles on the odometer, the top down, the moon shining, my own CDs playing in the stereo—all at the cost of a small Toyota. In that moment, I couldn’t help but think, “Damn! I like this world!”
“I investigated the UFO event in Peru and what I found SHOCKED me” Timothy Alberino | Redacted
In the nineties, once I flew from Moscow to Delhi in Aeroflot, the Russian National Airlines.
Could be my fourth or fifth flight in life.
My ears ached due to the cabin pressure as the flight took off.
After a while, it hurted a lot, and I requested the Ruski airhostess to help me.
She smiled, went to the galley, and returned with half a glass of cold sparkling Sprite.
I was upset, and cried ‘Look Miss, I am in pain. It hurts really bad. I was expecting some tablet or ear drops. Here you come with a glass of Sprite as if I asked a mix for Vodka’.
She hushed me and told me, ‘Davai Davai, prostho dhrink’.
I took a few sips reluctantly, and ‘hufff’ went my ears, cleared of pressure and pain, instantaneously!!
I could not control my blush, and thanked her many times, ‘You are a genius. Spaciba Dharagoi’
Wherever she is, God continue to bless her, and the thousands of other angels flying in skies, to keep us in comfort and safety while flying!
The very first time was when I was four years old.
I found out I was something I hated.
My parents got pregnant with my older sister, and then married, at fifteen. I was their second child, conceived at sixteen. (Ahh, the excesses of youth!)
My father found a way to join the military when my Mom was pregnant with me; I was born stateside but within months we were stationed in Hawaii.
They were seventeen, and the lowest rank and poorest. My father worked two full time jobs, my mother was a full time waitress. The place we lived was actually in the poorest part of Hawaii, amongst native Hawaiians. In this neighborhood, kids ran about, in and out of houses, cared for by Tutu wahines, “grandmothers”. If you got hurt, got hungry, had to go to the bathroom, just go into the nearest house and Tutu will take care of you.
I was bilingual then, I spoke fluent Hawaiian like all my friends. One day, in a tutu’s house, she was giving us four of us kids sliced fruit, and the radio was on. I don’t know what it said, but Tutu said, “I hate haoles.” [pronounced ‘howlie’].
Now I had learned by osmosis that the Haole were the white men without breath, meaning they were liars and cheats. They stole our islands.
I said, “I hate haoles too!”
Tutu laughed and hugged me, she said, in Hawaiian, “I’m sorry child, you ARE a Haole. I should not have said that.”
For four year old me, that was just mind-spinning. I told my father, and asked him if it were true. Weren’t we Hawaiians? Because I didn’t lie or cheat or steal anything.
But he told me yes, it was true, we were white, like the evil men that stole Hawaii, but that did not mean we had to be evil like them. That even if people thought we might be evil like those men, because we are white like them, we still had to choose to be good people.
My seventh-grade English teacher was pregnant. She burst into tears one day because being seventh-graders, we were being little idiots and paying no attention to her. It was the first time I had seen a teacher cry, which was probably true for most of the students.
She was clearly embarrassed, even while sobbing her eyes out. Some kids went up and hugged her and/or apologized. I didn’t. I don’t remember why. She then wiped her eyes and went on with the lesson. I might add that despite being idiots, we were decent kids, on the whole, and she had no more trouble from us for the rest of the year.
My eighth-grade year was equal parts wonderful and just batshit insane. I saw two of my favorite teachers cry.
For background, my eighth-grade English teacher was borderline obsessed with Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (and as far as I know still is). She’s one of the reasons I love the novel.
On February 19th, 2016, a student walked into her class very casually and said, “Hey, did you know that Harper Lee died today?” Then he took a look at her face and left.
She sat down and just kind of overflowed. Her co-teacher, who had been placed in our class for reasons that would be a whole other answer, tried to console her. It was hopeless. We didn’t get anything else done that day.
In this last example, she didn’t actually cry, but I think it still counts.
My Algebra 1 teacher is one of the most incredible women I have ever met. She’s almost six feet tall and rather intimidating, but also an inspiring, capable teacher and a sweet, wonderful person.
This particular incident happened on a Friday. We were the last block of the day, and were working on an assignment. I was in the front row, done, and rather bored.
The teacher got a text. She glanced at her phone, looked away, did a double take and looked back at the text, then picked up the phone and read it.
The color literally drained from her face. I didn’t know that was a thing outside of books until then.
She then stuffed the phone into her purse and stood up abruptly. She started talking about the assignment, but her voice was all wrong – cracking and breathy.
Finally someone spoke for us all and asked her if she was all right.
“No,” she said. “But I will be, and you guys need to learn this, so pay attention.”
She finished the lesson. She told us, mind you, that six squared is thirty-eight and that eight by nine is seventy-five. But she finished the lesson.
We found out on Monday that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was sixty years old at the time.
“Oh, honey, there’s no point in crying,” she told me later. “It doesn’t fix anything, and it just tires you out.”
She did recover eventually, but that, again, is a story for another time.
I used to work on grocery store systems about 20 years ago, and we had a non-contract time/materials customer call us about his store server, which had crashed in a bad way. I drove out, and I recognized the server model as one we were selling/installing about 5 years prior, before I was with the company. It would be a two-drive mirrored proprietary RAID and a cartridge tape backup.
When I tried to boot it, it rolled through cmos and then complained about a missing driver. So, I booted off a diagnostic diskette, and there…. one drive corrupted beyond repair, other drive missing entirely.
I opened the case, knowing now I was going to be replacing hardware. Yeah… second drive was completely disconnected, no power, no data cables. I plugged it back in out of curiosity and powered it up and shut it down again 5 seconds later. There was a reason why the drive was disconnected, it was screaming bloody murder… loud!
The store owner had been watching me like a hawk because… time and materials… and he remembered, another tech had been there a few years earlier for the noise and convinced the owner he didn’t need RAID because he had a tape drive.
Sh!t. That meant two new drives, which I had with me, and a cold reload from diskettes far enough for an OS and the tape drive drivers. And many many prayers that at one of his backups was valid. Those little tape cartridges were not reliable in a good environment. A server sitting under a desk for years with no maintenance? Of course all the tapes were bad.
I won’t go through the rest, there was a way to retrieve and convert some data from a register, and we pieced enough together for him to do his end-of-day processes… it being night now and everything. The rest he would have to hand-key, so his night was just getting started.
He and our manager went back and forth about the bill a few weeks later. The tech that told him it would be ok was from our shop but long gone now. If memory serves, he ended up paying for the drives and half of the labor.
Techs these days have no idea how easy it is now with such reliable hardware.
The Phantom Planet (1961) Science-Fiction | Full movie
When I was a young boy we used to play “marbles”. These were glass spheres. And I would play with them when I had them, but honestly, I wasn’t so good at the game and would often lose all my marbles.
When I would play with the boys, it was pretty evenly matched, and we would end up with more or less the same numbers of marbles. Only different ones.
When I would play with girls, they were brutal, and take all the marbles in victory… but there’s more. Uh oh.
And then, my sister, who won those things would put them in the oven and cause the grass to crack up and break. And thus my marbles all turned to dust. Indeed, I was good old Charlie Brown back then.
Playing with boys… rearranging the marbles.
Playing with girls… lose your marbles.
I did like the marbles. I liked to hold them in a little cloth bag that I had. But, you know, I never had them long enough because sooner or later, I would play with them… and in so doing…
…would lose them all to either my sister or her girlfriends.
The next week my son tells me how the kid, and his brother, threatened to kill him because he told on them, and how they started pushing him, and smacking him but they were careful not to bruise him anymore.
We went back to the school, and the principal brought the bus driver into the office too.
That b**** actually had the audacity to blame my son for being a victim, and tried to get him to accept blame for making himself a target.
I stopped that s* as soon as it began to come out her mouth. I pointed out what she was doing, and how it went against the school’s zero tolerance policy on bullying, and how if nothing would be done about it, then I saw no better option than to go to the local news station (everyone in town knew the news guy, and it was pretty easy to get story segments aired pretty quickly) and contact as many parents, friends, family members, and co-workers as I could, and have them do the same until something changed.
They immediately kicked those kids off the bus, forcing them to seek alternative transportation, and switched their classes to the disruptive room so that they couldn’t mingle with students from younger grades, which is what they did before as most of their victims were 3–4th graders, and they were 5th (should have been 6th) graders.
A month later the students were expelled for trying to stab another classmate.
The fact that could have been my son wasn’t lost on me.
I wanted the bus driver to face some sort of punishment as she had allowed bullying to go on her bus for over 15 years (according to several parents, and friends).
I wrote up a petition and had over 600 people sign it. That was enough for the school to force her into early retirement.
In the 15 years she drove, there had been incidents where bullies cut off other students’ hair, set various things on other students on fire, put out cigarettes on other kids, stole personal items and money, committed sexual harassment, molested kids, etc. These were all things she chose not to stop because she saw victims as asking for their mistreatment.
I never wanted to hit anyone more than when she tried to intimidate my son as he sat by my side, into accepting blame for his black eye.
I’m glad that woman is finally gone.
I’m disgusted that it took so much, and so long for it to happen.
When I started at the robot company, I had no title, so everyone except the boss was on an equal basis, no matter the age, experience, or ability. One young man was hired to manage internal operations. That is, to make sure supplies were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be. His job expanded to where he was also helping in finance and a bit in other areas.
The founder, who was offsite doing another job (he was very seldom in the office) worked directly with this guy, and with very few others, so the guy thought he was important. He became a self important jerk and managed to annoy almost everyone else at the company.
As the company grew, titles became more important, and I was promoted to sales and marketing manager, while he remained without a title. He tried to tell me how to do my job a couple of times, and I told him to piss off.
I was later promoted to general manager, and became his direct boss. I told him to do some things that were needed, and he decided that I was wrong, and didn’t do them. We had a “chat” and he grudgingly did what I told him to, but continually resisted, and only did exactly as much as was required. He was certain that his relationship with the founder would protect him.
I finally got tired of the dance, and fired him. He was shocked. He went to the founder to get my decision overturned. It turned out that the founder was not nearly as fond of him as he thought.
I had spent 2 days and around $350.00 on fixing my sister’s SUV. After I replaced the starter and battery among a few other parts, I went up to the front door and gave her the good news. Her car problems were over and she would now not get stranded anywhere. She was standing behind the screen door just glaring at me. I repeated what I said thinking she would be happy or relieved but she continued to give me this dirty look and then slammed the screen door shut.
I was in disbelief. Why would she do that? My sister was taking pain killers a lot which I knew about. She had been taking them for years so I figured she was not in her right mind anyways but that’s another long story I have already written about on Quora. But then I remembered something she once told me years before. She told me that if you show disapproval at someone who wants to help you, or care about you, it makes them want to do more and try harder to win your approval. This surprised me to hear her say that even back then, but I already knew she was insane to a certain degree and I was helping her or trying to. She had all kinds of weird and unusual ways about her. She would feed me only one small bowl of stew with a small chunk of bread at dinner time and complained she had to feed me even once a day. I had flown in from Hawaii days before with one mission: To help my sister pay her depts, repair her car and home and give her a fresh slate. I even stocked her kitchen with lots of food and some treats. In all,I had spent about $1,800.00 on her,not counting the $14,000.00 I had given her over the coarse of 2 years. This story is just one single incident that happened to me in the 6 or 7 days I was trapped alone with her. Daytona 500 was in town and there was not a motel room or car rental withing 100 mile radius so I couldn’t just walk away. I had always known she was not right in the mind at all but I didn’t imagine she would turn on me like she did for no reason at all except she saw me as weak for helping her. I also had to pay her $120.00 for a ride back to the airport. This is 100% true and only the tip of the ice burg in that hellish 6 days I was around her. We have not spoken in 10 years since.
This after discussing with my manager that I absolutely could NOT do that shift. For the 37th time.
I was a 22 year old single mum working 3 jobs and would take every shift I could and was offered, bar this one. It wasn’t really much to ask to not be put on the rota one evening a week. I could even work during the day.
I had the hours I was available for written down, pinned to my then manager’s notice board so he knew exactly what I could and could not do when he did the rota.
Every week without fail, he would put me on a 5-Close shift on a Wednesday evening, despite me having explained to him that I wasn’t available for that shift due to my parents having to travel to take care of my grandma, so they couldn’t have my daughter.
I had written it down, I had met with him and I had even had my own mum come in to explain that I wasn’t available that evening and why. Yet he still kept putting my name down for that shift.
There were times I couldn’t work because the child minder got sick or was on holiday, was sick myself or my daughter was sick and needed to see the doctor. On those occasions he would get shitty and not put my name down the following week for any shifts at all (the joys of a 0 hour contract eh?). He would also expect me to call around my colleagues and sort out my own cover, on my own time and would blame me if the shift didn’t get covered, despite also refusing to give me certain phone numbers or to make the calls himself.
I stayed in this job for almost a year, but had started looking for another job where my hours were set and guaranteed. I managed to get an interview for another restaurant who were completely sympathetic of my situation and offered me hours that suited me and for them to be put into a contract with the option of overtime, plus that they would organise any cover needed.
That evening I wrote out my resignation letter, but decided that I’d talk to my current manager one last time to see if I could get anywhere with him.
I went in the following day half an hour early to speak to my manager. During the interview he basically told me that nothing would change and he couldn’t offer me set hours. I told him I understood that he couldn’t offer the set hour contract and got up to start my shift, when I noticed the rota on the wall. The first thing I saw was that I’d been put on the rota for Wednesday evening.
“You’ve put me on for Wednesday evening?”
“Yes. 5-Close as usual.”
“But you know I can’t do that shift. It’s right there on your pinboard that I’m unavailable.”
“Ah yes. You’ll have to sort out the cover.”
“I was on the fence about resigning because I get so many hours from you, and would be taking on less at this other place but… that’s helped me decide. Thanks for helping me make my mind up. See ya.”
“You’re due to start now. Where are you going?”
“To try on my new uniform. Byeeeee”
And I just walked out. It was a massive weight off my shoulders.
Spedinis
Yield: 8 servings
ingredients
Sicilian Stuffing 5 tablespoons olive oil 6 cloves garlic, thickly sliced 1 cup white onions, chopped 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 cup pine nuts 1/2 cup raisins placed in hot water for 1/2 hour then drained 1 bay leaf (optional) 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 1 tablespoon chopped basil 3/4 cup white wine 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 cup grated Romano cheese 1 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs 1 egg
Spiedini olive oil 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs 7 pieces veal scaloppine (approximately 6-8 inches in length, pounded thin and cut in half) salt and pepper, to taste 14 bay leaves 2 white onions, cut in quarters then separated in leaves
directions
For the Stuffing: In a saute pan cook the garlic, onion and the olive oil and red pepper flakes over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring well.
Add the pine nuts, raisins, bay leaf, parsley, and basil; cook for 3 more minutes, stirring well. Increase the heat to high and once the ingredients start sizzling add the wine and stir well until reduced by one-half, about 3-4 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a bowl, add the salt, pepper, cheese, breadcrumbs and the egg. Mix well until it forms a moist mixture.
For the Agrodolce Sauce: In a sauce pan bring to boil over medium-high heat the vinegar, garlic, sugar and rosemary. Cook, stirring well until reduced by two-thirds, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the sauce, return it to the saucepan and simmer it for 10 more minutes.
Add one tablespoon of the butter mixture, stirring well until it thickens. If you want it thicker add more of the mixture, until it reaches the consistency you like.
For the Spiedini: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a deep baking dish with olive oil and coat with about 2-3 tablespoons on Italian Style breadcrumbs. Lay all the pieces of veal flat on a prepping surface. Place equal amounts of the stuffing in the middle of each piece of meat (about 2 tablespoons). Roll the pieces of veal like a burrito, fold the edges along the longest part, then start rolling from one end to the other.
Place each roll as you make it, fold side down inside the greased baking dish. Line the pieces side by side. Once they are all in they should fit somewhat snugly. Between each piece of veal place a bay leaf and a piece of white onion. Brush the top of the veal rolls with olive oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
Put on a plate, spoon over the Agrodolce sauce and serve with roasted potato.
recipe tips
Soak the raisins in hot water to plump them up before adding them to the stuffing.
Be gentle when pounding the veal to avoid tearing the meat.
Roll the veal tightly to make sure the stuffing stays inside while baking.
Baste the spiedini with some of the pan juices halfway through baking for added moisture and flavor.
Let the spiedini rest for a few minutes after baking and before serving.
For a more complex flavor in the agrodolce sauce, try adding 1/2 cup of red or white wine in place of 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning of the stuffing and sauce as needed.
Remember to remove the bay leaves before serving as they are not edible.
common recipe questions
Can I substitute the veal with another type of meat?
Yes, you can use thin slices of chicken or pork as a substitute for veal.
Is there a non-alcoholic alternative for white wine in the stuffing?
You can use chicken broth or white grape juice mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar as a substitute for white wine.
Can I make the stuffing ahead of time?
Yes, you can prepare the stuffing a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator.
Is there a substitute for pine nuts in the recipe?
You can use chopped almonds or walnuts as a substitute for pine nuts.
Do I need the sugar in the agrodolce sauce?
It helps balance the acidity of the vinegar but it can be omitted if desired.
How do I know when the veal spiedini are fully cooked?
The veal spiedini are done when they are no longer pink inside, and the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.
Can I make the agrodolce sauce without garlic?
Yes, you can omit the garlic, but it will alter the flavor of the sauce. If you don’t have fresh garlic cloves you can use 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder.
What can I use if I don’t have Romano cheese?
You can substitute with Parmesan cheese or another hard, aged cheese.
Can I prepare the agrodolce sauce in advance?
Yes, you can prepare the sauce ahead of time and reheat it before serving.
FEAR RUSH! U.S Quickly Run to China to Beg against Sanction
I was once interviewing for a nurse manager position. The interviewing manager had an obvious litmus test for her ideal candidate.
“When is it appropriate to place a patient into restraints?” She asked.
“I think that restraints should be used as a last resort,” I answered. It was a safe answer I assumed.
“Yes, but I want to know at what place you think ‘last resort’ begins?” She queried.
“I would say that last resort would be when I felt that the safety of the staff was in jeopardy,” I answered.
She stood up, started walking toward the door and said, “We are done here. Thank you for your time.”
She opened the door and waited dismissively for me to exit. Knowing that I had just blown the interview I stopped short of the door and said, “What was the right answer?”
“To protect the patient,” she said.
“I believe in protecting the patient,” I said. “I just hold my staff’s protection in higher regard than the patient.”
“That’s not what you are paid to do,” she countered. “And that’s why you won’t be working for me.”
Tom Cotton was the one who introduced legislation banning Chinese students from pursuing STEM degrees.
Washington, D.C. – Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) introduced the SECURE CAMPUS Act, legislation that would secure American research from Chinese Communist Party espionage and influence. Bill text may be found here
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I pulled this directly from his website, so he’s obviously proud of himself, though I can’t think why. It goes on to say;
The bill would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields and would ban participants in China’s foreign talent recruitment programs and Chinese nationals from taking part in federally-funded STEM research.
Besides being a xenophobic jerk, apparently Tom Cotton doesn’t just prohibit intellectual endeavors of Chinese people, but he must prohibit them for himself. Because quite honestly, his ignorance is astounding.
You would think if someone showed him a map labeling Singapore and China, two very different countries with different governing systems, he would realize his faux pas. What kind of idiot asks a citizen of Singapore if they’re part of the Communist Party of China?
Just because someone is of Chinese ethnic descent, it does not automatically mean they are Chinese citizens, and only Chinese citizens can be members of the CPC. Surely Cotton wasn’t so ignorant that he assumed any Chinese person must have ties to the CPC?
Yes. He’s not only ignorant, but arrogant. He’s the type of “polite racist” that believes a Chinese American whose great grandparents came over from China must be a sleeper agent for Communist China. He doesn’t see Chinese Americans as Americans. He doesn’t see Singaporean Chinese as Singaporean. In his mind, all Chinese people are suspect. All Chinese people are from the PRC or have loyalties with the PRC.
Men like Cotton are just like the U.S. government in the 1880’s when they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now we just call it the China Initiative and can only watch as state after state enacts legislature to infringe the rights of Chinese people. McCarthyism never went away. It’s just been repackaged for the next generation. Cotton is so scared of “reds under his bed” that he made a fool of himself publicly. No wonder Singapore laughs.
Taliban has spent 3 years to build a highway to China, when the former Afghan government could not in 20 years under US occupation.
This is the difference of a practical government who cares for the welfare of the country, versus a corrupted government who played politics to please USA.
How corrupted? When the home of former Afghan leader was raided by Taliban, Taliban found lots of jewels etc in his home (similar to former Philippines president Marcos senior). His home is like a palace. He encouraged opium growth, producing 80% of opium in the world under US occupation, Taliban bans it since.
He focusred on politics instead of welfare of people. He follows the West. eg he put the right of women ahead of the right of the poor who accounted for 80-90% of population.
I am not saying women’s right is unimportant. I am saying there are priorities. If you can do both at the same time, that is great. Otherwise, pick the one that benefits more people. Let say a woman gets her right to education. But there is no economy to let her get a job & pay for shelter & healthcare etc. She died young. What is the point of the women’s right?
I said it in many posts. Economic Right takes precedent over Civil Rights eg freedom of speech etc. Different country has different situation & needs. Dont blindly follow the West. Use your own thinking.
There were a few terrorist groups before Taliban took power. One of it was called East Turkistan who were Ugyhurs & were recruited by USA to stir unrest in Xinjiang. Taliban diligently exterminates terrorists. Taliban makes a safe environment for Chinese investments in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan needs modernisation eg infrastructure & China’s BRI is good in it. Afghanistan is rich in minerals waiting for exploration & China has the skills.
I know Taliban is a good government. Last year, a Afghan leader went to China with his agricultural product. He told Chinese on TV: dont give us money. Buy our products & let our farmers lead our economy. (Chinese did buy all Afghan products in minutes.)
I wish Afghanistan a prosperous future. With a practical & hardworking Taliban government, Afghanistan will have a bright future.
Look at Iraq. 20 years’ after the USA-Iraq war, a vassal Iraqi government could not build enough schools for its children. Iraq then asked help from China & China quickly built 80 schools. Unless Iraq can kick US troops out of Iraq, the 100% sovereign Afghanistan will recover faster than Iraq in the next 20 years.
After meeting basic necessities eg food, Taliban can then think about women’s right. Let us be democratic & not interfere Afghan’s internal affairs. They have their pace.
When I was 20 or so I moved into a townhome with 3 of my high school friends. We were in a unit on the end of a row so we only had one adjoining unit, and when we first moved in there was nobody living next door.
Eventually we got a neighbor, and he was mostly quiet and kept to himself. But often at 4am he would start up a saw and run it for hours, or play his electric guitar with the amp set to 11. This frequently woke two of my roomies since the sound traveled through the adjoining wall and straight into their bedrooms. We tried knocking on his door to talk the noise over with him but he never answered.
One night my “top floor” roommate and I were just hanging out in our respective rooms. He had music on in his room, but it was so quiet I could barely hear it, even with both our doors open. We heard a banging at our door, so all 4 of us went to the door to see what was up. It was the neighbor, screaming that the music played was too loud and that he’d call the police if we didn’t turn it down. I pointed out it was barely loud enough to hear from inside our own unit and that his 4am noise was much, much louder, but he screamed, “I go to work soon! Turn it down or else!”
My roommate didn’t think it was worth the trouble so he turned off his music. I thought, screw this, we’re allowed to play music at a reasonable volume in our own home, our neighbor is getting what he deserves. So every time we heard the saw or his guitar at 4am I called the police with a noise complaint.
He moved out soon after and we thought that was the end of having a noisy neighbor, but then a nice family moved in after him. Well, they seemed nice at first, until they started in with loud music and lots of people over every Sunday night. They’d keep this up until 2am, and I’d go into work groggy the next day from lack of sleep.
We had a small get-together one Saturday and the husband came over to complain about the noise. This time around I just wanted to see if we could actually come to some sort of an agreement with a noisy neighbor, so I said we’d try to turn it down a bit if he’d agree to do something about his loud Sunday night gatherings. He apologized up and down and said he didn’t realize we could hear them, and agreed to end their festivities (it was a regular after-church gathering!) by 9pm at the latest. We had no trouble after that, and they were very nice neighbors going forward.
40 Year Abandoned Noble American Mansion – Family Buried In Backyard!
I’m not sure if this is bizarre enough, but late one Friday evening a rather frantic young lady called me up and was audibly upset her computer had finally crashed and was now utterly unusable. She had some really important files on it and she desperately needed them before the night was over, and she was under the impression “we” were somehow responsible for the demise of her career because “we” had sold her a faulty computer.
I was only some random student at the time, but having barely a chance to say a word I figured I’d just let her blow off some steam. Sure enough, she ended her rant on a much friendlier note, expressing her gratitude and incredible luck to have reached “the tech support” so long after office hours.
I felt sorry for her because I knew no help desk of that sort would answer her call before the next morning, or more likely, after the weekend.
Thus I decided, just for kicks, to carefully guide her through the darkest corners of MS-DOS, dodgy recovery tools and whatnot, until eventually I had rescued her files, repaired her OS and saved the day.
When she was done thanking me it seemed to dawn on her that I hadn’t even mentioned money or payment. She sheepishly asked if she would have to pay for the service, probably realizing she had no idea how much that would be, or wondering what would stop her from just hanging up the phone at that point. I told her not to worry, just have a good night, and double check the phone number before dialing the next time!
I was pumping gas into my truck late on a weekend evening, there was an elderly woman going from person to person talking, but I was unaware of her reasons. As I finished filling up and turned to replace the fuel pump nozzle, like poof she was standing there in front of me asking if I could spare a few dollars so she could get home, that someone had stolen her purse. She pointed to her car, she looked like she had gone through some hard times indeed and her car was not much better. It was then that an employee of the gas station approached us and asked me if everything was alright. I’m sure he was about to tear into this old gal and that some of his customers had complained. I said everything was fine, he looked at me rather oddly as I reached into my wallet and gave him 10 bucks. I’d like to prepay some gas for this gal and her car over there as I pointed to her rust bucket. The attendant took the cash, and the poor gal was almost overwhelmed, she wanted to send me the money, but I said that it was ok and to drive home safely. There were tears in here eyes when she said thank you, I have no idea if her story was truthful, but the feeling of helping someone out who was down on there luck felt good and made the rest of my day a little easier to smile. For me it’s not the big things, but the simple little things that seem to matter more and more as I age.. Cheers
One doesn’t simply become a university chemistry professor. Meaning that you’re a super smart and excellent chemist doesn’t mean that you can just walk into a college and ask to become a professor.
Perhaps the most famous example in the chemistry world is Douglas Prasher. In 2008, he was a van driver in Huntsville, AL. Also in 2008, he was credited as one of the key contributors to the discovery of GFP when it was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. As worded by one of his peers, Martin Chalfie, “They could’ve easily given the prize to Douglas and the other two and left me out.”
Douglas Prasher was smart and accomplished enough to be in the conversations of getting a Nobel Prize. However because of a combination of bad luck and funding issues, he was forced to leave academia in 1991 despite successfully cloning GFP which would become one of the foundational tools of chemical biology. By 2006, he wasn’t even employed as a scientist with his NASA division being cut and he was collecting unemployment checks until he found work as a courtesy shuttle driver.
A lot of really smart scientists fall off the bandwagon and once they fall off, it’s really difficult to get back on. People don’t just become Professors again. In the case of Douglas Prasher, it took a Nobel Prize award to get him back on people’s radar and back into the lab.
I was a very bright student, yet I hardly did enough to get by. I was doing just enough to pass classes, nothing more. I was very depressed, and had been for quite some time. Right before the end of my Sophomore year I was raped. I became pregnant, but had a miscarriage shortly after. All of this I kept to myself. I began abusing alcohol and drugs; marijuana, prescription narcotics, and meth. My motto at the time was “Anything to kill the pain.” I attempted to reach out to my mom, and wanted to move in with her to try to start over, but she didn’t want me. I was still struggling with her leaving when I was 10, but I thought maybe she’d take me in. When I called her begging her to let me live with her, she said “You’re a monster, they created you, they can keep you.” (referring to my dad and step-mom). This was the lowest point in my life. Over winter break, just weeks before entering Mrs. Scarlett’s class I had attempted to commit suicide twice by overdose. Thankfully I wasn’t successful.
Upon entering her class I knew it would be challenging. She was one of the most dreaded and hated teachers in our school. All of my peers talked about how much they disliked her, how hard her class was, and how mean she was. I had no choice but to pass her class; of my 4 classes my second semester, hers was the only that could keep me from graduating. That alone motivated me to do better, because upon graduation I could finally be free and start over.
A couple weeks into her class we were given an assignment to bring in and play a song for the class that represented our life. I chose Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Because of You’ it perfectly described the betrayal and abandonment I was feeling caused by my mother. While I had my song playing I broke down and began crying in the middle of class. She let me step outside to calm down and get myself together. (She hardly ever let us step out of class, so I was shocked.) Once I came back in class resumed as normal, but at the end she asked me to stay after class. I honestly thought she was going to lecture me. Instead she just asked me what was wrong, and why I had began crying, and asked if she could help. I only told her about my mom, nothing more. I told her about my childhood, and that I was having a hard time dealing with life. She took me into her arms and comforted me, and then told me about her childhood. She told me of her struggles and every obstacle she had to overcome to get to where she was. She then said “You are very bright, you have an amazing future ahead of you. You can do anything you set your mind to. Don’t let your past hold you back from your future. Even if no one else believes in you, I do. I believe you were born for greatness. You have a purpose, and you are worth more than you realize, but you have to believe in yourself too.”
That day my life changed forever. I quit doing drugs, I quit drinking. I became a straight A student and put effort into everything I did, for her class and my other classes. She changed my entire outlook on life. All it took was for one person to believe in me, and it was her.
Every year after graduation I came by to see her on her birthday. I came by with my oldest daughter shortly after she was born. She was filled with pride, and excited that she was a “grandma”. Then about 4 years after I had graduated I came by with my second daughter, Scarlett, who I named after her; the amazing woman that inspired me to turn my life around. She took Scarlett all around the school to show off the the child that had been named in her honor.
I don’t think she realizes that she saved my life, but she did. I will forever be greatful for her, and the impact she had on me.
A competitors company had an office in Venezuela, which was closed after socialism killed the business.
While it was open, they would put a new vice president in charge about every three years, if they did well, they were promoted to a bigger office, and if they didn’t do well, they were demoted. But, they only placed single men in the role. Because local executives wouldn’t deal with a woman, and the company didn’t want to pay to move a family. It seemed like every VP arrived single and left married.
My friend moved down there. His predecessor had married his executive assistant, and moved away. So he needed a new executive assistant. He told the female HR manager that he needed an executive assistant. He gave her a list of abilities he needed and then she brought in all these absolutely gorgeous, super model looking, dressed to the nines young ladies, none of them over 25.
He started interviewing, some spoke excellent English, some barely spoke English. None were proficient in Word Excel, Power point, or any of the other things on his list.
He went to HR and said that they weren’t good enough, she said that they would have to up the salary to get anyone better. He said that he couldn’t be efficient with these girls, so bump the salary.
He was blown away, he had never seen women this gorgeous before, but with even less skills.
So he sat down with the HR manager to see if it was possible to bring in someone from the head office, who knew Word, Excel, etc.
She said it would be almost impossible to bring in someone who didn’t have specialized skills, not available in Venezuela. He said,but we couldn’t find anyone who could type. The HR manager said, “Oh, you were serious? “ I can get you someone, but they wont look like that “
The next week he interviewed normal looking women, with impressive skills.
Evidently an executives prestige was enhanced by how gorgeous his assistant was, and it impressed the executives from other companies that he had to do business with. They competed for the best looking assistant. Who it seemed often married an executive in the company.
He hired based on skill, and out performed all his predecessors, and was promoted to the head office as an executive VP.
I used to walk home from work in my student days. It was a pleasant walk most nights and took about 20 minutes. Then, police cars started stopping me and hassling me about twice a week. I would tell them, “I’m just walking home from work!” Check my ID, look at my work ID, back in car, and I’d finish my walk home. Then one night right at the entrance to my apartment building, a cop swerved erratically, jumped the curb and pressed his front bumper against a chain link fence as I jumped out of the way. Drunk? Lost one of those steering linkage things? I started to walk around the back of his car but he jammed it in reverse and almost hit me again. I said “What the hell?” Finally he rolled his window down, said “get in the car, Ramirez.” I looked at him, like what? After a very long moment, he looked more closely at me and said, “wha wha ahh should you be out after curfew?” “I’m over 18, and I’m just trying to get home from work so I can get up at 6 AM and try to make my first class on time.” “Uh, ah, OK, you can go.” “So are you going to try to back over me again?” “No, you can go.” That was very unexpected, I must say.
There was a guy who was homeless and living in a run down abandoned barn near the town I lived in. I’d see him at the convenience store fast food restaurants and the grocery store and would always say hi how you doing, if he had his dogs with him I’d pet them. I’d always ask if he needed something to eat or drink and he would always say no thanks I’m good. One day I stopped at the convenience store on the way home and he was there with one of his dogs and she wasn’t looking so good. I said hey man is your dog ok? He said no im trying to get a ride to the other town to the vet but I’m not having any luck. I said let me grab a drink and I will give you a ride. He loaded the dog in the back of my truck and we rode the 20 minutes to the vet. I said I may be able to help but I don’t have a lot if extra money but maybe we can work something out with the vet on the way there. He said not to worry it’s ok and he appreciated the offer. The vet didn’t hesitate to take care of the dog and got her taken care of. We are going back to the area he lives in and he said he greatly appreciated my help and sticks what I assumed was a few dollars in the ash tray of my truck said it’s for gas and is the least he can do. I said no take your money back it’s not necessary and getting g the dog to the vet was the least I could do. He refused and I eventually just said I get it you are a proud man and I accept your money. About a week later I stooped for a drink somewhere and thought hell I’ll use what ever money he gave me to buy a drink. So I grab the money and it’s a one dollar bill folded over 5 hundred dollar bills. I seen him the next day and said what the hell you gave me $500 for gas? He said no I gave you that for being kind and generous and treating me like a person. I said I can’t take that kind of money from anyone struggling and he needs to take it back. He tells me he is a millionaire and lives as he does by choice. I never treated him any different even after that. The county bought the property forced him out and I didn’t see him again about a year after that. Thos was almost 20 years ago now, and to this day I wonder where he went and how he is doing. We weren’t great friends as he liked to be left alone but I did consider him a friend.
A titanic story
When it became clear the Titanic was going down, Isidor and Ida Straus did as requested—the couple put on life jackets and moved to the Boat Deck where officers were lowering lifeboats and instructing women, children, and First Class passengers to board.
According to detailed accounts from Ida’s maid and Isidor’s work colleague, (both surviving eyewitnesses who recounted the story to newspapers at the time), a Third Officer told Ida, who was wearing a full-length mink coat to brave the icy outdoor temperatures, to step onto the lifeboat. She did. When the officer beckoned to Isidor, prompting him to follow, he shook his head. Isidor said,
“No I will not get on the lifeboat until I see that every woman and child has a chance to escape.”
The officer recognizing Mr. Straus as the co-owner of Macy’s, offered him a place on the lifeboat but he declined electing to remain on the deck.
Seeing this, his beloved Ida then climbed back out of the boat and turned to her beloved husband.
“We have lived a wonderful life together for 40 years and have six beautiful children together, if you won’t get on the life boat, I won’t either,” she told him.
She removed her mink coat and handed it her maid, Ellen Bird.
“I won’t have any further need,” she said. “Please take this as you get into a lifeboat to keep you warm, until you are rescued.”
Isidor wrapped his arms around her, then, a great wave came over the port side of the ship and swept them both into the sea.
Once I was in my assigned seat when a lady came up and said I was in her seat. I looked at her boarding pass and it was the same seat.
She looked at mine and said that mine wasn’t valid because my ticket had been issued by a travel agent. Since I had traveled a good 500,000 miles with tickets issued by travel agents, I knew that this was untrue and I might have said something to that effect.
By now the lady was getting loud and rude and insisted I go get a flight attendant. (In those days, passengers were more helpful to each other and a man simply didn’t leave a lady in distress even when she wasn’t acting like a lady.) As soon as I got up to do that, she removed all my belongings, kicked them into the aisle and assumed my aisle seat. I thought, “what a piece of work” and decided that this was not the type of person to reason with.
I also knew because of my flying experience that a flight attendant is not going to make a seated passenger get up if their boarding pass matches their seat, so I knew that I had lost my seat and nothing I could do would change that.
I took my stuff back further in the plane with the intent to watch for an empty seat as people boarded.
A flight attendant came up. Apparently some other passenger informed her of what transpired. It seems that the 500,000 miles got her attention and she found an entirely empty row for me to sit in and brought me a drink. Basically unofficially first class.
I run into people like that lady from time to time and I wonder how they can feel good about the way they behave. Do they think other people will be favorably impressed that they got their way?
Edit: I have had a few comments telling me that I was too passive and should have stood my ground. That I should not have allowed myself to be bullied. Here is my take: people like this do not back down until you cross a line. And crossing that line makes you legally liable as an aggressor. Today, you end up ejected from the plane and probably on a “no-fly” list. At the time, I was on a classified assignment for a US government agency. No one was supposed to know I was on the plane, or where I was going. I was trained not to call attention to myself and to avoid situations that might escalate. It was my job to back down. And for goodness sake, I knew at the time that the plane was not sold out. I knew I would end up in another seat. And I was fairly confident that the airline would take care of me. I had gold medallion tags on all my luggage. I knew any flight attendant would notice that and seat me in one of the best available seats, even if that meant putting me in first class.
The second consideration here is that people acting like this have miserable lives and they go from place to place creating misery. I am happy to get away from them and let them live their miserable lives. They may feel that they accomplished something. They made someone move. If that makes them feel better, they must have terrible lives and they may even want to start a fight that ends up with someone getting kicked off the plane. I do not want to be dragged into that. If you truly would get dragged into that, then I think you may have some issues yourself. Leave people to their misery. It is not up to me to teach them a lesson that they will refuse to learn.
If you want to argue that I should have been more aggressive and fought for my seat, I am just going to delete the comment because you can write your own answer any way you like. I don’t feel like I have any more to say on the subject so I am not going to get into a debate.
My parents have a funny story. Back in the early 1950s, before they married, they drove a couple of Lambretta scooters back from Libya to the UK. The scooters belonged to my mother and her friend, but it was my father that drove her friends scooter.
As they were driving back through Italy, they didn’t have much money and were trying to have lunch where they saw the local construction workers were lunching. They felt they always got a good meal at a decent cost. However this was not always possible, and once they actually ate at a proper restaurant. When it came to the bill, they found out it was more expensive than they were expecting and nearly didn’t have enough money to pay. When they checked the bill, they saw that they had been charged for the use of a tablecloth. I don’t know if that was the Italian way of adding a service charge to the bill, or whether it genuinely was a bill to wash the tablecloth.
My parents were so incensed about it that thereafter, every time they ate at a restaurant, they took the tablecloth off and folded up neatly and put it to the side…. Then they didn’t have to pay for the tablecloth.! *
* Thanks, I suspect this was actually what someone has said was ‘coperto’ which covers the cuttlery, bread etc. so a kind of tip. It would’ve been a very alien concept in postwar Britain.
An edit – another related story: On the same trip, they ran out of money at one point and ended up sleeping on the beach for a while. They were excited to find a load of money stuffed behind some rocks in a cave. It had obviously been there for a long time and was in a very remote place. So they took it! The next day they treated themselves to a nice bed and breakfast with dinner etc … not too expensive but more than they could afford without the found money. When they came to pay, the hotel owner asked to see them on his office. He asked them where they found the money and they reluctantly told him. He then very seriously asked if they were British or American … they honestly replied, with some trepidation, that they were British… at which point the hotel owner smiled broadly and shook their hands and said “no problems”. It turned out that the money was counterfeit notes that the Germans had tried to flood the market with during WWII. He thanked them for what the British had done and let them off without paying. They have always had a soft spot for all things Italian since then. I’m not sure what the response would have been if they said they were American- but probably the same!
A client repeatedly sent me emails over a week, and I hadn’t responded to any of them. This went up to the Chief Operations Officer, and I was sitting in a termination meeting, when our system administrator discovered the reason.
“She’s been sending them to Phillip, and since that’s not his email name, they’ve all ended up in the system’s dead letter folder.” I couldn’t tell if the Chief Operations Officer wanted to kill me just because, or the system administrator for not having the foresight to alias my name to alternate spellings. He dismissed me with a, “We’ll deal with the client from here on.”
An hour later, I was back in the Chief Operations Officer’s office, and once again, my manager and someone from human resources were there. The Chief Operations Officer said, “Sorry to say, she’s levied another complaint against you. She claims that either you’re mentally challenged or lying about your name.”
“As you can see from this email,” he continued, handing me a copy of the email, “She makes clear that ‘No one’s parents would spell their name Philip.’ Therefore, either you’re mentally slow, or you’re lying.” She went on to say that it likely was the latter, and that I used this nasty scheme to get out of work.
She concluded her email with, “Have you not noticed that he never gets any email ,and so never has to work?” She’d consider letting this go only if I was fired with proof that I was, in fact, fired, not just allowed to quit. She also expected the company to blackball me from the industry.
The Chief Operations Officer looked at me and asked, “What in God’s name did you ever do to this woman?”
I looked back and said that unless we met in a prior lifetime, nothing. She was a new client, we’d never met, and I wasn’t the one who did her setup. We’d never spoken on the phone, and her name rang no bells.
“Okay,” he said, “We’re not firing you, but stay far, far away from her.”
When I was ten years old, I disappointed my parents so severely that my mom actually told me that she was ashamed of me.
We had a new teacher at school, a young and attractive woman who I didn’t particularly like. There was a weekly magazine and TV guide that always featured a naked woman who was chosen from readers who sent in their pictures. You can probably guess where I’m going with this. Another kid happened to find an old edition of the magazine that featured our new teacher as the weekly babe. We convinced one teacher that another had sent us to make copies of some worksheets, and made about a hundred copies of the picture. We distributed them all around the school.
The teacher was around 25 years old, and the pictures were taken years earlier, when she was just 17. This wasn’t before the internet existed, but it was before it evolved into the black hole of revenge porn and shame that it is today. She had no reason to think that the old picture would come back to haunt her nearly a decade later, and she was shocked and humiliated.
When I close my eyes, I can still see my parents’ faces the way they looked when they were called to the school and informed of my actions. It was so painfully clear that they couldn’t believe I’d let them down like that. Yes, I discovered something shocking about my teacher, and my immature reaction was to share it with the world for my own amusement. It has been more than 21 years, and I swear that writing this is making me turn red with shame.
EDIT: The world is a big place, and most of it falls outside the jurisdiction of US law. Remember that age of consent – and majority – varies throughout the world.
People whose initials are ‘JC’ are 85% more likely to get laid
Two thirds of women say that they find dad bods way more attractive than muscular ones
People who like the same colour have the longest marriages
Go up to a stranger and stare right into their eyes without blinking. This will gradually increase their arousal and make them attracted to you
To find your soulmate, lick the armpit of your closest friend. If it tastes like grass, they’re definitely your soulmate
Hearing a loved one’s laughter extends your lifespan by three weeks
Relationships wherein the toilet seat is frequently left up usually last less than five days
Proposing to a loved one in public or in front of a crowd increases their chances of saying ‘yes’ by 99.9% This isbecause they love you and definitelynot because of social pressure
Okay, okay, time to drop the bombshell that all of the above are totally fake and aren’t supported by any evidence. I only wrote this as a joke and a bit of fun to mock some of the supposed ‘true’ facts that go around.
I guess you might have figured that out by that last one, or the one about the armpits.
Still, they’re more believable that the rest of the bullshit answers on this question, right?
It costs ₹1.5 Lakhs in India and around $ 1500 in most countries on an average
Say tomorrow someone creates an equally good phone of equally good quality and offers it for $ 600
It’s evident that the Average consumer will go for the lower cost option because HE IS NOT A FOOL
That is exactly what China brings to the table with its Technological Progress
China can create the same or better quality product at a lower retail price and soon OUTPRICE the West from any fair & neutral market
It started with things the West couldn’t care less about
Textiles, Pencils, Stationery, Low Grade Machines, Belt Buckles, Buttons, Sports Equipment and Toys
Then it moved to Electronics
Then to Computational Devices
Its been going on for sometime now
It extended to TRAINS
China has cornered the market for Train Bodies, Engines, Fiber Plastics , Carbon Fibre and Electrified Tracks and the cost per Km is 35% cheaper than Japan and 60% cheaper than Europe
To Aerospace Materials
China first began producing for itself. Now it has begun selling to Egypt, Russia, Belarus and even Teeny Tiny Singapore. Heat Shields, Propellant Cladding, Guidance Engineering Consoles all for 50% the price charged by Europe & USA
To Green Energy
To Electric Vehicles
Everywhere China has created it’s own supply chain and a niche for its products at a lower cost beating the US in a competition and ensuring US Products are TOO PRICEY FOR THEIR VALUE
Now the BIGGEST FEAR for the US is in the area of Defence!!!
China was once projected to be the largest market for Defence imports in 1999 by the Pentagon
Nobody in their WILDEST DREAMS could imagine China would one day, especially 20 years later be almost entirely self sufficient and produce weapons of global quality
In fact in 1999,it was estimated that INDIA would develop a Weapons Chain of its own by the Pentagon especially after the 1998 Pokhran Test and after APJ Abdul Kalams visionary speech on 1/1/1999
Today China develops its own weapons and has a near full supply Chain
China makes everything from Fighters to Drones to Artillery Guns to Hypersonic Missiles to Destroyers
Indigenously for most part and definitely not dependent for anything on the West
And gradually having a MARKET for its defense exports, especially Military Drones
Now of course everyone reads Western Journals and says Chinese products are junk
Yet China always has demonstrations and allows its clients to handle its weapons and most clients come back highly impressed because they are TOP QUALITY
In 2017 – US and Israel were top Military Drone exporters
In 2023 – Its China
Its very likely that sooner rather than later, more and more neutral nations keen on arming themselves would prefer to buy from China at a lower price and similar quality and FAR BETTER FINANCING
The US has two options
Keep developing better and better weapons OR
Keep Throttling China
Sadly US knows it cant endlessly keep producing better and better weapons
China has more researchers, more scientists and a far less SELFISH AND GREEDY Military Industry
For instance from 2018–2023 – US Defence Industries combined spend 3.7% of their Profits for R&D
Chinas Defence Industries have spent – 17%
Almost 6 times more
Plus Chips!!!!
Today US controls everything needed to make 3/5 nm process Chips
Tomorrow if China manages to indigenously crack the same?
It will flood the world with Chips at a third the cost and that’s the end of TSMC and other players like Intel
Now this is not the first time the US is playing dirty with a nation it regards as a rival
In 1985 when Japan threatened US Economically, they neutered it with the PLAZA Accords
When SE Asia threatened the US with potential independent decisions, they Neutrered them with AsianFinancial Crisis
Causing currencies to bloat up and then ensuring their crash with an evil grin
Remember George Soros????
When the EU threatened them, they corrupted the top layer, ousted the Nationalists and filled it with the worst prostitutes who would happily watch their kids and grandkids sold as geishas for a year in power and a fifty dollar bill
CHINA today is the only nation that the US is unable to break
Whatever they try, China outsmarts them
That adds to their rage and fury and they make more mistakes that lowers their credibility
Seven years ago China was the Aggressor with its wolf warrior diplomacy.
Today the Chinese are looked on as the world’s only peacemakers
CHINA is the toughest opponent they have ever come across in their 200+ years of existence
An Opponent who absorbs every blow and comes back fighting and who in return moves all around them confusing their strategy
And that worries them even more
Yet they see no way to stop China today
Their Anti China Rhetoric is not working beyond influencing a few Idiot rednecks to vote for Biden or Trump to protect US from China
It’s just Economics
China is rising today
I hope India realizes this because India could be the next rising power when China retires if it partners with China
The Alternative is another Western Lackey like it was 200 years ago.
I am from a very small city called Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. My father was in UP state govt at a grade C post. He used to earn just enough money to live on and nothing extra. Despite holding a post where he could have earn a lot of money he chose not to do it and lived proudly. Sometimes, he used to get his salary after 5–6 months delay but that time he had friends to help him out and shopkeepers used to lend things such as groceries, milk etc. In short, we were living hand to mouth with no extra financial support.
One day my mom got angry for few reasons and shouted at me that why I am wasting hard earned money if I am not serious. I felt so bad that I decided I will never ask for money. I started giving tution at one house who used to give only 250 rs. for two kids, that too in installments. While going to his home for tution, sometime I used to stop by a roadside eatery shop who used to sell “Bati chokha” as shown below. 2 Rs for each piece. 4 Rs for a plate of two.
I always tried to suppress my desire to eat to save money but when I was too hungry then only I used to stop by and eat just one for 2 Rs. That time shop was quite famous and especially evening time, it used to be full with a lot of crowd. And many a times I escaped without paying his 2 Rs. I am not sure whether that shopkeeper also intentionally ignored me every time. Though I knew what I am doing is wrong and always had a feeling of guilt which I used to ignore after having a free meal.
Fast forward to today. I earn well now and work as scientist in a premier research institute in India. Sole source of income is my salary which is more than enough for my needs.
Sometime back I visited my hometown and had a chance to go his shop again. Now this shop was being run by shopkeeper’s sons. I ordered one plate again. The taste was not the same as it used to be. but I was hit by nostalgia. More than the taste I was thinking about how I used to escape without paying this poor fellow. After finishing I asked ‘how much?’
He said ’10 Rs. babu ji”
I handed over newly launched 2000 Rs. note.
“Kya babu ji! itna chutta kaha se laun?” (Sir how would I get so much of change?)
Koi nahi, Mai ek ghante bad idhar wapas aaunga, tab le lunga change” I said (Never mind, I will come back this side after one hour and will collect the change from you.)
I left the place and did not go back. First time ever, I had a feeling of satiety after having Bati Chokha. And this was first time ever, I felt wealthy.
Turns Out None Of My 5 Children Are Mine & Now My Wife Is Baffled As Why I Abandoned Her Forever
The four largest church auditoriums in the world now sit on Nigerian soil—colossal structures built with billions of Naira.
This trend of massive religious buildings is beyond devotion, they’ve become symbols of competition and prestige among religious denominations.
Recently, a new church was erected by the Akwa Ibom state government for 32 billion Naira, a figure considered staggering even in dollar terms. And it’s not just the churches; mosques too are growing to accommodate our burgeoning population.
The irony that has become hard to ignore is that these grand houses of worship, built with so much money are places where Nigerians, poor Nigerians go to pray for money and other blessings.
Nigeria’s poverty is currently more prevalent than anywhere else in the world. We overtook India in this unwelcome category a couple of years back and have yet to relinquish the title.
Nigeria is also one of the most conflict-ridden countries globally. Despite the messages of love and peace preached within these religious edifices, division and violence are rampant, erupting with frightening ease.
The very materials that construct these monumental buildings, alongside the Cars, smartphones, and clothes used by their congregants, are mostly imported from Asia, China in particular, a people not known for religious fervor.
The irony deepens when considering the potential uses of these funds;
Imagine if these billions were redirected towards constructing factories or providing business grants to Nigeria’s innovative youth. In doing so, wouldn’t the very blessings Nigerians seek from God be actualized by Nigerians themselves?
Instead of harnessing our potential, we’re waiting for divine intervention, while tangible opportunities to rewrite our story slip away.
Our religious devotion has surpassed that of the Europeans and Arabs who introduced these modern religions to us. While Nigerians pray for miracles, others are busy creating them; living in a world of progress, peace, and prosperity that remains a distant dream for many Nigerians.
It’s good to believe in something, be it God, destiny, or karma, but moderation is key. Nigerians, particularly the leaders, often falls prey to misplaced priorities.
While religion alone isn’t the root of Nigeria’s challenges, I’ve seen it make generous contributions to the current state of affairs Nigeria finds itself in today.
We were living in Amman, in Jordan, where my husband Bob was a senior diplomat. It was Ramadan and it was hot. In Ramadan Muslims do not eat or drink while there is light and in Summer it was light for a long time.
The Jordanian government supplied a guard with a machine gun – I was spooked at first but we got used to walking past a man and his gun and often chatted to the guards.
On the first day of Ramadan the guard of the moment tapped on the window between the open garage and the kitchen and asked our lovely Filipina helper if she could open his can of tuna to break his fast.
He was holding a half bottle of lukewarm water. I was in the kitchen at the time. That tuna was cheap and terrible – greyish flakes drifting in salt water. I would not have fed it to a cat.
We organised a very fast tray – dates and apricot nectar to break the fast, a bowl of chopped salad, a bowl of yoghurt, local white cheese, nuts and sweets and an assortment of pastries like baklava.
We handed it out – with his tuna and hot tea – as the call to prayer sounded the moment when he could eat. He was stammering in gratitude but it took us only five minutes. I added items to our regular shopping list.
Each day we prepared a big tray and included a hot vegetarian dish. I was concerned that the guards might not eat meat from a non-Muslim household in fear of pork.The numbers grew. There were two guards on the second night.
Four after three days. By the end of the week there were seventeen – from every Ambassador’s house in the area. Some left their post and walked several blocks.
We just put out big serving bowls and fistfuls of cutlery and they shared. They came every night for a month. We did that every year for four years. At the end of our posting my husband, Bob, called to say farewell to King Hussein.
The King called in Queen Noor – and together they thanked us for feeding our guards through Ramadan. When Bob recovered from the shock he asked how they knew.
“On the second night of your first Ramadan the head of the elite guard asked how to manage a problem. The guard for another ambassador wished to leave his post to go to the Australians as they were giving food and drinks.
He was asking permission to leave his post and I am the only one who can grant that permission. I told him that if the Australians are willing and generous to the guards and others are not, then guards from other embassies can leave their posts to eat.”
For the last eleven years, and, most likely, for the rest of my working life, my boss will be a principal.
I’ve had six principals over four schools during my career as a teacher. All of them were women. Two of them were younger than me, for what it’s worth.
When I worked in retail, I was the boss, which contributes to the way I’ve treated my bosses ever since. I’ve been on the receiving end of that scenario.
With that in mind, here are my top three rules for dealing with your boss:
Don’t take anything they say personally. You’re both there to make money, not friends. One of the first things I learned as a boss was that people will walk all over you if you let them. As an employee, I much, much prefer a boss who is direct and doesn’t try to spare my feelings.
Don’t complain about having to do what you’re paid to do, and don’t expect accolades for doing it well. Your accolade is your paycheck. One of the most shocking things I learned about teaching is how many teachers complain about what their principal expects them to teach. That’s… why you were hired, no?
Your job is to make the boss look good, so don’t get upset when that happens. You know what makes principals look good? Increased standardized test scores. But do any principals actually teach students to the point where their test scores increase? No. But the principal gets the pat on the back when the scores go up. That’s how the world works, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Italian Hot Sausage Sandwiches
Ingredients
1 large onion, sliced
1 green or red bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 pounds hot sausage cut into 6-inch lengths
2 cups tomato sauce, preferably homemade
1 1/2 cups canned whole tomatoes
Parsley
Basil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Brown sugar (optional)
Instructions
Sauté the onion and pepper in the olive oil and butter until soft in a heavy pot or casserole. Remove and set aside.
Add sausage to the pot and sauté until browned on all sides. Return the onions and peppers to the pot. Add tomato sauce.
Place whole tomatoes in the blender and whirl with a handful of parsley and a few basil leaves. Add to the sausage mixture.
Simmer the mixture for an hour. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce seems to acidic, add a tablespoon of brown sugar.
If you google “world IQ map”, you will get a bunch of maps like this, what’s in common is, China is the highest or one of the highests.
But I don’t think Chinese people is naturally smarter than the rest. Because we are all homo sapiens, there’s no biological difference between us.
Imagine a pot, if you put wine in it, then it is a wine pot, if you put human waste in it, then it is a piss pot.
Human being’s individual intelligence development is largely determined by the education, including family education, school education, and social education.
If your parents believe Covid is a hoax, the white house is controlled by lizard men;
If your school forbids teaching evolution theory but telling you the earth is created by God 5000 years ago;
If your contry is full of useless debates on genders, tolerant to cults and conspiracies and calling it free speech;
It’s hard to imagine its people can keep on right track in intelligence development.
Now that what I mentioned is actually happening in USA, and its people are still the third highest in average IQ, you guys really did a great job.
I’ve seen so many great responses in this answer thread, so I’ll join in.
The picture below is of Anna Bagenholm,
[1] a Swedish radiologist. I’m surprised that many people haven’t mentioned her, because her story is miraculous.
She was frozen alive, and then brought back to life. She is a survivor of probably one of the worst cases of hypothermia, and officially set the record for the lowest human body temperature ever recorded.
In 1999, Bagenholm was on a skiing trip with her friends along a trail in Narvik, Norway, as was her daily routine after work — but the accident she faced a few minutes later was terrifying and nearly unsurvivable.
While attempting to maneuver around a nearly frozen waterfall, she fell headfirst into a hole in the ice and got stuck with only her feet protruding from the water. Her friends attempted to help her out of the hole, but the ice-cold stream took her even deeper into the freezing ice. Because of that, her friends decided to call an emergency rescue team on their phone. But one way or another, she was able to last a full 40 minutes inside after finding an air pocket between the water and the ice.
By the time the rescue team assisted her out of the stream, she had been submerged for 80 minutes total. Bagenholm’s temperature had dropped down to what was at the time the lowest recorded (about 56.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 13.7 degrees Celsius), her pupils were dilated, and her heart had stopped beating. The emergency team tried to give her CPR, but they failed. For a short time, she was dead.
A helicopter took her to a hospital. When she arrived, she was hooked into a bypass machine. The team would try to warm up her blood until she regained her pulse and her body temperature went back to normal.The plan was successful, and she survived. Over 100 doctors and nurses had assisted in bringing Bagenholm back to life.
Dr. Mads Gilbert, an anesthesiologist who worked at the hospital, believed the subzero temperatures actually helped. To quote: “Her body had time to cool down completely before the heart stopped. Her brain was so cold when the heart stopped that the brain cells needed very little oxygen, so the brain could survive for quite a prolonged time.”
[2] Fortunately, she suffered no visible brain damage. But she had to pay a price for surviving that accident — the damage it did to her nerves made it more difficult for her to use her hands when it came to writing and cooking, for example. At least she was still able to go skiing.
To conclude: I just wish I could survive the cold like she could. Well, don’t we all?
People can be odd sometimes. I wish to relate a story that took place a few decades ago. At this point in time I was sponsoring some Americans to visit some factories in China, and this group of four guys were all pretty nice. But one of them was a gnarly cuss who insisted on not eating ANY Chinese food while he was in China.
Instead, he wanted no part of the Business KTV lifestyle, food, friendships and was generally a royal pain in the ass. He insisted that no one smoke at the table… (WTF? this is China), and that we go to a grocery store to get cereal and milk so that he can have a “safe” breakfast in his room.
OK. Different strokes for different folks. I get it.
Anyways, Instead of eating at the many, many delicious restaurants for dinners, he convinced everyone to eat a McDonald’s, Pizza-hut, KFC and Burger king instead. And I begrudgingly allowed it. That was, until the last day.
There we took him to a steak restaurant, and we all ordered steaks.
It was a nice Western style place, and they were known for their decent steaks and fine dining atmosphere. Everyone loved the decor and the food looked great. We all sat down and placed our orders.
Imagine my surprise when he received a fine filet Mignon, and then promptly drowned it in ketchup. It went from this…
To this…
You couldn’t even find the meat under all the ketchup. I couldn’t believe it. Thinking about it now, and again… I still am incredulous. Jeeze! Louise!
In 1971 the 18 year old me worked 10 hours a night 7 nights a week overnight pumping 29 cent a gallon gas at an Exon station on Highway 14 near Los Angeles. An endless parade rolled through every night.
The cult bus from up the canyon gassed up heading for LA to recruit and gassed again coming back with newbies. The cult escapees on foot stopped for food or directions.
My usual directions to lost drivers was “you can’t get there from hear” with a smart-ass grin. One time the person just said Ok and left quickly. I guess they went somewhere you could get there from!
I had an endless supply of free food from the catering trucks fueling up. Newspapers, donuts, bread and more.
Guest appearances by two dozen of the Galluping Goose Motorcycle Club (Google them) swarming the stations islands was interesting. A sheriff car chase through the station code 3 was entertaining. You never knew what was next.
The problem was I tried to go to the local junior college full time and slept a bit in the morning and a bit at night. Zombies had nothing on me. Mom wpuld tell me the time, day and where I needed to go when I woke up.
One night, around 3am I was leaning against the front of the station waiting for the next car and noticed three dollars sticking out of my shirt pocket. A customer had filled up and paid while I slept standing up!
I took it as a clue that I should retire and joined the Air Force.
But I came away with so many great stories 🙂
Memnon of Rhodes (died 333 BC)
Memnon was a Greek soldier from the island of Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean Sea. He was born around 380 BC and entered Persian service at a young age. His first patron was Artabazus, the satrap of Phrygia, who married Memnon to his daughter Barsine, a beautiful and well-educated woman. The Greek soldier proved his worth during Artabazus’ revolt against King Artaxerxes III of Persia; at some point, he even rescued his captured father-in-law.
When Artabazus fled to Macedon, Memnon followed him. He stayed there for about five years and gained valuable inside knowledge. He met the then king, Philip II, and his son, the future Alexander the Great — he had supposedly lengthy discussions with the latter. He studied the Macedonian tactics and realized how keen on invading Persia Philip was. He also understood how precarious the Macedonian hold on southern Greece was — Greek unity wasn’t deep yet.
All this theoretical knowledge was soon combined with practical experience. Memnon fought with considerable success against general Parmenion, whom Philip II sent on an expedition shortly before his own death. Thus, Memnon was the perfect man to lead the Persian defense when Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC. Indeed, he sat at the war council of Darius III along with Persian satraps and other high-ranking officials.
Memnon proposed a dual approach. First, the Persians were to follow a scorched-earth policy: burn the crops before Alexander’s army and constantly retreat instead of opt for an open, pitched battle. Second, using money and diplomacy, they should cause as much unrest as possible in Greece, behind Alexander’s back. It was a careful and well-thought strategy, because the Greek armor, training and battle tactics were superior to those of the Persians.
Darius and his satraps didn’t agree with Memnon. They were unwilling to destroy Persian land, believed it would be below them to not fight openly against the invader and possibly hesitated to follow the advice of a Greek. Thus, they assembled an army behind the river Granicus and waited for a battle that eventually took place in May 334 BC. Memnon was one of the leaders of the left flank, opposite Alexander. Reality proved him correct: Alexander won.
After the battle, Darius changed his mind. He made Memnon supreme commander of the West and gave him the authority to carry out his initial plan. Although several Anatolian cities surrendered to Alexander, others like Miletus and Halicarnassus resisted, and that could wear out the invading army. Memnon didn’t care how many individual victories Alexander would win; he played the long game and was content with the Greek losses.
Soon, Memnon started his counterattack. Since Alexander’s fleet was not very strong, he attacked the islands of Chios and Lesbos; the first he captured completely, while the latter partly. He also accepted representatives of the Cyclades — with them, he could control the Aegean route. Persian money worked miracles, as it had in the Peloponnesian War. Athens, led by the anti-Macedonian Demosthenes, Sparta and other cities were almost ready to rebel.
In this crucial hour, Alexander’s good fortune prevailed. Memnon got sick and died in 333 BC while besieging Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. The Persian generals, seeing that Alexander was moving slowly, thought he hesitated to face them openly. Thus, they abandoned Memnon’s strategy and pushed for a second direct confrontation. A few months after Memnon’s death, Alexander defeated Darius himself at the battle of Issus. The East was open to him.
It’s always hard to pose What if … ? questions, but Memnon’s plan had many chances of success. His shrewdness, experience and what steps of his plan he managed to carry out before he died show that clearly. If he had forced Alexander to keep advancing slowly and with constant losses, exploited the favorable dynamics at sea and stirred up a major revolt in Greece, the invading army might not have been able to get beyond Asia Minor.
It’s not necessary to get into details about this, but Alexander’s campaign was indeed world-changing. Although he died too early, his conquest set the bases for all sorts of historical developments. Greek became the common language of the new oecumene, the Greek civilization came in closer contact with those of the East — a new era began. Even Rome would later build on Alexander’s legacy. Who knows if any of that would be the case had Memnon lived to execute his plan to the end?
Fun fact: Memnon’s wife, Barsine, was later captured by the Greeks. Alexander made her his concubine, and she bore him a son named Heracles. He was the only child we know Alexander lived long enough to see: his legitimate son by Roxana, Alexander IV, was born a few months after his death. Both Heracles and Alexander were murdered at a young age, victims of the bitter antagonism among Alexander’s generals over his kingdom.
I was 11, and for some reason, I wasn’t at school and with my father when he got word that my older sister had run-away, again.
Dad went to a couple of houses, with me staying in the car. Then, we went to a biker bar. Dad said, “Stay here!” Then, walked into the bar.
Being the brat that I am, I waited briefly, and decided I needed to use the restroom. I walked through the door and spotted my sister on the right at the far end next to the bar. My father was just in front of the door, and to his left were two pool tables, with those low-hanging stained-glass lights over each table.
There were FOUR extremely large biker dudes – right out of central casting. All were much taller than my father, who stood at 5′7″. All four had cue sticks in their hands, and all four began moving.
My father shifted quickly to stand between the two pool tables. The bikers spread-out and one circled back, going behind the rear pool table. Dad grabbed the table light and shoved it violently to sideways, hitting the biker solidly in the face.
Then the guy on the far side of the tables stepped forward, swinging the pool cue like a baseball bat. Dad blocked the cue, gave two punches to the face, grabbed the cue, swiveled it around and punched him with the base of the cue several times to the neck and face.
At this point, the third guy came from behind, and struck Dad viciously in the right kidney, causing a grunt. Nevertheless Dad swiveled around with the cue, hitting the biker on the side of the neck. Then Dad did a little jump and kicked the knee out from under the biker. The crack was audible.
Guy #4, clearly not being bright, tried to do the same trick with the other table light, and missed as Dad ducked beneath, grabbed the biker by his vest and pulled him onto the table, then elbowed him to the throat.
Guy #2, having recovered enough on the far side of the tables, pulled-out a knife and came with a stabbing motion. Dad caught the thrust arm, twisted it with both of his arms, and broke or dislocated the man’s shoulder / arm – again with an audible sound – and a screech from the biker.
#1 guy, face bloodied from the splintered light, put his hands up in a placating gesture and backed away.
#2 guy was on the floor, holding his right arm
#3 guy was on the floor, groaning, and holding his leg, which was bent in an odd manner.
#4 guy was gasping for breath, on hands-and-knees on the floor.
At this point, the bartender started rummaging around under the bar for something, and Dad said, “She’s 14 years old.”
The bartender stood up, backed away from my sister, next to the wall and put his hands up.
Then we went home.
Please note, that while Dad was quite powerful, and lifted weights, with biceps that split shirts – he also had a bad right leg, and was only 5′7″.
You see, the ascent stage was the part of the Eagle lunar module that blasted off from the moon’s surface on July 21, 1969, carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin back to the command module Columbia.
After they docked, they jettisoned the ascent stage into space, leaving it in a retrograde orbit about 125 kilometers above the lunar equator.
NASA assumed that this orbit was unstable and that the ascent stage would eventually crash into the moon.
But a new analysis by James Meador, an independent researcher at Caltech, suggests otherwise.
He used a NASA tool called the General Mission Analysis Tool to simulate the trajectory of the ascent stage using data from GRAIL, a mission that mapped the moon’s gravitational field in 2012.
He found that all of his simulations showed the ascent stage maintaining a steady orbit for over 50 years, despite the influence of the sun, other planets and solar radiation.
Of course, there are other factors that could have affected the fate of the ascent stage, such as fuel leakage or explosion, but Meador thinks that there is some possibility that it is still up there and might even be detectable from Earth.
How cool is that?
But don’t get too excited yet.
This is just one study and it has not been peer-reviewed or confirmed by other sources.
Meador himself admits that his analysis has limitations and uncertainties.
He also says that finding the ascent stage would require a lot of effort and resources from NASA or other agencies.
So, for now, we can only speculate and hope that one day we will know for sure what happened to the ascent stage of Apollo 11.
Maybe it is still orbiting the moon as a silent witness to one of humanity’s greatest achievements.
Or maybe it has already crashed and become part of the lunar landscape.
Either way, it is a fascinating piece of history that deserves our attention and respect.
I was 32 when I got married and had been on my own, building a career and supporting myself for 10 years. I refused to be “given away” because no one “owned” me. So, I told the officiant to eliminate the line where they ask who’s giving me in marriage. My dad simply escorted me down the aisle, sat down beside my mom and I joined my husband.
I’d attended and been in enough weddings by this time to have very definite ideas about what I did and didn’t like. So, I also made the following changes to the reception. When I was planning our wedding, all kinds of people told me I “had to do all this stuff because it was ‘tradition.” I said, “NOPE!”
No long wait between the ceremony and the reception – The photographer took a few pictures of me and my husband at the church and we arrived at the reception along with the last of the guests. We took the family and wedding party photos after we ate.
No sit-down dinner – I’d been to too many receptions that were ruined by guests banging on their glasses to make the couple kiss. We decided we weren’t trained monkeys that perform on demand and had a cocktail-style reception.
No obnoxious, screaming DJ – We had a guy playing background music on the piano and guests were able to converse without shouting.
No smashing cake in the face – I don’t know who ever decided this was cute, funny or amusing. It’s tacky and an insult to your new spouse, and I didn’t spend hours on my hair and makeup to have it messed up with smeared cake and frosting. As a side note, any DJ who sang “The Bride Cuts the Cake” to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell” would have had the cake smashed in HIS face—by me!
No dollar dance (or anything else that solicits money or gifts) – I subscribe to the old-school view that you don’t ask guests for gifts or money. If someone gives a gift, you should thank them regardless of whether you like it or now, and follow up with a nice note.
No bouquet toss – Some women don’t want to get married. Others recently lost a spouse or are getting over a breakup. They don’t want to be singled out or embarrassed by “well-meaning” guests or insensitive DJs who want to push them into catching the bouquet.
NO GARTER TOSS – I saved the best for last. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to do this. The “tame” version always made me uncomfortable, but the way many couples do it nowadays is raunchy, nauseating and disgusting, especially when the groom removes the garter with his teeth! I definitely DO NOT want my new husband or anyone else sticking their head up my dress in front of a hundred people! Maybe I’m just an old fogey or fuddyduddy, but some things should be kept private!
It’s YOUR day. Do what you want and don’t let anyone force you into doing anything that you don’t like or that makes you uncomfortable!
China’s ‘Golden Veil’ To Launch Cruise Missiles For Sneak Attacks
During the toxic, soul destroying ICU rotation of residency, we admitted a young lady intubated for a “community acquired pneumonia”. It ended up being acute myeloid leukaemia, and she had to start chemo in ICU.
She turned out to be an incredible, inspiring, resilient and kind soul. She developed every possible complication of chemo, including being septic while having profound pancytopenia (all cell lines down).
During a particularly busy call with multiple sick admissions, she started bleeding (sepsis plus inability to clot), and I remember noticing frank blood in her catheter. At some point after midnight, she weakly summoned me to the bedside. There were tears on her face and I remember they seemed blood stained, which seriously alarmed me.
I thought she was calling me to tell me how sick she felt. But, teary eyed and all, she said, “I’ve been watching you…you’re having such a hard evening. Are you okay?”
Here was this woman battling for her life, and she had enough compassion left over to care for me. I thanked her, told her to please not worry because she/they were the only priorities.
Then I went into the bathroom, bawled my eyes out, put my game face back on and got back to work. People like that make everything worthwhile.
I’m glad to say she survived and was discharged from hospital several months later, but my colleague who managed her after she was discharged from ICU said it all took its toll and she was a shadow of her former self.
I still think of her. I hope life gave her her flowers, because she deserved everything.
Many years ago we moved into a house where the garden had two gates, a small one at the back and the front double gate which gave access for the car. I was amazed to see people idly strolling through our garden one day with their dog. I went out and challenged them and they said they’d been doing it for years. The previous owner let them use his garden as a short cut to the shop instead of having to walk round past the church.
I said it had to stop now. We had a young child and I didn’t want to risk total strangers coming into the garden. Besides which we had two dogs at the time and although they were not dangerous I didn’t want to risk them getting involved with trespassers. As a child I discovered that people tell lies and they can report that your dog attacked them even if it didn’t.
We put a lock on the gate, and a notice saying Private Property. Keep out. We had no end of abuse from people. The one who really stunned me was the one who said they picked the apples and other fruit every year, it was their right, and now we were stopping them from doing it. The woman even said the fruit wasn’t ours because the trees weren’t planted by us, they’d been there for years.
We only lived there a few years. We didn’t like the weird neighbours so we moved.
Men are Avoiding Marriage and Modern Women Don’t Get It Ft.
Back in 1993 my first wife and I purchased a house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Our house was a new construction, we were the first owners, and it was also the last piece of property in the subdivision to be developed. Our right-side neighbors, an elderly couple, had been one of the first residents, moving in back in 1975.
For all the years they had lived there they used our property for extra gardening space, and as a dumping ground for their yard waste. Our one-acre lot was partially wooded, and I found huge piles of branches, leaves, and household trash scattered throughout the woods. Apparent leftovers from these neighbors. No problem, it was pre-existing conditions, so my wife and I just worked to clean up and do our own landscaping.
The problem was, our neighbors didn’t seem to understand they couldn’t use our yard as their private dump anymore. We woke up one morning several months after moving in, and discovered a huge mound of leaves, branches, and other yard waste right in the middle of lawn area in our backyard. Trying to be polite and “get-along,” I talked to the guy and explained they couldn’t use our yard as a dumping ground. he agreed to remove it. His method of “removal” was to just torch the pile and burn it. No fire permit, no warning to us, and he left a big burn scar in the lawn.
We let this go, which turned out to be a big mistake. For the next several years, we would periodically discover piles of yard waste in our yard. The lady next door would simply clean up her yard, and haul everything over into our yard. She would always haul this waste over during the night, or times when my wife and I were both gone. No amount of complaints would change her behavior, and her husband would openly avoid us.
After nearly five years of this, my wife and I had enough. After finding yet another pile of yard waste, I called the police and filed a trespassing complaint against my neighbor. In Mississippi, this was a misdemeanor and so I had to go to night court to testify in support of my charge.
The night of our court hearing, the judge had my wife wait outside the courtroom while I testified first. The night court prosecutor and judge were pretty hostile to me during their questioning. Extremely hostile. They included comments about how “neighbors were supposed to get along,” and other similar crap. I managed to hold my own during their questioning, then they called in my wife.
The judge asked my wife to explain our reasons for the trespassing charges, and she just lit into the judge with “They have been doing this for five years!” How long should we have to put up with this?” The judge looked shocked, looked at me, said “five years?” and I nodded my head in confirmation.
My wife finally ran down, the judge gave some judge-homily crap about neighbors getting along and ruled against us – no trespassing. One week later we found yet another pile of trash in our yard, and I called the police, again. When they showed up, I explained we had already taken the neighbors to court once, the judge decided this wasn’t trespassing, and now our neighbors did it again. I suggested that possibly if their house accidently burned down, this crap would stop.
The police, not happy with the entire situation, and not happy with my comments, finally took action. They issued our neighbors a “no trespass” order and advised them that if they set foot on our property again, it would be in violation of a police order and they would be charged with a misdemeanor.
We finally had peace. Then a year later the husband lost the house due to gambling debts and they moved away.
Scott Ritter: “US Naval SUPERIORITY IS A MYTH! Our Navy has been exposed in the Red Sea as weak!”
1) Document everything. A journal format is best. Date, time, who, where (desk, hallway, restroom), what, and your impressions. I’m a nerd: I use Excel.
2) Once a year, ask HR to let you see your file. You’d be surprised what random people put in it. I once saw a note from a coworker that said “she used the F word.”
An example of how the advice worked to my advantage. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after six months of “what the F is wrong?” A couple days later I mentioned it to my immediate supervisor. I asked about partial disability and should I contact HR? She said no no no do not call HR yet. (I thought that odd).
The next day I heard through gossip that layoffs were coming. So I went and copied my HR file a couple days after. Wow, I found that my boss emailed her boss about my diagnosis. Boss’s boss wrote, “Well, she’ll be one of the first to go” and “I won’t let someone faking a disability continue working here.“ It was in there because it had info about work performance for a review due in 4 months. I have no idea why those sentences weren’t redacted.
One week later, I get called to HR. During the “exit interview” she gave me a big envelope. I asked, no, I told her to increase my compensation package by a factor of ten. She said nothing. I said, “I’m getting laid off because I have Lupus, which as you know, is against the Disabilities Act … { long pause }… and I have proof.“ She mumbled, I’ll get back with you before the end of the day.
Packing up my stuff, HR came and gave me the envelope, asked me to sign an NDA. I noticed the final check was not increased. “My lawyerl will contact HR soon. I’m not signing this NDA. Goodbye.”
End of story. I got a settlement with the compensation multiplied by 10. It took almost two years and if not for my journal and the copy of my HR file, it would have been pointless to sue.
Okay, this is something I legit struggle with. When you’re talented, one of the lovely little gifts that gives you is the ability to see the flaws in the things you create.
Like, I’ll have people gush about one of my books and I cringe inside because when I look at it, all I see are the bits I’d fix if I could rewrite it. I read books from people who are better writers than I am, and then I read something I’ve written and I’m painfully aware it’s not as good.
The same was true when I was really into B&W photography. I was dedicated enough to have a darkroom in my house, but that didn’t give me confidence in my own ability, it gave me an acute and sometimes pointed awareness of the gulf separating me from people who are actually talented.
Like, I look at the best thing I’ve ever done, and compare it to the most mediocre thing Robert Mapplethorpe ever produced, and there’s a gap that’s actually more like a chasm.
I have a lot of writers, artists, photographers, and other creatives in my social circle, and pretty much all of them are plagued by this. The ability to create comes with the ability to evaluate your creations, and when you do that, you realize the gulf that separates you from genuine masters.
Online Dating App Creator Regrets What Online Dating has Become
He was tall (6′2″) and “manly”, yes. But he was never handsome, even as a young man. More than that, he was expected to be a failure.
He dropped out of high school at 16 and lied about his age to join the Marines, but he didn’t care for military life, having an admitted “problem with authority”. At 21, he moved to New York City, where he bounced from job to job; then, in 1956, when he was 26, he decided to pursue an acting career, something he said he’d dreamed of since watching James Cagney films as a kid in Illinois.
As a teenaged Marine:
Hackman moved to California and joined the Pasadena Playhouse, where he befriended another aspiring young actor, Dustin Hoffman. The two were noted outsiders, and their peers didn’t think much of them — jointly voting them “least likely to succeed”. Hackman also got the lowest score in the Playhouse’s history.
But he was determined to prove them all wrong.
He moved back to New York and took a job as a doorman at a Howard Johnson’s to support himself while taking bit parts here and there. Here he ran into one of his former Playhouse instructors, who told him, “see, Hackman? I told you you wouldn’t amount to anything.”
It was in 1967, at age 37, that he had his breakthrough role as Buck Barrow in “Bonnie and Clyde”, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He would be nominated again 3 years later for his against-type performance in “I Never Sang for My Father”, then became a bona fide leading man — and Oscar winner— with his unforgettable turn as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in 1971′s “The French Connection”.
As Popeye Doyle:
He received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in “The Conversation” (1974), another Oscar nomination for “Mississippi Burning” in 1988, and won his 2nd Oscar for his brilliant turn as Little Bill Daggett in “Unforgiven” in 1992, while “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) garnered him the Best Actor Golden Globe.
Two-time Oscar winner:
He retired from acting at age 74 in 2004 to write historical fiction, with 2 Oscars (5 nominations), 4 Golden Globes (8 nominations), and 2 BAFTAs (5 nominations) for his career, in addition to countless other awards.
Not bad for a funny-looking guy whom everyone expected to fail.
Beef Piroshki
Ingredients
1 pound ground round
2 medium onions, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 (7 1/2 ounce) cans buttermilk biscuits
1 egg, well beaten
Instructions
In a large skillet, cook ground round, onions, and garlic over medium-high heat, stirring often to break up lumps of meat, until beef has lost its pink color, about 5 minutes. Drain off excess fat. Off heat, stir in hard-boiled egg, sour cream, dill, salt and pepper; let filling cool completely.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
One can at a time, separate biscuits. On a lightly floured surface roll out each biscuit to a 3 1/2 -inch circle. Place about 1 tablespoon filling in the center of each circle. Fold in half to enclose filling. Press edges with a fork to seal closed. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops with beaten egg.
Bake piroshki for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Keep unbaked piroshki batches covered with clean kitchen towels.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Baked piroshki can be frozen and kept for up to one month. Thaw and bake as instructed.
The most badass thing I ever did in grade school was during a Dodgeball game. I was in the 5th grade, 10 years old. Being the competitive little fuck I was, this game made me ever more hyped up than a monkey at a banana buffet.
The teacher chose who went on which side. I ended up going against the class bully and a couple of my friends. The class bully’s name will be Derek. Derek was a mean motherfucker who was fatter than a whale.
But you couldn’t tell it to his face or he’ll make sure to break yours. Derek never really picked on me that much since I usually kept to myself and away from him and his friends. But he did pick on my friend; Mike.
Mike was a full-on geek. Me and him both liked comics and Star Wars, but I kept that geeky side of myself hidden while Mike foolishly waved it around. He was also a very easy target.
I was really fit and tall compared to everyone else in my grade so not many people would try to physically start a fight with me. Simple insults were as far as they’d dare to go.
Mike, however, was really short and frail. You could kick him like a soccer ball if you had the lack of heart to go for it. He was also a super nice kid, so it really hit me in the feels when I saw him getting picked on.
In this Dodgeball game, Mike was on Derek’s side of the field and 2 of Derek’s friends were on mine. The balls we had for that game weren’t your typical soft and airy ones. No, they were all green and red plastic ones.
The plastic shells for these balls were hard and lordbabycheezit’s only knows why they allowed it for a game where the sole purpose of winning was to throw them at other people. Ironically, these were the same balls we used when playing bowling at the school fair.
During the first round, my side won. We also were about to win the second round when Derek burst in anger and started yelling at Mike.
The teacher didn’t do shit, he was busy having his lunch in the gym office. Some people told Derek to keep it down and take a chill pill but that only even made the asshole angrier.
Like it was just Mike’s fault his team was losing. I was surprised that no one had even hit Derek yet seeing that he was so huge, missing him would’ve been an even harder than not.
I guess everyone was afraid of hurting him and getting him angry. Having enough of his shit, I called out his name. He turned his head to face me, looking as if I’d just finished cussing the life out of his mom, “What?”
“Leave Mike alone.”
“Or what?”
I didn’t respond cause my mental response was a nice long essay’s worth of insults and death threats. Yeah that wouldn’t go too well seeing that Derek was also notorious for snitching even more than he was for bitching.
He took the ball that was in his hand and threw it right at me, full force and all. I was about 6 feet away from him and shouldn’t’ve been hard to hit. But just as the ball came this close to hitting me in the face, I tipped my head over to the side so that it’d miss.
My gawd people, it was so close that the air from that thing was brushing against my skin. I’m still impressed with what I did to this very day. Then, while I was getting Oo’s and Ah’s from everyone around me, I turned around and grabbed the ball from the floor.
Derek stood there, dumbstruck. Which makes sense, I was still freaking out then. Not giving him time to recollect and snap out of it, I took the same ball and football-chucked it right in his big ugly face.
Y’all know what came after that cat-in-a-blender scream when it hit him? That’s right; blood. And a whole lot of it. His nose was bleeding so much that his entire shirt was almost completely covered in it.
And he kept crying until the teacher came, furious as to what he saw. “What happened?”
“Leonardo hit me in the face mister! He tried to kill me!”
Ugh, could this soft ass bitch be any more of a drama queen?
“Is that true Leonardo?”
“No sir, if I was trying to kill him then he’d be long gone by now.”
And that was the last time anyone heard of the great DiCrapio. Any questions?
Just kidding. He sent me to the office straight after that, not bothering to listen to my side of the story. Which to be fair, wasn’t a very justifiable side to hear from. I was suspended for a good week and had another week of recess detention after that.
Needless to say, they never picked on Mike again after that. So worth it.
Just fyi, I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this at home cause even though they did leave Mike alone after that, I became enemy number one for Derek. That wasn’t the most fun title to hold.
Oh and he broke my thumb during recess the next month. Yeah, definitely don’t do this. Fuck you Derek, I hope your thumb gets crushed by a million plastic Dodgeballs one day.
I was in the military for two years, just long enough to get the GI Bill. Just a one-striper, nothing much. As luck would have it, I scored very highly on an aptitude test I was given, and I was selected to work in a nuclear facility, as a computer operator. It took nine months (of a two year gig) for me to get a very high security clearance, necessary to handle nuclear weapon related material.
I was involved only at the lowest levels of this, my job included janitorial work, for example, gathering and bringing trash from officers to the furnace (to be burned; all paper and packing trash was burned, none left the building).
Anyway, one day I am filling in, in the computer room, for the tape librarian who is on leave. All data was stored on reel-to-reel magnetic tapes, and the tape librarian, directed by the console operator, brought the tapes in from the “library” (many racks of stored tapes) to mount them on the tape drives. And of course to take down tapes, label them and store them in the library. It’s a fairly continuous process walking back and forth, but not very strenuous for fit soldiers.
On this particular day, the general in charge of our operation had retired, and his two-star replacement was taking a tour of the facilities. He knew absolutely nothing about computers. He was guided by a full bird colonel, that knew a little bit about computers, but was not a very technical type.
When they got to the tape drives, the Colonel tried to explain to the General how they worked, like a voice recorder. The General thought this could be a security risk, because somebody could stand next to a tape drive, and listen in on the data being played, and be privy to nuclear secrets they should not be listening to. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.
Everybody in the computer room had all the clearances necessary to do anything or see anything going on in the computer room. You not only cannot hear the binary data, you couldn’t possibly make sense of it if you did, it goes by far too fast and sounds like static if you feed it into a speaker.
The Colonel assured him it was impossible to eavesdrop on the data.
Nevertheless, the following day we had an armed MP guarding the tape drives, and we had to show an ID in order to mount tapes, or take down tapes. Which slowed down operations. And a week later, the MP was gone, and things went back to normal.
Human rights and struggling economy is a narratives. Set to demonised China. It don’t work except for Brian dead westerners. That is some 1% of the entire world!
Four out of every five stuff made on the world U.S. made in China! 175 out of the world’s 195 nation on earth has China as their biggest trading partner! And 171 nation support and participated in BRI
Sure racist like this person who ask this question like to ignore facts and listen to narratives like these but even in the west there are very few of them! Do you know, in spite of Donald Trump’s trade war, the U.S. trade 3 times more in 2022 than in 2017 when the trade war began?
So it must make your anger and hate boils but heck some people choose not to think!
Lowe’s. Went to the store and ordered a GE gas wall kitchen oven with 5 year extended warranty. Not in stock, they had to order it and I had to wait. Because of a unique kitchen cut out and old house, I had few options. I call the store a few times over several weeks to try to get a status update. “Should be coming in soon”. Three months later they call to say GE no longer makes the model. Come in and pick another or get a refund.
I go in, get my refund and decide to do some more research. A few days later I go back to Lowe’s and order a Frigidaire gas wall oven and 5 year warranty. Not in stock, have to pay and wait for it to come in. I do so. About three months later they call to say that model is no longer made. Come in and pick another or come and get a refund.
I go in to get the refund. When they refund me, I notice I did not get refunded the $300 for the 5 year extended warranty. The cashier tells me they don’t give refunds on the warranties in the store. I have to call a special Lowe’s Telephone number to get that refunded separately.
I go home and then spent the next two weeks in automated telephone carousels trying to get to somebody who can orchestrate the refund. Probably spent 40 hours in total on the phone at different times before finally getting somebody. They had no record of the sale so I have to email them all my purchase and refund receipts. I do so. More run around. After a few weeks I get a check in the mail for the refund.
It then occurs to me…did I get a refund on the GE oven extended warranty I ordered first? I go back and look at the receipts and see they did not give me the $300 warranty refund on that one, and I didn’t notice.
Back to the store who tells me I must call the telephone number. Back on the phone trying to get to the right person. Did I mention this telephone number they have me calling has no weekend hours and limited weekday hours? When I do reach someone they have no record of the sale or return so I need to send them all copies of my receipts, which I do. Weeks later, no word. And no response from more hours on the phone. Mostly on hold.
I write a letter and send it through the mail to Lowe’s corporate office. I gave them documentation and photocopies of every single receipt and my timeline of purchases, calls, emails…every interaction, everything. I explain what’s been happening.
A few days later I get a letter from them saying they’d be happy to assist. All I have to do is call this telephone number (the one I’d been calling).
At that point my stomach could no longer bear it and I had to decide if $300 was worth the stress and time. I let it go.
I wouldn’t purchase a nail from Lowe’s ever again.
At that point I searched the internet and found the first GE oven I wanted at Plessers Appliances. I call them. They had five in stock. So the model wasn’t discontinued. I ordered it from a salesperson on the same call on which I confirmed it was in stock. I paid by debit card and it was installed 3 days later.
A true story. No embellishments.
Why didn’t I just go to Plessers to begin with? I didn’t know they existed. Their closest store to me was about 50 miles away in a town I never visit. But more importantly, initially I had no reason to doubt the information Lowe’s gave me about both models being discontinued. I know wall gas ovens are becoming more and more rare, so it seemed possible. And I didn’t want to deal with a gas to electric oven conversion, but that probably would have been the next step. But not with Lowes.
Learned this through shard contacts. When we rented a house a few years back, the landlord was engaged to a very wealthy ex-Pharma sales executive. Roughly 15 or so years ago, this person was working for a major Pharma company selling its patented drugs to doctors. He was making a lot of money. Until one day he stumbled upon evidence that the company was covering up the massive toll of side effects of its drugs. After repeatedly attempting to correct the situation, he was stonewalled. In a good conscience, he couldn’t remain silent as the drugs were affecting people in terrible ways.
Under the Whistleblower Act, he provided the details to Federal agencies, who immediately launched an investigation. His identity was not protected as part of this process, and he very quickly was fired from his high paying job. Worse, he was blackballed across the entire industry. No one would talk to him. No companies would ever hire him. His Pharma, Medical and Sales careers were over. No one would hire him – not for anything. If I recall he was in his mid 30’s. He ended up bankrupt, divorced, lost his home, lost his family. He was utterly destroyed.
After many years of litigation at the highest levels, the company was found liable across a number of areas. The fines imposed on the company were MASSIVE – hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a whistleblower, he was entitled to, and paid a percentage of the fines imposed. I forget the exact number, but he made something like $100 million dollars as a result of ratting on the company’s deadly products. But the cost was….EVERYTHING.
When I learned of this story, the man was in living in the same town/city that we were in, and had a beautiful multi-million dollar waterfront home.
I always wondered if he felt like he would do the same thing again if he knew how things worked out. His life was ruined, literally ruined.
The company, of course, is still in business today. But a fine approaching the better part of a billion dollars has to hurt. A Lot.
China’s LATEST Stealth Aircraft Can Kill US B-21 ‘Raider’ in 1 Second
We had the neighbor from hell. The first day they moved in, he parked his Uhaul on our front yard yo unload. This was a hundred year old house with ceramic water lines. My husband explained that he had to move the truck, and he did.
Then, we had a tree cut down in our fenced back yard. The wood was cut into lengths to burn in a fireplace. I worked that day, and when I came home that night, over half the wood was gone. Every night for months they burned their fire pit. I know he took it.
Next, ghe to,d me he was putting up a privacy fence. As I said, we had a chain link fence already. I explained to him that he needed to put it as close to our fence as possible. The weeds between the fences on our side would be every difficult to remove. Again, I came home from work, and he had put up the fence inside out with the support beams on our side. This left a 8” gap between the fences. Weeds were horribly difficult to reach.
We had a two car parking spot in the back of our houses. No lie, he had a motorcycle trailer, two cars and a trailer parked there. Of course he spilled over his lot. Every time they took the trailer out they moved my garbage can. They never put it back where it belonged. One night I was having a few beers when I heard him come home with the trailer. I grabbed the trash can and held it. He wasn’t going to move it that night. My drinking got the better of me and I went off on how they thought our yard was his to use, and how all the neighbors had had enough of them.
They put their house up for sale that week. Good riddance.
I can’t think of one person who runs and doesn’t have their shit together.
I think it’s because running teaches you how to persist. The entire act of running is to not listen to your body’s urges to stop and to persist instead.
You will also learn how to focus on a singular goal, to keep your legs moving until you reach your destination. The skill of focus is one of the most underrated and misunderstood. Many people think your ability to focus is inborn, but I know from personal experience it’s a skill that we train through out the day.
Running will also make you have more stamina in bed which could lead to you landing the wife or husband you want.
Running also tends to weed out bad habits like smoking because it’s so difficult to run and to keep smoking.
Also when you travel, you will get a intimate view of the city because you will know what it’s like to see the city on foot.
You will also be able to learn things because podcasts and books are some of the best things to listen to while you are on a long run.
Also runners tend to eat healthier which helps them lose weight and have good skin. I know I don’t like eating fried food if I’m going to be running later because I will feel sluggish.
When you run you also feel very confident because you will feel like you are becoming a stronger person.
Finally, you should run, because one day, you won’t be able to.
Yes after buying new property in a rural area. The neighbor behind us kept letting the family ride off road four-wheelers on our property as we did not have a fence between us and we did not live there yet. As I was building our new house and shop we saw the kids riding across our property again, I drove to top of hill where they were and asked them not to keep coming across the property line that was surveyed and marked. They apologized and said they thought it was their grandparents property. I thanked them and told them my insurance would not allow other people to drive on my property, if they got hurt I could get sued.
No problem I thought all was well. I keep getting other neighbors calling and saying people are still driving all over our property when we aren’t there. So the next week we see an adult with a small child again riding on our property. Again I drive up the hill and park in the middle of the trail so when he comes back he has to stop. When he does, I again ask to stop trespassing as I have also told his kids before. He said they are just puttering along slow and not hurting anything. And he drives off. Now I’m mad. So my employees start a new (nice) fence the next day. A week later all employees are working on new house (I’m in construction) and one employee says “hey there’s that rude guy on the four-wheeler at the top on the hill”. We all stopped working and run over to look, he is stopped (standing on top of his seat) on the trail by a large barbedwire fence looking all the way down both sides on the mountain at a new long fence. We laughed for about 10 minutes. He had that look like how did this get here. Sad thing is we would have let the kids ride on our property if they had just asked nice. But we didn’t even know their names. We had miles of trails all over the place.
In the 1980s, I had a co-worker who presented my craft work as her own. At that point, I just sat back and watched, I knew things were going to be entertaining.
My manager was so very pleased with the job my co-worker claimed as her own. When my manager asked my co-worker to show her how she had done the job; my co-worker was at a complete loss on what to do. My manager tried to assist my co-worker by asking “how did you start, what was your first idea?”
My co-worker had no idea about how I had created the project as I had completed it at home. After about an hour of trying to figure out how to dismantle my work; my co-worker had to admit that she hadn’t created the project at all. She also admitted that she had taken it from off my desk.
My manager was not amused by my co-worker. When she came to my desk; I was just smiling a little smile. My manager asked me why I hadn’t defended my project and claimed my work. Then she answered her own question; that my work spoke for itself.
When my brother was ready to buy a home, he instead went the custom-built route: our parents divided their five-acre lot so he could build next door.
Both homes were perched on top of an almost-mountain hill, looking over the valley. Pretty amazing view.
For whatever reason I’m unaware of, my brother ended up with a two-acre L-shaped lot; basically, he ended up with his front and back yards and a narrow strip at the rear of our parents’ backyard next door. I think it may have been so my brother could own and maintain the wire suicide fence that prevented any accidental tumbling into the valley below, so our parents wouldn’t have to. Yeah, the hill slope was that steep; it was basically a grassy cliff.
Then my mother’s husband passed away, leaving her to rattle around her huge home by herself. Empty nesting, the property became too much for her to care for and she put it on the market.
My brother, having foreseen this, had included a mother’s suite when he built his home. Practically an independent apartment on the first floor next to the garage, with its own kitchen and bath and a private entrance and my brother’s living space on the second floor upstairs. Absolutely no issues with Mom moving in next door to live with my brother while she was trying to sell.
The people she eventually agreed to sell to were not fun even during the real estate transaction process. They moaned and whined and nickel and dimed but they got her house and moved in. Long story short, this couple proved to be assholes before they even signed the contract, and that certainly didn’t change when the house was theirs. They promptly began tearing out everything to renovate.
Including the yard. Twenty years’ worth of plantings; Mom’s beloved gardens and flower beds, shrubs and fruit trees, ruthlessly removed to accommodate an unending sea of grass. Mom said nothing of course but she was sick.
My brother suggested that she replant a new garden. Together, they spent the time and money to plant roses and fruit trees along the suicide fence on that strip of land that was too narrow to accommodate anything else.
My brother returned from work one afternoon to discover that the new neighbors had crossed the property line to dig up and chainsaw everything my brother and my mother had planted. When questioned, the neighbor explained he wanted nothing but grass in the backyard. He wanted an unobstructed view of the valley below.
Furious, my brother explained that that strip of land was not part of the neighbor’s backyard and that he didn’t consider two dwarf fruit trees to be obscuring the view, but even if they did, the neighbor did not have the right to trespass or to tear them out of property he didn’t own. The plants had cost in both time and money. Neighbor refused to pay for the damages.
It was not worth it to bother with the time and expense of small claims court. But Mom had already been complaining that every time she stepped into the yard or the driveway, the nosy neighbors were watching her, and that they were able to view the interior of my brother’s home through windows visible from their side of the property line. Mom was feeling paranoid and upset.
My brother erected an 8-foot-high wooden fence that completely surrounded his L-shaped lot and its driveway. Including both along the suicide fence at the rear of the property and the property line that separated that narrow strip from the neighbor’s backyard. When the driveway gate is closed, the only thing visible from outside the fence is the roof of the house and a couple of treetops.
My brother further installed a length of decorative metal fence with a fairy gate to separate that narrow strip from his own backyard. Mom ended up with a “hidden” garden that over the years was equipped with concrete benches, bird houses and a bath, a fountain, lawn toys. They planted fruit trees, grapes, roses, flowers, a vegetable patch, butterfly bushes. You couldn’t see the valley from Mom’s fairy garden for the wooden fence, but no nosy destructive neighbors could see her, either. She puttered away hours in there; she loved it.
Instead of two fruit trees and some rose bushes, now the new neighbors had not one but two runs of eight-foot-high wooden fence between their house and the view. The view from their property is completely gone. Short of climbing a ladder to sit on the roof, there is nothing they can do about it.
And whenever my mom wants, the valley and their neighbors’ yard are visible from my brother’s living room and back deck, upstairs from her mother’s suite. Sometimes they barbecue up there.
Oh, and they got a half-dozen egg-laying pet chickens. The rooster is pretty loud at 5am. That’s how my brother knows it’s time to get up and get ready for work.
We don’t know what the rooster wakes the nosy neighbors up for.
The fantasy of the Philippines has been completely shattered, the situation in the South China Sea has been clarified, and the mysterious “sonic weapon” has appeared!
Just this morning, I woke up and saw the news. After the Philippines illegally invaded my country’s Scarborough Shoal. Philippine control began to “collapse” with my country’s law enforcement ships on Ren’ai Reef, which was met with professional restraint by my country.
First of all, as for the recent provocations by the Philippines, it is obvious that the United States is behind it. Without the support of the United States, the Philippines would not dare to come and make noise. China is dismantling the “island chains” deployed by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region one by one, and breaking through the “containment” of the United States at a rapid speed.
That article was a paper written by an expert from the University of Defense Technology, which roughly revealed that our country has accelerated its development in close-air combat in recent years, and has also established a near-air command equipped with a variety of hypersonic weapons units.
Everyone knows that our country is ahead of the United States in the research and development of hypersonic missiles. We not only have a mature and complete offensive weapon system, but also a strong and powerful defense system.
The emergence of the Near Air Command today obviously tells the United States that it is no longer possible for the United States to “cover the sky with one hand” in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, he also warned the United States not to have any illusions on the Taiwan issue or the situation in the South China Sea.
Looking back, the United States naturally does not want us to develop more and more stable long-range missiles and hypersonic missiles, so it will let the Philippines come over from time to time to stir up trouble.
After all, what the United States wants is to involve us in the war, then contain our development, and turn the South China Sea into the next “Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.” But what makes the United States even more unexpected today is that we will not dispatch hypersonic missiles to deal with the tiny Philippines.
Instead, a brand new “attack weapon” was released, which was the mysterious sonic weapon!
Since the Philippines continues to invade our country’s islands and reefs and frequently come to cause trouble, our country’s new coast guard ships are equipped with a series of self-defense weapons to strengthen the defense capabilities of maritime law enforcement.
Of course, in the face of repeated troubles from the Philippines, we still maintain the rationality we should have to avoid falling into the trap of the United States, so we usually use some high-pressure water cannons to achieve the effect of driving away the Philippines.
But this time, in the face of the collision with the Philippines, our country has released a brand-new weapon, which is the long-range directional acoustic wave repellent device. This “acoustic weapon” can be said to be specially designed to deal with the Philippines!
Because this remote directional sound wave driving device can release a sound of 160 decibels, which is 60 higher than the human body’s tolerance range (100 decibels).
This weapon can be used for “sonic bombing” from a distance of 3 kilometers.
You know, this time the Philippines dispatched 40 small fishing boats, multiple coast guard ships, and official ships to form the so-called “Christmas Fleet” in an attempt to invade my country’s islands and reefs in an attempt to create large-scale chaos.
In that case, we will directly release the “sonic weapons” to give them a “Christmas atmosphere boost”!
Maybe many people don’t have much idea about this 60 decibels.
The human body is originally very sensitive to external sounds. The sound of two people communicating normally is about 20 decibels. But if a large car passes by and honks its horn, the decibels will reach 50, and the ears will instantly “buzz”. Once it exceeds 100 decibels, it will cause great damage to the ears, and may even lead to temporary “deafness”.
Moreover, this kind of directional sound wave repellent weapon can focus 150 decibels of noise, and then adjust the angle to directionally project it onto the enemy’s ship. As a result, all the Philippine ships can do is to leave quickly with their tail between their legs…
In fact, the Philippines still does not understand the situation in the South China Sea today. We have already firmly grasped the overall situation.
If nothing else, in the past two years, our navy has laid a “drag net” on Mischief Reef, Ren’ai Reef and other islands and reefs, and assembled the largest naval formation in recent years.
There are 052D guided missile destroyer, 052C guided missile destroyer, 053HC guided missile frigate, 056A guided missile frigate, 072 tank landing ship, 022 high-speed missile boat…
All in all, the current situation in the South China Sea is very clear: ASEAN countries have clearly seen the true face of the United States and know that the Philippines is a pawn of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
Author note : China is a country when you do something anti China you will lose the disputed territory to China, it happened to India, it happened to Japan now the Diao Yu Island is in China control. A lot of countries has demarcated border with China Russia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Kazakhstan.
Yes. Leanne. A rather entitled millennial who thought the sun shone from somewhere it didn’t. She told her manager to F-off.
She was put into a tech assistant role, supporting George, a category manager who had been working for the company close to 50 years. He actually retired when he hit 50 years service – he was 72 at the time. After retirement, he stuck around part time for a few years as a consultant too – he was that knowledgeable, and important to the business.
Anyway, what George didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. He could tell you the names of staff going back to the early 70s. He could also tell you when something was made obsolete, and what replaced it. He was a walking archive of catalogue information going back to before I was born. If you couldn’t find an answer, George was the one who would know it. He was extremely well respected. He had 2 assistants working under him, doing daily tasks like tenders and quotes, warranty checks, stock orders, and general technical assistance for distributors and customers.
Jovic was a fellow in his mid 30s when I met him. He was George’s protégé, and he had already learnt a lot from George – having worked under him for nearly a decade. His only career plan was to step into George’s role when he retired. He did (and still does) a cracking job.
Leanne was employed a year or so before I came along. She was lazy, and slow to reply to requests for help. Customers complained to both Jovic and George about her. Jovic was growing tired of having to carry Leanne’s shortcomings, and begged George to do something.
George worked out she would be better doing analytic tasks like price increases, manufacturing updates, large pricing tenders, and stock monitoring – so she wouldn’t have to talk to customers anywhere near as much. She was taking a week to do a tender than George could do in a few hours. Admittedly, George could look at a partial part number, or a description, and instantly know the correct number. This took Leanne a lot of time to search. But she was also partial to online shopping, and would spend hours browsing fashion sites. She would also call her friends and spend hours going through fashion websites, deciding what to buy. This was the main reason she was so slack.
George had gone to HR several times about her lack of competence in the role, her time wasting, excessive personal calls etc etc. She was given numerous verbal warnings, and a couple of written ones. She was on thin ice. One afternoon George was frustrated that a deadline was coming up, and she hadn’t started a tender that she’d had for over 2 weeks. He walked up behind her desk to see she was browsing a fashion site, and yapping away on a personal call. He interrupted her and asked her to focus on the tender. Her response “fxxx off George.”
George had never been short with anyone before. So his next outburst was a huge shock to us all. He bellowed (loud enough for whoever was on the other end of her phone to clearly hear it) “That’s it, we’re going up to HR right now. You had your last chance, and you blew it.”
Her response, which was heard right across 60+ people in an open plan office – people who had suddenly become silent after hearing George’s ouburst, was “you can’t sack me you crusty old cxxx. I quit first.”
Because of that retaliation, and the language used, HR refused to give her a reference as she was marched from the building.
George was the most patient guy, but Leanne pushed him way too far. We were all glad to see the back of her.
Jovic has since become “George 2.0” – although his knowledge isn’t as impressive as George, he still has some 25 years to get there.
Chicken with Dill Sauce (Kurczeta z Sosem Koperkowyn — Poland)
Ingredients
1 (3 to 3 1/2 pound) broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup Half-and-Half
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon minced dill weed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
Heat chicken, water, salt and white pepper to boiling in skillet; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until thickest pieces of chicken are done, 45 to 50 minutes.
Remove chicken; keep warm.
Shake Half-and-Half and flour in tightly covered jar. Stir Half-and-Half mixture, dill weed and lemon juice into pan juices. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; boil and stir 1 minute.
Pour some of the sauce over chicken; serve with remaining sauce and with spaetzle or cooked cauliflower, if desired.
My partner interviewed for her dream job as a tenured professor at an elite university. It offered generous compensation, and the opportunity to expand her research and educate students on niche subjects she is passionate about. She prepared for a week, doing mock interviews and research. When the day came, she called me after and exclaimed “It went great! I’m sure I will get a follow up interview. I haven’t felt this good about an interview in so long.”
The next day, I was walking downstairs at our home and saw her sitting at the dining room table. She looked glum, so I asked, “How’s it going?”
Without looking up, she said, “I’ve been better. I just got a rejection email for that job.” She was completely devastated. For years, she’d been so successful in getting every job she applied for, saying that, “Interviews are my super power.” Consequently, she was being quite hard on herself.
I reminded her that this job process wasn’t like finding jobs in high school and college. She was competing with other academics: highly intelligent, motivated, organized professionals with so much to offer — just like her. But it still stung because she’d put so much of herself into this process.
I related so strongly to her feelings. Coming from corporate, I’ve done around 100 interviews. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a hiring manager say, “You are such a great match for this role!” Or something equitably enthusiastic, with me leaving their office skipping like a kid out of a candy shop — only to get a rejection, followed by waves of frustration.
While I’ve found that rejection does get easier with repetition, it never becomes a pleasant, or even neutral experience. Be it writing, dating, or jobs, there’s always a burn.
Dr. Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, found that even the most sophisticated among us are often distinctly sensitive to failure. His study found the part of the brain activated during rejection is also associated with physical pain. When someone says “it hurts” after a rejection, they aren’t far from the truth.
Rejection is different from failure in that there’s often an interpersonal dynamic to it — which makes it particularly unpleasant and personal.
I have long battled my harsh inner critic, which is quite common, especially with people who had a strict childhood or where they felt they weren’t good enough (the prior certainly describes me). Replaying these rejections comes naturally and with ease. Which is why I’ve invested in help from a therapist. He gave me a great and counterintuitive exercise, called the “rejection collection”. It helps destigmatize that rejection and promotes empathy — and friendships.
How the rejection collection works
Rejection often has a secretive nature, where we hide these shortcomings from others to insulate our ego and feelings of acceptance. Ideally, per the American Psychological Association, we should do the exact opposite and seek more meaningful connections with people in the aftermath of rejection, which is what this exercise does.
You create a simple spreadsheet using excel, google docs, anything. Create it with at least one other person and list out notable rejections from your life. I’ll throw myself into the fire right now:
I was rejected from my dream publisher, Penguin Random House, after going through several rounds of feedback with a senior editor. I was close to signing a contract, only for them to reject me in the 11th hour, saying my book idea, “Is not strong or unique enough.”
I was given a reference to interview at my dad’s company, SAP, and flew to Philadelphia for an interview, only to be rejected. I applied for a second position, and flew to Philadelphia again, only to be rejected a second time. I felt like a complete failure and an embarrassment to my dad.
In 8th grade, 23 people tried out for the JV soccer team at a school where soccer was everything. Only me and one other person got cut from the team. I felt like the least athletic, least cool guy in the world.
I was once having a great and long conversation with a beautiful Jamaican woman. We were hitting it off. On a whim, and before I could talk myself out of it, I said, “We should grab dinner sometime.” Her smile immediately vanished, as if she’d just seen a ghost. Then, she said, “Sorry, I don’t date white men.” Which is fine. She’s entitled to her preferences. I cringed more thinking about how I misread her energy.
There was a personality test for our finance department at my last corporate job. During HR’s presentation, each of us were represented as a dot on a giant graph, with our initials by the dot. I didn’t see my name. At the end, I raised my and asked the researcher, “I noticed my name isn’t listed?” She said, “Yeah, we couldn’t properly score your personality. It was too far outside our bounds.” The room erupted in laughter.
When you create your list, adding context and the story helps humanize the experience for the other people on the list. The other option is to have a zoom call where each person reads through their rejections and shares those stories.
It’s OK if they feel entirely random and with different contexts. It’s also completely advisable to find ways to laugh and have fun with it. Self-deprecation can remove the heaviness from the experience, and pivot the tone of your inner monologue to be more accepting.
Per psychology professor, Dr. Mark Leary, the communal component of a rejection collection is the key component to remember. Rejection tends to threaten your sense of belonging to the group, but by celebrating and putting those rejections boldly forward in a group setting — it promotes that sense of belonging and understanding between people.
When I went through this list with two friends, I marveled at some of the stories I heard and we laughed together, thinking through and discussing the events, often debunking people’s insecurities. I felt a sense of togetherness, and enhanced friendship with my buddies afterwards. I was glad they shared these moments of supreme rejection that they’d hidden from me for decades. I didn’t feel alone.
Each of us exists on a spectrum of rejection sensitivity, with some people having very harsh and self-immolating interpretations of these events. But this rejection can cause you to seek out friends and build your connection to them as a compensatory response. This isn’t to say one should get chewed up by rejections intentionally to make friends. But more to remind you of how universal this experience is. A rejection collection helps you purge these harsh narratives and reframe them into something kinder.
When I was an early teenage boy, I had a long-standing crush on another girl who was signaling pretty clearly that she liked me too. I was talking to my friend Brian, saying, “I want to ask her out but I’m so afraid.”
He shrugged and said, “What’s the worst thing she can do, say no?” It was such a healthy extrapolation to rethinking these rejections. Sometimes, we need to lighten the load we place on these outcomes.
I remind myself that rejection stems from something proactive: you taking the initiative to pursue things you want in life. It takes courage to try, to put yourself in the line of judgement. So pat yourself on the back for that, regardless of the outcome.
And if you get rejected, consider sharing it with a someone, or scheduling a call with friends, and list them out in all their glory. You’ll all be better off for it. Remember to stay kind — to others, and yourself.
When I was with the DoC, we had a shipping container in our parking lot to store outdated, or damaged, computer equipment. Once the container was full, bids would be placed on it and the winning bidder would come out and carry the equipment off.
The container was 8 feet by 40 feet so unloading the equipment from it could take some time, and because security balked at having to stand around while the equipment was removed, someone from IT would have to babysit the people hauling the equipment off. This job fell to the person in the office with the least seniority.
It just so happened that we had a newbie start the day equipment was being picked up so the team leader took him outside, handed him the clipboard of inventory being picked up and forms the buyer had to sign, and told him to stay out there until the container was empty. He was told to lock the container up and come back inside once it was done.
It usually took about an hour to empty a container and the newbie was sent outside around 9 AM, so when the team lead began asking us if we’d seen the new guy around 11:30, we knew something was wrong. The team leader went outside and found the trailer wide open, and empty, so he locked it. There was no sign of the newbie. About that time one of the techs saw him strolling across the parking lot, from the direction of a fast food joint nextdoor. When he entered the office the team lead asked him where he’d been and he said it was hot outside (it was summer) and watching the people empty the trailer was boring so he’d decided to sit in the fast food place and watch them from there. He was asked when the people had left and he said they drove off around 10:20. The team lead asked if the buyer had signed the equipment transfer forms and the newbie stated he’d “forgotten” to have them sign (and it’s kind of hard to have someone sign a form when you’re 150 feet away, sitting in a restaurant).
The team lead told our boss what had happened immediately and the new employee became a former employee after only 3½ hours on the job. He didn’t even make it to lunch time — the official lunch time, that is.
Although Australia is considered your “typical white country” by many, we still have quirks that make the whole world tilt their head and think “What the F*ck?” For example:
We have a tradition called a “shoey”– which is were you drink beer out of a dirty shoe.
Bars are required to have stables, water and food for horses.
We call friends “cunts” and people we dislike “mates”.
Life sentences cannot be over 25 years.
Repairing a fence because a kangaroo tried jumping over it and failed.
School is from February to December, so we have Christmas and New Year’s eve during our annual break.
Petting zoos having kangaroos, wallabies and emus which you can feed and play with for something like 5 bucks an hour.
Deadly spiders everywhere. The week before writing this answer, I actually removed a huntsman from my backyard so my dog couldn’t eat it. I ended up throwing the fucker over the fence and into my neighbors house (by accident of course).
Having Christmas at the beach. Since Australian summer is during December- people go to the beaches in swarms on Christmas Day to open presents and have barbecues.
Every Australian town has a pub with at least one, massive foster beer ad stuck on the rood (even though no one drinks foster any more).
Almost everyone is outdoors. Hiking, walking, fishing, sailing, boating, surfing, swimming and a hell of a lot more. Everyone is into some kind of sport or activity. The natural resources like beaches and suburbs are used wisely and not just wasted.
Swearing when complimenting something. In Australia, when someone says “Sick cunt”, it means “you did good.”
Calling rain boots/wellies “Gum boots”.
Smelling smoke from a far way bushfire when going outside.
Having no idea what “political correctness is” and saying anything on our minds.
We say ‘Yeah, nah’ instead of No, and ‘Nah, yeah’ instead of “Yes”.
Children aren’t allowed to purchase cigarettes, but there is no law specifically stating that they cannot smoke them.
Not being able to go outside during lunch break at school because you forgot your hat.
Having extremely wide roads and pavements, even in the city and suburbs.
Making fun of anything regardless if its offensive or not.
It is illegal to dress up as Robin and Batman.
Selling $2 hot dogs when everyone is voting for the new prime minster in the elections.
Getting fined if you don’t vote in the elections.
Putting butter and sprinkles on bread to create fairy bread– our traditional dish.
Putting butter and Vegemite (a thick black Australian sauce) on bread to create another traditional dish: Vegemite and toast.
Eating a lot of fresh fish and ripe avocados. Avocado milkshakes are really common in Australia, and so is really good sushi.
Every pub has 2–4 Poker Machines minimum.
Eating burgers that have beetroot.
Getting attacked by magpies (a Australian bird), because you walked into their territory by accident.
Atlantis, Thoth, the Emerald Tablet & the Secret to Immortality
When I was in my “living in the van” stage of life… also known as the “lost in the wilderness” period, we encountered quite an array of interesting and curious people. Ah. The world is populated with them. But most people never encounter them as they lie on the outer fringes of society.
Typically, my wife (at that time) and myself would land in a city and find ourselves trying to obtain some bearings on our life. This would typically be in a large parking lot associated with a strip mall. These strip malls are ugly affairs. Just brick establishments and a big parking lot. And we would make the best of it, by using that as our “base camp” and then walking about to get our bearings.
One day, doing this, we noticed that we were being followed. An older man. Maybe in his 50’s or so. He would be following us. If we went down a street, he would follow us. If we went into a store, there he was, peering at us. If we went into a restaurant, he would be there in a corner table. And it was really creepy.
We tried to “shake him off”. But he was on us like a “horse fly” on a deer butt. We just couldn’t get rid of him.
We went up town… he followed us.
We went down town… he followed us.
Finally, after about three hours (!) of this, we saw a laundry-mat. We went inside and then ran out the back and locked the door behind us. There, in the ally, we peered into the empty laundry-mat (through a small square window), and there we was alone, and pretending to looking around. We guessed he realized that “we knew”.
Sheech!
Some people appear to be harmless, but they have severe and potentially dangerous mental and behavioral illnesses. Get away from them. For the love of God.
Two stories, one belongs to my parents and the other one is mine.
My parents left the church we attended in what is now called South Central L.A. after the minister said, from the pulpit, that while the black babies were welcome to come to Sunday school, their parents would not be invited to join the church. This was in the early 1960’s, the neighborhood was ´changing ´ (and eventually became the scene of the flashpoint for the 1992 Rodney King riot/rebellion, which took place a block away from that church).
To my parents’ credit, even though my mom had grown up in that church and they had strong social ties there, we started visiting other churches the next month. They settled on a church in a different Protestant denomination because it had a robust youth group. While the pastor was white and the congregation was mainly white, they were actively reaching out to the neighborhood (which was primarily black), including several weekly ‘gym nights’ for neighborhood youth. My parents felt this was a good fit for us.
I remember a few odd things… a sermon that called out Ronald Reagan as the Antichrist because his first, middle and last names all had 6 letters (666, the mark of the beast). The pastor’s wife didn’t come to church every Sunday and when she did, she wore dark glasses and kept to herself.
But for me the final straw came when the high school youth group had a special invite to the pastor’s home. We sat around in his living room, where he had a fire burning in the fireplace. He chatted with us a bit, and then brought in a tape player and without any introduction, began playing a tape for us. Within a few minutes it became clear that it was a tape of a session where he was counseling a church member. As it proceeded, he started calling on demons (who had funny squeaky voices on the tape) and casting them into the pits of hell.
Exorcism was not something that had ever been mentioned before. There was no context for this at all for those of us listening. We were all just frozen in shock.
When that tape finished, he threw it into the fire and loaded up another. It only got worse. One of several exorcism tapes he played that night was the mom of two of the boys in the room.
I don’t think any of us spoke as we got in the church bus to go back. It was completely out of context to all of us.
I was still in high school, and continued going on Sundays with my family until I graduated. But from then on I felt like I was there as an outside observer rather than a member (even though I was still officially a member). I stopped going to youth group activities, though. And the week I turned 18 I stopped going altogether.
Much later, after that pastor’s contract was terminated, my mom mentioned that he had been abusing his wife all along, and that shortly before his contract was pulled, several church ladies had spirited her away to a domestic violence shelter.
(And to any who may object to references of race, please understand that in the 1960’s, race was the context for almost everything. I’m glad, at least, that my parents were firmly on the right side in terms of civil rights).
She’d volunteered to be the treasurer for a local non-profit. She had a board meeting coming up.
“I need your help. Do you know what Excel is?”
Not good.
She’s smart. But not a big numbers person. And has never worked with financial figures. She really shouldn’t have volunteered for this position. But her heart was in the right place.
“Yes 🙂 I spend a lot of time in Excel. Whatsup?” (I work in Finance.)
She says, “I have 3 days before this board meeting. I can’t get any of these numbers to work. I stink at math. I’ll pay you. Pleeeease. Please.”
I met up with her.
It was ugly. The numbers were all over the place, they were wrong, the formulas were wack. The “books” she’d inherited from the prior person were a total mess.
I spent several hours cleaning up this file. The list of problems was endless. I worked as fast as I could. She’d be useless without accurate information.
Then I began explaining the basics to her. And organized the data in an easy-to-read way.
She had no idea what she was getting into. A board meeting as her first dip into finance? Yikes. My #1 goal was just to get her through it without embarrassing herself.
I gave her very easy numbers to cite.
“So when they ask you about this. Say ‘our cash position is good, as of last month it was xyz. It is up X percent from the month prior, and X percent year over year.”
You’ll sound semi-competent. Got it?”
She said, “Got it – but could you say that again though?”
I went through it again.
I gave her all the breakdowns. If they ask you this, say that; if they ask this, say that. I had her fully trained. As best as one can on this on short notice.
Wednesday night. I got a call.
“How did it go?”
I was sure she’d be crying.
She said, “It went amazing! They loved the data. Thank you so much, Sean. I owe you.”
I said, “No. You owe me nothing, dear. I was happy to help.”
Chinese defense systems from 4500 years ago
Believed to serve dual purposes, these ancient tunnels must have been used both as a transportation network and a means of defence and offence. Featuring arched ceilings reminiscent of Longshan period cave dwellings, the tunnels, measuring 3-6 ft in height and approximately 4 ft in width, spread out in a radial pattern, connecting to the centre of the subterranean city.
Archaeologists have unearthed a sophisticated triple-defence system and an intricate network of tunnels at the ancient Houchengzui Stone City in Inner Mongolia, China. This archaeological marvel, believed to be around 4,300 to 4,500 years old.
Spread across half a square mile, it stands as the largest and most heavily fortified archaeological site in Inner Mongolia from the early Longshan period (3000 to 1900 BC).
The ongoing excavation, which was initiated in 2005, has revealed the complex triple-defence system comprising the main city wall, terraces, gatehouse walls, moats, and trenches. The recent undertaking by the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), has brought to light a new layer of defence – an elaborate tunnel system beneath the city.
Believed to serve dual purposes, these ancient tunnels must have been used both as a transportation network and a means of defence and offence. Featuring arched ceilings reminiscent of Longshan period cave dwellings, the tunnels, measuring 3-6 ft in height and approximately 4 ft in width, spread out in a radial pattern, connecting to the centre of the subterranean city.
Several tunnels pass under the fortified city walls, extending beyond its boundaries. Sun Jinsong,
Director of the Cultural Relics and Archaeology Academy of Inner Mongolia, explained that some passages open from outside the city, and pass through various structures like the outer Wengcheng city wall, trenches, and the Wengcheng square.
The strategic design of Houchengzui Stone City, with its elaborate defence systems and concealed tunnels, elaborates its cultural significance in military defence, reflecting its role as a strategic location.
The stone city comprises an inner and outer city fortified with three concentric walls, guarded gates, and trenches. The recent excavations, conducted from 2019 to 2023, focused on the Wangcheng gate, high-level buildings in the inner city, and the tomb area.
Researchers have categorised the city’s architecture into simple and complex stone masonry and earthen walls. Simple stone city walls, positioned along ridges, are constructed with layers of stones and filled with loess or earth. Over the five-year excavation, the team uncovered various elements, including city walls, gates, horse faces, trenches, platform foundations, underground passages, house sites, and tombs.
Among the notable discoveries are the main city gate (CM1), urn city gate (CM2), and outer urn city gate (CM3). Descriptions of the main city gate highlight its rectangular plan, measuring about 15 m in length from north to south and 9 to 11 m in width from east to west, with intricate features, such as doorways, gate walls, earth platforms, and other architectural elements.
The ongoing exploration of Houchengzui Stone City continues to provide valuable insights into ancient civilization, military strategy, and architectural prowess during the Longshan period.
Japan beauty standards
Baked Eggs on Toast (Jaja na Grzankach – Polish)
Ingredients
6 slices white bread
Butter
3 tablespoons freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
6 eggs
Salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
Toast the bread and butter it on both sides. Place on a baking sheet and, using the tips of your fingers, make a small depression in each piece of toast. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and chives. Carefully drop an egg onto each piece of toast and season with salt and pepper.
Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the eggs reach the desired degree of doneness.
You can have as many accounts as you want. Pay only gets deposited in one, though.
Your finances are your business until you get in trouble, then it’s the Army’s business.
The Army has learned that by keeping Soldiers home life stable there won’t be any distractions when deployed. If you do have a problem, take it to your chain of command. There are people who’ll help with food, housing, money, medical, transportation, childcare, etc. Just know the Army will do what’s best for the Army but they’ll try not to be invasive or cause a hardship. If you refuse to comply, you can be chaptered out. Knew a single mom who refused to do her family care plan and the separated her. Just remember, your commander has final say on what happens.
A PFC in my old squad was assaulted by his wife. She tore a contact and scratched his eye. The CO moved him into the barracks indef. The wife lost BAH, BAS, and medical. She was only allowed on post with permission from the BN CO. He was in the barracks for three weeks until they could get his kids. The unit helped get him settled offpost and figure out logistics.
If you think you’re being scammed, been scammed, or even getting a questioning message about a service member or a demand for money contact your squad leader, Platoon Sergeant, 1SG, finance NCO or commanding officer. They know lots of ways to help and get you unstuck.
Cooking a steak is no small deal. Steaks are pricey and personal, everyone wants there’s done the way they want it to be done, no exceptions. This is especially true when it comes to seasoning.
The method I’m going to share with you is the way I like steaks to be done, it’s not carved in stone behind a fancy French restaurant or anything. If you like what you read, give it a whirl. If not, try someone else’s method, or invent your own.
Ribeye’s are my steak. I can ramble off a number of others that I enjoy but most of the time I’m eating a tender, juicy, meaty ribeye. Its richness can stand up to a wide range of seasoning, from a basic salt and pepper, to a spicy Southwestern, Cajun blackening spice or whatever’s your poison. My basic steak seasoning is salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders, oregano and smoked paprika. That combo is the tits on a nicely seared ribeye. What you want to know though is how to get it to the steak, right? Well, here we go.
First, season your ribeye well on both sides with coarse salt and let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes. Known as dry brining, the salt will pull moisture to the surface of the steak, dissolve in that moisture and the steak will drink it back up, seasoning the meat. Get a heavy skillet rip roaring hot, add a touch of oil and then pat the steak dry with paper towels. Lower the steak into the hot pan and sear the hell out of it, until it is crispy golden brown. Oh, make sure you have your pre-mixed seasoning blend handy, because it’s about to come into play.
Flip the steak and sprinkle the seasoning onto the seared side so it blooms in the hot bubbling oil on top of the steak. Then cook it to your desired doneness. The exception to this would be a blackened steak, where you want the seasoning to make contact with the hot pan, so the seasonings become seared with the steak. My method prevents the spices from burning and becoming bitter from contact with the hot pan, which will happen with onion, garlic and paprika.
I’m not expecting a James Beard Award or anything, but I’ve never eaten a bad steak prepared using my seasoning method. Give it a shot and see how it works out for you.
I worked for a small family owned glaziers. I was 18, and while my title was “administrator” I was more of a general dogsbody, which wasn’t a big deal, I liked the other staff and there was nothing to hate about the job itself.
My boss was another kettle of fish. Firstly, he smoked in his “office” which was a small almost hallway that was directly behind the receptionist area and he stunk out the whole building (it was illegal at the time, he didn’t care). He was also pretty abusive to everybody and even forced 2 apprentices to fight over £20 or be fired, then kept the £20. He was a fucking animal.
So, on Fridays I always finished at 3, everybody did. I arrived a few minutes late as the bus was delayed, and my punishment for this was to clean the reception area (we had a lot of mirrors and glass), then his “office”. Then I had to clean the boys kitchen (we had no cleaner, the office staff didn’t go near the kitchen). Needless to say it was rank and took me right up until 2:30, I then having done none of my actual work dealt with the letters which I had to take up to the post box. I also didn’t get a break.
3pm rolls round and I’m walking out the door having clocked out, letters in hand when the phone rings, the receptionist gets my attention while on the phone, hangs up and said “boss said you’re going f**king nowhere til you get up the stairs and clean the toilet”.
My reply “nope” I then walked out, got on the bus and left. I never went near them again.
Without MAJOR service; probably. I have purchased many vehicle that had sat long term, think decades. There are a few steps to getting them running.
Pull all the spark plugs and put a copious amount of oil in the cylinders. I like Marvel Mystery oil mixed with Automatic Transmission Fluid. Leave that concoction at a minimum of over night to soak and penetrate all the surfaces of the piston and rings.
Fuel / Gas would probably be an issue as it has probably varnished up the tank, fuel pump and fuel lines. The carburetor or fuel injectors may have survived without needing repair. Possible but not likely. So a full cleaning of the fuel system would be necessary. Replace the fuel filter and add fresh gas.
You will definitely need a new battery.
At day two or three you can attempt to turn the engine over by hand, GENTLY without the spark plugs installed. The goal is to slowly move and introduce the oil you put in the cylinders onto the surfaces of the cylinder wall. Once the oil is no longer in the cylinders I would change the original oil and filter.
Reinstall the spark plugs, connect the new battery and using the key turn over the engine. By not priming the intake the engine should turn over for several seconds lubricating the engine with fresh oil before it starts.
At this point you could prime the intake, cross your fingers and start the vehicle.
You will probably experience engine and running gear seal leaks. The seals used to hold lubricants and fluids will tend to dry out when a vehicle has sat for a long period.
All that being said; I spent 25 years buying one car. A 1959 Cadillac coupe. I personally knew that it had sat for over 10 years when I finalized the purchase. I had it transported to my shop where I performed the above procedures. I did a tune-up, added a new fuel pump and battery and drove the Caddy up and down the road.
“Gentlemen, I Suggest You Beam Me Aboard.” Captain Kirk
It actually happened to me. A sheriff’s deputy delivered my 16-year-old daughter to my door one night, saying that she’d been arrested for skinny-dipping in the YMCA with 48 of her friends.
That’s right. 49 skinny-dipping teenagers. They’d been let in the building after hours by one of the lifeguards.
Police charged them with trespassing because, after all, skinny-dipping in a closed building is not a crime.
My reaction? Well, I think I tried not to giggle and told my daughter to go to bed. I was a little put out that I had to rearrange my schedule to go to court with her, but other than that, no, I wasn’t upset. I thought it was funny.
Apparently the judge agreed. When we showed up in court, 49 kids and their parents in suits and dresses trying to look contrite, and one petite, grey-haired judge trying to look stern. She wasn’t completely successful — she kept excusing herself to her chambers so as not to burst out laughing. She told them they had to write a note of apology to the manager of the YMCA.
About a week later I ran into the judge downtown and we talked about the case. “Kids today have it too easy,” she said. “When I was a teenager my gang and I had to climb fences to go skinny-dipping.”
EDIT: Several people have commented that the kids weren’t trespassing because they had been let in by a lifeguard. I checked the Colorado statute for third-degree trespass which states that it is not trespassing if they are on the property with the permission of the property owner. The lifeguard was one of the kids and told the cops she’d let everyone in, but a building custodian said that she had no authority to do so. The cops called the manager of the YMCA, and he not only told the police to arrest the kids but also fired Mary the lifeguard on the spot.
An interesting corollary to this that I knew both cops. In fact they approached me separately to apologize for arresting my daughter, but the custodian and especially the YMCA manager gave them no discretion. But even when they were dropping off my daughter at my door, they said I shouldn’t worry about any legal repercussions because they couldn’t imagine any judge in Boulder giving the kids more than a stern lecture and maybe community service.
Left to Fend Alone: Abandoned by Family After 18 Years, This Cat Finds Itself in a Shelter.
My students always seem shocked when I tell them this:
Like most students in America, my students get periodic standardized tests throughout the year. Standardized tests are created by national groups and administered to students all over the country. That’s the “standard” part of it. The teacher just proctors the test. We don’t see them ahead of time, and have no input as to what’s on the test. After the first test, I always ask them:
“How many of you were just tested?”
They all say that they were.
Then I hit them with the truth:
“You all took the test, but I was the one being tested. These tests are just as much about tracking my effectiveness as a teacher as they are about tracking your effectiveness as a learner. I hope you all did well, because it makes me look good.”
Standardized testing is just as much about testing teachers as it is students.
a friend owned a landscaping company and after a number of problems with his HOA he got mad when they told him the verity of grass in his lawn was the wrong type.
he did lawns for a living and knew he had seeded his lawn with the right type of grass and the HOA board knew nothing about grass and he was the only person with the right type of grass listed in the HOA rules. he got mad and one dark and foggy night drove to each HOA board members homes and sprayed herbicide across their lawns. they went nuts and had to hire a landscaper to fix their yards.
They told the landscaper what type of grass they needed to plant by the HOA RULES and he did. Only to find there lawns did not match the rest of the HOA and they had no idea why.
the HOA board looked like fools when they found out they were wrong.
I had bought a Chrysler Concorde – and it was a superb road car, roomy, huge trunk, good performance and an excellent ride.
At 30K miles the water pump started leaking. Went to the dealer, they replaced it on warranty. They said it took 6 hours labor as the entire front of the car had to come off, as well as the front of the engine – the pump was being driven by the rubber timing belt. All good. At 60K miles, it happened again. Took it in and the dealer repaired it but marked it down as a fuel line repair that was a recall item (we already had that repair done) – so again not out any money. Great dealer! At 90K it happen a third time. I chose to just refill the reservoir as it lowered. My wife had the car out one day when the engine just quit, at 60 MPH. She was able to coast into an abandoned gas station. Seems the timing belt had slid off the pump cog having got too wet. This time I was out the $600 labor, plus pump, to replace it. Thankfully the engine was designed such the valves didn’t impact the pistons. The issue was a cheap o-ring that failed each time.
Discussions I had with Chrysler corporate about this resulted in “your problem, go away”. So I have, never bought another Chrysler product and never will.
As the car reached 120K miles, it was in a violent hailstorm. We replaced the broken windows, but did nothing else. Rather than repair the inevitable and impending leak a 4th time, I donated the car. to charity.
This surely wasn’t the bolt-on water pumps I used to be able to swap out in an afternoon on my driveway! Drain the coolant, Pop the hoses, remove the v-belt, and 3 bolts. Reverse the process to install the new pump.
My dad used to carry wads of bank notes in the back pocket of his trousers. Proper old-school. I told him loads of times everyone recommends you don’t do that as it’s easy for pickpockets to steal. His response was always the same: “yeah? Well I’d like to see someone try and take it…”
While I was studying in Madrid, the whole family came out to visit. I said to my dad, apparently the pickpocketing is pretty bad round here (apologies to any madrileños who may disagree/feel offended by that comment). Anyway might be a good idea not to have all your cash in your back pocket. Usual reaction.
We were all getting on a bus in the city centre when some dude had a go at pinching Dad’s money. Before he had a chance to take it, he got an elbow in the guts and a back-hander across the face. He stumbled backwards into some railings, we all got on and the bus drove off.
So that’s when I stopped lecturing my dad about how/where he should carry his money.
While it’s tempting to cry ‘fake’, there are plenty of examples of capybaras chilling next to caiman. There’s even a video here.
I’m not a capybara expert, but I don’t think they would still exist if they simply had no survival instinct, especially with adept predators like jaguars and anacondas around.
And trust me, they would not be sitting calmly next to a jaguar.
If I had to guess, I would suggest capybaras are often so chilled around caiman because:
The cold-blooded reptilians are still sluggish and warming themselves up.
The caiman in these examples are simply too small to overpower a capybara. The largest caiman can reach over 4 metres in length and weigh a tonne — I don’t think capybaras would be quite so comfortable around crocodilians of that size.
Caiman are far less dangerous out of the water and (I suppose) not in ‘hunting mode’. Many crocodilians also eat surprisingly rarely.
Larger caiman do prey on capybaras, so it’s a case of context. The capybaras would rather save their energy for a real life-or-death scenario. Smaller caiman would rather save their energy for some fish.
The guy who wrote bit on the answer sheet and copied in plain sight .
In my school during exams 2 students will be seated in each bench. The student next to us will be in different grade to avoid copying.
When I was in tenth grade(2004) , in the bench before me there was a ninth grade guy.
Usually students copy in exams using bits. For those who are not familiar with the term bit is a small paper in which students write answers and take it into exam hall hiding it somewhere.
The risk here is the examiner catching you in the act.
Our school answer sheet looks like this
Everyone is given 4 sheets at the beginning and once they need more papers they put a tick in the tracking sheet and take additional sheets. At the end the sheets are tied together and handed over. So this tracking sheet will contain how many sheets a student used but no one tallies it at the end of exam.
This guy decided to use this loophole.
One day I finished my exam early and was looking out the window. His seat is a window seat and mine is aisle but he sits one bench before me.
He suddenly crumpled one of the answer sheet and threw it outside the window and he repeated it for 2 other sheets. I got curious but that day I was not able to find the answer and it kept me sleepless.
Next day I again watched him and he did the same thing but this time I caught him after the exam and asked him why he did that.
This is what the guy did.
Instead of carrying a bit paper he wrote the answers in normal handwriting using the actual exam sheet and brought it to exam hall. Even if the teacher sees it would just look like an exam sheet used by him. Everyday he used to take additional papers to write bit for next day exam. The question paper will not be collected so he hid it under the question paper everyday and took it home and both these sheets are exactly same size.
I asked him why do you even bother writing the answers again instead of just adding the bit paper in exam sheet since it is already written on an exam sheet.
His answer made me go wow. Everyday different teachers come and even if the same teacher comes they would sign on the top with the date , since the date and sign would differ he rewrote the answer everyday and threw the bit paper out of the window and mostly he did this for the bigger answers only .
Still not convinced, I asked him what if someone sees the paper he threw down. He took me to the window and showed what’s beneath the window. It was our canteens roof which is ideally a small shed with asbestos roof and already had lots of garbage. The thing won’t even fly in the air even if there was a strong wind.
My next doubt was how would he know what questions would come and even if he did won’t he require lots of sheets to write the answers. It was actually internal test and not board exam so the teachers would kind of let the weak students know 80% of questions in the evening special coaching class. He got that inside info and wrote just the answers he felt that were difficult. Like study 50% and copy 50%.
I mean copying in exams is one thing but I ve never seen a heist level planning like he did .
Cigarette smoking on airplanes and in restaurants…albeit in a smoking section. Goes without saying you could smoke in bars too.
Soda bottles had metal tops that you needed to use a bottle opener to open.
Beer and soda cans had pop tops:
See the one on the left? That’s the one. You know what they would do after pulling off the tab? They’d throw it on the ground. Then, you’d ride your bike over it and get a flat or it would pierce your foot and you’d have to go get a tetanus shot from the doctor. It’s even immortalized in Jimmy Buffet’s song “Margaritaville”: “Stepped on a pop top/Blew out my flip flop”.
Kids were sent out to play with no supervision at all. We were only instructed to come home when the street lights turned on. We did incredibly intelligent things like bully weaker kids, smash glass bottles on the ground, and throw rocks at each others’ heads.
All the good cartoons were on Saturday morning only.
If you liked a movie, you had to pay to go see it in the theater only. You couldn’t get it on home video at all. You pretty much had to wait a few years before they showed it on TV.
There were only 3 channels: ABC, CBS, and NBC. If you lived in the big city you might have a few extra UHF local channels. They mostly played reruns of Bonanza, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch, Star Trek, and I Dream Of Jeannie.
If you got out of line in school you’d get your ass spanked by the gym coach who wielded something that looked like a ping pong paddle with holes in it for speed.
The speed limit on highways and interstates was 55 miles per hour (88.5 kph) and it took forever to get to grandma’s house…with no phones, no personal stereos, just sitting there. Parents would give young kids a tiny bit of alcohol mixed in with their juice so they would sleep.
The guy they would call the “fat kid” would only be a little husky by today’s standards.
Divorce was still kind of a taboo, in that “people would talk” about those who were divorced but it was pretty much commonplace by the end of the 70s and no big deal.
The Rock and Roll guys, the Disco guys, and the Country Music guys all hated each other. The Rock and Roll guys smoked dope, the Disco guys did coke and the Country Music guys drank Jack Daniels. The Disco guys got all the girls and the Rock and Roll guys got beat up by the Country Music guys.
Houston, Texas actually had kind of a good football team.
EDIT:
Did you guys ever have this? We didn’t have milk delivery. I think they were phasing it out by the time I was a kid in the 70s…not sure. But we DID have Charles Chips Delivery.
Yep they’d deliver a huge tin (huge to me as I was like 7 years old) of POTATO CHIPS to your front door in a Charles Chips delivery truck. You’d leave out the empty tin and they’d replace it with a new one.
Edit 2:
Ah, TV!
So…the top dial is VHF. This had channels 2–13. These were ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS if you had it. The bottom dial is UHF, it had channels 14–82 (I think?). In order to get a UHF channel you had to turn the top dial to “U” and then you turned the bottom dial to whatever UHF channel had “The Munsters” reruns on it.
Some people were lucky enough to have a remote control (which was rather rare) which made a loud, metallic clicking sound…so it was called the “clicker”. Older people even today call the remote control “the clicker”.
Others of us had the old fashioned remote control called “Hey kid, turn it to channel 2 or I’ll thump yer skull for ya!”
Some TVs had rabbit ears on them. You’d have to send a person over to the TV to adjust them or your signal wouldn’t be very good. Inevitably the person would form some kind of “radar circuit” with the TV and you’d make them stand there for the last play of the super bowl so you could see it.
Other smarter folks did this:
Yep, they wrapped foil around the antennae to boost its receiving power.
Others forcibly shoved a thick, folded piece of paper between the dial and the TV.
Other more lucky folks had one of these:
A wire ran from this roof antenna down to the back of your TV where you had to screw it to the back.
Going anonymous as this is about my students, however real names are not used.
I’m a maths teach at a local secondary school in an area where most students live off benefits. I had one girl, Daisy, who was highly intelligent, we did an iq test and her score was in the 140s.
One day I asked her if she was going to university, no was her answer, I was puzzled, she excelled in class and had a keen interest in maths and science. She was proud too, wearing her maths and science award badges everyday.
I asked her why, here was her response.
‘I can’t afford it’
Me:’you can get scholarships and grants’
‘It’s not that, trust me I’ve checked, it’s the living costs.’
That’s when I realised, this girl was 12 and knew she couldn’t progress further than college, not due to lack of talent or enthusiasm, due to money. I sat down with her, she cried all of one lunch in year 11, I cried to, at her potential wasted beyond belief, maybe the most talented student I’ve ever taught, not able to advance.
I started a fund for all the children like her, unable to attend university due to money, and it worked. I raised enough to put her though and support her family, I’ve put other though uni too.
I learnt that money is a problem and a worry for 12 year old girls but I also learnt talent can’t be wasted, children like her need a way to succeed.
I hope I gave that to her, she now works as a medical researcher and was given the life she never thought she’d have.
One morning she calls me at 4 AM. I picked up the phone half asleep. I thought it to be some kind of emergency.
Me: Hello? Is everything Okay babe?
She: Yeah, but….
(Now buts can be dangerous at 4 AM)
Me: Are you hungry baby? (Only emergency I can think of)
She: I have to talk to you about something very important.
Me: You sure it can’t wait?
She: If it could, I wouldn’t be here.
Me: Okay, shoot me.
She: I want you to stop talking to Seeta, Geeta, Meeta, Papeeta. I don’t like them.
Me (perplexed): Is that what you wanted to say? But they’re my friends. They’ve been there even before you were.
She (angrily): Then stay with them, not me.
Me: Okay Baby, anything for you. I won’t talk to them.
She: You’re so cute. Love you baby, goodnight kiss on your lips, muuaaahh.
2 Weeks Later
In a food outlet
Me (in a sarcastic way): Baby, what’s about your best friend, Rahul? How’s he?
She (stands up in anger):You don’t trust me, do you? He’s my best friend and always been with me. He understands me like no one else can. So, stop being the detective’s ass and get a life dude. He never asked about you, but you can’t stay put. I wonder at times, if I’d have dated Rahul, things would’ve been better.
Me (trying to say something meaningful): But……..
She (cuts me in between): Learn to trust the person you’re in relationship with. It’s necessary to give space at times. But, YOU WON’T UNDERSTAND.
Ironical.
So, answering the question, I can’t tolerate double standards in a relationship.
I’ve read all the answers and most of the responses. I’ve been in food service for 30 years. I currently own a 34-seat brunch restaurant. 200 covers during a 6-hour weekend service is not uncommon for us. I have a basic idea of what I am talking about. So, why might a restaurant call items out that are on the menu, or they do have in stock.
1. Equipment Failure – this happens typically on a Saturday or Sunday morning, two hours into service with a full restaurant, 45-minute wait for a 2-top and 80 covers do in for reservations.
2. Staffing – Johnny decides to catch the fat part of his left hand just below his thumb with the tip of his knife laying it open. You’d think someone was shot in the kitchen. When does this happen? Read #1. You are now down a person – the kitchen has to be balanced, menu items that require all three of us to put out or rely heavily on one station are called out – some say 86’d
3. Ingredient Shortage – someone dropped all the hard-boiled eggs or an entire tray of croissant, 4# of sliced turkey gets knocked onto the floor. An item did not show up in the morning delivery. An ingredient spoils too fast (avocados). A refrigerator door was left cracked open all night. When does this happen? See #1
4. Inventory – we only cook so much brisket a week (based on sales) – some weeks we get pounded with brisket tacos. With shared ingredients (brisket) we may call a less popular item out to keep a more popular item available longer.
5. Super busy and loose count of our prep – we may call an item out until we can get an all-day count of the orders hanging and a count of remaining prep.
Now some of the comments I’ve read from other answers mainly dealing with running out of food. Your local sports bar or chain restaurant is not going to run out of chicken wings, why? They have 200# in the freezer and the dish only requires 10 minutes from frozen in a deep fryer. They are also open 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week. I’m not buying any more steaks than I’ll need for the week, I buy them fresh. These guys have 100# of frozen steaks and never run out.
The brisket we serve takes 10 hours to prep and cook the pork belly takes 4 hours to prep and cook. Menu items are prepped and cooked based off previous sales numbers. If I historically sell 11 portions of brisket in a day I’m not prepping 35 portions I’m prepping 15.
We had a cold windy morning and sold all our sausage gravy in the first two hours of being open. We did not prep any less than normal and our sales numbers were not higher than normal. That morning everyone wanted sausage gravy. There was no #10 can of sausage gravy in the back like your local diner. This menu item is made from scratch there were no ingredients and no people to make more. These are the issues a from scratch restaurant deals with.
We met at the estate agent’s office, all set – but as we talked the deal over with him, it became more and more obvious that he was having second thoughts. It was a bit of a stretch for one income, even though it was a good income.
In the end, we (well, the estate agent) plain asked him. And since he hadn’t yet signed the paper, he could, with visible relief, back out of the deal.
Looking at the other bids, we decided to sell to the third highest bidder. The home had huge potential, which we hadn’t been able to realise for various reasons, and the third bidder was a young couple – and he was a carpenter. He would know how to do stuff, he would know his limitations, he would know people who could do whatever he wanted done at a good price.
They were ecstatic, especially the girl, who had fallen in love with the place to the extent that she had been crying herself to sleep when they lost the bidding.
And… it felt very nice, because for the house we were moving to, we hadn’t been the highest bidders, either; it was just that the previous owners liked us a lot better than the highest bidder. (And they had owned the house since the 1950s and were making an insanely good deal anyway; they paid off their mortgage some 70 times over with what we paid.) We paid it forward immediately.
Initially it’s beauty that attracts you, eventually it’s their mindset you need to handle. Choose wisely.
Sexual attraction will fade over time and hopefully would be replaced by genuine love, care and concern about your partner’s well-being.
No matter how much you love them and they love you, eventually comes money if you want to be together forever. Balance career and love.
Be available all the time and you’ll be their ex soon because it’s our human nature, things which are easily available, we start taking it for granted unintentionally.
Choose them faster, get dump faster because every thing has process and you skipped it.
There is no tried and tested strategy to prevent cheating and infidelity. Trust is the only option.
Most people are never grateful for the little things that their partners do for them, until they stop it.
Keep your expectations low from the partner if you want to be truly happy.
Sad Shelter Cat No Longer Believed Anyone Would Pay Attention To Him
We’d been friends for about 6 years. There were already cracks starting to form before the bigger fracture. She begged me to goat yoga with her – basically yoga in a field with goats walking on you. Not my idea of fun but I wanted to be a good friend so a bought a ticket. When I told her she laughed and said she hadn’t even got a ticket! Now I was typically let’s say generous with this friend. I often picked up the tab or paid the lions share as I was financially in a better place. But it had gone from me offering to her expecting in recent months. I suspected she held off buying a ticket to get me to add hers to my bill. I shook off the feeling at the time.
When the time of the goat yoga approached I was going through some issues and couldn’t make it (other people were joining us so she wasn’t left solo). I let the friend know about a week prior. With no response. A day or so before the event I decided to donate the ticket back to the provider as they were an animal sanctuary charity. My friend was upset as she was hoping to have my ticket. She’d already sold her ticket to another friend and was expecting to just take mine. When I asked why wouldn’t I have just sold mine to the friend, she said she could pay me back later and needed the money. Yeah right. The fog lifted at that moment. I stopped paying her way and she stopped inviting me out. I realised I was little more than a wallet to her.
My husband is a woodworker. His family was always asking for free labor, and materials, and finished products including cabinetry and furniture. His sister had moved into a new house and wanted him to refinish her basement for her. It was fall and the sister invited family over for a luncheon. She then laid into my husband to bring his tools and supplies so he could “do a quick job”. We get there, and the brother in laws are watching football. The sisters are gossiping in the kitchen. No one offers to lift a finger. So I start helping my husband with the job. Oh, yeah, by the way, I’m like 6 months pregnant at the time. No one offers to lift a finger to help me either. Through the vents, we can hear them talking in the kitchen, talking about what a crappy job I’m doing taking care of my pregnant self, and what a crappy husband their brother is, and what horrible parents we’re going to make. This isn’t new. we know the kind of people they are and always have been. We finish the job, load up the tools, then before lunch is served we leave, with hubby explaining he needs to get me home so I can take a nap. We stopped and had a nice meal on the way home.
A long time ago I was leaving Pace, a membership warehouse, which was later sold to Sam’s Club, I believe. It was actually a warehouse, so there was a long ramp to get up to the level of the store.
As I was leaving, with a good view since it was higher and quite a distance, I see the person parked next to me move their cart to right behind my truck. The timing was perfect as I got to the cart as the person was getting into their car and I moved the cart behind his vehicle, then got in my truck and left. I got to see him start to back out, realize that the cart was there and get out as I drove away. I am not sure if he figured out how it got there.
Another time at CostCo, again an actual warehouse location and was really crowded all the time, the parking lot was a bit strange and there were three parking spaces near a fence. There was only one way to get out as it was angled and ended at the fence. I had backed into the first space, so it was easy to exit, except for an idiot. They wanted the space and wouldn’t move to let me leave. I might have been able to back up behind the other two spaces, but instead I backed into the space and turned the engine off and just looked at them. It took a bit of time, but eventually they realized that if they wanted the space, then they would have to back up so that I had space to leave, which they did and I left.
My SIL (husband’s sister) is pretty high maintenance. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect make-up…you know the type. Name-brand everything. Lucky for her, she found the Ken to her Barbie. Her husband is just as much of a perfectionist. He has to have perfect hair and perfect clothes. He’s neurotic about keeping things clean and orderly.
I always said that if we ever had kids, theirs would be standing to the side in name-brand clothes while mine and my husbands would be having a riot playing in mud puddles in play clothes.
My son was born first and we always dressed him in practical, functional clothes. The three-pack of onsies for $10 at Walmart? Yes, please! Babies grew fast and we opted for functional and cost-effective clothes. He’d outgrow them in a month or so and we didn’t feel the need to pay a lot of money for clothes he’d just outgrow.
My nephew was born seven months later. From the get-go, it was expensive everything. Everything had to be name-brand and could only be in one of four colours: White, Grey, Navy, or Black. My husband once looked on the website where my SIL got all of her son’s clothes. $20 for one pair of baby socks. $80 for a pair of baby jeans. It was insanity, spending so much on a baby. They quickly learned how much of their money they were burning with my nephew kept having diaper blow-outs. BIL would scrub and scrub to try to save the expensive onesie, but it was often a lost cause without dry-cleaner intervention. When home, they kept him in just a diaper until another blowout soiled their couch. At that point, they kept him in the “cheap” clothes from Carters, but when they were out, this kid was dressed to the nines. At meal times, they stripped him down to a diaper to save his clothes.
But, they didn’t quite learn their lesson. When the little guy started daycare at a year old, they sent him in designer outfit with a back-up. On a few occasions, my nephew burned through his outfit and the back-up and ended up coming home in some other kid’s clothes. Once again, my BIL and SIL had to dress him in “cheap” clothes.
And then they complain that having a kid is so expensive and they can’t understand how we can afford to have a second child when we make so much less than they do. Go figure.
Good grief. I’m sorry so many people have let themselves go, but being “old” isn’t a death sentence. I’m nearing seventy five. I walk three or four miles a day (granted I live in Manhattan and walking is more entertaining here than it is out there in America where you have to drive to the drugstore three miles away); I eat anything I want to, I play too many video games (I found Starfield disappointing, didn’t you?), and I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life with the girl of my dreams for 38 years now (gee, has it been that long, it seems like yesterday).
Don’t be surprised if, when you reach my age, you find you still are the exact same person you were when you were eleven.
Nobody has solved this problem yet. The problem statement is actually quite simple. It’s called the “moving couch problem.” The mathematician Leo Moser posed the following curious mathematical problem in 1966: “what is the shape of the largest area in the plane that can move around a right-angled corner in a two-dimensional corridor of width 1?”
We can start with a 1 by 1 square.
However, this semicircle with radius 1 works better. It has an area π/2
We can continue to make improvements. The mathematician John Hammersley noticed that if the semicircle is cut into two quarter circles, which are separated and the space between them is filled with a rectangular block, we get a larger sofa shape, which could be moved around the corner if only removes a smaller semicircular hole from the rectangular block.
In 1992, Joseph Gerver found a better shape with a slightly larger area of around 2.2195. Gerver could not prove that his solution was optimal. To this day, 50 years after the question was asked, it is still the best solution.
Attempts have been made to find upper limits. Mathematicians have defined a “couch constant”, which is just the answer to this problem! Yoav Kallus and Dan Romik demonstrated an upper limit in June 2017, with a consistent couch limit of 2.37.
Update: a twist.
No, this is literally a twist. A variant of the sofa problem asks for the shape of the largest area that can surround the 90-degree left and right corners in a hallway of unit width. This means that the shape will probably have to be symmetrical. So far the best solution was found by Dan Romik. It looks like a bikini top, with an area of 1.649.
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and about references.
Sources:
Mr. Romik. Differential equations and exact solutions in the moving sofa problem. To appear in Experimental Math.
Y. Kallus, D. Romik. Improved upper bounds in the moving sofa problem. Preprint, 2017.
Moving sofa problem on Wikipedia.
E.W. Weisstein. Moving sofa problem on Wolfram MathWorld.
J.L. Gerver. On moving a sofa around a corner. Geometriae Dedicata 42 (1992), 267-283. doi:10.1007/BF02414066.
P. Gibbs. A computational study of sofas and cars. Preprint, 2014.
I was watching this one-hour stand up by Comedian Daniel Sloss on Netflix, and he told a fascinating thing-
“If you only love yourself at 20%, that means somebody can come along and love you 30%. You’re like, Wow, that’s so much. It’s literally less than half. Whereas if you love yourself 100%, a person that falls in love with you has to go above and beyond the call of duty to make you feel special. That’s something every one of us deserves.”
People understand the value of self-love and know that happiness doesn’t come from a spouse. The concept of being satisfied with life doesn’t mean sharing it with someone, instead, living it to the fullest.
‘Decent’ people you are talking about are more focused on their career, ambitious, family and general fulfilment when it comes to life.
We all have that one friend who hates being single, falls for every person they see and Feel sad and always ask why they are alone. Yes, we all have that kind of friend, but not everyone looks at breakups / being single that way- to some people being single is a way of changing outlook.
As much as I want to wish it is not to true but relationships these days are not as easy as we think- so many cases of unhealthy addiction, violence, toxic relationship, gaslighting emerging and people are not quiet about it anymore.
‘Decent’ people are single because they know it is tempting to blame your partner for break up, but it is also essential to have a self-realisation that you might be wrong. Sense of gratitude and acknowledgement of oneself comes with being single.
People are leaving a mindset behind which suggested that marriage and bearing a child is an essential part of your life; in fact, people are focusing more on financial, emotional and professional growth these days.
People are shifting to a place where they prioritise their happiness, needs etc. over having a partner. Fact we have glorified sex and having a partner so much (thanks to social media) some people are bearing torch which says, ‘I’d rather be sex-less than be unhappy.’
I spent my 10th grade year of high school in a wealthy, white part of California.
My Spanish teacher ended up quitting because she couldn’t handle it anymore.
These were a different type of delinquents. They weren’t dangerous or violent like you might see in a ghetto High School. They were just the purest form of rude and disrespectful. They were spoilt. They didn’t try in school. Their families were rich. Some would probably never have to work.
So after the Spanish teacher quit, they brought in this temp teacher who had no idea what she was getting into.
The kids frequently talked back to her. Would ignore her lectures in the back of the class.
I grew up with a military father so I learned respect early in my life. I didn’t comprehend how people could just mouth off like that. It’d be a death warrant for me.
I’ll never forget one particular exchange.
A 16-year-old girl was not listening. The teacher asked her to stop talking. They started going back and forth arguing.
The girl then shouts, “WHY ARE YOU SUCH A MASSIVE BITCH.”
Which left me and others aghast.
And of course she was sent out of the class. But she was back within a week. I think they just made her sweep the halls for an hour or two after class one day.
Yet another reason American school systems are broken.
My head would have been delivered to the principal in a box by my own parents.
Q: What should I do if my boss says, “If you don’t like the job, you can go”?
A: I worked at a company where they promised a 2 week fully paid vacation if we hit a certain sales number. We exceeded it. Instead of getting that vacation, the company laid off 10% of the work force, told everyone they had to work 10% longer hours to make up for the smaller work force, gave a 0% raise and even held back the $25/person Xmas bonus which, over the years, had been nicknamed the annual turkey money.
A few weeks later, there was a company wide meeting where you could ask upper management anything you wanted. I got up and stated that I interact with many different departments and was seeing an all time low in morale and asked if upper management was also aware of that and, if so, what could be done to improve it.
The CEO got up and said, “Morale is your own D@#$ problem. If you don’t like it leave. After the meeting the VP of my department told me that if I ever asked a question like that again, he would fly to my office and fire me in person.
The next day I gave notice. When asked what it would take as a counter for me to stay, I said double my salary. Anything less wasn’t worth the stress of dealing with upper management azzhats. I got a 50% raise by leaving and within 3 years was making well over double what my salary had been.
I would never advocate quitting a job without having anything else lined up first. I had been working with a head hunter and had an offer in the works when this happened so it made it real easy for me to decide to leave.
A number of years later, I got fed up with management and was watching the company go down the drain. I had started my own business on the side and decided that, since I didn’t like my day job any more, I’d quit. I interviewed for a few positions but decided to make my side job my primary job and really focus on building the business. That’s the best decision I ever made.
So, my advice is, if you don’t like the job, move on. Just don’t do it without a safety net or another job lined up. They say for every $10K in salary it will take 1 month of job searching. So $60K = 6 months and $100K = 10 months. If you don’t have double that amount in your emergency fund, I highly recommend waiting to quit until you have another job lined up. You can at least feel good about knowing you will be gone as soon as you find something else.
P.S. I worked on a farm all through high school and college. I didn’t like hauling pig manure. I didn’t like chopping hay for 36 hours straight. But, there were other parts I did like. You will never find a job where you like 100% of the work. (It’s work, not a hobby!) But, when you don’t like most of what you do, it may be time for a change. I needed that farm job to pay for college so I stuck with it until graduation before moving on. Like is about choices. Take time to think yours through since you will only have yourself to blame if things aren’t working out after you make those choices.
1. If you wear the same colours as the zoo employees, the animals will come right up to you.
2. Use labeled bread clips on your wires so you know which ones you can pull out.
3. To prevent choking while scrubbing your tongue, just look in the mirror at the back of your throat.
4. You can connect two ziplock bags by flipping one inside out to make a larger one.
5. If you dye your hair at home, apply Vaseline along your hair line first.
6. Putting down a couple sheets of toilet paper before taking a dump will stop any of that nasty splash back.
7. Put clothes in the closet with the hangers reversed once a year. As you pull clothes out, reverse the hanger. Every year you can give away any clothes that you never took out.
8. If you are not a ‘up with one alarm’ person, just have a ‘wake up’ alarm and then a ‘get up’ alarm an hour later.
9. Put a key hook just inside the front door and ALWAYS hang your keys on it.
10. To combat lost socks, have a separate mesh bag that you put my socks in as soon as you take them off. Since all you have to do is toss the mesh bag into the wash without opening it.
11. If you’re feeling tired, have a cup of coffee then immediately lay down for a 15–30 minute nap. The caffeine will be kicking in just as you’re waking up.
12. Use the seat heater on the passenger side to keep takeout food warm on the drive home.
13. Squish the toilet paper roll before you hang it up. It will make it roll much more slowly, preventing people (especially young children) from rolling out a large amount.
14. Use a beard trimmer to remove the cat scratch threads from your couch.
15. Put numbers on the bottom of your door for proof photo of delivery. Most of the time, the drivers don’t get your door number in the photo, and this way, they have to.
16. Write the date on your blister packs so you know if you’ve taken your meds for that day or not.
I’m currently in college at a large university in the US. My minor has simple requirements: pass at least 4 of 10 offered classes.
As it turns out, 4 of the 10 classes are taught by the same professor. He teaches 2 in the fall and 2 in the spring. By chance, I took him once. I’ve taken him 3 more times and have earned my minor, getting A’s in every single class. And I guarantee you I couldn’t pass a basic class with any other professor.
This professor gives weekly quizzes and monthly tests in person, but via the computer. We sign into a special software that doesn’t allow us to search the internet, and take the test with him there. Everything was multiple choice. But here’s where it gets interesting:
Many of his questions had more than one answer. So, he set the test so you could check as many answers as you want e.g. we could select both A and B because the answer could be both.
But the test never counted how many answers we selected, and it only made sure you checked the right box, not if you checked a wrong box too. So if the answer was A and B, and I checked A,B, and C, it would count as right.
So what’d I do? I checked A,B,C,D, and E for almost every single question. The software would see that I checked the right answer (because I checked every answer) and mark the question right. Sometimes, to maintain realism, I’d purposefully check only one box for a few questions to get them wrong. My average scores stood between 95–100% the entire semester. And quizzes and tests made up 75% of his grading, the other 25% being just menial homework. These classes boosted my GPA noticeably, and now I have a particularly impressive minor to put on my resume.
Oooh, that’s not good. The flight attendant just burned one of the cockpit crew and let an unauthorized person (your friend) know that there was at least one other armed passenger aboard. That’s a big no-no, but fortunately, the flight attendant gave her note to somebody who wasn’t freaked out or too bothered by it to make a ruckus. All ruckuses involving armed individuals on aircraft are bad.
So, her note says that one of the cockpit crew (the First Officer) is authorized by the feds to fly armed as a Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO). They get training at one of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) locations, which I believe is held now at FLETC Artesia (New Mexico). I flew armed a lot as an LEO and the normal procedure was to present my credentials and letter of authorization to the flight deck crew upon boarding the aircraft. The pilots always checked the paperwork very thoroughly, and on occasion one of the pilots would introduce himself and tell me he was an FFDO. Sometimes we’d chat for a moment about their training at FLETC, where I went through training. These were short conversations, as I didn’t want to disrupt their pre-flight routine or concentration. Sometimes the captain would give instructions, like “Don’t take any action on board unless one of the flight attendants asks you first.” That was the rule anyway, but he/she wanted to make sure we got it.
The flight attendants also know that I’m armed and exactly what seat I’m in for two reasons. First, they need to know in case an emergency arises and they ask for assistance. That only happened once in all the flights I took, an extremely unruly passenger who appeared to be progressing from “interfering with a flight crew” and “not following crewmember instructions” to “assault.” (That dude regretted it as there were six of us on board that flight.) The second reason they need to know is that they’re not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages to an armed passenger. For these reasons, we were required to stay in our assigned seats. I was occasionally asked by another passenger to trade seats for whatever reason, but couldn’t and wouldn’t. I got upgraded to business on a couple of flights and had to make sure all the flight attendants knew my new seat and the captain did, too.
We also knew who the air marshals, if any, were and where they were seated. And if any other armed passengers were aboard, we knew that, too, knew what seats they were in, and we usually introduced ourselves before take-off, exchanging identification/credentials. Subtly, so that nobody overhearing us would catch on and maybe cause a ruckus. That’s the other bad part of the Case of the Mislaid Napkin. By giving it to the wrong person (and not knowing that she’d done so), the flight attendant has left the right person in the dark. It’s not as big a deal as it could have been, because the FFDO/armed pilot isn’t coming out of the cockpit with his weapon anyway. I did have flight attendants come over and tell me, “You and the person in 18A are in the same line of work.” I also got a napkin note at least once that I can remember offhand.
Simple, The US initiated and the western blindly mimicking the U.S. media bias narratives casting doubts about China, hurling unfounded accusations on China to hurt China’s reputation, fear mongering by western media.
That is so blatant and disgusting the global south is put off and turn off the west in disgust. Any fool could see it except some brain dead in the west. But is it working fo the U.S. and the west?
I very much doubt so. In fact the more the U.S. does it the worst it looks. Most cultures in the Global South knows that one must have done many good things for a nation to despise it! Hence it falls on death ears mostly. And these days it gets worst and worst for the US.
Yugoslavian Coffee Cake (Povitica)
Ingredients
Cake
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
3/4 cup lukewarm milk (scalded, then cooled)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Walnut Filling
2 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake: Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk, butter, eggs, sugar, salt and 3 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up.
Cover; let rise in warm place until double, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
Punch dough down; divide into halves. Roll each half into a 15 x 12-inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Spread half the Walnut Filling over each rectangle. Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side. Pinch edge of dough into each roll to seal well. Stretch rolls to make even.
With sealed edges down, coil into small shapes on lightly greased cookie sheets.
Cover; let rise until double, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake until golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Brush with butter if desired; spread with Glaze.
Walnut Filling: Mix all ingredients.
Glaze: Mix confectioners’ sugar, water and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in additional water if necessary, 1/2 teaspoon at a time.
Africans Reacts to White Globalists Agent Calling Africa Useless
Years ago I had a very abusive Team Leader who would constantly bully me. One day I snapped and got into a shouting match with him so our Manager pulled us to one side and demanded an explanation. I told him everything that happened leading up to the outburst, that I’d had enough, and verbally gave him my resignation. He pleaded for me to reconsider to which my Team Leader said “Nope, he’s already said he’s going. And if you don’t accept his notice then I’ll give you mine”.
After reassurance from the Manager that the bullying would stop, and withdrawing my verbal resignation, my Team Leader handed him his written notice and said that he still had one last opportunity to get rid of me or he was going. The Manager accepted his notice and said he had four weeks to find a new job.
After two weeks the Team Leader realised his mistake and asked the Directors if he could withdraw his notice. They replied “No. You told us to choose either you or Josh. We’ve chosen Josh”. Two weeks later his contract was terminated after 15 years of service. I’d been there 18 months.
Today I visited Quora, and saw a post written by my half-sister. She is my father’s daughter with his second wife. And it was a tribute to my dad.
I hadn’t talked to her since my dad died, and she lives in Erie, and I have long forgotten about her. I left a comment to her… telling thank-you for her tribute to our mutual father. Nine sentences.
I do not want to open up dialog with her, as I have long since given up on my old family back in the states, but I did get something nice out of it. I got a picture of my father when he was in the Air Force in his 20’s.
I will still stay away. I have ZERO interest in any continuing dialog for any reason. But in regards to this, let me show you all my father… handsome man.
Years ago my son was working as a tow truck driver. He was sound asleep at 2 AM when he got a call. He jumped up finishing getting dressed as he was running out the door. The call was for a car on the freeway so those are a priority. He drove to the car and found the guy had gotten out on the side of the freeway and locked himself out of his car. It was not hard to figure out he’d probably been drinking a little and stopped to urinate. So my son got there and quickly opened up the car and told the man the fee is $185. That is the standard fee for a call to the freeway. The man flipped out and told my son that was ridiculous and he was NOT paying that kind of money. My son explained that was the standard fee of all the towing companies for a call out to a freeway. My son was polite and professional the entire time but this man said: “That took you two seconds and I’m not paying $185 for that!!”. My son finally just looked at him and said “You’re not? Ok then” and my son walked over to the car, tossed the keys on the seat, locked the door and walked to his tow truck and got in and drove away. I guess that man didn’t understand that while it took my son 2 seconds because he’s good that my son had already worked all day and was sound asleep at 2 AM. My son doesn’t make any $185 for that call but instead was making $15 an hr. He could have not answered the phone at all at that hour but he’s a good person. He gets up and goes out. I sure hope that the next car that came by was not a CHP and that guy ended up with a DUI. If he did then he was wishing he paid $185. He had to pay it anyway when the next truck came from some other company.
My boss asked me to deliver a lamp to a photographer at Condé Nast publications in New York City. They are the publishers of glossy magazines such as Vogue, W, Glamour, Allure, Self, Teen Vogue, Lucky. Their offices and studios are absolutely stuffed with gorgeous women; some for photo-shoots, but also many models who retired into the fashion- magazine business.
I got into an elevator which was immediately packed with a crowd of stunningly beautiful young women headed to various photo studios. I inhaled the intoxicating perfume and slyly whispered to the elevator operator, “Now THIS is the happiest place on Earth.” He chuckled knowingly.
I delivered the lamp, and caught the down elevator. When we got to the main floor, the elevator emptied, and I asked the operator, half-kidding, “How does one get a job like this?”
I was surprised when he responded, “You just apply at the front desk in the lobby. The pay is really great, full benefits, AND since most of the models are lonely and from out-of-town, you can date all the hot supermodels you could possible want. So make sure you pick up an application on your way out…then take the bus to Cleveland.”
“Cleveland?” I asked.
“Well,” he grinned, “That’s where the back of the line is.”
Gulyas (Hungary)
“Gulyas” means cattle- or sheep-herder in Hungarian. This hearty soup has traditional roots in the foods prepared by rustic herders, long ago. Serve the soup in bowls topped with sour cream.
Wipe beef with damp cloth; cut into 1-inch cubes. Place oil in Dutch oven. Add beef; brown well on all sides. Remove from pan with slotted spoon; set aside.
Add onions and garlic to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add paprika, cayenne, stock, the 2 cups water, caraway, marjoram, salt, pepper and meat. Stir well. Bring to boil over moderate heat. Reduce heat to low; cook, covered, 45 minutes.
Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. Stir well; return to boil. Cover; cook 30 minutes.
Combine flour and the 2 tablespoons water; stir to form smooth paste. Add slowly to soup, stirring well. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened. Drop Csipetke (noodle/dumplings) into soup before serving, if desired.
I have a friend from my graduate days. A quiet, gentle, unassuming guy, with a permanent smile on his face. I never saw him agitated. Or elated. He took everything as it came – the good and the bad.
Being academically average, the both of us started our MBA prep in the third year. Attended the same classes in our fourth. During the mid of the year, I relocated to Bangalore for a 6 month internship, he stayed back at campus. He always aced his mock tests, but, unfortunately, just a few months prior to D-Day, his father passed away. He didn’t do as well in the actual exam as he could have. Consequently, he couldn’t make it to a good college.
Now being the sole earner in the family, he took up the best offer at hand. A mass recruiter paying around 3–3.25 lpa and resumed prep for the next year’s exam. He didn’t make it this time either. Not one to get disheartened, he tried again the following year. They say “third time’s a charm”, and it was for him.
He got into one of the best MBA colleges in the country, worked hard for another 2 years, and graduated with honors (top 5% of the batch). Landed himself a cushy job with a boutique trading firm making 10x of what he was.
During all of these years, I never heard him rant about his rotten luck. Or bitch about his problems. Or complain about the unfair advantage that the rich and powerful have. He just kept his head down and kept working with what he had (talent) and what was handed to him (luck).
So, “what is the single most underrated trait a person can have”?
Freshman year I was living in the dorms. I was living in the cheapest dorms on campus, so it was me and a roommate living with 30 other girls with two communal bathrooms on the 11th floor.
I was on that unlimited meal plan flow, and the freshman 15 had become a reality. I decided it was time to go on a health kick.
I had an (illegal) crockpot in my dorm. One of these bad boys.
I bought myself some fish (I think it was tilapia), rice, and broccoli.
I threw it all in that crockpot with some vegetable broth, turned it on, and went to the gym.
I stayed at the gym for 3 hours, then got some food afterwards for a total of four hours.
I returned to my dorm and got on the elevator.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, a stench of fish attacked my nostrils. It permeated every corner of the 11th floor.
I knew immediately I had made a big mistake.
My RA was searching every inch of our floor for the source of the smell. Girls were out in the halls spraying Febreze. People were speculating that some girl on our floor was having major lady problems.
I waited until my RA was no longer in sight of my room. I opened my door. The stench of fish almost made me pass out, it was so strong.
I ran and turned my crockpot off and bagged all the fish up and put it in my refrigerator. No one could know it was me.
I was lucky that my roommate went out of town that weekend so she didn’t have to know about it.
Since I didn’t have a sink in my room, I’d have to wash the Crockpot out in the public bathroom, which was a high risk situation of me getting caught.
I first decided to soak it with dish soap and water which I carried in a water bottle from the sink to my room.
Then, when it had soaked, I took it to the shower so I could wash it behind a curtain to lower the risk of anyone seeing me.
I disposed of all of the evidence before my roommate came back.
Our entire floor smelled like fish for four days. It was bad.
By the time my roommate came back, I had done my best to air out our room and febreze everything.
However, every fabric held a slight smell of fish. All of her and my clothes, our bedspreads, and our carpet had a small stench.
She would notice that her clothes smelled like fish every once in a while and she’d say “How did this happen? Do your clothes smell like fish too?”
I’d be like “Yeah, that is so weird. It’s probably the water here.”
I was successful, no one ever found out that the source of the fish stench was me and my crockpot until years later, when I willingly told some of my friends. (Which they now never let me forget)
But I learned an important lesson that day, one that all college freshman should follow:
My first husband passed away in January, 2001. My daughter was 16 at the time, in 10th grade. I permitted her to take a week and a half off to grieve, but getting homework assignments from her teachers.. When she returned to school, her history teacher told her that she had a report due that day. She had not been made aware of the assignment, as the teacher had only given it a week prior. The teacher told her. “ Well, you should have been here when it was assigned. “ She told her that her father’s death was not a good enough excuse for missing class. She came home in tears. I called the school the next day and spoke with the principal. He agreed that the teacher had been out of line. The teacher was made to apologise to her in front of the class, and was written up for being insensitive. I asked the principal if I could schedule a grief instructional seminar for the staff, and he agreed. The seminars still happen every year. I also spearheaded a grief counseling group, headed by a wonderful hospice nurse. It still exists today in that school. Not really policy changes, but changes nevertheless.
I am not a surgeon but a Trauma Nurse. But I did have an interesting case.
One night shift an elderly man, 80’s, comes in complaining of abdominal pain. We started an IV, sent blood to the lab to see if he had an elevated white cell count which would point to appendicitis.
On physical examination he had a scar from a previous appendectomy, a soft abdomen, no reflex on palpitation, but a hard, firm mass about the level of his navel to pubis. So we sent him off for an X-Ray of his abdomen.
On return from X-Ray the tech put the films on the viewer and left without a word. When I looked up there, as big as life was a 1 liter Thermos sitting just past his rectum in his large intestine.
I informed him that he was going to be admitted for removal of a foreign object when the OR opened the next day. He asked if I would call his wife to tell her he was being admitted.
When I informed her that we needed to keep him overnight she stated, “Not that thermose again is it? Well you tell him he can take a taxi home because I ain’t picking him up again.”
I had always worn el cheapo suits, just something to look professional at work. But my girlfriend thought I should get a once in a life time, show off suit, as I was in the fittest shape of my life. So we went to Holt Renfrew to buy a suit, I was thinking Armani because it sounds impressive, but really I just wanted a suit that made me look good. No one was rude or anything, but no one approached me as I was browsing. I just got the vibe, that I wasn’t welcome.
I went next door to Harry Rosen, and as soon as I started browsing, I was approached, and asked if I would like a cappuccino while we picked out a suit. I was hooked, it might be a gimmick, but it made me feel special. They showed me that a Canali looked better on me, than the Armani, and suited my physique better. They asked if I wanted the name, or the look. Because no one would know that it was an Armani if I didn’t name drop.
I took the Canali. After it was fitted and adjusted, I went back to Holt Renfrew to compare prices, while wearing my new suit, shirt, tie and shoes.
I had someone asking if they could help me in seconds.
Maybe the first time everyone was busy at Holt Renfrew, but after that I bought a lot at Harry Rosens. Nothing as expensive as that suit, but nice clothes.
It will speed up China’s ascendency and swiftly destroy the U.S. economy. Over time the U.S. will implode and break up into 5–6 different nation. It will start a class war in the U.S. and polarise the U.S. as never before.
But heck, ignore my advise and do it anyway! Trump is very smart he will say all what you and for, but do 1% and fool all of you while he enjoys popularity! Biden is not too clever he will do 10% and screwed up the U.S. and spend the rest of his term negotiating with China! He get screwed from left and right.
Chinese will do precisely what the U.S. do but it hurts you ten times harder!
This happened to my wife. She interviewed for a position, she nailed a software testing interview to a point where some interviewers in the interview panel said after the interview, it would be a crime if this company did not pick her.
She was obviously over joyed and waiting for the offer. The offer did come 2 days later; she stated her current compensation and they agreed they would give at least 5 K more.
2 days later the company came back with close to 20K less than her current compensation saying that the company’s CEO said that the job and the person who interviewed for the job did not deserve such a high compensation and that since the office locality was already closer to her place the company was doing her a huge favor already.
My wife politely declined the offer saying she was happy with her current job( which she was except for the commute) and she said she would join the company if they offer her the same compensation. The recruiter went back to the CEO and after 2 days of serious discussions with CEO, the recruiter came back excitedly and said the company was willing to offer 5 K more than their previous offer( which was still 15K lesser than the previous offer ). My wife was amused by the recruiter’s excitement and said it was lesser than her current compensation and declined the offer.
At this moment the recruiter should have left it like that and moved on. But she suggested that my wife was lying about her total compensation and that the position did not entail such an high pay in the current job market. This came after the recruiter accepted my wife’s initial proposition and after one of the interview panelist stated that my wife had done the interview really well.
Till this moment we were actually in a dilemma because the commute was really frustrating( 2 hours one way commute), after this discussion my wife made her mind to stick with her current job and try for a different job later.
My wife got a better paying job 1 month later within 5 mile radius. One of the panelist in that interview became family friend and said they were still looking for someone to fill that position( after close to two months) and that the CEO suggested that he would actually reach out to my wife again with a better TC.
The Confederacy was a midget taking on a giant. It trailed the Union in population, manufacturing, economic might, transportation networks and available capital. It was a miracle it held on as long as it did.
Let’s start with population. At the start of the war, the population of the Union states was about 22 million. The entire population of the Confederacy was about 9 million, but 3.5 million of those were slaves. As a result, during the war, the Union raised 2 million troops. The Confederacy raised fewer than 1 million.
Similarly, the GNP of the Union states was about three times that of the Confederate states, and most of the Union GNP was manufactured goods even though the Union had triple the arable land. The Union had five times as many factories as the Confederacy, and most Confederate factories were focused on agricultural processing.
The Union had two and a half times more railway mileage than the South, and it was better connected. Most southern railways just ran to the coast.
Not long into the war, the Confederacy had practically no gold, and thanks to Union blockades, had trouble exporting goods to raise more. Both sides printed currency, and although the Union currency wasn’t popular, the Confederate currency pretty much quickly became worthless.
The Confederacy knew it couldn’t defeat the Union. It’s only hope was that the Union would tire of the war and sue for peace. However, the Confederacy, despite a couple of really competent generals, couldn’t form a strategy that would force the Union to the bargaining table. Yes, Union attacks at the heart of the Confederacy were generally unsuccessful, but on the Mississippi the Union pretty much won every battle and managed to stop Confederate trade dead in its tracks.
Well not many besides people I went to school with and my parents know this story but I figure what the hell! It’s a long one just a warning. I was bullied all through out my grade school and middle school years. I was a chubby over weight girl and far bigger then most of my fellow school mates.
It started with the usual name calling and pushes in the hallway, but it eventually got much much worse. My worst experience would have to be in 8th grade, when one of the boys I had a crush on pretty much the most popular boy in the school, was coaxed by a group of girls to “Ask me out”. Me being the dumb kid I was thought he was being genuine.
He asked if I would go to the school year end dance with him. I was excited I made my mom buy me a new outfit and I had my hair professionally done basically went all out. Well (now this is where it gets hard for me to talk about) I got to the dance and hooked up with a few friend waiting for my “date” to arrive I was so happy and excited.
He showed up and asked me if I wanted to dance. We danced not to a slow song or anything but danced together. Then the girls showed up. These girls were some of the meanest bitches on earth I swear. They came to the dance floor and well they were being nice.
Complimenting me on my outfit and hair saying how lucky I was to snag the hottest guy in school. Well my date then asked if I wanted to go sit on the bleachers for awhile and talk. I went sat down and we started talking and it was like everyone melted away. He then asked to be excused and one of the girls came up and asked if I would go with her to the washroom so we could “fix our make-up”. I walked into the washroom and there were at least 8 girls in there.
They grabbed my hair and ripped me down to the ground they literally ripped all my clothing off. I mean everything and dragged me by my hair out of the washroom one of the three girls stood by the back entrance so I couldn’t get out that way and one other girl locked the bathroom door from the inside so I couldn’t run there. Then my “date” came around the corner said I was a disgusting whale and he would never date someone like me he then grabbed my hair and two other girls grabbed my arms and they dragged me out into the gym dropped me and took off as teachers came running. Two other girls snapped pictures before taking off as well.
so there I was on the gym floor in front of 150 students..teachers and parents…naked..beaten up and crying. If that wasn’t enough one of the girls who snapped a picture of me. Had it developed and used a photo copier and posted the pictures all over the school on the last day. None of the kids involved were ever punished as the princible said ” It’s the end of the year none of these kids will be coming back here anyways”, What they did to me was wrong but I grew from it and I swore come high school I was not going to be some victim.
I joined the football team the first day as the first female linebacker ever and I kicked ass for 3 seasons. I was pretty popular I had tones of friends and even though I was popular I NEVER EVER put anyone else down.
Oh and over the summer I ran into my “date” I went up to him called him a fucking loser and kicked him as hard as I could in the balls.
He moved away…Two of the head girls who did me the most damage I went to high school with….as popular as they were in middle school they were shit in high school one is now a meth head..The other is on welfare with 4 kids!
Our daughter has taken after her mother in that regard.
My daughter was on her way to her office after a lunch with me, waiting for the elevator and a man (30–40s) came along. Made a bit of small talk, and then out of nowhere, he said and I quote what my daughter said “You don’t really have to work. Just show off those knockers to a rich daddy who’ll take care of you and those things”.
When he cleared three interviews (technical, informal, different teams + hiring manager), he was face to face with my daughter, who was the HR boss. She just played the video she got from security from the elevator.
He had to be escorted off, coz he wouldn’t stop accusing her of torpedoing him and turn to begging and than back to accusing.
Needless to say, his career in consulting for retail isn’t going anywhere and my daughter made sure every big employer in the narrow field knows about that man.
I was a proud daddy that week, and you couldn’t do anything to take off the smile off my face.
But the western world will seek the extermination of Chinese.
The western world already wants to exterminate us. Note how the Chinese exclusion acts are being made law in the US right now. Not just Chinese citizens. US born Chinese. Most westerners welcome such laws.
But the Chinese economy will COLLAPSE
But isn’t the Chinese economy ALREADY collapsing?
If anything a massive super heavy casualty war is desirable. Taipei turned into Gaza is desirable… what’s that? Ah yes you’re already sanctioning and accusing us of genocide. So what you gonna do? Sanction us again?
In short anything you can do to us, you’ve already done.
What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?
I was eight seconds late getting back from my break. I got wrote up for being late. EIGHT SECONDS.
I usually worked through my breaks and part of my lunch because I just liked doing what I was doing without interruption. (My bosses knew this, too.) But for some reason, on that day, I did take my allotted break, and was late.
After being disciplined for my tardiness, I took every single break, every single time. Right down to the last second. I didn’t work nearly as “hard” as I did previously, either. (I like the t’s crossed, and the i’s dotted. That evaporated. My work was still accurate, but I didn’t go the extra mile.) My employer lost a lot for that eight seconds. However, the most valuable thing that was lost was the respect I used to have for my job and boss.
I was a big and athletic kid but I also moved a lot when I was in elementary school. Each time we moved I had to prove myself all over again.
Being the “new kid” meant that I was bullied by all sorts of kids from all sorts of groups, at least until I fought back.
And I learned to fight back pretty quickly. You don’t really have to win all your fights, you just have to prove that you’re willing to fight. That’s the key. And that you won’t back down.
I particularly had a tough time moving from St. Pete, Florida, to a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1980 between 6th and 7th grade.
St. Pete was awesome. We lived on the water in a great community. We had power boats and sail boats and I had lived there for a couple of years so I had a bunch of friends (Little League and Pop Warner).
No offense intended but the suburbs west of St. Louis sucked in comparison.
Anyhow, as a 7th grader I went to South Senior High School which had grades 7 through 12. My first week there I got into a scrap with some kid and did pretty good. The problem was that he had an older brother, a freshman, who later cornered me when I wasn’t expecting it and gave me a bit of a whooping.
I was so disappointed in myself that I decided to fight the older brother again. So the next day I ran up and basically tackled him in front of all of his friends and fought him until teachers broke it up. I didn’t win but I sure as hell didn’t lose.
But that was enough. Nobody messed with me the rest of that year. Attacking a high school kid got me a lot of street cred with the kids in 7th grade. I was suspended for a couple of days but my Dad was old school so he was proud of me for sticking up for myself.
But then we moved from St. Louis to the East Bay of San Francisco between 7th and 8th grade and I had to do the same thing all over again.
I had a business trip to Las Vegas some years ago. I was traveling with a friend, who frequented LV to gamble several times a year. He suggested we play craps and gave me a book on how it is played.
When we got to the tables, he carefully selected a table, based on the laughing and sport the players were having. His comment: play with people who are having fun. I was next to a guy who had at least $5K in chips. I had my measly $200. As play progressed, my slot had increased to about $400 and I felt great. The guy beside me had at least $25K in his. Then, we all crapped out. I was down to about $300 total, with $100 more than I started with. My friend insisted we leave the table and go for a walk and get a cup of coffee.
We took a walk, had a coffee, etc. My friend told me we’d stop by that table in about an hour and find the same $25K guy playing. We did come back and he had less than $2K in his slot. He had lost over $20K while we walked. My friend told me that many people gamble and do not stop until they lose everything they brought. This was an interesting lesson for me. Gambling can be fun, but one must limit the loss.
Every living creature has an anus: Ants, horses, eagles . . . And us. While most creatures’ anuses do their jobs with little fuss, not so with human beings. The design of our anus is Providence’s little joke to keep us humble.
Consider, for example, the horse. We live across from a horse breeding establishment so I’ve had ample opportunity to observe these estimable animals in action. While they shit copiously they never get any on their hair (when was the last time you saw a horse’s behind fouled by its own waste?). The reason for this lies in the design of the horse anus. It is an extensible device that, when a BM is about to pass, protrudes a few critical inches, allowing the manure to drop straight to the ground without mussing a single hair. To further forfend fouling, there is no hair in the immediate vicinity of the horse’s anus, nor on the extensible process itself. What a remarkable design.
Not so with us. Our small orifice is buried deep in a meaty cleft, the margins of which have to be spread to their limit if there is to be any chance the thicket of long, nasty hair in the cleft will not be fouled by the passing of stool — a vain exercise in 99 cases out of 100. Moreover, while the horse can defaecate while standing, just let a human being try that! No we must squat. But not only squat, we must go through all sorts of contortions to minimize the amount of feces that will cling to the surrounding parts — which, as we all know, is another futile exercise.
To accommodate our flawed design, we are taught from birth to use wads of paper, magazine pages, dried corncobs and even stones, to wipe our filthy behinds. And this we must do! If we did not wipe, we would reek of dung from the cake of dingleberries between our cheeks and our pants, skirts, caftans and burkas, would be fouled with nicotine stains and clouds of flies would follow us down the street like goslings.
I worked in a high tech company and moved up the ladder from bottom level CSR to a business manager overseeing a 60 million dollar product line by the age of 30. I was the best in the world at what I did but I had two huge strikes against me. One was my absolutely shitty attitude. I have written about attitude before. You must always have a great attitude, even if you have to fake it. No single thing is more important to your success in life than your attitude. But mine sucked. The second thing that worked against me was that in many companies, no matter where you are or how good you are, many people will see the guy who started at the bottom. In the eyes of Management, I was the customer support lackey who fixed broken things for them, not the guy making them 60 million dollars a year. There was a distinct lack of respect and that contributed to my bad attitude.
A new manager was hired for the department. He was an angry, mean jerk whose approach to everything was “shoot first ask questions maybe – they don’t deserve your consideration anyway.” I could no longer take the contempt and I quit.
A few months after I left the company began to realize its loss. I am not bragging about myself here. I did good work and I was the best at what I did. I designed the products. I knew absolutely everything about them. I was the sales troubleshooter who went on hundreds of sales calls per year. I knew every weak link in the competition. I knew how to present the product in the best light. I could give stellar presentations to huge audiences. I was making them a lot of money.
So they approached me at my new job and said they wanted me to come back. Everyone wanted me to come back except for that new asshole who had been, and would be my manager. He had been tasked with bringing me back but he didn’t want me back. I outshone him at every level. I could do his job in my sleep. But he was the guy they tasked with bringing me back. So he asked me to dinner.
When you’re going to bring someone back and you ask them to dinner you don’t take them to McDonald’s to make your pitch. We were suit and tie guys and wearing a suit and tie at McDonald’s was a surreal experience. I let it go. I wanted to hear the offer.
And so Greg made the offer. They offered me the exact same money I was making at my new company and that was it. No bonus. No extra stock. No retained seniority or vacation time. He was going through the motions because he was told to go through the motions. But his entire attitude was resentment and anger. For a few minutes I thought I was misunderstanding him; the offer was so lame as to be not even worth the time at McDonald’s. I had to ask for clarification.
He looked at me with contempt and said, “That company you’re at now is going down. We can offer you any terms we want and you’ll take it because you don’t want to be part of a sinking ship.” I might add that my old company that was trying to get me back was also doing a fair imitation of the Titanic at the time, too. I was absolutely stunned when he said it. I couldn’t believe it. So I laughed a little bit, got up and left.
That was a slap in the face offer.
I told a few old friends at my old company what had happened and it got back to the President. He called me personally on the phone and invited me to dinner. It was at a four star restaurant. When I got there he asked me what happened. I told him. He apologized. He said if I came back they would make it worth my while. I asked him if that guy would be my boss. He said yes, there was not much he could do about that. So I thanked him and said no. We ate and talked and then I left.
Two years later my old company was being sold to Compaq Computer on the back of a product I had designed years earlier. Even though I had been gone for two years, I was credited in a speech by the President for the work that made them successful in the sale. By then I was the senior manager in the department of my new company making much, much more money than I ever dreamed possible. I attribute my success in the new company to my new and improved attitude because attitude is everything.
I was in the infantry in 1969, we were at a small, one-company firebase in the Mekong Delta. The Army did not “allow” drug use among its soldiers but it happened anyway. A guy who bunked across from me openly shot heroin. This obviously wasn’t sanctioned by the military. One night when we had set up a standard L-shaped ambush, this fellow decided he wanted to go home and walked right out into the middle of the ambush. Fortunately, nobody clicked a Claymore handle and he was retrieved safely. But the safety of an entire platoon had been compromised.
The very next night two VC walked right through the middle of our ambush site and nobody opened fire or set off a Claymore. We weren’t certain it wasn’t our drug-addicted soldier trying to head home again.
As for alcohol, all we had was beer when the little beer window was open. Pabst, aka rat piss, was 25¢ and the much-preferred Black Label was 35¢, and we sometimes had Bud. There was no hard liquor because there was no PX from which to purchase it. I never saw marijuana use but I’m sure it was widespread in other companies. Heroin was the problem.
So I suspect the next question would be: Why wasn’t this reported to the higher ups? Well, soldiers learned to be remarkably tolerant of their fellow GI’s. There was no upside to creating problems in the platoon, too many opportunities to become a victim of “friendly fire” on a dark night in the boonies. One soldier, on rare stand down days, played “Black Pearl, Precious Little Girl” endlessly on a 45 rpm player and nobody complained.
In summary, the Army allowed drinking because soldiers have consumed alcohol since, well, forever. Drug use was not allowed but it happened anyway, and this was well before the advent of drug testing. Everyone was trying to figure out his own way to get back home safely and the solutions were never that simple.
I worked for my best friend and he got into a bad motorcycle accident he was in coma and had to learn to walk and talk again so I took over doing everything for the company I worked 16 hr days 7 days a week for a year never asked for anything just wanted my friend to have everything he has before the accident. so after a little more than year he was back at work so I asked for a day off he said no he wife didn’t stick up for me or anyone in his family and they all knew what I did for him so I told him I quit he said fine so I went to our 3 big company’s we did work for and asked them if they wanted to learn what we did for them and I told them what my boss did that night we went out bought 3 trucks and I trained them how to do what we did my boss lost over a 1,000,000 because of losing those company’s work and then list his wife and everything he owned because what I did by taking those company’s away
My high school crush was a beautiful girl named Adrian, a year behind me, and it seems I was the only person in the school who had ever seen Rocky and got the ‘Adriaaaaaaaaaaaaaan’ joke she kept making.
She was maybe 5 foot 4, adorable, and had a propensity for sitting in my lap in the lunchroom and stealing my food (I made my own lunch through most of high school).
She also ended up dating a guy who was, to be fair, scum. He had that ‘bad boy’ charm that young women seem to enjoy, I suppose, but he was borderline retarded and generally violent.
One day in 2014, I was sitting around bored and decided to reconnect with people from high school. Would not recommend.
I found her Facebook page, and noticed that literally nothing had been done to it in years.
Then I found her obituary, and his about a month later.
I talked to someone from her circle of close friends in high school, and it sounded like when she graduated, they moved in together. She was bound for great things, musically and mathematically talented, and he was bound to wind up in the gutter.
Sadly, it sounds like he dragged her down, talked her into ‘experimenting’ with drugs, and both died of heroin overdoses.
A Student at Tsinghua asked Ren Zhengfei of Huawei this question
Everyone says China steals from the west. What should we do when someone says that
Zhengfei replied
Keep Innovating. Only the day you become more innovative than them and beat the West on their own terms, would you be in a position to convince yourself that you did not copy from anyone.
That’s your answer
Stealing can only take you so far
So wait and see how China does and then we decide whether China steals or innovates
Unless of course you are the fox who finds the grapes sour
Debate many westerners for a short period of time, what happens? Many of them will turn to racism and dehumanisation when they start losing the debate.
Yesterday for instance somebody posted a comment on the atrocities of Britain against India. He called the atrocities fiction.
I provided counter evidence and he started to dehumanise me and said it was all CCP propaganda.
Except I had been using WESTERN SOURCES.
He couldn’t respond to that so continued to make racist comments at me. They of course don’t see this as racist, much like war crimes against brown people are considered OK because they’re not really people!
You see television and culture of western countries makes them usually white people think they are the master race, that’s why there’s so many self hating Asians in the western world. They’re taught conditioned and trained that whiteness is GODLINESS and many of the people there run with it, as such they feel they can do no wrong, they are the BEST and only humans possible!
I’m in my second week of at home suspension for striking a teacher. He locked me in a classroom and attempted to assault me when I wouldn’t consent to his advances on 14 year old me. The knock on the door was a deputy that served legal papers in our little town. The papers he served me was a summons to court for legal action pertaining to expenses incurred from point there after. I’m being sued by this teacher. My dad exploded, that jerk has bigger problems than money, just wait I don’t care if he’s in a courtroom. OMG I was saying daddy calm down a lot, I only call my dad “daddy” when I need him to calm down and focus on me so he doesn’t get into trouble or worse. The day of court arrived and there stands Mr Smug in his neck brace, bandaged nose, and black eye. I am holding my dad by both hands, telling him to look at me, please I don’t want you in jail dad. It doesn’t help that I’m shaking and I’m sure dad can feel it. Then the judge starts reading the case notes, Mr Smug is suing one Miss Key for medical expenses incurred during an altercation that resulted in a fractured nose, two chipped teeth, severe painful swelling in the groin, blurry vision, slight concussion, and upper neck pain. So young lady how do you plead? I asked the judge if I could present my papers (please don’t laugh we couldn’t afford a lawyer). He accepts my papers which are the affidavits from the custodian, vice principal and teacher (the witnesses that pulled me off of Mr Smug), the arresting deputy, and the school nurse that treated me before my dad arrived. His whole demeanor changed. WTH?! You mean to tell me that you are suing this girl because she kicked your but during an assault? His lawyer started trying to make an argument about me being malicious, and over bearing about defending myself. The judge told him to shut up, in what world does a 30 year old man believe he has a case against a 14 year old child that he is attempting to assault? Lawyer sets in with that is just allegations and hear-say, there’s no proof. I didn’t ask you lawyer I asked your client because as it stands this is the stupidest case I’ve ever heard of. In fact it’s so stupid that I’m dismissing it without prejudice, on grounds of incomprehension and competence. And might I extend my gratitude to you Mr Key for raising an able and resourceful young lady.
Hunter’s Stew (Bigos — Poland)
Ingredients
6 pounds canned sauerkraut
1/4 pound bacon or salt pork, diced
3 large onions, chopped
3 tart apples, peeled and chopped
2 cups beef broth
1 cup sherry or dry red wine
Salt, pepper, sugar, to taste
3 pounds smoked sausage, sliced
1 bay leaf
Instructions
Rinse sauerkraut in cold water and squeeze out juice well, reserving some of the juice. Put sauerkraut in large kettle over low heat.
Meanwhile, render the bacon or salt pork. Add bacon bits to sauerkraut.
Sauté onions in bacon fat until golden; add chopped apples and cook until slightly browned. Add all to the kettle. Add sausage. Add enough beef broth, bay leaf, salt, pepper, a little sugar and some of the sauerkraut juice for tartness. Simmer slowly for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Add wine and let stew bubble up. Cover and let stand until ready to use.
I went on an interview for a job I was grossly overqualified for, but I was unemployed (to finish my degree, which required internships), then the sequester hit when I graduated, and I needed ANY job so I could find one that was a better fit.
The boss told me the job paid $28 to $30. I was shocked, because that was extremely low, but they hired desperate people and they could smell it.
I then went through the interview process with the team lead and the office manager. Everything went well, and I headed home. It was a long drive, but that’s where business opportunity was.
While driving, I took a call from the office manager. She has been authorized to offer me the job at $10/hour. I did not laugh. I said “that is significantly lower than (boss) indicated the position paid.” Manager says, ‘you didn’t think $28 to $30 meant per hour, I’m sure? (Of course not, but the position SHOULD have paid much closer to that). $10/hour is the same as $28 to $30 thousand.’
I’m driving down the highway at 75 miles per hour, and very calmly said, no, I knew that was the annual salary. But $10/hour is $400 per week, at 52 weeks per year is $20,800 per year. and I did NOT say “if i can do the math in my head while driving, i’m pretty sure you can do it at your desk with a calculator at your disposal!”
Manager says “I can go check with (boss) to confirm – do you want to hold?”
I said “no, you were going to send me an offer letter? Why don’t you tell me about the benefits you mentioned, and when you send the letter you can make sure the figure is correct.”
An offer letter was not one this company typically provided because they liked to bait and switch – pay $8/hour when they’d offered $12, because you had no proof. I learned this later, and was SO glad I’d gotten a letter. When it came in, it was for the $28k figure.
My three-month review never happened, and at five months I had a nice offer from a much better company and I’m still there 5 years later. Making what I’m worth.
Sometimes you have to accept a slap in the face, but don’t let them step on your neck while they’re doing it.
Def-Con 4 (1985)
I remember this one. A cheesy B-grade movie, but I well remember enjoying it. You all have fun.
It is strange that the contemporaneous things going on today Geo-politically is much worse than what is described in this movie. Ugh!
Full Movie! Please watch the first 25 minutes. It’s all gold.
When I lived in Indiana I owned a speedboat. I named it “Going Coconuts”.
Boats are expensive. Ugh, not only did we buy it, but the upkeep, storage and all the rest was expensive.
We would ride it, perhaps 16 times per year, and the cost per use was prohibitively expensive. Oh, we were warned… but I guess it is one of those things that you have to experience to understand.
When we moved out of Indiana for Mississippi, we ended up selling it to a retired couple. They were nice and berated us for not hanging out with them and spending a meal or two with them. Ugh. Never had the time, I guess.
Listen to me.
Do not invest in a boat unless you plan on living in it, using it for business, or intend to waste money. Other than that, I would advise… do not buy a boat.
How do I tell my parents that I know they put a camera in my room?
Say absolutely nothing to your parents.
Do all your normal things in the normal way.
Once or twice a week, get a sneaky look on your face, tiptoe up to the camera, and cover the lens with black tape.
After 15–20 minutes, remove the tape, and go back to doing normal things
Enjoy that they are bursting to know what you do during the black-out periods, but can’t say anything for fear of outing themselves
If they are so f**ing shameless that they ask what happens in those times, go all aggrieved innocence, and say “Why, have YOU been SPYING ON ME?”. Turn the whole thing around and make them the Bad Guys.
Prepare some scorched-earth options, such as:
Stop speaking to them
Avoid all eye contact
If you have to speak, use a dull monotone
When they finally get up the courage to ask what’s wrong, say only “You have not apologised for spying on me”
Stick it out – do NOT start speaking to them again until they apologise for spying on you.
I was in 6th grade — still a snot-nosed kid — and I just got dropped off at my home after a good ole boy scout meeting. It was early evening, dark outside, and my folks and my brother were all out. When I entered my home’s foyer, the family dog, Ginger, a collie mix, came to me, which was normal, but I noticed a little dog poop on the floor. At the time, my dog was middle-aged and did not have accidents inside the house. This was the moment that I knew something was not right. But I ignored it…
All the lights in the house were on. This should had set off another signal that something was not right, since my parents were always bugging my brother and I about turning off lights to keep the electric bill down, but I ignored it and went into our kitchen to get something to eat.
In the kitchen there was a door that led to our backyard patio. The door was wide open and one of the windowpanes in the door was broken. I could see a piece of firewood on the patio, which I surmised was what broke the window. This was the second moment when I felt that something was obviously not right. But I think that we all have the tendency to try to rationalize things as being normal when they are not. And I remember thinking, “Hmm… That’s strange… But my parents must know about this…” Clearly, I was not thinking clearly. If my parents knew about it, why would they keep the door wide open, and not cover the window? But I ignored it.
Leaving the poop on the floor for someone else to clean up, I wanted to go upstairs to my bedroom. But when I got to the staircase, I got a strange sensation. As I looked up to the hallway on the second floor, I got the feeling that I should not go up there.
Again, sort of ignoring the warning signs, I instead go into our family room to watch TV. But in this room I see a pillowcase and bunch of books from our bookcase littered on the floor, and our TV is rolled away from the wall where it was plugged into. (This was the 80s, so it was a big CRT TV on wheels.)
Now I am finally putting it all together. I go back into the kitchen, pick up the phone, and call the police. (In this case, since it was the 80s, I dialed the police, which in an emergency takes way too long.) I tell the dispatcher that someone broke into my house. The dispatcher asks for my address and says, “Are you in the house?” I reply, “Yes.” And she responds, “Get out!”
I call for Ginger, grab her leash, and put it on her, and we go outside and stand on our driveway to wait for the police. I lived in the suburbs. There were streetlights, but the neighborhood had lots of big trees, and our back yard had a 1/4-acre wooded area, so it was dark. And now I am getting a little freaked and thinking, “When will the cops get here?” I look back at my house and through the kitchen window, I see movement. It’s a tall figure passing through the kitchen. I can’t see facial features, but it looks like a man in a flannel shirt. I’m guessing that the person is exiting through the kitchen’s door to the patio. I feel like I should pursue the man, but there are no lights in our backyard. As I muster up the courage to pursue him, a police car arrives. I tell the lone officer that I think the perp is in the backyard. He shines his flashlight around the yard and into the woods, but we do not see or hear anything. When more police arrive, they search the house and yard and dust for fingerprints. A detective tells me that I was very brave to go inside the house (clueless was more like it). But he also says that I should never enter my home if I think that it has been broken into or try to apprehend a criminal.
Lesson of this story: If something does not feel right, don’t try to rationalize it. Something is most likely wrong. Get out of there!
The thief got away with all my mother’s good jewelry, my parents’ silverware, plus one of my hand-held electronic games. We believe that he wanted to take the TV, but realized it was too big to carry. We think our dog was frightened when the perp broke into the house, and that’s why she pooped indoors. She was mid-sized and not super-aggressive, but she was territorial, so we were a little surprised that she did not scare the person off. Someone speculated that she was maced. But her job was not to be a watch dog… The house was only empty for a 1/2 hour — maybe 45 minutes — so the punk that broke in must have been staking out our home. We don’t know where the burglar was hiding when I entered the house or if he was a violent person. My brother thinks the crime was committed by someone who lived in the neighborhood.
I have been at the receiving end of one such shady tactic and I think it’s important that people should be aware of this.
This is regarding the Notice Period.
I landed a job in a service based IT company and after salary negotiations the HR told me that she will email the offer letter and asked me to go through it thoroughly and revert with questions. Everything was as per what we agreed and I accepted the offer.
Important thing to note is that the offer letter which was emailed to me had a notice period of 90 Days.
After few months the projects we were hired for were done and we were waiting for new projects. Things started to go south at this point and I started to look for another job. It was really difficult to find another job because of the 90 day notice period. No company would process my profile after I mentioned my notice period As 90 days.
After a couple of months the HR called me to her cabin and said that i was of no use to the company as there were no more projects and told me that I have a months time to look for a new job. I was taken by surprise and told her that the employee and employer have a notice period of 90 days to each other. At this point she told that it is 30 days and not 90 days. I immediately pulled my phone out and showed her the soft copy which was emailed to me. It had 90 days. The whole time the HR had a smirk on her face. Then she opened the hard copy, the copy on which I had signed during induction, and showed me the notice period. It had 30 days!!
It was then I realized what had happened. 90 days notice period would discourage employees looking out for a job but if the company wanted to fire them they would have to pay salary for only 30 days.
I know people reading this will feel that it was my mistake not to read the document before signing. And I completely agree with that. It was stupid on my part. But let me explain the situation to you all, in fact while signing I briefly started glancing at the document, I looked at the finances and the Job Title section when the HR interrupted and told me that the CEO was waiting to meet me and that I should sign the letter soon as we don’t want to keep the CEO waiting. The Notice period section was buried somewhere in the 12th page. Obviously I had no time to look at it.
After talking to a lot of people I realized and was surprised at how many sign the offer letter without reading and assuming it’s the exact copy of the emailed copy. Don’t commit the mistake which I did.
Lesson to learn: When you are signing the offer letter during induction, take your time, go through it thoroughly and only then sign it.
Back when I worked for a computer magazine, the employees had a great sense of pride in our work and would often stay and work till seven, eight, ten at night, for which we were paid no extra and given no comp time. But that magazine went out on time with no errors except those introduced by the witless top editor after everyone who might have corrected them had gone home.
One day, however, we got a memo that everyone was to be at work by eight in the morning, at risk of being docked or fired. This rule was adopted by the managing editor, who was disturbed to find the staff trickling in at various hours of the morning.
The immediate result was that nobody stayed even a minute after five p.m., regardless of whether the necessary work had been accomplished. But we were all on time in the morning. Working only 8 hours a day, but working very hard, we could not meet deadlines and keep quality high. Plus, the esprit de corps vanished that day. We were no longer working for a cause, we were working for a clock. For a check.
But the managing editor would not back down from this destructive policy. Fortunately, I quit soon after, and the magazine was sold to a conglomerate, so the managing editor was never held accountable. Meanwhile, I stayed home and wrote the novel version of Ender’s Game.
Bumped from a flight
Banoffee Pie (England)
Banoffi Pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk Inn in Jevington near Eastbourne!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas, sliced
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Mix Graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and ginger until well blended.
Press mixture into a 9-inch pie plate.
Cool in refrigerator.
Use one of the following three methods to prepare the toffee.
Pour toffee into pie crust. Allow to cool.
Slice bananas over toffee.
Whip the cream stiff, then spoon it on top of bananas. Refrigerate before serving.
Oven Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into 9-inch pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil; place in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with hot water. Bake at 425 degrees F for 1 hour or until thick and caramel-colored. Beat until smooth.
Stovetop Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into top of double boiler; place over boiling water. Simmer over low heat for 1 to 1/2 hours or until thick and caramel-colored, stirring occasionally. Beat until smooth.
Microwave Method:
Pour sweetened condensed milk into a 2-quart glass measuring cup. Cook on 50% power (medium) 4 minutes, stirring briskly every 2 minutes until smooth. Cook on 30% power (medium-low) 20 to 25 minutes or until very thick and caramel-colored, stirring briskly every 4 minutes during the first 16 minutes and every 2 minutes during the last 4 to 10 minutes.
Lied to…
An overhead view of people on 36th St. between 8th and 9th Aves., New York
An overhead view of people on 36th St. between 8th and 9th Aves., New York. Manhattan’s Garment District has been the center of the American fashion industry since at least the turn of the twentieth century – in 1900, New York City’s garment trade was its largest industry by a factor of three. The entire fashion ecosystem, from fabric suppliers to designer showrooms, exists within an area just under a square mile. Native New Yorker Margaret Bourke-White was in her mid-twenties when she took this picture. She would later become Life magazine’s first female photojournalist and, during WWII, the first female war correspondent. The two cars shown are a 1930 Ford Model A 4-Door Sedan, left, and a Ford Model A Sports Coupe, right.
Both have to be on board
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick is a hugely significant figure in the history of cinema, directing 13 major feature films including Spartacus, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and the ground-breaking 2001: A Space Odyssey. But prior to his film career, the young Kubrick was an apprentice photographer at Look magazine. First using a camera for his school’s publication, he was offered an apprenticeship at Look after he submitted a photograph. This picture of people arriving at the Chicago Theatre, North State Street, Chicago, is drawn from a set of pictures the 21-year-old Kubrick took for the Look series “Chicago – City of Extremes”. The theatre production in question, starring Jack Carson, Marion Hutton, and Robert Alda, was John Loves Mary, a farce.
Optionality
Confederate prisoners at Seminary Ridge during the battle of Gettysburg.
Confederate prisoners at Seminary Ridge during the battle of Gettysburg. Until 1863, both sides in the American Civil War of 1861-1865 used a parole system for prisoners. A captured soldier vowed not to fight until he had been exchanged for a soldier fighting for the opposition. But in 1863, when this picture was taken, the parole system proved untenable, because Confederate authorities would not recognize a black prisoner as equal to a white prisoner. The direct result was that the number of troops being held in prisons increased massively, on both sides. Just over 400,000 soldiers were taken captured and placed in prison camps during the American Civil War. One in ten of all deaths during the war occurred in a prison camp – a total of more than 55,000 men lost their lives incarcerated.
“11 a.m. Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri.” As a photographer working for social reform, Lewis Hine found a number of advantages in photographing “newsies” – boys who sold newspapers on street. Unlike the work he did photographing child workers in mines, factories and mills, Hine could photograph the boys without either seeking permission from employers, or, more typically, circumnavigating them. The photographs could be achieved with more time, and with more focus and attention on the subjects he shot. To achieve this sense of direct connection, Hine would bring his camera down to the eye level of his subjects. Not only taking photographs of child workers, Hine also talked to them and sought to document and record their experience. n aggregate, he created a body of work that displayed an unacceptable standard of living for many thousands of children and which ultimately achieved a change in cultural understanding of what it means to be a child, and in the law.
Mulberry Street was at the very centre of Manhattan’s Little Italy, an ethnic neighborhood that followed from the mass immigration to New York of Italians after the 1880s. By the turn of the twentieth century, nine out of ten people in the Fourteenth Ward of Manhattan had an Italian background. Mulberry Street itself took its name from the Mulberry trees that grew around Mulberry Bend – the point in the street where it curved around what was then the Collect Pond. This scene, shot in 1900, shows something of the breadth of activity of Little Italy – vegetable stalls; barefooted children; shoe, boot and clothing merchants; a wagon of barrels and sacks; furniture removal men; and blankets, quilts and rugs left out to air – or to sell.
Never give up
CONFIRMED: Israel Planning to Dislocate ALL 2.3 Million Palestinians from Gaza Strip
Advertisements are now appearing in Israeli publications touting “Gaza 2030” showing the entire Gaza Strip as a luxury beach front Resort . . . and no Palestinians.
One such ad, shown above, shows what is said to be the actual planning for the Gaza Strip once the Palestinians are forcibly dislocated from their homes.
While rumors of this forced displacement of civilians (a War Crime) have floated for weeks, for the very first time on Christmas Day, the world got confirmation:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud Party conference, that Netanyahu confirmed during the Likud Party session that “work is underway to find countries that want to “absorb the residents of Gaza as refugees.”
So apparently, there it is: Confirmation that ousting the Palestinian civilian population by dropping 2,000 pound bombs on them from fighter jets, is now (and likely has always been) the actual plan.
Casablanca (1942)
This is a favorite of mine. Enjoy.
US spies clueless on Chinese intentions – WSJ
Washington is beefing up its resources targeting Beijing over a decade after losing most of its local assets
The US is still struggling to rebuild its spy capacity in China over a decade after losing all of its agents in the country, current and former intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The report described a “titanic, but mostly secret shift at the CIA and its sister US spy agencies” refocusing Washington’s $100-billion-a-year intelligence apparatus from “fighting insurgencies around the world” to “preparing for a possible ‘great power’ conflict with China and Russia.”
Beijing is the top priority for the CIA, director William Burns told the Journal, explaining that his agency had “more than doubl[ed] the budget resources devoted to the China mission over the past three years” and established a China Mission Center as a standalone entity coordinating those activities.
These include a new unit focused on emerging technologies and interfacing with the US private sector. Several US intelligence agencies have also established units focused on analyzing open-source intelligence, while electronic surveillance has become Washington’s main information source inside the country, where Beijing’s own surveillance apparatus makes meeting and recruiting human sources increasingly perilous.
Even attempting to recruit officials when they travel to third countries has proven difficult, a former senior official admitted, describing how US agents who believed their cover to be intact in a Latin American country were actually followed and filmed by Chinese observers as they tried to recruit a target.
Current and former US intelligence officials acknowledged the CIA’s mission was crippled by the loss of as many as 30 Chinese assets between 2010 and 2012 due to a glitch in the agency’s covert communications systems and a betrayal by one of its Chinese operatives.
The former official, calling the losses “horrendous,” acknowledged “doubts about whether there’s been much of a recovery since then,” the discoveries having put a chill on recruitments that extended far beyond a single country.
The individual explained their reasoning: “Why would I take a call from a US person, I know that Chinese people got bullets in the back of their head.”
While the US maintains a network of spy satellites and cyber-surveillance tools targeting China, the agency has never recovered its on-the-ground intelligence capability in the country, and even now relies on President Xi Jinping’s public statements to gain working knowledge of his plans, the Journal’s sources admitted.
Burns has nevertheless suggested the US knows Xi’s plans for Taiwan, considered a breakaway province by Beijing and increasingly fortified with US weapons against a hypothetical invasion from the mainland. Xi and his military leadership “have doubts about whether they could pull off a successful, full-scale invasion of Taiwan at an acceptable cost to them,” the CIA chief told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum in July.
Hooverville
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park, New York. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of October 1929 saw massive rates of joblessness and homelessness across the United States. People without jobs were people without the means to pay rent. Suddenly, civic lodging houses built for the homeless were filling up to capacity. Shanty towns – some housing as many as 15,000 people – began to grow up in close proximity to soup kitchens and other sources of free food. Such spontaneous towns were known colloquially as “Hoovervilles,” after Herbert Hoover. Hoover was the Republican President in 1929, and responsibility for the Depression was laid largely at his door. The Hooverville in Central Park developed on the site of the park’s lower reservoir. At one time drained and set aside to become a lawn, the reservoir project was derailed by the impact of the downturn. When it resumed in 1933, the Hooverville was gone, but not before it had gained notoriety, standing literally in the shadows of the opulent buildings that line the park, including The Beresford – opened mere months before the stock market crash. IMAGE: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
Kittens abandoned in icy water! Meow gradually weakens, A miracle saved the lives of four kittens
No. The Chinese can detect, track, follow, and “lock on” to any and all American submarines. This includes the highly vaulted USN “stealth” submarines.
This has been demonstrated in numerous ways, and though back channels to “key players” in the Pentagon. The public displays of this ability has been disguised as other events.
Oh, I am confident that the guys at NAS China Lake NWC will come up with methodology and techniques. When that will happen is unknown. But I am sure that some ideas are being researched and some preliminary studies are being conducted.
I have a reasonable expectation that some technologies will be fielded before 2030.
There are (highly likely) “black” projects currently in development that will eventually result in some great engineering direction. Of that I have no doubt. But it would be silly to assume that the Chinese are unaware of them. By the time they hit pilot field trials, China will already have counter-measures in place and fielded.
China, as of the time of this writing, has a very strong and significant undersea detection ability that spans the entire Pacific Ocean. This includes the Western coastline of the Americas. I do not know about the rest of the globe, but it can be inferred that the waters in and around Australia are under this umbrella of coverage, as are the Indian Sea, and the Northern navigable ocean.
So, to answer the question, more specifically…
Can American submarines bypass China’s surveillance and enter China’s territorial waters?
No. Any American submarine in the Pacific Ocean, near Australia, near the Indian Ocean, and in the Arctic Ocean can be detected by China.
If China determine that it is a threat, it will warn it away. This will include non-destructive methods such as the “sonic bomb”, and the “sonar ray cannon”. The warning usually is enough to cause the skipper to scamper away, as has already been demonstrated. In the event that the skipper is too recalcitrant, China has the ability to suppress the undersea vessel with extreme prejudice.
…
SOME IMPORTANT NOTES
Technical abilities of all military systems are hidden. The closest that the layman can get to understanding what they are is to either work with publicly available guesswork (such as JANES), or to actually have experience in these technologies.
If you regurgitate public domain evaluations (such as JANES) you are apt to copy the misinformation purposely fed to the periodical.
If you offer your personal experience in these matters, you are apt to be called a “fake news shrill” by a host of miscreants.
No one knows the true and real capabilities of the USN and the PLAN. However, people who have worked in these regimes, can make educated guesses and extrapolate towards highest probability conclusions. This is what I have done here.
The alternative is to rely on the public discourse, which is highly inaccurate, and intentionally misleading. If you feel that the anti-China disinfo is of better value to you, then go quite ahead and ignore this answer. No skin off my back.
Men cannot be bored
Workers build the Statue of Liberty
Workers build the Statue of Liberty inside French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s workshop, Paris. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s. The Parisian sculptor wanted to create a gift for the US nation in the wake of the abolition of slavery – referenced in the broken chain at the feet of the statue. Construction commenced in 1877, and Bartholdi brought in engineer Gustave Eiffel to help with the statue’s inner framework. In 1885, the completed statue was shipped to America, assembled and dedicated the following year. IMAGE: ALBERT FERNIQUE / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Not me but happened to a friend of mine: she worked in a large law firm in Dublin, Ireland. Her boss was a total prick, probably a psychopath. During the recession they cut people’s wages and even stopped serving coffee at meetings in order to cut costs – not that any of the senior partners took wage cuts. It is very expensive to live in Dublin; the situation was so bad that there was a constant stream of young, under-paid, financially struggling solicitors entering his office and begging for a pay-rise, any kind of pay-rise. With every one of them he pointed to a tray on his desk filled with c.v.’s and said if you don’t want to work here I have a large bundle of applicants who would be happy your take your job. No one got a raise.
Things came to a head when my friend entered an open competition for a position with the state-run Residential Tenancy Board, a kind of mediation body for disputes between landlords and tenants. It was known that my friend, along with several others in the same firm had sat the exam, and she scored extremely high, placing near the top of the panel. It was rumoured that the boss had applied as well. At the end of the office day he approached her desk and basically accused her of rummaging through another colleague’s desk and stealing his notes for the exam – something along the lines of “How can you prove to me that you didn’t go through Brian’s desk, and read his notes?” (Not that he gave a shit about Brian). This is a lawyer, asking another lawyer to prove her innocence under the presumption of guilt, that she was guilty until she could prove herself innocent. She knew this situation was untenable and said well I wouldn’t do that because it’s immoral, and illegal but it now seems clear to me that it might be best if I work somewhere else – she basically quit there and then in the most tasteful and honourable fashion. He exploded on the spot, demanding to know who would take over her cases and workload. She replied, “Well, you have a large bundle of c.v’s on your desk, hire one of them.”
Broken families
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln, without beard, aged 37. It would be another fourteen years before Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States. Here, in an image by law student Nicholas Shepherd, Lincoln is photographed serving as a member of the US House of Representatives, just before he resumed his legal practice in Springfield, Illinois. Notably, Lincoln is clean-shaven. He grew his whiskers in 1860 as a direct response to a letter from an 11-year-old girl, Grace Bedell, who believed Lincoln’s lack of beard was impeding his political career. IMAGE: NICHOLAS SHEPHERD / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Delusion
Ukraine Claims Sinking of Russian Naval Ship in Port
Ukraine claims its aircraft hit — and sank — the Russian naval vessel “Novocherkassk” while the ship was in the port of Feodosia on Crimea.
Numerous confirmations of a very large explosion in that port, came in via video on Christmas Day, but whether the ship was hit, or an ammunition dump exploded, is in dispute:
The ship, allegedly loaded with Iranian ammunition, was reportedly blown up and as a result, fire broke out in the port. Here is a file photo of the ship:
According to Russian-affiliated media, residents reported hearing loud bangs, and seeing plumes of smoke. Traffic on the Crimean bridge was blocked.
Sergey Aksenov, the head of Russian authorities in Crimea, stated that “an enemy attack was carried out in the Feodosia area and the port area was cordoned off.”
Ukraine also claims there were 300 crew aboard and “they are all dead” but that does not seem to comport with the fact that a ship, in port, would not likely have its full crew aboard.
China sternly told (not warn) EU chief to sort out what caused trade deficit for EU.
(my word) 1, EU-Netherlands is not allowed to sell EUV & now DUV too to China. China is willing to buy these expensive equipment. EU follows USA. EU is the problem of its trade deficit. Not China.
2, When European firms make money in China & bring back money to Europe, has EU factored in this money into the equation to determine trade deficit?
Germany cars make lots in China. Not France’s cars. Now France asks you EU chief to investigate China, do you EU know it is purely a dog-fight between France & Germany which has nothing with China?
3, If EU is so afraid of trade deficit, then stop buying from China. Buy things from other countries. Then there wont be any trade deficit with China. Simple. China wont force EU to buy.
In short, China sternly told EU chief not to play politics. Do something practical for Europeans.
My uncle was hippie in the 1960s, and continued that lifestyle throughout the 70s and 80s. He was particularly enthusiastic about the drugs and promiscuity. As he was born at the beginning of WWII, not the end, he slightly preceded the baby boom. After his first prison stint, he ended up living in San Francisco where he rode a Matchless chopper and fully imbibed the counter-cultural lifestyle. In many ways he wasn’t just a hippie, he was one of the original hippies.
My uncle was a particularly skilled guitarist and poet. He also had a powerful singing voice, and made numerous attempts to launch a music career. As he aged, he slipped in-and-out of heroine addiction, and consumed other drugs as well. His drug use destroyed most of his opportunities.
My father disappeared from the scene while my mom was pregnant. After my mom’s divorce from my step-father, I went to live with my grandparents on a small farm in Thermal CA. My uncle lived in the other house. There was a constant parade of counter-cultural relics passing through the ranch. As a kid I might be throwing a football with a Hare Krishna one day, and getting a boxing lesson from an outlaw biker the next. Once my uncle took me to a nearby farm where a bunch of his hippie friends lived. I was about 12 or 13 and was sent out to help pick tomatoes. Living on a farm I had done farm work before, but that day was special because I was picking tomatoes with topless hippie girls.
Kind of like this except fewer guys and the girls were topless.
He had been married several times, and spent 20 years with a woman he met in San Francisco in the early 70s. They had two kids together, but didn’t marry because that would have cost her AFDC benefits.
His drug use lead to drug trafficking and by the late 70s/early 80s my uncle had evolved into a full-on hippie-outlaw. He trafficked hard drugs and committed other crimes. The summer before my 9th grade I was working for him on dry-wall taping job. One of his biker buddies showed up 2 of the least attractive biker gals I’d ever seen. They were all bad skin and bad tattoos. “Today’s the day you lose your virginity,” he said pointing at a gal who looked like an inked up version of Calisto from X-Men comics.
This was not as appealing as the topless hippie chicks picking tomatoes.
He showed up at my mom’s apartment around 4AM the next morning. After partying the afternoon away with the gals I avoided losing my innocence to, he stole some type of commercial vehicle, which he sold down in Mexico.
In the 1980s, he was arrested for narcotics trafficking. The police raided the house and arrested his “ol’ lady” and a couple of his kids. He wasn’t there. The DA had a witness against him, but that witness “disappeared.” He would eventually plea to a lesser charge in exchange for charges being dropped against his “ol’ lady” and sons. He serve a short prison sentence at Soledad.
When he came out of prison in 1988, he was healthier than I’d ever seen him before. A couple years of structure, nutrition and daily workouts in the weight pile had done wonders for him. While in prison, he shared a cell with a minor music celebrity. This musician wanted to purchase some of my uncle’s songs. But those deals fell through.
By that time the family farm was a distant memory. My uncle was gifted a house from his father, all he needed to do was pay the monthly mortgage payments which were only a few hundred dollars a month. But as he fell back into drug addiction he lost the house his “ol’ lady” had kept afloat while he was in prison.
After losing the roof over their head, the “ol lady” who stood by him through prison stints and infidelity decided she had enough. She went to live with her mom and became a home-healthcare working. The state of California paid her to take care of her own mother.
The hotel he lived in was next to the rescue mission. He was living on disability.
He had tried drug rehab a couple times but always fell back into his old habits. His son was employed by CA as a home healthcare worker…taking care of his father. My cousin was basically paid to stay home smoking dope with my uncle and play video games.
He fell ill. My cousin told me that his “guts exploded.” and he died in his hotel room next to the rescue mission.
Speaking cat language
Coney Island’s Luna Park
A ride at Coney Island’s Luna Park. When Frederic Thompson and Elmer Dundy built their A Trip To The Moon ride for an exposition in Buffalo, New York State in 1901, they had a hit on their hands. The centerpiece of the ride was an airship powered by wings which flapped, named Luna. Moving the ride to Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park for 1902, Thomson and Dundy then leased more land and created Luna Park, using 1,000 spires, a quarter of a million lights, and $700,000. On its opening night, 60,000 people paid ten cents each to enter Luna Park – rides cost extra. But in 1908, Luna Park was eclipsed by Dreamland, with a million lights. Dundy died in 1907, and Thompson went bankrupt. Luna Park continued to exist, but successive owners struggled to realize any potential it possessed. In 1944, it was wiped out by fire. IMAGE: GEO. P. HALL & SON / NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY / GETTY IMAGES
A man of Japanese ancestry
A man of Japanese ancestry teaches his grandson to walk at Manzanar War Relocation Authority Center, California. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, around 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes, leaving behind all their business and goods, and were transferred to concentration camps, known as “relocation centers.” Around 80,000 were native-born American citizens. This image by Dorothea Lange was taken at the Manzanar camp, northeast of Los Angeles. More than 10,000 people were detained at the 500 acre camp. Like all such camps, Manzanar was treated as a military installation, with towers, barbed wire perimeters, and armed guards. Before Manzanar closed at the end of 1945, one hundred and forty-six people had died as camp internees. Documentary photographer Dorothea Lange created a significant body of work in the Great Depression, working for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. Born Dorothea Nutzhorn, her parents were second generation immigrants from Germany. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941, she resigned it in order to photograph the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans. Most of her images were seen as critical by the military, and were impounded for more than five decades. IMAGE: DOROTHEA LANGE / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Woke society
Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street was at the very centre of Manhattan’s Little Italy, an ethnic neighborhood that followed from the mass immigration to New York of Italians after the 1880s. By the turn of the twentieth century, nine out of ten people in the Fourteenth Ward of Manhattan had an Italian background. Mulberry Street itself took its name from the Mulberry trees that grew around Mulberry Bend – the point in the street where it curved around what was then the Collect Pond. This scene, shot in 1900, shows something of the breadth of activity of Little Italy – vegetable stalls; barefooted children; shoe, boot and clothing merchants; a wagon of barrels and sacks; furniture removal men; and blankets, quilts and rugs left out to air – or to sell. IMAGE: DETROIT PUBLISHING CO. / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Too many SIMPS
Newsies
“11 a.m. Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri.” As a photographer working for social reform, Lewis Hine found a number of advantages in photographing “newsies” – boys who sold newspapers on street. Unlike the work he did photographing child workers in mines, factories and mills, Hine could photograph the boys without either seeking permission from employers, or, more typically, circumnavigating them. The photographs could be achieved with more time, and with more focus and attention on the subjects he shot. To achieve this sense of direct connection, Hine would bring his camera down to the eye level of his subjects. Not only taking photographs of child workers, Hine also talked to them and sought to document and record their experience. n aggregate, he created a body of work that displayed an unacceptable standard of living for many thousands of children and which ultimately achieved a change in cultural understanding of what it means to be a child, and in the law. IMAGE: LEWIS HINE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Fentanyl is an extremely important drug. The World Health Organisation includes fentanyl in its official list of the world’s most essential medicines. Fentanyl plays a particularly important role in pain management for cancer patients. The suffering of cancer patients worldwide would be greatly increased, if not for the wonders of fentanyl.
Of course, fentanyl should be used only as prescribed by doctors. It may be noteworthy that no other country in the world has a fentanyl crisis the way the USA is having it. But it is also noteworthy that before fentanyl became popular among US drug addicts, the USA had already been having a massive opioid crisis for years and years – again, far outstripping the rest of the world.
Basically, nothing much has changed in the USA, except that the drug addicts moved from one kind of drug to another drug. Drug abuse is deeply embedded in the culture of the USA. Sadly, the habit of blaming others for its own problems is also deeply embedded in US culture.
No one should be surprised that most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients for manufacturing fentanyl comes from China. By far, China is the world’s largest manufacturer of APIs, generally speaking, for all kinds of medicines. China keeps the world alive, with its constant supply of modern medicines. China also keeps healthcare costs down for all countries, because of its tremendous economies of scale, as it manufactures medicines for hospitals and clinics all over the world.
Not a security officer, but many years ago I had one of my weirdest experiences with an x-ray scanner on a flight home from Canada.
I put my little carry-on shoulder bag on the conveyor belt; it went in, paused for inspection, and then the security officer asked me if I had any metal in the bag.
So I rummaged through the bag, removing several items and putting them in a tray. Then I sent the bag through; it paused for inspection, and then the security officer asked me if there was any more metal in the bag.
So I rummaged through it again, pulled out a number of items with a small amount of metal, and put them in the tray. Then I sent the bag through a third time – and sure enough, it stopped, and the officer had a quizzical look on his face.
At this point I said “Look, I’m a radiologist. If you let me see the image, I can probably find exactly what you’re looking at.”
So they put the bag through again, and a very bright red object came into view. I was puzzled myself – until they stopped the conveyor belt.
Imagine a glass of water. What happens if you push it forward steadily, and then suddenly stop? The water level sloshes back and forth for a moment.
This was exactly what I saw on the screen, and when I recognized it, I laughed out loud.
I have had asthma for most of my life – relatively mild, fortunately. Nowadays, I have a maintenance inhaler (corticosteroids) to try to prevent attacks, and a rescue inhaler, to open up my airways in the event I do have an attack.
But when I was first diagnosed, inhaled corticosteroids did not exist, and I was basically prescribed the rescue inhaler for maintenance, which isn’t ideal (and not all that safe).
As a supplement, I was treated with a saturated solution of potassium iodide; this loosened up the mucus which tended to clog my airways – and probably didn’t do my thyroid any good, but again, you use the meds you have.
The solution came in a little squeeze bottle with a dropper tip, and I was supposed to add several drops to a glass of juice or water. The bottle was upright in my shoulder bag when it went through the scanner. When the bag suddenly stopped, the liquid sloshed back and forth a bit.
Why was my medicine so incredibly bright on the x-ray? When you have IV contrast during a CT scan – or during an old-fashioned catheter angiogram, or any other procedure except MRI – what makes the contrast actually show up is the iodine in it.
So I had basically been sending a little bottle of super-concentrated contrast material through that airport x-ray scanner, and just hadn’t made the connection until I saw the way the liquid moved when the conveyor belt stopped.
I pulled it out, and showed it to the officer; he was skeptical, so I told him to put the bottle through the scanner by itself. When he realized that it was indeed the “metal” he was looking for, I explained why it looked so different from ordinary liquids on x-ray.
I stopped using potassium iodide shortly afterwards, and haven’t needed to explain radiographic contrast at an airport for quite some time. But it was certainly a unique experience.
The “Street of Gamblers,” Chinatown, San Francisco.
The “Street of Gamblers,” Chinatown, San Francisco. Two men and one woman on board the American brig Eagle were the very first Chinese immigrants to San Francisco. From 1849, Chinese people were drawn by the laboring opportunities for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, as well as the California Gold Rush – though racial discrimination was pronounced and enshrined in law, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892, which outlawed immigration from China for the next decade. San Franciscan studio photographer Arnold Genthe was drawn to San Francisco’s Chinatown, capturing many hundreds of photographs of its people – often without their knowledge. The pictures are true to the culture Genthe saw – although he also cropped out Western elements. Here, Genthe has captured the essence of a Chinese hutong market transposed into San Francisco, crowded with men wearing black chángshān shirts and sporting the Manchu queue hairstyles – mandatory for all Chinese men until the 1910s. Excepting Genthe’s images, very few photographs remain of San Francisco’s Chinatown prior to the earthquake and fires of 1906. Most photographic collections were lost, but Genthe’s survived, stored in a bank vault.
6 years of work experience and worked with 2 CEOs. I have doubled my salary every 2 years with only one job change. I am not a hard worker and rarely the smartest in room. My growth is not exceptional or commendable but good enough to make me one of the top paid among my peers.
Take ownership. There is no blame game in corporate. If it succeeds, its everyone’s effort. If it fails, its your fault. Its not a school to push the blame on someone. Your seniors will respect you for integrity.
Be always smarter than your manager. If you are, then your job is secure and he will respect you. If you aren’t, be ready to listen to his taunts and degradation.
If it needs to be done, it has to be done. A mail pops in just before you have to leave after a 10 hour day. And it says urgent. Either you can ignore it or sit for another half hour to complete it. Your decision decides your promotion.
Don’t take a day off unless needed. Your hangover doesn’t count as a reason. If its a reason, stop drinking. Stop everything that makes you tired next day to miss office.
Be cheerful with everyone from security guard to VP. It will give you 2 benefits: 1. You would be presented as a positive and cheerful employee (and it matters) 2. You can get things does easily.
When in office, do office work. Its ok to file IT returns or check quick social media but don’t start making business plans for your startup or start editing photos for your candid photography page. 6–8 hours of solid office work everyday will take you long way.
Know your process, know your peers, know about every (most) work getting done in your building. Don’t be a stalker or a nagger. Be a curious candidate who knows what he and his peers are doing. Will help you solve any problems you face in work sometime.
Know your company well. Sounds childish? Trust me, most of us do not know what your company does fully. What are the product segments, who are its competitors, where is the headquarter and who is the CEO.
Know the current affairs. While this doesn’t directly affect your work, there are moments when you would get a chance to interact with top management and the topics leapfrog from politics to macro economic factors. You shouldn’t be a sitting duck. Your small talk can have a very large impact.
Focus on big picture. You are just an ordinary s/w engineer or a junior analyst? Doesn’t matter. Look at your process like your lead or manager sees. Focus on the big picture. See like a bird and work like a worm.
Sometimes its donkey work. Do it. I work with senior directors of billion dollar companies who make their own slides. And many times they have to spend time on adjusting the logos or changing the fonts! Part of the job. They have secretaries but on a tight schedule, you are your boss.
Never blame your company. Never. if you feel you are excellent worker and your current company is not supporting you, then you are free to take a walk outside. Search for a better company. And if you can’t find a job, well then, its your mistake. You are not competent enough.
There is always growth. You have to be ready for it. Every company has a CEO and he/she was once a junior like you. The CEO worked his way up by hardwork, talent and beating all the competition. You can also be that CEO if you put 10–12 hours a day for 10 years in a row. There ain’t any shortcut.
Never expect a pat on the back. If you want to go up the ladder, do not strive for pat on backs or acknowledgements for short term projects. To quote Tywin Lannister “Jugglers and singers require applause”. Rise above the competation.
Workers build the Statue of Liberty
Workers build the Statue of Liberty inside French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s workshop, Paris. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s. The Parisian sculptor wanted to create a gift for the US nation in the wake of the abolition of slavery – referenced in the broken chain at the feet of the statue. Construction commenced in 1877, and Bartholdi brought in engineer Gustave Eiffel to help with the statue’s inner framework. In 1885, the completed statue was shipped to America, assembled and dedicated the following year.
During WWII a young American officer had to take a bathroom break. Returning to the bomber he was supposed to ride, he found another officer had stolen his seat… the plane left without him. He had to take another plane, instead.
The original plane he was supposed to go on was shot down by the Japanese, killing everyone on board including the seat-stealer. The next plane this man took, instead, suffered a severe technical malfunction as its electrical generator failed and caused the plane to lose power and communication. It had to return to base, but it was attacked by eight Japanese fighter planes on the way. The plane was badly damaged, but it managed to evade the enemy fire long enough to land safely in Australia.
Who was this lucky man who escaped death in the air twice, once by a full bladder and the second time through sheer luck and the skill of his pilot? His name was Lyndon B. Johnson, and he would later be elected president of the United States.
I was on a 2 month roadtrip with my family; preteen son and daughter, and wife. We had an RV but would pit stop at hotels or motels sometimes for the hot showers.
I was awake first and went out to do some roadside repairs under the RV. When i crawled out i learned the wife had checked out early. I was dirty and wanted to get clean before another long drive. I asked the front desk to let me back in the room to clean up and they gave me the key. I grabed my bag and headed to the shower. The family was in the rv getting themselves situated. I had the room to myself.
When i walked out the shower nude, looking for a towel the housekeeping staff was in the room cleaning. The door was propped open. The two ladies were changing the beds and had already removed the towels. I walked out nude and dripping. No towels…😬 The ladies eyed me up and down with suprise. One found a towel and handed it to me as they quickly excused themselves.
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park,
A “Hooverville” shantytown in Central Park, New York. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of October 1929 saw massive rates of joblessness and homelessness across the United States. People without jobs were people without the means to pay rent. Suddenly, civic lodging houses built for the homeless were filling up to capacity. Shanty towns – some housing as many as 15,000 people – began to grow up in close proximity to soup kitchens and other sources of free food. Such spontaneous towns were known colloquially as “Hoovervilles,” after Herbert Hoover. Hoover was the Republican President in 1929, and responsibility for the Depression was laid largely at his door. The Hooverville in Central Park developed on the site of the park’s lower reservoir. At one time drained and set aside to become a lawn, the reservoir project was derailed by the impact of the downturn. When it resumed in 1933, the Hooverville was gone, but not before it had gained notoriety, standing literally in the shadows of the opulent buildings that line the park, including The Beresford – opened mere months before the stock market crash.
Let me begin by saying nurses have a very stressful job. I probably couldn’t go it as a career. I respect the profession. You should too the next time you’re in the ER. BUT they are not the only varsity members of the healthcare team.
I am an X-ray tech to sum up what I do. Almost every routine xray….not ct or MRI can be done with a portable X-ray machine. So one day years ago a doctor ordered an abdomen X-ray on a patient staying in the hospital. I arrived to bring the patient to the X-ray department. The lady said she was feeling so bad could I please go get the portable machine and X-ray her in her bed. I said of course, I’d be right back. The patient’s nurse was in the room and instead of not saying anything or being glad I was taking the patient’s comfort in consideration she tells me that the patient MUST leave the room and go to X-ray. I told her it would be right back and get it the X-ray right away. The nurse said the patient had to go to the X-ray department. The patient started CRYING! the nurse said she was sorry but the doctor needed a good X-ray. I didn’t want to bicker in front of the patient so I asked the nurse to step into the hall. Again I told the nurse the plus side of me xraying the patient in her bed. The nurse said she used to be an X-ray tech and she knew a portable X-ray was not as good detail as a X-ray in the department, blah blah blah. Again stating she used to be a tech and she knows a portable Abdomen X-ray cannot be diagnostic. To which I said, only to her, “well ma’am, if you were a tech and was not able to do a portable abdomen X-ray and get a diagnostic image, then you made the right decision in changing professions.”
I know that pissed her off but I didn’t raise my voice or say it in a smarmy way. Her implying, in front the patient, that I wasn’t qualified to do my job pissed ME off. So I get a call from the charge nurse asking me what happened. Told her exactly what I wrote above. This was a Friday night. Monday when I get to work my director walked me to HR and he, the nurse, the director of nursing and HR guy told me I had to apologize to the nurse. As pussified as I viewed them, especially my director, I normally would have except they were claiming I was insubordinate to the RN. I-am-NOT-subordinate to a nurse. I will and do defer to a nurse in the case of patient care, meds, their role in an trauma or code situation, but NOT “listen and obey me”. I can’t do what they do but they (at least one) can’t do what I do. So I refused. Since it was an issue of being accused of being insubordinate…I said I will resign before I acquiesce under that stipulation. The next week I was at a better hospital, more pay and a legend in Baton Rouge X-ray.
thank you for all the upvotes. I wish y’all had been with me when I told my wife I had quit. “YOU FUCKING DID WHAT?!”
The hanging of the conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln
The hanging of the conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln, at Fort McNair, Washington D.C. The assassination of Lincoln in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth was part of a conspiracy to bring down the Union government. The plot would have seen the simultaneous killing by conspirators of the President; Vice-President Andrew Johnson; and Secretary of State William Seward. Only Booth succeeded. While Booth was killed before he could stand trial, other conspirators were taken and imprisoned. Three months after the assassination, on July 7th, four of them – Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt – were hung at Fort McNair. The scene was captured by Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner. The gallows was constructed specifically for the occasion. Mary Surratt, whose Washington boarding house was a primary location in the conspiracy, became the first woman to be executed by the US federal government.
Almost all family fights revolve around either Money or Ego/Dominance
Hunger always leads to irritation and a lot of fights so ensure you have a handful of Chocolates with you to prevent low glucose and irritability
Never force your Kid into something he or she is not good at or will not be good at. Dont thrust your ambitions on your kid.
If you have had a bad breakup and you are in College , its better to hire an expensive call girl for a 3 day session rather than flunking after becoming devdas. Most heart breaks are solved this way (Per 2010 Standards)
Limit Coffee and Tea and avoid Aerated Drinks entirely. Drink only Water whenever possible.
Mayonnaise, Extra Cheese, French Fries and Drinks are all to be avoided when eating fast food. They are the ones which lead to diabetes and weight gain. Instead you can order more Coleslaw and Beans.
Never get into trouble with Cops till you get your First Passport. Always be humble and never mouth off a cop.
Be open about watching Porn or doing something. Dont hide such things and pretend to be a goody goody. Such people often cheat on their wives.
Never try to find out if Ghosts are real by taking a camera and visiting an allegedly haunted house.
Never use a Credit Card except for Insurance and Medical Emergencies.
If your Peers force you to smoke, its worth losing the friends than losing your lungs.
Never raise your hands on your kids or Parents or Spouse or Girlfriend
Never cheat a Girl by promising marriage out of lust. It never goes well. Better to watch Pornhub
Never tell a lie that harms you in the long run. Simple lies are fine.
Ensure a BMI of 27.5 at the most if possible if you are a male and 26.5 if you are female.
Ensure you have health insurance at all times if possible
Never invest in a Property where the Total EMI is more than 40% of your combined salary.
Old Age Retirement Communities are not bad places but in India -7 out of 8 are Cheats. So be careful.
The More “I Love You” you tell a girl the shorter the relationship is likely to be.
Even if a Girl wants Physical Sex, think a 100 times before participation. Laws and Time are not on your side.
For Girls – Think 1000 times
Never get into Political discussions with Family Members and Friends. Thats what Quora is for.
The “Empire State Express”
The “Empire State Express” (New York Central Railroad) passes through Washington Street, Syracuse, New York. The Empire State Express was the flagship train of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. It also had world renown as the first passenger train with a speed scheduled above 50 mph, as well as undertaking the longest scheduled nonstop run, between New York City and Albany, for 143 miles. Trains have run on the roads of Syracuse, New York since 1859, earning the city the sobriquet “the city with the trains in the streets.” As well as the obvious safety concerns, the situation also brought noise, dirt and pollution to Syracuse citizens. At peak points, around sixty trains ran along Washington Street – though that era finally came to an end in 1936 with the arrival of an elevated railroad and a new station on Erie Boulevard East. The final train to run on Syracuse streets was the Empire State Express – eastbound.
Since 1992, Japan’s economy has been in huge decline. It is no longer the economic powerhouse of the 1980s that shook the world with innovations and the excellent capabilities of Japanese businessmen, allowing Japan to dominate global markets. The myth of Japan being an unstoppable economic force has long been dead. The Japanese economy since the asset price bubble collapse has been characterized by rising debt at an unrelenting rate, an aging population associated with low productivity, and zombie companies propped up by government loans.
Japan’s hope for an economic revival is waning as the country shows no real signs of turning things around, instead falling further behind other growing Asian economies year after year. In this post, I will highlight key points showing how Japan may become the first nation to reach “lost century” status.
The lost innovation era
Since Toshiba’s fall, the cracks in Japan’s economy started to show even more as other Asian nations like South Korea, Taiwan, and China began surpassing Japan in key areas. This accelerating loss of global market share further aggravated the decline.
This outcome holds a sobering lesson for any nation closely tied to the United States. No matter how loyal you are to the master, it won’t save you from their opression if they see the necessary reason to do so, especially when the American Capitalists see their revenues falling.
At the same time, talented Japanese technicians and engineers have increasingly found opportunities abroad as other Asian countries have surpassed Japan in key tech sectors. Many now work in Taipei, China, Singapore, and throughout the ASEAN countries, where they see more financial opportunities compared to Japan. This exodus shows how other nations have attracted Japanese talent that could have benefited Japan domestically if better opportunities existed. Ultimately, the blame lies with Japan itself for failing to sustain an attractive and thriving environment for their people since that’s what they got for pleasing the master.
Zombie firms
When the asset price bubble burst and the stock market collapsed, many major Japanese companies were at risk of bankruptcy. Japanese banks and the government bailed out these businesses with loans so they could avoid folding. While this allowed the companies to survive, they became “zombie companies” – failing businesses reliant on bailouts to operate, with no impetus to innovate.
The rise of zombie companies has been a key driver of Japan’s economic decline, as they contribute little productivity while occupying market share. Typically it’s better to allow failing firms to go bankrupt so new entrepreneurship can flourish in a creative destruction process. However, Japan feared the short-term pains of major corporate bankruptcies and preferred lending money indefinitely to decaying keystone companies.
Aversion to change and status quo bias have prevented Japan from undertaking major reforms. Biting the bullet on corporate failures, as painful as it would be initially, would better incentivize startups and productivity. Economies thrive when inefficient businesses can fail and nimble innovators have space to experiment and grow. Propping up zombies may seem safer, but it locks in stagnation. Japan remains trapped by indecision and fear of change.
In fact, the problem of zombie companies in Japan appears to be worsening rather than stabilizing. Instead of declining, the number of zombies propped up by cheap credit is rapidly growing, especially in 2021 and 2022 as many firms faced bankruptcy due to COVID-19. This perpetual bailout mentality is a critical factor behind Japan’s ongoing economic stagnation and the despair many younger generations feel about the future.
The country’s lack of sovereignty is the most important factor
Japan is known not just for economic stagnation but also as a loyal puppet of the United States, to the point of eben rivalling Europe. Its foreign policy and military fall heavily under U.S. influence. On Japanese sites like Yahoo Japan, users joke about the U.S. military presence being an omnipotent god towering over Japan’s actual government. This dynamic has been evident in Okinawa, where protests demanding removal of U.S. bases led to a referendum supporting their ouster by 70% of voters. Yet the bases remain despite longstanding issues like pollution, as Japan has not asserted autonomy over land usage. More impartially, the U.S. military itself produces immense emissions rivaling top polluter nations if it was a country. It would be known as the seventh country for being top polluter, just imagine how cancerous their impact is towards the world.
Japan’s lack of independence in foreign policy has allowed the United States to continue imposing unfavorable trade deals, similar to the Trump agreement where he forced Japan to open up access for American farmers in the Japanese market and dump goods without any tariff imposed on them. At the same time, this kind of control is what is stopping Japan from reviving economically, because if Japan was independent, then it could work with Asian partners to establish an Asian Monetary Fund and implement trade deals in their own currencies rather than the US Dollar.
In fact, Japan desperately needs China and Vietnam as they are the only key that could help Japan survive, but of course under the ruling LDP elites, such a partnership will never happen. And even if someone tries to steer Japan toward more regional trade and financial cooperation with the East, then the next day he will be assassinated.
Oh yeah!!! If you leave bottled beer in the sun for a month, its brutally skunky. When I was underage, I left a case of beer hidden in a field until I could retrieve it, a month later. Not a wise move.
The weirdest incident was when I went over to my best friends parents farm for Christmas Eve. His father was quite the character, he could be incredibly frugal, but was also quite funny. My best friends parents don’t drink beer. But my best friend and I made up for them.
When I came in they asked me if I wanted anything to drink. I said I’ll have a beer, not wanting to put them out, and not knowing that they didn’t drink beer.
To give some context, up until 1961 Canada allowed any beer bottle shape. Then they switched to a standard stubby bottle, and every brewery had to use the identical stubby, so that they could be reused, instead of recycled. In about 1983, they started allowing any shape bottles again. Most breweries switched to a long neck bottle, with a twist top cap.
The father went down into the root cellar and came up with two long neck beer bottles. They were a little dusty, but I didn’t think anything of it. I tried to twist off the cap, and I couldn’t, the father handed me a bottle opener, and I popped the cap. OMG, the stench, it bubbled and frothed out of the bottle. The father was laughing so hard, I thought he couldn’t stand up. It was a long neck from before 1961 and this was probably 1984.
He said he had bought the beer for company, decades ago, and stored it in his cold room/root cellar. He hadn’t used it, and when organizing this Christmas, he had found it, and wondered if it would still be good, like whiskey kept in a cool dark place for years.
He got his answer. But I wondered how much it had cost him. He had opened, a sealed case of beer, that was probably at least 25 years old. How much could he have sold it for.
So I am here to tell you, beer can go bad within a month in the hot sun, and is definitely pungent after 25 years in a basement.
Six were killed
Oklahoma’s Fort Sill – the burial place of the Native American, Geronimo – housed static kite balloons, inflated with hydrogen such as this one. The balloons were deployed for the observation of artillery attacks, and were secured with guiding cables by groups of ground staff. Six troops were killed in the accident captured here on camera, at Henry Post Field at the Fort. The hydrogen in a balloon was ignited by a what is believed to have been a static electricity charge, created as the folds of the balloon fabric were rubbed together. Thirty more troops were injured.
Not me but a guy I worked with at my local hospital.
Mick was an ex-Para and also ex-Foreign Legion. His hobby was going around car-boot sales and buying up old brasses (vases, pots, decorations etc), cleaning them up and selling them on. He bought a load in bulk and while checking them he heard something rattling around inside a tall vase. When he tipped it out it turned out to be a Victoria Cross complete with ribbon and clasp! For our American cousins it’s the British equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Being a military man Mick immediately knew what it was-now he could have kept it or sold it, but knowing what he did (and being an honourable bloke) he decided to track down the owner, or at least his family. He found the recipients grandson and after speaking with him on the phone they arranged to meet up at a pub. The grandson had brought paperwork and photos to prove that it was indeed his grandads. It turned out that, when he was a child, he loved wearing his grandads medals while playing ‘Army’ (which he wasn’t allowed to do, kids eh?) and had somehow lost the VC, for which his dad had, understandably, never forgiven him. Mick told him where he’d found it and it turned out that the grandsons parents had kept a large brass vase by the door that they put umbrellas in-it had been rattling around inside the vase for over 30years!
In 1983 Upper Volta was one of the poorest countries in Africa, then a coup installed Thomas Sankara as president. Sankara changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso and started a number of reforms. «His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles». Sankara improved the living conditions of the Burkinabé people, redistributing agricultural land, planting trees to prevent desertification, creating a widespread program for building roads and railways, which brought jobs and modernization, strengthening the healthcare and education systems. He also outlawed FGMs, forced marriage, and promoted women to the head of the state and at all levels of the administration. Finally, he unilaterally reduced the Burkinabé international debt (mostly based on old interests that had piled up) and renounced international aids where not strictly necessary in order to escape the control of the IMF and World Bank.
In doing so, through, he caused the enmity of the international finance, but also of the Burkinabé middle class and of the old tribal chiefs. These united forces and in 1987 assassinated Sankara, substituting him with Blaise Compaoré, who remained in office through heavily doctored elections, until 2014, when he finally had to flee to Cote d’Ivoire. Despite being nominally democratic, Compaoré undid everything that had been done by Sankara, worsening the human rights conditions, the economy, and the overall living conditions.
Bannock Bread (Scottish)
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup Crisco
1/2 cup water to make a thick dough
Instructions
Mix dry ingredients together well. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender.
Mix in the water and knead until the dough is very smooth, about 15 minutes.
Grease a cast iron frying pan, including the sides, and press the dough into the pan.
Bake on top of the stove over low heat. Watch carefully so that the bread does not brown or burn before the center is cooked.
When the bread is free from the pan, turn the loaf over and continue to cook. The total cooking time will be about 10 minutes on each side.
Florence Thompson with one of her children, Watsonville, California
Florence Thompson with one of her children, Watsonville, California. Thompson was only 32 in this picture by Dorothea Lange, an outtake from the photo session which generated the iconic “Migrant Mother” image. Born in 1903 in what was then Indian Territory, now part of Oklahoma, her parents were displaced Native American Cherokees. Marrying at 17, she and her husband began a family in California. When her husband died, Florence was left with six children at the age of 28. She went on to have four more children, three with a Californian man, Jim Hill. At the moment Dorothea Lange encountered the family, their car had broken down while journeying to find crop-picking work. Hill and the boys in the family had walked into town to get parts for the car.
John was a former U.S. Marine, and a karate black belt, and we were colleagues at a large language center in Bangkok.
The alpha male teachers initially assumed John would blend in with them, but they were so wrong.
He was polite, friendly in his own way to them but was quickly bored by their macho bravado and sexual escapade stories. That they demeaned others (foreigners and Thais) to swell their egos did not sit well with him.
The alphas, perhaps sensing that John was a true alpha, left him alone. They said that they disliked him but never explained why. Perhaps it was insecurity?
Some of the center’s academic management cringed each time a teachers’ meeting was held, knowing that John would be there, ready to call them out about unnecessary rules, regulations and for demands made on hourly-paid teachers.
If they insisted on changing teaching methodology or administrative procedures, John’s very valid, direct questions and comments usually exposed their lack of teaching experience and empathy. He made them accountable.
If explanations were clear and reasonable, John accepted them. He wanted what was best for students and teachers.
If he was proven wrong (even by himself), he readily admitted it. He also apologized if he inadvertently upset others with direct personal comments.
He was popular with students because he was what they thought an excellent, caring teacher should be. His standards were exacting and fair, and they knew he wanted them to succeed.
Gossip was never a thing for John. He may have made negative judgments about others, but he usually kept them to himself (occasionally expressing quiet sarcasm but only to close friends).
He had a wicked, subtle, sense of humor that went over most people’s heads. He had his vices, too, but again, only his closest friends knew them.
Why were many of his colleagues uncomfortable around him?
Because he never wavered in his integrity, honor and honesty.
I had a 1999 Buick Park Avenue with the 3800 engine. That engine was considered to be bullet proof. I bought the car with 184k already on it. It was a great road machine, 30mpg, and I loved it. I used to go into the northern suburbs to babysit my Grandson one day a week. By then the car probably had about 300k on it but it still ran very well and it was not rusted out. I stopped to get some take out breakfast on a rainy day. The car started ok but when I got on the freeway it didn’t want to get up to speed. I made it to my son-in-law’s house and into their driveway. When I left to head for home, the car would start but when I put it in gear it would die. It wasn’t showing a code so we didn’t have a clue. At that time, my son-in-law did some of my mechanical work so he said that he would take a look at it. They had an extra vehicle so they loaned that to me. Well he tore into it and checked all of the obvious things. Then he took the dash apart. He was stumped. After checking with some of his buddies, it was decided that the computer had gone bad. So he found a professional that came out to their home and replaced the computer. Nothing changed. The professional put the old computer back and wouldn’t take any money. He said that he didn’t solve the problem and he would not take any money. So I was being advised to give the car up, let it go for salvage instead of pouring more money into a lost cause. I told him that I hear you and I know you are trying to keep me from wasting my money. I just don’t believe that a car that has been running perfectly dies so suddenly without any obvious sign of a problem. I think it is going to turn out to be something simple that is hard to detect. So he got in touch with an experts’ expert. The expert showed up and he knew that there was another fuse box under the backseat. So they tore the backseat out and tested. Sure enough they found a dead circuit. They managed to trace that to a wire on the firewall that was corroded. They replaced that wire and the problem was solved. I drove that car to 366k. It was still running great but it had a broken leaf spring and the bushings were shot in the undercarriage. At that point I was going to be a volunteer driver so I felt that it was time to upgrade. I hold all of the cars that I have owned since to the standards of that ‘99. I loved that car.
Portrait
Portrait of Art Hodes, Kaiser Marshall, Henry (Clay) Goodwin, Sandy Williams, and Cecil (Xavier) Scott, Times Square, New York. Although born in the Ukraine, Jazz pianist Art Hodes was brought up in Chicago, and spent most of his career in “The Windy City”. Hodes became known for the Chicago Jazz style, but in order to find success, he had had to move to New York, in 1938. Here, Hodes and his River Boat Jazz Band – Joseph “Kaiser” Marshall on drums, Henry “Clay” Goodwin on trumpet, Sandy Williams on trombone and Cecil “Xavier” Scott played clarinet and tenor sax – are playing on a horse drawn cart to promote their concert that night – with special guest Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden. Writer and (self-taught) photographer William P. Gottlieb spent the ten years from 1938 to 1948 interviewing and photographing the leading, largely New York-based, jazz musicians of the time, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday. A columnist for the Washington Post, Gottlieb started to take his own pictures when the Post wouldn’t pay a photographer.
When I was fourteen years old, my favorite food in the world was pizza.
There wasn’t a good pizza shop in Lampeter, Pennsylvania, which was where I lived at the time. Most, if not all of my friends lived in or hung out in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. At the center of Strasburg, is Pizza City. The owner, Sam, was an over-the-top friendly Italian, with a keen eye for bull-shit.
Every day after school I’d smoke weed and head to Pizza City with a group of friends. I always ordered one crispy slice with a cup of water. Thinking I was cool, I would ask Sam for a free slice after I had ordered. That signature smile would fade and he’d look right through my bloodshot eyes and into my soul.
“Maybe tomorrow.”, was all Sam would say.
For years, Sam fed us and always encouraged us to be the best versions of ourselves. He asked us how our grades were and offered good advice.
At the end of my tenth-grade year,
my principal recommended that I attend inpatient drug rehabilitation to my parents. At seventeen years old, I was admitted into a two-week program in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. I kept a journal of poems and dreams from my stay at that facility.
It was a really scary time and my only escape was to write about it.
I always believed that Sam was against drug use, especially in children. When I got out of rehab, I started getting high immediately. I never went back to Pizza City. I never associated with any of my friends from back then because I was ashamed of who I’d become. I was a homeless heroin addict and didn’t want them to see that. As the years turned to decades things only got worse. My stays at facilities were no longer measured in days, but months.
Last year, I finally got clean. I still thought about Sam and Pizza City. After all, it’s where I grew up and my memories of Pizza City are nothing but fond. This past Sunday, after church, I decided to stop in with my family. I wanted Sam to meet the boys and Jessica and see that I had finally turned it all around. I knew how happy he’d be for me.
When we walked in we were kindly greeted and offered a booth. As my family sat down, I walked up to the counter looking for Sam. Just as I asked if Sam was around, Jessica called my name. I was told by the lady behind the counter that he was and to give him a minute. I walked over to Jessica and she pointed out a picture that was above our booth.
Sam, passed away in 2010. But if Sam passed away, who was the kind lady fetching for me? As it turns out, that little baby from twenty-five years ago, is also, Sam. It was Sam’s son, Sam that was being fetched.
I think about the people I have met throughout my life all the time. Some played a huge part and some played a small part. Sam, was a great role model and a fantastic pizza guy. He was a huge part of my teenage years.
I asked Sam that day if I could share a story. A story about a pizza man that saw the good in all of us kids. A story about a man that played a small part in my recovery with the promise of a free slice. After we talked, I asked Sam about maybe getting that free slice. His only response?
The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.
Eye pupil rises to 45% when an individual looks at somebody they love.
If a song is not going from your head, then try thinking about the end word of the song.
If you want people to take you seriously, just say what you’re saying is what your father taught you.
When you nod your head while asking, it tends to make others more willing to help you.
When it’s hard to convince someone to do something: give them options.
Ask for something huge before you asking for what you really want.
One good way to build trust is if you admit when you’re wrong, especially on little things.
For an interview, be either the first or the last one to attend in order to stay fresh in the interviewer’s brain.
If someone is talking or preoccupied, you can hold out your hand and they’ll give you whatever they’re holding.
Copying the person you’re with will make them like you.
You can be twice as rich by deciding you need half as much.
People will be more favorable to your idea if they think it’s THEIR idea.
Staring at peoples forehead irritates them quite a lot.
When high-fiving look at the opposite person’s elbow, that way you would never miss.
The U.S.S. Recruit
The U.S.S. Recruit, a wooden battleship built by the Navy in Union Square, New York City, to recruit seamen and sell Liberty Bonds from 1917 to 1920. In order to drive up recruitment to the Navy – and to train those so recruited – the US military commissioned the construction of a full and seaworthy battleship in the middle of Union Square, Manhattan. The ship was staffed, with a captain, and was equipped with wireless and quarters for officers and other crew. It also had searchlights – illuminated at night. As well as functioning as a successful training and recruiting unit – more than 25,000 men joined the US Navy via Recruit – the ship was also deployed as an event and reception location, hosting, amongst other occasions, a visiting group of Native Americans, and a christening. The ship remained in Union Square for the duration of the War and beyond, finally being decommissioned and dismantled in 1920. The six guns it carried were wooden replicas.
Oh yes. There’s a woman from Cape Cod named Gina Clark. Gina set up a charity called “Touched by Angels,” in which the charity supposedly offered help to families in crisis; handicapped child in need of special equipment, or families who needed help paying for their child’s funeral. The awkward part was that the family had to basically fund-raise on their own. They had to involve all their friends, and have their friends collect money, which then was SUPPOSED to go to the family in need. However, after going around, begging their friends, and participating in all these things the charity wanted them to do, the “charity” wound up basically charging the people for their services, and the people wound up getting next to nothing.
Anyways, she ripped off one of my friends, who was promised a wheelchair ramp, and used minivan. (For what it’s worth, all my friend really cared about was the wheelchair ramp. The minivan would have been nice, but she really NEEDED that ramp.)
Gina Clark eventually got busted, and served a minimum amount in jail, and part of her sentence was to actually pay the money to those families that it was collected for. Everyone on Cape Cod knew about the case, so when I happened to be in court one day, and Gina Clark was brought in front of the judge, I was interested to see what happened.
Apparently, she was crying poverty, and supposedly couldn’t pay. The judge got PISSED when he looked at her assets, and saw that she and her husband had two high-end cars, and two Harley Davidsons. The judge lit into her, and told her if she didn’t sell those Harley Davidsons to pay those victims, she was going to jail. His face was actually red, and his voice was shaking.
The entire courtroom broke out into spontaneous applause.
I watched a cousin package up and take all the white turkey meat home with her on Thanksgiving Day.
My dad has a large family. Individuals take turns holding the Thanksgiving gathering. This particular year my parents volunteered to host. Then my father went full overboard and invited cousins and their families. The end result was that over sixty people would be attending. Needless to say, mom was not happy.
In my dad’s family, the host provides the turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. Not to mention plates, cutlery, cups, sauces, and at least some of the drinks. So dad stepped up and contacted a friend who managed a local restaurant. He ordered all the food and it was excellent. The turkey was pre-sliced and laid out in long aluminum serving trays. It was separated by dark and white meat. There were trays of dressing and serving containers of the other items. Attendees were expected to bring a side dish.
It was controlled chaos. Fortunately the weather was mild and the kids could be thrown outside. Tables were set up in the sunroom. Tables were set up in the garage. People ate in shifts. Mom was a nervous wreck and exhausted. But everyone enjoyed themselves.
Late in the afternoon people began packing their stuff up to leave. It is typical at these functions for individuals to fix a “take home” plate. Turkey, dressing and veg. Maybe a slice of cake or pie. No biggie.
At a certain point everyone was gone. The next issue was maneuvering the leftovers into the fridge. I began transferring turkey into a storage container. My mother walked over and told me, “There’s no white meat left.” I looked at her in total shock. “Teresa took all of it. Before others could even get some.”
I was stunned. She had made multiple plates, just of turkey, then waltzed out the door.
Now it wasn’t like she had a family to take the food to. She is single. It isn’t like she needed the food. She has an excellent job and owns her own home.
But she is known to be a tightwad. She was taking the meat home to freeze.
I wish I had known. I wish mom had told me. But she knew better because I would have stopped her. Others would have had the chance to have helped themselves.
She didn’t have the decency to leave my parents, her host, a portion. Instead, she was a classless, spoiled brat.
I still think about that teacher from time to time, now some 20+ years later.
When I was in high school, there were five different levels of English class, depending on academic ability. Often, academic ability and behavioral problems go downhill proportionately. That is, the lowest-level class also had the most students with the most behavior problems.
I was in the highest level class. In my sophomore year, we had a student teacher for a few months. She was a very nice young lady… very quiet, but very smart. Loved to read and talk about books. I can say now, with the experience of being a teacher myself, that, in retrospect, she wasn’t really “teacher” material. She was far too kind, too soft-spoken. She was just a woman who was trying to earn a living via her hobby: reading.
But that’s not what teaching is about.
She loved her student teaching experience, because her skill set (knowing a lot about literature) fit the needs of the students in her class (wanting to learn a lot about literature). Then her time as a student teacher was up, and she was gone for the rest of the year.
The next year, she returned as a full-time teacher. This must have been her first teaching job after college. She said hello to those of us she recognized in the hallway on her first day. She seemed happy.
A few weeks later, she left her room in the middle of a class, got security to escort her back into her room to get her stuff, and was never heard from again. Another teacher had to take over that class from that point on. Our newspaper teacher, who was really tight with the 10 students in her newspaper class, told us exactly what happened: She (the new teacher) had a total mental breakdown in the middle of class because the students were so disruptive and disrespectful. She swore at them before crying and leaving the room.
As often happens with new teachers, she was at the bottom of the pecking order for which classes she got to teach. She ended up with the lowest-level English class, full of students with behavior issues who didn’t give a damn about literature.
This was not a good fit for her skill set. Those students needed more of a drill-instructor type of personality, not her soft-spoken style. The administration set her up for failure, and she failed.
I hope she didn’t give up on teaching completely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.
I worked in a department with three others and a manager at a radio station. Correction media company which owned multiple radio stations. We entered the contracts for the adverts. I had a inbox that never was less than about 10 cms tall for the two stations I was responsible for.
The morning was spent entering as many contracts as possible. The afternoons finalising which advert played in which break for the following day. Certain companies could not be in the same break as other ones and while the computer was supposed to do most of it the more it was over sold the longer it took me to fix it. The further behind I was in loading the contracts the more likely I would be oversold and spend even less of my day loading the contracts.
Any way my manager was told to fire one of us. She obviously didn’t know how to choose and spent a good month walking past us to her office warning us if we didn’t pull our socks up we would be out of a job. We all were stressing over the threat of being fired. I was already arriving early, leaving late and not taking all my breaks.
One day I came to my senses, they needed me more than I needed them. I would be able to get another job, the world would not come to an end.
I went up to HR and explained that I wanted to take voluntary redundancy as there was too much work for the four of us and there was absolutely no way I still wanted to be there when they reduced the staff to three. No doubt nothing that my manager hadn’t told them already.
I was happy to leave. A year or so later happened to bump into my old manager who admitted she quit about three months after I left. I was not surprised at all. Senior management were idiots. If you were on air staff or a sales rep you could do no wrong. But those contracts weren’t worth the paper they were written on until they were loaded into the computer system, which is what my job was and they treated us like we should be grateful just to work for them. As I said – idiots.
My son was in algebra class. He was trying hard to get a passing grade and trying to pay attention. Every day the boy behind him would very slightly bump his desk in the back of my son’s chair. He would ignore it but some kids sitting near by would laugh. This went on for weeks and weeks and my son just wanted to pass algebra. One day this boy behind him began very slightly touching his hair with a pencil. My son turned around and told him to knock it off. He told him this off and on before. As soon as my son said that the teacher called on my son to “STOP TALKING”. Then of course the nearby students would laugh again. So finally this boy brushed my son’s hair one last time and my son jumped up out of his desk turned around leaning over this boys desk. He put his hands on this boys desk and screamed into his face “LETS GO OUT SIDE $##@HOLE!! COME ON! LETS TAKE THIS OUTSIDE NOW!” Of course the teacher was yelling at my son to stop but my son was not listening to the teacher at all. The boy just sat motionless and not responding to my son. The teacher came over and sent my son to the office for the rest of the day. I told him I was sorry this happened and my son said “It was worth every minute of it”. The next day he came home and I asked if the boys bothered him again. He said no the teacher had assigned new seats to everyone. I laughed and said “Did he put that kid right in front if his desk!!??” My son said “No, he put me there”. So what happened after that? Well, this boy began to follow my son around asking if he wanted to hang out. My son didn’t though.
Don’t abandon someone suddenly after giving them attention. It kills them.
Don’t waste your time by stalking your ex on fb or checking people’s ‘last seen’ on WhatsApp. If they want to talk to you, they will. If they don’t, they won’t, even in a hundred years.
Don’t compare yourself with anyone. You and the rest are so different, that when you realize it, a comparison won’t even be possible.
Don’t ignore your body and health.
Don’t miss out on important engagements – Birthdays, weddings, your child’s first performance, your dad’s retirement party, reunions – its these events that make the fondest memories.
Don’t take things personally. Even if you know its personal, don’t take it personally. Then you win.
Don’t be rude to your parents. Or siblings. When everyone else will run for cover, its your family that will stand with you as you drench in your storm.
Don’t force someone to be in your life. Let them go, if they want to.
Don’t find reasons to be unhappy. It doesn’t pay to be sad. It pays to be joyous.
Don’t underestimate the power of people. Network.
Don’t let anyone make you feel badly about yourself. Always know your good things and your flaws. Accept them. Correct them. Or don’t correct them. But don’t let anyone else capitalize on them.
Dr. Frankenstein on Campus (1970)
Full Movie.
Also known as Flick. This Canadian-produced comedy horror movie finds a third-generation descendant of the monster-making madman Frankenstein (Robin Ward) performing bizarre electronic mind-control experiments on the students of a Canadian university under the auspices of his sponsor, Dr. Preston (Sean Sullivan).
When the doc isn’t hard-wiring the kids’ brains into the department’s newest computer equipment, he’s making time with a pretty coed (Kathleen Sawyer). Complications ensue when a group of students decide to frame the doctor for selling pot, leading him to use the computer to remote-control a karate champion and chop-socky his enemies to death. Only when the doc loses his control box do things really get out of hand, leading to a whiz-bang climax which reveals the doctor’s true identity. Dated and silly, with needless subplots and numerous drug references, this is occasionally enlivened by some interesting special effects.
Beware the following email originating from John Liu <chinaregistry177 (at) aliyun.com address individually to you. It is a scam trying to get you to part with your money. The website at the end of the message does not exist.
Mine was a Mr. Albert Liu.
Albert Liu<albert.liu@chinaregistry.org.cn>
Subject: CN Domain and keyword
“(It’s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. Thanks)
We are the domain name registration service company in China. On Dec 30, 2015, we received an application from Huaxun Holdings Ltd requested “XXXXXX” (name removed) as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China?
Kind regards
John Liu General Manager China Registry (Headquarters) 8052, Douhai Building, No. 59 Baolian Road, Shanghai, China Tel: +86 21 6191 8696 Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671 Fax: +86 21 6191 8697 Web: www .chinaregistry.com.cn Email: john (at) chinaregistry.com.cn
Phone numbers and URLs are equal to what what I got in my mail.
Comment and Advice
The unsolicited email you receive is from a Chinese domain registrar (could be a certified registrar, agent, affiliate or private person).
In the email they explain that a supposed company (try to Google the name) is interested in some available domain names (typically .hk, .cn, .tw), which correspond with your brand name.
In only a few days the other party will register these domains, unless you secure them first. The domain registrar can even send you an email from the interested third party (it comes from a hotmail address) claiming that they want to register your domain names, and they are only waiting for approval from Mr. Jim or whatever his name is.
Identical to what happened to me. Only this was from a sina address.
Zhihai Ning<zhihaining@vip.sina.com>
There is a similar domain name: www . chinaregistry.org.cn.
Yes. This is the URL.
In trying to connect to this my anti virus protection gave the following message so beware:
“When we visited this site, we found it may be designed to trick you into submitting your financial or personal information to online scammers. This is a serious security threat which could lead to identity theft, financial losses or unauthorized use of your personal information”.
It can be very expensive if you fall for it. Just ignore it.
Yuppur. It’s a pretty well established e-mail scam.
Remember the name of the organization that registers domain names is CNNIC. Not “China Registry”.
Thank you for asking. It is easy to understand. Western governments need to hoodwink their own people who are now very wary about their dropping standard of living for close to 3 generations now. The average westerners are now worst off then their parents and even their grandparents.
Homelessness is rampant, inflation exceed their growth rates and set them back further. Take the UK. In 2023 it’s economy had a negative growth of -3% yet its inflation is a full 4.2%. Together British people suffer a 7.2% deterioration of their standard of living.
The U.S. grew by 2.4% in 2023 but suffers a 3.4% inflation. So once again it’s standard if living fall by 1%. But it has deteriorated back to the levels of 1960’s. Even life expectancy has dropped below that of China! Homelessness has reached a million and a third of Americans cannot afford their health insurance and their college debts consume most of them.
So with such a scenario, it is hardly surprising that they used their media to channel western minds to Chinese economy that is purportedly deteriorating. These are simply a pack of lies to deceive the westerners. Just imagine 2020–2022 over the 3 years post pandemic China grew by 5.5% per annum while most western economies had negative growth.
But what is worst is that it suffered close to double digit inflation while China’s inflation rate is on average 0.5%. In 2023 China grew by 5.2% with a mere 0.2% inflation. Chinese people’s standard of living grew by a net +5.0% in 2023! Yet if you read western media it accuses China of a host of things casting doubt on China!
By right westerners ought to be mad at their government for lying to them. But most pretend to be living better than the world. It’s a fell good factor! It is not good because truth will dawn on them sooner or later.
I realized my mother was verbally abusive when I was around 13. One of my first friends invited me to dinner. I was worried, but I went. It was a normal dinner, with home cooked casserole and green beans. I wasn’t used to that. Everyone sat at the table, and the father cleared his throat. Uh-oh, I thought, here it comes.
Then, he launched into a funny story about how he and a coworker kept hiding each others waste baskets, and how he had won the last round thanks to his daughter’s suggestion of putting a plastic lei on it and photographing it as though leaving the office.
Then her older brother spoke. He was in college, and told an anecdote about a professor who kept losing chalk. Mum spoke up about Chippy, a little squirrel that she fed by the back door. My friend moaned a little about a huge homework project.
Everyone turned to me. I actually spoke, suggesting that we should build our school project in such a way that it blocked the principal’s door. None of these stories were actually that good. but there was a tenderness in the telling and listening that I had never seen. People listened. They chuckled. They talked. They praised Mum’s cooking. No one said one derogatory thing.
They were a normal family. My friend teased her brother about his lack of hockey prowess, and Mum and Dad liked different baseball teams. My friend got grounded for sass, sometimes. But, instead of the parents trying to destroy the children, they held them up.
I cried all the way home. It was winter, and the tears froze on my face. Mother was there. Her first comment, what did you do to your face? My God you were an ugly baby and it’s just gotten worse. It’s good you don’t wear make up, lipstick on a plow horse.
And it didn’t stop until I went to bed. It never really stopped until I left home, always under the guise of helping me fix my flaws.
But after that dinner with the B family, I knew there was another way to live. And that made all the difference.
Pasta con le Sarde
If there is any pasta dish that represents Sicilian tradition to its fullest, it is pasta con le sarde. Combining the culinary footprints of Sicily’s kitchens, this classic recipe mixes maccheroncini (macaroni) with fennel, tomatoes, pine nuts, raisins, anchovies, onion and fresh sardines.
The pasta is always ladled out of the pot, never poured into a colander, and then put in a serving dish. During two weeks in Sicily, we never had a piece of overcooked pasta. Test, test, test was Chef Tino’s rule, and, apparently, every other chef’s.
Ingredients
1 pound fresh sardines
1/2 pound fennel bulb
Olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces uncooked tomato sauce*
4 ounces pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins, softened in water
2 salted anchovies
1 pound macaroni
Pecorino cheese
Instructions
Bone the sardines. (If you slit the fish lengthwise and grab it by the tail, the bone easily strips out). Chop the fennel and boil under just tender in water that you will use to cook the pasta. Strain the fennel out of the pot and chop finely.
Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Brown garlic and onion in oil until soft. Add tomatoes, chopped fennel, pine nuts, raisins, and anchovies. Simmer for 10 minutes. At this point, start the macaroni and add the sardines to the pasta sauce. If the sauce is too dry, add a very small amount of the fennel water. Don’t stir the sauce once the sardines are added, to avoid breaking them up.
Place the cooked pasta in serving dish and pour the sauce over, finishing off with a sprinkling of Pecorino and a little olive oil.
Serves 4 to 6.
* This is best made with fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped, skin and seeds included. If tomatoes aren’t in season, you could use good canned tomatoes.
The first Emperor of a unified Germany, Wilhelm I, was a strict and conservative man. His son, Frederick III, was a liberal mind. A brilliant man and a keen reformer, he was full of ambition to transform German society, do away with stuffy nobility and its ancient war-like ways, and usher in a new, open-minded and scientifically oriented Germany.
Wilhelm I, however, kept on living… born in 1797, he didn’t die until 1888, aged almost 91 years old. Frederick had to wait for a long time for it to finally be “his turn”. He was eager, and excited for the task. But then, three days before his father passed away, Frederick was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had been ill for a while, and his health rapidly took a turn for the worst. By time his father was buried, he was already too weak to walk in the procession. He looked on from the palace window, and wept…
No small part of Frederick’s sorrow? His son and heir, Wilhelm, was a war-like man, imperialistic, aggressive, expansionist, conservative… the polar opposite of his peace-loving, progressive father. Frederick wanted desperately to make good use of his remaining time on earth. But cancer of the throat soon took away his ability to talk, and a botched operation to fix his pain resulted in even greater pain and discomfort when the resulting wound became infected.
“I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?” wrote Frederick III in his diary. He died in June 1888, a mere 99 days into his reign, aged 56. It is often speculated that, had Wilhelm II not ascended to the throne, his father would have moved away from Prussian militarism and Germany may never have entered WWI. WWII would have been averted as well.
We were all working overtime and being stressed out. Sales weren’t doing well, people were quitting, and everything was dysfunctional. Some items at the store weren’t even there or expired.
My boss was in a bad mood, taking it out on everyone. Nitpicking, tearing others down, and calling people incompetent. I’d already gotten a warning for talking back. I had told her that she shouldn’t be treating people that way. We were all working hard and doing our best. She said that if I didn’t like how she ran the store, then to get out. I was really tempted, but kept working.
It was the final straw when a pregnant co-worker needed to go home on time because she had to walk home at 11:00 PM. My boss refused and my co-worker was in a lot of pain. My boss told her to suck it up, that it was her fault for being an irresponsible wh*** and being stuck as a single mom. This made my co-worker burst into tears; her boyfriend had just broken up with her and left her after the news she was pregnant. She’d been taking it hard since.
I marched right up to this and told my co-worker to gather her things because she worked enough for the night, that I would drive her home. My co-worker listened.
My boss was furious for undermining her. I blew up at her, telling her that she needed to work on her morals and values. I asked her how she could even think about doing this to someone, especially her own worker? My boss answered that it was the wh***’s problem, not ours.
I told her that she should never call someone that and her behavior is exactly why she was losing employees. I said this was why nobody wanted to be around her or get to know her. She was an awful human being, no matter how many times she lied to herself.
I ended it that she was right, that I couldn’t work for someone like her. I didn’t like how she ran the store and I quit; the only time I ever did.
I drove the pregnant woman home and thanked me for everything. I explained that I quit, but would drive her if she needed me.
Apparently, I started a chain. Five people quit after me, including the pregnant woman.
The ironic part is that two months later, that boss was fired… for her treatment of employees.
I don’t know that it was the dumbest, but it was certainly an interesting and unusual complaint against me.
I was notified that officers were at a housing project and were requesting permission to force entry into an apartment. The officers had identified a man who had multiple warrants for his arrest. As they were arresting him he broke away from them and ran into an apartment where he did not belong.
I was a watch commander at the time and advised them to set up a perimeter around the apartment and I would be there in two minutes. Upon my arrival, I knocked on the door and spoke with the tenant who was very angry that my officers were threatening to kick down her door.
I had an advantage in speaking with this woman as I knew the complex manager and I also had studied the lease agreements with the various complexes. One reason for an immediate start of eviction proceedings was allowing criminal activity to be conducted at the apartment. I explained that I did not want to see her violate her lease, or have to pay for the door if the police had to break it in.
I explained the search process, and that we were just going to take the man who had run into her house into custody, and leave, without messing anything up inside. She allowed the officers to enter as long as I agreed to stay at the scene. I entered with the officers and actually helped in the search, checking one downstairs closet.
The man was found upstairs fully dressed in bed under the covers (so creative!). He was taken into custody and transported to the department for processing.
Several minutes after I get to the station, I receive a call from the resident. She said, “One of your cops stole $1000 from my apartment.” I advised her that I would take the particulars of her complaint and get to the bottom of this immediately.
I asked where the money had been located and she answered: “In the downstairs closet.” I thought for a minute and replied, “I’m the only one who searched the downstairs closet and I didn’t see or take any money.” She replied rather sarcastically, “Well, it was there before you came in and it’s gone now, so if you didn’t take it, where’s my money?”
Now my mind is going over each minute of the search, with no reasonable explanation. I asked to place the woman on hold for a minute and went to the processing room where the accused was.
Also in the room was a young woman who was counting out a pile of cash. I asked whose money is this. The girl replied, “It’s my money and I’m posting his bail.”
Now I remember, the girl was in the house. I said, “I saw you at the house. Where did you get all that money from?” She replied, ”From the closet downstairs.”
I put the resident, who was the girl’s mother, on speaker phone and had the daughter explain where the $1000 in bail money came from.
I spoke to the mom afterward and she apologized repeatedly. I told her it was already forgotten, and how much I had appreciated her cooperation at the scene, putting her trust in me.
After that, she thought I was a good cop and would wave to me or stop and say hello. Out of a silly misunderstanding, a higher level of trust would develop. So much of police work is about building trust, one person at a time.
I learned how to do some simple programming on my own. I wrote simple programs at work for my own and my department’s use. My boss knew about it. One day she came into my office and demanded that I write a program for another department. I tell her, politely of course, that I would be happy to do it but she had just hired a well-trained person to do just that sort of thing and it might be better if he did it. She quickly turned on her heel without saying a word, walked immediately to HR and wrote me up for insubordination. HR suspended me with pay immediately and I was escorted out of the building by security. I hired a lawyer, the best employment lawyer in the area and a friend, immediately. The lawyer told me that I would eventually get fired and then he would go into action. He also told me that my boss would be fired in 6 months and her boss would be fired within a year. Soon I got fired in person by my boss, who smiled throughout the whole ordeal (I had been with the company 21 years and had nothing but excellent reviews), while a security guard stood behind her. I was smiling on the inside.
My lawyer went to work. With 3 weeks my status was changed to retired (at age 56), my legal fees paid, was given a sizable settlement, and never had to go back into work. In about 8 months my boss was fired and her boss was transferred to corporate Siberia. To my surprise, a year or so later the company newspaper published picture of me standing in front of a beautiful new RV in the retiree’s section of the paper. I had bought the RV with part of the settlement check and sent the picture in as a joke. No one probably knew that it was a joke.
Back in about 1990 I was waiting on a group of six men at Baker’s Square. Five of them were normal people, but the sixth was just a funnel when it came to coffee. He wanted me to leave a pot at the table, which we weren’t allowed to do. I told him I’d keep him topped up. He was skeptical, and he was right to be.
I have never seen any three people drink as much coffee in an hour as that guy. I couldn’t keep up. I asked my manager if I could leave him a full pot and was told no. The guy was going from kind of irritated to outright crabby, probably partly due in part to the caffeine overdose he had to be on the cusp of. Glares, passive aggressive remarks, like that.
Near the end of their meal I got kind of slammed and the poor man’s cup was probably empty for five minutes. As soon as I had the chance I hustled to the table and was filling cups. Coffee Man was on the far right and I was going left to right. As I was tipping the pot over his cup he snapped at me, “Could you take a little longer with that fucking coffee?!”
Instantly aborted the pour with less than a teaspoon in his cup. Looked him in the eye with a smile (more of a smirk tbh) and said, “Yes, I absolutely can.”
Turned on my heel and left, with the sound of his friends laughing behind me. Went to the break room and had a cigarette. A whole one. Customer’s always right yeah?
Told the manager what happened on my way back out to the floor. He couldn’t keep from laughing but also said you can’t do that and he was taking over the table. I think he comped Coffee Man’s meal, but I never heard another word about it after that.
Ended up with a pretty good tip, I assume from his friends.
Passport Bros – The Men Fleeing The West | Japan Street Interviews
Bob loved me unconditionally and always respected me during our entire relationship.
We were married for over 31 years. We worked together for much of that time in a very public business. We met on the job when Bob was hired as the news director at a TV station I was already working for as a reporter/anchor. So not only was he my boss, but we co-anchored the evening news as well.
Bob was incredibly careful to make sure I was never granted any special privileges in the newsroom. His decision at work, went. He would always listen to my point of view and that of the rest of the staff, but his decision was final.
He was always able to switch to the mindset that we were equal when we went home.
He loved me like nobody ever had before , even when I didn’t love myself. He loved me when he was mad at me and when he really didn’t like something that I had done or said.
Bob was my husband…my partner and my best friend. He was my teacher and teammate as well.
Although he was not purrrfect (sorry, we were owned by cats), he was purrrfect for me.
I lost Bob to suicide. He had gotten incredibly sick and wasn’t going to get better. I believe that even this final decision and action, was done with me in mind. He didn’t want me to live the rest of my life as his caregiver while our bank account dwindle to pay his medical bills.
One thing about his final decision. In my opinion, Bob wasn’t wrong very often, but for me, this time he was wrong. The problem is, he was DEAD wrong. I will love and honor him forever. I work hard to make sure people remember his career and his accomplishments instead of just his final decision. I also work with several mental health organizations, including the local medical college, in both suicide prevention programs and postvention efforts (following up with people who have lost a loved one to suicide). I have done very television and radio interviews about Bob as well. I believe that since we spent most of our careers telling other people’s stories, that I should be willing to share ours.
Bob loved me, unconditionally. That is what he did for or to me.
Several years ago, my job was to sell robots to SWAT teams. Every SWAT team (except two of them) wanted one, but they couldn’t all afford them, so the problem wasn’t that the potential customers didn’t want to buy. The problem was that it was difficult to get to the SWAT teams. Lots of people wanted to get to them to sell them various things they didn’t want nor need, so the department didn’t make it easy to reach the SWAT commanders. I had several different ways of getting to them, all of which worked some of the time, but none that worked all of the time.
Then one day I figured out a new approach. Whenever I saw a cop along the road waiting to catch speeders and such, I would deliberately speed up in order to get pulled over. When the cop walked up to the window, I would say, “I have a SWAT robot in my trunk.” The response was always a variation of, “You have a what?” I would then ask if he wanted to have a look at it.
Sometimes the cop got very nervous about me opening the trunk, but they always wanted me to. (Could have been a guy with a gun in there; the cop had no way of knowing.) Once the robot was revealed, I would hand the cop the control and show him how to operate the robot. Then I would ask for the department’s SWAT commander’s name. The reason for this was that I wanted to be able to say “Officer so and so told me you would want to have a look at this robot.” It worked every time.
However, one time the cop was already writing the ticket on his way to my car. After the standard conversation and demo, the cop said that he couldn’t tear up the ticket, because he would get in all kinds of trouble for a missing ticket number, so he wrote me up for 1 mile per hour over the speed limit. If I had gone to court, the judge would have thrown the case out, but I just went ahead and paid the ticket instead.
Later, when I told the founder the story, he said, “From now on, the company will pay for every ticket you get while on the job.” I never got another ticket, though.
Ukraine SitRep: Finally A Wonder-Weapon That Does What It Promised To Do
The city of Avdeevka, (not to be confused with the small town of Andreevka near Bakhmut), is situated immediately north-west of Donetsk city. It has been used for years as a Ukrainian fortress well positioned for artillery attacks on Donetsk. The whole city, and especially the coke and chemical plant in its northern sector, was well prepared to defend against Russian attacks.
But despite all attempts to hold on to it the Ukrainian garrison within the city is about to be encircled and fall. Source: Live UA Map – bigger
The Russian attacks are coming from multiple directions and are more progressed than the Ukraine friendly map above is showing. The biggest danger to the Ukrainians is the Russian move in the north west which threatens to cut the city off from its supply line through the northern coal and chemical plant.
The Russian victory in this battle was accomplished with the help of one type of weapon created during the current war in Ukraine.
In the early 1990s the U.S. developed a strap on kit for unguided bombs that turned dumb weapons into precise ammunition.
… a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or “dumb bombs”, into all-weather precision-guided munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, giving them a published range of up to 15 nautical miles (28 km). JDAM-equipped bombs range from 500 to 2,000 pounds (230 to 910 kg).[5] The JDAM’s guidance system was jointly developed by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, hence the “joint” in JDAM. … The JDAM is not a stand-alone weapon; rather it is a “bolt-on” guidance package that converts unguided gravity bombs into precision-guided munitions (PGMs). The key components of the system are a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces, a (body) strake kit, and a combined inertial guidance system and GPS guidance control unit.
The JDAM kit, of which more than 500,000 were produced, allowed for the use of large piles of cold-war era bombs with previously unknown precision.
After the 2022 start of the war in Ukraine Russia engaged in a program to develop an equivalent to the JDAM kit. The program was finished by the end of 2023. The Russian version can be strapped onto a 500kg or a 1,500 kilogram dumb bomb extending their range by attaching wings, guidance kit and control surfaces to already existing dumb bombs. Prototype of a FAB 500 with (folded) wings and guidance kit
After being programmed with target coordinates the bomb gets dropped, turns 180 degree around its length axis and unfolds its wings. The wings enable the bomb to fly some 50 miles before hitting the ground. This allows the planes dropping these bombs to stay outside of the enemy’s air defense envelope.
The guidance kits are cheap and can easily be mass produced.
Yesterday some 65 FAB500 and FAB1500 were used against targets in Avdeevka.
The use of these bombs, which carry 300 kilogram and more of explosives, near one’s own troops requires careful planing and observation. Observers on the ground have to make sure that their own troops are outside of the deadly circle of these bombs and that the coordinates of targets are submitted in a disciplined but secure and timely manner. Pilots have to make sure that the received coordinates are programmed into the bombs and that their release is done at the right attitude and positions.
This kill chain requires intensive training and disciplined soldiers. Yesterday’s attacks demonstrate that the Russian army and air-forces have mastered this discipline.
Any detected resistance or position of Ukrainian troops was visited by a precise FAB attack within just a few minutes.
There is no defense against these weapons. It is no wonder then that any resistance against the Russian onslaught is breaking down. Russian troops can proceed through bombed out Ukrainian positions without taking losses.
Previous reports have talked about a Russian superiority in artillery by a factor of 5 or higher. But consider that a 155mm artillery round has a weight of some 50 kilogram, 60% of which are explosives. One FAB carries 10 to 30 times the explosive equivalent of one artillery round.
The Ukrainian army has nothing comparable in its arsenals.
The introduction of mass FAB500 strikes onto the Ukrainian battle field have given the Russian forces a new qualitative advantage that will change the course of the war (though not its outcome). The U.S. political and military specialists who still believe that attrition is a viable strategy for the Ukrainian army are clearly way off the path of reality.
On February 1 the German broadsheet Bildreported of the conflict in the Ukrainian leadership:
The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.
So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.
Zelenski had asked Zaluzny to resign which the General rejected. The Ukrainian president has since made clear that he wants to fire the more popular general but is still looking for the right time and reason to do so.
The loss of Avdeevka may give him a marketable excuse to finally do that even when it is clear that it was Zelenski’s narcissism, and not Zaluzny’s advice, that has caused high Ukraine losses while inevitably losing a not holdable position.
Posted by b on February 8, 2024 at 12:38 UTC | Permalink
It was my last job in Vietnam before I moved to the U.S. I was in that job for almost 5 years.
When I first started my position and reported to my boss, he was extremely difficult with me. He questioned everything and demanded an explanation for everything I did, including why I did it the way I did and how I came to that solution. This continued for six months. I felt so ‘roasted’ by him.
After those six months, one day, I received an email from him saying, “Read this email thread and tell me what I should do.” In another email, he replied to someone else’s email about a solution, added me to the loop, saying, “++ [my name]. I will approve this after [my name] has reviewed and gives me the green light.”
I had earned his trust.
One day, I messed up something important in an important project. I panicked, ran to him, and asked him what I should do. He sat me down and told me, ‘Remember, after you mess something up, admit the issue and come up with a solution to fix the problem yourself. You need to control how YOU are going to fix it; do not let anyone tell you what to do, because it won’t be in your favor.’ Listening to him, I calmed down and thought of a solution myself.
That was the most valuable lesson I learned from office. He is the best boss I’ve ever had, and I am thankful for the time I had the chance to work with him.
My dad was called as a witness to an accident that a member of the public had allegedly had on a building site he was foreman on. The victim had apparently fallen into a deep hole that had not been labelled clearly and then been laughed at and not helped by my father. Apparently when the victim had spoken to my dad he had refused to offer any help. The victim was suing the company for actual injury and for pain and suffering.
Prior to appearing in court the victim’s lawyer had contacted my dad and told him what was going to be said (I don’t know why, the case was a long time ago) My dad replied with “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer said of course and see you in court. My dad repeated “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer hung up.
On the day of the court case the victim told their story then they called my dad to the stand. The lawyer asked what job my dad had been doing onsite on the day of the accident. My dad replied with “None, I wasn’t on site on that date.” The lawyer called my dad a liar so my dad got his passport out which showed an exit date of 2 days before the alleged date of the accident and a re-entry date 6 weeks after.
Guess who ended up paying costs for that little debacle!? The victim’s lawyer was less than impressed.
She got a gold star
Guys give out the relationships. Women give out the sex.
All I can add about what to do if captured. At first simply give name, rank and serial number. During the class I asked the following, “what do you do when they bring pliers and a few other devices?” The instructor replyed, “ask politely for a ream of paper (a ream is 500 sheets of paper) and a dozen Bic pens; as long as you are writing they’ll leave you alone that is until they send the notes you wrote up their chain of command.” LOL. We always had a cover story that would make us so low on the classified stuff and if they persist; I would if captured I would tell them that I’m simply a cook. If pressured I’d ask them to let me cook them a meal. LTC Nick Rowe convinced his captures that he was a cook, this worked until they found out his real MOS; that he was a Special Forces 1LT. Nick knew that after 24 hours anything he told his captures would have been changed and will no longer be of any use to his captures. Nick was the go to guy on how to survive capture. He escaped after five years as a POW.
During capture you’ll always be looking for an opportunity to escape. Nick was assassinated while on duty in the Philippines.
The Famous belief that an emerging power will always be a threat to an existing power and war between them is inevitable
The Belief is incomplete
This is the case only when the Emerging Power desires to be a global hegemon
This is NOT the Case with China
China needs Cooperation for its growth and development
China needs Energy, Oil and Gas from others
China needs almost 23% of it’s Food from others
China needs Global Markets for its Trade
Thus China lives on a WIN WIN cooperation
China can flourish only as part of the Global Economy
The only thing that has changed is SO DOES THE USA
Until maybe three decades ago, the US could flourish on its own domestic economy, it’s own Oil & Gas, it’s Western and Japanese allies and satellites
Today the US needs many more countries to flourish and CHINA is one of the most important of them.
US needs China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and several other Nations in order to flourish as an economy
This the US does not like
The US doesn’t want to be dependent on China for it’s welfare and prosperity
The US policy has always been to CONTROL ANY NATION ON WHICH IT’S PROSPERITY DEPENDS
Thus it has two options :-
A China that is shaped as per US requirements. A Lackey basically. Like Japan and South Korea and now even Germany and France OR
A China weakened enough to accept US guidelines on what constitutes FAIR PLAY
China of course will not agree to either
China believes in a direct win win cooperation in the “May the best man win” mode of competition
So it’s the US that wants to keep the OLD WORLD ORDER rather than the Chinese wanting a new one
The Chinese just want to make money, grow and develop their economy and not be subject to throttling by the West and so to develop their own independent and safe technology and financial systems and military
Maybe 50–60 years later China could change but today there is zero chance of China wanting a New World Order or be a hegemon
We bought a used couch from someone on the Facebook. Seemed too good to be true. $1000 for a couch that goes for $3500 new. Leather sectional with 4 electronic leg rests, cupholders, USB charging ports, etc. A very nice upgrade from our existing sectional.
So, we went and checked it out. They had it in their garage. I asked why they were selling it for such a low price. Aside from some scratches on one seat, it looked almost new. They said he was a surgeon at the university and he was getting a job in North Carolina. So they were packing up and preparing to move quickly. We plugged it in and tested the leg rests. Everything worked. We had a minivan, so it was going to be three trips to get the whole thing home. 30 minutes each way. Kind of a waste of a Saturday, but I felt it was worth it.
On our first trip home, the smell hit us. It was a strong smell of orange, like they used an orange scented cleaner to clean it. This should have been a larger red flag than it was at the time. We still needed to move our existing couch to the basement, so we decided we’d kill two birds with one stone. Move the new couch into the garage, let that orange smell dissipate, and take our time disassembling and moving the other one to the basement.
When we went back to the seller’s house, we asked about the strong orange scent. They downplayed it and basically said they used whatever cleaner they had on hand to clean it before selling. Red flag #2.
We accepted their answer and continued making trips back and forth. They seemed trustworthy. All the pieces of the set smelled of orange cleaner, but especially one section. That piece was much more intense. We left the couch in the garage and sure enough, the smell faded. We moved the living room couch to the basement and the new one to the living room. The orange smell was gone. However, it was replaced by a much worse odor. I don’t know how to describe it except that it was musty, pungent, and kind of stuck with you. It was mostly coming from the leftmost recliner piece.
We reached out to the sellers a couple weeks after buying it. We asked about the smell. She played dumb and said they had hardly used the couch. They had it in their basement and there was never a problem with it. No water damage, no nothing. Clearly lying to us. Red flag #3.
Over the next few weeks, we tried multiple off-the-shelf products and home remedies for removing smells from furniture. None of them improved the smell at all. We finally contacted a fire restoration type of place. They had specialty equipment to deal with all sorts of problem smells in furniture. The cost was high and we didn’t know if it would work, so they offered us a deal. They said, bring in the problem recliner. They’ll try to remove the smell from that one piece. If they succeed, we’ll bring in the rest and they’ll fix each piece at a total cost of $700. If they can’t fix that recliner, no charge and we go our separate ways. Handshake, done deal.
I brought the recliner in and the guy who received it immediately started sniffing all the parts of it like a dog. He got underneath and focused on that area. From under the back, he exclaimed, “Tomcat! Nothing’s gonna work. We’ll try, but it won’t come out. Nothing gets tomcat urine out of furniture.”
Why I’d question the expertise of a guy who crawls under furniture and identifies tomcat urine is still a mystery to me. He was absolutely right. Their process didn’t put a dent in that scent, and we didn’t pay them a dime when I picked it up.
At this point, we’re pissed. We spent $1000 on a couch that’s unusable, and we’ve moved our clunky sectional to the basement and back again, not to mention spending a Saturday moving their couch home. We keep reaching out to the seller. She tries different tactics, from ignoring us to just refusing to do anything for us. All the while, she still insists that the couch never smelled in their house and she sold it in good faith.
Finally, I’ve had enough. I tell my wife to tell this woman that they’re going to return our money and take the couch back or we’ll take them to small claims court. Then she offers to give us $100 back, still not admitting there was a problem with the couch. No. Everything or you’ll be sued. Finally, she agrees, but somehow is able to act like she’s the victim. Great. She transmitted our money back to us, but doesn’t say anything about the couch. A couple days pass, and she demands that we bring it back to them. My wife asked me when we can return it to her. My response? “Oh no. She can come pick it up from us. I’m not spending one minute or a single calorie on bringing her that useless couch.”. She says fine and asks for our address. She responds a couple days later and says they don’t want it either. Yeah, nothing wrong with it. Sold it in good faith. But you don’t want it at all. Huh.
We put it up for sale for free on the Facebook. We were very up front on its condition. The guy who came to get it was excited about it. I warned him that the scent is strong and nothing will improve it. He didn’t care. Said his sense of smell is very bad and he didn’t think it’d be a problem.
The reason most fights come down to bare knuckle brawling is simple. All that stuff you see on TV, MMA, martial arts tournaments etc are people that are trained to fight like that.
I have had my fair share of fights over the years, some I won, some I took a beat down. I have never seen anyone win a street fight using martial arts. Its probably not because it isn’t effective. Its because 99% of people are just watching TV or taking weekend course at Bob’s Dojo and that makes them think they are qualified to put the moves on Joe the drunk.
Pro Tip: Joe is not interested in style points or looking cool when he fights.
The worst thing in the world you can do if your not a trained professional is to try to kick someone in a street fight. Your foot leaving the ground means you have lost all your balance, your center of gravity is gone and your probably so slow doing it any reasonable healthy twenty-something man see’s it coming a mile away.
When I was young I had this happen to me once (not bragging) I caught the guys leg and slammed him into a brick wall. His Bruce Lee impersonation was over in less then a minute.
That wasn’t special. If you are not highly trained do not try any fancy kick moves you saw last night on TV. It wont end well. To effectively get away with kicking someone or doing most martial arts type moves like you see in the movies requires tons of training. It isn’t something Joe average can pull of just because they saw someone else do it or they took a couple of classes at the local community center.
#1: I went to high school with this girl, Lisa. She kissed me once. Later, in my early 20’s, I kept randomly running into her, all over the world: in a dive bar in New York, on the street in San Francisco, and in an obscure back alleyway in Oaxaca, Mexico.
#2: When I lived in New York, I had a dream in which some voice kept repeating a 4-digit number, like 3264, 3264, 3264, like it was very important. At the time, New York had a lottery you could play by choosing four numbers. I thought about playing 3264, but then dismissed the idea, as I had to go to work. As I was about to get on the subway, I noticed that my subway car was numbered 3264. That did it for me, I ran to the nearest lottery kiosk and played that number. The following day, the winning number was announced: 3265. One digit off. I was rather annoyed with the universe over that one.
#3: I exited my gym and hopped into my car, at that time a rather sad and beat-up green mid-1980’s Toyota Tercel. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed that there was someone else’s stuff scattered around. And then it hit me: This was NOT my car! It turns out that for that particular model, the keys are sometimes interchangeable. Toyota made about 13 possible key shapes, and the woman who had already driven MY car away, had the same key I did. It took her longer to notice.
My wife would occasionally smell something odd. She couldn’t describe it. It happened at random times in random places, like in her classroom or at a concert or on the sidewalk downtown or in our house. If she was with someone she would ask, and nobody else smelled it. This happened over the course of at least two or three years that we can remember.
She also occasionally stumbled or lost her balance, which she attributed to natural clumsiness.
One Saturday afternoon in late March 2022 I came home from an errand to find her shivering under a blanket but not cold, and stammering her speech. I declared “something ain’t right with that girl” and took her to the Emergency Room. There a CAT scan revealed “a concerning mass” in her head. She was transferred across town to the major regional medical center. Sunday morning a MRI showed detailed pictures of a mass the size of a tennis ball behind her right eye.
That Tuesday she underwent 9 hours of surgery to remove a meningioma – a tumor of the meniscus tissue surrounding the brain. It was contained (not invasive) but growing. It had been growing for some years before it pressed on nerves and on the brain itself enough to disturb their function, including vision and smell and balance and eventually seizures. I brought her home that Friday afternoon, six days (to the hour) after we entered the ER.
Beginning immediately and now two years on, her olfactory hallucinations (remember the question was about smelling something?), tremors, and problems with balance and coordination are gone. She has a new eyeglass prescription. Follow-up MRIs continue to reveal no recurrence, and her brain is expanding to re-occupy the space from which it had been shoved aside by the tumor as it grew. She has made a more-than-full recovery, engaged with new sporting challenges, and enjoys every day as a teacher, musician, and Grandma.
By the grace of God expressed through a surgeon’s skillful hands, she no longer smells things that aren’t real, I get to enjoy more years with my lovely bride!
Here in my little town we had this business called the Executive Whirl-A-Sage. It offered massage and spa services for the “discriminating client”.
Everyone knew what it really was.
Anyhooo… The IRS decided to take notice. But they couldn’t figure out how much money the place made because it did everything in cash. They got clever.
Sent an agent in as a “client”. (I always wondered which lucky dude landed THAT plum assignment!) He had his “service” (which I suspect didn’t include the happy ending, but who knows???). He carefully counted the number of towels used.
The IRS then demanded all the laundry bills for the business. They counted the total number of towels and divided by the number used per client to determine the number of clients. Some simple math and they had their estimated revenue.
Needless to say, the place was closed down when it couldn’t pay the bill.
I’d just like to start off by saying, gentlemen, I love y’all. You’re half the world. Most of you are great, many of you are just sweet and adorable.
And then there’s the rest of you who come out of the barn in which you were raised just long enough to scare me out of leaving my house.
The right to have sex with me is earned. It’s not transactional, it’s not a bought and sold commodity, and I don’t owe you just because you bought me dinner or even a lousy cup of coffee. In fact, I owe you nothing of myself except my public courtesy, and that can be withdrawn at any time if you show yourself unworthy of it.
What you men—and this is where you stop being gentlemen—do to really creep me out is that you forget that I am the ultimate keeper of my body, and try to wear me down when I say no. Constantly badgering, hinting, whining like a toddler in a checkout line full of candy. Like a toddler you sulk and stomp around when I say no, and double down on trying to get your way. And just as the toddler screams “I hate you!” because mom won’t buy them a Kinder egg, you turn on me when I won’t give in.
“Bitch.”
“Fat pig.”
“You’d be lucky to have someone like me, you ugly piece of shit.”
Yeah, that’s just the right way to get me into the sack.
You don’t respect the word NO, and in that you disrespect me. That’s just creepy and you make me question my lifestyle choices.
To me I believed most of the global south world agree with me. I am sure the U.S. dog and slave nations very much prefer to lie to themselves that the U.S. is the most powerful for their own self interest and wishful thinking.
No matter how pretentious you can be, the world’s most indebted nation, the world’s highest deficit nation, the nation that spends more on defence than the next 10 biggest defence spender, the world’s most over reach, over extended war monger and trouble maker cannot be powerful. So the U.S. is at best is a desperado trying to grasp at anything to stay relevant at the cost of bringing its economy down further.
The real power is China whose respect comes from its actions. Not like the U.S. on coercion and threats. China has overtaken the U.S. in most counts. Even militarily. China does not want a poor U.S. or even a collapse U.S. it still wants a good trade with the U.S. but one that has mutual respect.
Why are universities making students pay for classes that have nothing to do with life
I work with a woman whose WHOLE family doesn’t “do funerals.” I asked her why.
She told me that it started when her paternal grandfather passed away, and they were planning the funeral. It was emotionally draining to plan while grieving, not to mention expensive.
Her paternal grandmother decided she didn’t want a funeral, and that Thanksgiving, with the whole family (my co-workers parents, co-workers in-laws, aunts, uncles, extended family on both sides) she made a declaration.
“I don’t want a darn funeral. Donate the money you’d use for a funeral for me to an animal shelter or a food bank.”
After a long discussion, it became a tradition.
They just don’t have funerals, they put up an obituary and ask for donations to whatever charity the deceased picked.
On the anniversary of their death, the family members take the ashes of their loved ones and spread them.
I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.
EDIT: (04/24/2020) Wow, I have gotten a LOT of feedback on this answer. Thank you all!
One thing I’m going to suggest to all of you is, if you choose to be cremated, please get your cremation set up and prepaid for as soon as you can.
My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2017. One of the first things she did was get her cremation set up.
She prepaid for her cremation, she picked out an urn (a plastic box.) She also separately bought “keepsake urns,” for my sister, grandmother, one to be interred and one for me. She bought 10 death certificates (my dad had passed away on 2010, and she knew you’d need a lot of them for different things.)
When she passed away in February of this year, all my sister and I had to do was call the funeral home and they picked up her body. They had my sister and I go in a few days later and sign paperwork.
They didn’t try to sell us anything, they were able to be human to us. To help us grieve.
When you pass away, your family won’t have to pay anything extra out of pocket unless taxes or death certificate prices rise. We actually received a refund check for $11.38.
The cost of her “package” in 2017 was around $1,600. The funeral liaison we met with said today, it would be around $1,800.
At the time of the loss of my mom, I was so grateful she took care of it for us. It was an amazing gift.
I was doing part of my internship in a bank in the safe deposit department. It turned out to be quite fun, actually. One day a client came down and asked to rent a safe deposit box, a large one. He was in a hurry, so I did the paperwork as fast as possible, and then took him to his box, leaving him alone to deposit whatever it was he wanted to leave with us (as we were not supposed to watch) and then he left.
About ten days later, the gentleman came back, and, by chance, I was the one who went to open his box with him. I was about to leave him at it, when he stopped me and said “No need, I’m just getting this and I’ll return the box.” I looked and he had a big bag of chocolates which he was pulling out of the box! I gave him a puzzled look and he laughed: “My wife demanded I buy Swiss chocolates for the whole family, but then I had to add a leg to my trip, and I couldn’t take them with me. I thought it would be a pity to throw them away…so…”He raised his shoulders and left.
Still, he’d paid one year’s rent for a large sized safe deposit box, which was about 500 to 600 francs, to avoid throwing away maybe 200 francs of chocolates. And created an insect infestation risk for the bank, if he’d forgotten or neglected to return for his chocs!
I never had a situation like that,but just last year one man that has a restaurant in Rovinj,Croatia called my ex boss to ask him for my phone number since he saw me work the previous season.He then called me and said that he wanted me to work at his restaurant,and since he knew that I’m good at my job he offered me 3000€ a month,accomodation and food.He said that he knows that I’m worth it and that he won’t haggle because he wants me to work for him.I accepted and got there,and started to work. To cut the story short,from all the things he promised,nothing was delivered. It was close but not what was promised.When I got the first salary I noticed that the money paid to me was off,but since my first month there I didn’t work the full month i decided to wait for the next salary and to see what is what.The salary for the full month I got 2300€.When I called him to speak about it he said;”The conditions are what they are,if you don’t like it,good luck!”,and he raised his hand like he wanted to shake my hand.I grabbed his hand right away and said “I don’t like it.”He was surprised,and when I was walking away I heard him say that 2300€ is still a good salary and non of his other workers had that much.But to me it would have been the same if he gave me 1€ less than promised.I would still left.You can’t lie to me like that and expect me to take it.And besides the way he said that”if you don’t like it,good luck”that would be humiliating if I were to stay.Fuck you and your 2300€ a month.If he offered me 2300 from the start,and kept his word I would still come to work for him,and I would be satisfied.But anyway when it comes to your case,I think that saying to people:”If you don’t like it,you can go.” is degrading,and I would go.I think that there should be mutual respect between the worker and the boss,not just respect for the boss.
Some of what was said in the interview by Putin:
– Russia is ready to supply Europe with gas through the “Nord Stream 2” pipeline, but Germany does not want to
– The United States was the one who blew up the “Nord Stream” pipeline.
– Elon Musk’s creativity cannot be stopped, but rather an understanding must be reached with him
– Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement sooner or later
We want to reach a solution to the Ukrainian crisis through negotiations
– NATO has options to recognize Russia’s control over the new territories
We have information that the United States supported terrorists inside Russia
The West fears a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia
– The Americans pledged not to expand NATO eastward, but the expansion happened 5 times
– The world will change regardless of how the crisis in Ukraine ends
– Russia becomes the first economy in Europe in 2023 despite the sanctions. American attempts are of no use.
– Ukraine is an artificial entity established in the Stalinist era
Russian relations with Ukraine are distinguished by language, kinship and religion
We proposed that Russia join NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but they refused
– When NATO refused to let us join it, they feared Russia as a large and powerful country
We will never attack Poland unless we are attacked by them
How the heck did Andy Dufresne walk into nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area and walk out unrecognized with hundreds of thousands of Warden Norton’s money the day after his escape from Shawshank Penitentiary?
Signature cards, no photos on driver’s licenses, and no CNN or World Wide Web.
This stumped me for a long time, too. I couldn’t figure out how someone could use a phony driver’s license with no picture on it, and take out tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of any bank in the United States.
But apparently photos weren’t always required on driver’s licenses in every state. The first photos appeared on driver’s licenses in California in 1958. Texas didn’t require them until the mid-1970′s. Even New York and Tennessee didn’t require pictures until 1986.
I couldn’t find what year Maine began putting photos on theirs, but, it’s probably safe to assume that in the mid-1960’s, Maine didn’t yet require pictures on a legal form of ID.
The Maine driver’s license Andy presented to the bank was probably state issued and not forged, if we assume it was Warden Norton who created the alias to hide the money he was making by taking bribes from construction companies who didn’t want Shawshank’s cheap labor taking over major construction jobs in the local area.
Also, I remember, from working for a couple of years for a bank when I was in college that signature cards are placed on file with the bank, so if someone comes in without ID, they can just match the signature to the card, and accept that as legal identification.
We would think of that as somewhat of a lax form of ID in today’s day and age, but fifty years ago, the world was different.
Anyway, it makes sense that Warden Norton would use Andy and his wealth of banking knowledge to create all these accounts under the alias, Randall Stevens (Peter Stevens, in the novella) even having Andy sign the signature card (that doesn’t always have to be done inside the actual bank, believe it or not) so as to further insulate Norton from the crime.
As for why no one in the banks or on the street knew Andy by his face, someone else mentioned that this was 1966 (or 1975, if we’re talking about the original text) and in that era, it took a day, or so, to get someone’s photo into the newspapers (which was the World Wide Web back in those days) to get a photo distributed to the three major broadcast companies, and maybe a couple of days to reach all the local TV stations state- and nation-wide.
The instant gratification of the Information Superhighway was still a couple of decades away, so the wheels of communication could take a few days or even a week to get up to full speed back then, so it’s completely plausible that Andy Dufresne could have walked into a bank the following morning to clean out all of Warden Norton’s false bank accounts without anyone even knowing there was an escape at Shawshank, much less recognize his face.
The only thing that’s a little bit implausible is that he could get to eleven banks, all in one day. It has always been a tedious, drawn-out task to go into a bank and close an account, especially if you get an accounts officer, then an assistant manager, then the bank manager, all trying to talk you into keeping your account open, which Andy would most assuredly have run into, considering the money he was taking out of each branch, so the idea of getting to that many banks in a single 24-hour period is a bit of a stretch.
She was young and timid and always wore full-length skirts and hats whenever she was outside. She was one of the three women who ran the gifted program in my middle school. That may have been a part of her student teaching (internship), now that I think about it. Like I said, she was very young.
The gifted program in middle school was a one-hour-per-week pull-out program. Three or four kids from each class (I was one of them) left our regular class for that hour and went to a different room where the three teachers played logic games with us, discussed current events, and generally tried to challenge us more than the regular teachers were able to, since the regular teachers had to aim for the middle of the pack, student-wise.
The best part of that program was the field trips. It was nice to spend extra time with just that group of classmates and those three teachers. I happen to have some pictures from an 8th-grade gifted class field trip, and she is in some of them. I can tell now that she was maybe 25 years old at best back then.
Two years later, when I was a sophomore in high school, she got hired as a full-time English teacher at the school. It was cool to see her again. All of us former gifted class students of hers were happy to see her again, but sad that she wouldn’t be teaching the advanced English class we were in.
Within two weeks, we saw her for the last time, jogging down the hall mid-class period, crying, heading for the exit.
She was used to working with gifted kids in small groups… Kids who were well-behaved and genuinely interested in what she was trying to teach them.
As is the norm with high school teachers, the newest teachers get the last pick when it comes to classes. So she was stuck with teaching the remedial English class… the students who had the most academic and behavior issues. Apparently, those students were able to get under her skin so much that she walked out on the job. Broke her contract and everything. We never saw her again after that.
I remember seeing the assistant principal running down the hall shortly after that, into the room that she’d left teacher-less. It was the first time I’d heard an adult actually swear at students. (Although I was told that the coaches did it all the time to their student athletes.) He got the class back under control for the rest of the period, mainly by yelling at them like a drill sergeant.
But perhaps that’s what they needed all along: someone with the demeanor of a drill sergeant, not the timid young lady whose teaching career they ended quickly.
I’ve read many of the comments on this topic, and I believe my offering here can be helpful.
I worked in food service for 14 years and held the title of Executive Chef at two American institutions. The most notable was at the Augusta Country Club in 1987 up to the Masters’ Golf Tournament of April 1988.
The grilling, broiling, or searing of a Rib Eye steak will bring a distinct flavor to the flat surface of the cut, which is common for all beef seared grilled or broiled. However, that flavor will not be present along the outer perimeter of the cut, and tenderness is not guaranteed, especially once it cools down. (I’ve had to use a jacquard tenderizing device on some.)
A roasted Prime Rib can be prepared in an oven to achieve a dark brown upper/outer surface and can then be placed under a broiler/salamander to add more of that coloring/flavor to the outer surface. Also, a sliced Prime cut can be seared to get that browning onto the face of the cut. Au Jus is a lesser preferred option for me in that it “waters” the flavor as it rinses off some of the rub/seasoning.
Now, just last year I developed what I believe is the pinnacle of prep for Prime Rib. (I moved away from buying ribeye after I got less-than great results in tenderness after paying a high price per pound.)
What I did was to season a whole Prime Rib with a plain mustard binder, and my custom rub. THEN I thoroughly pierced the entire Prime with a long skewer to promote self-basting INSIDE the cut. The final step is the “ringer.” I put the Prime into my Cuisinart pellet smoker on 250 degrees, until the core temperature reached 200 degrees. (about 10 hours) I use dark wood pellets like Cherry, or a dark fruit blend. The outer surface comes out as dark as any sear. The smoke ring all around the Prime is always at least 1 centimeter wide, and the inside is always full of flavor!
Some of my guests who like rare meats believed they got rare from me. “Rare” is (arguably) around 165 degrees internally, but my Prime at 200 degrees was so tender, juicy and flavorful inside and out, that it pleased all my guests.
I am retired from my career, but I’ll be smoking another Prime Rib for visitors at my home next week!
Both. We had one restaurant that charged all cops $2 for a meal. It was a greasy spoon that health departments and vegans despise but it was the only place in town open 24/7 that we did not have to worry about some crackhead cook “doctoring” our food.
That $2 was usually supplemented with a $5 tip, which covered the meal and the waitress’ tip.
The chief stopped us from going to the diner unless we paid full price. So we paid full price. Orders are orders.
When the owner found out why we were paying full price, he was livid. He went to the next city council meeting and actually yelled at the mayor and city manager about how they were trying to dictate to him what he wanted to charge cops and firefighters. He had been doing it so long, everyone knew about it and didn’t care.
The day after the city council meeting, the chief rescinded his order and $2 meals were back with the $5 tip.
This was a place we could bring a homeless guy on a cold night for coffee and a meal and we did many times in the winter. We always left enough money for both and when we came in for our meal hours later, the waitress would give us our money back.
The owner would always feed someone in need for free and didn’t want us to pay for it. He felt it was his duty to do so.
Great food and a better man who, sadly, passed away many years ago.
I was born to answer this question. I have three distinct instances when my neighbors have called the cops on me, well rather my parents but still.
When I was a child I had a neighbor who would literally spy on my family and called the cops on us several times. The first time she called the cops on us was because she saw a sleeping bag on the roof and was calling because she thought one of us was on the roof. So the police come to our house and ended up waking my mom who was asleep (she works night shift as a nurse). What had happened was one of my sisters had spilled water on the sleeping bag and thought it was a sunny day she would just put it on the roof to dry.
As you can see my house has a window above the one roof so it’s not particularly hard to do this. Anyway the cops came questioned my mom and then went about their merry way.
The second time my neighbor called the cops was when we all were getting ready to go somewhere and my dad was at work so it was just my mom and us kids and so we all got loaded into the van and we were going about our merry way when the cops call my mom and ask if she has all of her children with her. She says yes and the cop asks if it’s okay if he comes and checks. She says yes and he comes and sees that we are all there and goes on with his life.
The third and final time was the most serious. The neighbors kid threatened me and said if I didn’t come over to her house in the middle of the night she would burn my house down. Now of course that wouldn’t make sense but I was under nine and she was three years older than me and I was scared of her. So I went over and spent the night. Her mom was totally okay with this and didn’t call my parents at all. Instead in the morning she gave us breakfast because we were hungry and we went home. Later that day she calls the police on my parents because she said we were not well taken care of and were starving. All because we had asked her for breakfast because after all we had not eaten all night. So the police came and inspected our cupboards and such. They decided that my parents were fit parents and left.
So that’s my crazy neighbor for you. I hope you enjoyed my stories.
My girlfriend back then was working at a hotel near my house. She went to work in the morning, and noticed a puppy in the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot. It was yelping and whining, like puppy’s do, so it was hard to miss.
When she left work 8 hours later, the puppy was still in the back of the truck in the parking lot… in Texas. No water. No food. It was a hot day. She grabbed the dog and brought it to my house.
She was a yellow lab mix, and my girlfriend named her Vive. The girlfriend didn’t last, but the dog did. Best dog I ever had. We traveled together through thick and thin for the next 12 years. From small apartments to horse farms, and for a few weeks living in my truck, we were best friends. I could take her anywhere. Never on a leash to control her. Only when others demanded it. She was good with children, kittens, horses, and I could leave a steak dinner on a low coffee table, and she’d never touch it.
She had 2 drawbacks. The first, was that she loved the smell of a dead skunk. Thought it was Chanel No. 5 and loved to roll in it whenever she could find it.
The second, was that she didn’t live as long as me.
I attended college in the ‘80s, when miniskirts were (again) in fashion. In one class, a lovely young woman sat beside me in the front row.
During the first week of classes, the professor dropped the chalk mid-lecture (intentionally, I suspect) and peeked up her miniskirt. Her legs were not crossed.
She was taking notes, so she didn’t notice. He saw that I had, and he quickly resumed the lecture.
In the hallway after class, I asked did she have a moment. She was wary, probably used to being hit on by strange guys. I told her what had happened, and that she should probably switch seats.
She switched out of the class. I should have.
The professor had seen me talking with her in the hall. From that point forward, he nitpicked my assignments and test answers. (It was an English course, so all answers were written.) Nothing was ever wrong, but he’d find ways to subtract a point here and there until the deductions added up. I had a D in the class at one point.
I was naive, never before having received a bad grade. (Yes, overachiever.) I assumed that eventually the reprisal would end. The realization that college professors are almost completely unaccountable came too late — after the period to drop a class.
My final grade was a C. I was distraught, not only because it was my first C, but also because it threatened my scholarship, which required that I maintain a minimum GPA.
The assistant dean called me in for a conference. I explained what had happened, bringing exhibits of his grading of my work. I also provided the name of the peeking victim to corroborate my story.
A few weeks into the next term, I received a notice that my grade had been changed to a B. It was my only B in my major field.
And I avoided future classes with that professor.
Green Lasagna with Two Sauces (Lasagna Verdi al Forno)
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
Meat Sauce
8 ounces bulk Italian sausage, crumbled
4 ounces smoked sliced chicken or turkey, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 medium stalk celery, minced
1 medium carrot, finely shredded
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups water
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Dash of ground nutmeg
Green Noodles
8 ounces fresh spinach or 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, cooked as per package directions
2 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cheese Filling
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup snipped parsley
Creamy Sauce
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of ground nutmeg
3 cups milk
Instructions
Meat Sauce
Cook and stir sausage until light brown; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.
Green Noodles
Remove root ends and imperfect leaves from spinach. Wash several times in water, lifting out each time; drain. Cover and cook with just the water that clings to leaves until tender, 3 to 10 minutes. Rinse spinach with cold water; drain.
Place spinach, eggs, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 teaspoon salt in blender container. Cover and blend until pureed, about 20 seconds.
Make a well in center of flour. Add spinach mixture; stir with fork until mixed. Sprinkle with a few drops water if dry; mix in small amount of flour if sticky. Gather dough into a ball. Knead on lightly floured cloth covered board until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Divide dough into halves. Roll one half into a 13 x 12 inch rectangle; cut rectangle into 6 (13 x 2 inch) strips.
Repeat with remaining dough. Spread strips on rack; let stand 30 minutes.
Heat water to rapid boil; stir in 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon oil and the noodles. Cook uncovered over medium heat until nearly tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Drain; rinse with cold water. Place in single layer between sheets of wax paper.
Cheese Filling
Toss all ingredients together.
Creamy Sauce
Heat butter over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, salt and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute; cover and keep warm. If sauce thickens, beat in small amount of milk. Sauce should be the consistency of heavy cream.
This happened a very long time ago in Corporate America.
Our department worked closely with another that was managed by Marsha, a 40-year-old workaholic who was brilliant at her job. In fact, headquarters had her conduct workshops twice a year to share her methods and to update procedures.
She was totally immersed in effective management, efficiency, quality control and motivation.
Occasionally, she would ‘come up for air’ and momentarily consider that life included much more than work. She would look around for something to do that would benefit the less fortunate and made donations of money, goods, old clothes and books.
Then it was back to being a workaholic.
She was approached by Stan, a fifty-eight-year old, homeless man who refused charity and asked for a job. She spoke with him several times at a cafe where he was sometimes given meals in return for doing odd jobs. Marsha was impressed by his attitude, but most of all, by the love he had for his dog SweetPea, a Lab mix.
That was a side of Marsha that none of us were aware of.
She put her reputation and position on the line, cleaned him up and got him a job in the company’s mail and supply room. Stan lasted two days: he insisted that SweetPea had to be with him.
Marsha didn’t blink. She negotiated a position for him in the large parking area of the office building. He and SweetPea were still there, three years later when I moved on to a different place.
Whatever the US do, or tries to do it does not matter. At the best it will only slow dow China the the U.S. expense of slowing it selves even more. China will grow till it is effectively be 5–6 times the U.S. real size. It may take the most of the 21st century but it will ultimately come to that.
The reason is simple. China has 4 times the U.S. population but it’s political and social system is simply far more superior and stable. It’s growth is sustainable and very healthy. Hence it should put grow the U.S. on per capital basis. But in the real sense. Not in U.S. dollar or even in GDP narrow sense that is frankly a farce and meaningless.
Chinese people are harder working, they are certainly more discipline, the learns more and are more industrious and highly driven. The Chinese language may render its people less descriptive but it makes them more learned and helps them learn faster and better. China is not distracted like the U.S. to get itself into endless wars like the U.S. hence it ought to be at least 50% more successful over time.
That is provided there’s us no war with the U.S. but if war happened it either end the world as we know it or it it world totally implode the U.S. till it becomes several nations. Both are not good outcome for the U.S. To me the U.S. needs to accept that the best option it to hang on to being a strong number 2 till India get its act together sometimes by the 2nd half of 21st century.
I needs to partner not try the shit of containing China right away. It needs to benefit most from China’s inevitable ascendency. Not obsessed with stoping China by cutting of its own limbs.
“You told my granddaughter her shirt was ugly,” an angry woman I’d never met before told me as I was supervising my kindergarten students during their breakfast time.
I looked down at my little student, then up at the grandmother and asked, “I’m sorry, what’s this all about?”
She repeated her claim, saying the girl came home from school the day before and told her the teacher said her shirt was ugly. I couldn’t even remember what the little girl had worn, and I most certainly never said that to a child.
Speaking to the girl, I asked her who had said her shirt was ugly and she replied, “The kids.”
Grandma went berserk at this and yelled at the girl, “No! It was your teacher who said that! That’s what you told me!”
At that point I suggested we take it to the principal and asked the other teacher in the cafeteria to cover my class. Once grandma and I were in the principal’s office, the whole conversation was repeated. The principal told the woman that she’d known me many years, that I would never speak to a child in that manner, and that clearly it was indeed other children who had said the shirt was ugly.
Grandma threatened to take her accusation to the district office. The principal pointed to her desk and said, “There’s the phone.” Grandma turned and left the office without another word, and that was the last I heard of the strangest complaint I ever received as a teacher.
Debt – had a sgt, when I first started, that lived about a mile from me, so we hung out sometimes. I get a call one day that he got arrested for bank robbery. He bailed out and my roommate and I went to talk to him, because we couldn’t believe it. He said, “I was just trying to show them how weak their security was.” We were new, but we weren’t born yesterday. Apparently he had some big gambling debts and was desperate. He went to prison.
The slippery slope – A team of narco cops decided, amongst themselves, that they weren’t being treated fairly. They were bringing in all this money in seized assets, but the department wasn’t giving them money for equipment they felt they needed, like night vision scopes. So, they kept (stole) some of the the money they seized to buy the equipment they felt they needed. mmmmm Okay. But then the equipment they needed turned into houses, cars, jewelry and boats. They went to prison.
Greed – A case I heard about recently, a deputy offered up his services to provide security for dope shipments. He said he and his coworkers would escort shipments for a certain amount of money. His “coworkers” were actually just people he knew. They all went to prison.
Born dirty – A kid from a generational gang family was raised to stay out of trouble and get good grades. The sole purpose was to get him hired on the sheriff’s department so he could help with the gang’s jail drug smuggling operation. He was found out and arrested. Within a week, he was all tatted up. He went to prison.
Stupidity/Naivete/No good deed goes unpunished/Blackmail – Inmates have nothing but time. Career criminals use that time to plan. They will try to identify, target and “groom” young naive deputies. In a case a few years back, 2013, or so, a young kid graduated from the academy and was assigned to one of the jails. An inmate started making conversation with him and being friendly. At a certain point, he gave this kid some sob story about his family and that he couldn’t get in touch with them, or something like that. Whatever it was, this young deputy decided to do something for this inmate, like take a message to his family, or something and then bring a message back. I forget exactly what it was, but it was against policy and being in his first year, he could be fired. The inmate used it against him and blackmailed him into smuggling drugs into the jail. The inmate was caught, gave the deputy up and the deputy went to prison. He made a video for the department about it that the department now shows in the academy.
Until a few years ago, when my mom was still working, she had a very strange habit — She would come back from work tired, request for a glass of coke, a couple of papad, and sit down for a few minutes before resuming other household work.
We would often tell her that rather than coke and papad, you can eat something healthier, perhaps a glass of juice and some fruits. But no, these advices would just fall on deaf ears. I wouldn’t just understand why would she not want to stay healthy.
She would often have headaches in the morning and would wake up tired. Being an advocate of yoga, other fitness activities and it’s importance, I would keep persisting with my efforts to convince her. But no, she would just not have it.
For me, it was difficult to understand why would she not want to have a better life.
Just, why not!
Surprisingly, my father, who used to go for jogging and would really care about his fitness, started ignoring the healthy bits of his life and slowly, with time, stopped doing it at all. He seemed to be following mom’s route of not caring about his health anymore. I tried to persuade him to restart with the brisk walking again, but to no avail.
Years later, I realised the reason — It was the stress that was killing them from inside — something I was not aware of, until recently, especially about the intensity of it they were dealing with.
When it was my turn to get a share of their stress coupled with some of mine, I found out how it overpowers your willingness to do things which makes you happy. It smothers you slowly, makes you want to avoid putting any extra efforts, even for those things which are absolutely essential. You become a person who just wants to do things which makes them feel normal, if not better — like having some unhealthy meals in my mom’s case; or stopping the exercises in my father’s.
Advices, suggestions, words of wisdom are the most readily available things in this world. Every body seems to give it, very few can follow it under every circumstance. What a person is going through and whether he can even make something of your suggestion (intended in a helpful way) is way beyond our understanding at times.
And unless you can be in someone’s shoes, you will never understand why that someone behaves in a certain way, or chooses not to.
I think a story from 2005 illustrates it fairly well.
This was at the Norrtäljeanstalten prison, Sweden’s highest security facility. We’re talking murderers, armed robbery, that sort of people.
One fateful evening, there was a major slip in security. Total disaster. In one wing, the cell doors remained unlocked as the staff went home for the day.
So. It’s not like the inmates could get out – they were still behind several secure layers. They just had the run of the building for one night.
So what did they do?
They made their way to the kitchen, baked a cake, and ate cake and watched TV all night. They all said it was the best night ever.
In the morning, they were unceremoniously put back in their cells, but faced no further consequences. The two staff who had managed to forget to lock got a weeks’ pay docked, and a stern warning.
Swedish prison: turns bank robbers into cake bakers.
My cat went missing for several months. He was a stray that kind of adopted my home as an inside/outside mellow lap cat. I searched and asked around, posted flyers all around town but he was just…gone. One day went to a customers home and on her living room couch is my missing cat!! This older lady had been feeding it and coaxed it inside and he stayed. He remembered me, I pointed out a little crook in his tail that convinced her it was him. I told her that he seemed pretty happy and I guess he lives here now. I gave her his vet records, cat bed, and favorite toys. Part of me was mad because she HAD to have seen those missing cat signs but I was at the same time glad he was warm and happy and not flattened by a truck or something.
About a year later, this crazy lady comes to my door with VET BILL! He got a bladder infection and she took him to the vet and asked them to charge me for it. She took the paperwork I’d given her and told them it was on my account. A bill had been mailed and I was on the phone with them before it even arrived letting know it was her cat and her problem now!
I grew up (in my elementary school and high school years) in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. And in this small town, was a fair and relatively calm life that in many ways resembles Mayberry RFD… A “small town America”.
We had a “cigar store Indian” at the local Hardware Store.
We had kids riding bicycles and had newspaper routes.
We had PTA clubs, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts. And Friday football games.
And we also had a small family store with a large “Pickle Barrel”. This was a wooden barrel that was perhaps one yard high, and filled with pickles and vinegar. And if you wanted a pickle, you would just reach in, and give a nickel to the old man at the cash register.
I believe that these things disappeared during the 1980’s. But the death knell occurred under the “food safety standards” of the Clinton administration.
Anyways… I well remember the days when my father would place 25 cents (a quarter) on the counter, and would buy all of us some nice delicious pickles. These weren’t small either. They were HUGE!
And I do miss those days where I would hold a pickle in my hands and munch away happily. Sigh… a long forgotten time.
Yes. The bride felt “pressured” into the marriage. Traditionally, the bride or her parents hire me. It’s quite rare for the groom or his parents to hire me, but it happens infrequently.
Leading up to the wedding (it was a destination wedding), there were several hints that the bride wasn’t interested in choosing a dress, the flowers or any of the aspects in the planning process. I found this odd and one day about a week prior to the wedding, asked why? The bride felt inadequate. Everything was decided for her. She felt uncomfortable speaking her mind or making a decision. Her fear that the marriage would be a “follow the leader” lifestyle was the reason for this.
After saying “I don’t,” I took her from the altar to the dressing room to give her a moment while stunned guests and family members sat open mouthed.
We needed time to decide if this was “what she really wanted” without the audience. I should add that I’m also a Premarital Counselor with Two Together In Texas, so I’m familiar with awkward situations.
The bride told me, “If the rest of my life will be spent saying yes, I prefer to say no now. My family loves him. He’s successful and a good catch. However, his parents make most of his decisions. He works for his father and I may never measure up to his mother.”
I decided to bring the groom and both sets of parents into the dressing room. This bride needed to voice her concerns and find a resolution or peace. She had waited two years to speak up and it was two years too long.
The end result was they worked it out. They found a middle ground to move forward, and the marriage went on. I flew to California to baptize their baby and the family is doing well. They are happy and well adjusted.
The mother in law now allows the bride to do things her way and the mother no longer pushes her daughter to do what she thinks is best. The mother viewed this wedding as the one “she never had.” The mother in law wanted everything perfect. The bride wanted happiness and the groom simply wanted to please his mother, her mother and finally, the bride. The bride or groom should come first. They are the life partner. They are the person who will stand beside you through thick and thin, and they deserve a voice in decisions and especially the planning process.
The bride wanted a mariachi band at the reception. Both sets of parents were against this idea and found it to be “tacky.” I found a short notice mariachi band and the bride was absolutely thrilled.
Quite frankly, if a marriage isn’t going to work out, I prefer for someone to say “I don’t” and discuss with them their reasons to before announcing a cancellation of the wedding to the guests or finding out if a resolution can be found.
My reasons for addressing an issue on wedding day are that divorces are emotionally devastating. What began with joy ends with sorrow.
Couples should discuss things that bother them long before committing to planning a wedding, although it’s easy to get “caught up in the planning.”
Couples should feel comfortable communicating their feelings and open to discussing issues that are disturbing before planning a life together. I believe in Premarital Counseling because it offers couples an opportunity to discuss their future together.
Weddings aren’t all about the parents. They are all about the couple, regardless of who is writing the check.
This Is What Women Will NEVER Understand About Men’s Dating STRUGGLES!
If you’re not familiar with Christmas, among other things, it’s usually the biggest gift-giving day of the year, at least for us Americans. Also the celebration of the birth of our Savior and all that jazz…
Anyway, this is how gift-giving works between my wife and me—a veteran married couple. This is also how it works between most veteran married couples I know:
We just tell each other what, exactly, complete with pictures and Amazon links if necessary, we want our spouse to get us for Christmas.
Sometimes, we even buy it on their credit cards, since we share finances anyway.
Sometimes, we even buy it ourselves, wrap it, put it under the tree, and tell our spouse that we “took care of it.”
There have been times when my wife opened her Christmas present from me, and I was just as surprised as my children were when we saw it. I got you a new pair of running shoes. Nice.
In the past, I attempted to deviate from my wife’s official Christmas list. You know, to surprise her. I was trying to be romantic.
It rarely went over well, particularly if I attempted to get her clothes or perfume.
Just stick to the list, married guys. Perhaps it’s not as romantic, but it’s still the best option. If you want to deviate from the list, make sure you get everything on the list, too.
This year, my wife requested something that I had to purchase in a showroom and have delivered at a later date to the house. I facetimed with my wife while I was in the store, to make sure I was getting the exact one that she wanted. It’s being delivered on a day when she works from home. She’ll have to be there to receive it. And they say romance is dead…
Licking blocks of ice during the heat wave, NYC, (1912)
I was called to the 6th floor of a 6 floor tenement building for a “seriously unwell child”. A woman was waiting downstairs, and she said “I’m going out, but I think my son is dead. He’s had a cold for a week.” And she left.
I had the jump kit (a first aid kit) and my partner had the oxygen and suction- I went up the 12 set of stairs two at a time (oh, to be young and foolish again…) so I got there before he did. A man was there with 4 kids who all looked very scrubby but also very alive. He said “He’s on the sofa”. And then, they went back to eating.
The little boy was 4 or 5. He was so hot to the touch, and although he had a pulse, he wasn’t breathing. He was wearing red flannel cookie monster pajamas… I will never forget them.
I grabbed him in my arms, started mouth to mouth, and headed back down the stairs. The father actually said “Hey! Shut the door!”
I was busy. I met my partner halfway down. He took one look at the kid and said “Oh Fuck, we gotta get him out of here…”
I jumped in the back, but we were only 5 minutes from the hospital so I just kept him in my arms and did rescue breathing. I didn’t want to delay … my partner was there in less than 3 minutes. His heart was still pumping.
I brought the lad in, the staff took over. We were getting the truck ready when the doctor came out and said “which of you tech’d him?” I told him I did. (Tech-ing means you’re the one with the patient)
He said “You’re going to need a lice treatment.” I sighed.
He said “We can do it inside”. Now that was weird… but when I got inside, he said “I needed to talk to you privately… he died of bacterial meningitis. Did you do mouth to mouth?” Of course I had, he was a little kid. Bacterial Meningitis is spread through saliva and nasal secretions. I was (potentially) screwed.
So, they did blood work and I had to take evil antibiotics that turned everything yellow (INH and Rifampin) for a year. I was there for at the hospital for hours before I got sent home with a month off work to make sure I didn’t have bacterial meningitis too.
Now, I’ve driven way too fast, driven on roads that weren’t safe to walk on never mind drive, worked on cars while traffic buzzed past, turned over an ambulance (wasn’t my fault, honest), gone into burning buildings, gotten blood and lots of other “body stuff” on unprotected skin, walked into domestic violence situations, gone into freezing water to get some one else out, extricated people from a car on the edge of a ravine, been to a plane crash, extricated people from a burning car, talked people down who were holding guns to their own head- but all those times, I could see the risk in front of me. Had I taken the time to look at the kid’s rash, I might have seen the risk but his condition and the complete apathy of his parents drove me to not see the risk- and not assessing for the risk in what you’re doing is the single most dangerous thing anyone can do.
They were 5 minutes from the hospital, and no one cared enough to bring the kid there. Did I tell social services about the apathy of the parents? You can be sure I pursued the matter like a slightly yellow hell hound.
Well I was the uniform manager for a marching band and what we did worked fairly well. We kept an assortment of sizes on hand and when we got a new member, we had them try on those in stock uniforms until we found their best fit. Then we would place the order to replace the one they were issued from stock. There is a lot of variation in cuts of shirts, and one company’s medium might be another company’s large. If someone comes in who looks like a large and says “oh I’m a medium,” say “Here is one try it on; be aware these tend to run small so you may need to move up a size from what you usually wear.” The employee gets to save face, and you don’t have to be rude and say “Oh I can tell by looking at you a medium will never fit.” If I were ordering a large number of shirts, I would first order a selection of sizes for people to try on. Then launder those sample shirts and put them away to issue later to new employees as they come in. If these are something more fitted than a T-shirt or polo shirt and this were going to be a large order, it might be good to have a representative from the uniform or shirt shop to measure people and order one that best fit them.
An Ojibwe Native American spearfishing, Minnesota, (1908)
A few years ago our city decided to try to alleviate the homeless problem.
They bought a large two story motel that had become a bit rundown located along a major freeway.
They spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars fixing it up and remodeling every room into small studio apartments.
Then they let homeless people to live in the apartments.
We would drive by the apartments periodically and every time it looked more rundown.
This went on for a couple of years until one day it was burned to the ground. A news story said one of the homeless people decided to build a fire in one of the apartments. I guess he just like the look of a campfire.
Eventually, the building was demolished and the city sold the land at a significant loss.
Giving a house to every homeless person is not financially feasible. No government entity can afford that.
And, even if it was, it would not solve the homeless problem.
The only way to fix the homeless problem is to help a homeless person, who wants help, become stable and productive so they can eventually afford their own home.
Homelessness isn’t solved in mass. It’s solved one homeless person at a time.
Generalissimus Jiang Jieshi (蔣介石), also known with the Wade-Giles Romanization Chiang Kai-Shek.
Born 31 October 1887, he was a professional soldier and one of the most genuinely talented soldiers China has ever produced. His tragedy was to live in one of the most tragic eras of China ever, to encounter superior enemies, and having an army full of rotten and corrupt subordinates. He fought a hopeless war of which he had no hopes of winning, yet he did it with utmost courage.
The death of Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Yixian) in 1925 had left China in a power vacuum and interregnum, and the land collapsed into anarchy known as Era of Warlords. China became a Warlordistan. The control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions from 1916 to 1928.
Chiang raised the National Chinese Army, allied with the Communists led by Mao Zedong, and crushed the warlords, unifying the country. And alas, the Communists proved an unreliable ally – and the Empire beyond the sea, even more unreliable. Japan attacked China in 1931 after the Mukden incident.
The Japanese army was superior in technology, fighting spirit (dao), discipline and logistics. The Guomindang army of Chiang suffered from poor equipment, corruption, lack of patriotism and poor logistics – it was an “army of lions led by jackasses”, but its commander was the alpha lion.
Way too little has been written about the China-Japan war 1931–1941 and China’s part in the World War Two. But China has been one of the main theatres – and one of the main sufferers – in the war, and the Japanese praised the Chinese soldiers, insisting them be second only to the Australians in their will to fight.
Meanwhile Mao Zedong conspired to overthrow Guomindang (or Kuomintang, if you prefer the Wade-Giles Romanization), and after the liberation of China, the civil war re-emerged. The Guomindang army was tired, consumed and exhausted, while Stalin eagerly supported the Communists, finally overcoming the Guomindang 1949. Chiang and the Nationalist refugees fled to Taiwan.
The Communist Chinese propaganda has done all it could to stample Chiang as an unpatriotic American stooge and a traitor, while the Guomindang in Taiwan set up a Western-style state under Christian and Confucian principles.
But nobody could deny Chiang was a true Chinese patriot. His last will was that his body be buried in his hometown Fenghua.
Loyal Husband Finds Out Wife Participates In “Events” While He’s Away Working (She’s Toast!)
When I got into IT I got in the habit of showing up early to prepare for my day. I spent a lot of time traveling to various facilities as a computer support tech so I’d come in to check email and make sure there wasn’t something I needed to do in the office before loading up and hitting the road.
Many of my younger coworkers would clock in on the hour but our business manager, who didn’t clock in, had a bad habit of showing up 15 minutes late each day. (She also had a tendency to leave 5 or10 minutes early, but that’s another story for another time.) One week the IT Director and our boss, the Deputy IT Director, were both out of town so the business manager decided that she could show up whenever she felt like it.
She was at least a half hour late on Monday through Thursday, including 45 minutes late on Wednesday, so when she showed up at 8:15 on Friday morning I exclaimed, “Gee, Linda, this is the earliest you’ve been late all week!”. Everyone got a laugh out of it but Linda, apparently, didn’t think it was funny because she called my boss at the seminar that she was attending to complain.
The next thing I know my boss is calling me and asking what I said to set Linda off. So I told her what had been going on all week. She told me that Linda was offended by my comment and asked if I’d be willing to apologize, and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Then I said, “No.”
If Linda had told me to eff off, or kiss her butt, or just about anything else I would have taken it in stride but her calling the boss, when she was in the wrong, pissed me off. I’d asked your coworker if he/she signs your paycheck and when they answer in the negative, tell them when you come in is none of their business. But I can understand where they’re coming from, especially if you have a problem getting to work on time.
Jewish women and children arriving at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, Poland, (1944)
This is going to be fun. But let me tell you, its more like what I thought she was like and how she actually is…
When we first met through parents, she looked like a shy girl next door. She was smiling and feeling awkward a lot. After we got married and a little more comfortable, she walks around house naked, has 0 level of shyness.
I thought I was getting cold feet. She was being forced. Turned out she had insisted to her parents that she wanted to get married, like literally told them in a complete sentence, ‘Dad, I want to get married. I don’t have any boyfriend right now. Search a groom for me.’ I’m not even exaggerating, her parents tell this story all the time.
I thought she didn’t like talking. WRONG. She NEVER shuts up. If she does, I’ll wake up. Lol, I’ve started to enjoy it.
She’s frigid. WRONG. Once comfortable, she’s a freak.
She’s so slow and, unhappy person. Wrong. She is hyperactive and becomes happy just about at nothing.
She doesn’t like me. Big time wrong. Turned out, she has liked me since day 1. She loves me.
She’ll probably never fight or argue. Wrong. Loveeess to argue, though I don’t like to admit it much, she’s usually right about things. And people too.
Is probably passive aggressive. Wrong. Tells me when things bother her, almost immediately.
Is dumb. Wrong. She’s really smart.
She does not feel much. Wrong. All of her emotions are intense.
Is very serious. Wrong. Very very wrong. Can’t go on a day without lame jokes. Lame jokes are lifeline to her. She knows they are lame but loves it.
As for the changes, she hasn’t changed much. Can motherhood be included? Anyways, it suits her well.
She’s staying at her parents place with our boy. I miss her. Its been just a day though. I guess, I’ll call now.
Unusual Abandoned Cat Came Into Shelter And Amazed People With Its Size
My Mom…
My Mom once told me that she walked into a room where a couple of friends were discussing her, they didn’t know she was there. She shook her head, smiled and walked away. 🕊
My Mom also told me that she had a friend who talked bad about her, she never knew that Mom found out, Mom never mentioned it. She smiled and walked away from this friendship. 🕊
She told me she had family who chose to shift her out of their life because she stood up for herself for a change. And because she stopped crossing oceans for them when they would not even help her cross a bridge. She smiled, shook her head and walked away. 🕊
So I asked her how she could just walk away from people that betrayed her while pretending to be her friends or family? 🕊
She answered that every time she came to a crossroad like that, she had to decide who will be going forward on her journey with her. This showed her who she cannot take along with her. 🕊
So she explained to me that you should never get mad at a person who betrays you, even in the name of friendship or family. Just gracefully bow out and enjoy your journey with all the new people God puts in their place. 🕊
10 years ago I was an IT consultant, traveling every week. I would also always book a Marriott hotel if one was close to the customer, all paid for on my American Express card.
Marriott awards you points for your stays with them. Once I had at least 100, 000 points I’d call them and request gift certificates. 100, 000 points would give you $1,000 worth of gift certs to pay for your hotel.
Back then, at the end of your stay, someone would come around in the middle of the night and slide the invoice for your stay that week. That invoice would show they charged my AmEx card for whatever the cost was.
Now that invoice was completely processed then. While it says it charged my card, they actually didn’t really do that until the afternoon after you checked out.
So what I would do is I’d go to the front desk with my invoice and my gift certs and tell the clerk that I would rather pay for my stay with the certs rather than my card. Then they’d issue me a new invoice showing I paid in certs. However I still had the original invoice. That would be the invoice I’d submit in my expenses. So every couple of months I’d be reimbursed $1000 so I could pay my cc bill, but since I actually paid in certs that 1000 bucks was essentially free money I’d drop into my savings. I and every one else I knew did it all the time, it was really an awesome little loophole
Beef Steak and Kidney Pie
Ingredients
Filling
3/4 pound calf kidney or beef liver
Salted water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds beef steak, cut into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons butter
4 shallots, finely chopped
1 cup beef bouillon
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of marjoram, crushed
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced and sautéed
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Pastry Topping
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Instructions
Filling: Clean and split kidney; remove fat and large tubes. Soak in salted water 1 hour.
Dry and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Mix flour, salt and pepper; roll kidney and beef pieces in flour mixture.
Melt butter in heavy pot and sauté shallots. When shallots have taken on a little color, add beef and kidney; brown lightly, turning.
Add bouillon, bay leaf, parsley, cloves and marjoram. Stir; cover and simmer 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until meat is tender.
Add mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce. If liquid is too thin, thicken with smooth paste of flour and cold water.
Grease a deep 10-inch baking dish. Place pie funnel in center. Add meat mixture and allow to cool in refrigerator.
Meanwhile, prepare Pastry Topping. Place pastry over meat, sealing pastry edges to edge of dish. Make vents in pastry to allow steam to escape.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes; lower heat to 375 degrees F and continue baking 15 minutes, or until crust is golden.
Pastry Topping: Cut shortening into flour and salt until particles are size of small peas.
Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans sides of bowl, adding 1 to 2 teaspoons water if necessary.
Gather pastry into a ball; shape into flattened round on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Roll out to fit top of casserole.
My best friend had a defective heart. I don’t know the exact term for that, but her heart was on the right side of her chest among several other defects. She couldn’t walk farther than 200m, and her finger tips would always turn black.
When she was born, the doctor gave her a life expectancy of 2 years. She surpassed that. Her parents took her to all the best hospitals in the country. Another estimation: 10 years old. She surpassed that too. She completed high school, she got into college. And she always was a cheerful girl to be with. (Sometimes, her mother kicked my ass out of the house because when we hung out, we laughed too much. Laughing would consume oxygen from her heart and her brain so she would suffer from headaches afterward).
One day, when she was at the university, her heart collapsed. Her doctor demanded her to drop college because it was too much for her. She came back to our hometown, and became an at-home teacher for the kids, and still was a cheerful girl.
After that another year, her heart collapsed once again. She was hospitalized. Her doctor informed her parents that there was nothing more they could do. Her family should consider to unplug the machines and bring her home.
Her mother called me. She said “We are bring [my friend’s name] home”. I rushed into the hospital. Her mother was on one side of her bed holding her left hand, I was on the other side holding her right hand when they unplugged her.
That moment, her mother collapsed to the ground and screamed: “I’ve lost her! From now on, I don’t have anyone to take care of anymore!”
At that moment, I know that just being born normally to be able to live a normal life is extremely lucky. Also, having someone you love by your side, even that means you have to take care of them all the time is also lucky.
Well, not the above but the other way around. In 2014 we were looking to buy a replacement for my wife’s car, and were at the Skoda garage checking out a very-nearly-new Fabia. It had been the showroom’s demonstrator model for a few months, had just a couple of hundred miles on it, but the salespeople had been showing that vehicle to people day in, day out.
We looked in the boot. My wife’s a bee-keeper and a “must have” for her was to be able to get a bee-hive in the back. To do that meant taking the rear parcels shelf off, which I did myself to see how easy it was to do and to replace, since this would be a common action. Putting it back, I noticed you could put it back either in the “conventional” position, or in a half-way house lower position. “Hey, “ I said. “That’s a nifty feature – allows you to put larger items on the parcel shelf but still have it hiding stuff underneath.” At that the salesperson looked in, looked at the shelf, the boot, then went over to his colleague and said “Come over here. We’ve found a brand-new feature!”
We bought the car, still got it now. Don’t think we’ve ever used the parcel shelf in “half-way” position.
My father had been terminally ill for a decade. He was a perfectionist in everything in his life and no detail was ever missed. He was also very stubborn. If there were ever odds almost insurmountable, he always prevailed. This was part of why he’d been terminal for so very long.
One day before, my father agreed that it was time to bring hospice in and make final arrangements. My parents had two other daughters, I was the only one who lived in the same town. Because of my location, he wanted me to be at those meetings.
I was working in the executive offices for a local bank. The woman I reported to was exacting in everything and expected perfection to be performed with minimal preparation and no clarifications. She wanted a mind reader who loved emergencies and placed her on a pedestal.
After that phone call, I was shaken up. It wasn’t unexpected, but you are never really prepared for the situation when you are facing it.
“Something has come up. It’s a delicate family matter,” I said.
“That’s just not convenient,” she said. “Even if it’s life or death, it’s not convenient. I have a series of reports that are due today.” This was news to me. “And I’m expecting that you will be here long after hours.”
“It actually is life or death,” I said. I was about to elaborate when she cut me off.
“Is it your life or death?”
“Honestly, no.”
“Then it’s not convenient.”
“I’m afraid that poor planning on your part really isn’t my problem.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“No excuse for you and your lack of planning. I’m quitting as of,” I looked at my watch, “about two minutes from now. Just long enough to get my purse and log off the computer.”
“You can’t do that,” she said.
“Can and did.”
I grabbed my purse and left the building.
I replaced the job with a much nicer one in about two days.
My father passed less than two weeks from my exit. The new job, and I only worked it for two days when he died, not only let me have the time off to complete his arrangements and his funeral, sent flowers. One week later, HR from the bank called, offered me a raise and an apology. “I’m sorry. That’s just not convenient.”
I once attended a court case to support a friend. Her sister was accused by a nasty neighbour of breaking into the nasty neighbour’s home, stealing items, and trying to assault her (on more than one occasion).
My friend and her sister were both black women. It was no secret that the neighbour was this old racist woman who routinely called the police on the sister and her boyfriend when they were minding their own business. When the woman invited her sister (my friend), and her kids to come to visit and swim in their pool, also to use the tennis courts and fitness room that was shared by the condo complex. The boyfriend was also black.
When called to testify the nasty neighbour gave detailed dates about the break in and mentioned her “fox fur coat, some diamond jewellery and several hams and frozen meat”, being taken from her home. She swore that she came home to see the women and her boyfriend running out the back door at night with the merchandise in a leather suitcase.
When the lawyer for the woman questioned the woman and her boyfriend, who each took turns on the stand, it was proven that the neighbour lied by showing that:
My friend’s sister, who worked as a passenger flight attendant, was working on a flight that was on its way to Singapore during the very night and time when she was supposed to have broken into the neighbour’s home. (It’s hard to break into a home when you’re two hours into a 12 hour flight that is 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.)
She and her boyfriend were also vegetarians who never ate meat nor wore nor owned leather and fur since they both believed that “meat is murder”, and to wear animal furs and leather was “cruel and inhumane”.
The boyfriend was also on his way to Singapore flying from India the afternoon before, to meet up with his girlfriend after a business trip for three day vacation, before they’d fly back to Canada. He proposed marriage while they visited Singapore (she said “yes” and did marry him). So they were in Singapore the day before “the break in” at the neighbour’s home and they didn’t return until three days later.
The lawyer for my friend’s sister and her boyfriend also presented pictures of the very “stolen” items in question taken by the police when they were recovered from pawn shops and a consignment store. The items were pawned by a young white man, a known drug addict with a lengthy arrest record who happened to be the neighbour’s nephew whom the neighbour gave money to on a regular basis (not helping him at all).
Before the judge dismissed all charges he ordered the neighbour to be taken into custody for “fraud, perjury, aiding and abetting a criminal” and a few other charges.
In the end the neighbour lost her house and all her savings when my friend’s sister and her boyfriend sued the neighbour for slander and defamation of character. They won a large sum in court and the neighbour ended up spending four years in prison for additional charges which included drug possession on top of what she was already convicted of.
I guess nasty racist people get what’s coming to them after all.
College students pile into a Volkswagen Beetle, (c. 1965)
For those that do it full time, very tough. They have to stand up in front of the crowd and make them laugh. Do you realize what it takes to do that? Then there is the travelling and eating crap food and nerves. For those starting out it is not easy at all. For those on top, well, they have to keep coming up with acts to stay on top. As I did both, a standup comedian and professional drummer in a band, playing in a band was far easier. Below is a little of my stand up act.
I was a part time stand up comedian for awhile along with being a professional drummer. I auditioned for a few shows in local comedy clubs. They must have liked me, I got jobs. I was usually the start off guy, first one out. I had my own shtick. The guy who showed up at the wrong event.
I’d walk out then somberly say, “ I realize this is a sad time for most of you, but Mary, bless her soul loved humour.” Then I’d look behind me and kind of look around confused, then I’d turn to the audience. “Um, Mary’s passing surprised many, especially Mary. I think she’d like some humour at her funeral. She often said that “to laugh at something heartily means that you think it’s funny,” and I heartily agree. I always thought Mary was a deep thinker and that proves it right?
“She was 81, poor Mary. Actually, a woman’s life expectancy is 80, so hey, good for her. Now a man’s life expectancy is 76. If I make it to 76, I’m going to have a sex change. Right? I’ll beat those odds. So I hope to add a bit of humour to Mary’s funeral, wherever she is,” and I look around again for Mary.
Suddenly a sharp whistle from the stage side. I’d stop and walk over with my mic.
“This is not a funeral home. This is a comedy club,” the stage manager would tell me so the audience would hear.
“What? This isn’t Roses Funeral Parlour?” I would say surprised. The crowd would start laughing.
“Do you see Mary anywhere?” he’d ask.
“Actually no,” I would say looking around. “How much do you pay here?”
“$250.” he’d tell me.
A few seconds of silence then I’d say, “Sure, what the hell, Mary won’t miss me,” then I’d walk back center stage where people would be giggling.
“Okay, who here had a good shit today?” Well the crowd would laugh. Somebody always raised a hand, I’d try to pick a girl.
“You did, great, good for you. I won’t ask you details okay?” The girl would laugh.
“So do you know there are many types of shits? There’s the peanut butter shit; that’s the one where you can use up to three rolls of toilet paper, the upside down volcano shit, the totally air shit which isn’t even really a shit though it felt like it was going to be one,,” the shart which is a shit that felt like air but wasn’t, the bombing raid shit and the ghost shit.” Then I’d stop and go back to the girl.
“Okay, I was just wondering what came out that made it such a good shit? We all want to know don’t we folks?” I’d say looking around and people would start applauding. Of course the girl would laugh and hide her face in her hands. “Okay forget it. Tell me privately later. People, I’m going to tell you what the best shit of all is. It’s the Ghost Shit!”
“This is the one when you have to go so bad and there’s no restroom around. It’s turtling so bad it’s stretching your underwear. Suddenly, by some miracle, you find a restroom. You fly in there and sit on the toilet after near ripping your pants off. And ….. it starts.”
“Like the RMS Titanic, this thing is moving out with no effort and it seems like it’s going forever. You are wondering how this thing is going to go down that little toilet hole. It’s embarrassing if you are at someone’s house and you come out of the bathroom and ask, “Hey, have you got a plunger? A good one? One with a lot of suction?” You always get a strange look when you ask that don’t you?
Anyway, so the Titanic has left the dock and you are feeling suddenly very hollow inside, and relieved. You grab some toilet paper and wipe. Nothing! Not a speck of shit on your ass. Puzzled, you stand up and look at the toilet. It’s looking back at you innocent as hell. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE TOILET! What the hell? You look around; nope, not on the floor! It’s nowhere but you felt it by God! That ladies and gentlemen is the Ghost Shit, or maybe I should have called it the Houdini Shit.
Crude yes but it got me back to the comedy clubs. People loved me talking about shit because they all go through it every day.
I used to be hired to give speeches at weddings. Just before the actual person would rise to give a toast to the bride, I would jump up and interrupt him.
“Thank you, thank you. Ah, the lovely bride. Leona, you’re looking great.” That was never the brides name. I’d make one up and the people would laugh. I did the same skit to friends of my sisters who were getting married.
“So, a toast to the bride huh? I’m supposed to come up with some funny stories about her, and some heart warming ones.” Silence from me for a few seconds as the people would snicker. “I have nothing,” I would say, “but I do have a few, should we say naughty stories of Leona. And I promise I will say nothing of that disease you had a few months ago,” I’d say looking at her and pretend I was zippering my mouth.
That would be the cue for someone to say, “That’s not Leona, that’s Shirley!”
I would look up surprised, then look around.
“This isn’t the Wright Patterson wedding?” I would ask. Yes, I know, that’s an air base. I’d be told no it isn’t.
“Jesus,” I would say, “Um, were you going to say something?” I’d say to the guy who originally was going to give the toast to the bride, and I’d run out.
I had fun doing them and I had a few different ones so I’d change them around. I wrote my own material. You can tell? That’s good.
When I started to get quite busy in my pro drumming career I left the comedian stage. I missed the laughs. But I’d do them at get togethers at friends houses and parties.
Being a comedian is a nerve wracking but fun gig. Loved the laughs.
Cab stand in Madison Square Park, New York, (ca 1900)
When I was doing my graduation, I stayed in a hostel, which provided lunch and dinner but no breakfast. You had two options for breakfast: Go out to a restaurant nearby and have a hot breakfast or eat what most of the students ate – mashed banana and flattened rice (it is called poha or chura in India). I chose the second option since the first option was too costly. The food in the hostel was neither good in quality nor enough in quantity. So most of the times, I was famished.
I used to pity myself till I had a discussion about hunger with one of my classmates. He was worse off than me. His father was dead and his mother used to serve tea and water in a government office in a desolate tribal village. In short, he had enough money to have just one meal a day. I asked him what he did when he felt hungry. He said he would drink water.
This classmate of mine was a good student but did not have a clue about what to do after his graduation. In those days, IT was booming in India and I convinced him to do get a Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He got into one of the best Universities of India.
I did not meet him when we were doing our Post Graduation since I was at a different University. I met him a year after both of us had started our careers. He came to meet me. He was working for the largest software company of India and was on his way to his first foreign assignment. I felt very happy at how he had been able to turn around his fortune. He had started from a village which did not have electricity and his relatives and friends had not even seen life outside their village.
I am not in touch with him. But I searched the net and I found this photo. He is happily settled with his family in the USA.
So how do you deal with being too poor? Work hard and have patience. Things will turn around.
Unemployed men outside Al Capone’s soup kitchen in Chicago during the Great Depression, (1931)
Is earth round? Does waves rush to the shores?, Do the sun rise in the east?
Let me see, the US has a doctrine, it’s call Monroe Doctrine. It says no power big and small cannot come near North America and when USSR wanted to arm Cuba nuclear missile, the U.S. threaten to start a nuclear war! And duly blockade and sanction Cuba for 62 years straight! Is that hegemonic?
The U.S. has invaded 68 nations and counting since its nation is formed after doing genocide on its inhabitants and rightful owner the native Indians. Is that hegemonic?
It has cause millions upon millions of deaths due to regime change, coup orchestration by the U.S. it send out millions of CIA and NED officials around the world to destabilise nations so that they can set up puppet and sham governments to act on U.S. behalf and for US interest! Are these actions hegemonic.
Are all these actions that in total caused up to 100 million deaths, hegemonic? Or according to your media it is doing Mother Teresa role!
In my second year of university, I was summoned to a police station without knowing why. My father drove me and had to wait outside the office while I was being questioned.
The reason why I was summoned was quite a surprise.
Together with a good friend and a girl I was seeing at the time, I had smoked some weed and drank a couple of beers, and much later that night my friend had been robbed by a couple of low-lifes. So he called the police and explained his predicament.
The problem was: (1) my friend was drunk at the time; (2) round about that time my friend was starting to show the first signs of the paranoid schizophrenia that would later ruin his life.
So my friend told the police a story that did not make sense, and after a couple of questions, the story had gotten even worse: he claimed that before he was robbed, he had taken hard drugs together with the girl and me, and that the girl was actually a drug dealer. But he had forgotten the girl’s name.
Not mine, of course.
So instead of focusing on the robbery, the police men focused on the “hard drugs” and the “drug dealer.” And I was the one who would tell them the girl’s name. Which I didn’t.
After a lot of repeated questions and repeated threats — in which they refused to acknowledge the mental condition of my friend — they called in my dad, and explained to him that I blatantly refused to give them the girl’s name. To which my father said:
“This is ABSOLUTELY the right thing to do, and I am VERY proud of him. I would do the EXACT same thing.”
The police men did not know what to say, and not much later I was released after paying a ridiculous fine. When we left the office, they kept staring at my dad, a grey-bearded man with fierce eyes and thundering charisma.
Lightning had struck.
And the hammer had spoken.
SOURCES: the first drawing is taken from the book Nordiska Gudar by Johan Egerkrans; the second image us my own.
World War II propaganda posters in Port Washington, New York, (1942)
Focus on giving key people you work with what they want. At the end of the day, all people want to hear is “i’m going to fix your problems”.
Trust your intuition. People will try and fill your day with shit that doesn’t matter, do what YOU know does matter.
Make some friends, even if just to keep your sanity.
Don’t participate in shit talking. If a co-worker decides you are their confidant, just nod along with them—but never engage directly in the shit talking. You’ll save your own reputation and as a bonus you won’t feel shitty about yourself.
Say NO more. people respect people that can say no and don’t rollover for everything. Saying YES to everything just leaves you running on an endless treadmill.
Under-promise, over-deliver. always.
Make every effort not to give concrete deadlines, because you won’t be able to meet them anyway. Your credibility will falter. Unfortunately you’ll probably have to give them at some point.
Don’t try and be the best. Instead, make friends with people in a position of power and be at least competent.
Learn empathy. In reality, people don’t really care what gets done if you make them feel important and like they are achieving things. People just want to be heard, man.
A lot of these suck to admit….but it’s the way things are. Whether that’s because of some bullshit implicit social contracts or just the way we’re wired….its what corporate life is really like.
I had what seemed like the ideal bachelor life. Oh, and terror of getting trapped in marriage.
I mean, I was living the dream in college.
Living in a fraternity house with my buds.
Cute girls constantly around.
Parties every weekend.
More alcohol than common sense.
My parents paid for my college expenses. I worked every summer to make money for my personal expenses. So when school started I could focus on it and having fun.
Like I said I was living the dream.
But a weird thing happened. As I faced graduation the fun had worn thin.
I was tired of being hurt in relationships and hurting others.
I hoped there was more to life than one continual party.
I longed to share life at a deeper level with someone.
And I knew I needed to stop drinking so damn much.
Shortly before graduation two things happened that changed my life.
I went through a spiritual experience that transformed me.
And I met the most beautiful girl I’d ever know. Unfortunately, she had zero interest in getting to know me.
We eventually started dating. My persistence won out. And a year later married.
I look back over my life and think of all the blessings of marriage I’d have missed as a bachelor.
Someone to love and who loves me. Even sometimes when I’m, shall we say, less than lovable.
Sharing life together. The good, the bad and the ugly. And most of all the beautiful.
Raising our children that filled our lives with occasional frustration and even more love.
Conquering life together. Strengths making up for weaknesses. And glad she didn’t keep score.
Caring for each other in sickness and enjoying each other in health.
Laughing, crying, rejoicing and celebrating.
And at night, when I drift off to sleep, holding her hand and feeling a contentment I simply never could have imagined.
So for some, singleness works.
For me I can’t imagine having missed marrying my wife. And for her? I think she feels the same. At least on most days.
You’ll find a depth of life in marriage you cannot experience outside of it.
My house has a two person jacuzzi tub with mirrors on three walls around it. When I was looking at the house there was a four post canopy bed with a mirror inside the canopy. Needless to say, the previous owner had his thing.
When I was moving in I found in the basement a bar with cuffs on either end hanging from the ceiling and two eye bolts in a board on the floor that would have made this a perfect place to tie someone up spread eagle. I strongly suspect that is what it was used for.
I have a room that used to be a bar (previous owner took the bar itself with him despite it being a built in). It has a dropped ceiling and the lights are above with clear panels to let the light thru. I was moving ceiling tiles to change a bulb and got hit in the face by what I’m guessing was a home made sex swing that was bolted to the rafters above.
I’ve been in this house 3 years and I still occasionally find a secret panel in a wall. It seems anywhere there was an extra bit of space he put a removable panel to make a hidden storage space.
And despite all that, the single most surprising thing I found in this house is the light switch in the bathroom that has power going to it but doesn’t seem to actually switch anything in the house! What do you do about a mysterious switch?
We also found a stack of acrylic paintings in the basement, all very amateurish. Subjects ranged from creepy little girls to 70’s psychedelic nude ladies. Realtor told the owners to pick them up, or they would end up in the trash. They showed up a year later asking for them
Bonus, junk removal guy loved the 70’s nudes, asked to keep them.
It has nothing to do with “authoritarian government” it has everything to do with China not playing by U.S. “rules” that requires China to be submissive and subservient to the U.S. if you are observant you will noticed that the nations that the U.S. and the west have been giving negative press are all nations that refused to be submissive and subservient to the west.
The west merely represent 13% of the world? In fact the west is controlled by the the U.S. which represents 4% of the world. Should the 96% or the 87% of the rest of the world kowtow and let the west walk all over them? And dictate what they do? Who they make friends with? What they buy, how much they ought to pay? What religion they believe or what cloths to wear or what food they eat?
Let me give you an American answer! Over our dead body! It ain’t gonna happen!
The Global South is drifting away as we speak. No nations will buys your shit anymore. We decide our own fate. China certainly won’t. But so is 175 out of the 195 nations on earth. The faster you westerners get this, the better it is for you. Stop thinking about decoupling or de-risking China, the world is decoupling and de-risking from the U.S. and the west!
Your media and your government can lie and fabricate all you want but the bus has left the station. Authoritarian or CCP or communist or dictator are all excuses not reason for hating China and Chinese. These are narratives for the simple mind. It is demonising because it can’t get its way. Like a toddler throwing tantrum, that is what it is. Frankly if you are a westerner, your government is trying to hoodwink you! Not U.S. because we are not fools. We know lies when we see it.
Sidewheeler Tashmoo leaving wharf in Detroit, (ca 1901)
When I was younger, I was the Assisstant Manager of a Pizza Hut. I was moved to this particular store with the expectation that the Store Manager who was there had set me up to become the next Store Manager. When he resigned I was passed over for a 23 year old nobody with no experience or work ethic. He worked 25 hours a week and had me do most of his duties on top of my own. He would often show up in the middle of dinner rush with his posse, ask how things were, I would tell him it was terrible and we needed help, he’d see that we did, and say things like “Sounds good” and walk out.
Week after week people in my Store were getting overworked and burned out. I constantly hounded my Area Manager to let me hire people, often being turned down. He woul even turn down temporarily allowing neighboring stores to send their workers to my Store to keep up with demand. So week after week we would have at least 1 person quit.
Even when I was allowed to hire ONE person, that person would freak out on day one because of the workload pushed upon all of us. They would typically last 1 day, maybe a week, before quitting.
One day we were told we were having a store meeting with the Area Manager so I typed up my resignation letter preemptively and attended. We were told how terrible our customer service scores were (mostly hold time issues or delivery time issues because we couldn’t keep enough people to staff the whole store, so delivery drivers were cutting and boxing pizzas, answering phones and taking orders, THEN delivering them) and how we needed to shape up. I spoke up and said we desperately needed more employees and I was waved off again. So I finished my shift that night, put my resignation letter in the fax machine with my end of day paperwork, locked the door, and dropped my security key and door keys in the mail slot. The next day I was inundated with phone calls from the Store Manager and Area Manager, which I ignored for a few hours. Then I picked up, the Area Manager begged me to come back and said he’d do anything if I came back.
“A raise?”
“Sure, whatever you need.”
“4 more employees?”
“No, you know you’re not getting that.”
*hangup*
I never talked to them again.
Titanic sinks on April 15, 1912. Newspaper boy Ned Parfett sells copies of the evening paper bearing news of the disaster.
As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?
I’m not the mechanic, but I know of one crazy discovery. My father purchased a brand new GMC Suburban in the 1980s and gave me his old pickup truck so I would have a vehicle while attending college. He occasionally heard a strange knocking noise while driving that Suburban, but neither he nor the dealer could ever figure out what was causing it. Since he didn’t hear that noise very often, and the vehicle ran great, he just kept driving it and eventually simply ignored that occasional knocking noise. The transmission needed to be rebuilt when it was 9 years old, so he took the Suburban to a shop that pulled the transmission and rebuilt it. While reinstalling it, the mechanic spotted a small hand-held air impact wrench hanging from a bent welding rod between the engine and firewall. He called my father, who then went back to the shop and took photos of the impact wrench and welding rod before and after they were removed. The wrench had “Property of GM” engraved on it.
Since it appeared the impact wrench had been hung there while on the assembly line, my father took the photos, impact wrench, and bent welding rod to the dealer who had sold it. The dealer wanted to send everything to GM, but my father would only agree to let him send copies of the photos. A GM lawyer called him the following week and offered to pay $500 for the return the impact wrench and welding rod, provide and release all prints and negatives he had taken of them to GM, and for his wife and him to sign a non-disclosure agreement concerning any and all possible “manufacturing flaws” involving that Suburban. My father made a counter offer of $5000. The lawyer said the most he was authorized to offer would be a $3000 manufacturer’s credit towards the purchase of a new GM vehicle. My father countered again by asking for both the $500 and $3000 credit towards a new GM vehicle. The lawyer agreed and then arraigned to have the dealer handle the exchange and witness my parents signing a non-disclosure agreement. My parents then negotiated with the dealer to buy a new car for my mother, and then applied that $500 check and the $3000 manufacturer’s credit towards the purchase of it.
After that impact wrench was removed, my father never heard that knocking noise again. Since I knew about this “manufacturing flaw” before they signed that non-disclosure agreement, I’m not bound by it. But my surviving parent could be subject to significant financial penalties for discussing this story, so I am posting this anonymously to prevent any possible repercussions. However I seriously doubt GM would want to have people going through records more than three decades old just to determine who my parents are.
I’ve told this story elsewhere but it fits here as well.
In a prior life I worked for a major multi-national and the division I worked in was managed by somebody based in Europe (let’s call him George). But he had direct reports in a number of cities around the world including New York. So during one of his visits to New York he speaks to Fred and tells him that things just aren’t working out so he should find another job. Nothing out of the ordinary and not adversarial in any way.
So about a year later George is in New York and sees Fred sitting in his office wearing jeans and track shoes, feet up on his desk reading a newspaper. So he says “Fred, why are you still here? Didn’t I tell you to find another job?” And Fred’s response was classic “Yes but my contract requires one year’s written notice and I’ve never received anything.”
To make a long story short, George was off to HR and after a discussion with legal Fred got a year’s salary plus the cash value of all the benefits he would have rec’d during the year. Given how senior Fred was I’m sure that check would have been at least $400 K (and more likely quite a bit north of that).
So way back in 1984 I worked a summer in Yellowstone national park. During training I learned a lot about dangers in the park. For example, bison kill many more people than grizzly bears. That being said at least one person a year is kill in the park by a grizzly bear.
But I digress.
The dumbest question that a tourist asked me was a question that they warned me I would be asked and I laughed like it was a joke. They seriously said no you will get asking this and please don’t embarrass the tourists who ask it.
So a couple days into the Job I am standing there and this nice looking middle aged American woman who seemed she had all her senses came up to me and looked me straight in the face and asked,
“Where do they put the animals at night”?
I was gobsmacked!
This woman actually thought that all the animals were gathered up at night and put in cages. Just like I was warned, someone asked me the question I thought I would never hear.
And no, she most certainly wasn’t the last tourist to ask me that!
My two week notice was a long time coming. I was sick of working in finance, at that company, and for that boss. I slept terribly the night before, having fevered dreams of a squandered future. But I knew I needed some upheaval. I was forging a sad, bitter storyline that would haunt me forever.
As I embarked on my new journey as a writer, I unpacked my new life, and all the stories from that dark chapter, all the moments of pain and frustration, came with me. As with many of you, these scenes replay more vividly on my lesser days. It’s as the incomparable Frederick Nietzsche wrote, “When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
Old embarrassments — losing my temper with someone 20 years ago, making ill advised comments, and moments of rejection — come bubbling up for no reason. Why could I see these scenes so easily and with 8K clarity while the amazing moments hid in the shadows?
Per Dr. Daniel L. Schacter, we remember the past so vividly because it’s a means of envisioning the future. We use it as a modeling tool, a form of mental time travel, where our mind anchors moments in time. The word “anchor” is key — because many of these images and stories become crystallized and of cognitive convenience.
For example, you might experience something I do when reading books: anytime there is a scene with a bar, I can’t help but see the same bar in my mind — to the point of it being annoying. If there’s some type of battle scene, I always see an old field I played in as a kid. This is the mind anchoring and why it’s so easy to recall the same negative moments over and over.
Per research by psychologist, Dr. Linda Levine, we tend to interpret past events through an emotional filter of the present. The same facts on paper suddenly look different. Negative moods — such as being tired, annoyed, or frustrated — evoke specific and detailed bad memories that often hit harder. Good moods — such as being well rested, jovial, excited, or in good humor — tend to evoke broader and more general memories. Unfortunately, negative memories are much more powerful and easily evoked.
We tend to apply a filter of our self-concept — who we’d like to be, and what our “ideal self” is and how we’d hoped to be perceived. Which is why our subconscious searches for contradictions to this ideal self.
For example, I’m generally a pleasant and nice person. Which is perhaps why my mind dredges up instances of me being unpleasant. I hate thinking of those times because when I do, I feel like I’m standing right there in that same room 15 years ago, watching my former self act out and be nasty with someone I loved.
The mind tells me, “Remember this person? You could be this person again if you don’t behave.” So how to we rewire this toxic pattern?
Rewriting your narrative
A few years ago, I thought, “Why am I beating myself up all the time?” I had so much to be thankful for. I’d brought plenty of good into this world, been a good friend and family member. I’d fought hard to win a better future but still bludgeoned myself over bygones that nobody else remembered.
I met with a therapist a few years ago and had tremendous improvement in dealing with negativity. He was a silver haired man, with black rimmed glasses and a quiet, friendly demeanor, and a PhD hanging on his wall.
As we began talking, he nodded his head in understanding and began giving me homework assignments anchored in cognitive behavioral therapy which, per the American Psychological Association, is as effective (or more) than other forms of psychotherapy and medications in dealing with negativity.
He said, “We often tell our life story to ourselves in excessively harsh terms, and jump to instant conclusions at our own expense.”
One exercise he gave was to practice reframing the stories with less certainty. Instead of saying X results in Y, explore alternative causes and remove unhelpful thoughts.
For example, during college, I was dumped by woman I was totally in love with. I deserved it. I was being irresponsible and drinking all the time and she finally had enough. For years, I was sure that my poor decisions had cost me my soulmate. But I learned this was totally unfair thinking.
Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps she was just losing interest and this was her way out. And if I’d stayed with her, I’d have never met the incredible woman I now have. Even more so, the concept of a soulmate felt a wee bit irrational and limiting.
When you map out events, and deconstruct the narrative you tell yourself, it can look entirely silly sometimes. The exercise also helps reframe the memory more constructively. I can confidently say getting dumped caused me to stop partying so much and may have saved me from myriad legal and health problems.
Another strategy was to build a mental rolodex of positive memories in your mind that you can return to. Doing this, and rapid fire indulging these memories can counteract your negativity instinct, and tends to put me in a much better mood.
A quick forewarning, I’d make sure to write this list out. I initially thought I’d be able to manage it in my mind, but it was much harder to build out and think through.
Here are a few from my list:
Picking up my 8-week old golden retriever from the breeder. He was a fat marshmallow shaped dog with a permasmile, who brought me so much dang joy in life.
Having Christmas mornings as a kid with my grandparents and the love they surrounded us with.
Going on walks with my beloved partner on St. Pete beach and sitting quietly with her in the sand and drinking a beer while we read books.
Helping raise money at events for wounded soldiers, and volunteering with the Special Olympics.
One last strategy is exploratory processing, which takes the opposite approach. You list out the painful experience just after it happens and leave two lines below it. Then, after one month, you return to write in the blank what you learned. Then, six months later, you list something positive that came from the mistake.
For example, when I bought my house, it was a complete circus and the inspection went poorly and I fought with the builder and the realtor. The entire experience crashed my hopeful vision of home ownership. I put this down on the list as my first entry. Then, I came back a month later and wrote about how the experience taught me the importance of having a home inspection (which I almost skipped doing).
Then, at the six month mark, I put that this experience still resulted in me owning a great home that I can now rest in knowing is safe. I know that it has given me and my partner new friends in the neighborhood. The house has also appreciated significantly in value.
Remember, it’s entirely normal and common to have tons of negative memories that pester you. Most major life changes are precipitated by bad experiences and it’s easy to carry those stories with you.
Consider compiling a list of positive memories to return to and combat that trend. Reframe your experiences by exploring the possibilities of how they came to be, and how you might be irrational and excessively harsh in reviewing them. Lastly, use exploratory processing just after something goes wrong. Approach the experience with curiosity rather than judgement. Something good usually comes from all of the chaos we endure.
I keep my hair short. Very, very short. Before joining the Navy, I was already doing so, but for the past twenty years, I have been unable to go much longer than a couple of weeks—or, in the warmer months, a week or so—before it feels as though something is wrong. Oddly, I don’t mind skipping a shave for two or three days, but actually wearing facial hair (beard, long sideburns) is out of the question.
While I’m not fanatically neat, I do try to keep items off the floor. Gear should be stowed somehow, whether in a desk, in a cabinet, on a shelf, or even on a table. The deck should be kept clear.
I understand the distinction between a command (Do it now!) and an order (Get it done!).
I am almost never, ever late, even to social engagements, as gauche as that may be. And “on time,” in my book, means approximately six to ten minutes early (no more).
Generally, I am far more situationally aware and cognizant of potential risks and dangers than I was before joining. People don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.
A day without some kind of PT is somehow misspent.
I still lace up my shoes in a crisscross pattern, with no “bridge.”
Most of the year, regardless of whether I’m dressed formally or informally, I wear a T-shirt of some kind as an initial layer. If the temperature goes past about 75°F or so, I’ll wear either a T-shirt or a polo shirt. But even in the heat, I don’t like wearing a dress shirt without an undershirt.
I tell time with the 24-hour clock and write the date in the day-month-year format. This dovetails nicely with living in Europe.
Having qualified as an Expert with the 9-mm pistol and a Marksman on the M-16, I have contempt for gun nuts who brandish their weapons in public, exhibit no discipline or respect for them or consideration for others, and lack the faintest idea of what they are talking about.
A German soldier after being captured by American troops near Nicosia, (1943)
Last year, Carl Sergeant, 49-year-old politician, took his life after losing his job as secretary
The cause? False sexual abuse allegations.
The sentiment of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is being jettisoned. Now, mere accusation alone is enough to ruin someone’s career. Do you understand how dangerous that is?
Quote from BBC News:
“The family wish to maintain the fact that Carl maintained his innocence and he categorically denied any wrongdoing. The distress of not being able to defend himself properly against his unspecified allegtions meant he was not afforded common courtesy, decency or natural justice.”
You can’t make the cost of sexual interest the complete desolation of a man’s career, his reputation and even his life. We can’t keep branding people who sent a risqué text or blew kiss a pervert.
We’re now witnessing the birth pangs of the sexual reformation, the fallout from the sex abuse scandals that have plagued the entertainment industry, politics, and are now spreading throughout society as a whole. Third-wave feminists have been largely discredited over the past five years – just 18% of women in the US identify as feminist. Even less in the UK. Rights that actual feminists fought for a hundred years ago have been achieved, which is why radical feminists and SJWs need to hijack or invent new outrages to push their primary narrative and create more gender division.
Remember Zaira Wasim? Last year, she said she was scared when a man sitting behind her was touching her waist with his legs. At first, she ignored it, thinking it was due to turbulence, but didn’t tell anyone about it – not even the crew. Zaira put this allegation on a man named as Vikas Sachdev, a 39-year-old father and husband.
He was arrested. His wife defended him as innocent, but to the baying mob, allegations were all that were required to pass judgement.
Now don’t get me wrong, if sexual abuse is admitted or proven, those people should be punished to the full extent of the law. Hollywood and political peadophile rings should be exposed. But trial by a social media mob outage isn’t justice, and it sets a horrific precedent. Women are now jumping on the MeToo hashtag bandwagon so they can smother themselves in attention-seeking victimhood – not because they’re actual victims, but in one case because a man looked at them.
Another story was whipped up about Adam Sandler touching Claire Foy’s knee on a talk show.
In another instance, an MP was outed after he described a woman as “attractive, intelligent and charming”
Another case involved Michael Fallon trying to kiss a woman.
See the trend here? Everything is being conflated, to the point where making a pass at a woman is placed in the same context as actual rape.
There has to be an understanding that mere accusations alone are not proof. We have to put a check on this call of instantly believing the accuser without any regard for evidence.
It’s one of those David vs Goliath academic tales that’s as absurd as it is commendable.
Knorozov was a Soviet linguist – not a guy you’d expect to crack a Mesoamerican code. He got intrigued by the Mayan glyphs while rummaging through old dusty books in the off-limits section of the library. The glyphs hadn’t been fully understood for centuries.
The declassified Dresden Codex landed in his lap. It had been through hell: World War II bombings, water damage, and general neglect. But this old thing was a Rosetta Stone waiting for its sober lover.
While World War II suppressed the free exchange of scholarly thought, Knorozov was insulated and incubated over in Mother Russia. He faced another kind of battle, though: stifling Soviet oversight and scarce resources.
But undeterred, Yuri used his noggin. He hypothesized that the glyphs weren’t just individual pictures or symbols. They were indicative of phonetic sounds, a theory vastly different from what the scholarly mainstream believed.
Where many saw walls, Knorozov saw doors.
He hammered away at this theory, marrying the dots and bars of the Mayan numeral system to the text surrounding them. It was as if he spoke directly to the ancient Mayans, bridging a chasm of silence that had lasted since the fall of their civilization. Bit by bit, he began matching sounds to symbols.
His breakthrough publications hit in the 1950s. And like most disruptors, he was met with academic side-eye. It was the ‘newbie rocking the boat’ scenario. Many Western academics clung angrily to their dated theories, as if they were good luck charms.
But as time marched on, so did progress. Others began taking swings with the bat Knorozov had crafted. Additional findings corroborated his theories. The wall of mystery surrounding Mayan writing was getting holes punched into it, letting light in.
By the time of his death in 1999, Knorozov had seen his theories widely accepted. Mayan glyphs were readable, weaving tales of kings, conquests, and the cosmos.
What Yuri Knorozov did single-handedly is akin to solving a 1,000-year-old crossword puzzle without any clues, which makes you wonder, how many other historical whispers are just waiting for their translator?
From my home in Portland, OR, I look at Knorozov’s story as a beacon of hope for every solo scholar out there staring at an uncracked code. Keep at it. You might just be onto something.
Yes, but it had nothing to do with the procedure being inappropriate; it was an issue of consent.
I was called by a clinician to put a drainage catheter into an abscess, a pretty standard procedure; I was told that the patient had been reluctant, but had agreed to go ahead. Naturally I spoke with the patient myself, and discovered that she had not given any kind of meaningful consent; instead she had said something like “whatever”, just to get rid of the clinician, whom she described as a moron.
I called him up, with the patient in the room (but not listening in on the phone); I explained that I had spoken with her in person, and she was clearly unwilling to have the procedure. He then described her as a “seed person”, his term for someone who distrusted conventional medicine and preferred natural remedies; while I sympathized with his preference for proven treatments, it was clear that his attitude towards her was one of contempt, and that she had picked this up. He asked if he could speak to her; I told her he wanted to talk with her, she absolutely refused, and I conveyed this to him – softening her language slightly.
I then wrote a lengthy note in her chart, summarizing my discussion with her, quoting her comments, and explaining that as she had no intention of giving consent for this procedure, I was not going to perform it. I felt that she needed it, and I had explained this to her as clearly as I could; but as I was not her parent or legal guardian, I was professionally and ethically obligated to respect her wishes.
The right of a mentally competent adult patient to refuse treatment is absolute, whatever the consequences. My job is to explain those consequences as clearly as I can. The patient’s job is to make the choice.
An ex of mine, we dated for 3 months. He was significantly older.
In that time he got progressively more controlling. One day he heard a rumour I was cheating on him.
How I was meant to, I don’t know as I was always either at work (and replying to his messages) or with him.
He decided to throw me around and threaten me with 2 knives. Both of which he pressed against my throat. He also threatens to kill the friend he decided I was sleeping with. Luckily he gets angry enough and storms out of my home as there was no way I could physically move him and I lock the door.
I call my mum to come and get me away, she calls the police. All the time he is banging on the door threatening me and my friend. He keeps accusing me of calling “my other boyfriend” and how he will kill him when he gets there. He realises I’ve called the Police and goes for a walk away from my home.
I show the Police the knives and give a statement at the Police station. He is arrested and pleads guilty to the Police.
The Police Officer I was speaking to unofficially advised me to submit a request against Claires Law which eventually informed me that he had been connected to 5 other women in domestic violence cases. The last one whom he attacked with an axe, he went to prison for 3 months for that incident. These are just the reported cases, I have no doubt there are more who did not report him.
My case was deemed only to be a Magistrates case. The Magistrate on hearing the guilty plea gave a 12 week suspended sentence for 1 year so he could work on his mental health, a Restraining order for 3 years and “compensation” of £150.
I can’t believe the magistrate had a clear domestic abuser who showed clear escalation patterns increasing in violence to women ranging from stalking, assault and sexual assault and gave such a ridiculous sentence. It showed a lack of respect for female lives. I was advised not to attend court, it’s probably a good thing as I doubt I could have stopped myself shouting at the magistrate.
I had to flee my home, upend my entire life, develop ptsd and the perpetrator got a slap on the wrist.
A Nihang Bodyguard, (c.1865)
When Evil Parents Realize They’ve Been Caught
Damn! Damn! Damn!
Holy FUCK!
Curb Market in NYC, (ca 1900)
27 Minutes Of Rude Karens Vs Judges!
GOD! The USA is so messed up!
Observer on Iwo Jima, (1945)
A Massive Cat Abandoned at the Shelter Gets Adopted Within Hours
Crowded Bunks in the Prison Camp at Buchenwald, (April 16, 1945)
In the first place, I would like to say that you are right, to some extent. I agreed with you that we are somehow forced to learn some very entry level Classical Chinese, during the compulsory education stage (year 1 to year 9). This is the fact about Chinese education.
In the second place, since you asked why. I will try my best to answer your question.
The importance of classical Chinese:
In the narrow sense, Classical Chinese is the language which was actively used between Spring and Autumn period through to the end of the Han Dynasty (5th century BC to 2nd century AD). It soon became the formal written language in the Chinese society all the way until the 1910s when the Qing Dynasty was overturned. More than 2000 years of history was documented by using classical Chinese. It carried the invaluable heritage of our civilisation. In my opinion, it means much more to us than Latin to the European society.
In the broad sense, Classical Chinese is contrary to the Morden Mandarin, including classical Chinese (narrow sense), poems, novels written in the vernacular Chinese etc. It draws a whole picture of our great 5000-thousand-year civilisation, keeping people with hopes even in the darkest time of our nation.
Why government decided to introduce classical education.
China is a civilisation state instead of a national state. Anyone who recognises Chinese culture is considered as Chinese and could be integrated into the mainstream society, even he is not a Han Chinese. That is said Chinese people was united by a common written language, a universal value and a general social norm, even they may speak different dialects, live in a different region and have a different clan. This is also the most powerful argument to against the claims such as Cantonese is a distinct language instead of a Chinese dialect. The reason why schools in China teach both classical and Mandarin is, I think, it works better if taught together. Mandarin is the main structure and classical is a supplement of it. Mandarin is superficial which could not teach students some fundamental and abstract concepts. For example, people who only received Mandarin education would probably not able to understand the connections between the full moon and home sick (like a metaphor), autumn and depression etc. Therefore, promoting classical education would further strengthen the sense of national identity bound by the language and culture. That is the how to keep the nation united for more than 2000 years (Since Qin Dynasty firstly published a set of national standards). That is the political concern of the government. And this is also the answer to why not only Han Chinese, other ethical minorities are (not forced but encouraged) learning Chinese.
“月落乌啼霜满天 江枫渔火对愁眠” (The moon is setting. The crows are crying. The atmosphere is heavy with a chilly autumn frost. The maple trees and the lights of the fishing boats are reflected in the water. Yet I am unable to sleep because of sorrow.)This short poem was filled with culture symbols such as “moon, crow, autumn, red leaves and fishing boats”. Those culture symbols was consistently used till today, they speak themselves without the need of explanation. But it almost undecipherable for people without classical education.
Social response
In fact, there is far less unfavorable voice against teaching classical in school rather than that of English. Ministry of Education is planning to make the English language an elective subject in the College Entrance Examination (aka. Gaokao), but removing classical content is out of the question, definitely. Personally, I, although not excel it, rather enjoy learning classical than modern Mandarin. It is so concise, splendid, touching my soul so deeply. I was hoping one day I could like those famous poets, to put own feelings into such powerful words. People used to say ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’. Some classical quotes certainly could do the better job in the appropriate circumstance. Many Chinese leaders would like to quote some classical or come up their own.
President Jiang Zemin’s calligraphy, quoting national hero Lin Zexu’s poem. (were it to benefit my country I would lay down my life; what then is the risk to me)
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao wrote on the blackboard after 2008 Sichuan earthquake. “challenges make a nation much stronger”
Chinese also tend to use classical to name their children, their company etc. A name with good meaning would give people a better first impression. Actually, not only Chinese, people from East Asia and Vietnam will also use Chinses classical when giving the name. e.g. all Japanese emperor’s title of reign is based on Chinese classical.
Lastly, China, together with Korea peninsula, Japan, Ryukyu and Vietnam, shared a long history bound by classical Chinese language. All most all the history was written in classical Chinese. Due to some political concerns, both Korea and Vietnam abolished Chinese, making it a great loss in their culture. Now people living there could not understand what their ancestors wrote when they are visiting their historical sites. I can never imagine this happens in China one day, when our children visiting forbidden city and asking what exactly did the emperor write on the wooden boards. What a ridiculous thing?
Ps. It is rather funny to ask in such way. Forced?
It could be better to rephrase the question to ‘why Chinese student nowadays still need to learn classical Chinese’
He sacked a colleague the day my colleague was leaving for a family holiday. My boss (and owner of the business), Paul, just liked to show people he had the power. He was often petty and a micromanaging control freak. He seemed to like me, so most of the time he left me to do my thing.
My colleague, Ian, had become a friend, and we’d hang out after work. He had been planning an overseas family trip for some time, and had been talking about it for a couple of months in advance of the date. He had requested leave, which was approved, before making the booking. He was a friendly, genuine guy, and most of us in the office shared his enthusiasm for his holiday. We could see he was looking forward to taking his family away.
He was due to fly out on a Saturday. On the Friday, Paul called Ian into his office and told him he had changed his mind, he was revoking the leave. Ian tried to argue that the tickets were non-refundable, everything was booked, his wife had taken leave, and they had permission to take their children out of school. Paul wasn’t swayed. He made it clear, cancel or be fired.
Ian asked what was so important that he needed to stay, Paul didn’t give a real answer. He just shrugged and said, “it’s my company, my call.”
Ian called his wife, and then decided to do the holiday. He didn’t want to lose the money or let his family down.
He came and told me just before lunch what had happened, and suggested we go for a farewell lunch.
I was incensed! I immediately wrote a handwritten resignation, left it on Paul’s desk, packed my things, and went to lunch. I told Ian and some other colleagues at lunch that this was also MY farewell.
As lunch wrapped up, the others drifted back to the office, and it was just Ian and me, commiserating over a beer, when Paul came in, in a fluster. I had never seen him in such a state (I later realized it was because he was no longer in control). Paul loudly tried to convince me to stay, offered me everything (other than more money!). I just said no, calmly. He left saying something like “you’ll be back when you can’t find another job.”
I called in on another friend on my way home, and had a job offer that afternoon.
Beer Battered Fish and Chips
Ingredients
2 to 4 potatoes, scrubbed and cut into fingers
1 pound fish (cod, halibut, polluck, etc.) 500g
1 (12 ounces/355mL) can beer
1 egg, beaten until fluffy
2/3 cup milk 150 mL
1 teaspoon canola oil 5 mL
1 teaspoon baking powder 5 mL
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 mL
1/4 teaspoon salt 1 mL
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 375 mL
1/2 cup second flour amount for dipping 125 mL
3 cups canola oil for deep frying 750 mL
Instructions
Pat potatoes and fish dry with paper towels.
Heat oil to a frying temperature of 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). To cook potato chips properly, it is important to maintain this frying temperature. You may wish to increase the temperature slightly before adding potatoes as oil temperature will drop when food is added. Fry 5-6 minutes or until golden brown. While potatoes are frying, prepare batter for fish.
To prepare batter: Mix together beer, egg, milk and canola oil. Add baking powder, cayenne pepper, salt and 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) flour all at once, mixing only enough to dampen the dry ingredients.
Remove potato chips from the canola oil with slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and season to taste.
Coat fish pieces in 1/2 cup (125 mL) flour before dipping in batter. Gently place in hot oil to deep fry. Cook until golden, about 6 minutes.
Remove from oil with slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.
When my grandmother found out she had terminal cancer, she gave away a lot of her things to her children and grandchildren. She gave my cousin her 6 year old car, she gave me her expensive vacuum cleaner, she gave my mother an 8 foot tall grandfather’s clock, that had been hand made by my mothers great grandfather, those are the only three I remember, but she had two children and six grandchildren, so you can see by the gifts, that they weren’t terribly expensive, but had some value.
She still owned her own condo, and had some savings.
Shortly after my grandmother had died, and the will had been read, I over heard my uncle talking to my mother. My grandmother had split the estate between my uncle and mother. My uncle wanted everything that my grandmother had given away, to be given back to the estate, as he felt that they were just loans. Then the estate would be split between him and mom. If the grandkids ( including his own kids) wanted what they had been given, they could buy it from the estate.
I was shocked, I had always loved my uncle, he had never seemed like a greedy man. But inheritance seems to bring out the worst in people. My mother and uncle fought for the first time that I ever knew of, and some nasty things were said.
Evidently he approached his kids to get the gifts back, and they formed a united front, and told him he was wrong. So he backed off. I would have never have known that he had a greedy side to him, if I hadn’t overheard that conversation. He died about 10 years later, and I never looked at him, quite the same as before I overheard that conversation.
When my grandmother found out she had terminal cancer, she gave away a lot of her things to her children and grandchildren. She gave my cousin her 6 year old car, she gave me her expensive vacuum cleaner, she gave my mother an 8 foot tall grandfather’s clock, that had been hand made by my mothers great grandfather, those are the only three I remember, but she had two children and six grandchildren, so you can see by the gifts, that they weren’t terribly expensive, but had some value.
She still owned her own condo, and had some savings.
Shortly after my grandmother had died, and the will had been read, I over heard my uncle talking to my mother. My grandmother had split the estate between my uncle and mother. My uncle wanted everything that my grandmother had given away, to be given back to the estate, as he felt that they were just loans. Then the estate would be split between him and mom. If the grandkids ( including his own kids) wanted what they had been given, they could buy it from the estate.
I was shocked, I had always loved my uncle, he had never seemed like a greedy man. But inheritance seems to bring out the worst in people. My mother and uncle fought for the first time that I ever knew of, and some nasty things were said.
Evidently he approached his kids to get the gifts back, and they formed a united front, and told him he was wrong. So he backed off. I would have never have known that he had a greedy side to him, if I hadn’t overheard that conversation. He died about 10 years later, and I never looked at him, quite the same as before I overheard that conversation.
They taught us how to wear boots. At the beginning of the session, the tough looking DS looked at us the only way a DS can do it.
I thought what the hell? Put them on and lace them up. Oh no. There was the Army way.
We found out how important the simple sock was in the Army.
“Socks must be pulled up TIGHT! No wrinkles or seams. Loose socks in your boot can be a painful thing and cause blisters quicker than your daddy’s willow switch. Pull them up tight. Keep them dry. Wet socks are not a soldier’s friend. If a soldier’s feet are unusable because of blisters, that soldier is unusable. Take care of those feet. Also, mark those socks.”
We had to make sure there were no wrinkles on the inner sole where the foot goes in.
“If there’s a wrinkle in your boot lining, give ‘em back and you will be issued new ones. Wrinkles cause blisters. Make sure your boot is TIGHT around your foot. Do not let your feet ‘float’ in boots. Floating feet cause blisters!”
“The boots are laced diagonally with the excess lace tucked into the top of the boot. Metal cleats and side tabs are not authorized for wear. Steeled toed boots are not authorized for wear. THAT gentlemen is why these are NOT steel toed boots. If they were, you would be crippled within two weeks. There should be at least a 3/4-inch minimum additional length at toe. DO NOT soak boots in water or bake in an oven to break-in. Boots should be worn in gradually at first with ever-increasing walking or marching distances while remaining comfortable.”
“The back of your boots must also be shined. Just because we’re looking at you from the front, wise asses, doesn’t mean we won’t give the about face order.
“The tongues of your boots will lie flat all along the top of your boots, not squished in like a piece of toilet paper shoved up the crack of your ass. Squished tongues cause blisters. We don’t want blisters around here. Blisters mean there’s a man out and the rest of you do twice the work. If I find a squished tongue in your boot, and I’ll check at times, it’ll be YOUR tongue lying on top of your foot under the laces!”
“If you do not follow these instructions, you will get my right boot up your ass and I’m telling you now, IT WILL HURT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
This DS had at least size 13 boots. We understood.
There was this guy that I went to college with. He was a real life Casanova. I mean it, a day did not go by without out him bedding (or boning) a new girl. He went through them like a sick person goes through tissues. And all us “normal” guys were terribly jealous of him.
I swear that of the 60 or so girls on our dorm floor, he must have had sex with perhaps 45 of them. Pretty damn impressive… seeing that I was a virgin throughout my college years.
This was in the 1970s. And yeah. I was the nerd bodybuilder planning to be a spaceman.
Virginal. No distractions.
On. My. Grind.
…
Ah. Memories.
During one of our Friday dorm parties, while I was a tripping on blotter (Acid = LSD), I noticed one of the girls on our floor; a particularly beautiful girl, flirting with him.
And myself, with all my inhibitions set to “off” went up to her and asked her point-blank.
“Why are you flirting with him”?
And I never forgot her answer.
“It’s fun”.
…
Duh.
…
Of course, this was a decade before Cindy Lauper sang “Girls just wanna have fun”….
And while I remembered the answer, I didn’t manage to put two plus two together. i still couldn’t figure out girls. Ah, perhaps it was because I was so fixated on “my grind” and trying to fly spaceships etc….
Which happened… well, sort of… don’t ya know.
…
But yeah.
Guys… men… we are too simple. If a woman wants something she gets it. Even at the detriment of her relationships, marriages, or physical health.
Keep your life simple.
Accept that women do what they want… FIRST.
And continue to do so until they hit an unyielding wall, And, as a man… our rules, relationships, structures and beliefs are that wall.
(Read that twice.)
And when that point comes… be prepared to… walk away.
‘That no one else knows about’ does not apply to my answer. But the most horrible thing was a schoolgirl aged about 15 came to see me when I was School Psychologist at her school. At the end of the session she said she had written a diary and had it with her and would I care to read it, as she wanted me to know what it was about.
I took it home to read that night in preparation for seeing her the next day. It was full of clearly suicidal thoughts. She was an alcohol user, too, and had already done some self-harming. I had to cope with the revelations overnight, spending my night not so much in sleep as in deep concern. To add to the difficulty, her mother’s sister had not long previously committed suicide. This would be a further load on her mother.
I did see her and was obliged to speak with her mother and get permission for referring her to an agency with more specialist capacity to help her. There was some opposition to the idea, but in the end the permission was given.
But knowing what she had revealed and not being able to do anything about it immediately was very stressful.
I grew up in West Africa. We didn’t just boil eggs; we superboiled them. We threw them on the stove, boiled them for 15 or 20 minutes or so, then took them out very satisfied that the egg was well cooked.
It was as though we wanted to let the yolk know that we hated it, along with its ancestors, parents, siblings, and extended family. The yolk, understandably would come out of this process looking pallid, forlorn, and dejected. The pale yellow would be covered in an equally pale grey, with the overall appearance of a strange, lost planet.
Why did you have to treat me so?
For my eternal fortune, at the age of 15, I moved to the United States, a land that was said to be paved with gold. I didn’t find much gold, truth be told, but I found the concept of a hard-boiled egg, which made me wonder whether there was such a thing as a soft-boiled egg.
Is it like when I accidentally “undercook” my eggs?
I googled it and found a chart like this:
Oooooooooooh!
I’ve never looked back.
This is what I made tonight.
This, my friends, is what you call perfection. The yolk is smiling at you suggestively, sending you an amorous look, beckoning you.
Come hither!
How can you resist? Of course you will kiss and treasure and savor it.
C’est ça, la douceur de vivre.
Yes, yes, it’s me in the picture. I’m wearing boring socks tonight. Deal with it.
My grandfather on my dad’s side, as a child me and my younger sister would visit our Nan and Grandad every other week just to spend time with them. My Nan loved having us at times, my Grandad however was a different story. He would always drink every time we went round there and constantly sat on the couch.
On one occasion I was play fighting with my Nan in the living room once and out of nowhere he screamed at me from the top of his lungs to “take it in the other f***ing room!”. My mood was instantly killed and I remember hiding from him in a cleaning cupboard because I was terrified. There was another time where I accidentally turned off the lights for the living room, he screamed at me saying “Turn those f***ing lights back on or I’ll throw you onto the street!”. When my mum came back to the house that night I was hiding behind her and she had never seen me so clingy so she knew something was wrong.
When we got home that night I told my parents what he had said to me about the lights and how he had made me cry on multiple occasions that I began hiding in the cleaning cupboard. My younger sister was also a witness for every occasion he was horrible to me so she confirmed my story to them. After this they decided he wasn’t going to see us as much as he used to.
We found out many years later that his drinking caught up with him and he was suffering from cirrhosis. He also had a cancer in his leg that he’s now recovered from. When the whole family found out about his cancer, all my uncles said they wouldn’t miss him if it killed him because of how terrible of a dad he was when bringing them up.
I also recently discovered that before I was born, My Grandad and Nan had asked our parents to look after their house while they went away. They forgot to mention to our parents that they owed this criminal some rent money, so one night this crook comes breaking the door down and demands the money. My parents being completely ignorant to the truth of course refused to pay the rent and so they contacted my Nan and Grandad asking what this guy’s business is. They tell my parents the truth but then refuse to pay the rent, saying they assumed their son (my dad) would’ve payed it for them. They had both already refused to pay the rent so as a result this crook gives my dad a sucker punch to the face in front of my uncle’s daughter who was there at the time.
Because of this, most of the family don’t associate or even think about him anymore. My mother has real beef with them both because of the incident with the rent, when I told her about the threat my Grandad gave me and how my Nan said nothing to defend me, that was the icing on the cake for both my parents and as a result we talk to them less.
We’re in an okay place now but we hardly talk to them anymore, we only see them once a year now, sometimes there are years we don’t see them once. My uncles each have different reasons for not associating with him anymore but I’d be here all day if I wrote them out.
But first the U.S. that orchestrated the break up of the world and the creator of animosities amongst us must accept reality first and recognised that it no longer has the ability and the means to war monger any more.
The western media must accept that sowing hates is not good for humanity, spewing hates hurt humanity and destroying earth. They need to know that lying is lowdown and simply despicable and it makes many people ignorant and naive.
Westerners need to reject them and condemn them and stop reading or listening to them. Westerners must want the truth not lies, propaganda, fabrication and half truths to fit bias hateful narratives. The western media so discord and hatred on anyone or any society that refuse to be submissive and subservient to the west.
The U.S. led them into this depth of crisis it must lead them out of it. Otherwise the 87% of the global south will leave you behind, they are moving on. Germany, Japan, Korea must stop being a faithful brain dead U.S. lackey and a lowly dog.
UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, grow some balls or forever be US dog, you deserve to sink with the world’s biggest trouble maker the U.S. Another dozen or so dog nations. Rise up and abandoned the U.S. EU abandon NATO.
Together you helped the U.S. bring the world into a chaotic, dangerous place ready to erupt into another world war but one that can end the entire human race. Act before it is too late. Let there be strong pillars of powers working together doing good and not keep one power doing bad.
Asian Cucumber Salad
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large cucumber
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 red jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
Minced fresh cilantro
Instructions
Mix lime juice, water, sugar and salt in non-reactive bowl.
Cut cucumber lengthwise into halves, then seed and thinly slice. Add cucumber, onion and pepper to lime juice mixture; toss.
Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 1 hour.
Not most obnoxious but a good example of why Europeans view Americans as obnoxious.
We were in a resort sauna in the Italian alps with 3 other couples (2 German, 1 Swiss) and single German woman. We’d enjoyed a couple of peaceful and wonderful rounds together.
A few minutes in to our 3rd round we heard them coming – Americans! They were talking and cackling very loudly. They opened the sauna hot room door and looked around – holding the door open, letting the heat out and cold air in. They received a loud round of ‘close the door’ in 3 different languages.
A few minutes later an American couple entered the sauna in their swimsuits. One of the German women told them that swimsuits aren’t allowed in saunas. The American’s scoffed and said certainly not and proceeded to sit down. I tried to explain to them that suits are indeed not allowed because of bacterias and odors. And that they also should have showered before entering the sauna. They slowly began to get the picture. They eventually left and we later learned that they’d complained to the resort mgmt about the no swimsuits rule and us.
Here’s the thing. There were numerous places in the hotel information stating that the sauna area (large changing and shower area with two saunas and a turkish bath) was a nude area and that suits were not allowed in the saunas or turkish baths themselves. And that this was a QUIET area.
There were big signs entering the spa and sauna area that said ‘SILENCE’, ‘QUIETNESS IS EXPECTED’ and ‘IN THE SPA YOU SHOULD TALK LIKE YOU ARE IN CHURCH’ and other sayings. If you closed your mouth for a few seconds you’d realize that there were a number of conversations happening but you couldn’t hear them. Except for Americans.
There were signs above the hooks where people hung their robes that stated not to wear swimsuits in the sauna. This is also standard throughout much of Europe.
The hotel manager told me that this was not an unusual event with Americans. I understand people being uncomfortable with the nudity element and that’s fine and those who are uncomfortable just don’t use the sauna. FWIW, about half of Germans and other Europeans aren’t comfortable with it either and simply don’t use public saunas. I have a fear of heights so I won’t go on most chairlifts or trams which means I can’t see many spectacular areas of the Alps. That’s life.
I think it takes a special kind of ignorance to not realize how loud and obnoxious Americans are, given how often it’s written about. Yet Americans continue to act loud, obnoxious and ignorant.
Because I worked with persons with Borderline Personality Disorder I was used to being fired. I enjoyed the phase of therapy where I could ask “remember all the times you wanted to fire me and the couple of times you actually did?”
As I type I remember seeing a guy with BPD who fired me and stayed away for three weeks. I had a hunch, so I kept his slot open. When he returned he told me he fired me for “not caring.” That was because he was pretty sure I was yawning at the last session. It was a great starter for talking about interpreting vs. over-interpreting social cues from other people.
It finally became a joke between us. “Any cruel evil unfeeling bastards yawn at you recently? Obviously torture and death is the only answer for them.”
One of my favorite techniques with Borderline folks in recovery was wild humor like that. They often lived and felt in extreme ways and had a hard time finding their “middle.” Taking a feeling to a silly and impossible extreme could prompt a response of “well, maybe not that bad.”
Developing the ability to scale feelings is critical for folks with BPD.
Long story short, make an appointment with your therapist and get on with it.
I was in a Video Conference yesterday. There was this slick controller from Cisco. I picked it up and turned it around to see the sticker that said: “Made in China”.
We have all heard the phrase. So much so that it has become a cultural meme, like this creative advertisement.
Every machine, and I mean it in the broad sense of the word, people use, almost certainly, has components made by the most populous nation of the world.
We are at a stage where manufacturing is synonymous with China. China’s total exports in 2017 were more than the GDP of India, at ~$2.26 trillion.
US is close with $1.5 trillion, but there is the catch.
US exports are primarily expensive stuff like airplanes, gems, assembled cell phones etc. But China makes the “cheaper” things — the components of your phones, the clothes you buy, the filaments in your bulbs, the shoes you are wearing right now.
More than a decade ago, a US family tried to rid themselves of all things “made in China”
[2] . Here are some excerpts from their experience.
When our son, then 4, needed new shoes it took me two weeks of frantic mall trips and phone calls across the country before I located Italian-made sneakers. (They cost almost $70, an obscene amount, and I bought him just that one pair of shoes all year to compensate for my excess.)
We boiled water for coffee every morning after our drip machine broke and the only affordable replacements we could find were made in China. Kevin stole —he likes to say borrowed—sunglasses from the lost-and-found at our kids’ preschool when he needed new ones and the only ones that fit our budget were made in China. We were barred from the market for humane mousetraps (I made my own), birthday candles (we used votive candles on our cakes instead) and the monster trucks and light sabers that our son dreamed of all year.
As December approached, we made lousy homemade Christmas presents, spent too much on toys from Germany and waited for the year, and our boycott, to fade into history.
And Chinese manufacturing has become even more pervasive and ingrained in the last ten years. Good luck with your attempt!
Originally Answered: What’s the most embarassing misconception you’ve ever held?
When my best friend and I were around 16 years old, we always did homework at her house, as my house was usually occupied (my mother was… friendly).
Anyway, one afternoon, we were in the middle of English Lit. homework, and I asked her if she had a dictionary. She said, “I have an Onary, but not Webster’s.”
I had never heard of an Onary dictionary before, but I figured it was no big deal. She told me where it was, and I went to the bookshelf and grabbed it.
The front cover was missing. Across the first page, in bold capital letters was ONARY.
I started laughing, and I couldn’t stop. She came over and started laughing, too, asking me what was so funny. I said, “Sardee, your dictionary is missing the front cover. It’s a Webster’s dictionary.” She said, “I don’t get it. It says ‘ONARY’, right there.”
So, I grabbed a piece of notebook paper, laid it next to the book, and wrote DICTI.
I’ve never seen someone go from confused, to embarrassed, to doubled over in silent laughter, so fast in all my life. She and I laughed so hard, for so long, that our stomachs ached for days, afterward. Every once in a while, over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to bring it up, and it’s never failed to make us giggle. In fact, one of her sons, just yesterday, asked if anybody still bought dictionaries, because we can just Google everything, now.
I couldn’t even answer him. I just got up, told him to go ask his mother, and walked outside. Two minutes later, here comes Sardee. I just looked at her, and she said, “Shut up.”
She’s kinda awesome. Even if she was dippy in high school.
Originally Answered: Was the battle of Stalingrad really as bad as in Enemy at the Gates or is this overexaggeration?
Really as bad?
Oh, you sweet summer child.
Was there any cannibalism in the movie? There was at Stalingrad.
Did you see any wounded with gangrene and maggots crawling in their wounds? No? Maybe a bit too much for Hollywood, eh?
How about extended scenes of vicious and literal hand-to-hand fighting, with the combatants using knives, spades, teeth and whatever else came to hand on each other. No? Maybe those were left on the cutting room floor?
I don’t recall seeing anyone crawling along on their hands and knees with their intestines hanging down and getting tangled in their legs, while their enemy jeer and laugh from cover a few yards away.
And we never saw anyone pouring their toes out of their boots, with a lovely long lingering reaction shot of the rotting frozen flesh on their own face because of frostbite.
I don’t recall seeing anyone screaming as they were burned to death, either. And the film doesn’t really convey that ‘roasting flesh’ smell too well. Human flesh smells like pork!
‘Enemy at the Gates’ is an entertainment product. It’s designed to be able to be watched while eating popcorn. War, on the other hand, is the worst thing that organised groups of humans can do to one another. So don’t compare the two. A movie cannot be compared to reality.
My late husband died 11 years ago. I have a box full of his things. One of the things he loved having was this old alarm clock. There was certain dings and scratches on it that made it unique. At one point it broke and he took it apart to solder some wires together. It was obviously a homemade repair, but you couldn’t tell once it was put back together. Well after he died, we ( our son and I ) moved several times. At one point our things were being stored in a friends garage. For some reason, i never got my husband’s beloved alarm clock back, it some how got mistaken for junk and was tossed out. I was very upset over the loss of his alarm clock. Several years later i was living on another side of town and a friend stopped by on mothers day to show me a box of things she found in a dumpster. ( a weird hobby i know) I noticed immediately an old alarm clock exactly like my late husbands. I picked it up and examined it, and i recognized the dings and scratches on it. So i flipped it over and unscrewed the bottem to inspect the inside where my husband had made repairs on it. It was unmistakably my husbands old alarm clock, and my friend graciously handed it over.
I was in clinic, seeing patients when one of my colleagues came up to me. He was a pleasant fellow who always looked like an un-made bed. Shirt rumpled, tie askew. I hasten to say, he was an excellent physician.
“Maureen, can I curb-side you?”
“Sure. Whatcha got?
“Twenty-year-old woman with complaint of throat pain. I saw her a couple of days ago. I investigated everything I can think of but she’s back with the same complaint. Now telling me she can’t swallow”
“Trauma? Fever? Weight loss?…”
“No.”
We puzzled and puzzled.
“Probably send her to GI for a scope.”
“Maybe just do a quick x-ray to see if anything obvious is going on structurally.”
Off the young lady goes to X-ray.
Colleague sticks his head into my office.
“You have got to see this.”
I take a look at the film.
We both shake our heads.
“How did that get there?”
On the film, plain as day, is the outline of a toothbrush, lodged in her throat.
“What did she say when you showed her the film?”
“She said that she wondered where that went.”
“What’s she look like?
“Painfully thin.”
“I’m guessing an eating disorder. She was trying to induce vomiting and went too far and lost her grip. She’s too embarrassed to tell you.”
That turned out to be correct.
So, yes, the fact that she had lodged a toothbrush, deep in her throat, would have been useful to know.
When my parents first met, my dad was living in a teepee in the woods, and my mom was living on a commune that could only be reached by boat.
When my older brother was conceived, they decided that being that remote would not be safe in case of complications with the pregnancy, so they moved somewhere a bit closer to town. They got some land, cleared it, dowsed and dug a well, and my dad started building our house.
My brother was born. I was born. The foundations of the house were laid, and the bottom floor was built. 4 rooms total. We moved in. My sister was born. Dad kept building. When I was about 4–5, we got electricity. That meant an electric pump, and running water.
When I was 11, the second floor was mostly done, which meant more rooms. I got a bedroom to myself. Mom got a job “in town”. We got an indoor toilet. That flushed.
The third floor got done when I was in high school. Mom worked as a youth counselor in town. We gradually got to be more “in the world”.
The folks split after my first year of college. Dad kept the house, Mom moved into town.
Dad finally finished the house and sold it. It was really way too big for one guy to live in. He died about 15 years ago.
My mom is 70 now. My brother owns an organic farm; she helps him out with canning and preserving his produce, so those old back to the land skills still see some use. Mom does grief counseling and hospice care as a volunteer. They never really lost their hippie ideals, but they modified them as dictated by circumstance and life.
The first time I met her, she was in jail. She was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and plastic slides. The officer undid her handcuffs so I could examine her and he waited outside the exam room.
She was pregnant. I always ask my incarcerated patients why they are in jail (mostly in case it was for killing their former obstetrician). Invariably they will say “it’s for violating parole“ and eventually we will get around to why they are on probation in the first place.
Her’s involved a significant amount of theft.
I was immediately disturbed and put off by her handmade swastika tattoo.
She was always polite and respectful. She was released from jail prior to giving birth. She gave birth to a beautiful baby and was a conscientious mom and did a nice job breast-feeding.
She saw our lactation educator many times to help with the breast-feeding. After a year her baby self-weaned.
But she kept pumping. And pumping. And pumping. Once a week she would drive 30 miles to the nearest NICU and drop off a freezer full of breastmilk.
SHE DID THIS FOR TWO YEARS.
For two years she helped feed a NICU full of small and sick babies of every ethnicity and multiple nationalities.
She still has the swastika tattoo. Every year I see her I always look for it, hoping she will have had it covered up. I’ve never asked her about it.
I do hope that one day she covers it up.
But she is reminder to me that our worth is not simply equal to the worst thought and the stupidest decision we’ve ever made.
US politicians want a Taiwan war. No doubt. Because MIC & politicians who buy MIC stocks feed on wars.
Warmonger Americans also want war because they think it is noble to support Taiwan democracy. Without understanding what is behind the war.
Let me share an article:
On the surface, it is noble, for a foreigner, to support Taiwan independence, in name of democracy or whatever.
Since WW2, 82% of riots/wars incl independence movements in the world are actually instigated by USA+allies. So as to control other’s strategic sovereignty, economy & natural resources. It is modern-day colonization without occupying other’s land.
No country will tolerate secession & subversion. I am sure not your country either. They will use military to stop secession when necessary. Biden deployed 10,000 armed personnel in the 2021/1/6 riot. UK also said they may use military to deal with Scotland independence.
In case of war, there are blood & deaths. If you cannot feel this pain, go to Ukraine & stay there for 6 months.
There may be legitimacy for independence. But we must know the history first. Otherwise we may accidentally support a devil instead of the righteous. Let me take the example of Tibet independence.
Before CPC China liberated Tibet in 1959, Mao Zedong had a 1-country-2-system, allowing Tibet to run their old system which was a slavery system. 5% of rich Tibetans OWNed 95% of Tibetans. Slaves sometimes fought with dogs for food. The worst part of cruelty was that owners could arbitrarily peel off (pretty) skins from slaves for crafts & gifts to foreigners. Pretty probably means young people’s skin. There is a museum in Tibet today to show this cruel history.
USA instigated Tibet independence in 1959 after USA lost the Korea war in early 1950’s.
When suppressing Tibet independence movement, China liberated Tibetan slaves at the same time. Today Tibetans have education & income, and can own business & property. It is only now they are treated like a human.
Next time when you as a foreigner support Tibetan independence, do not ask the 5% but the 95%. Do not ask those who live on political donation/corruption overseas & shout empty slogans. Instead ask those who work hard to earn an income to support life.
Likewise, dont ask the corrupted separatists in Taiwan who are, like the 5% of Tibetan, will only tell you China is bad, bad, bad. Try to independently learn Taiwanese history. Listen to the story of both sides – China & Taiwan. Ironically, it is the rebels whose propaganda stir foreigners’ emotion.
Remember: no country will allow secession & subversion. Not your country either.
Also remember: when there is war, there will be blood & deaths.
When I was in the eighth grade I had to bring home a report card with an F on it. For Spanish. Courtesy of Mrs. X.
I was a pretty good student, but I despised Mrs. X. She had the maturity of my fellow classmates and a mean streak a mile wide.
She was quite popular. Her mocking of the customs and ways of various Hispanic cultures always drew laughs from my fellow eighth graders. She taught us how laughably stupid and lazy Mexicans are for instance.
She also liked to gossip about other teachers. She once insinuated that a certain English teacher who was an ex-nun was probably lesbian.
I would rebel against her obnoxiousness by not doing homework and shrugging my shoulders when asked a question in class. I would aim for a 60 on all of the exams to show her I could do better if I wanted to.
I showed my report card to my mother who had to sign it. She saw A’s, one B (Math), and the F.
She asked me who my Spanish teacher was. I told her “Mrs. X.”
My mother said, “She’s an asshole.”
This is where my jaw dropped. My mother never swore!
She signed the report card and handed it back to me. Then she explained.
My mother was an RN at an urban hospital. She had trouble sometimes communicating with Spanish-speaking patients. She enrolled in an evening adult-ed conversational Spanish course at our local high school.
The teacher of the course was Mrs. X.
Ten minutes into the class my mother walked out. She thought Mrs. X was one of the most loathsome and obnoxious people she had ever met.
The weird thing is that my mother seemed almost proud of my F.
Absolutely. Many times. But one in particular comes to mind.
minor identifying features have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.
A young mother in her early 20s broke up with her abusive boyfriend. A week later he ambushed her on her front porch, stabbing her over 30 times before stabbing himself once in the stomach. She coded shortly after arrival to the trauma bay but we were able to get her back. She had been stabbed so many times in the neck that the ragged end of her esophagus was dangling out. We rushed her to the OR and she ultimately survived and went home, but that is a story for another day.
Shortly after she came in, her ex-boyfriend arrived. His injury was not immediately life threatening but did require an operation, so after stabilizing her, I took him to the OR too, where he got a relatively minor operation. He remained in the hospital for several days after, however, because he was on suicide watch. So I rounded on him every day as I would any other patient, did wound care and other standard post-op care. He was polite, said “thank you, ma’am,” and we never discussed his ex-girlfriend or the circumstances that brought him to the hospital.
Does that mean I liked him? OH HELL NO. I thought he was the scum of the earth. I found myself thinking he should have stabbed himself as many times as he stabbed her. Better yet, just stab himself and leave her the hell alone. Oh, I despised him to the core.
So did one of my med students. So after the 3rd or 4th day rounding on him, she couldn’t take it anymore.
”How can you be so nice to him after what he did? He’s a horrible human being! He deserves to die!” she burst out.
”Maybe,” I replied. “But there are agents of justice and agents of mercy in the world, and we need both. As a doctor I am an agent of mercy. My job is to care for my patients and trust that the agents of justice will do their job just as well. Which I do.”
The war in Ukraine is one of the fronts in which the United States, in command of NATO, does not generate results in its favor
(Photo: Flickr)
Dec 14, 2023
The crossroads at which the Western establishment led by the United States finds itself has materialized in the concern of a political sector inside and outside that country. The war in Gaza threatens to reduce US arms supplies to Taiwan, as does the war in Ukraine. In recent days, US President Joe Biden has been seeking war aid for Ukraine and Israel (Biden seeks ‘vital’ war aid for Israel and Ukraine ), including more money for Taiwan.
Below they are presented along with the approach that Misión Verdad has made regarding these cases.
1. UNSUNG DEFEAT IN UKRAINE
After the Minsk Agreement (2015) served as a mechanism to buy time, the so-called “collective West” led by the United States went to war against Russia in Ukraine since March 2022. Analysts such as Dugin describe that (https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/five-fronts-against-unipolar-globalism ), essentially, it is about a civil war between Russians: patriotic Russians against Atlanticist Russians who have betrayed their Russian identity, but the Atlanticist “Russians” are being used by the unipolar forces of the West.
The confrontation continues to generate negative results and perspectives for the Western side. According to an analysis (Zelenski no logra ganarse al Congreso de EEUU y el paquete de ayuda a Kiev sigue estancado ) by The Washington Post, the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during his second visit to Washington in three months, “did little” to change the opinion of Republican congressmen, who oppose continuing to finance the escalation of the war.
During that same visit, and meeting with the Ukrainian leader, President Biden promised Kiev a new $200 million military aid package, while noting that it could be the last. Days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that he believes Ukraine’s front-line position could worsen if the West does not increase arms supplies. He detailed that kyiv is in a “critical situation” as members of the Atlantic Alliance were unable to meet the growing demand for ammunition. “We have to prepare for bad news,” he declared on December 3 in an interview (tagesschau24: Exlusiv-Interview mit NATO-Generalsekretär Stoltenberg – Nach dem Großangriff Russlands ist die Lage für die Ukraine kritisch | ARD Mediathek ) with the German television channel Das Erste.
In an interview (The AP Interview: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says the war with Russia is in a new phase as winter looms ) with the AP, Zelensky admitted that his fighters were unable to make significant progress in their failed counteroffensive. “We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” he asserted, blaming the West for not having provided sufficient weapons.
He also expressed fear that events in the Gaza Strip could jeopardize the flow of military aid to kyiv.
In this way, the Ukrainian conflict would be overshadowed by the destruction of Gaza implemented by Israel with the support of Western powers.
Researchers Diego Sequera and Ernesto Cazal published a series of articles ( I, II and III) with a geopolitical balance of the war in Ukraine.
2. GAZA: “ISRAEL IS THE WEST”
Precisely, the second American war front is in Western Asia.The genocide against the Palestinian population carried out by Israel has the support of the West; This has been demonstrated not only by the forms but also by the concepts.
The destruction of Gaza is not only advancing with irreversible damage to its buildings (15%) but also to its arable lands (22%)
(Photo: France24)
The article, written by an organic intellectual of Zionist nationalism, Omer Dostri, proposes as an “ideal option” that Israel reoccupy Gaza in the long term, ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents, exponentially expand the size of the extermination zone and establish settlements inside Gaza.
Dan Cohen, American journalist and documentary filmmaker, notes (El Pentágono propone limpieza étnica y colonización de Gaza y destrucción del Líbano) that the text adds to the numerous statements that, in the case of a war crimes trial, would serve as clear evidence of the intention to carry out a genocide, which is notoriously difficult to establish. establish. The fact that this call was published on behalf of the Department of Defense and in the main media branch of the United States Army raises doubts about American culpability in the Gaza genocide, which is being carried out mainly with factory-made bombs and missiles. of the North American country, and about what the true intentions of its government are.
Israeli occupation forces have attacked residential buildings, schools, hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, rescue and first aid teams, journalists, United Nations employees, mosques, Christian churches, infrastructure, and have cut off electricity and communication services. According to data (Centro de Satélites de la ONU: el 18 % de las estructuras en Gaza fueron dañadas – SANA en Español) from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll as a result of Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip increased to 18,608, while another 50,594 people have been injured. 18% of the total structures and 22% (In Gaza, ‘an estimated 22% of agricultural land’ has been destroyed since the start of the conflict) of the arable land in the Gaza Strip have been damaged as a result of Israel’s aggression against this Palestinian enclave.
The destabilization of the Arab and Islamic world is a necessity of the West and its advance requires a systematic genocide of the Arab population like the one carried out in Gaza. Washington’s supervisory role, demonstrated in the recurring visits of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has to do with maintaining control over an eventual overflow of elements of the Palestinian resistance, gas fields (Los recursos energéticos en la ecuación del exterminio israelí) such as Leviathan and the India-Middle East economic corridor -Europe (IMEC, its acronym in English).
Two research papers by Sequera ( I and II ) have been published on this portal to describe the plot, in addition to a recent interview with analysts Christian Nader and Javier Couso conducted by Ernesto Cazal.
3. IN AFRICA “UNIPOLARITY” IS TESTED (OR BETRAYED)
Dugin states that “the bloc of anti-colonial countries in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon) is united against the pro-colonial (Atlantist) regimes and against Macron’s globalist France.” However, Washington’s hand is not far from that front, maneuvering to retain control of the region (or at least dispute influence with the multipolar powers) and depose the influence of France. This would demonstrate that unipolarity is not so much a Euro-Atlantic vision as a purely American one.
Three Sahel countries, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, signed (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso establish Sahel security alliance) a pact in September to establish an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of their populations.
After the coup d’état in Niger against President Mohamed Bazoum by officers at the head of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), the confrontation against Paris was manifest.
The coup plotters alleged that the decision was due to the “continuous deterioration of the security situation” and “poor economic and social management.”
Supporters of the military junta that took control of Niger through a coup d’état marched towards the capital waving Russian flags and denouncing France, the former colonial power
(Photo: Sky News)
The Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland, visited the African country (EE.UU. busca desplazar a Francia en el Sahel) in order to anticipate the increase in Russia’s influence. The rejection of the French could lead to their total expulsion (Aumenta la presión de Níger por la salida del embajador francés) from the continent and the subsequent security vacuum, which seems an irreversible process, even when force is used, either directly or through the Economic Community of West African States ( Cedeao).
The formation of the mutual defense pact by the three Sahel countries attempts, precisely, to confront the threats from ECOWAS, which has a history of successful military interventions (Historial de intervenciones militares de la CEDEAO en África) through its military arm.
In the region, the dispute between the unipolar order and the emerging multipolar order has been expressed (Níger, neocolonialismo y la geopolítica militar en África), one led by the Euro-Atlantic Axis with the United States at the head and the other by China and Russia, among other countries. The latter have dedicated themselves to establishing cooperative relations in the areas of diplomacy and international relations, economics, finance, trade and security—the Asians have been forging them for three decades. Washington, for its part, has become involved in the fields of financial investment in strategic resources and its military deployment has filled almost the entire African continent with AFRICOM (África marca el rumbo a América Latina hacia la multipolaridad)
To expand on the complex African geopolitical dynamics, you can consult the works published by Eder Peñaand Diego Sequera.
4. NATOIZING THE PACIFIC AND PROVOKING CHINA
The global dispute fueled by the United States reaches close to China’s borders, as demonstrated by the continued interference in the conflict between the Asian country and the island of Taiwan, recognized as part of its territory even by Washington, which has maintained an “ambiguity strategic” increasingly difficult to demonstrate.
It is essential for China’s foreign relations that its “One China” (The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue) policy be recognized. Its territorial reunification process, adopted by the National People’s Congress through the Anti-Secession Law (Text of China’s anti-secession law) of 2005, reserves to the government the right to use “non-peaceful means” in the event of an eventual declaration of independence from Taiwan, after accepting that the Taipei administration represents an autonomous province.
For its part, since 1949, Taiwan has claimed the government of all of mainland China, in addition to the archipelago of the same name, which keeps alive the conflict that Washington constantly encourages through political, economic and military support.
After the United States switched diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to China in 1979, it continued to sell weapons to the island under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act. The key was to sell enough weapons so that Taiwan could defend itself against a possible Chinese attack, but not so many that it would destabilize relations between Washington and Beijing.
However, it has sold him more than $14 billion in military equipment.
Map demonstrating US military pressure against China. In red the defense systems installed by Beijing, in green the bases and presence of the United States and its allies
(Photo: The Economist)
Not only has Biden used discretionary powers to approve another $500 million in operational readiness to Taiwan, but ground battalions will receive training in the United States.
He has sought to increase the siege of China by strengthening the Seventh Fleet (Home) in Japan, it is the largest in the North American country with 40,000 troops, 70 ships and submarines and about 300 aircraft. Such a deployment, which seeks to otanize (Cómo se prepara China ante una escalada en Taiwán) the Pacific region, has been seen in the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars (1991), and would be focused on supporting South Korea against Pyonyang and Taiwan against China in possible armed conflicts.
A BBC report (The US is quietly arming Taiwan to the teeth) indicates that the United States is running out of time to update and equip the Taiwanese army, especially knowing that the equipment is old, there is no island counterintelligence in the rival country and, perhaps most importantly , taking into account its inferiority in every sense compared to China.
In addition, Taiwan plays a fundamental role in the supply and value chain of the American industry, specifically in the race for the semiconductor market, fundamental for technological development.
The Global North continues to search for oil and Venezuelan territory is in its sights.
About 10 years ago, the oil company ExxonMobil activated an oil and gas extraction plan in the territorial waters of Essequibo, a geographical space in dispute between Venezuela and Guyana as a result of the imperial dispossession of the United Kingdom during the 19th century.
Venezuela has responded to the Guyanese claim, lacking legal and historical support, demanding dialogue and bilateral agreements stipulated in the so-called Geneva Agreement of 1966. However, acting as a subsidiary of the oil transnational (Guyana, Inc.: filial de la ExxonMobil) and supported by the United States, Guyana has resorted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the last two UN Secretaries General referred the dispute to that international court without taking into account the endorsement of the Venezuelan side.
Between 2015 and 2016, the Venezuelan government denounced to the international community the so-called “operation pincers” with which the United States, through Colombia and Guyana, would provoke a military conflict against Venezuela that would facilitate its subsequent intervention.
Within this framework, the United States Southern Command has arranged to include the neighboring country in its military maneuvers known as “Tradewinds”, in the Caribbean Sea, since 2015, just when ExxonMobil began to illegally explore (¿Quién está detrás del escalamiento diplomático por el Esequibo?) the deposits and sign contracts with Georgetown.
The most recent version of “Tradewinds” featured 21 countries, including three European nations (France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).
They gathered in Guyana for the second time since they took place to carry out various activities on land, air, sea and cyberspace, distributed in different locations in the country, many of them along the Essequibo River.
Guyana illegally granted concessions to ExxonMobil in territorial maritime space disputed with Venezuela
(Photo: El Universal)
Also this year, as a sign that his diplomacy is always linked to the conflictive imprint, Secretary Blinken visited Guyana and discussed energy investment issues for its companies and territorial security. There has already been a precedent for interference dressed in diplomacy: in 2019 the Lima Group, a group of countries aligned with the regime change operation against Venezuela directed from the United States, issued a statement (Declaración del Grupo de Lima) recognizing the alleged Guyanese sovereignty over the territory of Essequibo. This led to notes of protest from the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against the signatory states of the statement and led to the majority of the signatories recanting (Países rectifican posición tras nota del Grupo de Lima sobre Venezuela).
After the overwhelmingly positive result of the consultative referendum on December 3, the Venezuelan State decided to take the first actions to protect Guayana Esequiba.
) around the dispute, supporting Guyana, which seeks to mobilize the focus towards what the ICJ rules, whose decisions are known to be biased towards the North. Global, and recognized in case of being harmed.
Misión Verdad published numerous works regarding the Essequibo case, here
are six of them.
— WE ARE A GROUP OF INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS DEDICATED TO ANALYZING THE WAR PROCESS AGAINST VENEZUELA AND ITS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS. FROM THE BEGINNING OUR CONTENT HAS BEEN FREE TO USE.
WE DEPEND ON DONATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT, IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO MISIÓN VERDAD (Apóyanos)
The TRAP of the HIGH-VALUE woman: every restaurant serves water
This is actually a story about my daughter. She was 17 and had bought a second hand Acura Integra sports car with her own money. No, dad was very remiss in not teaching his lovely daughter how to change a flat tire, so one night she gets a flat and limps into a Walmart parking lot. She knows where things are in the trunk, but is a little unsure how to use them.
Suddenly, a van pulls up near her and 4 guys pile out. She said later she was frozen with terror thinking they were going to abduct her and rape her. Instead, one of the men asked if she had a flat and was help on the way.
No, she replied, she was going to fix it herself, except she really didn’t know how.
While she was talking the other guys opened the back of the van and pulled (as she described it) a lever-style jack out as well as a power wrench. In seconds, her car was lifted up from the side; the wheel removed and her replacement tire back on. All done in about 30 seconds.
They were the pit crew for a race team and were stopping at Walmart for some snacks when they saw her predicament and came over to help.
They advised my daughter to have dad show her how to change a tire.
edit: I neglected to mention that my daughter had AAA but given their response time and her not having a cell phone she was prepared to try to change the tire herself. Given enough time she’d have figured it out since she is extremely bright, but the fellows coming by was a godsend to her. They basically made it into a lark to help a damsel in distress.
My dad’s father died when he was 9, in 1946. He had an older brother, and two younger sisters.
A few years later, his mother married a man named John. John told the kids “I am not your father, I cannot replace your father. Call me John, or whatever you want.”
John was a hard worker- he only missed a day of work when he was injured at work, and only stayed home because they made him. John was not an overly affectionate man- he was in Special Forces in WW2 and had terrible PTSD. He did however take the kids fishing with him, taught them to play cribbage, he was very handy and made sure the boys could fix things. He was protective of the girls, and would stand on the front porch waiting for them when they went out, not resting until they were home safe.
He made sure the boys stayed out of trouble, made sure they behaved, respected their mother, and worked from the time they were 14. Although very “street wise”, neither boy was ever in any trouble.
His whole working life, he always turned his entire pay over to his wife, and she gave him an allowance. He never once complained.
When someone said “Your children…” to him, he would say “they are my wife’s children”.
We called him Grandpa John.
When I was married, and after my grandmother had died, I asked him about him saying that. He said “Their father deserves the credit for who they are, and it’s wrong to make anyone forget him. You only have one father.” I asked if he loved the kids… and he said “I worked hard to make sure they had everything, I took care of them.” To him, this was the proof of love.
He also said “It was a privilege to raise them, they are good people. I was lucky to be able to be there to help”.
When I was a kid, and Grandpa John taught me to play Cribbage- if I missed points when counting my hand, he would take them saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”. He never let me (or my brothers) win; we either won fair and square, or not at all.
My dad is now 84. He is so much like Grandpa John- he is a strong man, who plays cards (just as John taught him), who fishes (just like John taught him), who can fix *anything* (just as John taught him), He missed rare days at work, served in the military, and would be waiting outside for me whenever I went out in the evening- he didn’t rest until he knew I was home, safe.
I beat my father once at Gin- once- in my whole life. The last time he and I played cribbage, I missed “His Nibs”- and my dad took the point, saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”.
He is, in reality, as much (if not more) John’s son as he was his father’s son. He respected and loved John, not because anyone told him to, but because John earned it.
Your step-kids will look back on their lives and see that *you* are the one who paid the bills, *you* were there when they woke up afraid, *you* were the one who waited on the front porch until they were home safe. You were the one who said “He’s $20, stop for Pizza on the way home”.
Just be a man of integrity. Don’t argue with anyone, don’t withdraw your love or support, just be there for the kids.
Just as no one needed to tell my Dad how important John was, no one will need to tell the children you are raising. And, one day, you will see in them how important you have been. And in reality, they are the only ones who matter.
More like the most disgusting. When I was in eighth grade, we had a male history teacher. He was in his thirties with a receding hairline and a weird smile.
When we started the beginning of the year, he was sort of like a goofy soccer dad. Very funny and interactive with the class. Nothing ever seemed weird about him, and all the parents always liked him.
As we moved along the year, he started doing strange things. He’d walk up behind female students and rub their shoulders or go way too close to them when trying to “help” with a problem. People always were uncomfortable but he didn’t go to an insane extent.
When we reached the “two months left of school” mark, we were taken on a field trip to the park for a class picnic. My friend and I went off to a table away from the class so we could talk with one another without other people hearing. I remember we were laughing about a joke her brother said when the history teacher came up to us and told me that our, at the time, English teacher needed me.
I didn’t think much of it and went up to my English teacher. Yes, of course, I realized that I shouldn’t left my friend alone with the history teacher, but at the moment I wasn’t thinking.
After I talked with my English teacher for a bit, I walked back to the table but realized they were both gone. I was confused and went back to my English teacher and told her that the two were missing. She grabbed the other teachers and began to look around for them.
I followed them as they spread out. While they were searching, I realized the two of them might be in the parking lot grabbing something from the bus. I went over and checked the bus and nobody was in there. The parking lot was mainly deserted so I went and checked the van parked slightly away from the bus. I peeked through the window, and to my horror, I saw my history teacher r*ping my friend, who was yelling through her tears. I was absolutely appalled. I threw open the door and started screaming at the top of my lungs. I slammed my fist into the groin area of my history teacher, grabbed my friend, and hauled her out of the van.
The rest of the teachers ran towards us as I told them what happened. The history teacher started yelling as the others called the police and screamed at him. It was all chaos.
To this day I am still scarred. Thankfully, my friend turned out okay and I still talk to her now. She’s happily married and has healed from this experience.
Remember, just because they’re an authority figure doesn’t mean you should trust them. People are messed up.
It was the day before Thanksgiving. My mom was in the hallway sobbing and frantically searching the Help wanted section of the newspaper. I was only seven and my brother was four. I was confused about why my mom was crying so hard. I asked her and she said she needed to find a job. I thought that was strange because my dad had a good job and my mom stayed home and cooked and cleaned. Who’s going to take care of us I thought to myself.
Thanksgiving was a weird and somber day. All the food was there, but it was quiet. Silent even.
My mom found a job overnight so she could be home with us during the day. My dad stopped playing with us. He stopped talking to us. He stayed late at work a lot. My mom was always tired and took naps whenever she could. I was at school most of the day, so that helped, but the house started to get dirty and she started to bring home fast food instead of cooking delicious meals. This went on for a few years. My mom got really skinny.
And then, when I turned ten, my mom quit work and stayed home again. The house was clean again. We had good food to eat and my parents were happy again.
My mom told me years later that my dad had had a nervous breakdown. We were very close to losing the house and everything we owned. My dad had come very close to trying to commit suicide thinking that his life insurance would be enough to save every thing. My mom was crying that day because he told her his plans and my mom told him she would go to work and help save the house, but she couldn’t do it by herself. She loved him so much that she went without sleep to save him and everything we had. They were married 47 years until death did part them. My mom lived another 3 years afterwards and is buried next to him.
As a KFC customer for almost 40 years, I suppose I’m also contributing to the problem.
Ever since I first had KFC in the mid 1980s, I’ve been trained to look for their special deals or coupons which would make their meals about 30% cheaper than their regular pricing. With the deals, the iconic boxes and buckets haven’t gone up in price as much as everything else. 9 pieces of regular chicken went from about $7 in the mid 1980s to $10–12 today when it should be about $25.
Hence they had to reduce the sizes of their chicken pieces, as they charge by the piece, and slash ingredient costs until it’s basically just salt for seasoning. Honestly, plain battered fried chicken is already pretty good, so I can see how they can get by with mostly salt and dispense with the expensive spices.
As a customer, I would expect ever lower inflation-adjusted prices to compensate for the reduction in quality. I would still come for the deals if it’s cheap enough. They know it and I know it.
Now, they’re making barely passable food loaded with insane amounts of salt that people like me still eat out of nostalgia when yet another coupon comes across. The usual patrons are at least my age or older and their sad looking sit down tables are still mostly empty and straight out of the 1980s.
While each KFC location can still pull upwards of $1–2M in sales a year, I don’t know how they’re going to survive in the coming decade when the older generations like me literally can’t handle the salt anymore. The Millennials and younger crowd have grown up used to fancy fried chicken like the Korean double fried or Dave’s hot chicken. They’re not taking well to KFC at any price.
In 2016 during a night in March around 2 AM, I was woken up by hard knocks my front door. As I made my way towards the door (which was partly glass), I noticed a police uniform. I opened the door and saw a police officer standing out there telling me he’s performing a wellness check. I look at him in a weird way, asking him why he would come in the middle of the night to check on me and my family. He explained to me that an Uber driver reported taking a strange guy from near our premises around 8 pm. The guy looked weird and acted strange enough to alert the Uber driver. He asked the Uber driver to simply drop him off in the middle of a street without specifying which house exactly. During the drive, he didn’t make any conversation with the driver.
Now for the back story. The passenger was my brother, who has hurt his eye during his army service. His iris was damaged, so it looks like he has an expanded pupil. He had just landed that evening after a flight from Europe (me in the US) and was jetlagged and tired. He simply rested during the drive and almost fell asleep. He didn’t know which Airbnb house the company rented, so he needed to walk a little to find it. When I explained this to the officer, we both had a good laugh at now, 2:30 AM and then he left.
After all this, I still appreciate the Uber driver, who did the right thing. I wish everyone cared enough about strangers they never met or knew.
After my dad died, my mother was incredibly lonely, so I would take her on road trips, and we would visit all the places that her and dad had visited together.
As we drove, she told me their history, from the day she met him, their first date, how he asked her out, their first kiss. They were married 75 years ago, and my mother was a virgin on her wedding night.
She told me of them scrimping and saving to buy each other, and later us kids, gifts. How happy they were when they saved enough money.
She told of how once a month they would have enough money for a 26 of whiskey or rum, and they would invite our neighbors, their best friends over, for drinks and toast. Then two weeks later, their neighbors would have saved up enough to invite them over. My parents had a pan with holes in it, with handles, that they sat on top of their propane stove, to make toast. Their neighbors had this newfangled electric toaster. My mother loved the evenness of the toasting on the toast, from the electric toaster. The neighbors were polite enough to say that they loved the toast from the pan.
When my father died, my mother had me spread the ashes at the site of their first house, by the stream in the country. She had told me so many joyful stories of those days. Like the day she found out she was pregnant with my older brother.
Your U.S. joint chief of staff in the military CONFIRMED THAT IT IS A WEATHER BALOON officially and you still choose to call it a fxxking “spy balloon” either you are dumb, idiotic or you are a jerk. But chances is that you are an average Joe a typical China and Chinese hater pretending to ask a question!
Shoot it down? Of course no. It no different from shooting down you neighbours kid party ballon blown of course into your air space! Do you know you look and sons like a 50 IQ per just for asking that? If you are normal you will question what your nation uses a billion dollar fighter jet to shoot down a thousand dollar balloon travelling 20 KM an hour!
Grow up will you? No wonder the U.S. is bankrupt and imploding. It is due to people like you.
When I first left Hawaii I moved to San Diego. One of the first things I wanted to do was establish a checking account. This was the mid 80’s.
I took my travelers checks and had to catch a bus to a bank. I looked at the desks as I entered and they were all empty so I approached a teller and let her know I wanted to speak to someone about opening an account. She told me she could help. So I pull out my travelers checks and my wallet and place them on the counter. She glances at the tc’s and asks me, “What country is that from?” – wait, really?
“This one.”
“Which one?”
“This one. They’re from this country. Is there an account manager available?”
“I assure you, I can help. Can I see your ID?” I hand it over. “And do you have your passport?”
“For what? I don’t have a passport.”
“Because you’re from overseas. I need a passport.” again- what?
I’m not from ‘overseas’. I’m from Hawaii. It’s a state.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, think again. Hawaii is a state.”
“Ma’am, you have foreign money and a foreign ID. I need a passport.”
So, at 21, I stepped back and yelled, “I NEED TO SPEAK WITH A MANAGER!!”
A young man steps up from behind me and asks what the problem is. I try to let him know that I’m trying to open an account when the teller interjects and tells him I have no passport, I’m from ‘overseas’ and I have foreign money. Before I have a chance to show him my ID he kindly lets me know that I need a passport to open an account when coming from out of country. So, I’m done. I grab my things and head for the door.
At this point it looks like the manager is returning from lunch. He stops me on the way to the door and asks if he could help. I show him my ID. “This is a state ID, issued in the State of Hawaii. The 50th state of the United States.” He say, “Yes, ma’am, I know what this is. What’s the problem?”
Teller pops over, “She needs a passport.”
Manager, “For what?”
“Because she’s from overseas!”
“No, she’s not. She’s from Hawaii.”
“But, that’s overseas.”
“Actually, it’s a state.” To which she looked totally confused.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t be able to open an account here.”
I took my Inuit husband to England. I borrowed my Mother’s car and took him to a pub. I had not been back for a while, so when, near 11pm, I did not hear the familiar “Time, Gentlemen, please” I assumed that licencing hours had been changed. After a while the publican came to each table and said, quietly “If you wouldn’t mind drinking up and leaving soon I would appreciate it. The police are outside.” So we left and got in the car. A police officer came over and I wound down the window. “Excuse me, Madam,” he said politely, “Did you know that your tax disk is out of date?” This is a circular piece of paper which fits in a holder on the windshield to prove you have paid the road tax. I explained that it was my Mother’s car and I knew nothing about it, but I scrabbled in the glove-box in case it was there. It wasn’t. “Well, perhaps it is just at home, then” suggested the officer, “could I have the name and address of the owner?” I duly gave it and was told that he would drop round in a few days to make sure. We drove home. My husband was astonished and suggested what would have happened if we had been in Canada. My Mother rushed into the nearest town the next day in my Father’s car and paid for the missing tax disk.
A couple of months later I was speaking with my Mother on the phone and she told me that a policeman had shown up just a day or so before this call. He had a cup of tea and chatted, and then mentioned the tax disk which had been duly inserted in the holder. He took a look at it and left.
That is policing as it should be, and it is the reason that the British police can do their job unarmed. In the UK, the police are our friends, there to protect us. They do not shoot and ask questions after.
P.S. Yes, this happened a number of years ago, and now police can check using the number plate.
It’s what happens to a rogue empire when it begins to collapse inwardly
It becomes a Nation of Factions and Partisanship
The US is struggling in a Multipolar World
More and more Nations now stand up to the US and say “We have had enough of your hegemony. Either you treat us better or we go to Russia and China”
Yet Israel is an old buddy and the Jewish lobby, a Lobby of corrupt and greedy people who are middlemen to various corrupt deals involving Israel and USA can use the pressure of this corruption and cause Biden serious problems in the elections because Wall Street is heavily controlled by the Jewish Lobby
So on one side the US is losing the goodwill of the Arabs who are too rich to be bribed, who can get nuclear architecture from Russia and China completely bypassing the West and who can get weapons and trade from China and Russia entirely bypassing the West
Iran simply says to the Arabs “Look guys , either you allow me to get a two state solution by funding Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas or i turn them on you”
Arab States are happy with the recent peace with Iran so they say “Either Iran gets defeated which is good for us or Israel gets humbled and US gets humbled which is ALSO good for us”
Its a win win for them
Meanwhile Israel knows the US is losing Arabia and know that if they burn bridges with Israel, they lose the entire middle East
Israel is the only anchor for US influence in the Middle East where Arab Nations are fast asking the US to go f*** themselves every day
So they cannot be forcefully impeded by USA
So there you have it
The Strongest Nation in the world now a stinking cesspit with a Senile Biden, a Stupid Birdbrain Nikki Haley and that Faggot Lindsey Graham in charge of decision making
Losing the Middle East and clueless how to stop it
Too scared of losing Israel and thus allowing open butchery and murder of kids and women and losing the goodwill of the entire non western world
A HELPLESS NATION CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF WEAKNESS AND CORRUPTION
After working closely with children as a teacher, I have to say that, although in many cases family problems/neglect or abuse by parents, carers, etc is to blame, there are also some children who are just born “bad seeds”. I had one little boy in a class one year. I knew his parents socially and had his older brother in my class in previous years. The older brother was a nice, well-behaved kid – sometimes naughty, but what kids aren’t, sometimes? Just a normal, well-adjusted child.
His younger brother, on the other hand, was a nightmare. Because I was a friend of the family, I got to see this little horror in action. From the moment of his birth, he was a cranky and demanding baby who had no patience and if everybody didn’t jump to his will he would throw a huge tantrum. As he grew older, and particularly once I could observe him daily in my classroom, I saw him become, what I can only describe as cunning. He knew tantrums didn’t work with me: I usually walk away and once they realize they have no audience they calm down. Instead, he began a campaign of terror. Always when he thought I wasn’t watching. He was very intelligent,and when it suited him he could charm the birds from the trees. But on an instant he could turn into a raging maniac. Instead of using that intellect to learn, instead he used it to lie, steal, cheat, and physically hurt other children who were smaller than him, destroying their work and generally causing me to have to concentrate on him more than any of the others just to keep him under some sort of control. The day came when he skipped class. I could hear a commotion in the playground, where the school had set up a henhouse for the children to have contact with farm animals. I could hear chickens in distress. A number of teachers, all followed by their classes, ran to see what was going on. The hens were all milling about and scared and there were five dead hens. E. was still holding one screaming chicken, laughing as he swung it by its legs. The school then told the parents that this behaviour was beyond our capacity and to take him out.
His parents took him to a child psychologist and he was diagnosed as having “Defiance and Anger Management Disorder” and he was sent to a specialist school that deals with children with out of control behaviour.
I lost touch with the family for a number of years after that, but eventually ran into the older brother, who had by now joined the Australian Air Force and was a pilot in training. We chatted for a while, and of course I asked him how E., his younger brother, was doing.
He told me that E. only got worse as he got older. He had gone to Juvenile Detention for attacking people and was now in jail again for attacking an old age pensioner with a pair of scissors. His brother said he feared for when he got out – he said that E. was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted not to hurt people. Not because of anything they did to him. Just because he enjoyed hurting other living things. The family couldn’t keep pets, since E. would always torture them to death.
Ten years after running into the older brother, I again heard of E. He is currently in jail for attempted murder. His live-in girlfriend was found beaten to a pulp, and she lives now with multiple disabilities. The judge said he had never seen anybody treated so callously, and that E. had an absolute lack of apparent remorse for his actions.
So it is not always nurture. Sometimes nature is to blame.
When I was in high school, I was a cheerleader. My father drove a school bus. One evening, we were at the school waiting to board the bus to attend an out-of-town game. A student at the school that was heavily into drugs and other assorted activities came to the school.
I was standing, talking to my father at the moment this student approached us. He produced a pistol, stuck it under my father’s chin and pulled the trigger. The gun just “clicked”. He sneered at us and said “Darn. Wish it had been loaded.”. That is my last cognizant thought of the evening.
Later, friends relayed the “rest of the story” to me.
The police were called. Upon their arrival, my father was asked where the offender was. He pointed and said “Under that cheerleader.”. Obviously, I had taken serious offense at this jerk’s actions and beat the living daylights out of him. The police pulled me off of him and took him to jail. Again, I have no recollection of those events.
I cannot condone you taking the action I took. It would completely depend on the circumstances.
When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with Aspergers.
The psychologist told me I would never hold a real job, drive a car, or even be capable of basic self-care around the house.
Where I come from, healthcare is incredibly poor because only the lowest-qualifying doctors move to this environmentally contaminated area because nobody in a reputable city will accept them.
Basically, my diagnosis was based almost entirely upon my uneducated sociopath mother’s lies, slander, and manipulation. The rest of my diagnosis was based on the outlandish and outdated belief that it’s abnormal for a girl to be extremely quiet, but have very articulate speech and an interest in science and video games. Yeah, they literally assumed I was mental because I didn’t fit their sexist views. Needless to say, doctors in this area are among the most unprofessional in the entire country.
My childhood consisted of endless bullying and harassment from my mom, brother, stepfather, classmates, and teachers. My mom always called me a “retard” and told me to “act like a normal kid, you fucking freak.” She also belittled me by telling me that I DESERVED the bullying that everyone gave me.
Years later, I survived multiple suicide attempts and turned 18.
Despite being labeled as an “autistic retard”, my mom forced me to immediately enter college when I wasn’t ready and all I wanted to do was navigate through basic adulthood with a job before making such a huge commitment to education.
I psychologically cracked.
Most of what happened is now a blur. But I can remember the part when I silently walked out of class in the middle of a lecture. I continued walking silently outside and made my way toward my mom’s car. (Yeah, she actually allowed me to get a license and drive myself occasionally. But only because her friends with “normal” kids started giving her shit about having a retarded kid.)
I got in the car and sobbed violently. My life was over. It’s all a prison and I want out.
My grades were all horrible because I saw no point in doing anything when my mom always told me that I would NEVER be allowed to have my own life and that if I attempted to escape from her, she would finally have me legally declared mentally incompetent so I would have no human rights to make my own decisions in life.
A few weeks later, I left my mom’s house without any notice and used my meager savings account to get an apartment. I spent 8 months submitting job applications to every place in town that would hire my age. I literally only got three interviews the entire time. I was forced to work online as an adult cam model to survive on less than $800 a month. Keep in mind that this job was very difficult due to being naturally ugly and constantly being degraded. At the end of these 8 months, I was finally hired for a shitty part-time job.
At this point, it probably sounds like nothing will ever improve.
But here’s the plot twist…
Today, I’m 22 years old and I have a stable job in a manufacturing facility. Most people are unable to survive on the meager wages of this job, but I’ve managed to do far more than just survive. I’m thriving. I didn’t need a roommate or a partner to help me move up in life. In only two years of working this job and supporting myself living alone, I was able to build my credit and save up money to buy a nice convertible car and a HOUSE. A freaking HOUSE. I did it on my own with no guidance from anyone. I researched everything carefully and worked hard and because of that, I succeeded. But aside from material things, I also gained something else that my mom and all the other cruel people said I would never have. Friends.
I still go through cycles of depression, but my friends are understanding of my struggle and it helps to know that they still believe in me.
The moral of this story is to never lose hope. Even if everyone in your life hates you and makes a joint effort to keep you trapped, always keep an ounce of hope guarded in your mind. If you have to use anger from injustice to re-ignite your hope, do it. Do it until you succeed and then find peace. As long as you have even the smallest amount of hopeful defiance, you have the power to create a plot twist in your life.
I had been out of prison for one month after a 15 year incarceration for murder. The conviction of murder requiring “intent” and “aforethought” in my state, I can say with a straight face and clear conscious that I did not commit murder, however I absolutely knew when my spouse took the stand to testify against me that I would be convicted of it. Since I am a “manslaughterer” by the legal definition of the word, I didn’t quibble and just took the sentence. It was coming either way, and I knew it.
On that Monday I took a psychological battery for vocational rehabilitation to see what they could help me with. I walked 4 miles one way at 7AM for the appointment. It was overcast, in the low 40’s when I started out, and I was hopeful. After taking a many hours long series of tests, I had a brief interview with a psychologist. I was warned beforehand that he was there to ask me a few questions but not for a counseling session, so I was to keep that in mind.
Every question he asked me I thought about in depth before I answered. I wanted to give this well educated, intelligent man the exact shade of phraseology I knew he needed for an accurate assessment. At the end, he asked if I had any questions for him. I said I had one, “When does being free start to become easier than it is now?” He looked at me straightaway in the eyes and said with absolutely zero expression of emotion, “This isn’t a counseling session. If you need a counseling session you can make an appointment.”
Freedom was not all it was cracked up to be, to put it very, very mildly. On that date I was down to my last few dollars I had saved whilst in prison ($700 in 3 years, crocheting blankets and working 250 hours a month at .30¢ an hour), I had no job, was being pestered to get a job immediately by Parole Officer who provided to date zero help in that department, and everything I was qualified, trained and educated for was worthless in a professional pursuit. I was given a list of over 50 companies who hire felons, but only 4 would consider a violent felon. I was told to spend at least 8 hours a day looking for a job. Between 10 to 20 times a day I had to replay for horrified managers what I did which sent me to prison. By the end of the day, I seemed like an apathetic sociopath who couldn’t care less about what I did. My family hadn’t deemed me worthy of help, I was in a strange new city in a halfway house, I knew very few people and they were all busy with their own life anyways.
What had most galled me was how the civilisation in general had changed. I was deeply, deeply bothered by the callous disregard of fellow humans by virtually everyone I met in every walk of life. For the last 10 years or so that I was in prison I noticed that the rookie inmates were particularly inconsiderate and selfish, and I attributed that to the fact that I was 10 years their senior, and that they were just young kids afraid and wanting to fit in. When I was released, I immediately noticed that in fact these selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless inmates were just an accurate representation of their age group, and that this is what society had become.
Around noon, I was walking home on a bridge which went over the freeway. I looked over the edge. I could feel the spirit of despair and crushed dreams with no hope for relief calling me down to the pavement below with a promise for a sweet release from this place. For about 4 or 5 seconds, I just looked over the edge. I calculated all I have going for me and all I had relinquished so far in this life.
All I had was a promise from the Russian Orthodox Church which told me that after a well run race I would be awarded a rest and a peace the likes of which I could not imagine.
I walked on.
On my way home I thought first about what I had been educated 20 years for, and what I could do with it.
Zero.
Then I thought about what I had done in the past and wondered if I could do it again.
Nope.
Then I started considering my resources to find a job and realised that I had exhausted all of the leads I’d generated to no avail.
Empty.
Upon reaching the halfway house, I realised that every plan I had focused on my whole life was now worthless. Before I was arrested I’d hoped to become a tenured and published professor, and eventually move on to politics. In prison, all my hope every day was that life out here would somehow be better than life inside. It isn’t. It’s just different. After prison, I had hoped that my mind, education and experience could come together and be utilised in a positive way. I found that absolutely no one wanted to hear what I had to say except out of politeness. It had been all I could do to keep from jumping off the bridge when I saw into what this world has morphed.
Now I am a chef in a 4.75 star restaurant. Life is much, much harder and less pleasant than it has ever been out here. I don’t have a purpose. Not like my sister who is a world authority in her medical field. Nor like my brother in law who writes policy in the federal State Department. Nor like my Grandfather who helped save us all from the Soviet Union, put a man on the moon, and taught Jimmy Doolittle how to take a B-25 off of the USS Hornet.
I could have been any of these things and more, but I decided to overreact and lash out in abject rage in a total panic and go to prison. So, I can’t complain. At least I’m breathing, and at least God forgives me. He and His Church are all I have. Everything else can be stripped of me easily, and probably will. But I have faith in Him, His promises of life to come, and that the life here is of some merit simply unknown to me. Because of that, there is always hope that while if life has passed me by, at least I may someday cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.
My mother has done a great deal of unforgivable things. Here’s one:
Our family of eight moved from California back to New York in the middle of the night. I was 9 at this time. We drove, we had a beat-up station-wagon and it was pretty tight quarters.
One of the reasons for the move was my oldest brother was facing juvenile hall for some property he destroyed. My mother just couldn’t have HER oldest (and most likely best loved) son go away. I’d like to state here that my brother had problems, big problems. He was a sadist and probably a psychopath and definitely a pedophile. He was the eldest kid; there were six of us.
I believe another one of the reasons for the late night move was my Dad lost his job and we were running out on the rent. I’m not positive but it’s a pretty good guess. My Father was laid off from his job as a defense contractor.
We never got a hotel room because we couldn’t afford it, so we all slept in the car for the entire trip across country. Uncomfortable even if everything was Kosher. Which it was not.
One night I woke up to find someone pulling down my pants. Fortunately I was able to pretend to be asleep and move away from him, I realized during this situation (attack?) it was my oldest brother. So nothing happened technically, but we had just begun this trip, I was worried about him making another attempt to molest me. Of course I didn’t know THAT word at that time.
The next morning I got my mother alone and told her what happened, she said “What are you trying to do, start trouble?” I was speechless and afraid. So now if I tell my Father, (who was a good man) I would indeed “start trouble.” I should have gone to my Father first, but I was unaware (at the time), how skewed her opinion and vision of who and what her first son was. By the way, he was 16 at the time.
I have another older brother (he was 11 at this time) He is wonderful, loving, caring and trustworthy. I told him about the “problem.” He promised to keep me and my crazy brother separated by sleeping between us for the whole trip. For his trouble he was smacked and bothered by my crazy brother the whole trip. But he did just that, stayed between us, although our plan was met with objections from my oldest brother, he and my mother tried repeatedly to switch us around. I’m sure my Father thought this situation was nuts, but that was life with my mother all around.
My mother continued to take my brother’s side over the years, no matter what! He beat us up and terrified us just to entertain himself. He even turned on her, throwing glasses at her and a myriad of other things. I had to place him under citizens’ arrest twice, once when I was 13 and the other time I was 18. He was raving drunk both times, terrorizing us, breaking windows and furniture, hitting us. My Father did what he could to protect us, but my brother was a big, violent loud-mouthed drunk. The cops told me if I wanted him arrested, I would have to get him outside of the house or they couldn’t touch him. Although I’m loathe to have cops handle anything for me, I had no choice. I had little brothers and a sister to think about.
I’m so grateful to my brother (the normal one, lol.) for his protection, especially at his very young age. He remains to this day one of my very best friends as well as someone I can always count on.
Presence of mind was one thing I didn’t think I had until this happened:
Interviewer: Good morning Mr. Anonymous. I’m sure you’re familiar with a typical consult interview, so I won’t beat around the bush. Tell me a little about yourself before we dive into the puzzles and cases.
Me: Blah blah blah…er…blah…er…blah
Being my first job interview, I managed the impossible. I screwed up right at the start and ended up describing why I wanted to do consulting, instead of talking about myself. Beads of sweat started forming on my troubled forehead. With a bemused look on his face, the interviewer continued.
Interviewer: Uh, o…kay. I’ll go on to the puzzle now. Okay, so tell me…
He proceeds to describe a puzzle I had heard and solved recently. I have trouble keeping my emotions away from my facial expressions, so I broke into a wide smile, thinking that the moment to redeem the dismal ‘tell me about yourself’ had come! Needless to say, my poker career ended almost as soon as it had started.
Me: <Laughing> Sir, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve heard this one before…<I then proceed to give an outline of the solution>
Interviewer: Oh, haha, okay. I guess I’ll have to ask you another one I guess. Okay, so…
He then proceeds to describe a puzzle that sounded so tricky and convoluted that the beads of perspiration on my forehead now gushed forth with renewed fury in rivulets of nervousness down my face and neck and arms and legs. A Ganga of tension clouded over my face. The interviewer finishes asking the question and there is an ugly silence that ensues. I could almost hear the atoms in the left part of my brain screeching to a sudden halt and completely and stubbornly refusing to budge towards any analysis whatsoever. I had no idea what the solution was. I didn’t even know where to start!
But then the creative right part of my brain swooped in, with fluttering heroic cape et al.
Me: <Smiling broadly> Sir, I hate to admit it, but I’ve heard this one before as well!
Interviewer: <A look that registered appreciation of my unbelievable ‘honesty’ and shock at the probability of it all> Wow…No puzzles today, it seems. I guess we’ll move on to a quick case then…
And then, after blindly stumbling and bumbling through the case and then shockingly recovering to somehow solve it, I cleared the interview and got the job!
A few years ago, I stayed at a hotel just outside Ypres (in Belgium) which more-or-less stood dead on what was the front line, back in 1914–18. There was a bunker in the garden, and lots of photos of what the immediate area looked like during the war (a muddy, blasted, hellscape).
Next door was a water park, across the road were fields.
If you look at aerial shots of, for example, the Lochnagar crater, which was right on the front line, and which was created by a massive underground explosion on the first day of the Somme battle (July 1916), you’ll see that it’s surrounded by fields of crops.
The areas that haven’t been reclaimed are the ones where the fighting was so intense, that there are still significant amounts of explosives, posion gas, etc, buried in the soil. Just down the road from Lochnagar is the Canadian (well, Newfoundland) memorial, at Beaumont-Hamel. There are areas there that are fenced off, and clearly marked as dangerous, becasue there are still explosives in the ground. Whilst the line of the Newfoundland trenches has been kept intact, and they are still there, along with no-man’s land, and that area has been turned into a memorial, the site of the German front line 100–200 yeards away has been cleared and reclaimed as farmland.
So, most of it has been cleared, but certain areas (the ‘zone rouge’) have not.
Think about that. We were so clever in our destruction of each other that we literally rendered the earth uninhabitable, for over 100 years.
This Is Why Marriage Is An “L” For Men!
“Their opinion on the fact that women initiate divorce 80% of the time is essentially… “a woman is always justified in whatever she does, and is also never at fault”. That is literally the default setting and opinion of most modern day woman. Ridiculous.”
I was in 5th grade and my teacher told me I needed to leave my best friend alone. I was confused. I asked her why and was told me and Kate are no longer friends.
I was heartbroken. I didnt understand why this was happening. I kept trying to make eye contact with Kate to find out what was going on but she ignored me.
At lunch I was forced to sit alone. Kate was sitting with all our friends. Tears silently poured down my face as I tried to eat. My dad had just died of cancer a few weeks ago and now I had lost my best friend.
My face must have shown my grief when i got home that day. My mom, who was usually too self absorbed to notice me, asked me what was wrong. The tears started again as I choked out that I wasn’t allowed to be Kate’s friend anymore. She got immediately concerned and asked why, but the sobbing took hold and I ran to my room.
While I was in my room I heard my mom make two phone calls. One was to my teacher. My mom demanded to know what happened. I guess my teacher told her that Kate’s mom didn’t want us to be friends anymore. My mom was pissed. Me and Kate had been besties since 1st grade. Kate’s mom had never liked me but I never saw this coming. My mom asked why they didn’t call her. The teacher said she didn’t think it concerned her.
I guess my mom had hung up because next thing i knew she was yelling at Kate’s mom. “How could you do this after she just lost her dad? Shes already holding on by a thread!”
Then the conversation took an interesting turn. “What do you mean Kate thinks she’s too bossy?! She could have just talked to Sami. This was the extreme option. Can’t she just talk to her? Maybe they can work something out.”
So there was the truth. Kate didn’t want to be my friend. My mom was more pissed at my teacher for not calling her. I refused to go back to school. I couldn’t deal with it. I later ended up in the hospital for attempting suicide.
The teacher could have handled it differently. I was treated like a criminal basically. Everyone seemed intent on keeping me away from my friend that day and it hurt me deeply.
Edit: Wow! Over 5 thousand upvotes. Thanks everyone!
And I need to add something after reading certain comments.
I was just a child and I was hurt. I didnt realize I was getting on her nerves. I would have most certainly changed if I did. Im still unsure if my “bossiness” was the reason why she didnt want to be my friend all of a sudden. It could have just been an excuse to get away from me but we will never know.
I wasn’t some kind of mastermind bent on making Kate’s life a living hell. I didn’t know that I was acting a bad way because I was never taught about right and wrong. I was just myself with her, just like anyone else would be with their best friend.
Originally Answered: How much real life damage could a modern U.S. special forces soldier do to a small town police force if provoked like Rambo’s character?
Micah Xavier Johnson, 25 years old, Army Reserves, Delusional
Dallas, Texas has a far superior police force to a “Small Town”, and Micah was young, delusional, rambling and scribbling gibberish at times with meanings still yet to be deciphered, and went in without a plan besides to shoot white cops, and in general a very far cry from a clear headed special forces operator with years of experience (one of the best if we are equating this person to Rambo)
Even still, he managed to kill 5 police officers and shoot 9 more, not to mention 2 civilians.
The largest police force of any city has a ratio of about 57 cops for every 10,000 residents, or .57% of the population. The next largest is a ratio of .43%.
San Jose on the other hand, has a ratio of .09% of the population belonging to the police force.
Over 87% of all cities in the US have a police force of under 40 members. Strange when considering New York’s is tens of thousands strong (.175% of population) The reason for this is that the smaller the city, the lower the ratio of crime to civilian numbers.
The lower the population of a city, the lower the ratio of officers to the rest of the population.
San Jose has over a million people with a police force accounting for only .09% of the population, so a small town of say 4,000 people probably only has a police force accounting for around lets say .2% of the population at an absolute maximum? And even that is an extremely high estimate implying this small town has an abnormally high crime rate, despite this meaning that there are likely only about 8 officers in total.
8 officers in total for a small town of 4,000 people [on a high estimate], and a delusional, young army reserves soldier with no real plan besides shooting white cops, no escape planned out, proved his capacity to shoot them all out with a rifle while remaining largely stationary, in a shootout.
So how effective would a seasoned, trained, special forces operator, in their right state of mind [more or less] fair against a similar police force?
One of the officers might be able to survive by remaining hidden or fleeing if our modern day Rambo [with superior training than when that movie was made] is only allowed to use a knife.
Otherwise?
(Ironically Keanu Reaves training for John Wick was a better training video than the easily available ones on youtube)
Police force will get decimated. The operator will go in with a plan of action-
Luring the police force to a certain area for example and setting off a bomb or something- And then targeting the remainder with extreme and calculated force.
small EDIT: Thankfully no one has complained- But upon re-reading my answer, since we are talking about calculated killing of police officers, some of the terms I used- “Wiping them out”, “Blowing them up”- came back as callous to me, so I re-worded a bit to remove those terms. Targeted killing of police is a major issue that does not often get talked about, especially more recently with gang’s and initiations and the like, and I don’t want to give the impression that I do not have the utmost respect and appreciation for officers. Managing a hotel overnight (the closest one to downtown which has several clubs) surrounded by multiple popular bars and breweries within 5 minute walking distance, I have had to rely on officer assistance multiple times in the last year alone and the last thing I want is for an officer, past or present, to read this and think that I would make light of a highly trained military individual targeting a police force.
So thanks to everyone willing to put their lives on the line daily to keep people safe who cannot otherwise do it themselves, by picking up a badge knowing that it can just as easily become a target.
I was working at my first job post-graduation, as a brand new RN, young and impressionable. It was a 36 bed Ophthalmology unit, and there weren’t always enough eye patients to keep every bed occupied. During times when we had an ongoing number of empty beds, the docs would head over to the local psychiatric hospital and examine the patients for cataracts. Medicare would cover the cataract surgery if the chart documentation said that the psychiatric condition was exacerbated due to the patient’s impaired vision. After these visits we would have an onslaught of psychotic patients to admit and prep for surgery. Back then, in the 1970s, cataract extraction involved a four-day hospital stay.
We nurses admitted and cared for many patients with varied psychiatric diagnoses during this time, ranging from catatonia to manic disorders, schizophrenia, multiple-personality disorder, severe hallucinations — pretty much any mental disorder which rendered long term psychiatric hospitalization necessary. It was often our observation that, sadly, these patients were not well cared-for at the psychiatric hospital, and it unfortunately became routine for them to come to us malodorous, disheveled, needing a bath, and often with soiled clothes. We would get them showered and shampooed, apply lotion to their dry skin, give them physical exams and blood work, including gyn exams and Pap smears for the female patients, and begin eye prep for their cataract surgery.
So one morning I arrived at work and was given my assigned rooms, which included a new patient who had just arrived from the psych hospital. I braced myself for the usual, but what I found was beyond the pale. The patient was a 40 year old female. She did not speak, move or react, just stared ahead. Her need for hygiene was beyond anything I had ever seen. She smelled like an extremely ripe mixture of urine, feces, sweat, glandular and sebaceous secretions, stinky feet and unwashed clothes. Her dark skin was scaled and crusted. Her filthy and malodorous hair had once been carefully braided into tiny braids all over her head. Someone had once cared enough to do that. But it was so long ago that her hair had since grown about three or four inches into a neglected, uncombed, never-since washed, unkempt afro with the tiny braids imbedded at the ends.
I looked across the room to my other patient, her roommate, to see if she was at all put-out by the stench. She was in a long white nightgown, a rather pale tiny pretty elderly lady, who nodded hello and smiled sweetly at me. She was already getting up out of bed, and said she would attend to her own needs this morning so I could concentrate on her roommate.
First things first, the psych patient needed cleaning up. She would have contaminated the entire operating room! Ok to keep things brief I will only say she came alive when I explained I was going to give her a shower and tried to get her out of bed into a wheeled shower chair. She screamed and fought tooth and filthy nails, became dead weight when I tried to get her to transfer to the chair, wouldn’t cooperate with me one iota. Her breath was horrible every time she screamed at me. After much exertion, I was able to wheel her into the shower. I soaped and re-soaped and scrubbed her face and body, taking multiple times to do this, she was so encrusted with filth. The worst part was her groin. There was probably over a year’s worth of layers of soiling herself and never being cleaned, each layer dried and stuck to the layer underneath and to her skin and pubic hair. The hot water exacerbated the stench and I had to keep putting my head outside the shower curtain for fresh air. There were clay-like clumps of feces all along the bottom of the shower, which housekeeping would have to deal with when we were through. I must have gone through at least a dozen towels and washcloths, which were in a wet brown pile.
Once her skin was clean, I sighed, not knowing how I would ever attend to that head of hair. I decided the best thing would be to cut off the little braids, so I used my bandage scissors to do that. I trimmed and cleaned her filthy black fingernails and toenails too. All through the shower I was explaining what I was doing and trying to keep the patient as placated as I could, and by now she was considerably calmer. Her hair was thick with the texture of a Brillo pad, and so dirty that it was impossible to get any lather going. But I persevered until finally I had rich suds, which I fingered and rubbed into every bit of her hair down to the scalp. By now she was no longer trying to push me away, if not exactly cooperating.
Finally we were done. I was soaking wet. I dried the patient off, got her to put on a clean gown, rubbed her extremeties with lotion, then her feet also and put on clean socks. I wheeled the patient to the sink and brushed her teeth as best as I could, with very marginal cooperation.
I got the patient back into bed, now clean, and proceeded to give her the eye drops which would begin the prep for cataract surgery later that day. I was exhausted and needed to rest.
But first I needed to turn my attention to her roommate, who was also my patient and had been quietly waiting during all this time.
Since the roommate was going for cataract surgery also, I pulled the curtain back to administer the roommate’s drops as well, and I saw that she had washed up by herself and donned a modest white habit, and I realized she was a nun. So I gave the nun her eye drops and reminded her not to have anything by mouth prior to surgery. I told the nun that I would be back later with additional eye drops, and to check on her. The nun smiled and thanked me.
I turned to leave. As I reached the door, she said the most remarkable seven words I have ever heard: “You gave the Lord a shower today.”
Korean Spinach Salad
Ingredients
Salad
1 pound fresh spinach
3 hard-cooked eggs, diced
6 to 8 slices crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, sliced
Dressing
1 cup oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Salt, to taste
1 medium onion, grated
1/4 cup vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
Trim and discard tough spinach stems. Rinse leaves well; pat dry and break into bite-size pieces in a salad bowl.
Carl used to be a firefighter. He pulled people out of burning buildings. He risked his life all the time.
Then one day, an illness that had been lurking in his genes brought him to the ground. His tendons and muscles were slowly calcifying—turning to stone. All of them. His knees. His back.
His heart. His lungs.
And since this was a genetic disease, it was not covered by his firefighting pension plan. He had to go on SSI/SSDI.
The drugs that he took to slow (not stop, slow) the progression of his disease eventually gave him fourteen more incurable conditions, including heart disease, seizures, and diabetes. He’s had several strokes. He also cannot go outside because his immune system has to be suppressed. Going out around people always means he catches something.
So what does he do all day?
It takes him about three hours to get up, get cleaned up, and get dressed and get his breakfast, using his walker because his ankles are now frozen solid. It takes him two hours to do a single load of laundry. He does spend most of the day playing video games and watching TV, but that is because it takes him at least an hour to get to the bathroom, and there is no way he could actually work.
This man was a fireman. He saved people from burning buildings. Now he lives like a pauper, mostly on the charity of his family and friends because SSI/SSDI is not enough to allow him to do anything but die under a bridge.
He saved people from burning buildings. He’d have saved you, if you’d needed it.
I was working for a major car rental company as a tripper (drove cars from the service Centre to the rental lots). They paid us minimum wage, which was about $3.40/hr. back in the mid 80s, and decided they we playing us too much, as sometimes we had no cars to trip and they still had to pay us. It’s about 15km to the downtown Vancouver rental lot, so they figured it would take us 20 to 30 minutes. They decided to pay us by the trip, $1.75 iirc. Oh, this was a Toronto decision based on our work load in May and came into effect mid June. Demand rate was constant and now we were highly motivated to make s many trips as possible. We were tripping about 5 or 6 cars an hour, we were speeding a lot, crashing at least once a month (company self insures so all their cost). Usual the crashes were minor but we totalled 10 cars that summer (their were 5 core and 2 or 3 fill ins, so everyone had at least one major). Record was 8 mins in rush hour. They seemed up paying us about $10 an hour, their accident rates went up. I became a rental rep the next year and quit the next year as the idiocy from Toronto continued.
huWhen my mom was 16 she was raped by the son of a prominent member of her community. He denied it was rape and said she was a willing partner. The police chose to believe him over her.
She got pregnant from the rape and, because abortion was illegal, her parents sent her to a Christian home for unwed mothers. The understanding was she would give her baby up for adoption immediately after birth. She got no say in this. For whatever reason, there was a delay and she got to spend 15 minutes with her son before he was taken from her. It broke her heart.
After she recovered from her pregnancy she went home. Two things had happened while she was gone. First, her parents got their friends to start a rumor that she was away because she had an illness that required special treatment. The other was that someone started a second rumor that she had to go away because she was pregnant and had a baby, with the implication that she was promiscuous.
Guess which one took off? When she got back to school most of her classmates shunned her as a bad influence. She lost most of her friends. Members of her own extended family picked this shunning up. It followed her to college when she graduated. It was more than she could take and she had a mental collapse, ending up in a psychiatric hospital. (It is also possible that she was already bi-polar.) She dropped out of college because she could not handle the stress and deal with her PTSD and depression.
When she met my father who was in the Air Force and from another part of the county, she told him about the rape. She told him about the baby. She told him that no one believed that she had been raped. He believed her. He said he saw no shame on her and eventually they married. His service had them move from her hometown.
HOWEVER…every time she returned to town for the holidays, she would go through the shunning, the snide comments, and insults from her family and the townspeople. My parents separated when I was 24 and she moved home…to the same thing again but now her own mother was doing it too. She endured this until she died when she was 69, which means she was subjected to that shaming for over 53 years.
This is the side of “pro-life” no one talks about. Not only is there no plan for the children after they are born, but in the conservative communities that support this policy, the women who are unmarried will be slut-shamed for life.
A group of hitmen refused to kill a victim as she was a woman and let her free to get her revenge.
In 2015, the Australian Noela Rukundo (who’s the lady in the photo) went to Burundi to attend the funeral of her stepmother who passed away only a couple of weeks back.
Straight after the funeral when she was going out to get some fresh air, she was quite suddenly kidnapped at gunpoint and shoved into a vehicle. She was blindfolded and driven to a safe house somewhere in the country.
Inside the building she was tied up, and a sack put on her head and was asked by her captors:
“You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?” said Noela, she was shaking uncontrollably.
“Balenga (Noela husband) sent us to kill you.”
“What? My husband will never do that, y-you’re lying!”
Her captors smirked and giggled. She then heard a phone dialling and a voice coming from a loud speaker:
“Kill her”
It was her husband. Noela fainted.
She was woken up much much later by her captors on the side of a road and they told her she was free. The men explained they didn’t believe in killing women, and they knew her brother and was friends with him. But they would keep her husband’s money and tell him that she was dead.
Not only was she freed, she was given a phone, recordings of the captors’ phone conversations with her husband and all the evidence she needed to take Balenga to court.
Although pretty messed up and a little dizzy, with the help of the Kenyan and Belgian embassies, she got a trip to Australia, where she planned her revenge.
Meanwhile back in Australia her husband had told everyone she had died in a tragic accident and all her friends mourned her at her funeral at the family home. On the night of February 22 2015, just as the Balenga waved goodbye to the last of his neighbours who had come to comfort him, Noela approached him.
“Is it my eyes?” screeched Balenga. “Is it a ghost?”
“Surprise! I’m still alive!” said a very angry Noela.
“ oh my god oh my god, I’m sorry for everything please forgive me” replied a rather shocked Balenga.
But Noela took none of his apologies. The police swooped in and captured Balenga, who ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder.
During the investigations, it was found out that Balenga wanted to kill Noela because he thought she was going to leave him for another man, which apparently was not going to happen.
Balenga was sent to 9 years of prison while Noela lives with her 8 children somewhere in the same city I currently live at, Melbourne.
This is probably a bit cliche to say but the first person that comes to mind for me is my ex girlfriend from 2017. Out of all the women I’ve had relationships with, she was by far the worst one. She was very controlling and manipulative. I was with her for 8 months and it was the worst 8 months of my life. We basically fought every day over anything. Most things that upset her. I felt like I couldn’t say certain things or do certain things without it possibly upsetting her. Anytime I tried to defend myself she would gaslight me and make me feel like the bad one. She would say things like “I don’t like what you said earlier” or “this happened and you didn’t do anything about it”. Right before I finally chose to break up with her I had her sleep over my house for a night because I just wanted a nice night with her and I could tell all night something was wrong. I could just sense it. When we were at my house she hardly spoke to me and when she did she said “I think I’m going to go home in the morning” Next morning I got up and without thinking made myself a cup of coffee.. but my mistake was not making one for her. She of course went tf off on me for it. At that point I had it, I was done. I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not going to get treated like a servant when I’m just trying to be a good boyfriend and you refuse to see it.
The story of the wife that assisted in my “retirement” from the ONI; MAJ is a long one and very painful for me to revisit.
You see, I was the FOURTH “husband” that she “retired”.
I originally thought it was two, but I discovered out later that she had three previous "husbands". Of course, they were bad, bla bla bla... And yes, each one ended up with problems. Where she profited greatly.
And while I don’t know ALL the details, it appears that I was the one that she got NOTHING out of. For she was living off the collective finances of the three previous “husbands”, whether insurance, alimony, or selling their resources. She got none of that with me.
Because of this…
… because of this failure in her efforts (sure she got me arrested, and I lost everything, she gained nothing.) She ended up with nothing. No profit. No money. No resources. No insurance settlements.
I think when you are expecting millions of dollars from bringing in “one big fish” only to see it go South, it turns you a little crazy. Or “crazier”.
And she has kept on doing everything in her power to “trip me up” and give me a hard time. Here is one such story…
…
When I was in the ADC, prison, I had to endure an all morning lie detector test. I, along with another 16 inmates were marched down to the gym, and waited as one by one, we were given lie detector tests. This one was quite different from the stuff that you see on television.
While it did measure heart-rate, body temperature and nerve impulses, it also measured voice. It was designed to look for changes in frequency and amplitude. Which was a novel idea. I had never thought about this. So all these measurements were taking place while watching my pupils dilate and all the rest. The system was designed to see ho my body reacted to all sorts of personal questions of a sexual and an interactive nature.
I answered as best as I could, and at the end the investigator told me that I wasn’t hiding anything. And of course, I wasn’t. As at that time, I had given up everything. I was stripped, defeated and was completely unguarded… an open book. Once you lose everything, you just don’t give a fuck any longer. It just doesn’t matter.
In fact, the other inmates made fun of me saying that “you can’t lie for shit“. I was that much of a predictable open book.
The point of this was to adjust our threat level. There were three threat levels. And when I was “retired” from MAJ in the ADV Pine Bluff, they established the lowest threat level for me.
But, apparently, my ex-wife, the one trying to poison me as part of my “retirement” wanted to raise all sorts of Hell for me, and this was one of her efforts. So she got the ADC geared up to give me a hard time. Sigh.
Federal Rules for classification are fixed.
I have level one. I possessed illegal pictures.
Level two would only be granted if I had physical contact with a minor.
And Level three was bodily harm to a minor.
So there was no way that my level was going to change. But they had to run a lie detector on me, by request by my ex-wife, to make sure that I wasn’t hiding anything. Sheech!
And if they suspected anything… they could keep me locked up indefinitely. How about that for control and power?
…
Ugh. Memories like this really get me into MAJ induced rages. Good thing that I auto calm, and am way, way, way outside the USA right now.
Not me but happened to a friend of mine: she worked in a large law firm in Dublin, Ireland. Her boss was a total prick, probably a psychopath. During the recession they cut people’s wages and even stopped serving coffee at meetings in order to cut costs – not that any of the senior partners took wage cuts. It is very expensive to live in Dublin; the situation was so bad that there was a constant stream of young, under-paid, financially struggling solicitors entering his office and begging for a pay-rise, any kind of pay-rise. With every one of them he pointed to a tray on his desk filled with c.v.’s and said if you don’t want to work here I have a large bundle of applicants who would be happy your take your job. No one got a raise.
Things came to a head when my friend entered an open competition for a position with the state-run Residential Tenancy Board, a kind of mediation body for disputes between landlords and tenants. It was known that my friend, along with several others in the same firm had sat the exam, and she scored extremely high, placing near the top of the panel. It was rumoured that the boss had applied as well. At the end of the office day he approached her desk and basically accused her of rummaging through another colleague’s desk and stealing his notes for the exam – something along the lines of “How can you prove to me that you didn’t go through Brian’s desk, and read his notes?” (Not that he gave a shit about Brian). This is a lawyer, asking another lawyer to prove her innocence under the presumption of guilt, that she was guilty until she could prove herself innocent. She knew this situation was untenable and said well I wouldn’t do that because it’s immoral, and illegal but it now seems clear to me that it might be best if I work somewhere else – she basically quit there and then in the most tasteful and honourable fashion. He exploded on the spot, demanding to know who would take over her cases and workload. She replied, “Well, you have a large bundle of c.v’s on your desk, hire one of them.”
China has been the biggest power for 4800 out of the last 5000 years yet China did not invade or colonise nations thousands of miles from their shore!
China will not do what the U.S. do. That is for sure. It does not want to dictate to the world. It is too mature and responsible. China don’t see it is right or is it worthwhile for it to interfere and intervene every where. The repercussions to the U.S. is much greater than the U.S. dares to admit and bit by bit the U.S. benefits will evaporate and the humongous cost to the US will come home to roost.
China wants a free and vibrant world that is doing well and prosperous. When a peaceful and harmonious world becomes a reality China will trade with everyone. That is good for China, the Chinese people and the world too. Wars, interference and interventions are costly and harmful for the world. China sees it vividly and clearly that respecting the sovereignty of all nations is good for the world.
Just think about the U.S. spend billions building aircraft carriers and spend further billions to manned it and spend more billions circling the globe aimlessly. And if these interference lead to war, more billions need to be spend to fight these wars. And what does the US gets in returned? Mainly hates and disdained is all that they earn!
China is not blind and it is certainly very smart. It won’t want to do what the U.S. do. Not now, not in the past and not in the future! To China, the U.S. is “throwing sand in the sea” and basically self destructing.
Thirteen years after my dad died, we were notified that his father purchased land in another state, now owned by his children. A gas well was drilled on the property. Since my dad had died, his portion went to his three children. This is where the greedy part comes in.
My mom heard about this, I assume from my sister. She discovered that only us kids got to divide my dad’s portion. This news pissed her off to no end. Immediately, she got an attorney and demanded her share of the gas lease.
When the company that drilled the gas well communicates with the family, they copy EVERYONE. This is how I learned that my mom hired an attorney to ensure she got a piece of the pie. (I have been no contact with my narcissistic mother for fifteen years.) My mom took me out of her will years ago; she wanted to make sure I didn’t get too much. My mom’s actions were out of revenge and greed. If she couldn’t get it ALL, then she was going to make sure that I didn’t get more money than her.
Here is the best part. After years of waiting, my husband and I finally got a big check. One day, out of the blue, we received a envelope which we thought was another letter about the gas lease. After opening the envelope we could see it was a check. We were in disbelief, our jaws dropped, we could barely contain our excitement. As we looked at the numbers on the check, our minds began to wonder about the amount that was on my mom’s check. This was unreal. It was like no other point in our lives. This check changed our lives. It was the answer to our prayers. It proved to us the existence of karma!
After my husband and I calmed down, we started discussing how and where we would spend our $35.00. But more importantly, we laughed all the way to the bank, thinking about how much money my mom spent on an attorney to get a check that was less than $50. It was the best check we had ever received!
My dad’s share of the lease was 1/8th. Since he had passed, his three kids would split that into three equal portions. From what we can tell mom got 1/2 of dad’s share and left the other half to be split into thirds. In the comments people say that my mom is entitled to my dad’s share. I agree, yes she is. But the way she went about it was based on anger, revenge, and manipulation. I would have gladly given her my share if she’d asked. The last time my mom and I talked it was on this issue, I told her if I got any money from this I would put it in savings for my son – her grandson – who has a neurological disease. She decided to get the money for herself, which meant that she was so mad at me that she would take money from her grandson.
I worked in security at Heathrow Airport for a number of years and one of my roles was to process departing passengers. One day a tallish man tried reaching over a perspex barrier to retrieve a bag that was emerging from the x-ray machine. I was in the process of removing it in order that it could be inspected. He said “Do you know who I am?
I did. I won’t name him but he was the son of our serving prime minister at the time. He was the one who got lost for a few days whilst engaged upon a car rally across the Sahara desert.
Had he been as important as he thought he was he would have been escorted by the security service.
When I was a young boy in Calcutta, one of my mother’s friends used to come over to our home on Sunday evenings and enjoy a glass (more like 7 glasses) of scotch. He was the MD of a medium size publicly listed company, a colourful character, had led an exciting life and always had stupefying stories to tell. He later went on to become the chairman of a very, very large listed Indian steel giant.
It might just have been the alcohol talking but he told us this.
He was at work one day when an ordinary looking man entered his office without an appointment. He invited himself in, sat down across the desk. Put his hand inside his bag, took out a sleek black pistol and put on on the table, barrel facing the Managing Director. He said, “look how bad your current security is, I could get in with a gun and so can anyone else. I represent XYZ Security firm. Our retainership amount per annum is Rs ABC. When do we start?”
When we moved in to our new house in 2020, my then 17-year-old son got his own bathroom. It wasn’t an en-suite, but it was right next to his bedroom and rather isolated from the rest of the house, so while others may use it, that was “his” bathroom.
One of the first things he did after moving in was get a nice-looking basket which he filled with a selection of high quality feminine hygiene products and placed on the back of the toilet.
He had read that a courteous host does that to make the women in their lives feel comfortable and welcome and to save them embarrassment if the need arises.
I think your husband’s friend needs to grow up at least as much as my teenager.
Edit —-
Before you think he’s too awesome, realize if I didn’t clean his bathroom, no self-respecting woman would ever use it.
I had tickets to see Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at the Tampa Bowl on a nice warm evening. We got there early and as it was stadium seating we spread our blanket maybe 20 rows from the stage, right in the center. When the band came out they announced that they had a permit that would allow them to play into the wee hours but they were going to start the concert with some acoustic music.
During the first bars of the first tune the boos started. “We want rock and roll!!!” and so on. The noise from a mob of clowns down front was drowning out the music. Then someone threw a beer bottle onto the stage. The concert stopped abruptly. One of the singers again announced that the would play rock and roll until the wee hours but they intended to play an acoustic set first. The cheers drowned out the boos.
They started again but the assholes made it difficult to hear. For the second song, Neil Young sat down at the piano and started doing a solo. You may not believe this, but a “cool” thing to do among assholes back the was to get a mouthful of lighter fluid and as they spit it out they’d light it. People were shooting flaming liquids toward the stage. Finally, the police came in and hauled off a couple of morons. Young started to play again and there was more shouting and a beer bottle landed in the piano. Then a cherry bomb landed on the keyboard and exploded. Young got up and walked backstage.
The stadium went silent. Ten minutes later a helicopter landed behind the stage and it took off right away. The stadium lights came up and a guy walked out and announced that the band had left and the concert was over. We headed towards the other end of the stadium and out because we feared what the scumbags might do. That was the entire concert.
The tattoo is supposed to be a very serious and deliberate thing because it is permanent in a sense. However, here are some people who did a very funny tattoo in Chinese character. Maybe they did not know what is the real meaning of these Chinese or, I don’t know, they just want?
I saw many tattoo pictures of the non-Chinese person on the Internet and they can be roughly divided into three kinds.
1. Chinese old sayings
People did this type of tattoos generally know the meaning of that, but Chinese people rarely tattoo them on their bodies.
Beckham’s Chinese body tattoo
(Translation: Life and death are fated, riches and honour depend on the appointment of heaven)
Kenyon Martin
(Translation:Worry about personal gains and losses)
This Chinese idiom refers to very selfish people who pay too much attention to their own gains and losses.
Jameer Nelson
(Translation: Nothing is a taboo.)
2. Chinese food
A 20-year-old British designer fancies Chinese cuisine very much. One day, she came up with an idea that tattooed Chinese cuisine names on her waist.
(Translation: Sweet and sour chicken; fried noodle with beef; fried rice with egg and chicken meatballs.)
It looks like she printed a Chinese restaurant menu on the body. Next time she walks into a Chinese restaurant, all she has to do is rolling up her tops and say: I want this. Interesting.
This man got “Fried rice with pork” on his calf.
(Translation: fried rice with pork)
???
Are these people trying to cook themselves?
(Translation: Fish ball soup and sweet sour meat)
3. Some very confusing tattoos that are beyond my imagination
This is the funniest part. Many tattoos are far beyond my understanding.
My husband had been raised by his grandparents so felt he owed them. We devoted our time to taking care of them and their house. We took them shopping, did the gardening, painted, built the wheel chair ramp and anything else they wanted. They had a daughter and grandchildren who refused to do anything. She said they lived their life now we are going to live ours. Then grandparents and us got the flu, they had a disabled daughter who was staying with us since grandma was in the hospital. She got released and we were told not to go near her. We asked the daughter to go get her and take her home, she sent the granddaughter. Granddaughter let her out in the street and drove away. Grandma called us and disabled daughter wanted to go home. I called the other daughter and told her off, granddaughter had to go to the airport to get her boyfriend. Why couldn’t she come after she got him, or her married brother? Her brother had to be home with the wife and kids. Grandma said let the disabled daughter come home. Grandma defended the daughter’s family. My husband was not included in the estate only his aunt. He was nothing to them but a handyman. He gave up and said we were moving unless he was in the will. We moved away and let them take care of the grandparents however they want. Grandma was widowed by then. Not sorry I told off his aunt. I never lose my temper or use harsh language, so they knew I was mad.
Chicken with Mangoes
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 whole chicken breasts
1 (2 x 1-inch) piece fresh ginger root
8 scallions
1 (15 ounce) can mangoes
3 cups vegetable oil
3 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons dry sherry
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons instant chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
Combine flour, 1 cup of the water, the salt and baking powder. Beat with whisk until blended. Let stand 15 minutes.
Remove skin and bones from chicken and discard. Cut chicken into 1/4-inch wide strips. Mix strips into flour mixture.
Pare ginger and cut into wafer-thin slices.
Cut onions into 1/2-inch pieces.
Drain mangoes and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips.
Heat vegetable oil in wok over high heat until it reaches 375 degrees F. Add chicken, one strip at a time, to hot oil (cook only 1/4 of the chicken at a time). Cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper. Repeat to cook remaining chicken.
Remove all but 1 tablespoon oil from wok. Reduce heat to medium. Add ginger to oil in wok. Stir fry until ginger is light brown, about 2 minutes.
Combine remaining 3/4 cup water, the vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, bouillon and sesame oil. Carefully add to ginger all at once. Cook and stir until mixture boils.
Add onions. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes.
Mix chicken and mangoes into soy sauce mixture. Cook and stir 2 minutes.
There’s a newspaper in St. Catharines, Ontario, called The Standard.
The lady who worked the classified ad desk never missed a day of work. Rain or shine, sickness or health, she was there taking orders for classified ads which, at the time (the 1990s), were the lifeblood of any newspaper.
Then, one day, she had to be rushed to hospital.
And that day, ad revenues were twice what they had ever been.
A quick check of actual advertising revealed the paper was only being paid for half the ads they ran. An investigation showed that their classified clerk was moving large amounts of money through her bank account, mostly to go on shopping sprees.
They quickly figured out the reason she never missed a day is that her replacement would immediately notice that a lot more money was coming in than usual, which would indicate she was skimming half the proceeds for herself.,
I was working in Manhattan. I got a call from my kid’s school that he wasn’t feeling well and had to go pick him up. I had just finished developing a CD-based training program (this is early 90s, before this stuff was done online). On my way out, my assistant told me the CD master had just arrived and gave me a little plastic bag with the CD in it. I was in a hurry to leave and figured I could drop off the CD at home with my kid before returning to work.
Getting around Manhattan basically means getting into and out of yellow cabs. It’s pretty easy to find one.
Typical New York street
I catch a cab to my kid’s school. About 15 minutes later, I get dropped off. I greet my little one in the headmaster’s office and tell him we’re off to the doctor’s. As I’m waving down a taxi with my kid’s hand in mine, I realize I don’t have the CD bag. We go back into the school and it’s not there. Nobody remembered seeing me with a bag and, frankly, I didn’t remember having it in hand when I walked into the school. Oh, well, I thought, that was stupid. This was before Uber where you could call your ride to check on the back seat. This was, in fact, before everyone had cell phones. The bag and CD were gone.
I refocused on getting my kid to the doctor. Got him checked out. Got into another cab to a nearby pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Walked home and dropped my kid off with his nanny who was waiting there.
All this time I was hopeful they would be able to reproduce the CD master, wondering how long it might take, if it might delay the project, if I should tell my boss, etc.
I wave down a cab to go back to my office. While I’m thinking about all these things I see a bag on the floor. I pick it up and pull out my CD.
My assistant sees me walking in with the bag. “How is your baby? I thought you were dropping that off at home.”
“Kid is fine. Oh, the CD, yeah…” I figured she wouldn’t believe me if it told her the truth.
I watched an investigative reporter type show look at liens in Ontario. It turns out that in Ontario they have this weird, habit of leasing hot water heaters, like it’s a car or something expensive. When they install the hot water heater, you sign a contract that lets them put a lien on your house until the hot water heater is paid off. They were typically 10 year leases. The lien is on the house , regardless of who owns it, and new owners just continue paying the lease, if you don’t pay it out. Anyway, there were some crooked companies that took advantage of this, and wouldn’t let you sell your house, without paying out the lease, and they wanted huge penalties, tens of thousands of dollars for early payment. Picture this, you have sold your house for $800,000, and everything clears, but it can’t be completed, because of this lien. They ask you for $15,000 to break the lease on a hot water heater that was worth $800 new. What do you do? Lose the sale? Pay the breakage fee?
So I would do what you can to find out early, because you don’t want to be held over a barrel when you go to sell it.
When I was in, I think, my 2nd or 3rd job in computers, my company was rolling out email and word processing applications on our central computer. This was the late 80s and it was all green screen with satellite offices using PCs as dumb terminals.
I was sent out to all the sites to do maintenance on the PCs and train the personnel how to use the new applications.
Our business was primarily prepacked concrete mix for contractors and homeowners. At each location they would mix and bag the product for distribution to their regions.
At every plant I went to, when I opened the PC case, there was a 1/2in of powdered concrete covering the motherboard. It’s a wonder any of the machines didn’t crash from overheating!
Decades ago, I received a past-due notice for a loan payment to a bank I’d never done business with. Puzzled, I called the bank. After explaining my confusion three times, I finally was talking with someone who had sense enough to look into it instead of fobbing me off to someone else.
“Did you make a purchase from Such-and-such Music Store?” Indeed, I’d purchased a piano for my wife a month or so earlier. (Might’ve been nice if the salesman had mentioned they’d turn the loan over to a third party, but whatever.)
I then asked the bank worker how the *very first* communication I’d received from the bank could be a past-due notice.
“You should have received a payment coupon book,” she said. (As indicated, this was ages ago.)
“I’ve received nothing from you till this,” I replied.
And then, to my everlasting amazement, she said, “I know. The printing company we use had an equipment breakdown and the coupon books haven’t gone out for a while.”
That “I know” blew me away. The bank *knew* their customers weren’t being told when their payments would be due, and how much they would be—and, in cases such as mine, didn’t even know their loan had been sold to that bank—and instead of notifying people, they just sent out overdue notices.
With a late fee attached, of course.
So I told the nice lady that I’d be happy to make the payment, but I would not stand for a late charge.
Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why not?”
“Because I wasn’t late—*you* were!”
In the end, she had to have a VP call me later, and after I went over it all again, he agreed it was kinda dumb for them to send late notices to people who didn’t even know they had a loan with that bank, he waived the late fee.
I got my driver’s license near the end of my sophomore year of high school. I got my first car a few days before that… a used ’86 Bonneville.
From that week forward, I was 100% responsible for getting myself anywhere I needed to go, including to and from school, my friends’ houses, and my after-school job. I already had a key to the house. I had a “curfew” of 10pm, but my parents always said that “whatever side of the door I’m on when they go to bed at 10 is where I’m going to be all night.” They had a chain lock on the inside of the door, so my key was useless if they locked it that way, which they did every night when they went to sleep.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t very social and I didn’t stay out late anyway. They made exceptions for nights when I was working. I was a prep sports stringer for the local newspaper, and some nights I didn’t get home until 1am because I was covering a game several counties away.
My parents never actually locked me out. My sister, on the other hand, was locked out a few times because she missed curfew. My father was nice enough to put a recliner and a blanket for her on our screened-in porch. She slept out there more than once because she got home late.
It was the South, so it didn’t get too cold most nights. I doubt I could get away with that with my kids here in Chicago.
In 2015, one day a school boy named Amit was going to school. On the way he was hit by a car. Amit was bleeding, he needed immediate medical help but that car driver didn’t even stop and he didn’t feel to take Amit to nearby hospital. Amit was lying on the road, some people came and took him to a hospital but unfortunately he died. Amit’s dad Jitendra ji came to see his son and he was shocked to know about his little child is no more. Amit’s mom was in deep grief. In just a moment a happy family was shattered.
Image source: Web/Google
Jitendra ji filed a complaint but the police didn’t investigate. They even closed the case without informing Jitendra ji. This was ridiculous!
Jitendra ji and his wife just wanted to know his son’s killer. They wanted to question that man why he left Amit alone to die, he could have been saved if he was taken to hospital on time. They just wanted a Sorry. Was that so difficult??
Jitendra ji decided he will find that man who killed his beloved son. On the accident spot, he found a broken rear mirror and a broken car number plate. Car number was not full, but on the mirror there was a number. He asked from the local service centre but every time he got dissappointment. One day with hell lot of efforts a mechanic told him that this mirror is of a Maruti Car. Jitendra ji went to the manufacturing unit of the Maruti cars. He told his story and there people helped him. With the mirror number he managed to find the car registration number and with registration number he found the car owner’s name – Gyan Chand. It took 8 years for Jitendra ji to find the real culprit.
He went to police again with all the proofs and now again police disappointed him by not filing the complaint. He then moved to court and here also he didn’t get justice, his plea was rejected not just once but 4 times repeatedly. In Jan 2023, he again appealed to court for the 5th time. This time court accepted his request and asked the police to re-open the case but till now no arrest has been made.
Jitendra ji fought 8 years to find all the evidence and the person who killed his son. He is still fighting for the justice and he has told that he will fight till his last breath untill and unless his son’s killer get punished.
This story is deeply heartbreaking…….
Image source: Web/Google
I Salute Jitendra Ji from the bottom of my heart🙏
Amit would be Proud of his Dad❤
**Update : On 21st Oct 2023, Police has arrested the accussed, Gyan Chand.
One of my former student’s mothers. This was several years ago now. Her son was in 8th grade and read at a second-grade level. His handwriting was illegible. When he typed his assignments, his sentences were incoherent or not related to the assignment at all.
This was made worse by the fact that he was not a discipline problem. He sat quietly in class and looked like he was on task and understood the material. But he didn’t. He didn’t understand any of it. Even the easiest things in all of his classes were well over his head.
His mother said, at every single parent/teacher meeting, that her son was “a nice kid and just a little slow, but he would get it together soon.”
No. He needed special education services that our school couldn’t provide. The mother had been told that for years, but she didn’t want to hear it. In her eyes, her son was perfect. She was paying for private school for the purpose of avoiding the “special ed” label they’d give him at the public school.
So, the teachers did the best they could to accommodate his needs. Of course, it wasn’t enough, because he really needed a one-on-one, full-time tutor.
I actually know what happened to him. I heard through mutual friends that he went to a private high school which did have a special ed program (although they called it something else), he graduated from that special program, and is now working full-time as a helper in his uncle’s business. Good for him. That’s probably the best thing for him… to find meaningful work with a trusted family member.
I never really had a last conversation with my mother. She was in a memory ward in a nursing home. She had been having strokes was no longer able to walk, and the strokes had affected her swallowing. Her care was beyond us.
Unfortunately, COVID hit and the nursing home was locked down so we couldn’t go in to talk with her. We had been visiting almost daily. The conversations had become one sided due to the alzheimers, but at least she remember us. The day came when we got the call that she had slipped into a coma and that we had finally gotten permission to go in and see her. My last words to my mother were that I loved her, that she had been a great mother/grandmother and that it was OK to go home. She seemed to be waited for my sister to get there and say her goodbyes. My mom died a few hours after my sister left.
No matter how much time you have, somehow it’s never enough.
MY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SAVED ME FROM HUMILIATION.
It was the evening of farewell for our 10th Grade. Our juniors had arranged an eventful farewell for us.
After all the entertainment and other stuffs, it was time to felicitate the top rankers of our class. I was called on stage to receive the award for securing the 1st Rank in the class.
I went on the stage brimming with pride to receive my prize from the School Principal. Little did I know what a blunder I was going to commit.
Here, 2 things you all need to know are:-
First, this was the first time I was going to stand on the stage in front of 100s of people. You can deduce what my condition was, from the fact that I was so immature that I didn’t even know what stage fright was!
Second, this whole scenario was taking place in the Evening. (Yes this is important to know!)
Then came that doomed moment. I was asked by the school principal, a young and kind-hearted lady, to speak a few sentences about my experiences in this school and the hard work behind my academic achievement.
I held the mic, still happy on receiving the award. As soon as I formed a few sentences in my mind and was just about to utter those words, the reality hit me. I saw an ocean of heads staring at me curiously to listen to what I am going to say. I went numb. I forgot everything I wanted to say. There was a complete silence for a few seconds. I knew I had to start. And then my brain which had ceased to work since a few moments, told me, “OK buddy, it’s not that difficult. You can begin by greeting the crowd .”
Feeling the breeze of that contrastingly cold evening, I gathered courage, forced a smile and softly greeted the crowd by saying, “Good Morning”.
There was a dead silence. Before I could even realize what a silly and humiliating mistake I have just committed, my principal took the mic from my hand, turned towards the crowd and said ,“As this is his first appearance on a stage, this is a new morning for him. So, it’s not a Good Evening but a Good Morning to everyone from this bright young kid.”
And then I realized what a silly mistake I just did. I felt embarrassed but at the same time I stood there in utter disbelief and appreciation of the intelligence of my principal. She just protected her student by her brilliant presence of mind.
I can’t think of a better instance of presence of mind in my whole life.
In 1859, a geomagnetic storm called TheCarrington Event¹ disrupted electrical infrastructure across the globe.
…what there was of it.
…which was telegraph service at the time.
(and that’s pretty much it)
The Event was perpetrated by solar flare activity so unprecedented that the Auroras Borealis and Australius were visible from both poles to the equator, with such an intensity that night became day, disorienting humans and animals alike.
Telegraph offices that failed to go offline in time caught fire and burned, and those that did shut down remained operational for hours, despite being disconnected from their power source, due to the massive worldwide electromagnetic surge.
All news, for all intents and purposes, was once again local for the duration of the aftermath.
Newspapers couldn’t report on events outside horse riding distance.
The 19th Century reverted to the 18th Century in one fell swoop.
Now…what we do know for certain about the Carrington Event is that it wasn’t a one off.
It had happened before and it will happen again.
And THE NEXT TIME, unlike 1859, we will likely have satellites in orbit, and planes in the air.
…and cars that run off batteries, and those that don’t which have electronic ignitions.
…and power lines to heat our homes in the winter and cool our homes in the summer.
…and an Internet that we’ve basically come to rely on to maintain a global economy.
(that too)
And all those things are gonna go bye-bye for a time.
The quote about living “in interesting times” is erroneously attributed to the ancient Chinese, but it was actually coined by the American politician Frederic R. Coudert on the cusp between the Great Depression and a second world war.
No matter how bad things get for Mankind, we can all rest assured of one thing for certain:
It certainly can be. On my second trip to India I suffered a broken cheek bone and two black eyes at the hands of several youngsters who were barely teenagers. It was my completely my fault, by thinking that playing Cricket twice at school would allow me to play with these kids who live and breathe it. Having came across a game just starting my Indian friends talked themselves into playing and must have imagined that being English I played the game. But being brought up on a council estate in London it was football or boxing never cricket or rugby. I had played it twice at school and never even touched a bat. Anyway I thought I’d have a go and how hard can it be? Fucking hard thats how hard. The bowler could only have been 13 at the oldest so I was not worried I stood there holding the bat as I had seen them do it on tv. I then saw him running up, his arm lifted to throw and then white light and pain as I stepped forward straight into the bounce of the hard cricket ball. Wow I felt stupid and had a few weeks of discomfort. But I did gain respect for cricket and often go and watch it at Lords. I always support India(unless playing England) in thanks for this lesson.
My mom died when I was 9 of a cancerous brain tumor. It hurt like hell and it took me years to recover. Maybe I still haven’t.
My Grandma, a widow, got remarried when I was about 15 or so to a great man, and when I left at 19 to do a couple years of volunteer service at my own expense in England, I remember hearing he wasn’t in good health. About 4 months in, I learned he also passed away.
It was at this time I got a letter from my oldest sister. As I pulled it out of its envelope (most letters still went this way), a small slip of paper fell out. On it was written, in my sister’s handwriting, in a purple pen, just one sentence, “Aaron, always remember to be my strong little boy” and under it was something that looked like somebody trying to get a pen to work – quick scribbles back and forth in a small area.
I thought it cute, but odd, and set it aside, then I read the letter. My sister quickly said, “Aaron, I was going through an old drawer of things today, cleaning it out and found this. In her last days, Mom asked me to write out a little note to each of her kids, and then she signed them at the bottom. I’m sorry it’s not very legible”.
I immediately began sobbing as I picked up the little paper again and felt the warmth of a mother’s love well 10 years after her death.
Dan and I were headed into the Canadian Rockies in September. The weather was miserable. On the way it a younger guy had passed us by. He was carrying a day-pack sized backpack and he made fun of our big “old-style” backpacks. He was nice enough about it and we just smiled and watched him fly by.
A couple of days later we were camped in place just below timberline and it was raining hard, windy and not far above freezing. We were comfy and dry in our tents, had hot food, good raingear and all was well, even if it wasn’t all that much fun. The young guy came into the area and set up his camp. He had a thin foam sleeping pad, a thin down bag, and a tarp measuring about 8′ x 8′ that he set up very low to the ground.
The next morning it was still drizzling and cold. The young guy came over to our camp. He was shivering and soaking wet. He had a light rain jacket and no rain pants. Also, he was barely coherent. “Ggggguys …. I … I … I’m uh, I’m ….uh …. I need help.” We sat him in the entrance of Dan’s tent and gave him hot coffee and some oatmeal. We got him out of his wet raincoat and wet shirt and wrapped him in a fleece jacket. He began to relax. We all decided the he just needed to get out of there ASAP. Dan and I went over and packed up his gear. It was like a wet sponge, all of it.
When we got back he was doing OK. He had semi-dry t-shirt in his gear and he put that on plus his wet raincoat. Dan walked down the trail with him for a mile or so. When he got back Dan said that the kid had warmed up and seemed good to go. Oh, and that he’d apologized for making fun of our packs.
It happened last night. To be fair, she was likely 18–22, so barely an adult.
STORY! My husband and I went to our city’s downtown area for dinner and a carriage ride. We paid for dinner and realized we needed money to tip the carriage driver because we only had a $50 on us. DOH!
Note: No, we aren’t bougie like that. My company paid out a small company bonus with $50 bills.
It was okay – there was a candy store and we had time. We poured out a small scoop of chocolate and checked out. There was some issue with the cashier understanding that us paying $50.04 for $6.04 was in her favor, but math is hard.
Now, this is what the US $50 bill/note looks like:
Actual quote from her: “Who’s on the $50 bill? Is that King Edward?”
Blink. Blink. What? A KING?!
We had to explain to this adult that no, this was not a king. It was Ulysses S. Grant. There’s even a county in my state named after him.
Her manager, who was a few years older, then said, “Oh yeah! I remember his picture on the wall in my history room. Didn’t he wear a really tall black hat? He looks fatter here though”
We pulled out a penny and asked if she was thinking of Abraham Lincoln. The manager then said, “Oh yeah! That’s the guy. Isn’t that the same guy?”
Oy. I’m sure President Grant is rolling over in his mausoleum.
My cousin had an old beater car. He always drove it on empty, and only added a dollar or two of gas at a time. He didn’t think it was worth stealing, so he left the keys in it, in his back yard, while he ran into the house to get something.
He heads back to the car, just in time to see it go around the corner. He calls the police, expecting he will never see the car again.
The police phone him 10 minutes later, to tell him that they have his car.
Its at the local gas station. It had run out of gas, they had pushed it in the last few feet, and filled it up with gas. But we’re having a hard time starting it, after it had run out of gas. The gas station was only a few blocks from the my cousin’s, and the attendant recognized the car, and called the police. It was a very distinctive, beat up beater.
My cousin needed a boost to get it started, and then worried that the weight of the full tank of gas would wreck his car, because it had never seen a full tank before.
It turned out to be a bunch of teen joyriders, and the charges were dropped against them. My cousin said that they doubled the value of the car, by filling it up, so he wasn’t too stressed.
So in this case the first thing they did after stealing the car was fill it up with gas.
I’m cranky and I’m tired, and I worked hard at school…
Not me, but my sister. She was a manager for a membership warehouse and they had this one woman that would come in once a month, demand a one-day pass, do her shopping and then pitch a fit when she couldn’t use her credit card (it was cash or debit card only). And she did this every month. Well, she demanded to speak with a manager and since my sister was on duty, she got to deal with her. Once again, my sister explained the rules to her and offered to take care of setting up a membership right then and there. The woman didn’t want to pay the $55 and began to berate my sister who was waiting her out. Finally, the woman shouts at her “To go to hell” to which my sister responded, “Ma’am, I’m already there.” Could have heard a pin drop in the membership areas as all the employees turned to stare at her. The “customer” had nothing further to say, so my sister calmly turned and left.
*The woman never came back to that warehouse. My sister wasn’t fired (for that) although her boss had a good laugh about it.
Two effing massive barbecue grills that I didn’t order that were on my back door when I got home from a business trip around midnight. Thankfully UPS or whoever delivered it (can’t remember which carrier) was naive enough about cyber security to have included the correct recipient’s phone number on the shipping label.
I texted the correct recepieny about it and, being way too nice, told them that I have a pickup and could deliver them but they were way too heavy to load on my own so someone would have to come help me load them.
The husband came over, we loaded them, i delivered them and we unloaded them at his house – all was well. Years later I still get packages and mail for them. I realized that we have the same numbered address and street but I’m SOUTH xxxx Avenue and they’re NORTH xxxx Avenue.
The mail that comes omits the north or south so I assume they’re too dumb to specify that important data element when giving out their address (because the address on the envelope, each time doesn’t specify north or south). it’s happened way many times to just be a coincidence.
So now I don’t bother delivering items, I text them that it’s happened AGAIN and ask them if they want to come me pick it up from my front porch or have me mark it as “wrong address” and see what happens.
In 1967, Doug Hegdahl was on a recon mission in the Vietnam War.
His boat cruised along the river, and as he it did, a battle broke out and he was thrown into the water. He panicked and swam for shore.
Unfortunately, Doug swam towards the Vietcong side of the shore. They greeted him with prompt beating and dragged him ashore screaming.
Doug was tied up and thrown in a cage. They debated on whether to execute him. As they interrogated Doug, he realized they were trying to determine his usefulness. He gave goofy, incoherent answers, talking crazy. Then he repeatedly shouted, “No water buffalo!”
In Vietnam at that time, owning a water buffalo was a sign of moderate wealth. He was saying he was poor.
Being poor was good. The Vietcong hated wealthy people. His rambling earned him the nickname, “The Incredibly Stupid One”.
And while other US soldiers were tortured and killed, the Vietcong felt too bad for him. They thought he was an American version of the poor, dumb man forced into the front line in a war.
Little did they know, he was gathering information. During his years in prison, he memorized the names of 200 prisoners of war, along with the intimate details of the enemy base.
During a negotiation, the Vietcong chose him as their release thinking he was a simpleton and no threat.
Doug got home and immediately gave a press conference.
He told the US of those prisoners, and their freedom was obtained.
He memorized the 200 names using the song Ol’McDonald Had a Farm. He even needed to hum it when reciting the names back over.
You may not relate to his situation, but Doug’s experience gives insight into dealing with dangerous authority figures.
For example, if a cop pulls you over, it is better to play dumb rather than listen with your mouth, and explain everything you didn’t do wrong.
More broadly, it’s generally better to be guarded with what you know. True genius is knowing when not to reveal it.
Chicken with Walnuts in Plum Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup walnut halves
1 teaspoon beaten egg
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
6 chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds), boned, skinned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoons plum or hoisin sauce
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions, finely chopped (garnish)
Instructions
Pour boiling water over walnuts and let stand 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
Combine egg with 1 teaspoon oil and cornstarch in small bowl. Add chicken pieces and toss gently to coat them evenly.
Heat 1/2 cup oil in wok over medium high heat until haze forms.
Add walnuts and fry until golden about 45 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Add chicken to wok and cook until golden, about 3 minutes. Drain well.
Pour off all but thin film of oil. Return pan to heat, add plum or hoisin sauce, ginger, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil and stir until combined. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly until sauce begins to glisten, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add chicken and walnuts and mix thoroughly with sauce.
Transfer to heated serving platter and garnish with chopped green onions.
Today, my friend told us a joke. 70 years ago, the United States led 18 countries to fight with a P5 country on the Korean Peninsula (let’s call it a draw). 20 years ago, the United States led 11 countries to invade a small country with domestic troubles and foreign invasion ( eventually failed). In the past few days, the United States found 10 countries to against Yemeni Houthi. Because of the shortage of troops, they even ask China join them,China certainly refused without think too much.…Fighting with a Yemeni local armed force, even ask China to help big hooligan?(´•ω•̥`) 🐼: I suggest you back home,massacre the kindergartens and sweep the geracomiums…
Houthi isn’t ET…
The changes of opponents by the US Army shows they are more and more laggard indeed.
Now they even often make this kind of arguments,enough to explain two problems:
Some US people already brain dead.
The infrastructure in the United States has been in disrepair for a long time, and even the frequency of failure is ‘on and off like a light switch’.
So, we don’t care what you say,today communications ‘on and off like a light switch’ and tomorrow there will be more things ‘on and off like a light switch’.Keep complaining, you’ll get used to it.
The U.S. Navy has ‘experience, the PLA-N has ‘experience’ in reading about what the U.S. is doing, and how they do it. Asking ‘probing questions’ (even here on Quora) is one direction, as well as ‘working’ with Canada, which has a record of ‘loose lips’ regarding ANYTHING military that China seeks.
I’m sure China has some ‘tricks’ up their sleeve as well. This is one of their newer ships (21NOV23) in which they ‘seem’ to be ‘faking’ damage to their ship, which may come in handy when they DO find themselves under attack. NOTHING would break-off an attack faster than ‘looking like this’:
One morning, a new guy showed up. As was customary, he “shared” his tale with the rest of us.
He was legally blind, but somehow managed to work as a successful stock broker. Unfortunately, on the side he had also developed one hell of an addiction to crack.
One Christmas morning, he had dressed up as Santa to entertain his kids. But he needed to sneak outside to take a few quick hits of crack before the family woke up.
Due to his visual impairment, he didn’t see the cop car rolling up the street. He got arrested.
Next day the local newspaper featured the headline that a crack-smoking Santa Claus was arrested Christmas morning.
I looked down at the grass. Clenched my jaw. glanced around and people were desperately trying to contain themselves.
The guy said, “it’s OK. Go ahead and laugh, guys. You have to.”
It was a full minute before we’d laughed off the image of a crack-smoking Santa Claus in cuffs.
I and a couple of friends headed to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for a conference followed by dinner. We ate at the Tir Na Nog Irish pub and sat next to the windows that looked out over the little amphitheater space where street performers entertain tourists. Lovely view of the corner of the harbor and the other pavilion. Directly below the window was a vendor’s cart selling all sorts of electronic gadget accessories (think cellphone covers, etc).
As we were eating, I watched the crowds milling around the plaza and people buying stuff from the cart. Then I saw a teenager sneak around the back of the cart (which was facing the window) and start pilfering stuff from the cart. He just jammed it into his backpack with glee while the vendor was busy talking to customers on the other side.
Turns out those “customers” were the teen’s parents. Once the teen had filled his pack, a second younger child moved in and did the same thing while the other one kept watch. Then a third child, even younger, darted in and took stuff as well. The vendor finally caught on to the scam and screamed for police. The BCPD always patrol that plaza to protect the tourists, so three bicycle cops appeared pretty quickly.
Meanwhile, we watched as the three kids met with mom and dad to show their loot. Then they spotted the police and all three bolted in three different directions, which appears to have been predetermined as a method of escape. One of the kids wasn’t so lucky and got pinched.
Mom and dad were screaming bloody murder about the police harassing their children.
At that moment I realized how stupid we’d been up in the restaurant because none of us thought to video the incident. But we all felt we owed that poor vendor some help, so down we tromped to the plaza, leaving one person to man our table so no one thought we’d jumped the check.
We informed the police of everything we saw, that the kids were the shoplifters, but that the parents knew full well and participated. The officer asked us if we would testify to that and we said of course.
End of the story: All three kids were arrested, but the police didn’t have enough to arrest mom or dad (because that’s how the scam works). We were called back to Baltimore to testify. The kids were really hard core according to the prosecutor. They were playing all sorts of innocence BS. But when she told them four witnesses were primed and ready to name them all, they folded and agreed to plea deals.
Very sad day for American childhood that parents used them in this way.
There is no such thing as the world’s best? Each country ought to have what they each see as the best for their nation and their people under different circumstances unique for them, over a development level that is different from country to country.
You can say every nation thinks they have the world’s best for themselves. They ought to be. Otherwise why would they choose it? Surely they all want to do the best for themselves right?
These words or symbols or slurs such as Communism or Democracy or Socialism are tags for various purpose. Some times to simplify some times to discriminate one against another or worst to slur and demonised. These labels meant nothing more, as each nation is shade of grey and not black or white.
The U.S. for example calls itself Liberal democracy. But in reality it is neither democratic nor liberal at all. Is 0.8% of the rich or and powerful decides that the 60 odd % of their people who bother to vote have only two choice Biden a senile or Trump a perpetual liar to choose from, surely that is not democracy!
The U.S. with a mere 4% of world’s population has 25% of the world’s prisoner’s population, surely it cannot liberal nor free? But U.S. can called itself whatever it wants!
China calls itself socialism with Chinese characteristics but the U.S. insists on the label. “Communism” for worst connotations to cast fear and hate on them! If you repeat it like this questioner do, it simply help your media cast hates on China.
To me if the west can call the U.S. a Liberal Democracy why can’t they tern China as Socialism with Chinese characteristics? It is no different from Western media calling Palestinians as “terrorist” and Isreal as freedom “fighter” These slurs and suggesting good is clearly a set. narrative!
It goes well for several months. They begin to squabble a bit and have disagreements.
He figures, if they don’t get along, they should just break up.
Later, he begins dating Rebecca. She’s pretty. But after a few months, he realizes she’s not smart enough for him. That relationship ends too.
Later, Mike begins dating Katie. Katie is super brilliant. And cute too. But he realizes he doesn’t think she’s cute enough. He wants brilliant and super cute.
And funny. Where is funny?
Finally, he meets Angela. Angela is smart, pretty, and funny. But not exceptional at either three. So he ends things with her too.
Mike never ends up settling down. He ends up living as a lonely old man in his final years.
He became a victim of advice taken too literally and at too much of an extreme “don’t settle”.
The truth is – we all settle. In some form or another. People regularly subject themselves to unfair expectations of a prospective partner.
We all have work to do. It’s better to find someone to do the work with. Or accept them as is and forget the work.
Remember, with any advice you read, from me, or anyone else, there is a huge grey area to work with. I can’t tell you how to read that grey area. That’s where you’ll need to swim on your own.
Don’t be a knucklehead who only thinks in black and white. We have enough knuckleheads in the world already.
It was a small local ‘high-class’ restaurant (no longer in business) I went to with some colleagues to celebrate one of their birthdays. The first thing I thought was a joke was the uninformative and poorly-formatted menu that contained things like “Different fish and chips 12”, with not another word to explain what was different about it and the ‘12’ meaning a price of £12.00 being far from obvious.
Even more of a joke was the way the food was presented. I ordered a burger from the main course menu (described of course as something like “house burger 11”), expecting something that would fill the plate and come with chips and salad as is the norm. No, what I got was a tiny bun less than half the size of the plate containing an equally tiny burger, a slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf, all by itself with not a single side. The punchline of the joke: to make it look bigger and fill the empty plate, the burger was served ‘open’ with the top half of the bun placed alongside it for no apparent reason!
I ate the whole burger and someone else’s leftover chips but was still hungry and had another meal when I got home. The whole experience still feels like a surreal joke, yet was deadly serious, and I wasn’t at all surprised when the place closed down not long afterwards.
Because Alexander the Great’s Army was leagues ahead of every other Army on earth. There was no close second. Alexander himself gets the credit but I don’t think this is fair. I honestly think Alexander was “meh” and won thanks to his great Army.
Let’s start by breaking it down.
1: Foot Companions
The regular infantry was called “foot companions”. These guys wielded a very long spear/pike and a small shield. Now at this time, everyone fought with a shield and spear however most spears were rather small.
It took years of training for the soldiers to learn to use the pikes. Additionally, these guys were all trained in small unit tactics, hand-to-hand combat, and all sorts of special stuff.
2: Companion Cavalry
The Companion Cavalry was the greatest unit of cavalry ever (arguably) and certainly the best at the time. Cavalry at this time were mostly scouts and fast-moving infantry. They couldn’t really charge into enemy lines given stirrups were not around.
Alexander’s cavalry was unique. These guys were trained for years and years on fighting on horseback. They could charge an enemy head-on, flank around them, or dismount and fight as infantry. They were the elite of the elite.
3: Shield Bearers
The Shield bearers were the “SpecOps” of the Macedonian Army. These guys fought like standard infantry with shorter spears, swords, and shields. They were hyper-flexible, extremely well trained, and capable of nearly anything.
Alexander’s Army was capable of things NOBODY else could do. They could fight in the trenches, outmaneuver an enemy, perform complex tactical actions, and do it all with ease. These guys were the most experienced, best-trained, and most elite soldiers on planet earth.
In a time when armies were civilian-based militia with a small core of trained troops, Alexander had a professional Army at his back.
A stack of bricks isn’t a house as much as a mob of men is an Army. Make sense?
Now, most give credit to Alexander and his brilliance but I disagree with this.
Alexander made mistakes. At the Battle of Granicus Alexander recklessly charged across a river with a waiting enemy Army on the other side. This would have been a disaster for any other Army in history except Alexander’s and even Alexander’s Army took way too many losses.
Alexander was overconfident. In engineering, there is an acronym called “KISS” which stands for keep it simple stupid. Warfare is much the same. If tactics are overly complex then it creates situations where things could go wrong. No plan survives contact with the enemy so plans need to be simple and flexible.
Alexander didn’t create anything. This great Army Alexander had- it was created by his dad. These guys also gained experience fighting for Alexander’s father. Alexander didn’t unite Greece nor was attacking Persia his idea. Sure Alexander did conquer Persia however his Empire immediately fell apart because he was a terrible King and a terrible State-builder.
Alexander was wreckless personally. Alexander’s job was the lead the men, not fight with them. Yet Alexander led every battle from the front. Sure this is brave and all but this is the wrong place for a General. In an Army of 50,000 there are lots of fighters but only 1 leader. Caesar for instance would place himself behind the crux of the battle, issuing orders and watching as things develop.
Alexander the Great’s father was Phillip the 2nd. This guy fought and won dozens of Battles and conquered all of Greece for the first and only time. Was Phillip the greatest General ever? No. Like Alexander, Phillip benefited from a highly experienced, highly trained, and uber-expensive professional Army.
Hiring for our county office out in the boonies was done centrally, so often times someone was hired before we knew who it was. So when we saw the name Jim (redacted), we let out a collective moan.
Jim was well known around town. He was 6′7″, about 325 pounds, and was mean looking as hell. He often did rent collection/ evictions for local landlords, usually by intimidation. I mentioned this to HR, and was told to “work with him.”
So he started in our office. First order of business was to banish certain words from his vocabulary. Words like “wetback”, fag*ot, and of course, nig*er. Also, because he had contacted so many of our clients from his rent collecting days, often when clients found out he was to be their worker, they immediately withdrew their application for welfare. They were terrified of him.
After a couple of months, he seemed to have calmed down and was doing an OK job. But then, in the break room, he said the following:
You know what would be fun? If (co worker) Corrine would drive around in a convertible with a bikini on, and when someone would hit on her, I would be hiding in the back seat with a shotgun, and would suddenly sit up and point the gun at them, and watch them sh*t their pants!
This was it. The next day, three fraud investigators (armed) plus two sheriff deputies came in and escorted him out. I wanted to call HR and tell them “I told you so” but everyone was just glad he was gone; especially Corrine.
Note: he also helped get the head of HR fired. When he was removed from the office, he was put on paid administrative leave pending his firing. But the head of HR had a fear of lawsuits due to improper firings, so he was on paid admin leave for almost a year! Worse yet, there was another guy that had been on paid admin leave for even longer. So the HR manager eventually got fired…with no paid admin leave, just gone out the door!
I come from a family that struggles with finances severely. In the second grade my teacher noticed that the few clothes I had were now Ill fitting so she bought me new ones so I would fit in. I lived in a very, very wealthy area and because of this I was already being bullied for not having what other kids did. I was happy to receive the clothes. I came home with them that night and my mother, who spent our food stamps on cigarettes (the cashier at the liquor store rang them up as other things) and a disgusting quantity of mountain dew every month, walked into my school irate and high off of my ritalin prescription ( that was prescribed to me for my ADHD, as an 18 year old I still haven’t had thr medication that I need since I was 6), bypassed the office and walked into my classroom and began to yell at the teacher. I thought the bullying was bad then, she made it a lot worse. I am thankful for that teacher though. My mother threw the clothes back in her face (literally) and so my teacher kept them in the classroom for me to change into when I got to school and washed them for me. This is only one of several scenarios involving my mother. To put it shortly, I had my first suicidal thoughts around 11 and the state took away her rights to custody when I was 15. You are not your situation, you are how you deal with it. To anyone in that situation or any situation they don’t want to be in, it gets better.
Maybe it is just my imagination, but I think my “locked up” ploy has somehow made the rounds of all those backroom scam operations which call to say your computer has a virus.
Initially, I kept the “agent” and his manager on the phone for nearly an hour, until they finally just gave up. The exchange went something like this:
Scammer: Please press the Windows and CTRL key at the same time.
Me: I can’t. The computer is locked up. It won’t respond to the keyboard, and the mouse does not move.
Scammer: Turn the system off, then turn it on again.
Me: I can’t. The computer won’t shut down.
Scammer: Use the power switch!
Me: I did. Nothing. It stays on, but doesn’t do anything.
Scammer: Then unplug the machine.
Me: Ok. Still nothing. It stays on, and is still frozen.
Scammer: How can that be?!
Me: I don’t know. I guess it just switches over to the internal battery.
(Then, a manager is put on the phone, and promises to make the machine right if I pay $99 for a one time fix, $200 for an annual plan, or $499 for a lifetime plan)
Scammer: Which plan do you want?
Me: Uh, lifetime, I guess.
Scammer: Ok, please give me your credit card number.
Me: I don’t use credit cards. How about PayPal?
Scammer: We can’t take PayPal.
Me: Hey! Wait a minute! The machine just started working! It’s perfect! Everything is working! What did you guys do?
Scammer: That’s impossible! We didn’t do anything!
Me: But, didn’t you say you had detected a virus on my machine?
Scammer: Yes, that is why we contacted you.
Me: So, that must mean you were connected to me, right?
Scammer: No. Your machine sent a message to us!
Me: Ok, so I was connected to you, but you weren’t connected to me?
Scammer: That’s not how this works!
Me: Well, you must have done something, because everything is fine now.
Scammer: It is not. Machine still infected. It will lock up again and be destroyed. You still have virus!
Me: Wait, wait. I’m going to shut down and reboot. Hold on.
(I tap a few keys to make noise, then…)
Me: Ok, I shut down and started up again. Now, I am running a virus scan. Hold on… ok, scanning memory, registry, hard drive, checking for malicious code… stand by, almost done. Great! No virus detected! Fantastic! And, it seems to be running faster than ever!
Scammer: That is not possible, it will fail!
Me: Look, I don’t know how you fixed it, but I would like to send you $100. I’ll send a check. What’s your name and address?
Scammer: We can’t accept checks.
Me: A money order, then?
Scammer: No money orders. I think you are bulls****ing me.
Me: Do ya THINK?!
Scammer: I will f**k your mother!
Me: You like f**king dead people? You’re going to get a sooty Johnson; she was cremated.
Scammer: Click.
I can’t recall when I have had a more uplifting conversation, but the ultimate result has proven to be the most valuable. For several months after the above exchange, I would continue to receive the virus calls; but the moment I said the machine was frozen, the caller hung up immediately. So now, I just say, “Am I ever glad you called, this machine is totally locked up!” In response, a reassuring click.
Saw this question and immediately thought: Teresa.
Teresa is my sister in law’s best friend. She was also good friends with my brother, Dale. When Dale disappeared, Teresa was right there grieving with us. She shared stories about things she and Dale had done that had me rolling with laughter. Teresa is a bright spot where ever she goes.
Teresa is a respiratory therapist. Been doing it for years. Been single for years. Been putting smiles on peoples’ faces for years. She collected crochet afghans to give to her patients. They loved it. They loved her. She retired recently, bought a house in another state, and moved there on her own. I will miss her.
It was 2020, the year we buried my brother’s remains, after he had been missing for many years. It was around the time of the services, and I was having a rough time. Crying a lot. Teresa popped in one day and called me out to her car. She dug around in some bags and boxes in the back seat, and pulled something out. “This is for you” she told me. It was a cross made of wood with fragments of broken glass glued to it to make it shine. And in the middle it said simply, “laugh”. She told me she thought of me as soon as she saw it. It touched my heart. It made me realize maybe it was time to laugh more than cry.
Teresa is a special person. Salt of the earth. We need more like her.
huawei mate60 is using 5nm chips from unknown source, but for sure its made in China with 100% Chinese technology. Although it’s not the most cutting edge technology yet, it is the most widely used. So it’s going to bring down the price of all chips and ASML EUV will be too expensive in terms of producing chips. China is infamous for it industrial crushing ability, Whatever technology they proceed they will smash the market price to under half even to just 10% of the original market price. everyone in the same market will be gone in no time
On August 2, 2007, Majid Kavousifar was excuted along with his nephew Hossein Kavousifar for the assassination of Masoud Moghadasi ,a judge from the Islamic Revolution Court in Iran.
Masoud Moghaddasi was one of several judges of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court, that collectively sentenced more than 2800 to 3800 political prisoners to execution during the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners.
Majid Kavousifar showed no remorse to hangman in his last words, telling them “I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice.”
His last words before being hanged next to his nephew Hossein Kavousifar:
“My name is Majid Kavousifar, I am Iranian
I didn’t wait for someone in this world to give me my right
I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice
I smile because I know that a small smile at that moment will be a great message of hope for every oppressed human being on the face of the earth.
The memory of Majid Kavousifar and his triumphant smile will live forever in the hearts of freedom lovers in Iran and all over the world.
Actually, a police officer once said to me: “What did you do with my patrol car? Why did you steal it?”
The back story is that when coming out of the back door of the courthouse late one evening my friend and I saw a running, unlocked police car sitting in the driveway between the jail and the courthouse. My friend and I wondered why this was and decided to watch a while. After 10 minutes nothing happened and the car was still parked, unlocked, and running. My friend and I decided something needed to be done to prevent the car from being stolen so we flipped a coin and I lost so I got in the car and drove it around the corner and turned it off, locked it, and returned to await the arrival of the police officer who had been assigned the car. My friend and I watched and waited and about a half an hour later the offending officer came out and found his cruiser missing. Since he left his radio in the car he couldn’t radio the missing car in and he’d left the jail and the return door was locked. He panicked and started running around in a confused state. My friend and I who were hiding began laughing and he couldn’t understand why. He was really confused and upset. I held up the keys and told him I’d “stolen” it to keep it safe and showed him where it was. He was both relieved and highly pissed. Relieved at first and the gradually more angry. My friend and I just kept laughing and he got even madder. Then he said he was going to arrest us. I said why? It’s not stolen and who’s going to prosecute me, I’m the County Attorney? Then he said he wasn’t worried because he knew the judge would put it on me because he was a good friend of the judge. I just kept on laughing because my friend who had been standing in the dark background listening came forward and said, “You mean me, Steve?” And the judge began to laugh too. He then said he’d get us both hand I said, “Go ahead! How do you think the Chief is going to feel when he learns you let your cruiser get “stolen” under these conditions? He didn’t say much else but just took his keys, got in his car and drove away. So that’s the story on how the Judge and I stole a police car.
My husband got offered a higher paying job with a different company, and one that treated their employees better. He tried to refuse the exit interview, but when pressed, agreed, if the big boss was in the room. He proceeded to tell the room exactly what led to his exit, and then they had the nerve to ask for 2 weeks notice. He looked the big boss right in the eye and asked if he would have gotten a 2week notice if he was being fired. The boss’ eyes dropped to the floor and he said no. My husband then asked if he could expect any changes to be made in policy regarding the treatment of blue collar workers. The boss again said no. My husband said, “ok, don’t consider this a ‘quit,’ consider as me firing you as my employer.” Then he walked out. We had to wait almost a month after he left to receive his last paycheck, even after calling the state labor board.
Christmas Watch-Along / AMA / Goof-off
Lot’s of good stuff in blurbs in this fun video. Grab some popcorn.
I enjoyed all of them, but my favorite is Non-geological shock. HAARP.
As I grew up my bedroom was filled with all sorts of debris and things that would interest young growing boys in the 1960’s. This included scale plastic models, and figurines.
Wall posters. Some of which were blacklight posters on black velvet.
Old bottles that I collected, that seemed to decorate every nook and cranny of my bedroom.
My collection of record albums. All in a wooden egg crates.
My treasured collection of science fiction paperbacks… many of which were short story anthologies.
My Doc Savage collection.
And miscellaneous stuff, which included military surplus. Clothing… often scattered about. A painting kit. A microscope… and a mortar and pestle.
And other things of questionable utility, but things which I (as a boy) found cool and interesting. Such as my Major Matt Mason figurines…
And then there was my great grandfather’s sword. This was a cavalry sword from one of the “Polish Resistance” groups that relocated in the United States after Germany annexed Poland. It had a long hilt and was really cool. As a boy, both my brother and myself would take it out and ohhh and ahhhh about this sword.
My brother has it now.
It was one of those things that I muse about from time to time. Interesting trivia, from days long gone. I wonder what the sword would say if it could talk…?
Smoke. Seriously, I did it for 32 years. It costs a fortune in cash and even more in quality of life. There is no positive to smoking.
Judge people on looks. I have friends across the “scale of looks” from gorgeous to scary and I love them all for their individual personalities. Looks are fleeting, love is not. Friends are the best asset you can have in life.
Eat a crap diet. I’m overweight and just diabetic. I’ve loved pizza, chips and crisps (fries and chips for USA people) all my life but they’ve ruined my body and health.
Argue with people who live in echo Chambers. I still do this and it’s utterly pointless. You cannot reason people out of a position they did not reason themselves into.
Procrastinate. If you have time to do it, then do it. Everything you put off for another day builds up to a backlog. Get it done now and there is less pressure on you tomorrow. This lowers stress hugely.
My dad was a workaholic and we didn’t get to spend much time with him. One day my mother was sick and couldn’t handle my brother and I, trapped in the house with her, on a winter day, rough housing around the house. So my dad took the day off work, loaded us up in the car and started driving. I’m not sure if he planned anything or not, but we drove about 90 miles to the badlands, which were at a much lower elevation. It was December and there was no snow in the badlands. My brother and I went nuts running and playing, without winter jackets, on bare ground. He had made a stop at KFC and we had a picnic, and didn’t get home until after dark.. It was an awesome day, dad laughed and smiled a lot. My brother and I were worn out, and didn’t bother our mother when we got home.
30 years later, shortly after he had retired. I invited him to come fishing with me, and he said “You bet” and we were on our way. We had an awesome day. I bought KFC and we had a picnic.
He unexpectedly died three months later.
After he died, my mother said that in the months after our fishing trip, all his friends got sick and tired of him telling the story of going fishing with his son. He never stopped talking about it.
Obviously I have never forgotten the time he took us to play in the badlands. It was what inspired me to ask him to go fishing. Its been over 60 years since he loaded us in the car, and I still tear up thinking about it.
My husband and I have been married 50 years. We did not have children, and are each other’s very best friend. Last July, he had a triple by-pass and caught a serious staph infection at the hospital.
It is the end of 2023 now and he is strapped to intravenous pumps receiving 6 weeks of antibiotics because the infection is now in his chest bones.
He can no longer go out for walks in the country with me or do much of anything. He is all bent over like an ancient person, and has no energy at all. He has been getting progressively hard of hearing for the last 2 years but refuses to get a hearing aide, (male pride or denial, I think).
The other night, we were watching a movie and I had to constantly repeat lines that the characters said to each other so he could follow the plot.
At one point in the movie, I turned to him and asked him a question about what he thought of the plot.
He nodded and said “Yes”. When I realized that he was faking and actually could not hear me, it was like I suddenly realized that he was not really there sharing the movie with me. He could no longer hear me.
I felt SO alone, and miserable.
And when I thought about who I could call, what friend I had who could provide some support, I knew I could not be disloyal and criticize him, with all his health problems which are making him semi-absent, I felt totally alone in the world.
I regret not having more of my own friends, just for myself, who do not know him. And I realized that at 74, he is probably not going to improve- it is the beginning of the downhill slide for both of us.
Up until this year, I felt like we both had many miles left- now the reality has set in.
Didn’t happen to me but my friends played this April fools on some kids from another class. We were all in 5th grade, and around that time a lot of kids were getting phones. (A lot of them were iPhones.) My two friends, let’s called them Lena and Eve. They weren’t the type to brag about what type of phone they had, or make a bit deal about it. they kind of kept a down low about if they had phones or not. Only close friends of them knew that they were phone-less.
The prank was to tell the girls in the other 5th grade, girls who had their phones and were unhappy that they couldn’t use them during lunch or recess. Lena and Eve had told them, that today our teachers (5th grade teachers) had allowed them to use their phones in class. The reason why they weren’t using them at lunch was because they were worried that the teacher who administered recess might not be okay with them using their phones. They had even made a note, in handwriting similar to the teacher’s to make it seem realistic.
At first the other girls were skeptical and thought they were lying. What really came into play was at the end of recess, Eve and Lena had been able to get one of our 5th grade teachers, to tell the girls that they were pranking. That what Eve and Lena had said was true.
It’s was really funny when the next day, Lena and Eve had told them that they didn’t have phones or that the teacher would give permission for anyone to use their phone’s in class. Looking back it was silly, but well executed, which helped fool the other girls.
(I was in on, it. They had wanted me to join in, but at the time many people knew I didn’t have a phone. And that my parents weren’t planning on getting me a phone anytime soon.)
It doesn’t even sound real. That’s how dumb it was.
It was October 20th, 1986. The story of Aeroflot Flight 6502 began in the cockpit. An argument broke out between the co pilot and the pilot over flying skills. The captain insisted he could land a plane easy in zero visibility, without the autopilot they were using.
It then escalated into a full bet, the pilot saying he could land the plane blindfolded. The copilot accepted the bet, a bet which – if he won — would spell his own death. (Source: 32 Years Ago an Aeroflot Pilot Bet He Could Land an Airplane Blind. Leff, Gary)
The plane descended, the window covered with curtains. As multiple alarms went off, the plane continued to descend.
Then–the plane touched down on the runway at 280 km/hour.
The plane immediately flipped, burst into flames, exploding, and eventually sliding to a stand still.
70 people were killed in the accident, including the copilot.
The main pilot survived. And somehow only got a 15 year sentence, which was eventually reduced to 6. Which is equally baffling.
(Yes, I have been married and divorced three times. Wife #1 and I divorced primarily over her gambling addiction and Wife #3 and I divorced after less than a year of marriage amicably because we realized we both had made a mistake. We have remained friends since our divorce)
I sued my second wife (we will call her “Mary” though it is not her actual name) for divorce because of infidelity. I was able to determine and prove that Mary was continuing to have sexual relations during our brief marriage with the woman who had been her lover before we had met (she eventually married her girlfriend after our divorce when Massachusetts allowed for same-sex marriages). I was able to present a witness who testified that Mary had told her that she married me as a “beard” to improve her promotion opportunities at her company.
When we were in court before the judge, the judge, a Black woman, informed us that she was granting the divorce but she was not granting Mary the life-time alimony that Mary had requested. The judge also said that not only was she not granting Mary any alimony, since Mary made substantially more money than I did, she had considered having Mary pay me alimony.
Mary lost it, yelled at the judge that she wanted to kill the judge and me because since the judge was a woman, she should have taken her side and made me pay alimony. The judge, in no uncertain and quite colorful language, threw Mary in jail for 30 days for contempt and issued court orders of protection that Mary could not come within 100 yards of either the judge or me or she would end up back in jail.
I have not seen or heard from Mary in over 25 years – good riddance.
When he was around 5-6 years old, my brother—who is four years younger to me—had his legs suddenly go numb one night. What followed next was one of the hardest ordeals of my parents’ life. Months passed with them meeting various doctors, visiting different hospitals, knocking at the doorstep of every possible religious shrine—all the time with my kid brother in their arms, since he wasn’t able to walk on his own anymore. We were also buried under debts during this time.
There were doubts of permanent paralysis—the very mention of which was enough to break us down. From finding it immensely painful to walk, to not being able to get up on his own, and to not being able to stand at all, his problem was worsening by the day. Most surprisingly, all this while, he was as strong as, perhaps, only children can be in such difficult times.
During this period, it was not unusual for my mother to have sudden breakdowns. Once, she burst into tears while watching him playing joyfully. He wiped off her tears, and said*,
Don’t cry, mummy. See, I can stand and even run on my own!
Saying this, he tried to get up, stood on shivering legs for just about a few microseconds, and fell down—only to be safely caught in the arms of my mom, who hugged him dearly and cried some more.
This happens to be the most heart-wrenching thing that I have ever heard, but also a powerful one for the simple fact that it was a little child—my own kid brother—teaching us what life is all about—HOPE, in the direst of situations, among the most impossible questions, and during the most unimaginable tribulations.
P.S: The problem was finally diagnosed and treated correctly by one doctor who was as-if a Godsend in our life. Wrong treatment of a viral fever had left both the legs of my brother infected with the virus. Although it left him physically extremely weak for most part of his childhood, he plays pretty good Football and Cricket today. Touchwood.
*Translated into English, originally said in Hindi
P.S: A number of people have messaged me sharing instances of children of their relatives/friends facing the same medical problem, asking if I could provide the doctor’s details. It breaks my heart but as much as I would like to help, I can’t. This incident is around 20 years old. My parents happened to meet him on their visit to the Kalavati hospital, no idea about his whereabouts now.
Oh that’s easy imagine meeting a guy in college. You two barely have food to eat. You work part time with him to put together to pay the bills. Then you start complaining about student loans, and hopefully your salary is going to be enough to pay your student loans after graduation.
You go clubbing with the guy. Paid his drinks a couple times. Laugh at him for his card declining because he could not pay a 22$ drink for the cute blonde he’s flirting with at the bar.
You graduate. Stuck in an 8 hour job. Two plus hour commutes, trying to climb higher in your career. The guy you used to see every day, now you only see him once a week for drinks.
8 years goes by and on his 30th birthday he asks you to come drink with the guys but he wants to pick you up. You go outside waiting for him for 30 minutes and you can’t seem to find his Toyota Corolla, but a bmw parked suspiciously across the street. You think he’s stuck in traffic?
Then finally you hear him yelling at you from the bmw.
Oh shit? Did your fiancé let you spend the down payment you were saving for the house to get a new car?
Nope… I’m 30. My trust fund is accessible now, he says calmly while you wonder to yourself… what the hell just happened?
My mother had moved, and her new garage was smaller than her old, and causing her a lot of stress.
So she decided to give her car to my brother, and buy a newer smaller one.
We went to the dealership that my dad had always used, when he was still alive. We were looking at a 1 year old lease return, we took it for a test drive and my mother felt it would fit in the garage just fine.
We went into make a deal, and got a pretty reasonable deal. Mom signed the contract, and went to stand up, and almost fell over. I thought it was just from sitting too long. We went to the door, and her old car, was parked right in front of the door. She asked, where is the car, then, where are we. I drove her straight to the hospital, and they said she had a small stroke, she then had a larger one, before we left the hospital, and she never left the hospital alive.
I went back to the dealership to explain what had happened, and stop the transaction. I looked at Mom’s signature on the contract, and it was illegible.
The dealership refused to cancel the sale, and told me that they would charge storage fees, if I didn’t get the car off the lot soon.
There was a local TV show, that covered issues like this, so I emailed them, and never heard a thing back.
We ended up selling it privately for a few thousand dollars less than we had paid for it.
A week later the show called and wanted to do a piece on it, apparently, the guy had been on a vacation. I told him that it was too late.
I told everyone I knew to never use that dealership again. I have no idea if this had any effect.
Smoking cigarettes. I was on a ship for three years in the late ‘60s. Cigarettes sold for $1 a carton, while at sea. I worked in CIC, that dark room with all the electronic gear and plotting devices behind the bridge. The compartment was about 24 x 40. We’d normally have around eight enlisted and at least one officer on watch. During exercises like Sea and Anchor Detail, Vertical Replenishment, Gunfire Support, General Quarters, etc. there were around 30 people in the compartment. I’d guess that at least three quarters of the people smoked cigarettes. We had good air handlers and air conditioning, but there was a permanent haze from the smoke. Every position had an cylindrical ash tray mounted onto the gear.
I am told US Navy ships are non smoking now, with a small area set aside for those who still smoke. This, to me, is a major change for the good.
Technically I was “laid off,” not fired, after 31 years at the company. I was only working part time (10 hours/week), and was planning to retire fully in a year or two. Instead, I got laid off. They paid me almost a full year’s salary and gave me over a year of medical and other benefits. I collected unemployment for the next year and because of a legal action by my state against the bank that held my mortgage (for deceiving customers on mortgage loans), the bank had to write off my mortgage payment each month that I was unemployed (not deferred, not suspended—canceled).
So when I was told I was laid off, and the salary/benefits package I would receive, I immediately bought a bottle of wine, gave it to the head of HR, thanked him profusely, and left. That year was far and away the best one (financially) that I ever had. And to top it off, I had gotten divorced a year earlier. With all my free time and lack of financial concerns, I had time to date. I met a wonderful woman, and we have been together almost thirteen years now.
We lived in Los Angeles for many years and had gorgeous offices overlooking the Santa Monica pier. There was an earthquake that damaged the building and we decided to go south . . . closer to where one of our employees lived. Yes, Long Beach. This was good for our business as we needed to be close to a Post Office and we located a couple of miles from the main PO. The little 4 office building we went into happened to be 5 minutes from the central post office and we gained an hour or two extra work time. And, it seemed the wife of the owner belonged to the Long Beach Cancer League. They invited me to join; so of course I did.
At their gala this snooty man walked up to me and touched my arm and said “oh, velour” in a disdained tone. So I matched his tone and replied “Yes. This is LONG BEACH. I reserve the velvet for New York and L.A.”
My mother was extremely mentally abusive and neglectful. My parents had divorced when I was 7, yet my mom was so manipulative that she was able to get shared custody of me and my 4 siblings. For the most part I spent one week with her and then one week with my dad. When we’d be at my dads house, he would try to undo what my mother had done over the week we were there. He gave us love, took us to do things, fed us home cooked meals every day.
After we got a bit older we were allowed to choose which parent we stayed with and when. I think that age was 12 at the time(when you got to make the choice by law), so my oldest sister chose to stay with my mom full time because my mom so manipulative, she would reward her for staying with her, with treats and things none of the rest of us got. My second older sister made the same decision for the same reasons, plus my step-dad favorited her and she got anything she could ever want. (he did unimaginable things to her when she started staying there but that’s a story for another time).
When I got to choose, I decided I wanted to spend exactly equal amounts of time with each parent because I wanted everything to be fair. But my mom would poison our minds against my dad, saying he did all these things he didn’t do, trying to make him look bad to everyone. So eventually I started staying with my mom more, also because of the rewards.
When I was 13, it came out what my step-dad had been doing to my sister. He was arrested immediately. My sister did a recorded phone call with the police and talked to him about it and he confirmed everything thinking it was only her on the phone. There was proof. And my mom said my sister was lying, sided with my step-dad, and never really visited us when the court said we were not allowed to go back to her house, she had to bring our stuff to us(which she never did).
After all of that BS, we were all living with my dad and things got so much better so fast. We weren’t stuck with my moms and my step-dads abuse. My dad loved us and took care of us, got us in therapy, everything.
My mom decided to follow my step-dad to a prison 7 hours away from us, leaving us all behind, right after my 14th birthday. I haven’t seen or talked to her since(and I’m 23 now).
My dad took all 5 of us, loved us, fed us, did things with us, spent time with us. He became the mom we never had and the dad he always wanted to be. Took on making meals for 5 hungry teenagers, taking us to sports, appointments, things with friends, things with him. He stepped all the way up and became one super parent, and we never felt like we were missing anything because we were finally free from my moms and step-dads abuse.
He raised us all by himself, even after most of us had chose to leave him and stay with our mom. When she abandoned us, he was there. He took care of us and he did it with grace.
Other than theater-wide air defense such as the S-400/S-500, the Chinese military industry is completely indigenous, down to the chips and engine oil.
Note this includes China’s space-going rockets, and its satellite constellation.
Beidou, for example, provides global positioning coverage and has a chinese-built atomic clock at its core. It is completely indigenous in design and build.
The newer Chinese aircraft from helicopters to transports to 5G stealth fighters are powered by indigenous rather than Russian engines.
In other words, China does not depend on foreign suppliers/components to fight a war, because the Chinese economy is capable of supplying almost everything. After all, China has the most complete industrial supply chain of any country.
What does Huawei have to do with China’s weapons? Very little.
What does Nvidia have to do with China’s weapons? Very little.
The American sanctions/restrictions are commercial in nature and aimed squarely at disrupting/slowing down Chinese tech. Huawei’s 90% downturn in mobile shipment helped increase Apple’s market share over the past 3–4 years, until the emergence of the Mate 60 reversed the swing.
Even in AI, Nvidia hasn’t been slapped with hard bans, because China is one of its biggest markets. If it was truly a military issue, no American chipmaker would be allowed to do business with China, so this is just a convenient excuse, not too different from how garlic has been framed as a NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE.
I was working in Manhattan. I got a call from my kid’s school that he wasn’t feeling well and had to go pick him up. I had just finished developing a CD-based training program (this is early 90s, before this stuff was done online). On my way out, my assistant told me the CD master had just arrived and gave me a little plastic bag with the CD in it. I was in a hurry to leave and figured I could drop off the CD at home with my kid before returning to work.
Getting around Manhattan basically means getting into and out of yellow cabs. It’s pretty easy to find one.
Typical New York street
I catch a cab to my kid’s school. About 15 minutes later, I get dropped off. I greet my little one in the headmaster’s office and tell him we’re off to the doctor’s. As I’m waving down a taxi with my kid’s hand in mine, I realize I don’t have the CD bag. We go back into the school and it’s not there. Nobody remembered seeing me with a bag and, frankly, I didn’t remember having it in hand when I walked into the school. Oh, well, I thought, that was stupid. This was before Uber where you could call your ride to check on the back seat. This was, in fact, before cell phones. The bag and CD were gone.
I refocused on getting my kid to the doctor. Got him checked out. Got into another cab to go a nearby pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Walked home and dropped off my kid off with his nanny who was waiting there. All this time I was hopeful they would be able to reproduce the CD master, wondering how long it might take, if it might delay the project, if I should tell my boss, etc.
I wave down a cab to go back to my office. While I’m thinking about all these things I see a bag on the floor. I pick it up and pull out my CD.
My assistant sees me walking in with the bag. “How is your baby? I thought you were dropping that off at home.”
“Kid is fine. Oh, the CD, yeah…” I figured she wouldn’t believe me if it told her the truth.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea S2E22 “The Death Ship” Full Restored
You ever meet a stunningly beautiful woman who dates asshole after asshole?
I know I have met plenty of them. I even dated a few, when I was that asshole.
When you stop and think about it, it makes absolutely no sense, right?
A really beautiful woman will have LOTS AND LOTS of options. So there must be some successful, confident and charming men who are also kind and caring, right?
It would only make sense that those kinds of guys would pursue her too, so why does she keep dating those assholes?
As I started to understand myself better, it became clear to me why that is.
Some women are wildly attracted to emotionally distant, disrespectful, scumbags.
However, they didn’t wake up one day and decide “hey, who is the worst kind of person I can be in love with?”
No, this likely started very early in their childhood where they had very poor relationships with their parents, family and loved ones.
Their mother and/or father, conscious of it or not, modeled a type of person that is emotionally distant, disrespectful, inconsistent, and sometimes loving.
It conditioned her to believe that “this is what someone who is going to take care of me looks like.”
Since every child absolutely needs love and affection, the lack of it will drive her to desperately try to win their approval and attention to get it.
She will grow up to repeat this pattern with every relationship she develops.
Every time she meets a man who is dismissive, emotionally distant, disrespectful and unloving it triggers a deep desire in her to win that man over.
Every time he does show a bit of affection, she will feel deep satisfaction, feeling like she finally won the love she could never get before.
She feels she is finally enough.
She will believe that is what it means to be “in love” with someone.
It’s like being on drugs. Every time he doesn’t care she withdraws, every time he shows some love, she feels that euphoric hit of crack.
It is all about that “high”. A man who is good to her all the time can’t give her that because there is no bottom, he is just consistent, and to her… it is just boring.
She likely wants to want a good guy, but she just doesn’t, because he cannot give her those highs and lows an inconsistent asshole can.
These women aren’t attracted to assholes because he’s more confident, charismatic, or independent.
No, No, No.
It’s because he is exactly what she needs, a drug. A drug like any other for a person who has deep trauma that cannot resolve it on their own.
When my son was about 3 years old, he had a playdate with a friend’s child. We had a lot of playdates with this child. I wasn’t fond on the child nor his parents. He was a little terror and was very violent and mean. They lived on our street and would just show up at our house unexpected and uninvited. Of course, being 3 years old, my son loved having a playmate and, of course, I would allow them to stay.
One afternoon, my husband was home and they suddenly appeared. So, we sat in the livingroom watching the kids play. We had to watch them. The other child would do things destructive or injurous to my child.
The little boy was playing with a very heavy toy with a long handle. He was standing in front of his mother. Suddenly, he reared back and swung the toy as hard as he could and whacked my son in the head with it. Then, he laughed and laughed as I tried to ensure my son was not dead or unconscious! His mother just laughed and said “Hey… watch it there now.”.
My husband had his fill. He jumped up and headed toward the child and his mother. He was furious and it was obvious someone was going to get a spanking… either the child or his mother! His mother grabbed him and ran out the door as fast as she could. They never came back. Basically because the next time they showed up, my husband met them at the door and told them they weren’t welcome.
I was on a European trip when I fell ill with cold and shivering. The next morning I felt I had experienced food poisoning, but was able to drive back to the base site (700 Km) the next day and rest up for a day for the fight back to Canada. Arrived in Toronto 8 hours later and picked up by a friend who drove me home but commented on my appearance. I had prebooked an early family doctor appointment for the next day. Got up drove there and was told by the Dr. that I must immediately go to emergency. I explained I had to get the car home and would phone for ambulance immediately. He warned that I might never get home, but I went anyway. Ambulance arrived 15 minutes later and took me to emergency. Booked in and as I was handed back my medical card, I remember putting it in my wallet. Woke up 5 days later with tubes out out of everywhere strapped in the trauma ward. I had collapsed in emergency and essentially “died”. Fortunately I was resuscitated and put on life support. Cause was pneumonia, a complete surprise to me. During blackout no memories, no heavenly visits, nobody told me I needed to “go back”. Saved by 24/7 care and antibiotics. Pneumonia, the silent killer.
Steve. Steve was the weirdest classmate I’ve ever met because he was an absolute brilliant genius.
My school was predominantly ages 10-12, but we also had a Community Outreach building on the grounds which housed a school for students of all ages who were disabled.
Steve had Down Syndrome. He was in the Community Outreach classroom for all but one day per week when he joined our class.
Each week the “regular” students were given a list of 50 spelling words and expected to memorize them. Not an easy task. Each week we had the option to complete exercises which earned us “points”. By Friday, week’s end, we needed to have accumulated 50 points to pass that week’s lesson plan.
We had to design a board game, for instance, using each spelling word which might earn us 10 points towards that week’s goal. Writing a story using each word in a sentence might earn us 30 points, and so on.
We needed 50 points.
The only exercise which earned us the “Full Monty” was an oral spelling test given by the teacher while standing in front of the entire class of students as they watched on. A daunting task, to say the least.
Missing one spelling word, you’d flunk the test and lose all your points for the week and need to not only do the previous week’s exercises but the current week’s as well. It could be very easy to fall behind taking the oral exercise.
I attempted it only once. I got 49 words correct and botched the 50th! Boy did I feel stupid.
Now Steve…he was a spelling genius. And had nerves of steel!
Each and every week he’d visit our classroom and stand before our class and challenge the teacher to give him the oral spelling test. 50 words. No errors. He’d earn his 50 points in one go.
Spell “pugnacious” the teacher would intone.
Steve, the ever cool, would begin…p-u-g….NACIOUS! Pugnacious!
And so it went. One after the other. Flawlessly. 50 words. Never a mistake. Ever. Week after week.
We always gave him a standing ovation. What an accomplishment! He became our mascot. Our hero.
Steve was never bullied on the school yard as you read about today. He had Down’s, but we all recognized something special in him.
He taught us something.
There is often genius and complicated wisdom in the most simple and elegant things in life. That I missed my 49th word is indicative of my life. Something is definitely missing. I admit it.
Yet, Steve nailed each and every spelling test flawlessly until the end of the year. Never missing one letter and never hesitating. He knew in his heart the right letters to say. Perfectly.
We gave him a party. We hugged him. He was our buddy. We were proud of him.
Sadly, as life went on for the rest of us and as we graduated from Jr. High, then High School, moved on with our lives and out of our small community, Steve was never able to make that transition.
Life is shorter for people with Down Syndrome.
My mother sent me his obituary while I was attending classes in college. I wept as I read they had misspelled his name.
Several years ago my daughter, about 16 at the time, was talking with one of her friends online. The girl had taken some Oxycontin and started telling my daughter how her vision was going in and out, and she felt like she was going to pass out. I asked about the girl’s parents, but they were not home. By this time the girl was saying that she was scared she had taken too much. I called 911, told them what was going on and gave them her address.
Apparently the parents arrived home at the same time the police and emergency services got there. She was taken, by ambulance, to the hospital. It turned out she was fine. She told my daughter that she hadn’t really taken anything, but was just saying that to see what she would do. I don’t know if that was true or not, but my daughter no longer was friends with her. I’m sure she got into trouble with her parents, and possibly the police, either way.
Update: I told my daughter about this answer, and she told me that they took the girl to the hospital and had to pump her stomach. I just knew that the same type of thing happened several times over the years. She got into many different kinds of drugs. She finally got sober, sadly, after her brother died of a heroin overdose.
When I first arrived in Thailand, I noticed that women working in banks and government offices changed from their high heels to much more informal, comfy shoes that they kept under their desks.
I had never seen this in American offices. I was fascinated!
The broad range of ‘office’ shoes entertained me during the long waits. Cloth or leather flats were the norm. Most were bejeweled, or brightly colored.
My favs were those worn by a department head at the National Lottery Bureau…fuzzy, orange, Garfield house slippers.
Open-toed shoes were absent as they were considered ‘impolite’ (rubber flipflops were allowed when coming in or going out during rainy season).
I was doing part time teaching for a government university in those days, as were several other foreigners. We all taught twilight classes, leaving the campus well after the Thai professors and staff.
Only the deans had enclosed offices. Everyone else had assigned desks in a huge room.
Gene* (who had been incountry long enough to know better) decided to delve under the desks and put the ‘in office’ shoes on the owners’ desks as a prank after everyone had gone home.
For Thais, shoes are associated with the feet, the lowest part of the body. Traditional Thais take issue if feet are pointed at them or at any revered article. Putting feet on a desk or table is very disrespectful. And, of course, shoes carry germs and dirt.
The staff found no humor in what he had done. The traditionalists were furious and demanded that Gene be dismissed, even deported.
The university Dean did dismiss him but helped him get a job at another government school across town, but with a severe warning.
We never found out why he thought that would be funny.
I won’t lie to you. Yes, my truck at 40 tons puts more wear on the road than the typical family sedan.
However. This truck pays close to $20,000 per year in road use taxes. That goes a long way toward maintaining those roads.
Something else to think about. If your roads were not built to have one of these run down, them. Just how cheap do you think the government would get when building the roads.
My guess is a very thin layer of asphalt or poorly compacted gravel. If your road was built for a 3500-pound car, it would be potholed within 2 years.
Added on April 2nd, 2022:
In light of the firestorm that this seems to have lit. I will add the following.
In many states the road use fees are diverted for other uses, so in light of the fact that road maintenance is being paid for and money also used for bike paths, mass transit projects, parks and such. Is the truck not paying enough or is the car paying too much?
Try looking at it from the opposite view. The states may have plenty of money and rather than raising the truck fees, the standard car fees should be lower.
I did not see this myself, but from what I understand about Scotland, I believe it.
Circa 1980, a young redheaded Scottish girl transferred into a local High School. Her family had just moved to Canada from the old country.
For the first few weeks she was the ‘new and exotic’ girl. Guys paid a lot of attention to her.
One guy had a seriously jealous girlfriend who considered herself to be the tough, kickass type.
She approached the lass and told her in no uncertain terms to lay off ‘her boyfriend’, or she’d regret it.
The lass stated that she had not done anything to encourage him, and it wasn’t her fault her boyfriend was straying. Perhaps he was looking for an upgrade?
The tough girl freaked.
“That’s it! After school we’re going to fight! You’re going to get it!”
The lass sighed and calmly said (in a Scottish accent) “All right, fine. Do I bring a knife, or a gun ?”
Tough girl: “What?…”
Lass: “I’m just over from Scotland, and I don’t know your local Canadian traditions for these things. So, knife or gun?”
TG: “Seriously, what…?”
Lass: “Well?”
The tough girl and her friends backed away and gave the ‘crazy lass’ a wide berth from that point on.
Some tourists just don’t realize how wild the National Parks can be.
The Germans were boyfriend/girlfriend + two children (ages, 34, 27, 11, 4). The flew into Los Angeles in 1996 and visited various places in southern California and Las Vegas. They were reported missing when they did not return home. Tracked by credit card usage to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park (It was July, and the day they were at Furnace Creek, the high temperature was 124 F), a visitors log was found with a signature from the woman stating that they would be driving over Mengel Pass next. They were in a rented minivan; this is Mengel Pass:
An extensive search was launched but no sign of them was found. Then in October, a National Park Service helicopter happened to spot a minivan where no minivan should be. It was the Germans’ vehicle. Three tires were flat, ripped open by the terrain. The van wasn’t even on a road, rough as they are in the area, but had been driven down a wash. Another extensive search was launched, but then called off when no sign of the Germans themselves were found.
Fast-forward 13 years. Two hikers find the bones of two adults. Accompanying IDs reveal them as the man and the woman. Some other scattered bones were found, presumably of the children but never officially identified. They were presumably trekking cross-desert toward a military base (shown on the map in their possession) under the assumption that the base perimeter would be staffed. But spanning more than a million acres, most of the base is empty desert and would have offered no chance as salvation.
The National Parks are great, and it doesn’t take more than a modicum of common sense to enjoy them. I’ve personally coaxed rental vehicles down moderately rough roads in DVNP (but I would never try Mengel Pass in any vehicle – it’s just beyond my skill set) and I’ve hiked in the desert. But always prudently, in the right weather, and with the right equipment/supplies (water!). They’re not Disneyland, and if you’re unwise they have a variety of ways of killing you.
I think for an American, the hardest thing to adjust to might be the limits of a social welfare society.
I’m an American who moved to Denmark more than a decade ago and became a Danish dual citizen, so clearly I like Denmark.
But living in Scandinavia compared to living in the USA involves a lot of limits.
For example, you will probably have a much smaller living space than you are used to in the USA (unless you now live in Manhattan or the Bay Area.) If you could afford a house in the USA, you’ll probably have a smaller one in Scandinavia, or even an apartment. If you used to have an apartment of your own, you’ll probably have a room in an apartment, and at least in Copenhagen, apartments usually don’t have a bathtub. You’ll also have much less “stuff” to put in the apartment; “stuff” is expensive in Scandinavia.
The USA is a consumer society; businesses do whatever they can to please the consumer. That’s not true in Scandinavia, which is an equality-based society. While I can’t speak for Norway or Sweden, customer service is awful in Denmark. Shops really don’t care if you come back or not, and don’t count on returning something you’re dissatisfied with. In restaurants, you’ll either have to serve yourself or wait a while to be served; restaurants are chronically understaffed because wages are so high. The server won’t come back to ask if you’d like another cup of coffee or are happy with your meal. Personal services like nail salons and massage places pretty much don’t exist, or are wildly expensive.
Health care is tax-financed (not free, you will be paying for it with a big cut of every paycheck) and great for short-term, fixable things like a broken leg or a cat bite. Longer-term sicknesses, like chronic fatigue or eating disorders, get less support. Also, there are limits on which pharmaceuticals can be prescribed: many post-op patients get only a combination of Tylenol and Advil for pain, for example. If you’re reliant on one type of pharma, check to make sure its equivalent is available before you move. There are also relatively few preventative care appointments or tests; no annual physical, for example, and psychiatric counseling is limited. If you want it on an ongoing basis, you’ll probably have to pay for it yourself.
EDIT: Many commenters have pointed out that health care can vary in Denmark based on the region you live in, which is a good point. However, there are problems with providing psychiatric care nationwide, in particular where it concerns young people, as the Danish Health Authority itself acknowledges: Selv Sundhedsstyrelsen siger det: Psykisk syge behandles for ringe
(From the center-left national newspaper Poltikken.)
Socially, too, you may run into limits. Many Danes still have the friends they made in kindergarten; university is often where they meet the last of their close adult friends. Work colleagues are not “friends” and beyond their 20s rarely go out and drink beers together. People rarely chat with strangers, or offer to help strangers they see struggling with directions or big boxes or whatever. You may miss the relaxed chattiness and warmth of the USA, particularly during the long Danish winters, where the darkness can be brutal.
And then, of course, the language can be a limit. You’ll find that most people aged 10- 50 or so speak excellent English, but you’ll never really get into the culture until you speak Danish well. Besides, there are always annoying little things that are only in Danish – a voicemail menu, a hairdresser’s website – so will need to make a commitment to learning the (difficult) language if you really want to fit in.
Clearly, there are a lot of positive things about living in Scandinavia. But a lot of Americans approach moving there with the idea of “I’ll get everything I have in the USA, plus more!” That’s not necessarily the case.
Looking for a bold and exciting new wing recipe? Make our miso caramel chicken wings recipe with sweet and salty miso caramel-teriyaki sauce tossed with crispy air fried chicken wings!
Prep: 20 min | Total: 40 min | Yield: 4 servings
Equipment
Air Fryer
Ingredients
16 chicken wing drumettes (about 2 pounds)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons white miso
3 tablespoons P.F. Chang’s® Home Menu Teriyaki Sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Sliced green onion (optional)
Instructions
Place chicken wings in a large bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Sprinkle cornstarch, salt and pepper over wings and toss until well coated.
Heat air fryer to 350 degrees F and place wings in a single layer in air fryer basket, working in batches if needed. Cook wings until juices run clear and they are just starting to brown, 10 to 14 minutes, shaking the basket once during cooking.
Increase heat to 400 degrees F. Turn wings so the skin side is facing up. Continue air frying wings, in batches if needed, until they are crispy and golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes.
While wings are frying, pour sugar and water into a small, heavy-bottom saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until sugar is caramelized and a deep amber color. Do not stir the caramelized sugar.
As soon as sugar is caramelized, remove from heat and add butter. Swirl the pan lightly to melt the butter. Whisk in miso, teriyaki sauce, and red pepper flakes. Heat pan over low heat and continue whisking until sugar and miso are smooth. Keep sauce warm until wings are ready.
Remove wings from air fryer to a large bowl and pour sauce over; toss to coat. Garnish your miso caramel chicken wings with green onion, if desired, and serve!
Everything is louder when it’s very cold outside. If you live near a major airport, when the temperature drops well below freezing, the low-flying aircraft will sound like they’re landing on your lawn.
Dog poop steams in the cold. So do sewer grates.
When you park your car, you need to pull the windshield wipers away from the windshield, lest they freeze to it once the car cools down.
It can get too cold to snow. There’s a “sweet spot” temperature range for snow. (About 15–35F). Lower than that, and there’s not enough moisture in the air for snow. Higher than that, and it’s slush or rain.
Thin water pipes in your house that run against an outside wall, like the pipes to your dishwasher or ice maker, will freeze.
It’s very important that your lips are dry if you want to smoke in the cold. Wet lips will freeze to anything when it’s cold outside, including cigarette butts. You will rip the skin off of your lip if you’re not careful.
Yes, back in 2006, I was travelling a lot for a major project, at this particular time, England. I can’t remember if it was London or Manchester, but the queue to pre-screen boarding passes was really long and slow.
About 15 – 20 people ahead of me was a couple probably early 30’s. I couldn’t hear exactly what was going on, but there was obviously some tension between the person checking documents and the lady. The exchange of words continued even after their documents were checked, and the lady even came back a couple of times to give the worker more verbal abuse. By the time I was a few people away waiting to have my documents checked, the lady couldn’t leave well enough alone and kept shouting at the worker.
The worker turned to her colleague and said, I don’t have to put up with this abuse. She walked towards the couple and asked for their boarding passes again. After a few moments of discussion, the couple handed them over and the employee simply said “You are not travelling today, please follow me”. The look the man gave to woman was priceless!! About a dozen people started clapping as they walked off with heads hanging low….
The CIA Murder that Exposed MK-ULTRA | The Frank Olson Assassination
November 28th, 1953. New York City. At 2:30 AM the body hit the sidewalk.
A few seconds later, a shower of glass. The doorman of the Statler Hotel yelled to the lobby that there was a jumper. The night manager rushed out and saw him. A man, about 40 years old, lying on the pavement.
He was on his back, wearing only his underwear and blood started to pool around him. 13 stories up, a single window was open; its curtain flapping through broken glass.
The night manager knelt beside the man, whose eyes were open and was somehow still alive. He desperately tried to speak but was choking on blood and couldn’t be understood.
After a minute or two of trying to communicate, the man took a final deep breath and was gone.
Nobody knows for sure what he was trying to say before he died. But one thing is for certain, it was something about the CIA.
I don’t know that society ‘looks down’ on single people, but a large chunk definitely seems to feel sorry for single people.
A friend of mine recently decided to end things with her boyfriend. She felt so relieved, as the relationship just wasn’t suiting her.
She said that all (bar one) of the friends she broke the news to said ‘Aww, I’m so sorry.’ It ticked her off. She understood it, but it still raised her hackles a bit.
‘Why are they all feeling bad for me?’ she asked. I did it, because I know I’d prefer being single to being in a relationship that was draining me.’
I learned this lesson myself when I divorced. Everyone said ‘Sorry,’ whilst cocking their heads. This despite the enormous relief I felt over escaping a pressure cooker after many years.
From that time, I vowed I’d never have that reaction when someone tells me about their break-up. My first reaction when they break the news to me is always to ask ‘And how do you feel about this?’, then take it from there, depending on how they answer.
One of the only good responses I got when sharing the news of my divorce was from a mum at my son’s school. Without missing a beat, she said ‘Well, congratulations. Unfortunately for me, my husband and I are still together.’ And her husband was standing right next to her!
All three of us burst out laughing, and it diffused the awkward situation. She totally grasped that getting divorced or being single is not the end of the world.
People act like being single is on par with being stranded on some desert island all by yourself. Like you’re Tom Hanks with only Wilson to keep you from spiralling into madness.
It can be likened somewhat to being on an island, I guess, but it’s one with superb amenities, no stresses, and a pre-approved guest list. That’s not anything to pity.
I was an experienced hotel maid working at a Motel 6.
I was assigned five or six rooms. I opened the door to the first one, closed it and found the head housekeeper. I knew it would take at the very least, one or even two shifts to clean it. I made her go look at it; she didn’t want to.
Six college students had rented it for the semester. After the first month or so, they refused to let the room be cleaned. They were to do all the work. I have no idea why management would agree, but they had.
The carpet, literally in most areas, was knee deep in old pizza boxes, fast-food containers, empty pop and beer can, popcorn, chips, new and used condoms and unidentifiable debris. The room stunk and my eyes watered.
It took at least two hours before I cleared out enough trash to even start cleaning.
Spilled liquids had saturated the pillows, mattresses and box springs to such an extent that every thing had to be discarded. The shower cutain and room curtains were shredded. There was a huge pile of filthy sheets and towels with clean ones mixed in.
No one had realized the clean linens and towels went in, but dirty ones never came out.
All of the furnishings were broken, stained, burned, vandalized or all of that. Most had to be discarded or replaced; very little was repairable.
Filth coated the lower walls, the ceilings and I’m not going to discuss the bathroom.
I worked 16 hours instead of the usual six and it was still pretty bad. I left a detailed note with the night clerk and a copy taped to the housekeepers door saying what and what not I had done.
The head housekeeper showed her appreciation of all my hard (and it was hard) work the next morning by greeting me with a huge list of everything I had not done and was yelling at me about what an awful maid I was.
I didn’t have to take that abuse. I knew that two maids had called in sick. I didn’t give a single damn and quit right then and there.
I went to a Ukrainian Orthodox wedding in Canada. A good friend had converted to Orthodox for his wife.
The ceremony was amazing, the priest chasing him around the altar 3 times, hitting him with his scepter 3 times, etc. Quite a bit more entertaining than your typical wedding, but long and drawn out.
The part that blew me away, and made me say you can’t be serious, was the priest saying, and I am paraphrasing here, as I don’t remember the exact words.
“As a man must obey the will of the lord, the wife must obey the will of the husband”
I thought things like this hadn’t been said for 50 years.
But, to show how little attention people pay, I will relate two incidents.
In between the wedding and the reception, a group of us retired to a nearby bar. At the bar, I said good luck getting Mona to obey Greg, as she is the dominant one in the relationship. Everyone said, they don’t say that at weddings anymore. I asked them if they were at the same wedding I was just at, and quoted the priest.
Then later at the wedding reception, which was held in the church hall, I joked about it with my friend. He said they don’t say that anymore. He called his wife over for verification, and she agreed, and said my memory was flawed. A little later in the reception, the priest was walking by, and I cornered him, and he agreed that is what he had said.
I asked him to confirm that with the Bride and groom. He came over with me and I asked him in front of the couple. They were both stunned. They had been through the rehearsal and the wedding and never heard what they had committed to. Mona finally burst out laughing and said “Good luck with that”
They know which females populate their territories and know which they’ve bred with. It’s that simple. If they find a female w cubs that he NEVER mated with, he will kill them.
What’s interesting is sometimes these fathers actually step up and care for young. There was an instance in India where a mother tiger died (poacher i believe) while her cub was still dependent on her. The father had met her previously & had a good relationship.
Then, after her mom died she was seen with her father briefly at a water hole and then 24/7. He was hunting prey and bringing her to it. Giving her protection, basically taking over the role of her mother. This has never been documented bbefore. Totally unprecedented behavior, as fathers are usually completely dismissive and hands off. At most they come through and meet their offspring, sharing a meal the mother caught. Aka freeloading. Goes to show tigers are individuals with wide ranges of behavior and potential
One night some ding dong opened the drain of a deep fat fryer, dumping hot oil onto the floor of the cook’s line.
Fortunately, the fryer was turned off, because a lit deep fat fryer will ignite if there is no oil inside. This happens because the residual oil within the fryer will immediately exceed its flash point and you’ll quickly have a fire on your hands. The guy who did it was planning on cleaning the fryer, which requires it to be drained. The tank drains into a catch pan, which contains a paper filter, and a pump recirculates the filtered oil back into the fryer’s cooking tank. For some reason, the dude had the fryer’s spout aimed at the floor, not at the tank.
The perpetrator of this crime had experience cleaning the fryer, they just weren’t paying attention. As gallons of hot oil hit the floor, they ran, as did everyone else, and the fryer emptied its belly onto the kitchen floor. It was a huge hot sizzling greasy mess that took more than an hour to clean up. We didn’t have any option other than to squeegee the oil into the floor drains, then we wasted dozens of side towels drying the floor. It wasn’t until we had the mess cleaned up that everyone could finish cleaning their stations and go home. There was a lot of anger, and one case of severe embarrassment in the kitchen that night.
Couple Finds Out Their New House Comes With A Cat | The Dodo
It was a very windy day in the late 1980’s. I was driving past the Ford motor works in Halewood, Liverpool. I was on the main dual carriage way.
In front of me was a Mini and in front of that Mini was a flatbed truck carrying planks of wood.
We were heading East out of Liverpool towards Widnes. Traveling at about 60 miles per hour.
I saw a gust of wind begin to lift some of the planks of wood on the truck.
One of the planks actually had enough wind get under it that it rose off the truck, snapped it’s tethers and then launched like a caber end over end back along he carriageway. The plank end landed just in front of the Mini bent and sprang up and over the Mini, the other end of the plank then hit the road just in front of my car and did the same spring up and over my car but twisting it diverted slightly so as it fell behind my car it fell onto the pavement ( sidewalk) running along the car factory perimeter fence.. A box van behind me hit the plank and shattered it into several pieces as it broke on the roadway and kerb.
It was a near miss for what could have been a serious accident.
My conclusion is that it cannot be answered because trying to judge the Russian Empire by modern standards will inevitably fail.
Take a look at this picture:
Photo source: Yle News.
Photo credit: Carl Jahn / Finnish Heritage Agency
This is a prisoner from the Finnish Grand Duchy that has been deported to a labor camp in Siberia. On foot.
He’s chained to a cart because he has tried to escape. His head has been half-shaved to brand him as a convict.
We treat prisoners quite differently these days.
Russia was never particularly enlightened, but it did, at times, have more ‘European-minded’ leaders. Finns didn’t mind them.
Alexanders I and II could be described as such.
Nicholases I and II (Nikolai) could not.
Finland was granted extensive autonomy by Russian standards. It served Russia’s own interests, but Finns didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. They took it and ran with it.
Things weren’t bad at first. A stronger Finnish identity created a buffer between Russia and its archnemesis, Sweden.
Then Russia caught the nationalist bug itself and the developments in Finland were no longer compatible with where Russia was going. That’s when Russia tried to take it all away and then some.
It was too late. Finns were past the point where they’d accept being subjugated like that again, or even tolerate a so-called benevolent czar.
I was selling very cheap rubbish diy home alarm systems with equally rubbish motion sensors. The company I worked for at the time had some fantastic products, this most certainly was not one of them.
They were so bad I would go to a customer’s house to replace parts with multiple spare parts because the replacement was often faulty too. Argh, I hated that product.
This one day I knocked on the door to be greeted by a very attractive young lady wearing gym clothes. She told me straight up that she was heading to the gym just as soon as her partner arrived. I was told he would arrive imminently and that is how it turned out. However before he returned home I was asked if I would like a glass of water, it was a very hot day and I said yes.
I followed her into the kitchen at her request. She went to the refrigerator and prominently displayed on her refrigerator door were nude photos of her. Several of them. I think they were professionally done and presumed she maybe was a model but I didn’t ask and didn’t even mention the photos. That was something I hadn’t seen before.
Very hot day that because I remember being so very thirsty. Must have had 4 or 5 glasses of water before I finished that job. Yes it was hot and I was thirsty.
That answers the question but that wasn’t even the weirdest part of that call out. The partner strikes up a conversion with me, while I’m working and asked me how well I knew people at my company’s head office. I told him I knew most everyone. He then asked me if I knew such and such which, believe it or not, was my boss. My boss was this guys ex-wife!
I am pretty sure I didn’t blurt out loud, “You traded up nicely!” but I do know I at least thought it very loudly!
That was a weird house call, a very weird day I will never forget.
This actually happened to me many years ago. I was a property manager of 80 units. My boss and I had a heated exchange and in haste he fired me on the spot. He asked me to stay until he could find a replacement. “Sorry Charlie!” I cleaned out my desk and handed him the keys, and I left the property of my own volition….
I was off-site the rest of the week. My now former boss was blowing up my phone. “Where are you?” then it was, “You are needed in the office?” I ignored his calls. He then messaged me on Facebook and said it was “with great urgency that we talk”. As it turned-out 2 members of the office staff (there were 3 all together) quit! The residents had started a petition to reinstate me – 60-plus signatures in all. He would not cave and subsequently received somewhere around 15 to 20- thirty day notices in effect terminating their leases. Additionally, some of the residents (refused to pay their rent. The community quickly became unstable and increasing hostile towards him. The morning shift manager at Tiger Mart next door to the complex – a tenant of mine, refused him service.….
He offered me my job back. I let him sweat for a day, then accepted and returned to my job. I was never so moved by an experience as I was at that job, not because my boss had given me my job back, but, rather, because the tenants did!
As far as I can tell, “free will” simply refers to a lack of self-awareness, and the inability to understand why we make the decisions we make.
And yes, that lack of self-awareness definitely exists.
People make decisions, but they are not quite sure why they made that decision.
For example, people will go into a shop, end up buying a load of useless and overpriced crap that they don’t need and didn’t intend to buy.
If they are unaware of the multitudes of manipulation techniques that are implemented by the shop to achieve that result… then they’ll call that lack of awareness about their decision making process “free will”.
Likewise, people who grow up exposed to religious propaganda, and then end up believing in the religion that they were exposed to, usually lack the self awareness to notice the whole process. And so they’ll call their belief in the propaganda they were exposed to a “choice made by free will”.
When I was in fourth grade, one of my best friends had his new (2 week old) bike stolen from his backyard. A few days later, we were at a shopping center right near our apartment complex, and there was his bike, chained to a bike rack. We knew it was his bike, not an identical one belonging to someone else, because he had put a sticker on it, and the sticker was still there. We called the police, but the thief got there before the police did. The thief was probably about 4 years older than us, and a pretty big kid. We told him that the bike belonged to my friend, and that we wouldn’t cause any problems if he just gave it back. He insisted that his parents bought him the bike, and it just looked like my friend’s bike. While we were arguing with him, the police arrived. He again insisted that the bike was just an identical one that his parents bought him.
The police asked us if we could prove that it was his stolen bike. The thief was shocked when my friend said “Yes, as soon as I got the bike, I wrote my name and address and phone number on an index card, rolled it up, and put it in the tube of seat. If you take the seat off you’ll find that card.” The thief stood there slack-jawed. The police got a wrench and removed the seat, and sure enough, there was the index card rolled up inside. The policeman handed the bike over to my friend and drove off with the thief to go have a chat with his parents…
I have always thought that “PCP gives you super human strength” was an urban myth, until one night, during my residency.
There was a kind of smaller, skinny young guy that was restrained to the gurney. He was high on PCP and who knows what else. Drug screen had been sent but wasn’t back yet.
He was making such a fuss, in the ER, that they placed him in a small isolation room.
I’ was a resident. The attending was wrinkling up his nose as this guy is yelling all kinds of profanity and threats.
He sent me in to assess the patient.
I told him that I’m not going in there alone.
He told me that the patient is restrained.
“Nope.”
Ok. We’ll go in together.
I step over to the room and knock gently.
“Sir, this is Doctor Boehm. I’d like to come in and talk to you.”
No answer.
I try again.
No answer.
Everything, in there, has gone quiet.
The attending and I exchange glances. Then, he reaches around me and pushes the door open.
My first fleeting impression was a bloody blade, of some sort, coming at my face.
I jumped back and practically fell over the attending physician.
I yell for security, at the top of my lungs.
People come running.
The patient, I kid you not, had some how managed to get on his feet, restrained, with the gurney ON HIS BACK.
He has, some how, ripped open the sharps container. He was trying to attack, anyone with in reach, with a pair of bloody scissors that he found inside.
They finally got him restrained and sedated.
I was shaking like a leaf. I couldn’t stop thinking about how my kids could have lost their mom.
I never went anywhere near an agitated patient, without Security, again.
Ask any veteran of Stalingrad in WW2 and it would be Pavlov’s house. I have been there to see it after reading about the importance of this building to the battle. It will cause you goosebumps! What a story!
This guy Yakov Pavlov was a Sgt. in the Soviet army and held this position at all costs. The Wehrmacht tried and tried to destroy the building over the course of 58 days and failed. Quite possibly, if this building had fallen, then the battle would have been won by the Nazis. This would have given them access to the fuel supply that they needed and the outcome of WW2 totally changed.
Vasily Chuikov, commanding general of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, later joked that the Germans lost more men trying to take Pavlov’s House than they did taking Paris.
In the aftermath, captured Nazi maps used during the battle showed that EVEN THE NAZIS called the building “Pavlov’s house”!
I don’t know what the Chinese Singaporeans, mainlanders and in HK learn from the Taiwanese people’s experience but I can tell you what I, a Malaysian Indian, learnt from it –
1.I would certainly not call it an achievement, since that word implies an end with bigger and better results as well as a greater general good for all the people involved in the process.
2.Democracy as it is practised in Taiwan (and quite a few other places I can think of) is the fastest way of putting the corrupt, the feeble-minded, the easily manipulated and the snake oil salesmen in power.
3.That version of “democracy” seems like the best way to surrender control of an entire region or nation to the elite oligarchy with interests in either arms or other consumer goods.
4.That version of “democracy” is, however, the best and easiest way of convincing the stupid, the brainwashed, the feeble-minded and the generally apathetic that they are enjoying “freedom” while giving up many of the actual rights willingly.
For all the reasons above, I am convinced that the Taiwanese people’s “achievement” of democracy is one of the best and most humane ways of creating, empowering and maintaining a hidden dictator class of ruling elite oligarchs.
Years ago a girlfriend and I were having lunch on a patio, we had daiquiris, shrimp and fried rice.
She ate all of her fried rice, left all of her shrimp, and ordered a second daiquiri. I asked her if there was something wrong with the shrimp, and she said no, she was sure they were fine, but she was on a diet.
I had observed in the past that she loved her carbs, and would eat carbs instead of healthy things like skinless chicken breast, pork tenderloin , skipjack tuna and shrimp.
So I asked her why she was leaving the lowest calorie thing, eating the higher calorie fried rice, and ordering an even higher calorie drink.
She laughed at me and told me that everyone knew that meat/protein wasn’t healthy and had higher calories than anything else.
The shrimp had roughly half the calories of the same weight fried rice, and less than half the calories of her daiquiri.
How could you go on a diet and not know this?
I never told her how many calories were in her favorite perogies and french fries.
After Chatting With 408 Women And 25 Dates, A Viewer Confirms ONCE AGAIN Why Men Keep Walking Away
Gosh! I am so glad that I am not on the dating scene in the West. China is so refreshingly different.
My dad had a grate answer. This woman parked her BMW in our driveway whenever she went to the Beauty Parlor. She blocked is so no one could leave until she returned. My dad asked he not to park in our driveway and was ignored. One day he had enough. He went in and got the sugar boll from the table and pored about half on the ground by her gas cap and let the door to the cap open. Then he put a note on her windshield, “THIS IS A REAL SWEET CAR. I BET IT WOULD RUN ON PURE SUGAR.” and went in to watch the fun. An hour later the woman came back and found the note, looked at the ground by her gas cap and called the Police. When they arrived, they pointed out she was on private property and they could do nothing however, they advised her not to risk driving the car with contaminated gas. Have it toed to a garage the tank drained and refilled. Save some of the gas and have it tested to prove it was tampered with and sue. She did. She had to pay the tow truck, the garage to remove and clean than refill the tank after putting it back, pay the lab to test the gas only to find it was never tampered with. She never parked in the driveway again!
My husband passed away almost 5 years ago. His ex wife had been a pretty much constant source of frustration the 6 years we were together (and they were divorced). She continued to harass me the entire 6 weeks of his hospital stay. At 10:30pm while I was sitting with my husband, her texts started. She told me I better go straight home and start packing. According to her I had 72 hours to vacate our house after my husband died. There was no truth to that. She had no ownership in our home. I simply replied that my lawyers (and they also notified her divorce attorney) had assured me the clause in the final decree promised a $1000 fine and 30 days in jail for any harassment of me. I forwarded that response, along with her threatening texts, to her daughters and each of her “friends” who were harassing me. I also informed her security would throw her out of the funeral if she showed anything but respect. Her harassment pretty much stopped!
Girl Cried As The Shelter Cat Hugged Her Tightly And Wouldn’t Let Her Go
Girl Cried As The Shelter Cat Hugged Her Tightly And Wouldn’t Let Her Go. Rachel, a college student at the time, was volunteering at the shelter. She had been helping animals at the shelter for a long time and was spending her last volunteer day that day.
My ex-mother-in-law had a dishwasher in her kitchen that she never used. It was several years old, but was in like-new condition. It still had the paperwork and a packet of detergent inside that had been provided with the machine.
One evening after dinner at her house, I offered to take care of the dishes and started loading them into the dishwasher.
She heard me and made a beeline for the kitchen, letting me know that in her house all the dishes were to be washed by hand.
I asked why she didn’t like her dishwasher. She was convinced that hand-washed dishes are more sanitary than machine-washed.
She agreed to run a little test. I ran hot water into the sink and asked her to wash a dish in it. She couldn’t because the water was way too hot for her hands.
“The water in your dishwasher gets hotter than this.”
My MIL was in her late-60’s at the time, but she wasn’t too old to learn new tricks. After that, she used her dishwasher regularly and was happy with the time and effort that it saved her.
Girlfriend Brings Up Open Relationship And Has MELTDOWN After Boyfriend Dumps Her Right On The Spot
Quick one. The general idea behind a woman offering an “open relationship” is for her to date and fuck who ever she wants, while the boyfriend / husband sits alone at home watching the kids, dogs and cats.
A Japanese girl, streaming live video on YouTube, was roaming in Germany. While walking there (racist) people were harassing her, but the girl did not pay much attention to them. Her innocent grin persisted on camera.
But while she was eating food in a restaurant, an older man started sitting near the girl and making faces like this:
Like this man, another racist person also made faces to tease the girl. Eventually the girl became a little sad because a person passing by had almost dropped her camera.
At the end of the video, a man approaches the girl and apologizes. The man tenderly states that he is ashamed of the behavior of other German people. He looks at the camera and says, “This girl is very nice, and please come to Germany.” The girl melted at seeing this and hugged the person.
Making a foreign guest a character of such harassment goes far beyond the limits of despair.
I had a student who came into my history class and told me how she hated history, hated me, and did not want to be there. She then said I am a black lesbian, EFF YOU whitey. I looked at her the class hearing this was not sure what or how I would react. I smiled and said, so does this mean we are not going to have lunch later. She looked at me as if to say something profound but just shook her head. Silence was deafening for a few minutes. It was our first day of class, I said my job is not to make you love history but my job is to assure that you have a basic historical understanding. I will make a deal with all of you, give me three classes, if you do not like what you are hearing, seeing, reading, or learning drop the class, add another class. But I ask you keep an open mind. We have a class section called stump the prof, its your turn to ask me history classes. It has to be related to American history is the only catch.
She would ask me questions every class and they showed an understanding that I admired. She was not afraid to express herself, she was not polished, she was blunt and to the point. We watched a documentary on the Triangle Coat Factory Fire in the 1900s and said with a sadness in her voice, Prof that could have been me or any of us girls in this class. What she taught me is we all can change and become a better self. Her willingness to see these young dead women in caskets due to neglect made her realize it could have been her. She changed from a angry young woman to a stronger empathetic history lover.
My husband worked for an LTL trucking company. When he told his work stories, he began to mention a driver called “Nemo.” I didn’t think much of it until he referenced an older story that I knew was about a driver called (I forget his real name*, so let’s say) John, not Nemo.
When I asked, my husband explained that John had earned the nickname “Nemo” and it wasn’t going away any time soon.
Most of the drivers delivered to the same area every day. Familiarity improved delivery times. However, John, on the same route for almost a year, didn’t seem to learn any shortcuts.
They would frequently get calls from customers asking where their delivery was. Dispatch would then call John, asking how close he was to the delivery, and John would respond that he didn’t know because he was lost.
Dispatch would then pull up the GPS, find John’s truck, and give him directions back to the customer. The manager would ask dispatch what they had going on, and hear, “I’m finding Nemo,” so often that soon nobody called him John anymore. He will live forever in our stories as “Nemo.”
* I asked my husband what Nemo’s real name was. He doesn’t remember either! Forever Nemo….
Riiiight… The MiG-41 was due to go into service in 2028. Notice I say ‘was’; I gather that most of the more sophisticated components are a little hard to come by now, and that money is also rather tight; Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has almost certainly delayed the MiG-41 by several years, if it hasn’t killed it stone dead. You can’t use looted washing machine circuits in a 6th-generation fighter.
Then there’s Russia’s track record on Wunderwaffen in recent years. The T-14 tank and the Su-57 spring to mind as projects that look great on paper and shiny in parades – and then somehow never quite make it to the front lines in quite the form or quite the numbers or to quite the schedule that were announced.
And the MiG-41 is still a little vague as to what it actually is and does, given that it’s supposedly only a couple of years off production. Is it 6th-generation hypersonic near-space miracle? Or is it a MiG-31 upgrade: a Foxhound with better engines? Meanwhile, Boeing has a physical flight demonstrator of its NGAD programme candidate up and running, and Project Tempest is in development here in the UK, Europe, and Japan.
And nobody – given how Russian equipment has performed in Ukraine – is going to want MiG-41s if they can have either of those, let alone ‘dream about owning’ the MiG.
There is an old Quora proverb: before you ask why, ask if.
Husband and wife interaction in China
One of my youtube videos. Only 12 people viewed it.
Optional Toppings: confectioners’ sugar, gingersnap cookie crumbs, finely chopped pecans and melted white baking chocolate
Instructions
Chocolate Mascarpone Bourbon Balls
Beat the mascarpone, confectioners’ sugar and bourbon in a large bowl until smooth. Add chocolate wafer crumbs and pecans; stir until blended. Refrigerate mascarpone mixture, uncovered, overnight.
Shape mascarpone mixture into 1 inch balls; roll and coat with toppings as desired.
Store covered in the refrigerator.
Mascarpone Rum Balls
Beat the mascarpone, confectioners’ sugar, rum, eggnog and cinnamon in a large bowl until smooth. Add gingersnap cookie crumbs and pecans; stir until blended. Refrigerate mascarpone mixture, uncovered, overnight.
Shape mascarpone mixture into 1 inch balls; roll and coat with toppings as desired.
Store covered in the refrigerator.
Notes
Balls coated with baking cocoa or confectioners’ sugar may need to be coated again before serving.
The balls are best served cold.
U.S. “M2” Money Supply Collapsing Faster than During Great Depression
The supply of physical cash money in circulation inside the United States is collapsing fast than it did during the Great Depression. The chart below, from the Federal Reserve, shows the facts:
It shows M2 money on a year-over-basis is contracting by the most since the 1930s.
M2 is decreasing, every time this happened in the last 150 years there has been a DEPRESSION. Here’s a chart to prove it:
Mind you, the chart above is from MARCH . . . . it’s gotten worse since then!
As cash is taken out of the economy, the economy runs out of steam and stalls . . . fast.
What followed the Great Depression?
What’s going to follow this economic collapse?
If you answered “world war” you’re correct!
We’re being looted.
Over 50% of the money given to Ukraine is unaccounted for, for instance.
This is the looting stage before the country falls. All planned out.
Yes. I was driving my elderly parents to their apartment. My son was in the front seat. I was pulled over for speeding. It was one of those road that went from 45 to 25 without changing the road or the neighborhood. My parents were fighting in the backseat, my son was telling them to please be quiet. The cop said the usual, “do you know why I pulled you over” My reply was just give me the ticket I have to get these two home as they are driving me crazy. He asked me if I’d mind stepping out of the vehicle. I said no I didn’t mind. Anything to get away from them. He then just talked to me. Told me he understood how fighting elderly parents can grate on a person. He asked if I was on the way to the elderly housing which was about 2 miles down the road. I was and acknowledged it. He said just take a couple of deep breaths. I will talk to you till you feel up to being in the vehicle with them. Just do the speed limit, you are almost there. Then go to Culvers and treat yourself and your son. You both could use it. It took me about ten minutes to calm down. My parents were still fighting but I got them home and took my son and I out for ice cream as ordered. No ticket. He did not even ask for my license and registration.
I have the perfect answer whenever anyone insults you.
“You’re right. What’s your point?”
Kills them every time.
Example: I was parked in the very first spot in front of a high school where I would be teaching night school. I had about a half hour before I needed to head in, so I was reading the news on my phone. A sixteen year old chickeeboo tried to back her car enough in front of mine to somehow claim she was parked legally. But most of her car was over the hash marks that indicted a walkway. Also, because she’d parked so tight against my front bumper, I wouldn’t be able to leave without her moving first. So I strolled up to her car and explained she was parked illegally. She could move about twenty feet ahead to the next legal space. I returned to my car to continue reading.
She didn’t move her car. She sat for a while, probably pondering her killer take down, then popped out and approached my car. She indicated I should roll down my window, which I did.
She said, “Your attitude makes you look old!”
Wow! Zinger! Total destruction… except… not.
I gazed at her calmly and said, “I am old. And you’re still parked illegally. Move your car.”
She flounced back to her car. Pondered whether she should try another killer take down. Then she moved her car.
I enjoyed a night of class knowing I could leave whenever I wanted.
Next time someone insults you, try it. It does work. I used it on my MIL until she finally stopped insulting me. And trust me, that was a miracle. She insulted everyone.
I think the little boy in this photograph takes the cake. His name? Henk Heithuis. And I am warning you ahead of time, his story is absolutely gruesome and terrifying. Heithuis was born in the Netherlands in 1935 and placed in the foster system, to be cared for by Catholic priests. Now priests had a tendency of abusing young children under their care, there have been many such cases… but Heithuis was not like most victims… he was about to go public.
Usually, the abuse was quietly pushed aside, shrugged off, swept under the rug. It’s been that way for centuries. Victims stayed quiet out of shame and fear. Not Henk Heithuis. He decided to make a stand. For himself and for all those others he had known who were abused, molested, raped. So he went to the police, and officially accused the priests of sexual abuse. This was revolutionary, and absolutely unheard of in the 1950s!
What Heithuis had not anticipated, is the absolute cruelty and the far-reaching power of the institution he was about to face. Since he was still legally a minor at the time of the abuse, and at the time he made his accusation, Heithuis was still a ward of the state, unable to make his own decisions, the court argued.
He insisted, however, that he was raped.
The priests then came forward and denied this. Instead, they instead, Heithuis was a homosexual boy who had “seduced the priests”, can you imagine their audacity? The young victim vehemently denied the accusations, maintained he had been raped and that he was, in fact, heterosexual — he even had a girlfriend he hoped to marry as soon as he reached the age of maturity.
The church, however, had quite a bit of influence with the courts. They convinced them that Heithuis was, in fact, homosexual. And in the 1950s, homosexuality was still illegal in the now-so-liberal Netherlands. The treatment consisted of either years in an institution, chemical castration, or physical castration… with Heithuis, no rebuttal was allowed, no second opinion considered and no option given — he was to be castrated immediately. Which he was.
They drugged the teenaged abuse victim, drove him to a clinic down South and strapped him to a table where they surgically gelded him. After the operation they kicked him to the curb… Heithuis was broken.
Mentally.
Physically.
He abandoned his friends and his fiancée and became a sailor. He made it as far as Japan, when he broke down and, when on shore leave, found his way to the Dutch embassy. Here, he told his story to a diplomat who took pity on his fate. He even showed his scars, and explained how his hormones were now out of control, his body no longer felt like his and he was suicidal.
“Please tell my story…” Heithuis insisted, “make notes, remember it. They may come for me. They may kill me.”
Surely it wouldn’t be so bad, his friend, Cornelius Rogge, assured him. Surely they would not have him killed. How could they? But Heithuis was sure of it. Arrangements were made with the shipping company to have him brought back home to his country.
When he returned, Heithuis, helped by his friends who knew his story, once again pressed charges. This time for forcible castration, lying about his sexuality and mental health problems as well as slandering his good name. Still a fiery chap, still refusing to surrender, he wanted justice, he wanted his good name restored.
But in 1958, shortly after pressing charges Henk Heithuis got into a car accident and died on the spot.
The police confiscated all his personal belongings and material provided to them by the deceased. All material was destroyed on the day of his death.
Cat love is so strong
Here is one of my MM youtube videos… It only has 6 views. Why?
Originally Answered: As a police officer, who was the most truly evil human you ever encountered?
Midnight in Glasgow, two cops got behind a stolen car and gave chase.
The stolen car weaved about the road to prevent the cop car overtaking. It narrowly missed oncoming vehicles, turned without warning, crossed to the opposite carriage and twice mounted the pavement.
Inevitably, it crashed.
Head on into a parked car.
The officers extricated John, a battered, bruised and belligerent 13-year-old boy from the driver’s seat. They found the car to contain stolen goods from various break-ins.
When the cops took John home to his parents, they discovered that he had been missing for four days. His parents had not been looking for him, they hadn’t even reported him missing.
These are the worst people I came across, the parents who take no interest in the children they bring into this world. The people who don’t care about anyone, even their own offspring.
Within a few years, John found himself incarcerated in a Young Offenders Institution.
As part of a rehabilitation program, they took a group of young offenders to an outward-bound camp. Also attending the camp was a group of special-needs children. They gave each young offender the responsibility of looking after one special-needs child.
After a day spent climbing, one leader found John sitting on his bunk crying.
John spent the day with a kid with Down Syndrome.
He walked with him for miles, made him tea on a burner and shared his sandwiches.
When they got back to camp, as the sun settled behind the horizon, his kid climbed on to John’s lap, put his arms around his neck, hugged him tight and told him, “I love you.”
“No-one ever said that to me before,” John said as he sniffed back his tears.
Given that this is a PhD student, it’s appropriate to talk theory vs. practice.
In theory, she could go to one of the following:
Department chair
Director of graduate studies for the department (or director of the PhD program)
Human resources
In practice, since she has a great deal to lose, I would consider playing a more cautious game. I’m not recommending she do these things instead, but I would recommend considering one or more of them. I’m going to assume her advisor is a “he”, just to simplify writing.
Document everything. If it’s all verbal, that’s fine; she should still note everything that’s happened, with approximate dates and a list of anyone present and/or who might have overheard.
Collect evidence. Even if it’s her emailing you to complain, that shows a paper trail. Obviously, if there’s email, text, voicemail, etc., from her advisor, even if it’s ambiguous, she should collect it.
Find out if the school has an ombudsman. Many schools do. This is a person who has the ability to speak confidentially about anything. Generally speaking, this person is NOT a mandatory reporter, and that shouldn’t apply if he’s simply verbally expressed romantic interest.
Find an employment lawyer. This will probably cost a few hundred bucks on retainer. Yes, I know, broke grad student, but seriously, this is a potential legal nightmare.
What would I do? Obviously, I can only speak hypothetically, but I would probably do all of these things, and quickly, then I’d speak to HR as my first official act involving the school (unless the lawyer advised otherwise, but they won’t). My hope would be that all of this is entirely unnecessary and that he would respond appropriately to “no thanks”, but I think he’s already crossing a line by making romantic overtures to his own PhD student. That’s usually against university rules and always unethical.
EDIT: Saeed Doroudiani makes a good additional point: a sufficiently independent, well-run graduate student union (GSU) can help here, too. However, there are few guarantees with a GSU. With an ombudsman, there’s a guarantee of privacy, and with HR, there’s a guarantee that a policy/procedure will be followed (and that should be publicly available). You could lose control if someone in the GSU chose to share out of turn or to go public, and there are no protections for you. A well-run, independent GSU won’t do this, but there are no guarantees that this is what you have. Get some information before talking to them. At best, they can act as effective advocates, but at worst, they can undermine your (already limited) control of the situation. Thanks, Saeed!
EDIT: If you want a good laugh, look through some of the collapsed comments. There are some great ones. One person accused me of being homophobic for stating my assumption that the offending professor is a man. Another discusses strong personalities but is just a heavily coded, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Actually, on reflection, I don’t recommend reading them, but they’re amusing to me.
What happens when you type incorrectly? You press backspace and retype it again.
This is a stenotype.
A typewriter, used by shorthand writers. Like for example, a journalist typing down a speech. He needs accuracy and speed while typing. He can’t have the politician repeat his words again and again. They have specific set of letters from the above set which have specific meaning. They type that.
(That’s a better view of the keyboard.)
What if they make a mistake? They have a key (the middle key in the original typewriter picture) for space. But where’s the backspace?
Now, modern day texting.
Her: What’s your favorite color?
Me: Ted.
Me: *Red. Stupid autocorrect.
What did I do?
I added an asterisk to correct my mistake.
How did the use of asterisk come up?
Well, it’s a practice by shorthand writers to add an asterisk beside the mistake, to indicate it’s a mistake and correct it later on. That’s how the practice of using an asterisk while texting came up.
All your life has been a lie.
You’d be thanking that asterisk right now for saving you from all those embarrassing autocorrects your phone made. 🙂
I parked in a hospital parking lot, and when I came back to my vehicle, there was this young couple, early twenties having a heated discussion. She wanted him to call a taxi, and drive to a mall and buy a battery. He wanted to call a locksmith. The battery in their key fob was dead, and they couldn’t get the door open. They were getting quite mad at each other, thinking that the others solution was going to cost more and take longer.
I asked them if I could be of assistance, and they both wanted me to explain to the other why their idea sucked.
The guy suggested that maybe I could take the battery out of my fob, and put it in theirs just long enough, for them to open the doors.
I asked to see their key fob, and he handed it to me, thinking I was going to do his suggestion.
I walked to their car, put the key in the lock, and opened the door.
They both were stunned. Saying OMG, how did you do that?
They had never seen a car door opened with a key. I felt really old, and just a little smug.
Why “Nobody” Lives On Australia’s Big Island State: Tasmania
I was living in West Elizabeth, PA. It was a very distressed mobile park complex. The entire community was worn down, poverty stricken, and crime ridden.
At that time, we had our first cat: Samatha Pantha.
Something cool started to happen, a beautiful blue grey Maine Coon, the same age as my kitty started hanging out with my cat.
It was beautiful. And we named it “Blue Thunder”.
…
For the next few months the two cats played and romped about.
One day, some local boys were tying to sic a dog on Blue Thunder, and I saw them under my mobile home trying to attack my cat. I was furious and chased them away.
Three days went by…
No Blue Thunder.
Then one morning, the kitty was on my porch. Someone had shot it with a BB gun…
We took it in the house and tended to it. And all was well.
It was still around us. Our “outside” cat, and not our “inside” cat.
…
Eventually, I got a job in another state. And we had to move.
I wanted to Take Blue Thunder with us, but my wife reasoned “no”. She reasoned was that he would be just fine… alone… outside.
I should have NEVER listened to her.
…
Guys… stick to your guns. If you are dealing with a living, breathing being. Err on the safe, and the protected side of things.
…
I found out later that when the mobile home was being transported, a cat (that obviously must have been Blue Thunder) tumbled out from underneath the mobile home. I don’t know what happened to it, but falling out from a moving vehicle tends to be fatal to little creatures.
I have great regrets about this issue.
I am haunted by my passive actions that led to the demise of others.
…
About six months later, I came across another little kitty. Phelie. The cat that I wrote about in other posts, the one whose mother cat died on the road. And this cat had nearly the same personality that Blue Thunder had.
Maybe he found his way back to me.
Don’t you know.
People, I have many regrets in life. But one of the biggest is going against my CORE BELIEFS because my partner or family member did not realize the value of other creatures. Do not be like me.
Fight the GOOD FIGHT.
Never give up. Stick to your guns. Hold your ground. Be someone that your grandparents would be proud of.
Two police officers with sober faces stared at me and I knew the news couldn’t be good.
They described a car that had just been in an accident, and the license plate. My wife’s mini-van had collided, burst into flames and everyone inside it died.
I’m doing a mental inventory about now. My wife, three children, and two nieces.
My legs turned wobbly. You can’t imagine what was going through my head. Because of the fire, they couldn’t find any useful identification but explained they could identify everyone both by DNA and by dental records. They wanted a DNA sample from me.
I guess they could verify my kids were mine, and that the adult was their mother. A nice, neat little bow.
Can you imagine? They’ve just told you that your whole family is dead, and —- I told them I would come down and give them a sample.
Getting ready to leave, my cell phone is buzzing. It’s my wife. What? Hard tingles are on my spine, like she’s calling from the grave.
“Our van was stolen from the parking lot….”
Were the sweetest words I could’ve ever heard. Yeah it was my wife’s car, but they won’t need any DNA sample from me today.
EDIT – to address some of the mysteries in the comments
I learned later that three people were in the van when it collided. A man, woman, and younger person, which they presumed was a child of the drivers. The police said everyone died, but they had a different human inventory than my own. I also learned they were part of a ring of car thieves, and the accident was not their fault. Another car ran a light and hit them broadside. No fatalities and only minor injuries in the other car.
My wife had organized a birthday outing for our oldest. All the necessary shops, restaurant, and theater were inside the mall. It would be several hours before it was time to leave again. The thieves had plenty of time to get away if they hadn’t been hit.
I have an interesting piece of information which was completely new to me and maybe it is new to many of you too..
Recently, a friend of mine was involved in an accident. He rammed his car behind a truck and the car was completely totaled!
Thankfully, he was wearing his seat belt which initiated the action of airbags and saved his life.
Now comes the part which amazed me. When I saw the pictures of the crash, the speedometer of the car caught my attention.
The speedometer needle was stuck at 90 km/hr. Upon asking some of my acquaintances in the automobile industry, I discovered that this is also a feature, due to which upon impact if the airbags are deployed, then the speedometer needle will be stuck at the speed at which the vehicle is being driven to ease the investigation and further formalities about the accident.
This amazed me as this was quite a useful feature which rarely people know and it will make it much easier to get into depth of the cause of the accident in cars which do not have a dashcam installed, which usually is the case in India.
Hope you were amazed too!
Valiant Thor: A UFO, the Pentagon and a 3-year Mission to Save the World
I have a house for rent in Brownfield, Maine. It’s a tiny vacation house I call the “Schwende Hut” named after a hot dog stand on top of the ski hill Mt Tecumseh in New Hampshire. I found out later that “Schwende Hut” means “Food House” but I think it’s hilarious.
I have been renting the house for almost 20 years to people who like to stay be the weekend, the week, the month or the season. It’s been pretty good.
A few years ago I got call from a woman who wanted to rent for a week. It was the end of the season and I still had that week available so naturally I signed her right up. She moved in on time and all was good. She was rather elderly and I was concerned that she would have a good time.
After a week my cleaner reported to me that she hadn’t left. I went over to see what was going on. Normally guests have to check out by noon so the cleaner can do his work before the next guest arrived. She came to the door but didn’t open it. I asked her what she was doing.
“I live here now,” she said to me, “I’m not leaving.”
I was confused.
“This is a guest house,” I said, “Other guests are going to come.”
“And I’m not paying,” she said obstinately. I was speechless. This had never happened before. I said, “I’ll call the Sheriff.”
“Go ahead,” she said, “Winter is coming. I’m old. They’ll never evict an elderly woman. Good luck.”
What could I do? I had to go consult with my local lawyer.
That night a huge storm came up with violent winds and lots of rain. I couldn’t worry about the old bitch in my house. I had to worry about property damage. Two days later the storm ended. I came through all right with just a few branches down and lots of pine needles everywhere. But there was no power. In Maine the power goes out at least once a week. Trees just fall and take out the lines. After a big storm crews and trucks have to go out and put the lines back up. We get used to seeing the flashing light on our digital clocks in Maine. It tells us that the power was out and we have to throw away most of the food in our fridge.
It took almost a week for the power company to restore power. In the meantime I was worried about the woman who wouldn’t leave my house. What was I going to do with her? The legal moves for getting her out were long, laborious and expensive. Even squatters have rights, it seems. People told me to tell the Sheriff she was dealing drugs and that would get her out fast. Meth is a huge problem in Maine with so much poverty. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. But within a few days of the power being out, she packed up her car and left. With no power, there was no fridge, no stove, no AC, no showers, no toilet, no light. She up and left, The house was a pigsty but at least it was empty.
I installed a power kill in a hidden location under the house. If this happens again I know what I will do now.
In the early 1920s, when the postal service first launched its airmail service, planes could only fly during the day.
It would take three and a half days for a package to make it from New York City to San Francisco, with both airmail and train-travel due to the limitation on flight.
Thus, to solve this problem, Congress funded a transcontinental lighted airway from New York to California.
The airway went through nine different states and consisted of 50-foot steel towers that were rotating spotlights every 10 to 30 miles.
However, since cloudy days sometimes obstructed the view of pilots, giant concrete arrows were constructed on the ground in order to point the plane in the right direction. They were painted yellow to make them easier to see.
The project was called the Transcontinental Airway system and it worked surprisingly well up until the 1940s when the system was dismantled due to advances in aviation technology.
Many of the concrete arrows are still around today, remnants of a time where planes could travel across the country, purely by sight.
During my time in High School, I received a ticket from a police officer who was working a side job as a delivery driver. He accused me of “dumping my clutch” and “doing a burn out of the parking lot.” However, I am currently fighting against these allegations.
When I appeared before the judge, the prosecutor and the police officer were present. The police officer reiterated his observations, and I countered by explaining that I did not perform any clutch dumping or burnout in my 280zx because there was an 8″ gutter separating the street and the sidewalk.
I further argued that performing a burnout in the parking lot would have caused damage to my low-riding Z vehicle. Moreover, when I hit the gutter, my battery came loose, and the positive post made contact with the steel clutch line, resulting in a hole and a loss of fluid, making it impossible to switch gears. The engine sounded loud because the car was in neutral, and I was expecting to shift into second gear.
The police officer should be aware of this situation since he had to call a tow truck to take my car to the garage for repairs. I even provided the receipts as evidence.
The judge then asked me if I worked at the restaurant, to which I replied affirmatively. I mentioned that as a delivery driver, I would be unable to carry out my job without a vehicle. However, the judge questioned how I managed to hit the gutter so hard that it caused my battery to bounce.
I humorously explained that the police officer had walked in front of my car while he was distracted by the attractive rear of my best friend, who happened to be a female. This caused everyone in the courtroom to burst into laughter, including the judge. The police officer became flustered and attempted to speak, but the prosecutor intervened and suggested that the case should be dismissed.
I agreed entirely with the prosecutor’s suggestion but requested that the repair bill be taken care of since it was the fault of the police officer’s negligence while representing the police department that caused the damage.
The judge agreed to dismiss the case, and I was awarded the reimbursement of around $37, which was equivalent to approximately 10 hours of minimum wage back in those days.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my best friend was a female with an attractive figure who enjoyed flaunting it whenever possible. However, everyone else in the courtroom assumed that my best friend was a male.
I was happy at my job, but one day a head hunter called me up, and asked me if I would be interested in interviewing for a job that was a step up, at a rival company.
I hummed and hawed, and thought why not see what I am worth, at the worst I could ask my boss for a raise.
I went to the interview, they were impressed and offered me a job, they wanted to know my current salary, I told them that the salary was only a small part of my pay, as I had a performance bonus that was substantially more than my salary. So I wanted to know what their bonus system was. It was woefully low, compared to my current job, I would get a bonus that was maybe 20 percent of my salary, compared to the 200 percent of the salary I was getting.
To make up for it, they offered me a 20 percent higher salary.
I wont give real numbers, but here is how it would work out.
I was currently getting $1000 in salary, and $2000 in bonus per month, for a total of $3000.
They thought salary was the key, and offered me $1200 in salary and $240 a month in bonus for a total of $1440
Less than half of what I was making, doing a job with less responsibility.
I told them that I wasn’t interested, and they offered to increase it to 30 percent increase in salary. Which would have been just over half of what I was making.
They just kept coming back to salary, and never seemed to grasp how substantial my bonus was.
That was a slap in the face offer.
I of course turned them down.
They went bankrupt 18 months later.
Man Dumps Wife When He Finds Out He Was Her Last Choice
I was working on a power station in Moscow and, for the weekend, went to a small town (Kaluga), two hundred kilometres south-west from the city with a work colleague. Alex.
He had bought some brake shoes for his Russian-made car and was fitting them with his father in their garage that every Russian family has. They are always in a long row of garages some distance from the apartments.
The brake shoes wouldn’t fit due to poor quality manufacturing so he got out an angle grinder and ground the groove in the brake shoe until it fitted.
He said that this was normal in Russia.
He also said that when you bought a new Russian-made car you went to the showroom with a colleague and inspected the car. You would then tell the salesman what was wrong with the car (door does not close, brake pedal is missing rubber, etc.). He would fix it and, when you took it away, you accepted responsibility for all that was wrong.
So if you are planning an expedition to the Arctic don’t get an American or European mechanic to fix stuff en route, get a Russian because they have spent their entire life bodging stuff up with a Swiss army knife and some 14 gauge wire.
Most corporate offices have a “bend don’t break” rule on internet usage.
High achieving professionals don’t want to be micromanaged or watched with suspicion.
Think about it. If you work 40+ hours and are good at your job, it shouldn’t be an issue if you want to check the news or your bank account.
But some people treat their office like an entertainment center, streaming Twitch and YouTube all day.
As a result, HR and IT team up like a Kremlin intelligence agency, looking for any signs of slackers.
The golden snitch sees all. I was walking by one time and this coworker was literally watching a Twitch stream with that lady, Pokimane, as she played video games. This was in the middle of a busy office with people working.
Thirst trapping it on the clock baby. He had quite the audacity.
You can extend this to every stupid hiring practice and office rule. All it takes is one moron and life becomes more annoying for all that follow.
Don’t be the moron behind the stupid rule. If you can help it.
Karma Comes For Disloyal Wife After Husband Admits To Affair With Way Hotter Woman…And She FREAKS!
As a triage nurse in an Emergency Room, there are duties that become mundane but are necessary. One rule we had was that if a pregnant woman approached the check in desk complaining of pregnancy symptoms, the nurse asked how far along they were.
Twenty weeks is the magic number. If they are 20 weeks pregnant the baby has a realistic chance of surviving if delivered. This meant the nurse had to get up and push the patient by wheelchair to Labor and Delivery. It was a big hospital and L&D was on the exact opposite side of the hospital.
If they checked in at the front entrance, security would push them to L&D and the staff there would determine how far along they are and just as the triage nurse in the ER take them by wheelchair to the proper care area.
A pretty good system that had worked for years without incident. Both areas had to push an equal number of patients across the hospital.
And then one day I get a call from the L&D Director.
“We had a patient come in today who says she was told rudely by the ER staff that she was in the wrong place and needed to drive around to the front entrance,” she said.
I neglected to mention that this was a huge hospital that took up 2 city blocks. Crossing the hospital required a 10 min walk through a maze of locked doors and corridors. Driving around required 2 red lights and avoiding a one way street.
“I’ll have to speak to the staff,” I told her, “They know what they’re supposed to do.”
“This girl was 32 weeks and complained of her water breaking,” she continued.
It seemed she was catastrophizing the situation. The staff broke protocol. I will remind them and reiterate the protocol.
“I’ll make sure they understand,” I said.
“Keith, the baby was dead,” she said.
Turns out she was minimizing the episode. The seriousness of the call was not lost on me.
“I am going now to take care of it,” I said, “I am sorry.”
“These people are livid,” she added.
I called the charge nurse and asked who was at triage. Of the two names given, I immediately surmised who the culprit was. Judy was an outspoken nurse who enjoyed sharing her opinion that most of the patients in the ER did not even have an emergency. I went to get her.
“Can you come with me?” I asked.
“Why?” she asked, “Am I in trouble?”
She followed me out into the hallway, and as we walked to my office I asked her, “Did you send a 32 week pregnant patient around to the front?”
“Is that what this is about?” she started, “We are busy and I don’t have time to be pushing people all over the hospital.”
“The baby was dead,” I said, “This is not trivial.”
“That baby was dead before she got here,” she argued, “That has nothing to do with me not pushing her to L&D.”
Stating things that were most likely true did not change facts. She probably was already fired, honestly, but without hesitation I said, “Collect all your stuff and go home.”
“Am I being put on administrative leave because of this crap?”
“Come by my office before you leave,” I said.
While she collected her things, I called Human Resources and made sure I had grounds to terminate. The HR representative agreed to come witness the termination.
“I don’t care what you do,” Judy started as she entered the room. “That baby was already dead.”
“Judy, because of your refusal to follow proper protocol and continued insistence that you have done nothing wrong, you are being terminated. Effective immediately.” Her mouth fell open, and she began to cry. “This is Allison from HR. She can answer any further questions you may have.”
That’s the moment, I think, she finally realized the seriousness of her actions.
Solar storms: more dangerous than you think. Can we survive another Carrington Event?
The Boiling Hot End to a Cook Accused of Poison in Henry VIII’s England
On April 5, 1531, hardened London spectators of public punishment gathered at Smithfield, joined by others who were too curious to stay away. An execution had been announced of a type that none had witnessed in their lifetimes, nor ever heard of. The condemned man, Richard Roose, was to be boiled alive.
Roose was not the sort of criminal that usually met his end at Smithfield, located just beyond the London Wall. He was convicted of high treason, yet he had not sought to harm King Henry VIII nor his queen, Catherine of Aragon, nor any royal councilor. He had not tried to overthrow the kingdom’s government. Roose, a cook, was accused of murder by poison.
His two victims were an obscure gentleman in the household of Bishop John Fisher, Bennet Curwen, and a destitute widow who accepted the bishop’s charity, Alyce Tryppytt. The target of the poisoning was assumed to be Fisher himself, the Bishop of Rochester. Ironically, Fisher did not eat the soup—sometimes described as porridge—that Roose prepared and so was unharmed.
Roose admitted to the poisoning but claimed it was a joke gone wrong, an accident. There is no testimony for us to examine, because Roose had no trial, by command of the king.
In the words of the Greyfriars Chronicle of London, a contemporary document: “This year was a cook boiled in a cauldron in Smithfield for he would have poisoned the bishop of Rochester Fisher with divers of his servants and he was locked in a chain and pulled up and down with a gibbet at divers times until he was dead.”
Roose’s crime, the legal method of his condemnation, and finally the form of punishment create a bizarre chain of events that, in a more modern age, might well have raised questions of motive in several parties, including that of Henry VIII. Although there is no question of who did the killing, this is still a tantalizing Tudor murder mystery, and reveals some of the peculiarities of the early modern age, when laws existed and homicide was considered a heinous crime, but there was no trained police force nor forensic science.
Why did Henry VIII demand this punishment of a lowly cook? Why was Roose executed as a traitor when his crime was murder of commoners? The answer lies in the King’s complex feelings for Bishop Fisher.
John Fisher was made bishop of Rochester by the King’s father, Henry VII, in 1504. Fisher performed the funeral services for Margaret Beaufort, the king’s mother, and Henry VII himself when they died, within months of each other, in 1509. In the first 20 years of the reign of Henry VIII, Fisher was considered “the greatest Catholic theologian in Europe, without any rival,” writes Eamon Duffy.
But by the time of the crime in question, King Henry was no longer proud of Bishop Fisher, 62 years of age. It would be safe to say he considered him an enemy. And it would have made the King’s life much easier if Fisher had lost his—if he had consumed the soup.
In 1527, when Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, began his public quest for an annulment from 42-year-old Catherine of Aragon to marry the delectable young Anne Boleyn, Fisher became one of his most serious obstacles. The question of the royal marriage was a theological one, and if Europe’s most respected theologian had agreed in the rightness of King Henry’s cause, it would have done a lot to bring about the annulment. But Fisher took the side of Catherine of Aragon. The marriage was legal and could not be dissolved.
In 1529, Bishop Fisher announced at the trial of the royal marriage that it would impossible to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage, as John the Baptist did. In that same year, when a proposal came to Parliament to dissolve the smaller abbeys—the beginning of Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries—Fisher “openly resisted it with all the force he could.”
Enter one Richard Roose. One of Fisher’s earliest biographers, Richard Hall, wrote in 1655 the most complete account of the poisoning. He is the only source to say that Roose was not the chief cook in Fisher’s household, which is significant: “After this the Bishop escaped a very great danger. For one Richard Rose came into the Bishop’s kitchen, being acquainted with the cook, at his house in Lambeth-marsh, and having provided a quantity of deadly poison, while the cook went into the buttery to fetch him some drink, he took his opportunity to throw that poison into a mess of gruel, which was prepared for the Bishop’s dinner. And after he had waited there a while, he went on his way.
“But so it happened that when the Bishop was called into his dinner, he had no appetite for any meat but wished his servants to fall to and be of good cheer, and that he would not eat till toward night. And they that did eat of the poisoned dish were miserably infected. And whereof one gentleman, named Mr. Bennet Curwen and an old widow, died suddenly, and the rest never recovered their health till their dying day.”
An inquiry began at once. Although a salaried police force did not yet exist in England, criminal investigation was taken seriously. Justices of the peace, appointed by the monarch, received and investigated complaints; coroners viewed dead bodies and ordered arrests. Now if a suspect was bound over for trial, freedom was unlikely. Defendants charged with felonies or treason did not exist. In fact, murder trials rarely lasted more than 15 minutes.
Roose was soon apprehended, and admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the soup as a “jest.” No one believed him. The always skeptical Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of events to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon:
“They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested… confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose.”
We share Chapuys’ frustration. Who gave the cook these powders and told him that they would sicken and not kill anyone? If that information was obtained, it was not shared with the public. No transparency.
Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, informed Henry VIII that there were rumors that Anne Boleyn and her father and brother, Thomas and George Boleyn, were involved in the poisoning attempt. The king reacted angrily, saying Anne Boleyn was unfairly blamed for everything, including bad weather.
The murder motive and the question of a larger plot were soon obscured by Henry VIII’s drastic actions. He decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial—a measure usually used for criminals who were at large. Roose was sitting in prison! Nonetheless, Parliament passed “An Acte for Poysoning,” making willful murder by means of poison high treason even if the victim was not head of the government of the land. And boiling to death became a form of legal capital punishment. This crime was especially heinous, the king’s representatives said, and thus called for such measures.
Several biographers have noted King Henry’s extreme fear of poison. Although the monarch’s paranoia became infamous in later years, there was some basis for concern. Everyone had heard the stories of murder by cantarella in Rome during the time of the Borgias. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, died—perhaps of poison slipped into his food at a banquet—during the reign of Henry VII. Cantarella was believed to have been arsenic trioxide.
If poison was ever suspected as the cause of death at this time in England, there was no way to scrutinize its damage within the corpse to confirm. And should the poison itself be obtained, the field of analytical chemistry was four centuries away.
Not surprisingly, rumors ran wild. Poisoning was rumored (never proven) to be the cause of the deaths of Queen Anne, Richard III’s wife; the eventual death of Catherine of Aragon; and the agonizing death of Henry’s son, Edward VI. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written in the reign of Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, employed poison. Shakespeare wove it into five other plays too.
But there was more to this than royal terror of a poisoned dish. As historian K.J. Kesselring wrote in The English Historical Review, “This may explain the severe, exemplary punishment of boiling, but not the need to label the offense treason.”
In April the crowds of Smithfield witnessed Roose’s death. According to an eyewitness: “He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.”
The story of the king and the stubborn bishop doesn’t end there.
When, after the king married Anne Boleyn, Bishop Fisher refused to swear an oath of supremacy to the king, he was arrested. The pope made Fisher a cardinal to protect him, but it only enraged the king more. Once the monarch had ordered a savage punishment of the man who tried to kill Fisher, and now Henry VIII wanted Fisher gone.
After a difficult imprisonment, Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535 on Tower Hill. The crowd gasped when they saw him on the scaffold for he was “nothing…but skin and bones…the flesh clean wasted away, and a very image of death.” In his speech to the crowd, Fisher is said to have shown a calm dignity.
According to Fisher’s biographer: “And here I cannot omit to declare to you the miraculous sight of his head, which after 14 days grew fresher and fresher, for that in his lifetime he never looked so well…. the face looked as if it beholdeth the people passing by and would have spoken to them. Which many took as a miracle.”
In 1886, the Catholic Church made John Fisher a saint.
Accepting Defeat In Ukraine
In early November the Economistpublished an interview and several pieces by the commander in chief of the Ukrainian army, General Zaluzny. As I summarized:
Zaluzny’s central thesis is that the war is currently at a stalemate. It has become positional, with no large maneuvers being possible. He compares it to the war in Europe in 1917. There, he says, a change only happened through the introduction of new technologies (i.e. tanks). … I for one think that Zaluzny is mistaken. The war is not at a stalemate. Russia has clearly the advantage as it is free to maneuver along the whole frontline and to attack wherever it likes. It does not do so in full force because the current situation allows it to conveniently fulfill the order its commander in chief had given to it – to destroy the military capabilities of Ukraine.
Finally a western mainstream writer has caught up with those facts. Lee Hockstader, the Washington Post‘s columnist for European affairs, opines:
Hockstader laments the lack of support from the U.S. and Europe for the new demands the Ukraine is making. He states:
Without those infusions of cash, arms and munitions, even the disappointing status quo over the past year, in which Ukraine has not managed to recapture much territory, is unlikely to endure.
Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told a Washington forum last week that the “big risk” is that Kyiv’s troops could “lose this war.”
That message should jolt policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic. The danger, as Ukraine’s top general warned publicly last month, isn’t simply stalemate. It is that Ukrainian forces, running low on equipment, might be compelled to fall back, shorten their defensive lines and abandon territory. … It’s essential to think about what Ukraine’s defeat means, because it would be as much a strategic disaster for the United States and its NATO allies as a tableau of terror for Ukraine. Dual cataclysms, equally stark, played out on different timetables.
Well, yes. The West has shot its wad and it proved to be sterile.
There will be no terror for Ukraine, just the loss of the ethnic Russian people, industries and land the communist – Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev – had for whatever reasons attached to it. The rest of it will be a smaller, more poor and purely agricultural rump state without access to the sea. This was obvious from the very beginning to anyone with a clear view of the balance of the forces involved in the war.
As I wrote on February 24 2022, the very day Russian forces entered Ukraine:
Looking at this map I believe that the most advantageous end state for Russia would be the creation of a new independent country, call it Novorussiya, on the land east of the Dnieper and south along the coast that holds a majority ethnic Russian population and that, in 1922, had been attached to the Ukraine by Lenin. That state would be politically, culturally and militarily aligned with Russia.
This would eliminate Ukrainian access to the Black Sea and create a land bridge towards the Moldavian breakaway Transnistria which is under Russian protection.
Excursus:
The yellow part of that map marked ‘Ukraine in 1654’ was actually the land of the Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks. Under threat from the Catholic Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, which at the time held the green parts under serfdom, they negotiated the Pereiaslav Agreement (1654) with Russia and pledged allegiance to the Tsar. They area thus became an autonomous part of Russia.
End Excursus
The rest of the Ukraine would be a land confined, mostly agricultural state, disarmed and too poor to be build up to a new threat to Russia anytime soon. Politically it would be dominated by fascists from Galicia which would then become a major problem for the European Union.
Thanks to Stalin’s additions to the Ukraine three countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania, have claims to certain areas in the Ukraine’s western regions. If they want to snatch those up again it is now probably the best time to do so. Despite being part of NATO, which likely would not support such moves, those three will have domestic policy difficulties to withstand the urge.
Since then we learned that Novorussiya will not be an independent state but a genuine part of Russia. So be it. Meanwhile analysts like Hockstader still delve in fantasies:
A complete Ukrainian military collapse is unlikely, at least in coming months. Kyiv’s armed forces remain well-led and motivated, and they are husbanding equipment to prepare for shortfalls. But it is equally unlikely to expect a negotiated cease-fire with Russia that would maintain existing battle lines. To believe in that seemingly anodyne outcome is to misjudge Putin — again.
This is not misjudging Putin, but misjudging the capabilities left to Ukraine.
It has run out of men and material. There are daily videos of this or that Ukrainian army unit condemning its leaders and announcing to leave its positions. The potential of a collapse of Ukrainian army is real.
During the last days tanks from the 47th brigade (Leo 2) and 10th mountain brigade (T-64BM/BV) have been seen, and were destroyed, near Avdiivka. Both brigades had only recently been mauled during their hopeless attacks at the southern front. It does not make sense to throw what is left of them into another battle without reconstituting them. The whole experience and knowledge these brigades had gained will be lost with them.
Yesterday, the Ukraine friendly Military Watch Magazine confirmed my opinion:
The Ukrainian Army’s elite 47th Mechanised Brigade stationed in the town of Avdiivka in the disputed Donetsk region has been surrounded and forced to contend with growing ammunition shortages, according to multiple reports from Ukrainian and Western sources. British reports indicate that the brigade was meant to attack a Russian column before it linked up with assault infantry on the northern flank of Avdievka, but failed to do so due to a lack of ammunition. The brigade’s efforts to stop the advance of Russian forces in Avdievka were described by The Times as “desperate,” fuelling perceptions of an “inevitable collapse” of Ukrainian positions, and diminished hope of preventing a Russian victory by the beginning of the New Year holidays. … A serviceman from the 47th Brigade, cited only as Sergeant Danylo, observing when interviewed over the past week “a shitty situation” as the shell shortage forced soldiers to make impossible life-and-death decisions.“We had 10 times more ammunition over summer, and better quality… American rounds come in batches of almost identical weights, which makes it easier to correct fire, with very few duds. Now we have shells from all over the world with different qualities, and we only get 15 for three days. Last week we got a batch full of duds.” Thus instead of firing on Russians as soon as they came within range, Ukrainian personnel increasingly had to wait to be sure the Russians were heading for their positions and to only engage large groups. Munitions produced by European states have very frequently been faulted for their quality, and at times been considered near useless, with Italian equipment being particularly notorious for its poor quality, in contrast to superior equipment either inherited from the Soviet era or produced in by the United States.
Now tell me again that these are “well-led and motivated” forces which are “husbanding equipment to prepare for shortfalls”. Neither rings true to me.
For the Kremlin dictator, a “compromise” would involve Ukraine’s subjugation and dissolution as an independent state. That would include regime change, with Zelensky in exile (or dead), as well as an end to Kyiv’s aspirations to join the E.U. or NATO. … If he is right, the timetable of that ending would be accelerated if Congress and the E.U. fail to approve fresh support. That would leave Ukraine’s government unable to maintain basic services, and its military increasingly short of artillery ammunition, air defense capability and other equipment. Ukraine’s already badly battered front-line forces would become more brittle. Russian territorial gains would be accompanied by murders, rapes, kidnapping of children and other Russian war crimes on a chilling scale.
That grim scenario would be a staggering blow to Western prestige and credibility, revealing that pledges to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” were empty.
Amid a Republican standoff and polarizing politics that puts new aid to Ukraine at risk, President Joe Biden emphasized his administration’s willingness to support Ukraine, but the language was different. He said the US will be there for Kyiv “as long as we can.”
It’s a change in tune from previous messaging that the US would be a staunch and fierce ally to Ukraine, aiding it for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia’s invasion.
The West can no longer support the proxy war it had started.
History will now follow its destined path.
Posted by b on December 14, 2023 at 10:59 UTC | Permalink
VIDEO: Ukraine Deputy Detonates THREE Grenades in Council Meeting
Reports and video are coming in from what is described as a local Council Meeting in Ukraine, where a Deputy pulled pins on THREE Grenades and tossed them throughout the meeting, causing three explosions, the final one likely killing the Deputy who threw them.
Video of the incident appears below and — WARNING — it shows pretty much everything.
The Deputy walks into the meeting room and closes the door behind him. He stands at the closed door. An argument is ongoing at the meeting and the Deputy tries to intervene, to no avail. With that, he pulls a grenade from his suit pocket, pulls the pin and tosses it. He then takes out another and repeats the process. He then pulls out a third grenade and apparently holds onto it after pulling the pin; perhaps to intentionally kill himself.
At this point, the name of the Deputy is not clear, and the type and location of the meeting is also not known.
What __is__ known is that numerous people in the tiny meeting room were either killed or injured seriously.
RUMORS abound over this incident, and several of the RUMORS claim the meeting was for people who want Ukraine to surrender and make peace with Russia.
WARNING: Graphic Video of three grenades exploding in a small council meeting room. Viewer discretion is advised:
DAMN! -MM
MM version of the video in MP4 format. Worth a watch. HERE.
43 Year Old Admits “The Movement” Is BS And Being A Carousel Rider Is NOT Empowering!
My son, who is mixed race, told me that another boy at school was calling him names and throwing lighted matches at him – some of which could have burned his clothing with dire results. I called the police. They sent a very large and imposing officer who told us “I’ll take care of this”, invited my eight year old son into the back of the police car and drove him to school – opening the door for him and escorting him to the principal’s office to deal with the culprit. My son was thrilled that he was the talk of the school for arriving in a police car and the bully was suitably scared out of his wits enough to never try such a thing again.
Global Supplier of Crucial Electrical Products Announces 20 Week DELAY in most-important parts!
SCHNEIDER Electric is the second largest manufacturer of electrical components in the world. The things they make are absolutely crucial to our daily lives: Crucial electrical infrastructure, industrial automation, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s), etc. Without __any__warning, SCHNEIDER announced to its partners in the US . . .
. . . a TWENTY-WEEK DELAY for “Engineered-to-Order (ETO)” products for Quarter 1 next year! That’s almost a half a year delay ! ! ! ! !
Folks, ETO projects are major private and public infrastructure, power grids, etc. The grids are not readily able to deal with this kind of manufacturing delay.
Even more ominous, this ETO equipment, is the same gear the FBI recently issued warnings over, for expected CYBER-ATTACKS!
So FBI is warning about Cyber-Attacks targeting ETO gear like PLC’s and now, the second largest manufacturer of these exact components, is announcing twenty week delays for Q1 orders!
One industry insider told me “The reason this is so weird is this company is very good at planning. They supply billions of $ in critical components. They aren’t perfect but they usually have a plan when they announce something like this. Not this time. The plans behind the announcement letter (shown below) are very shallow. They got the note out WAY before anyone on their teams knew what is going on. MANY questions with no answers. That is very weird.” Here is the SCHNEIDER Letter to Partners in the USA:
His remark got me thinking: WHY?
Could it __really be__ that they simply cannot get parts via the supply chain, OR . . . is this wait and hold critical infrastructure so you can step in and replace damaged infrastructure after attacks happen? Is another possibility Critical redesign? Did they find holes in security and need to redesign . . . . and will stop projects to push an updated design out?
And if they are THAT confident that attacks are going to happen, then one wonders how it is they know? Did FBI tell them?
Over the past several weeks, media outlets have carried 24 assorted local stories about 24 sites that have been hacked. The ones discussed publicly are Hawaii water systems, Texas power grid, and west coast water systems near ports. All areas that will be critical to weaken for an invasion or conflict. Near borders.
War Preparation?
Preparations for a world War are clearly taking place in very many countries around the world.
For the first time, US citizens are likely to see the direct consequences of war on our own soil.
If people spent more time following world events and wars without being clouded by their own “normalcy bias,” they could piece together what is likely to happen.
In Ukraine, Russia crippled their power grid and attacked their ability to make the tools of war. Most all war materials have to come from outside.
Now imagine Russia striking US infrastructure and OUR ability to make tools of war . . . when our stockpiles have already been depleted by Ukraine.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Israel is toast without US arms support.
But, what is most concerning to me is that the US has made no real efforts to truly ramp up production of war materials. Lots of talk, very little tangible action.
It’s like the US is planning on just going straight to nuclear. But Russian Air defense systems are proven best in the world and their likelihood of survival is much higher than the US.
Contacts I have from my years in the Intelligence Community are telling me the US is too corrupted to survive what is coming.
But real companies with very smart people with analysists with real MBA’s see what is coming and are preparing.
The Intel guys I’ve talked to tell me bluntly: “USA has never been weaker than it is right now.”
I don’t know how it’s going to play out exactly but this is the most dangerous time we have been in up to this point in human history.
One would be very wise to put the pieces together and be willing to make the very hard decision on what is required to survive it.
Because another source (unverified) told me there are currently ~35,000 terrorists in country awaiting a go signal.
Imagine an Oct. 7th style attack all over the US, if all 35,000 operatives struck at once . . . as the much smaller cells did in the ‘Day of Wrath” that hit Israel.
Oh, and don’t forget that several months ago, we all found out there is also 60,000 lbs. of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that was taken off a train in Southern California, that has never been accounted for. Ammonium Nitrate is what Timothy McVeigh used to construct the truck bomb that detonated outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. That bomb was reported to be only 4500 pounds. So the amount of Ammonium Nitrate already missing, could make more than TEN such bombs.
This isn’t a tall tale… I once saw 3 guys in a pub start a fight with a bloke I worked with who’d been a pikey bare-knuckle boxer. My mate’s dad had forced him into fighting for money when he was a kid, but in his 20s he’d met a lass and decided he wanted a normal life so he walked away from his gypsy family, got a job and a house, and settled down. He was a really nice guy, a proper grafter, and good to talk to — he had a real philosophy about him and always gave great advice if you had any problems. He didn’t talk much about his old life, just every now and then he’d maybe open up a bit about how he’d hated it and couldn’t forgive his dad who’d beaten him if he didn’t fight and beaten him if he’d lost. None of what he said was bullshit, he was a sincere, honest guy who you could see had been in a lot of fights and just wanted some peace and quiet. He was also a really good husband and father, he was absolutely determined not to repeat the mistakes.
We were on a job in London, went out after work one night, and three locals did the old “you spilled my drink” routine on him. He tried apologising but one of them shoved him. I was sat at a table facing it and before I could even react, all three guys were dropping and he was stepping away. If you’ve ever seen a tarantula move faster than you blink, it was like that. Afterwards he said one of the things you learn as a bare-knuckle fighter is where and what angle to hit people.
Trades are valuable
Braised Beef, Shanxi Style
Ingredients
1 pound (400g) lean boneless beef
1/2 g fennel seed
10 teaspoons (50ml) soy sauce
3 1/2 ounces (100ml) chicken or duck broth
4 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour), dissolved in 4 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons rice wine
3 ounces (100g) scallions, chopped
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped
3 1/2 fluid ounces (100ml) sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon MSG (optional)
Instructions
Wash the beef and cut into thin slices. Mix with the soy sauce and scallions.
Stir the cornstarch-water mixture and add.
Heat the sesame oil in a work add the fennel seeds. Heat to very hot or until the oil starts to smoke, and add the beef. Stir-fry until barely cooked.
Add the stock, rice wine and MSG (optional). Cover the wok, and boil rapidly for 1 minute.
When Chinese people get old, they hang out in the park. They form musical bands, dancing troupes, and gaming rings. They practice taichi for exercise and some even swing swords around. Many practice calligraphy on the pavement with a brush and a jug of water.
Charming, right? I really like the sense of community between old people in China. Getting old doesn’t mean you can’t share hobbies with friends.
Now, of course this only refers to the old people lucky enough to have money saved up to provide for themselves or kids that help support them, but that’s a topic for another time. For now I’d like to keep this answer wholesome. 🙂 Happy Saturday everyone~
While serving as a detective, in Shetland, I received a notification that paramedics were attending a stabbing incident, in Scalloway harbour. The victim was fading fast, we were told. My colleague and I made our way there, some 5 miles from our offices, in Lerwick. We arrived quickly and paramedics rolled up at almost the same instant we did.
While they attended to the victim, who had been on board a yacht, moored in the harbour, one of them confirmed that it was likely to be life-threatening, and a witness stated that an older man and a youth had left the area, hurriedly, just before the victim had been found. We were given a very brief description and I recognised it as fitting two males, who I had seen walking away from the harbour area, as we had arrived. I passed a description of the men, and we checked the streets of the small village, without success. We returned to the seafront, where I wanted to check inside a local hostelry, just as the two walked out, having removed their jackets and hat (in the case of the younger man). I spoke to them both and they identified themselves as New Zealand nationals, a “respectable businessman” and his son, who were visiting Shetland on business. The son – still a teenager – looked like he wanted to throw up, but his Dad appeared entirely calm and unruffled, as if he had not a single care in the world.
I detained both men, on suspicion of aggravated assault, and – to much protest from them both – arranged to have them conveyed back to the station, separately, for later questioning and investigation. Having done so, we returned to the harbour, where the paramedics had realised the victim was suffering a single penetrating stab wound to the chest, which had caused a tension pneumothorax. They had aspirated him, with a needle and were conveying him to the local hospital, for urgent and critical procedures. We were advised he was not stable, at that time, having lost a lot of blood.
The victim was identified to us as a German national, and yachtsman, resident in Shetland, while the suspect was identified as being the older Kiwi.
We returned to the station, where the custody sergeant informed me that the older suspect had just volunteered under caution, during his detention process, that the German had been drunk and had attacked him with a filleting knife. There had been a struggle and Dad alleged that his son had grabbed the knife off the man, accidentally stabbing the victim with it. He would say no more (having blamed his own son, the brave soul that he was).
The son had made no comments, but had appeared stunned, the sergeant said.
I interviewed both, separately, as I was the senior – and more experienced – detective present, albeit only a Detective Constable, myself. This was, by now, an attempt murder enquiry, plus I was the better interviewer. Dad spent 45 minutes saying, “no comment” to every single question put to him, relating to the incident. He still appeared as unruffled and calm as if he was out for a Sunday stroll, showed no stress, no discomfort, and still claimed to be a respectable New Zealand businessman. Other than that, “no comment”.
The son said he was in Shetland with his Dad, who wanted to see about buying up an old inter-island ferry boat, which was being sold off. He told us that Dad had sailed around the world, many times, and knew that if a boat could handle the seas around Shetland, in a harsh winter, it could pretty much handle the seas anywhere else in the world, at their worst. He said Dad’s was a tourist-derived business, but declined further comment, when asked for more details – about anything else.
We were a small department – a detective sergeant and then two detective constables (a third was on annual leave), with five uniformed officers then on shift, all with their own duties. But as this was an attempted murder, we could direct them, in assisting us with our enquiries. Their interviews turned up some more details – the yacht was owned by Dad, but the German had arrived in Shetland, having sailed the yacht there, months earlier. Dad had arrived in mainland Scotland, and then onto Shetland, only days earlier, with his son in tow. He had spent time in the company of some locals, who had said he had shown “a nasty temper” and they “wouldn’t want to mess with him”.
So I went back into interview, with Dad. He was irked by this, now slightly testy and refusing to answer any question with anything other than “no comment”. I told him he was perfectly entitled to do so, however it wouldn’t stop me asking my questions. He grew louder and louder in his, by now, yelled, “no comment!” to every question and I could see I was getting to him. So I took another break, as we had now gone through another 45 minute tape.
I brought his son back in, put Dad in to his cell, and let them see one another – just a glimpse of son being led out, as Dad was placed in the cell. Dad started screaming at his son, “No comment, boy! You make no fucking comment!”
I told the son, honestly, that his father had already made a voluntary statement under caution, blaming him (the son) for the stabbing. I told this terrified 17 year old that the German was in surgery and still might not make it out, alive. In which case, with the absence of any further information, it was Dad’s word, weighed against his own son’s silence, that son was responsible. If he did not make any comment, at this time, his father’s account would be accepted, son would be arrested – either for attempted or actual murder (if the victim expired as a result of his injury) – and face the consequences. He would be unlikely to receive bail for such an offence and so would be held in custody, in prison, until such time as a trial would commence.
That was it. Son puked in the wastepaper basket and started crying. He immediately denied having stabbed anyone. He made plenty comments, thereafter. In fact, he said Dad and the German knew one another for years. The yacht was owned by Dad, although used by the German. The two men had argued, while they were all drinking onboard the yacht, about money owed the father, which Dad said the German was ripping off from him. This has escalated, the two had fought and Dad had grabbed up a knife, from the galley kitchen area . The German fell, son realised his father had stabbed the man, and then he and his Dad hurriedly left the yacht, his father disposing of the knife overboard, into the relatively shallow harbour waters.
Having received this information, I tasked a police unit to return to the harbour and see if the knife could be seen, and put into motion a request for a diving team, via my supervisor – a Detective Inspector 300 miles away, in Inverness. The uniformed cops thought they could see the knife, but would need the divers, to be sure.
I advised our local Procurator Fiscal Depute, of the case, and enquiries up to that point. He told me that, even if Dad copped to the stabbing, unless there was something else there, that could be evidenced, this “businessman” would be bailed, come Monday morning (this was now tea-time, Friday night). If I could arrest him, I had a weekend, no longer, to hold him in custody.
I told him that what bothered me was this guy was unfazed by having almost killed a man. He never even asked how the man – an alleged old friend – was doing, or showed any concern or regret. There was…. nothing. “He is too cool”, I told the Fiscal. “This guy makes the skin between my shoulder blades itch. He is dangerous.”
“Prove it”, I was told.
The hospital came on, to say the German had pulled through, but the stab wound was deep, and either well placed or accidentally almost-lucky, as it had just missed his heart, nicking his vena cava, instead.
Now, when I said this guy bothered me, I mean he really, really bothered me.
So I went back into interview with him, and took him for one of my “walks around the houses”, as an old colleague used to call them. Seeming unassociated chat and questions, almost like a free flow of investigative consciousness – of which I took a careful note, of course. Early on, he was testy. Then he became narked, yelling his “No comment! No comment!” again, to anything and everything I said. When I started talking about his business – I had Googled his given address, he got antsy and even more angry. He ended up yelling at my colleague, “Can you not make him shut! The fuck! UP!!” I was all sweetness and light, still talking about New Zealand, tourism and his business, as if I hadn’t heard. He put his head in his hands and at that point, I asked him why he had stabbed his friend, who was alive and now recovering. His head shot up and he went very still and didn’t answer – which I pointed out, for the tape, describing his demeanour for purposes of the recording. I asked why they had been arguing, and if Dad owned the yacht. He didn’t answer and I pointed this out, again, with his demeanour. I asked why he had wanted his son to take the blame. Same response. I asked why he had thrown the knife overboard and the skin around his weatherbeaten eyes went very white. I told him we had divers coming for the knife, that he was staying all weekend and that we would be talking again. He tried, unsuccessfully, to upend the table, at that point, lunging to his feet, face now stark white, other than two red spots on his cheeks. He whispered, surprisingly calmly, “I could kill you.” I repeated that statement, for the benefit of the tape. I think he recognised that as a mistake.
I spent three hours of my own time, after knocking-off time, that night, open source-searching this guy, on my work computer. He had an unusual name, and I used it in connection with “New Zealand” “kiwi” “yachtsman” “sailor” “round the world” and similar phrases.
Finally, I got a hit, and it was a good one. It was a front page story in a south east-Asian newspaper, about a corrupt justice minister who had been arrested and tried, having been taped, several years previously, whilst in a three-way call between the suspected head of the world’s largest Triad gang (no, really!), and a New Zealand drug dealer. The NZ dealer had also served time in an American federal penitentiary, it seemed, having once sailed a yacht packed with drugs into a harbour, there, and straight into the arms of US Customs. The reports said he was now (at time of publishing) linked to this Triad gang and the world’s largest “Shabu” factory, believed to somewhere in or around the Philippines. “Shabu” is how they refer to Crystal Meth, down there.
Real “I am the one who knocks!” material (no, really!)
I spoke to the PF Depute, at his home (before finally heading off to my own home), to be told that he would try and use this to hold Dad, in custody, as a flight risk, and was fairly certain he could get at least two weeks on a “lie-down”, out of it. He went on that I should get Dad’s prints off to our Interpol liaison, ASAP, with a request to have them prioritised. I had already done so, but was advised it would take at least three weeks for any hit to come back. Meantime, he was still a “respectable NZ businessman”, newspaper article aside.
I went home, head whirring but knackered. Three and a bit scant hours later, I was awoken by an urgent call from Force HQ, on my mobile, telling me that I had to be at my office desk within 30 minutes, as a call would be coming in for me. I asked if a message could be taken and the Detective Sergeant at the other end – our Force Intelligence Officer – laughed and said absolutely not. He had been woken up in the night, for this, and so I could face the same fate! He wouldn’t say any more, so I dressed and made my rather bleary way into the station, and my office.
Sure enough, almost bang on the hour, my phone rang. “Call for you”, said our unnaturally cheery Force Intel Officer, and with that, I found myself suddenly talking to a rough-voiced, blunt-spoken (i.e. he swore a lot) Australian gentleman, who identified himself as a Detective Superintendent in an international task force. He asked if I had (insert name of Dad, here) in custody. I confirmed that I had. He asked what for and I told him I planned on reporting Dad for attempted murder. He paused to yell, off-handset, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!” then asked if it was “a good one”. I told him I believed it would be. I explained about the stabbing, about the son, the German, the yacht, the alleged “rip-off”, and that got him excited. He asked me to wait one, and I heard him yell out that he had a cop in “Shetland?”, (I confirmed this and next heard him cry, “Will some bastard find me Shetland on a fucking map!”) on the phone and this “inspector” had (insert Dad’s full name here) in custody, on an attempted murder – a stabbing, no less. There were a few more yells and swears, in the background, and he told me the prints had been flagged, and he had been notified of a hit, in Scotland, of all places. He explained they had been tracking Crystal Meth, arms and even people, all being smuggled out of SE Asia, into Australasia. His main target was a big-time Bad Man (with capitals), in Australia, but Dad was the means by which the drugs and other items were believed to be shipped there. He explained this guy, Dad, travelled around, using his sailing prowess – he was a genuine former competitive yachtsman – to buy up suitable boats. These were used to ship their cargos to their destinations. He told me that Dad had been implicated in several murders, directly, by witnesses – former colleagues in his ventures – always with a knife. He liked to get “up close and personal”, while dealing with these “rats”, having been in the military, once upon a time and even lied to underlings about being ex-Special Forces, to boost his legend. Upward rising knife thrust to the heart (missing the ribs), with a long thin blade, was his alleged preferred killing stroke. Unfortunately, any and all witnesses had subsequently disappeared. The task force believed Dad had either killed them, or else had them killed. “Watch your witness”, he warned me. He promised I would have an Intel file, via our Force Intel Officer, within 24 hours, for our Fiscal and the Crown Office. Their difficulty had been in identifying his travel. They had his NZ passport flagged, but there was no record of him having left the country, in years, other than the odd short trip once or twice. I asked about his Panamanian passport and, again, he went quiet. “His WHAT?!” I explained that I had noticed, at the custody bar, while his belongings were being processed, that he had two passports – one from NZ, one from Panama. I knew that, at that time, it was possible to effectively buy a Panamanian passport, if you had business registered there, sufficient capital and enough connections. This gave Dad dual nationality and, from his reaction, it seemed that the task force didn’t know about it. “Do you have it?” he asked, excitedly. “Yes, but it’s sealed in his belongings and can’t be opened unless he is present, without lawful authority”. He swore profusely until I told him I had photocopied both passports and their contents, in case they’d come in useful. He was fairly chuffed, by this, and when I read off some of the travel dates and destinations, he was even more so.
I arranged to send him all I had, in return for everything they had. He ended the call by telling me that I might even get a promotion to Chief Inspector out of this. I told him that might not be that likely, as I was a Detective Constable. He wouldn’t believe me, so I told him my details would be on the email, when he got it all. He ended by saying that Dad was number 6 on their 10 Most Wanted list, at that time, in Australasia, while his Aussie counterpart was #2. I told him I’d take 6 of 10, by their standards!
Anyway, I re-interviewed Dad, who was fairly crestfallen that NZ had been in touch, already. He hurriedly amended his story, alleging self-defence, but it was too late. He appeared in court, both passports were seized and he was placed in prison on that 14 day “lie-down”, while I carried out further enquiries.
And then…
He had the German “helped” out of the hospital and off the island, by two large men, posing as cops, to hospital staff, while Dad was on his “lie-down”, awaiting his first diet at court. We checked plane and ferry terminals (benefits of an island) and then passed info and photos, from ferry CCTV, to mainland police, who identified a hire vehicle, just too late to stop them leaving. The licence plate went into the National ANPR system and it was tracked headed for Newcastle and the international ferry to Holland, there. The German was retrieved, safe and well, and went on record, claiming that the two men had plastic sheeting and shovels in the hire car (they did) and had planned on killing him and burying his body over there, before returning, one man lighter.
We couldn’t pin that on Dad, as the two men wouldn’t cough to it, and the German wouldn’t press it, simply relieved to be “home”. He gave evidence against Dad, and then buggered off, sharpish. Never saw him again.
Dad got 3 and a half years for assault to severe injury, and I got a call from Force Intel, months later, that his calls were being intercepted (lawfully) and in one of those, he had asked an unknown male how much trouble it would cause, and how much it would cost, to “off a cop”. He had been advised against it.
That was the one and only time I worried about one of those clowns who swear they will find you and kill you….
So I repaid the favour, by continuing to keep in touch with my Australasian friends. They arranged for him to be met at the prison gates, on the day of his release, by plainclothes Officers, cuffed and conveyed to London. He was furious, as he expected to be free and clear to carry on about his business. They handed him off to New Zealand cops, who flew him home and locked him up. Turns out his wife/partner was an illegal immigrant and he was abusive towards her, and their son (who she now knew had been implicated in the stabbing, by his own Dad). The authorities offered her citizenship and she offered them all the info on his kiwi businesses and criminal dealings. I don’t know if they ever got the Aussie Bad Man, but Dad died, several years later, having served yet more time back home, and having been confirmed as HIV+, contracted whilst in prison.
One of the two best arrests I ever made.
As my sergeant noted, at my appraisal, that year, “not many cops your rank get a head on the wall like that one”. Of course, I still had to fight for a high assessment grading and then defend it to an outraged senior officer. I never got so much as a memo from my own force, related to that one. Several above me got promotions, though, funnily enough.
The last thing I’ll say (yes, there’s more) is that the first seizure of Crystal Meth in Scotland was recorded as being in Aberdeen, a few months after Dad’s arrest.
That’s not quite correct.
The first such seizure was albeit minimal, but was in Shetland, around the time Dad was here. But the powers that be sat on the info, rather than (they thought) make the place look bad (no, really!).
The info, from my task force chums, was that Dad had been seeking to establish a pipeline, for the drug, into the U.K., and rather than coming up through Europe, into the very heavily policed Dover, this switched-on and experienced sailor had planned on having boats packed with it, sail, first into Shetland, then down to one or more of the numerous remote inlets or bays, on mainland Scotland (of which there are thousands), from whence it could be distributed nationally – the latter part being what the OCGs were doing with Cocaine, at one time. Customs would need to check every single fishing boat, small ferry or able bodied sea-faring vessel, in order to defeat those tactics – and there was no Customs presence in Shetland, as there was no longer international travel to and from the port here.
That case gives me a warm glow. Drug smuggler. People trafficker. Murderer. Simply awful father! Man of the world, career criminal, tripped up, in sleepy wee Shetland, and now pushing up daisies (better him than me!!), while I get to write long-winded stories about his nefarious ways.
My favorites are the “I didn’t study so I asked someone to whisper the answer and I copied it hilariously wrong” answers.
A few samples:
What are elements with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons called?
Correct answer: isotopes
What a kid wrote: ice tubes
The amount of product you expect to make in a chemical reaction is called the ________
Correct answer: theoretical yield
What a kid wrote: the radical yield
The device we use to light a Bunsen burner is called ________
Correct answer: striker
What a kid wrote: tricycle
The digits that indicate the accuracy of an answer are called_______
Correct answer: Significant figures
What a kid wrote: stick fingers
What is the formula of sodium nitrate?
Correct answer: NaNO3
What a kid wrote: Any 3
I get mad when the kids leave questions blank that we discussed for weeks and weeks. But when the answers are like this, I contemplate a new career. After I stop laughing.
A symbol of a declining society
Canadian Journalist Who Pushed Vaccine Mandates and “Concentration Camps” for Un-vax’d, DIES at Age 33
A Journalist who advocated that those who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 be put in concentration camps, has died suddenly at the young age of 33.
Ian Vandaelle died after being hospitalized and “declared neurologically dead,” his family revealed.
Vandaelle was a business journalist who worked as a reporter and editor at the Financial Post.
He was also previously a producer at BNN Bloomberg for over a decade.
Vandaelle advocated for vaccine passports and mandates and called for the firing of anyone who refused the injections.
He also suggested that unvaccinated people should be arrested and taken away to concentration camps.
Hal Turner Editorial Opinion
Like so many other left-wing-ish / Liberal-ish people, this person seemed so smug and self-righteous in his (wrong-headed) belief in the new COVID-19 vaccine, that he seems to have ignored all the warnings put out by others, like me, who warned against taking the new, untested, unproven, mRNA “death dart.”
Yet as with so many others his age, He seemed to think, when it came to the COVID Vax, HE knew better. He seemed to think HE was so much smarter than the rest of us. HEseemed to look down his nose at those of us who raised very real concerns about this new technology. To HIM, the rest of us were just sniveling idiots; too stupid to embrace this new, life-saving, technology.
Looks to me like maybe he wasn’t so smart after all. It is my personal opinion that the vaccine he thought so much of, killed him.
I think his ego blinded him to the reality . . . . and now . . . . he’s dead.
It’s hard to feel sorry for someone so young, dying this way. After all, if he had HIS way, all of us might be facing a similar fate – or be locked away in a Concentration Camp — just so HE and his ilk, could feel better. No thanks.
This may turn out to be the new general epitaph for Liberals: “He thought he knew better than everyone else; now, he’s dead from what he thought.”
Japan is both overwhelmingly modern and traditional at the same time. This does not just apply to the amalgamation of skyscrapers and ancient Shinto shrines in cities like Kyoto, but also on a more sociological level. The matter of sexuality in Japan may not be one of the first things that come to mind but Japan is a country mostly free of religious morals.
Traditionally a sexually open society
Sexuality in Japan developed separately from that of mainland Asia, as Japan did not adopt the Confucian view of marriage, in which chastity is highly valued. Monogamy in marriage is less important in Japan, and married men often seek pleasure from courtesans. Prostitution in Japan has a long history, and became especially popular during the Japanese economic miracle, as evening entertainments were tax-deductible!
The Art of Shunga
Historically, pornography in Japan may have begun at the start of the Edo period (1603–1868) as erotic artwork referred to as shunga that was typically done on woodblock prints. Shunga literally means “spring pictures”. “At its best shunga celebrates the pleasures of lovemaking, in beautiful pictures that present mutual attraction and sexual desire as natural and unaffected” Tim Clark, curator of “Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese art”
Mass produced during the Edo period shunga offered sexuality a shameless visual platform. Shunga depicted sexual pleasure that included both heterosexuality and homosexuality, each not only acknowledged but also encouraged. Surprisingly prior the Edo Period there was no Japanese word for female sexuality, and Shunga changed this with the depiction of female pleasure including lesbianism.
Shunga was an essential part of Japanese society
Shunga had functions beyond its aesthetic appeal. Its primary use would have involved viewing and sharing the paintings or books with close friend or sexual partners. Like the Indian Kama Sutra the Shunga images were also used to provide sexual education for young couples. While shunga was chiefly commissioned by men, it has been found among the dowry goods presented to a Japanese bride, suggesting that it was also highly valued by women.
Most shunga was created by woodblock artists from the popular school ukiyo-e, ‘pictures of the floating world,’ a genre of painting that mainly illustrated life’s pleasures that was mass-produced as prints. Surprisingly traditional painters also produced a large quantity of shunga including members of the Kano School, known for their innovative secular paintings.
Samurai were seen as the keepers of morality in Japan. Shunga was both commissioned and accepted by the samurai as a pleasurable cultural pursuit, and thus the whole of Japanese society enjoyed shunga.
There was also an element of humour to shunga, which sometimes referred as warai-e or “laughing picture”. Shunga works are artefacts of an era in Japan where attitudes about sex were freer. Sex was seen as an everyday natural activity without shame and often was the centre of amusement.
Sex and Erotic Art in early Japan
By the Edo period in the early 17th to mid 19th centuries, there had been a long history of erotic art and secular sexual expression in Japan, which meant that shunga was nothing new. Prehistoric societies had developed phallic worship in connection with their reliance on agriculture and Japan’s creation myths are based on human-like sexual procreation. Throughout the centuries, the phallus and phallus shaped objects (for example, mushrooms) had been prominent figures in carvings, could be found in shrines, festivals, and along roadways, and were traditionally and superstitiously related to good luck, health and longevity.
What allowed for such an openness of sexual imagery and expression was the lack of any strict religious code that controlled sexual behaviour. Unlike in the West, which was dominated by a strict Judeo-Christian ideology, there was no moral shame and stigma surrounding sex or the production of erotic images in Japan — only a stringent class system based on Confucianism that dictated deference to status and appreciation of personal space.
Sex in Japan did not take on any ‘mythical’ or religious significance as it did in India and China. Furthermore, humour and wit had developed over the centuries as a common part of sexuality and was incorporated in the broader culture via allusions, euphemisms, sexually related stories and poetry. These and other cultural and religious factors allowed sex to be seen as a more naturalistic, enjoyable experience between partners, which in turn has produced a wide array of acceptable sexual behaviours in modern Japan including same-sex partners, and sexually related products such as sex toys, manuals, and even a chain of sex stores.
By the time of the Edo Period, the normalcy and humour found in sex, highly developed forms of sexual expressions, and the lack of moral or religious control all translated into an early modern culture that allowed shunga to flourish as a genre of popular art and sex to be open, fun and easily available.
From sexual openness to repression
Japan’s sexual freedom was a revelation to Europe, particularly its artists. Painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Picasso found fertile ground in Shunga imagery. As Japan sought modernisation and to be in line with ‘modern’ western social norms, the Meiji Government banned shunga in the early 20th century, becoming taboo within Japan. As Japan sought sexual repression Europe sought sexual liberation!
When Shunga was flourishing in Japan, in Christian Europe at the time shunga would have been deeded pornographic. Shunga is an impressive, unique tradition of pre-modern erotic art. It serves as testament to a once uninhibited, open-minded society that offered artists opportunities to express originality and unbridled emotion.
Celebrating Shunga Today
The history, humour and accomplishments of shunga are explored at the British Museum in Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art. The exhibition looks at Japanese art like no other. Explicit and beautifully detailed the works on display are between the years 1600 and 1900, and such works continue today to influence manga, anime and Japanese tattoo art. The exhibition sheds new light on this sexuality explicit art form from Japanese social and cultural history. Parental guidance advised for visitors under 16.
The 48 Japanese sexual positions
If you have ever wondered how they do it elsewhere in the world, a recent Durex Ad may have caught your eye. It introduced some acrobatic positions within decidedly Canadian names: the ‘maple cinnamon twist’ and ‘the Niagara fall’ (the Canadian side, we are assuming).
There is not a lot of research on the top sex positions in different countries. Sex surveys tend to focus on other aspects of our time between the sheets (such as sexual satisfaction and frequency). That said, the Durex Sexual Wellbeing survey which questioned 26,000 people across 26 different countries does have some interesting insights into how different nations have sex. Overall worldwide less than 50% of people are sexually satisfied and as one gets older and has sex less often, dissatisfaction increases, particularly with males. The world has obviously become more sexually repressed.
The following images are illustrations of Japan’s 48 sexual positions — the “48 Ways” (shijuuhatte). These sex positions are inspired by sumo wrestling moves going back centuries. During the Edo period, the word 48 arms-hands started to be imbued with sexual meaning — “all the basic sexual techniques”.
Below, Japanese Durex condom commercial teaches you 48 ways to have sex with a wrestler. It’s kinda a humorous play to watch, so enjoy it!
Choosing sexual partners in Japan
Most men are attracted to younger and good-looking women, since it is believed that the women will be fertile and prodigy will also be attractive. It’s human instinct, and only moral education can try to repress this instinct. East Asian religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Shinoism, Buddihism) do not teach strong moral principles or prohibitions regarding sex. In fact sexual restrictions and the associate shame or guilt with sex is typically a Judeo-Christian or Islamic characteristic.
In modern Japan the Western desire by males for big breasts and shapely hips may also be based upon a subconscious belief of greater female fertility but the overriding influence has been Western film culture. For women in Japan, and the world over, power has always been a significant element when choosing a male partner. Power and sexual desire often go hand in hand since a powerful male can easily support and protect a family.
The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has — Chinese FM
The US government has kept expanding its scope of surveillance, meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs and interfering in international affairs, which runs counter to international law and the fundamental principles of international relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry commented on the Section 702 of US’ Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which allows the US intelligence agency to conduct unauthorized surveillance of non-US individuals abroad. The spokesperson added that “The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has. The US needs a better sense of boundary and less obsession for control.”
During a press briefing on Thursday, media mentioned that US National Security Council member Joshua Geltzer said that Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), an important legal basis for US intelligence authorities to eavesdrop on non-US citizens overseas and step up international surveillance without authorization, will expire on December 31. It was estimated that nearly 60 percent of President Biden’s daily intelligence brief came from these “big ears.”
The warrantless government surveillance authority slated to expire in days is closer to lasting for at least a few more months after the US Senate on Wednesday local time passed an annual defense policy bill that included a temporary extension.
In response to that, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), adopted after Watergate, was originally aimed at preventing government authorities from abusing power and carrying out arbitrary eavesdropping.
However, Section 702, added in 2008, permit the National Security Agency to carry out eavesdropping and surveillance without obtaining an individualized court order, Mao said.
After that, the US government has been expanding the scope of eavesdropping and surveillance to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and meddle in the normal course of international affairs. This practice runs counter to international law and basic norms governing international relations, Mao said.
“The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has. The US needs a better sense of boundary and less obsession for control,” Mao added.
27 Years Ago This Animated Television Series “Duckman” SHOWED Men Are Going Their Own Way
A couple of months ago, we had an IT guy in our office who had just received his summons to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It was a Friday and he had to appear at the military commissariat four days later, on Tuesday. Needless to say, the summons papers pretty much ruined his weekend.
War is a dangerous affair: a wall in Kyiv that commemorates the country’s fallen heroes from 2014 till today. (Picture by the author of this post)
I have rarely seen a man who was more scared than this poor guy. He was literally sweating. He really wasn’t the fighter type: mid 30s but looking older, non-athtletic body type and a small beer belly.
There was nothing we could do for him. He should have seen it coming. There’s compulsory service in Ukraine and people like him are getting drafted every day.
In our office, most (male) workers have already bought proper body armor and helmets for themselves, some of them even got guns and regularly train on the shooting range. In addition, they help me and my friends to support the military with equipment. When these guys get their summons, they’ll be prepared.
So yes, some people are scared when they have to join the military.
Advice you NEED to hear in your 20s (not what you’d expect)
As far as Europe is concerned (as opposed to, let’s say Africa or the Middle East, for instance), body hair was left to grow until well into the 20th century.
Men typically shaved or trimmed their beards according to the fashion at the time, hair was cut , curled, bleached or dyed, equally accordingly but body hair was left to do its own thing.
This is valid for all strata of society.
Otherwise, in the absence of running water, both sexes usually washed in a bidet, which was filled with warm water and/or perfume/cologne/eau de toilette. Basically, just like you would with a wet wipe, you moisten a cloth or sponge with perfume and clean your entire body with it.
Women using a bidet, by Willem-Joseph Laquy 1771.
So, basically, in spite of many claims to the opposite, there’s no reason to believe that people in the 1700’s would have been much dirtier than nowadays, although the mix of armpit smell and perfume would probably have been noticeable.
Lice is always a problem. However, just like nowadays, a variety of treatments were available, usually in the form of perfumes, what we now call essential oils, etc. They kill the eggs and you can get rid of the bugs themselves with a fine tooth comb.
And here it is…
Women PANIC As They Realize Men Don’t Want To Marry Older Women
Man, the USA is so terribly fucked up. Take me “home”. Please!
Russia Warns If NATO Bases Used For Ukrainian Jets, Those Bases Could Be Targeted
With the Russia-Ukraine war now approaching the two year mark (in February), Americans might need reminding that the conflict remains a highly dangerous situation which could at any moment escalate into a WW3 scenario.
Zelensky’s visit to Washington this week was lackluster, and he left without securing what Kiev is hoping for – that Congress would quickly pass Biden’s $106 billion war funding request, which also includes defense funds for Israel. Of course, at this point Zelensky has complained publicly that the crisis in Gaza has taken the world’s focus off the need to defend Ukraine from Russia’s onslaught.
Though headlines in the West barely took notice, Russia early Wednesday launched a significant ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, which authorities said injured at least 53 people, including six children, with severe damage to a number of buildings.
But with Zelensky in Washington, making the rounds to the Oval office and the halls of Congress, the Kremlin issued a fresh warning saying that if Ukraine’s military is granted access to NATO airbases for sorties using western-made planes, in would respond while deeming Ukraine’s external allies as direct participants in the war.
The fresh warning was announced by Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the military security and arms control talks in Vienna:
“We already hear comments that, amid the significant destruction of Ukraine’s airstrip infrastructure, the F-16s handed over to Ukraine may carry out their missions from airbases in Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” he said during the OSCE Forum meeting on cooperation in security.
According to the diplomat, Moscow will view this as these countries’ participation in the conflict and will force Russia to resort to “response measures.”
Even though certain eastern European allies pledged F-16s long ago, it could still be a lengthy amount of time before Ukrainian pilots are fully trained, enough to be deployed in combat on the US-made warplane.
Western officials have in recent months admitted that Russia has the upper hand, and that Ukraine’s summer offensive failed, but everyone is now putting in place their ‘long war’ strategies. The Kremlin’s new warning and threat also seems part of this longer term planning from Moscow’s perspective.
(My answer contains information that some people might find offensive. Please be advised. I am just sharing an experience I had. Thank you!)
I don’t remember exactly which grade my daughter was in when this happened, but it was when she was in elementary school.
It was a sunny weekend afternoon, I asked her, “Do you want to go to the park?” – which was her favorite thing to do, she had never refused it. But to my surprise, she said no. “Why?” – I asked.
“I don’t want to turn to black!”, she answered. “What!?”, I asked, dropping my jaw. “It’s sunny. The sun will shine on me and make my skin dark”, she pointed to the sun. “Who told you that?!”, I was stunned. She then grabbed the map, and explained to me, “This is Africa. It’s near the equator. They have a lot of sun over there, they are outside a lot, that’s why their skin turns dark. Our intern teacher told us that.”
You have no idea how angry I got when I heard this.
The next Monday morning, I took my daughter to school. After dropping her off, I asked for a meeting between that intern teacher and the principal. I explained the situation and demanded an explanation. The intern teacher was scared, he said he was just “joking”. He wanted to tell the kids that they need to wear a hat and use sunscreen when they are outside in the sun, or else they will get tanned; that’s why he “joked” like that.
I could tell the “face-palm” from the principal’s look. She apologized to me and promised me she would give my daughter’s class a special lesson to “fix” this issue (And she did. My daughter later that day went home and told me they had a lesson about protecting our skin). But the damage was already done. It took a long time with a lot of reading and explaining for me to erase the thought that “dark skin” was equal to “a bad thing” from my daughter’s mind.
I don’t know what happened to that intern teacher, but I hope he learned his lesson.
Carousel Rider Has MELTDOWN After BF Dumps Her Upon Learning She Had “Relations” With Over 300 Men
Back in the 1990s, my former father-in-law (my then-wife’s father), who I’ll call Joe, was the one instigating our divorce. He was one of those macho cop types, kind of a good ol’ boy.
I found one of those subscription cards in a copy of Out magazine on the rack. Out magazine was for gay people who decided to come out of the closet. I put Joe’s full name and his nextdoor neighbor’s address on the subscription card and mailed it in. (I used a typewriter in a store so my handwriting couldn’t be traced back to me).
Imagine his shock and horror when his neighbor showed up at his door and said, “Hi Joe, your Out magazine came to my house by mistake.” 😂
Nowadays, I regret such a juvenile tactic, but I was a bit crazy at the time because it was a messy divorce.
In December 2023, 27-year-old Neusha Afkami had to go the airport in Austin, Texas. She got an Uber, and told the driver he to “make it fast”, as she had a plane to catch and she needed to be on it desperately. Much to her frustration, the driver wasn’t going very fast.
Neusha felt she could go faster… so after berating the man, she took the driver’s phone… and threw it out the car window. He immediately stopped the vehicle to retrieve his phone and when he did, Mrs. Afkami jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off, leaving her Uber driver standing helplessly by the side of the road. Not only did she take the car, she also took the man’s wallet, which he left behind as he got out. While at the airport, she went on a 130 dollar shopping spree with the man’s credit card as she waited for boarding.
Of course, knowing his own car’s information like the back of his hand, the Uber driver immediately called the police. Before Neusha Afkami could even board her plane, she was located and arrested by Texas police, putting an end to her little bout of playing-GTA-in-real-life.
Knowing These Life Lessons After 40 is Like Cheating. Literally.
It was during a drug search warrant of a heroin dealer’s house. We executed the warrant and located the target of the investigation, a 40-year-old male at home. He also had a live-in girlfriend who, like her man, was an intravenous user of heroin.
His girlfriend had a two-year-old toddler whom we found crawling around the living room floor. The child was naked and dirty and crying. He was a good-looking child, but what would his future hold in that environment? We located drugs and drug paraphernalia all over the house. Most disturbing were the numerous uncapped needles lying on the floor and coffee table right near the toddler. Additionally, there were remnants of powdered heroin and cocaine on the coffee table, which could easily be reached by the child.
My sergeant flipped out on the woman — and asked if she was crazy, exposing her child to used uncapped needles and powered narcotics on the table. The woman just sort of smiled and almost in slow motion said it was her kid and it was none of his business. She was clearly in a drug-induced stupor.
My sergeant replied that he was not only seizing the illegal drugs but was also seizing the child. With that, he scooped up the child in his arms and walked out of the house. He instructed our evidence officer to photograph the living room to document the horrible and dangerous conditions.
My sergeant stood outside and called the division of family services. They didn’t want to respond until the following morning. He emphatically informed them that the child had been removed from this unsafe environment and either they would come and take the child or our next stop was the local newspaper.
They responded to the scene, witnessed the horrible conditions where the child was housed and took the child from the doped-up mother. Three days later they returned the child to the mother at the same house.
Moving that child back into a drug house full of used needles and drugs was the saddest thing ever I witnessed a parent do to their child. When I hear people speak of legalizing all drugs, I think back to that helpless innocent victim.
Marinade: Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix thoroughly to ombine.
Place short ribs in a nonmetallic dish. Pour marinade over short ribs; cover and refrigerate. Marinate at least three hours or preferably overnight.
Florida Citrus Kimchi: Combine all ingredients in bowl; toss to combine. Reserve.
Drain marinade from short ribs; discard marinade. Grill short rib slices over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove cooked slices from grill; place on cutting board. Slice short rib slices crossways into small, bite size pieces of meat.
Assembly: Heat tortillas over medium heat on the grill or in a sauté pan. Place a small amount of shredded cabbage in the center of each tortilla; top with 1/4 cup short rib meat and 2 tablespoons Florida Citrus Kimchi.
I was the arresting officer on a DUI case. I received a subpoena to appear in court. The man was so drunk he peed al over himself and other stuff in the intoxilyzer room. I thought it was for his guilty plea, but was wrong. He hired an attorney the day before trial and plead not guilty and had not viewed the tape. When the tape was played and everyone watched him pee and slip to the floor and splash his hands in his mess, the judge actually had an out loud laugh along with the rest of the court room.
As it turn out he was a regular drunk and was so out of it he had no idea he had done that. Needless to say, he changed his plea to guilty, the jury was dismissed and the judge imposed a very sever punishment on him. It was his 5th DUI in 5 years.
CHILLING NDE! What I Saw in Hell Will Change You Forever! (Near Death Experience Angie Fenimore)
I got home one night from work, and listened to a message from the State Police from a barracks three hours north of me. Curious, I called back to speak with the officer. He was off for the night so we spoke the next day. The questioning was interesting. He wanted to know if I had been in Bangor Maine the previous day, and if anyone else had access to my car. Puzzled, I asked why. It turns out that there was a bank robbery and they thought that I might be involved. WTF???
The officer was sure that I or somebody else had driven my car from the southern border of Maine to Bangor and back in under six hours without going through a toll booth. For those unfamiliar with the state of Maine that just isn’t possible. I explained that I had been at work all day, and my car was on camera and hadn’t moved. The officer was unconvinced until I send him pictures of my car, my registration, and license plates. The plate number they had matched a set of plates that I used to own, and they were on same make of car, but as it turns out a different year. Very clever.
I in turn called the local police and reported those plates as stolen. I met the detective at my house and his first words to me were “Kurt, so you’re robbing banks now.” He laughed. The detective lives three housed down from me and my wife had his kids in school.
A few months prior I came home at lunch to find a strange car at the end of my shared driveway, and my garage door open. I thought perhaps my wife or I had left the garage door open when we left for work. I grabbed a crowbar as a weapon and searched the house. I know not the smartest thing to do, but I don’t own a firearm. Nothing was missing, and nobody was in the house so I didn’t think much of it at the time. I went outside to get the license plate number strangely parked car , and to call the police. My neighbor came down the driveway and apologized for parking in my driveway and left. That’s where I thought the story ended.
A few weeks before this incident, I had just purchased my car off of lease and switched plates. In Maine we don’t need to turn our plate in and my old plates had been on the wall in my garage. I didn’t notice that they were missing. The neighbor that had parked at the end of my driveway? That neighbor had a previous conviction for Bank Robbery. The local detective and I put two and two together and we had a good suspicion about what had happened to the plates. He gave the information to the State Police and I never heard from that officer again.
High Powered (1945) ACTION ADVENTURE
Full movie. Free and fun. Film Noir.
In this two-fisted adventure tale, a high-rigger holds himself responsible after his brother is killed in an on-the-job accident. He gets a chance for redemption, when it looks as though the same accident is about to occur again!
As a boy, living in Pennsylvania, I possessed the normal (and perhaps natural) brick-a-bract and flotsam and jetsam that accompanies most boys in the 1960’s. Model airplanes. Cubscout uniforms. Bottle collections. Debris that I picked up here and there. Scale models. Baseball playing cards, and the like.
Some of my most prized treasures consisted of my arrowheads… and my Indian-head pennies (and Buffalo Nickels). These were kept in an old Mason Jar on a shelf in my room.
Every now and then I would take them out. I would hold them. Fondle them. Feel the weight of them, and look at the details on them. I would then put them back, and go on with my life.
Eventually I went to university. During that time, my brother was selling odds and ends of mine for money or trade. I started to notice that things were missing, but since I hadn’t been “playing with them” for four years or more, it just didn’t seen significant to me.
…At that time.
…
Tiny treasures. Lost in time.
My unappreciated fragments of my life, discarded by others who cared not for their significance to me personally. They just did not care.
This trend continued throughout my life.
Tiny treasures. Lost in time.
…
Things that were important to me. Things that mattered to me. Things that represented memories, thoughts, ideas, and my personality… discarded by others who did not share my emotions about them.
Yes. The first year that they opened Buckingham Palace for tourists, I happened to be in London and got tickets. We had the girls and the wait was long so we walked behind the annex and let them move around. There was a gift shop I bought a catalog from.
When our ticket time was close to the front when we came back. There was a lovely Japanese women who was working the crowds and checking tickets. There was a fiftyish woman who tried to walk by her. She politely asked for her ticket. It if course was for a much later time. I only want to (looks at the catalog) buy one of those. The guide politely refused.
Then it came. She loudly screeches, “Do you know who I am. I am a millionaire in the US.”. I quickly interjected that most of us were at her age. I knew I had to shut her down before she got going and the guide was terrified she was so antagonistic. “Luckily you do not need to go in there if all you want is the guide and told her where to buy one.” She of course stormed off. I apologized for my fellow countrywoman. I told her you have to nip them in the Bud or you have an incident. The philosophy is to create such a scuffle you let them through. That is not wise when other people are waiting in long cues. Could not believe it.
I was on a flight to Mexico City, my daughter and I were sitting in business class. My daughter was 6 then and she was reading a kids book, the flight attendant started talking to her since her niece read the same books.
She was nice and asked for a pic with my daughter and the book etc. When we deplaned, I forgot my ipad on the back of the front seat. I didn’t realize that until 5 hours later which was the time of our layover so I only realized it when I had to go through the security point again.
I went to lost and found and they had nothing, I called American Airlines and they had nothing. Then one day later I got a phone call from the flight attendant telling me she had my ipad.
The passenger on the return flight found it and gave it to her. She should have turned it into security, but she knew if she did that I would not see it again, instead she had someone check on my details and get my number so she sent it via FedEx to me and made sure I got it when I was back in Miami.
My daughter chose a nice art craft thing in Oaxaca and we sent it to her as a token of appreciation. She went out of her way to make sure I got my ipad returned to me and for that I will always be grateful.
Edit 1: Thanks all for you nice comments and upvotes, even to the skeptics that thought this didn’t happen. Trust me it did. Thanks!
This is DISGUSTING and Biden is about to sign it into law
My brother called me to let me know our dad was in the ER and it didn’t look good for his survival. I drove like a bat out of hell the 120 miles to get there. In the ER waiting room sat my brother & his wife, who knew nothing and had not been given any info or updates on our dad in over 2.5 hours.
I went up to the admitting desk to ask for an update and was told to sit down…that the clerk at the desk was busy and couldn’t deal with me. Unacceptable response so I just marched into the actual ER room to find my dad. Brother and SIL followed.
Found my dad and he is basically gray with no one attending him. The attending comes up to me and starts screaming at me. I asked him what was wrong with my dad, (who has a heart problem and has a pacemaker). The Dr responds in a horrible accent and terrible English that my dad has vertigo. It took several tries to figure out what he was saying and even the nurses were having a problem understanding him.
I lost it and didn’t care if I got arrested or not. I loudly proceed to tell the Dr that my dad is gray, not green, indicating heart problem & that my dad had his last heart surgery at this hospital 1 year prior. That I want a heart monitor on my dad ASAP.
The smug Dr asked me where I my medical degree. I smiled and again, loudly said that I didn’t have one but that I had a law degree. That I hoped he enjoyed his sojourn in the US because by the time I’m done suing him, deportation will look like a good option.
He quickly put on a heart monitor on my dad and it showed my dad was having a heart attack as they attached it. Luckily, they were able to treat him and he lived many years after that.
3 things:
This was at a top nationally ranked hospital
I filed a complaint with the BoD and the Dr was let go due to his repeated negligence.
I was bluffing — I don’t have a law degree!
Respect is earned not demanded
Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Ingredients
Peanut butter
Sliced bread
Butter
Chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
Spread peanut butter on one piece of bread and put another slice on top to make a sandwich.
Butter the outsides and cook on skillet until golden brown.
Flip and cook the other side.
Notes
Chocolate chips can be added to the peanut butter if desired.
This girl had to have surgery, it was her 9th but 7 of the surgeries were done when she was a baby (all by the same surgeon). She has these tubes called shunts that drain the excess fluid from her skull to treat a condition called Hydrocephalus. Well after she went into the ER with abdominal pain (she had appendicitis) they checked her shunts to make sure they weren’t what was causing the pain. They were working but unfortunately one of them needed to be fixed later because it was disconnected. (Her neck muscles kept the space open to let fluid out.)
A few months later she returned to the surgeon who had done those 7 surgeries (she sees him every year for a checkup) and surgery was scheduled.
The day of the surgery arrived. She checked into the hospital with her parents and was wheeled back to the OR. The anesthesiologist told her to breathe in the laughing gas. He asked if it was working. She said “No…no…no-yes! Yes! Yes!” As she said that she began to lose consciousness which frightened her so she began to cry out “I’m scared! I’m scared! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!” The anesthesiologist removed the mask and said “It’s ok, you’re ok, you’re not going to die.” But she was still crying and scared.
To try to soothe her, her neurosurgeon came to her side and said, “Hey, why can’t dinosaurs talk?”
“Why?” She asked
“Because they’re dead!” She burst out laughing and passed out.
She woke up perfectly calm and not the least bit anxious.
How do I know this story?… That girl… is me.
*Drops mic. Walks away*
In all seriousness though, I remember every detail of that. It was very scary. I later told my surgeon that I remembered all of this by saying, “Hey I have a joke for you!”
He asked “Is it about dinosaurs?”
“…yes.” I said smiling sheepishly.
“I fell unconscious really quickly.”
“That would be the propofol. Either that or you were so tired of my bad jokes that you passed out.”
I laughed “Maybe.” I said.
So there’s my weird story! I hope you liked it!
(I’m ok by the way. My post op appointment is on the 15th.) I’ll update on Monday if you guys want, let me know in the comments!
Update:
I had my pst op appointment today. Everything went well.
I was waiting in an exam room with my dad when my neurosurgeon popped his head in the door and said he’d be in in a few minutes and asked if I was behaving myself. (He was kidding of course as I was just sitting there.)
A little while later he came back and asked how I was doing. I said I was doing well, he examined my scar, and said that other than a large amount of scabing (which will eventually come off) everything looked good. He instructed us to come back in 6 months and asked what I planned to do over the summer.
We shook hands and then I headed back to school.
Are all men a 10?
This is How Delusional Modern Women have Become ft.
As you drive through the state, you’ll see a pattern of strip clubs and adult cinemas sandwiched between churches, Jesus billboards, and gruesome pro-life medical photos.
It feels like the state can’t make up its mind on what it wants to be. Consequently, our cities have super strange laws and weird rules around adult entertainment.
For example, in Tampa, you can’t drink alcohol at a fully nude strip club. Yet if the dancers have (tiny) tape over their nipples and crotch, you are free to drink your face off.
In 1983, it was even stricter, with a full anti-nudity ordinance in place.
Someone went to an exotic club and then filed a complaint about strippers showing too much skin. Which invites the question, “Why are you even going to the club and getting mad about what you paid for?”
In reality — it was probably part of an investigation, reserved for a few senior police officers who went “undercover”. I’m sure they enjoyed the investigation very, very much.
Three exotic dancers were dragged into court and put on trial for indecency.
The actual court case
The women weren’t even dancing nude. They were wearing crop tops and tight, short shorts while dancing on tables. Their underwear was visible.
A freelance photographer, Jim Damaske, was given a call by legal aid, “You might want to stop by this trial on Tuesday. You’ll be able to capture a very unique shot.”
The photographer wasn’t disappointed. The below photo was part of the trial and evidence. It was not a stunt intended to disrespect the judge:
The 20-year-old dancer was trying to show that her underwear wasn’t too revealing.
The decency law stated that underwear could not substantively reveal a woman’s privates, including highlighting any lines or curvatures of her lady parts.
Initially, the lawyer for the three dancers suggested the women would be happy to dance in the courtroom in their work attire — as a form of evidence. Judge David Demers ruled this was too much. He was also apprehensive about the defendants bending over in court.
Judge Demers had only been elected 4 months prior and worried about compromising his position as judge.
The defense lawyer suggested that the women could bend over at their law firm, photos could be taken, and brought into court. Judge Demers insisted it would need to take place in court in order to count.
The women did not see this case as a joke.
Indecent exposure can bring a large fine and up to a month in prison. Typically, the law would apply to someone running around naked in public. Or, if a man stands in his home and presses his junk up against a window towards the street — that would count as well.
Three decades later, the judge was interviewed about the bizarre scene.
He is aware he’ll always be remembered for the photo.
He said that when they took the photo, “I looked at the girl and thought, whatever happens, I shouldn’t have any facial expression. Don’t smile, don’t frown. Do nothing. Because whatever it is, it will be misinterpreted.”
“When you look at the photo,” said Demers, “my face is as blank as possible — and that was pretty deliberate.”
Why even sue dancers?
This was likely a moral crusade of a district attorney or other official with strong conservative convictions.
It failed.
The women won their case.
The photo was so compelling that Playboy magazine featured it in their photos of the year collection. Also, I have to mention — look at the stenographer’s face:
She’s thinking, “What sort of bizarro land career have I taken up?” And then, she has to decide what exactly she will write to document this event in court.
I also couldn’t help but wonder if the dancer was making eye contact with the judge. And was she smiling?
In all seriousness — this case was yet another example of my local tax dollars going to a grotesque waste. Tampa Bay has all manner of crime issues and our legal system is prosecuting strippers for stripping.
We have more strip clubs per square mile in Tampa Bay than any city except Las Vegas. The adult industry generates huge, huge revenue for our city, and stuffy politicians can’t stand it — unless they are the one getting the lap dance.
I’m proud to be American but we are the epitome of hypocrisy. We do so much moral posturing and pass stupid indecency laws — while also hosting the largest pornography industry in the world.
Or perhaps this is right on brand with being American. We only operate in opposing extremes. We are both the most brilliant and stupid people you will ever meet.
You might think that the ancient Romans were clueless about medicine and hygiene, and that they just let their wounds fester and rot. Well, you’d be wrong. The Romans actually had some pretty advanced techniques and knowledge for their time. They were not afraid to cut, stitch, and cauterize wounds, and they used various substances to clean and heal them. They were not barbarians, after all. They were civilized people who built roads, aqueducts, and colosseums.
One of the things they used to treat wounds was opium. Yes, you heard that right. Opium, the stuff that makes you high and addicted. The Romans knew that opium had pain-relieving properties, and they used it to numb the pain of surgery and injuries. They also used scopolamine, a plant extract that causes drowsiness and amnesia. They would mix these substances with wine and give them to the patients before operating on them. This was their version of anesthesia. Not bad, huh?
Another thing they used was vinegar. Vinegar is a type of acid that kills bacteria and fungi. The Romans would soak a cloth in vinegar and apply it to the wound. This would disinfect the wound and prevent infection. They also used honey, wine, and olive oil as antiseptics. These substances have natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and they also help keep the wound moist and promote healing. They would mix them together and apply them to the wound, or use them separately. They were like the original Neosporin. 😁
Now, you might be wondering, did they use worms like in the movie Gladiator? The answer is no. They did not use worms to treat wounds. That was a Hollywood invention, not a historical fact. The movie Gladiator is a great film, but it’s not very accurate when it comes to depicting ancient Rome. It’s full of anachronisms, errors, and exaggerations. For example, the gladiator fights were not as brutal and bloody as they are shown in the movie. Most of the time, the gladiators did not fight to the death, but to the first blood or surrender. They were valuable assets, not disposable slaves. And the emperor did not sit in a box and give thumbs up or down to decide their fate. That was a later invention, too. 🙄
The use of worms to treat wounds is actually a modern practice, not an ancient one. It dates back to the American Civil War, when some doctors noticed that soldiers who had maggots in their wounds healed faster and better than those who did not. They realized that the maggots ate the dead and infected tissue, leaving the healthy tissue intact. They also secreted substances that killed bacteria and stimulated healing. This was called maggot therapy, and it was used until the discovery of antibiotics. Nowadays, it’s still used in some cases, especially when antibiotics are ineffective or unavailable. It’s not as gross as it sounds, trust me.
This is How Unattainable the 1% MAN is For Women
The Boiling Hot End to a Cook Accused of Poison in Henry VIII’s England
On April 5, 1531, hardened London spectators of public punishment gathered at Smithfield, joined by others who were too curious to stay away. An execution had been announced of a type that none had witnessed in their lifetimes, nor ever heard of. The condemned man, Richard Roose, was to be boiled alive.
Roose was not the sort of criminal that usually met his end at Smithfield, located just beyond the London Wall. He was convicted of high treason, yet he had not sought to harm King Henry VIII nor his queen, Catherine of Aragon, nor any royal councilor. He had not tried to overthrow the kingdom’s government. Roose, a cook, was accused of murder by poison.
His two victims were an obscure gentleman in the household of Bishop John Fisher, Bennet Curwen, and a destitute widow who accepted the bishop’s charity, Alyce Tryppytt. The target of the poisoning was assumed to be Fisher himself, the Bishop of Rochester. Ironically, Fisher did not eat the soup—sometimes described as porridge—that Roose prepared and so was unharmed.
Roose admitted to the poisoning but claimed it was a joke gone wrong, an accident. There is no testimony for us to examine, because Roose had no trial, by command of the king.
In the words of the Greyfriars Chronicle of London, a contemporary document: “This year was a cook boiled in a cauldron in Smithfield for he would have poisoned the bishop of Rochester Fisher with divers of his servants and he was locked in a chain and pulled up and down with a gibbet at divers times until he was dead.”
Roose’s crime, the legal method of his condemnation, and finally the form of punishment create a bizarre chain of events that, in a more modern age, might well have raised questions of motive in several parties, including that of Henry VIII. Although there is no question of who did the killing, this is still a tantalizing Tudor murder mystery, and reveals some of the peculiarities of the early modern age, when laws existed and homicide was considered a heinous crime, but there was no trained police force nor forensic science.
Why did Henry VIII demand this punishment of a lowly cook? Why was Roose executed as a traitor when his crime was murder of commoners? The answer lies in the King’s complex feelings for Bishop Fisher.
John Fisher was made bishop of Rochester by the King’s father, Henry VII, in 1504. Fisher performed the funeral services for Margaret Beaufort, the king’s mother, and Henry VII himself when they died, within months of each other, in 1509. In the first 20 years of the reign of Henry VIII, Fisher was considered “the greatest Catholic theologian in Europe, without any rival,” writes Eamon Duffy.
But by the time of the crime in question, King Henry was no longer proud of Bishop Fisher, 62 years of age. It would be safe to say he considered him an enemy. And it would have made the King’s life much easier if Fisher had lost his—if he had consumed the soup.
In 1527, when Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, began his public quest for an annulment from 42-year-old Catherine of Aragon to marry the delectable young Anne Boleyn, Fisher became one of his most serious obstacles. The question of the royal marriage was a theological one, and if Europe’s most respected theologian had agreed in the rightness of King Henry’s cause, it would have done a lot to bring about the annulment. But Fisher took the side of Catherine of Aragon. The marriage was legal and could not be dissolved.
In 1529, Bishop Fisher announced at the trial of the royal marriage that it would impossible to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage, as John the Baptist did. In that same year, when a proposal came to Parliament to dissolve the smaller abbeys—the beginning of Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries—Fisher “openly resisted it with all the force he could.”
Enter one Richard Roose. One of Fisher’s earliest biographers, Richard Hall, wrote in 1655 the most complete account of the poisoning. He is the only source to say that Roose was not the chief cook in Fisher’s household, which is significant: “After this the Bishop escaped a very great danger. For one Richard Rose came into the Bishop’s kitchen, being acquainted with the cook, at his house in Lambeth-marsh, and having provided a quantity of deadly poison, while the cook went into the buttery to fetch him some drink, he took his opportunity to throw that poison into a mess of gruel, which was prepared for the Bishop’s dinner. And after he had waited there a while, he went on his way.
“But so it happened that when the Bishop was called into his dinner, he had no appetite for any meat but wished his servants to fall to and be of good cheer, and that he would not eat till toward night. And they that did eat of the poisoned dish were miserably infected. And whereof one gentleman, named Mr. Bennet Curwen and an old widow, died suddenly, and the rest never recovered their health till their dying day.”
An inquiry began at once. Although a salaried police force did not yet exist in England, criminal investigation was taken seriously. Justices of the peace, appointed by the monarch, received and investigated complaints; coroners viewed dead bodies and ordered arrests. Now if a suspect was bound over for trial, freedom was unlikely. Defendants charged with felonies or treason did not exist. In fact, murder trials rarely lasted more than 15 minutes.
Roose was soon apprehended, and admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the soup as a “jest.” No one believed him. The always skeptical Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of events to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon:
“They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested… confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose.”
We share Chapuys’ frustration. Who gave the cook these powders and told him that they would sicken and not kill anyone? If that information was obtained, it was not shared with the public. No transparency.
Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, informed Henry VIII that there were rumors that Anne Boleyn and her father and brother, Thomas and George Boleyn, were involved in the poisoning attempt. The king reacted angrily, saying Anne Boleyn was unfairly blamed for everything, including bad weather.
The murder motive and the question of a larger plot were soon obscured by Henry VIII’s drastic actions. He decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial—a measure usually used for criminals who were at large. Roose was sitting in prison! Nonetheless, Parliament passed “An Acte for Poysoning,” making willful murder by means of poison high treason even if the victim was not head of the government of the land. And boiling to death became a form of legal capital punishment. This crime was especially heinous, the king’s representatives said, and thus called for such measures.
Several biographers have noted King Henry’s extreme fear of poison. Although the monarch’s paranoia became infamous in later years, there was some basis for concern. Everyone had heard the stories of murder by cantarella in Rome during the time of the Borgias. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, died—perhaps of poison slipped into his food at a banquet—during the reign of Henry VII. Cantarella was believed to have been arsenic trioxide.
If poison was ever suspected as the cause of death at this time in England, there was no way to scrutinize its damage within the corpse to confirm. And should the poison itself be obtained, the field of analytical chemistry was four centuries away.
Not surprisingly, rumors ran wild. Poisoning was rumored (never proven) to be the cause of the deaths of Queen Anne, Richard III’s wife; the eventual death of Catherine of Aragon; and the agonizing death of Henry’s son, Edward VI. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written in the reign of Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, employed poison. Shakespeare wove it into five other plays too.
But there was more to this than royal terror of a poisoned dish. As historian K.J. Kesselring wrote in The English Historical Review, “This may explain the severe, exemplary punishment of boiling, but not the need to label the offense treason.”
In April the crowds of Smithfield witnessed Roose’s death. According to an eyewitness: “He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.”
The story of the king and the stubborn bishop doesn’t end there.
When, after the king married Anne Boleyn, Bishop Fisher refused to swear an oath of supremacy to the king, he was arrested. The pope made Fisher a cardinal to protect him, but it only enraged the king more. Once the monarch had ordered a savage punishment of the man who tried to kill Fisher, and now Henry VIII wanted Fisher gone.
After a difficult imprisonment, Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535 on Tower Hill. The crowd gasped when they saw him on the scaffold for he was “nothing…but skin and bones…the flesh clean wasted away, and a very image of death.” In his speech to the crowd, Fisher is said to have shown a calm dignity.
According to Fisher’s biographer: “And here I cannot omit to declare to you the miraculous sight of his head, which after 14 days grew fresher and fresher, for that in his lifetime he never looked so well…. the face looked as if it beholdeth the people passing by and would have spoken to them. Which many took as a miracle.”
In 1886, the Catholic Church made John Fisher a saint.
How to Build a Working UFO | Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARVs)
Monday morning and it’s cold and raining. I had asked everyone to be in an hour early because we were getting an early delivery of concrete. Three of my most trusted employees made it in like I asked. Although, a little hungover from the night before, at least they were present. Now Tony the fourth guy I have on my payroll was nowhere to be seen. I kind of half expected it. I could never rely on him, but this was the final straw. I ring him up and the phone rings out. I try him again and he picks up. At first he doesn’t say anything, then suddenly I hear sobbing down the phone. “Is everything alright,” I asked feeling a little concerned for him. I hear sounds of dry heaving over the phone. “I’m sick. I so bloody sick. He continued to repeat how sick he was in between inconsolable crying. I was beginning to feel bad for him. “Jesus Tony, you sound awful, how sick are you?” I asked. There was a momentary pause over the phone. “Well boss, I woke up naked from a heavy night drinking and my sister is in bed beside me.
I was traveling overseas. When I do, I have a special little leather bag on a long string that’s just the right size for my passport, which I never let out of my sight while out of the country. It’s about four inches by five inches by maybe a quarter in thick, if that. Basically flat.
I string it around my neck so I don’t lose the passport. I usually tuck my tickets and ID in there as well because it’s almost impossible to pickpocket.
Flying to Switzerland, I have a small overnight bag and my laptop computer. Woman at the counter says “Whoa there big fella! You have three bags. We have to charge you $100 for the extra bag.”
I stared at her. “What three bags?”
Of course, she pointed at the carryall, the laptop, and then my little passport holder around my neck.
I said “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She said, “If I can see it, it’s a bag, no matter the size.”
So I stuffed it into my slacks. “Can you see it now?” I asked.
She glowered and said “No.”
I said “Have a nice day.”
What a bunch of tools to consider a passport holder a “bag”.
I was working a 12 hour shift as a gate guard on a military base. 8 PM to 8 AM, in this case. ’Round about midnight, it got VERY boring, so I came up with all sorts of ways to keep awake and keep moving. I’d tune the radio in my little weather shack to NPR, Go out into the middle of the street, and ‘air-conduct’ the orchestra in my mind. Got pretty good at it, actually.
One night, about 3 AM, a Jeep Cherokee came round the corner onto the base entrance road. I snapped to attention, checking the plates and glancing at the decal on the vehicle. The Base Commander. I gave him my best parade ground salute, and waved him through, but he paused, rolling down his window and staring at me for a few seconds.
“Petty Officer Harrison, what in the name of the Most Holy God were you doing?”
Now, I can imagine it must have looked terribly odd, to see his gate guard waving his arms and poking at invisible things in the dead of night, with classical music blaring in the background. Don’t know what he made of it. Maybe he thought I was hallucinating, or something… But I gave him my best sheepish grin, saluted again and replied.
for cello and orchestra. The second violin is a bit behind the beat…”
He sighed, shook his head, gave a vague sort of wave and said. “Carry on, then.” and drove off.
Two days later, a new standing order was published. “All gate guards will be issued batons and metronomes at the beginning of the night shift, in order to keep that pesky second violin in line. Said equipment will be returned to the Armory at the end of the shift along with the duty weapon.” The look of disbelief on the department head’s face was priceless… 🙂
In 2012, the United States discovered suspicious Chinese access to the country’s critical infrastructure.
After some research, security officials found the culprit. It was not a Chinese hacker, but a Verizon employee, simply called “Bob.”
Bob did not have criminal intentions, as everyone initially suspected.
He did not feel like working hard all day and had found a creative way to enliven his day with more pleasant things.
The 40-year-old programmer had managed to outsource his work to Chinese programmers. He had physically sent his RSA token to a Chinese company so that Asian programmers could use his credentials during his working hours pretending to be him.
This is an RSA token. It is a security id, a kind of “ID card” of the employee.
Chinese programmers received less than 20% of his six-figure salary.
Over the years, Bob had become a highly regarded employee for his “clean, well-written” code. He was called ‘the best developer in the house.'”
In reality, however, he spent his days on Facebook, Ebay, and Linkedin, watching many cat videos.
At 4:30 p.m., before the day was over, he would send a report to management.
After the investigation, Bob was obviously fired, and presumably his Chinese colleagues also lost their jobs.
Which, in my opinion, was not smart on the part of the company. Because the Chinese had really shown themselves to be trustworthy.
All of my classmates were “popular” from my outside-of-the-social-circle view. But here is what I know caused the “downfall” of two of them who were particularly popular. I graduated in 1998, and this is all from what happened when we were still in high school, what I’ve heard through the grapevine in the 22 years since, and what they post on Facebook:
Martha – Was one of the most popular girls in school, mainly because puberty had been very kind to her. She was dating a man in his 20s when she was a junior, so she was either 16 or 17. She was in his car one night when he flipped it over twice on the highway. It was a single-car accident. I believe alcohol was involved. She never came back to school after that. She survived, but was never quite the same. The man she was with died. Later, the rumor came out that her parents didn’t even know she was dating him. Had he survived, he could have been arrested for statutory rape.
Kyle – The school’s token “surfer dude.” I grew up near the beach, and surfing was a popular pastime with the rich kids. He was the most popular one in that group, and he even looked the part: dark tanned skin, bushy blonde hair, fairly “ripped,” etc… So he was popular with the girls in school. That popularity lasted beyond school and, sometime in his early 20s, he got caught sleeping with someone else’s wife and got the crap beat out of him. As in, an extended hospital stay for facial reconstruction kind of beating. The assault even made the local news. I’m not sure if the guy who beat him did any jail time, but I know that, according to all of our mutual friends, Kyle’s life hasn’t been very great since then. Everyone just describes it as “sad.” Did you hear about Kyle? It’s so sad, what’s happened to him…
I had a friend who was let go before his three month probation period was over. He was competent, I had worked with him before, and he always got his work done on time, when I worked with him.
His wife was suspicious that somebody was finding out where he got a job, and phoning in a bad reference. I don’t think that was the case, but its possible.
You know how some people have whats called a resting grumpy face. Well he had a resting happy face. It looked like he was always smiling. So when his boss would explain something serious to him, he would be smiling like he had not a concern in the world. He also had a sense of humor that alternated between dry and sardonic, that many people didn’t get.
Some people were insulted by his humor, because they didn’t get it. Then they would ask for an apology, and he would have the biggest smile, while he apologized.
I think that was his problem. But he didn’t even know he was constantly smiling. So he was totally unaware of the effect it had on people.
I’ve been in restaurants with famous people—I’ve been on film sets WORKING with famous people.
One time—long ago, on lunch break from working on the film “Pump Up the Volume” [1991] —was director John Waters—having lunch with porn star Traci Lords—an odd pairing, I thought—but not too odd.
I just noticed and didn’t bother them.
When I was a young fan—in film school—being exposed to the NYCity celebrity scene—I got a few autographs—Robin Williams, Peter Frampton, Monty Python Terry Jones, Charles Durning, Mike McGear [Paul McCartney’s brother], Joey Ramone.
But once I was in the business—it seemed kind of weird.
Especially with people I worked with—Christian Slater, Robert Englund [Nightmare’s Freddy!], Paul Dooley, and others.
Funny thing is—I’ve met far more celebrities “off the clock” than I did working in the business.
And oddly—I’ve been in LA for over 32 years now—and I think I met more in New York than I have here.
Being on foot in NY is more common than being on foot in LA—where I’m mostly in a car. This allows accidental meetings to take place more often.
Just not talking to women
Grilled Lasagna Sandwiches
The recipe ingredients are per sandwich.
Ingredients
2 slices bacon or ham
2 slices mozzarella or Swiss cheese
Sour cream
Tomato paste
Bread
Oregano
Instructions
Spread sour cream and tomato paste on bread and sprinkle on a little oregano to flavor.
Fry bacon or ham and put it between two slices prepared bread.
On his 18th birthday, I sat him down in front of the television and played him a video of his three-year-old self.
He burst out laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his cheeks.
The video was an experiment based on delayed gratification, known as the ‘Marshmallow Test’.
In a classic experiment from the 1970s, a psychologist named Walter Mischel placed a treat in front of children and offered them a choice – they could either enjoy the treat now or wait a brief period to get two snacks.
When the experimenter left the room, many of the kids couldn’t wait and ate the treat (often a cookie or marshmallow), but a portion of the kids could delay the urge to enjoy the treat and wait for the reward of getting more delicious goodies.
What Mischel concluded was that the kids able to delay gratification had several advantages later on over the kids who could not wait.
The children who waited performed better academically than kids who ate the treat right away.
He found kids who delayed their gratification also displayed fewer behavioural problems and had much higher SAT scores.
His findings have since been largely debunked for not taking into consideration socio-economic factors. The latest research suggests there is a lesser correlation between the results showing willpower, and a greater emphasis on delayed gratification being an indicator of intelligence.
I don’t know if it matters to this, I only did it as a bit of fun.
In the video, I sat my son down at the kitchen table and placed two bowls of sweets in front of him; one bowl had five sweets, the other just the one.
I told him he could have the one sweet now, but if he could wait for five minutes – and I pointed at the minute hand on the clock and showed him where it needs to go to – then he could have the bowl with five sweets.
I then left the room.
His facial expressions were hilarious.
The angst.
His face alternating from contemplation to expectant glee and then more angst.
He employed diversion tactics… looking away, checking the sweets, looking at the door, checking the sweets, studying the clock, checking the sweets.
Rubbing his eyes, checking the sweets.
His 18-yr-old self was in kinks at this 3-yr-old child.
He couldn’t remember doing it and it brought him to tears of joy.
It was brilliant.
I recommend all parents do this… for the fun of it alone.
Five minutes later, I returned.
He had not eaten the sweets.
His face was a picture of delight.
He grabbed the bowl with 5 sweets and stuffed them in his pockets.
Smiling like a lemon shark.
Then, an afterthought… he went back to the table and took the single sweet too.
I had a friend in my school. In Class 10th, the registration forms for boards were getting checked by our class teacher. He was calling each student roll-number wise and asking their details. When his number came and he was asked, “ Father’s occupation”, he replied, he is a house husband.
Our Sir mocked him saying, “So, he packs your tiffin boxes, hahaha!! ”
My friend also laughed at it, taking it a good joke.
Actually, my friend lives in my colony. His mother is a nurse in a reputed govt. hospital and his Dad stays at home, doing all the works a genuine housewife does.
They are well economically. The husband is damn caring. Each evening, he goes hospital and takes his wife to home, lifting her bags in his hands. Both are happy.
But the man is nothing but a laughing stock in our colony. No man, literally no man is his friend here. No one talks to him as he is busy in his house chores too and he doesn’t do “manly” activities. He washes clothes, wipes the floor, maintains bills, buys groceries etc. But he is mocked behind his back. People say words like,
“E kouno kaam na Kari…jeevan bhar aapan mehraaru ke kamaayi khhat rah jaayi.”
He’ll never do any work and will keep feeding on his wife’s earnings forever.
But have we ever asked any women like, “Why she’s a housewife?”
In fact society’s eyes start glittering when they hear that this woman is a housewife.
But being house husband is shameful, malicious, atrocious, non-manly thing.
What do you wish was socially acceptable?
That if a couple has agreed to their terms that one will work and others will stay home, then we must shut our mouth if the gender is not suitable to our eyes. Neither housewife nor househusband is a pity task if the couple has decided to work this way.
my father was a great parent, but he was often not home, and when this incident happened, he was fighting the Korean War. I was not quite five when I discovered that my mother was basically a piece of garbage. Dad traveled a lot with his work after the military, and my mother would have never done any of this stuff when he was around.
Going back to age 4, we were shopping for new Easter dresses. I saw a pretty pale blue flowered dress that I really wanted. I was born blind in one eye and you could tell. I was skinny and had kinky black hair while my older sister was very pretty and blonde
My mother told me I could not have the blue dress because ugly little girls should wear brown and dark green so people would not notice them. I threw up on the floor of the store. She bought my sister the blue dress I got a dark green checked dress, that was so ugly. I have torn up any picture that ever showed any sign of it.
Now if this was the only thing my mother ever said to me like that, it would be OK but it wasn’t. But she never hurt my feelings again because I thought she was a drunken piece of garbage. In fact, I kind of got a kick out of the things that she said. My favorite was when she told my too much younger sisters, that they should be very careful or they might end up like me, not a normal woman. My little sister laughed at her and said“yeah, we might grow to be lawyers too. shoot me now“
My husband told me that my father‘s funeral was the worst display of emotion that he had ever seen because my father had five children who adored him and overtly mourned his passing. I did not see a tear at my mother‘s funeral.
if I could change things in my childhood, I would want a mother who loved me and a mother that I loved.
Ah, the classic cheese question. The red layer you’re referring to on the outside of cheese is known as the rind.
The first thing to know is that not all cheese rinds are created equal. Some are edible and tasty, others are purely functional. But let’s talk about the red rind, specifically.
That red layer is often found on a type of cheese you might see on a pub menu or nestled in a fancy charcuterie board: Gouda, Edam, or sometimes even Cheddar. It’s a wax coating, and it serves a grand purpose. The wax prevents the cheese from drying out and also protects it from unwanted nibbling critters while it ages to perfection.
So, should you eat the wax? I’ll stop you right there. No. Wax is not meant to be eaten. It’s like the shell on a peanut; it’s part of the packaging. You’re supposed to peel it off and discard it. Now, some might argue that there might be a cheese or two where the outer layer is dyed but isn’t wax. It’s rare but in these cases, you can eat it. However, the real star is what’s inside.
Now let’s go a step beyond. Some cheeses do have rinds that you’re meant to eat. Think Brie or Camembert with their soft, white mold rinds; they’re part of the experience. The rind adds texture and flavor complexity that cheese lovers seek out.
But back to the red wax. When you’ve got a chunk of Gouda and you’re really getting down to it, you’ll cut away the wax as you slice off delectable pieces to enjoy.
To wrap up—pun intended—most red layers on cheese are like a book cover for your cheese, telling you a bit about what’s inside and keeping it in good condition until you’re ready to dive into the story. It’s not part of the meal, it’s just a protective layer. Peel it off, toss it aside, and enjoy the cheesy goodness within.
Enjoy your cheese adventures, and remember, just because it’s wrapped up doesn’t mean it’s meant to be eaten. Happy cheese hunting!
Right now, as I type this, I’m in Florida helping care for my mom. My dad and I have been doing 12-hour shifts with her, because she needs round-the-clock care. Between that and all the thousand things around the house that need tending to that my dad isn’t able to, I haven’t been sleeping much.
Last night at about 5am my mom started having trouble breathing, so I called 911. We just heard from the hospital 10 minutes ago. The cancer has spread to her lungs and brain. She really wanted to make it to her birthday in 6 days. The doctors don’t think she’ll make it.
So I’m not maybe the best person to talk about loving life right now.
And yet…
A few days ago, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Festival of Lights in Cape Coral. They had hot cocoa and a campfire with marshmallows.
When I stumbled out of bed this morning (well, technically this afternoon), the first thing that happened was my mom’s cat sat at my feet, meowed at me, and headbutted me to say hi.
Right at this very moment, I’m looking out the window onto my parents’ patio, where three squirrels are chasing each other across the screen roof, and it’s delightful.
I was born just barely early enough to see humanity walk on the moon—-some of my earliest childhood memories are sitting in front of a B&W TV watching the Apollo launches. Odds are good I will see humanity walk on Mars. Isn’t that amazing?
I am surrounded by love. I’m spending Christmas with my Talespinner. My life is filled with creativity and joy—I write books with some of my lovers, my wife and I created the Borg Queen xenomorph parasite cosplay from an idea she had three years ago, I’m teaching myself CNC machining and laser engraving.
I live in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity in human history. We can fly through the air. Every day, we learn more about the universe.
This photo:
was taken by a probe that landed on a comet. We have the capacity to launch a probe that can travel for years and then arrive precisely on a small rock traveling at 84,000 miles per hour, which is about like a person in Boston shooting a rifle and hitting a golf ball in midair in Moscow. (Bizarre how many people think science is “just another belief system,” eh?)
And, I mean, I get it. The world isn’t all roses. Right now, far too many people in my country are too uneducated in history to recognize when they’re being lied to by yet another populist grifter selling them the same old tired lie that all their failures are the fault of somebody else.
We have a political party that takes gleeful, sadistic delight in mendacious cruelty, and a voting populace that sincerely believes it’s okay to vote for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party because surely the leopards won’t eat their faces—only the faces of the Mexicans and the gays and the trans people, right?
There is pettiness, and cruelty, and meanspiritedness. There are people who make voting choices because they want to hurt other Americans just to own the libs.
But viewed on a large enough scale, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. We may be in the “one step back” part of the “two steps forward, one step back” cycle, yet this too shall pass.
I want to be here to see what happens next.
Saving the cub
Disney Left Out the Most Gruesome Aspects of the Original Snow White Story
Oh, Snow White, that classic, if a little retro, fairytale of good triumphing over evil. It’s a sweet story of an innocent young beauty who is banished by a vain, cruel, and jealous stepmother and who, with the help of seven lovable dwarfs, ultimately finds everlasting true love. Walt Disney turned the fable into the first full-length animated musical feature film in 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is to this day one of the top-10 films of all time (adjusted for inflation), beloved by generations of children.
It turns out the American animator left out a few gruesome details. Disney’s well-known Snow White is a sanitized version of the original German Brothers Grimm fairytale, which was a lot more, well, grim.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn’t actually come up with the story of Snow White or Cinderella, Rapunzel, or any other storybook princess associated with their (and now Disney’s) name, for that matter. The Grimms were German scholars, researchers, and authors who collected folktales that were part of a rich oral tradition, having been passed down from generation to generation of women telling the stories to pass the time. In 1812, they published the collection as Nursery and Household Tales.
Despite its title, the book was not originally intended for children. The text included violence, incest, sex, and perhaps most deadly of all—footnotes. In the Cinderella story, for instance, the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels in order to fit into the glass slipper.
In “Little Snow-White,” as the original story was called, the Evil Queen asks a hunter to take Snow White into the forest to kill, as happens also in the movie. (In the original version, the child is also only 7 years old, as opposed to Disney’s 14. Neither seems old enough to consider marriage.)
In the Grimm version, the Queen orders the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s internal organs, saying “Kill her, and as proof that she is dead bring her lungs and liver back to me.”
He kills a boar instead, and brings back to the Queen the boar’s lungs and liver—which the Queen thinks belongs to Snow White and so promptly eats. Ewww!
“The cook had to boil them with salt, and the wicked woman ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow-White’s lungs and liver,” as the Grimm brothers wrote.
The Queen tricks Snow White three separate times in the Grimm version. The first time, she has Snow White try on a corset, which is so tight, Snow White passes out. (The dwarfs save her by cutting the laces.) The second time, she sells Snow White a poisonous comb, which the young girl puts in her hair, causing her to pass out. (The dwarfs take it out.) The third time the Queen tricks her with the same poisonous apple we see in the Disney film.
Having fainted and presumed dead, young Snow-White is placed in a glass coffin in both book and movie. When the Prince happens by in the Grimm version, he insists on taking the deceased beauty away, even though he’s never met her. The dwarfs hesitantly agree, but as they are carrying her coffin out of their house, one of them stumbles. Jostled from her resting place in the coffin, Snow White spits out the apple lodged in her throat and is immediately revived. Without the influence of the Prince’s kiss.
In movie and in folklore, Snow White and the Prince fall in love and get married (never mind that in the original tale, Snow is only 7 years old). In the movie, the seven dwarfs chase the Evil Queen into the forest, where she tumbles off a cliff—with a push from a convenient lightning strike—and falls to her death.
In the book version, the Queen attends their wedding where she is meted out a just punishment of dancing to her death. (Perhaps this last was thought up by a 19th century noblewoman forced to dance endlessly to the 1812 version of Bruno Mars’s “Marry You.”)
The more Grimm version of the Queen’s death goes like this: “They put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.”
You can see why Disney wanted to clean up that unsavory image!
I am working as a police sergeant in a small city in the midwest. A man comes in, wearing a very nice suit. A young woman is standing next to him. He tells me that about an hour ago one of my officers pulled over his 16 year old daughter. The gentleman says the officer told the young woman she would have to give him oral sex or he would write her a ticket that would cause her to lose her probationary license. The man wanted the officer terminated immediately or he was going to call his friend “the mayor” and have both of us fired.
I asked to see the citation he is holding. I asked if his daughter would be willing to give a sworn statement so I have evidence of the situation I can use for further action? He agrees. I bring a court reporter and an audio recorder. I date and time stamp the start of the tape and ask her describe the situation that occurred when she was issued citation number XXXXXXX on this date.
She gives a full complete account just like the details her father had given to me a few minutes before. When she concludes her statement, the court reporter asked her to sign a promise that all information is true and factual to the best of her with the understanding it may be used in criminal actions in this matter.
At this point I only know what I have been told by her father and her. But I knew something the father and daughter do not know. About a month prior to this event the police department installed cameras in all the squad cars. Whenever the red lights are activated the camera starts recording and microphone mounted on the officer’s shirt picks up audio and puts it on the tape (it was the initial use of squad cameras, we used VCR tapes, But the officers had no ability to over write or erase recorded tape).
The court reporter took the dictated statement to the girl and had her sign, and her father had co-signed because she was underage, the court reporter then took the statement upstairs to the clerk of court for filing.
I went to to the Evidence Room and watched the video tape of the traffic stop that had been recorded on our new squad cam system. 15 minutes later I came back to the interview room. The father was mad this was taking so long. I explained we had some new systems and I was reviewing how they matched up with his daughter’s testimony. I put a tape in the VCR and played every second of the traffic stop from the time the lights were turned on till officer ended the recording by manually shutting off the record feature by turning off his red lights and camera. The officer was professional and told the reason for the stop and requested the driver’s license, registration and insurance card from the driver. He went back to the squad with no further discussion other than to tell her to remain in her vehicle while he checked her status and wrote her citation. He came back to her car explained the citation, she asked”Isn’t there something I can do to get out of this ticket?” The officer said, “no, the citation has been issued, pay the listed fine or appear in court on the date shown, just slow down in the future, please use caution merging back into traffic. And then the officer walked back to his squad as the young lady drove away.
No sexual offer from the officer to void the citation, no discussion outside of the details of her responsibility to handle the fine or appear in court. And a standard warning to use caution merging back into traffic.
The father stood up, looked a little embarrassed. He said they had taken enough of my time and they should be going. I told him he was free to leave but his daughter filed a false police report. And Juvenile Probation Officers from the county were enroute to the station to charge her as a minor and determine if she should be placed in protective custody. I urged the father to remain and meet with JPO. I looked at the young lady and told her how lucky she was this happened when she was only 16 years old. An adult making the same false accusations would face felony charges. I told the father they could remain in the interview room until JPO arrived. If they tried to leave she would be taken and place in our juvenile holding area.
He was most cooperative at that point.
Now I believe the young lady thought a dramatic story would deflect any anger her father felt towards her for the citation. I am sure she did not realize how this would spin out of control and her father would make an official complaint. But if we did not have cameras the officer would have been been pulled from street duty and placed on an administrative assignment till Internal Affairs had completed their investigation. If they failed to find evidence enough to charge the officer I am sure Daddy would have have made loud and angry complaints to his friend the mayor.
There are many, many cases throughout law enforcement, public employees and private business where males in positions of authority have pressured women. It still happens today. Remember many but not all are true. I used this story for many years to convince officers that the need to document what they do correctly outweighs the same amount of time one of them does something bad.
And when they do we catch them, punish them and fire them. Camera system are expensive and keeping the recorded files is a logistical nightmare…but it is all worth it. Maybe we could require all politicians to wear cameras every day?
I don’t think, I know. each sanction lead to more sanctions and each new sanction will create an anti sanction action. Countries throughout the world will pad themselves with measures where sanctions will be nullified and totally ineffective. More sanctions is pushing a new world order in that everything western and U.S. will be replace and alternate anti sanctions mechanisms and systems that make future sanctions not work any more.
That is what all sane and sensible people will do and react when you fxxked them up. They have dumped the dollar faster, they will stop using SWIFT, they will not accept western standards and set up their true world standards, the will avoid western banks, the will stop depending western financial institutions and system. They will ignore western rating agencies, they will stop depending on the west swiftly and speedily. That is what I know happened.
To me the U.S. are losing its unfair advantage. And each new sanctions is like another nail in coffin of the western rules based international order. I am certain the U.S. sanction because it getting desperate to keep its rules based international order but instead it is speeding the demise and implosion of the U.S.
That is what is happening in the world each time the U.S. sanction.
U.S. Military Has More Unfeasible Plans For Ukraine
Yesterday the Biden administration ‘declassified‘ laughable numbers about alleged Russian losses. It did not help. Zelenski’s mission to get more money from Congress has failed:
Following a roughly 30-minute meeting with Zelensky – their first one-on-one encounter – House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden administration’s response to congressional Republicans’ demands has been “insufficient,” and reiterated his stance that a deal remains unlikely without a “transformative change” at the border.
The Republicans also asked the White House for its strategy in Ukraine. But as the New York Times reported yesterday, there is none.
American and Ukrainian military leaders are searching for a new strategy that they can begin executing early next year to revive Kyiv’s fortunes and flagging support for the country’s war against Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. … The United States is stepping up the face-to-face military advice it provides to Ukraine, dispatching a three-star general to Kyiv to spend considerable time on the ground. U.S. and Ukrainian military officers say they hope to work out the details of a new strategy next month in a series of war games scheduled to be held in Wiesbaden, Germany.
That the counter-offensive had failed has been obvious since mid of June. A reason for the failure were fake war-games during which the parameters were skewed until the games showed that Ukraine would win:
Logic dictates that any responsible use of the KORA simulation system would have predicted the failure of the 47th Brigade’s attack. According to The Washington Post, the officers of the 47th Brigade “planned their assaults and then let the [KORA] program show them the results – how their Russian enemies might respond, where they could make a breakthrough and where they would suffer losses.” The KORA simulation allowed the Ukrainian officers to coordinate their actions “to test how they’d work together on the battlefield.”
Given that the Ukrainian force structure was insufficient to accomplish the mission-critical task of suppression, there was no chance for the Ukrainian forces to accomplish the actual assault requirements of a breaching operation – the destruction of enemy forces on the opposite side of the obstacle barrier being breached. The Ukrainians, however, came away from their KORA experience confident that they had crafted a winning plan capable of overcoming the Russian defenses in and around Orekhov.
When one examines the structure of a KORA-based simulation, it becomes clear that the system is completely dependent upon the various inputs which define the simulation as a whole.
Now the U.S. is sending one of its generals to take command of the Ukrainian army and will launch more war games. To what outcome will their parameters be skewed.
Apparently the time since late June was insufficient to come up with a new strategy for Ukraine. This will not do:
Some in the U.S. military want Ukraine to pursue a “hold and build” strategy — to focus on holding the territory it has and building its ability to produce weapons over 2024. The United States believes the strategy will improve Ukraine’s self-sufficiency and ensure Kyiv is in a position to repel any new Russian drive.
The goal would be to create enough of a credible threat that Russia might consider engaging in meaningful negotiations at the end of next year or in 2025.
At the same time, Ukrainian officials are examining strategies that build on their successful deep strikes on Crimea last fall. They are searching for creative ways to keep Russia off balance with attacks against arms factories, weapons depots and train lines for moving munitions, and to score symbolic victories. One Ukrainian former senior military official declined to discuss the proposals but said the new plan is being refined and is “very daring.”
The plan is that Ukraine will go into defense mode while committing more terrorism. But why would Russia let Ukraine build real defense lines? Ukraine is starved of artillery ammunition. It does not have the troops to hold all lines.
And whatever line it can build will break under intensive fire.
In the Summer of 1943, after German attack on Kursk had failed, the Soviets went into an offensive mode that did not stop until its troops captured Berlin. The German army retreated to defense lines, then retreated again and again – all the way back to Berlin. It took nearly two years, but the outcome was obvious as soon as the attack on Kursk had failed.
Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top American commander in Europe, has been taking a bigger role in coordinating with Ukrainian officials.
The Pentagon has also decided to dispatch Lt. Gen. Antonio A. Aguto Jr., who commands the support of Ukraine from a base in Germany, to spend lengthy periods of time in Kyiv. General Aguto will work more directly with the country’s military leadership to improve the advice the United States is offering, American officials said. While the White House has opted not to have U.S. military advisers in the country permanently, General Aguto’s frequent rotations in and out of Kyiv would inch toward the end of that restriction.
A three star general does not come alone. He has a full group of staff, dozens, which will now become military advisors on the ground in Ukraine. They will also become priority targets.
And what do those advisors know about an industrial warfare that Ukraine soldiers do not know. Well, nothing.
I for one see no change yet of the trajectory Ukraine is on. It is losing badly while its propaganda is still claiming victory. Consider this from today’s Washington Post:
Loud explosions jolted many residents out of bed around 3 a.m. in central Kyiv, followed by air raid alert sirens a few minutes later. Ukraine’s air force said that antiaircraft defenses shot down all 10 ballistic missiles that were launched at Kyiv. That assertion could not be independently confirmed.
Multiple missile impacts happened BEFORE the air alarm went on. But the Ukrainian military claims to have shut all incoming missiles down. That does not sound like a plausible time line to me. I, in fact believe that the few air defense system Kiev was give, like its artillery, pretty much out of ammunition.
With no further aid coming from the U.S., and potentially also not from Europe, it is high time to shut the war down.
Posted by b on December 13, 2023 at 15:04 UTC | Permalink
WW2, the deadliest conflict in human history. Yet there are some incredible stories of survival by soldiers. I’ll give two.
One was Alan E. Magee. He was a gunner on a B-17 bomber.
He was on a mission over France in 1943 when his plane got hit by German flak and started to go down.
He tried to bail out, but his parachute was damaged and he couldn’t open it. So he decided to jump anyway, hoping for a miracle.
He fell 22,000 feet without a parachute and crashed through the glass roof of a train station.
He survived with only some broken bones and cuts. He was captured by the Germans, who were amazed that he was still alive.
They treated his wounds and sent him to a POW camp, where he spent the rest of the war.
He was liberated in 1945 and returned to the US. He lived until 2003, when he died at the age of 84.
There’s another guy who might be even luckier.
His name was Alistair Urquhart, and he was a Scottish soldier in the Gordon Highlanders regiment.
He was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in 1942 and sent to work on the infamous Death Railway in Thailand.
He endured torture, starvation, disease and beatings for years. He was then put on a cargo ship that was torpedoed by an American submarine.
He survived the sinking and spent five days floating in the ocean with sharks and corpses.
He was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship and taken to Nagasaki, where he was forced to work as a slave laborer.
He survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 and was freed by the Americans shortly after.
He returned to Scotland and lived until 2016, when he died at the age of 97.
Women’s Dating Standards have Ruined Relationships
Number of close relationships…
What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?
What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?On first impressions, Frank was a nice guy. He extended his hand the moment he walked in my door, “How the devil are you?” he said, all bright and cheery.
Frank spoke and acted like he was my new best friend.
I’d asked for a move back to street duties – a year of pandering to our self-aggrandising chief had been enough. I’d got my wish and Frank was taking over my job, Sergeant of the Safer Streets Scheme. Despite the title, it was a political role. Allegedly, its remit was to make our streets safer – in reality, it was to make our chief look good.
I handed the reins over to Frank.
Within a day, he was badmouthing me behind my back. Within a week, he wasn’t doing half the things I’d shown him. Within a month he was taking credit for several of my long-term operations.
Within three months, they promoted him.
But that’s okay because they promoted me too.
A few years later, my boss urged me to apply for a post at headquarters. It would mean another promotion if I got it. They accepted my application and the next step was an interview.
I don’t know how he found out I’d applied, but I got a phone call from Frank.
Frank informed me he had also applied for the position and that we were the only two to go forward for an interview. He boasted that with his ‘superior CV’ he was pretty much guaranteed to get the job. It wasn’t a friendly call; Frank was trying to mess with my mindset. He tried to belittle me with insults.
The good thing about that kind of behaviour is, if you have a little emotional intelligence, it’s easy to deal with.
When people are nasty to you, do this one thing — imagine the person is talking about themselves and go-ahead and agree with everything they say.
It works on two levels.
First, you don’t get upset. In trying to cause offence, bullies tend to say things that would upset themselves and what upsets them is the truth. More often than not, people like Frank are merely describing themselves.
Second, the intimidator gets no fulfilment. Their goal is to upset you, but by agreeing with them you show you are not concerned by their words — there is nothing so dispossessing as indifference. You own them.
So that’s what I did.
The day after his interview, Frank called me again.
“Congratulations,” he said, all bright and cheery as if I was his best friend again. “I’ve just been told I didn’t get the job, so well done.”
There is a sweetness in settling an old score, and Frank deserved the bombshell I had for him.
“Frank,” I said, “you must have had a terrible interview because I decided I didn’t want to work at headquarters and withdrew my application last week. That means you were the only person in the process and still they didn’t want you!”
Italian Sandwiches
Ingredients
4 sub buns
4 Italian sausages, sweet, mild or hot
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 jar pizza sauce
Instructions
Grill sausage until done.
Slice buns open like a hot dog bun.
Spread some pizza sauce inside, then place a sausage and cover with cheese.
Wrap with foil and place over coals or on grill just long enough to melt cheese.
Add mushrooms or whatever other garnishes are desired and available.
I had a messy divorce with children. Wife left the children at home alone while she traveled out of state to see her new internet boyfriend. The children ran out of food and were scared to be home alone. They called the court appointed attorney ad litem. She called me. She told me – send your client to pick up the children immediately. She told me that she was going to set a hearing and tell the judge about the wife leaving the small children (all under 14) home alone for days with no food. I called Dad. He said “I am getting read to pick up my date and I am going to have sex tonight.” I told him to cancel his date and go get his kids. He refused. I asked him if I could have his mom (grandma) pick them up since they were home alone and hungry. He said no and refused to allow me to ever talk to his mom again. I had to call the court appointed attorney ad litem and tell her what was going on. She had to find someone else to pick up the children that night. I had represented 3 generations in this family for many years about all their legal issues. His mom kept calling — but I could not talk to her since he had instructed me not to do so. She was so angry at me. She “stalked” me for over a year. I really wanted her to know what her son did – she would have “kicked his butt”! Plus, he never paid his legal bill. This case was a real disaster and I’d spent hours working on it. As I recall his legal bill was over $10,000. I withdrew from the case. I was so mad. I had worked for months to get him primary custody. I worked hard to get the court appointed attorney ad litem was on Dad’s side. I actually watched the trial because I was so pissed. Dad came off as a total jerk with his new attorney. Mom’s attorney “got her to clean up” and ditch the internet boyfriend. Mom had a really good attorney who worked with her client to make her seem like a great parent. Mom was given primary custody of the children.
My Christmas wish is that grandma see what I wrote and understand why I withdrew and what her son did. This was probably 20 years ago and the kids are grown. I don’t know if grandma is alive. But due to this crummy client I never got another call from anyone in that family again.
In Texas, we have attorney-client privilege. If a client says you cannot talk to anyone, then you cannot. You cannot even defend yourself when they call you and scream at you. It can be frustrating at times.
Many years ago I had a nut case of a Regional Manager named Bob. Bob got a bonus based not only on sales, but lowering expenses
At this time, phone calls were not free, even local calls cost around 10 cents per minute. Bob walked by my office while I was on a call with a customer and waited for me to finish. Then he said to me “asking the customer how he was doing today cost us 10 cents, stop wasting money”. Thereafter everyone made calls only when he was not around, and productivity dropped
The office was in New Jersey where it was at that time illegal to have self serve gas stations. One day he announced that all our gas receipts had full serve noted, and we were wasting money by not using self serve. Any receipts not marked self serve would be rejected. We all drove across the border to NY in order to pump our own gas, for 20 cents more per gallon.
He posted a sign stating that if you made more than 4 photocopies of something, you must go up 6 floors to the copy center and use the massive copy machine, not the local one. He said it saved .03 cents per copy! Someone posted an analysis showing the electricity for the elevator up and down cost more than .12 cents.
For the answer to this question one need look no further than Titanic’s sister ship, RMS Olympic. What most people don’t realize is that, as the older sister, Olympic was much more well known. All those superlatives we associate with Titanic — ship of dreams, floating palace, world’s largest moving object, etc. — were originally lavished on Olympic. In 1911, when she was launched, an entire issue of the trade publication The Shipbuilder was devoted to Olympic, with barely a passing mention of the other sister then under construction. Before the sinking Olympic was far and away the more famous sister and arguably the most famous ship in the world.
Unlike her ill-fated little sister, Olympic apparently WAS unsinkable. She had three serious collisions in her career, the first of which (with the warship HMS Hawke) left her severely damaged but still afloat. The second such incident was in 1916 when Olympic turned and rammed a German U-boat that had tried to sink her; the U-boat attempted to dive but to no avail — Olympic’s propellers tore open the sub’s pressure hull like it was aluminum foil. The liner emerged from the encounter with a slight dent on her lower prow and a legendary reputation as the only civilian vessel to sink an enemy warship in World War 1. Finally, in 1934, Olympic collided with and sank the Nantucket lightship LV-117 in heavy fog. Again Olympic escaped serious damage.
Olympic transported thousands of troops to and from the theaters of war in WW1, earning the undying devotion of those who traveled upon her. They called her “Old Reliable” because she always brought you home. Others referred to her affectionately as simply “Oly.” Captain Sir Bertram Fox Hayes, Olympic’s longest-serving commander and a towering figure in British maritime history (he was in command when they sank the U-boat), called her, “The finest ship, in my estimation, that has ever been built or ever will be.”
But alas, all good things must come to an end. The Great Depression hit the shipping companies hard, and by then Olympic was over 20 years old and showing her age. When White Star merged with Cunard she was retired. She was sent to the scrapyard in 1935. Fortunately some of her interior fittings and panels were preserved and can now be found in the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, England.
A YouTube user, Neville, posted a video that completely changed the way I look at Social Media.
He and his wife suspected Facebook was listening to their phone calls. They started noticing ads popping up that were eerily similar to the things they’d been talking about the day before.
They decided they would do a test.
They didn’t own a cat. They hadn’t had a cat in 20 years. They never talked about cats.
They set up a phone call, where they both repeated the words “cat” and “cat food” over and over again during a 10-minute phone call.
A few days later:
Both his and her Facebook feed were filled with cat food commercials.
After seeing this video, it primed my awareness to it, and I immediately began noticing the same pattern on my own Facebook feed. And this has since been tested by other users who confirmed similar creepy results.
Social Media Apps can and do listen to your phone calls.
Why?
The more targeted they can make their ads, the more they can charge companies for those ads. To make more highly targeted ads, they want to get right inside of your head and know everything about you.
If you don’t want Facebook (or any app) to listen to your calls, you need to go into your settings on your phone, find the app, click on permissions, and disable access to the microphone.
Social Media companies will get as much information as possible about you with little regard for what is right or wrong. Just as long as it is legal (enough), they’ll do it.
Chinese houses tend to be quite different from those in the West.
For one thing… they are smaller.
They also (well many of them) are in huge complexes with yards-people, security, surveillance, electronic gates, walls, and facial recognition.
They tend to be stone… polished marbles, granite and other types over cement, and tend to be opulent.
For the longest time, I progressively moved into larger and larger homes, with my last two on the 300+ sq/m side. These are enormous by Chinese standards, and honestly, I found them to be too big for our little family.
But you know what?
As you move into larger homes, so does your possessions. They start to fill up the house, and before you know it, you need extra storage rooms to hold all your “stuff”.
So right now, we are living in much smaller homes.
Oh, sure the place is small and tight… with an over abundance of toys… I’ll tell you what. But it’s all we need.
Downsizing… or “right”-sizing has advantages if you look at the bigger picture.
The Chinese will move only when there is a perfect wind. They need to be absolutely sure that the Taiwanese will approve of an eventual unification. Even if the Taiwanese openly reject Independence at any time and prefer Status quo until eventual Independence, China would gain enormous face
I predict the following scenario:-
Revolt by Taiwanese Army against the Taiwanese leadership on charges of corruption
Taiwans defences under complete control of the Army faction
Arrest of Senior Leaders of the Taiwanese Government
Permission to China to fly over Taiwanese Airspace and for Chinese Navy to land in Taiwan for “Securing peace and avoiding Civil War”
This is the only scenario where China will be able to walk into Taiwan and have the Full support of the UN and 90% of the world
Every law will support China in this scenario
If any Japanese or Korean or US vessel interferes, China can LEGITIMATELY declare war and have the whole world back China because TAIWAN IS INVITING CHINA
Even if the US allege that this is a coup de at, the law says it’s still Chinas problem to solve the issue because of the ONE CHINA POLICY
At this stage, North Korea can legally threaten South Korea and checkmate Seoul while Russia can checkmate Japan in the Sea of Japan
Both would be within their rights as Allies of China because Japan, Korea and US would be the aggressors NOT CHINA
It would be like if Kashmir had a separatist movement and Kashmiris begged the Indian Army to help
Nobody can stop the Indian Army because India is within the law
That would be the scenario China would typically envision
I am certain China has a very strong group ready for such a rebellion within Taiwan
Take over Taiwan by revolution and then legitimately arrive in Taiwan to solve the crisis which would be fully legal due to the One China Policy
It’s a Legal masterpiece
The US can at best sanction China and do what they did to Russia but China has had time to slowly plan alternates
Even if Taiwan declare Independence, this would be Chinas counter plan
I can answer this one and I’ll give you the no-frills version: Your husband obviously has a high security job. He cannot talk about the work he does or he will lose his job and possibly go to prison. My late husband had that kind of job in the Army. You just don’t ask. My thought was that if he didn’t tell me anything, I couldn’t accidently repeat it. He would come home from work and I would ask “How was your day?” and he would tell me if so-and-so was in a bad mood or if they had a surprise inspection or if the soda machine was out of Coke, but NEVER any specifics of the job. Sometimes he’d tell me it was a rough day or a quiet day, but nothing else. You have to understand this and accept it. If you can’t, then divorce. The other thing I want to address here is you say is he shuts down and is cold. He doesn’t have much choice. If you are badgering him about details about his job all the time and he has told you he cannot tell you, then stop. Just stop. Who would want to come home to someone asking the same questions over and over when they’ve been told they can’t know? When he comes home, ask the simple, easy questions. “How was your trip?” “Did it go well?” Don’t even ask about the weather, since he might not be able to even tell you where he was. I believe it takes a strong person to be a military spouse, and not everyone can do it. You need to decide if this life is for you or not. Just some info: My soldier was gone a lot during one of our stateside assignments. We lived in one state for almost 5 years and he was gone at least 2.5 years of that time. Not usually more than up to 6 weeks at a time, but many of those trips were ones where he could not even call home. Make some friends, get a job, get some hobbies (I read all the books in the fiction section of the tiny post library, among other things.) And, most of all, love him when he’s home.
I was at a restaurant with my son. It was around 2:00 p.m., and the store was relatively empty, so we were relaxing, chatting, going over the menu, and pretty much inclined to just settle in, take our time and enjoy, not only the food, but chatting with our server…you know, a nice, relaxed family time together.
About 15 minutes later, a couple walked in, he in a blue suit, and she in wedding gown and veil. A bit surprised, I smiled, they returned it, he with a grin, she with a brilliant, happy smile. I was confused, though. Bride, Groom, obviously directly from the ceremony – alone?
So, I’ll admit it, I eavesdropped, just a little – enough to determine that no one came to their wedding. They were alone.
This made me sad, and my son kept saying, “Poor kids.” So, I did it. I ordered them a bottle of champagne and asked our server if, since it was slow, the kitchen could whip up some kind of wedding cake or dessert.
I wish you could have seen their faces! I’m actually tearing up now remembering it! They toasted me and Chris, and asked if they could take a picture with us. So, Chris and I are in a wedding photo album, somewhere in Ohio.
It turns out, they were both in “the system,” both were 18 and had just been dropped by the system. I’m not sure how they met, but they decided that, having no family, they’d make one of their own.
Great kids! Absolutely stellar human beings – and so sweet!
The School phoned me up as my son was being extremely disruptive and arguing with the teacher in class. I was to come down and speak to the hear teacher abotu this and what can be done etc etc etc.
Now, to be fair on her, she did not know the details at this time, but she was right in that he should not have been acting up like he did.
Now, I got to the school, asked at reception for the Head Teacher, and we both went to her office, where my son was sat down. looking a bit like he was up for it I have to admit, and I was really annoyed and so we asked WTF has just happened and why was he arguing with the teacher?
It was all down to the teacher telling the class, that Evolution is not proper science, because it is only a theory! – My son, correctly pointed out that somethign in science only makes it to a theory once it has been shown to be right. Now, so far, I have not mentioned that he was 9.
I started to laugh and I then sided with my son 100% and I said to the headteacher that the teacher was clearly wrong, and that my son would have just been arguing because he was being told wrong information. The Head did agree with me that the teacher was incorrect on this. The head said that she will have a talk with the teacher, however, this to me was simply not good enough!
I argued, that we need to go back to the class NOW, and you need to enforce the fact that the teacher is wrong and that my son is absolutely correct. The head did NOT want to do this, however, I then told her that if she did not, then I will go to the local papers and I will do whatever I can to get hat teacher fired. ( Yes, I am a git at times ).
So yeah, the teacher was absolutely horrified that the head was correcting her and that a 9 year old child had made her look like a moron.
I am NOT going to allow that level of ridiculous nonsense to be taught to my kids.
I dont care if they want to believe in any religious stuff, but if they do, then they need to have solid reasons to do so, and of course, when you understand how science works, it kind of stops you from believing in such hocus pocus as religion.
I graduated high school with an Honors Diploma, 3.98 GPA. I went to a trade school for HVAC and Refrigeration. Took right at 18 months to complete and get my technical degrees.
While in HVAC classes, I decided to doubled up and got my digital and analog electronics certifications. I was in trade school right at 2 yrs. Came out debt free.
Those 2 years a worked at a local factory.
1 month out of school, I landed a job at one of the largest hospitals in my state, as a boiler/chiller operator.
Within 1 yr at that job I moved up to lead hvac tech. Stayed there for 10 yrs.
I took every class they offered in my field. Left that hospital with certifications in building automation controls, deep knowledge in commercial HVAC, chillers, high pressure steam boilers, etc.
Moved on to a higher paying job with my states goverment general service department. Worked there for 6 yrs, gained even more knowledge and certifications.
I now part of a commercial HVAC service business. Have seven people in the company, all with extensive knowledge in commercial HVAC service work. Each of us making well over 100k a year.
I was the first in my family to not go to a traditional 4yr college.
My parents supported me in that. With that support, I was able to do what I was passionate about. I was the first, in my family, to get a job within my choosen field, without major debt.
25 yrs later, Im also the first in my family to stick with my degree and advance it/add to it, still without taking on any debt.
All this to say, support your son in what he wants to do.
Getting into the trades is looked down upon, but if it wasn’t for the trades, the world we live in, would not be remotely the same.
If he feels he can make it work, support him.
And if he fails, stand beside him with a supportive attitude and not a “I told you so” attitude.
Our kids need to make their own successes and failures.
As parents, when our kids hit a certain age, we have to let them fly on their own and hope and pray our guidance and teachings was enough to mold and shape them into productive, happy members of society.
This isn’t to say we stay totally hands off.
My two oldest children (22 and 20) still ask advice on things.
I give my life experiences on the subject matter they ask, and what worked for me. It’s up to them to take the advice, modify it to their life and run with it.
“The Stand”: US Biological Laboratory Leak Leads to 99% Global Fatality
I proudly was the nasty co-worker in the teacher’s lounge. I worked with a woman who thought she should be in charge of everyone because her husband was campus security. On more than one occasion she had let me know that she thought my lunch was “odd.” I had changed my eating habits, increased my exercise resulting in a major weight loss that was being recognized. This other woman was larger than the size I was when I embarked on my health journey. I am not fat-shaming, I am just pointing out that she was not a role model for healthy eating and lifestyle. The things I was eating were working for me.
I was in the teacher’s lounge getting my cup of coffee before I sat down to eat. The only place to sit was next to Mrs. Campus Security. I sat down, then opened my lunch box, pulled out my can opener and a can of pork and beans.
I had only one bite out of the can when I heard in a disgusted tone, “You’re not really going to eat out of the can?”
“Why, do you want some? I can scoop some out for you.” I said in reply, trying to ignore her rudeness and half a pan of lasagna that she was eating.
“That is the grossest thing I have ever seen anyone eat for lunch. You’re eating those nasty greasy beans out of a can… cold!”
“Yep, that was my plan to eat these ‘taste’ nasty beans right out of this can.”
I thought that would be the end of the conversation. All through lunch she had a comment about, “How gross I was for eating beans” or “How my beans smelled bad.” When I finished my beans, I pulled out my treat: a can of peaches in fruit juice.
I started to open the can when I heard, “You got to be kidding me! Are you going to eat those out of the can too?”
I couldn’t resist the moment and began singing a song by Presidents of the United States of America, “Peaches come from a can they were put there by a man in a factory downtown…” The other staff began laughing at the song. We were all tired of listening to Mrs. Campus Security grumble.
We had a staff meeting that afternoon, after school, that controlling lady was still complaining about my lunch. Her still being riled about my lunch led to me being inspired; I decided, right then and there, that I needed to eat the same thing daily while sitting next to her for the sheer entertainment factor.
The next day, she flipped out when I casually sat next to her, then had the same lunch as the day prior. Now, I started making comments about, how flavorful the can makes the beans. I loudly scraped my can sitting next to her while railing on about how delicious they were. The day after that, I did it again. I did it every day for a month. A few days into my inspired entertainment, the other staff realized what I was doing, they started to bring pork and beans for lunch also. Mrs. Campus Security quit coming into the teacher’s lounge during lunch because of being grossed out by us co-workers. The rest of us enjoyed our lunch period much more after her departure.
China is like a man who put on a lot of fat and muscle in order to become strong. Now it wants to improve its health by losing fat while keeping muscle through a tough diet and training regimen.
Chinese society and its economy are now going through that transition.
Up until about 2016, growth in China was easy because it was fueled by manufacturing and rising real estate prices. Most exports were made for foreign brand companies like Apple. Following this growth model, China was able to grow stronger in manufacturing by building multiple supply chains and developing its technology.
With Trump’s election in 2016, the U.S. made it clear that it would not allow this growth model to continue because it believed that China was getting a free development ride at the US’s expense. Trump started with import tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S., and when that did not generate the desired results, he called for U.S. companies to lesser their reliance on Chinese manufacturing by moving to more friendly and compliant nations like Vietnam and India, a policy which Apple has been following.
The Biden administration has continued this policy and added to it by adding technology sanctions to U.S. IP and chips, and has encouraged companies like TSMC to build chip fabs in the U.S.
What we are learning now is that the Chinese government and Huawei in particular have been secretly preparing for this worst-case scenario for at least five years and have been building their own technology, manufacturing and supply chains which are completely free of western IP. Now, the Chinese are positioning themselves to sell their own indigenously-developed technologies and products worldwide under their own Chinese brands instead of western brands. The Chinese will compete by offering what are now considered expensive high-end features in Western products as standard features in Chinese products.
Chinese companies are already doing this with electric vehicle automobiles and mobile phones, and will do it with other products. There will be a very bloody price war between Chinese and Western brands, and in order to survive, western brands will have to accept lower profits.
Domestically, the Chinese government has worked off its dependency on real estate to fuel domestic growth, which is why Evergrande, Country Garden and other real estate developers are in such trouble.
Make no mistake, this is a tough and painful transition, but there are good reasons for the short-term sacrifice.
China has always been about the medium- and long-term, never about the short-term.
In a saucepan melt 2 sticks butter. Add onion and celery and sauté. Add creamed corn, water, poultry seasoning and pepper. Bring to a boil. In a very large bowl, pour this mixture over stuffing mixture. Toss lightly then stir in eggs. Shape into tennis ball-size rounds. Place on a sheet pan. Brush with 1 stick melted butter.
The check they sent you is fake. It probably looked like a money order. The scam goes like this: They buy something from you and send you payment for too much. They tell you to go ahead and deposit the check, but to send them the balance. They may even tell you to keep a little extra “for your trouble.”
So you (the mark) deposit the bogus money order and send a check to the “buyer.” The bank quickly discovers that the money order is fake, and debit your account for the amount. You’re out the $1,200 or whatever you sent to the fraudster.
I had this happen a few years ago. I was selling an old TV for $25.00 on Craigslist. I got an email asking if it was still available. It was. He was on vacation in England, so he’d have his “assistant,” who was somewhat local (100 miles away) send me a check and pick up the TV.
A few days later, I got a money order for $1,300 in an envelope with a Sacramento return address. Then I got an email from the “buyer” telling me his incompetent assistant had sent me the wrong money order. Could I please deposit it and send a check for the excess? I could keep an extra $25.
I replied that I’d just send them the check back and wait for one in the correct amount. The “buyer” began to get angry, sending me emails threatening legal action if I didn’t comply with his demands. Out of curiosity, I called the credit union printed on the money order—they were several hundred miles away, in San Diego. They told me it was not anything they had issued. Shocker.
I looked up the physical address on Google Earth the “buyer” told me to use to send the “refund” to. It was a mail drop in London, probably with some sort of forwarding arrangement.
After several angry, threatening emails from the “buyer,” the whole thing just faded away. I still have the bogus money order as a souvenir.
Sadly, just like the venerable “Nigerian Prince” scam, there will be people who fall for it.
Hopefully, gentle reader, you won’t be one of them.
What Happened to the President? in The Walking Dead – What We Know Now
When I was married to my first husband, my family hated him so much they managed to get me kicked out of church. From across the state.
There was an AME church directly behind where we lived and I attended there. I wasn’t raised AME. I don’t raise my hands like I know the answers. I don’t dance around. I just wanted to worship with fellow Christians.
Despite me being white, these people accepted me in and made me feel comfortable. Some of the older folks actually got between me and some younger people who didn’t want me there and we’re going to “make me leave”.
They explained that skin color has nothing to do with WHO we are… that how they acted tells everything about WHO they are. And it was unacceptable.
The folks apologized to me and would look for me each week.
I didn’t want any trouble. I didn’t want to be a distraction. I just wanted to worship. And I didn’t care who was around me.
I don’t care what color someone’s skin is. I never have. It’s about who we are, not what we look like.
When I wouldn’t show up, usually because my first husband used to beat me mercilessly, they came by to get me.
The ladies saw me in a pathetic state and they would get the men… who explained to my husband how it was unacceptable. Sometimes in forceful terms.
They helped me escape.
THAT was the most Christian loving thing I’d experienced… and I’m a preacher’s kid.
I’d just finished 37 years of working in IT. I wrote a tiny piece of code used in the Internet. I ended up working in a warehouse. Their internet connection sucked and was made far worse by my boss’ insistance of watching videos all day causing print jobs to fail and produce scanners to act up.
Using ordinary user computers I’d bring up the DOS prompt and show her the crappy network numbers. She forbade me from doing it, saying I was “hacking”.
She was constantly on the phone with her Pastor. Once a month she’d be doubled over with cramps, throwing up all over the offices but refused medication because it was “sinful”.
My coffee consumption is measured in pots. The coffee pot was a one minute walk away but she’d be constantly complaining “you’re taking your coffee break now???” until I made it clear that I wasn’t taking the mandatory 15 minute coffee breaks and often working through lunch, threatening a “work to rule”.
The last straw was when she went on vacation, failed to show up when she was supposed to, failed to contact her supervisor and left me trying to do two jobs.
Her replacement was even worse. When I informed management I was fired by her for insubordination for identifying an unsafe working condition.
Yes. A parent was furious and called to scream at me when I said their child couldn’t play right now. Their child had knocked on my door, and I politely told the little girl she could come back and play tomorrow.
Her mom called and went off on me. She said I was selfish and a bully and that I let everyone else play at my house but her child. I tried explaining that her child had literally played at my house every single day for the last few months. I told her that during the last month, I fed her dinner almost every day and also took her with our family to the park, movie theater, and school functions.
I then stated that I was a single mom of 3 and needed a day to myself to catch up on household chores and run errands. I said I had been working 7 days a week and also needed a couple hours to just lay on the couch and rest with my family. She screamed that I should be ashamed of myself for making her kid sad. Now, keep in mind she was married, only had one kid, and never invited my kids over to play even though she was unemployed and home 24/7.
I later learned that mom was an addict and she wanted her kid out of the house so she could do drugs with no interruptions.
This probably isn’t considered “disgusting” to others, but it was to me. I was hired as a bartender/night manager for a small beer and wine pub-type place by the owner, whose adult kids worked at his restaurant next door. His daughters were nice – I was actually referred by his younger daughter who’d been a customer of mine at another place I tended bar. But his son – WOW! I don’t know why he hated me on sight, but he did. Unfortunately, he was the cook and I had to deal with him whenever one of my customers ordered food, and he would go out of his way to insult or belittle me.
It was my last shift before Christmas and I wanted to be a little “extra”, so I put on a super cute red and white outfit with black boots and a Santa hat. I felt incredibly festive and cute and was really looking forward to my shift. I was, that is, until I walked into the restaurant to get my till. He came out of the kitchen as I was standing there, and he literally started laughing hysterically, pointing at me and saying awful things about how he couldn’t believe I’d worn that and how stupid I looked. Somehow I was able to hold back the tears until I was back at my bar alone, but I bawled, hard. He was always mean, but that night he was especially cruel.
For the record, my customers loved my outfit and tipped me generously, being that it was so close to Christmas. And yes, I did try to speak to the owner about his son’s behavior several times, and each time he said he’d take care of it, but it never got better, which is why I quit as soon as I found another job.
My niece and I were standing in line at the grocery store check out. There were 2 Spanish girls behind us talking away in Spanish about how they were running the streets and what guys they were hooking up with . My niece who is as white as can be pulled out her food stamps to pay for her groceries. The two girls behind us started making fun of her because she was on public assistance and were calling her all kind of derogatory names and jokes. Now my niece grew up with Spanish people and also took Spanish in school so she turns around and responded to the girls in Spanish that at least she could afford to take care of her family instead of running the streets like they obviously did. They were so dumfounded they just looked at her and couldn’t respond. We just gathered up our groceries and walked out while the check out lady was laughing hysterically at the two girls.
I was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer the week I turned 34.
Tumors were all over my bones and broke my spine, hip and cracked my ribs. Several of my vertebrae collapsed and I now have kyphosis.
My disease was stable for almost four years, but slowing tumors started growing again in my spine, and this past year have spread many to other bones plus my liver and lung.
Recently a skull tumor spread into my brain and I have partially lost control of my right foot. Several of the tumors in my spine are currently threatening my spinal canal. Since that area was radiated before, it cannot be radiated again, which means that there is a very high chance I will be paralysed from the arms down before I die. That’s if I don’t die before of liver failure.
At this point I’m hoping my liver will fail before I am paralysed. I dread that so much.
That’s for the physical hardship, there’s also knowing I won’t be there for my young daughter as she grows up, that my parents will see their daughter die before them.
So to sum it up: because I’ll be missing out on more than half of my life (based on my predicted life expectancy at birth), because I’m leaving behind an 8 year-old daughter, because I could be almost entirely paralysed the last weeks or months of my life, because this is something that my child and family will have to witness… I feel like I would have good reasons to complain and feel sorry for myself.
And yet I don’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I am mad it happened and definitely wish it never had.
But it did and it does every day to too many people. You draw the short straw, or maybe just feel like you do because we don’t know what everyone else goes through. I do grumble about my uncooperative leg (now also known as “dead weight”). I do cry and often feel sad beyond words but honestly don’t feel any point in wondering “why me?”
My body reacted in such a way that made it possible for rogue cells to grow. I was otherwise young, relatively healthy, and with no cancer history in my family. It was very unlikely to happen but it did. The bodies of some people just react that way. Why not mine?
I do hope for the best, in other words a treatment that will buy me some time, but I’m also very aware of the limitations of our current medical knowledge and its unability to cure my type of cancer. (And please don’t suggest random cures in the comments, at the time of this post NOTHING has been proved to cure my particular disease).
As a terminally ill person, my thoughts converge toward what matters most: practical end-of-life arrangements, of course my daughter and leaving some sort of legacy behind. Things like expecting a miracle cure or indulging in self-pity would just feel like wasted time at this point.
This just happened to us, last month. It was my wife’s birthday, and some flowers were delivered to our house in a box. Thinking they were from our daughter, my wife took them out, and arranged them in a big vase along with a bouquet that I had brought home for her earlier that morning.
And, then, she noticed the card in the box … which read “Very sorry for your loss. Margret and Victor Voss” (names changed for privacy). We don’t know Margret & Victor and we hadn’t experienced any loss. So, she looked at the delivery label – which had OUR address on it, but not HER name. It was addressed to “April Andrews” – another name we didn’t know. And, again – OUR address.
So, I went online to the flower company website and did a live chat with their Customer Service. I explained the situation to them, and said that we didn’t know April Andrews. And, I asked them what they wanted us to do. They told us to keep the flowers, and that they would straighten out the problem. It was, after all, actually my wife’s birthday.
Well, a day and a half later … our doorbell rings. And, there stands a woman we didn’t know, but who apparently lives down the street in a house whose number is a transposition of our house number. She introduced herself as April Andrews and said that she understood that, “We have her flowers … seeing as how her father just died.”
So, instead of the flower company “taking care of the problem” by finding out the correct address from the senders and delivering another bunch of flowers – what they did was notify the local flower shop who originally made/delivered the bouquet. And THEY chose to “take care of the problem” by driving back over to the Andrews house and POINTING them up the street at our house as the place where they left the box.
Again, the flowers were now 2 days old and intermixed with others. We didn’t have any simple way to just “turn them over”. And, we were told to keep them. (I had the chat transcript in email to prove it).
But, now we have a neighbor whose first impression of us is “the people who stole their dead father’s sympathy flowers.” Real damn nice!
Glad you asked. I have about 500 of them but most cannot really be shared. This one ended up in the newspaper so I think we are pretty clear to talk about it.
About 30 years ago (when I was a paramedic) there were several guys in their late teens and early twenties fishing in a lake near town. This lake is a pretty large, man-made reservoir and a place for boating, sailing, camping and fishing. It also happens to be the scene of about 375 of the 500 “now that was stupid” moments I mentioned above. These guys were fishing from the shore and I guess the fish weren’t biting all that much so they were able to spend more time on their other pastime; drinking beer. Well, as young boys will, they started thinking about what funny thing they could dare each other to do and of course one of them suggests eating their bait. Their live bait. Minnows to be exact. These small fish (about the size of a carnival goldfish) could easily be swallowed whole with a half can of Keystone Beer. After one or two rounds one of the guys decides to take it up a notch and he pulls out a red ear sunfish he caught a few minutes before. They look like this.
His was just slightly smaller than this one but not by much. Notice the very spikey dorsal fin on this fish. They tend to deploy them like that when they are alarmed or threatened. A good example of that “threat” would be an 18 year old boy attempting to swallow you whole with a river of beer. The perch made it about a third of the way down his esophagus before becoming lodged. He swallowed it head first (because he didn’t want to get poked by the fins…. Smart) but his swallow was too slow and the fish too large and it got stuck. The tail of the fish was visible in the back of the throat so his friends tried to grab it with needle nose pliers and pull it out. That was a mistake. The dorsal fin then entered the esophagus and the fish was incredibly lodged. And alive. Very alive. And the tail was flapping back and forth over the glottis causing a major airway issue.
He was taken by ambulance to the ER and he nearly died. His friends succeeded in tearing most of the tail off the fish but it was still alive. He ended up with a cricothyroidotomy and a trip to the OR to have the fish removed surgically. As his friends messed around with the fish in the back of his throat he vomited of course. Lots of beer. This was even more of an airway issue.
So, if you’re thinking about swallowing a live fish of any size remember this. The surgery is a massive deal and fish are not sterile. Those fins often contain a deadly mix of bacteria (especially catfish) and occasionally even venom. After the acute phase of treatment….assuming you live…. You are still facing a long road to recovery. Holes in your esophagus allow gastric contents through as well and that is a major problem for your lungs and heart. Better by far to stick to those little yellow cracker goldfish snacks with beer.
The Dark Ages were not only dark – they were cold as well. In 535 Krakatau erupted and pushed in so much volcanic ash that the average temperature sank with several degrees, and historian Prokopios describes 536 as a “year with no summer” and the sun shone gloomily and did not warm. These events are recorded also by the Barbarian poetic epics. The Kalevala records this as Louhi stealing Sun and Moon, and the Eddas record 535 as Fimbulvinter.
Not only did crops fail and people all around Europe die from hunger, but in 541–542 the Justinian Plague swept over Europe and killed 50% of Europeans, whose immunity had been compromised by malnutrition and hunger. This plague – caused by the same Yersinia pestis bacterium as the Black Death in the 1300s, was a worse catastrophe than the Black Death itself, and finally killed off the Antiquity.
6th century was the worst century of the whole Dark Ages. The Frankish Kingdom was wrecked by the petty civil wars of the Merovingians, Britain lapsed back to Paganism due to the Anglo-Saxon conquest, Hispania was wrecked by the wars of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Visigoths, and Italy was wrecked by the Eastern Roman Empire reconquest – Rome again belonged in the Empire.
The climate change, which had begun in the 3rd century, had reached the pessimum by 550 AD. After that, climate again began to warm, reaching the global average by 750 AD.
My now ex-wife and I were shopping used vans. In one used car business, we found one of the make/model vans we were interested in. But the price was almost double what we’d budgeted to pay. Along comes a salesman, we chat and tell him it would need a deep discount for us to be able to consider it. We did the test drive, liked it but got no assurance that it could fit our budget, so we made to leave. He said we should let him give us a quote for their best price. We agreed, told him we didn’t want to do the whole back and forth with the manager thing, and he agreed. So we go inside the building and wait to get this quote. And we wait, and we wait. I had the feeling there was a hidden microphone at the table where we were seated, which was verified by the fact that after I said “Let’s go” they magically appeared with the quote. It was $500 off the $20k listed on the window of the van. I handed back the quote in disgust and we continued out the door. I swear three people came after us, yelling “Wait, wait!” at the back of our heads. They even knocked on the windows of our car as we were pulling out. Car dealers, don’t ignore the things we tell you, lie and use sleazy tactics to try and sell.
In a corporate setting, my best buddy, a successful consultant, once faced an intriguing challenge. He was called in to assess a project that was significantly behind schedule and plagued with bugs. The project had been in development for almost a year, with parts being tested by end-users, only to find them too buggy to put into production. Additionally, several critical functions remained unimplemented.
My buddy’s task was clear: take the project’s current state and chart a path to completion using the existing staff. Upon analyzing the original specifications, he realized that the project was essentially a straightforward database application with a few user forms required for various tasks. Taking the project home on a Friday, he dedicated his weekend to it.
On Monday, he returned to present the completed project to the manager. To the manager’s surprise, all screens worked flawlessly, with no bugs in sight. All user interfaces were in place and functioning exactly as they had been originally whiteboarded.
At first, the manager hesitated, assuming these were mock-ups. However, upon realizing that my friend had accomplished in a weekend what the manager’s team had struggled with for a year, the situation took a turn. Instead of accepting the code, the manager paid my friend for the hours claimed and forbade any further communication with the project staff or associates.
This incident underscored an important lesson that my buddy had learned over the years as a consultant: often, in complex problems, there’s a simpler solution waiting to be discovered if you’re willing to look for it.
About 2 months ago, I received a card in the mail from my uncle (Mom’s youngest brother). In the card was a check for $250.
His wife had read something I posted on Facebook, as a comment to a friend of mine. It was about being so broke that we didn’t have any food right then and would be using old gravy packets to make “soup”. I tried to make it sound like a joke, but my Uncle saw through it. Things weren’t quite that bad but they were close. I’m trying to support 3 other people who either won’t work or won’t pay to live in my house (long story but two are family) on less money than I need to do that. Although two of them have food stamps and buy food for the household, it’s still running me into bankruptcy.
Here’s what killed me though – My Uncle was fighting Stage 4 cancer at the time and he apologized in his note that he couldn’t send more!
With all he was going through, he took the time to think of me!
That check arrived on a day when I was so very low because I just didn’t know how I was going to get any food in the house to last us until the food stamp cards refilled.
I wrote him a thank you letter, and I’m glad I got it sent out right away. Less than 3 weeks later, my uncle died. I didn’t know just how sick he was until the day before he died, when his daughters posted a photo of him in a bed in a hospice. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know.
I’m still in shock that he’s gone, and still grateful beyond words to him for his help.
Cody Johnson was a 25-year-old country boy who loved cars and the wilderness.
He was looking for a church-oriented woman he could share his life with. He met the tall, pretty brunette, Jordan Graham and they began dating.
You would have never guessed they had issues if you saw their smiling pictures on Facebook. They presented a great front and Cody didn’t grasp the depth of their problems.
Cody was head over heels in love with Jordan. He cooked for her and brought her gifts and gave her tons of much attention.
A week after meeting Jordan, Cody told his mother, “I think I met the woman I’m going to marry.”
However, Cody’s friends grew concerned as the relationship seemed one-sided. They’d never seen the two of them kiss or hold hands. Jordan was cold and distant.
Jordan was extremely religious and wanted to wait until marriage before having sex. Cody was fine with it.
But he could hardly get her to kiss him. She reassured Cody that she loved him.
One year into dating, he proposed and she said yes — which is where the path to ruin began.
The wedding plans
Jordan’s friends said she was excited anytime they talked about planning the wedding, the party, and all it involved — but never said anything about Cody.
On her wedding day, as Jordan walked down the aisle crying, onlookers smiled, but her maid of honor, Katrina Martinez, was horrified.
She knew Jordan and knew this wasn’t a “good cry”.
Jordan had been asking Kristina in the weeks leading up to the wedding if she should go through with it.
Katrina told Jordan, “I can’t make that decision for you. You need to talk to Cody.”
Cody’s best man knew there was trouble beforehand too. He said he told Cody not to marry her. Something was off.
He could tell Jordan wasn’t in love with him.
But Cody was blinded by his own feelings.
The day before getting married, Jordan had a massive meltdown, telling her friend she’d “Made a mistake”. But then changed her mind and moved forward.
Ominously, they had a custom song made for their wedding and one of the lyrics said, “You helped me climb higher for a better view. You’re my safe place to fall.”
The murder — 8 days later
They attended church on the Sunday morning of July 7th, 2013. On the way out, witnesses said she’d told her husband she had a “big surprise” for him.
Prosecutors later alleged Jordan had promised to do something sexual with Cody. He made excited comments to friends before they left. And they later found a blindfold at the crime scene.
The next day, Cody’s work called and asked where he was. His boss, Cameron, was excited to congratulate him on the wedding.
Cody didn’t answer his phone so Cameron went to his house looking for him.
Nobody answered the door. Cameron sensed something was wrong and broke the door in.
Nobody was inside. He said the home gave him a terrible vibe.
He wandered through the quiet house and eventually found Cody’s phone on the ground in the garage — which was totally unlike him. Cody always had his phone.
Cameron rushed to the police station and reported Cody missing.
The cops immediately wondered why his wife wasn’t the one reporting her husband missing. A friend finally got ahold of Jordan and asked her if she’d seen Cody.
She said she didn’t know but later told cops, “He went out with a bunch of friends I’ve never met. I don’t know anything more, any of the whereabouts or anything.”
Friends and cops were immediately struck by how unemotional Jordan was with Cody’s disappearance.
When friends came to her house to provide support and comfort, she grew agitated that they were there rather than upset Cody that was missing.
At one point, she got upset and threw her wedding ring across the room — which caught sent a chill down everyone’s spine.
Then, there was a random email that Jordan received from a mysterious man named Tony The Carman, “Hello Jordan. My name is Tony. There is no bother in looking for Cody anymore.”
Cody is gone. Call off the search. He fell off a cliff at Glacier National Park.”
She took the message to the cops.
Search parties went out. Jordan participated and drove with her friends to the park.
During the drive, she was happy, singing songs and hanging her hand out the window, flying it in the wind. You’d have never known her husband was missing.
At the park, Jordan led her group to the exact location of Cody’s body. She said she “Just had a feeling he’d be there.”
His body was at bottom of a steep, remote cliff, in terrible condition.
She told her friends, “Cody told me he wanted to see this spot before he died.”
This drew even more scrutiny to Jordan. She started fudging details and changing her story during an interrogation.
Jordan didn’t help herself when authorities asked, “How did you locate his body so fast?”
This time she said the spirit of Jesus Christ led her to his body.
Cody’s best man said, “I almost instantly thought Jordan did something.”
At Cody’s funeral, Jordan sat in the front row, playing on her phone, smiling and unaffected.
People who only passingly knew Cody were more emotional than his own wife. It was at this point that her friends all concurrently knew that Jordan had murdered her husband.
Cops later confirmed that the mysterious email from Tony the Car Man had been sent by Jordan on her dad’s device.
The partial confession
Jordan admitted to pushing Cody.
She said they’d been in a fight. She said she was so upset that when he turned his back to her, she shoved him hard in the back, sending him over the edge.
He fell 300 feet to his death, landing headfirst.
There wasn’t even a struggle or self-defense argument made. She said she just did it because she was angry.
But because of so many other lies, mounting evidence, and a complete lack of caring for her dead husband, it was an obvious case of murder.
She entered a guilty plea.
On March 27th, 2014, Jordan was sentenced to 30 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
Cody’s mother is inconsolable and his family is still coping with the loss.
Cody was murdered eight days after their wedding ceremony. It’s hard to imagine how things could go so wrong so fast.
It’s even harder to fathom how someone could find breaking a person’s heart harder than killing him. But stranger, darker things have happened.
One of my old managers was a great guy but didn’t take crap from anyone.
There was a guy we worked with that was a total jerk. He liked to act all rough and tough whenever the manager, AGM or I weren’t around (I was a lead/MIT)…He especially had a history of intimidating the young shift leaders and other coworkers (especially the females). He constantly denied this but we had no reason to doubt our leadership team.
We heard through the grapevine that he was going to call out for a weekend as he felt entitled that he didn’t have to work weekends and we were assholes for scheduling him. That Friday night he texts the manager to say he was going to be out for awhile due to a “family emergency” and we better not put him on the schedule him until he says it’s ok too.
Two weeks goes by and my manager texts him to come in and we would go over his new schedule. The guy came in expecting us to give him the schedule he felt he deserved…instead he handed him a blank calendar and said that was the best we could do…basically he made the guy drive in with the sole purpose of firing him…the look the guy gave was priceless.
First things first, anyone who has ever attempted to bathe a cat knows that it can be akin to a kind of very small, domesticated warfare. Cats generally do not like water. Not only is this aversion instinctual, but it’s also part of their self-grooming pride. They spend a significant slice of their waking hours meticulously cleaning themselves with their tongues, so in their eyes, getting dunked into water is completely unnecessary.
Now, is it cruel? It can certainly seem that way, especially with all the hissing, clawing, and Olympic-level gymnastics they do to escape a bathtub.
However, there are exceptions to the no-bath rule. If your cat has rolled around in something toxic or sticky, or if they have long fur that’s become matted and dirty beyond the help of their own tongue, a bath isn’t just kind, it might be necessary for their health.
The key is technique and preparation. Unlike dogs, most cats aren’t going to jump into a bath with wagging tails and excited eyes. You have to be methodical. Prep the area with all the tools you’ll need – shampoo, towels, a non-slip mat, and perhaps even a cat bathing bag if you value the skin on your arms.
Warm water is a must. Not hot, not cold – think baby bath temperature. And always talk to them in a calm voice. Granted, they might not listen because they’re shrieking louder than a banshee, but at least you’ve done your part to maintain a façade of serenity.
After the bath, the tricky part might be drying them off. Some cats tolerate being swaddled in a towel; others might handle a blow-dryer on a low, quiet setting. Above all, ensure they’re fully dry before they saunter off because a damp cat is a cold cat, and a cold cat is a grumpy cat.
So cruel? Not inherently. But bathing a cat should be done with careful consideration and only when necessary.
And remember, while a picture of a wet cat might fetch a good number of likes on social media, your cat’s dignity and your unscratched arms might be more worth it.
This happened at all three banks where I was previously employed, before I retired.
The rule was that we were to answer the phone after the second ring. No exceptions. The tellers, New Accounts Representatives, anyone except the men. Well, I answered after the first or second ring, if I was available, and didn’t already have a customer at my desk. If I was opening accounts, doing a Stop Pay, preparing paperwork for a Foreign Wire Transfer, and the other hundred things you help customers with, yes, I would let it ring .
If you get in your car, make the trip to do some banking in person and are sitting at my desk , I am NOT going to be so rude as to ignore the customer in front of me to answer questions on the phone. (Examples: can you see if my Social Security has been deposited? What are your CD rates? Do you have any specials? Can you do a Stop Payment for me? Why is my account negative? My mother died and I am checking to see if she had any accounts with you. How late can I make my loan payment? What is the cutoff time for a Wire Transfer?)
I wouldn’t do this if a guest was in my home, so the same etiquette should be at work.
I once closed a newish account because, as I was being helped at the teller window in the lobby, the teller actually paused the transaction to answer the phone and do bank business with the person on the phone. Unacceptable!
I noticed the loan officers, the President. Vice President never answered the phone when they had a customer at their desk (and most likely could not answer questions about accounts anyway, which is the Operations side of the bank). They were on the Loan side of the bank.
I briefly mentioned this in a different post but that most angry neighbor that ever came to our door was my husband’s Commanding Officer.
He was livid with anger. He was shaking he was so upset.
When I asked him what was wrong, sir? he yelled that my 5-year-old twin boys had come to his quarters and pulled every plant from his carefully tended garden. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, even a few stalks of corn.
After my husband and I got him calmed down I called the boys into the room and ask them if they had done that. They surprised me by proudly declaring they had.
It turned out, that afternioon while I was shopping and they were home with the maid, the 10 and 12 year old boys next door had told my little ones that the Commander was transferring (was well understood by two Army kids) and his garden had to be completely cleared. And that he would pay a dollar a piece to them to do it.
He gave them each a dollar and headed for my next door neighbor’s house. I don’t know what happened to those two boys.
I bet it was not pretty.
The Stand (1994): Super-Flu Virus. The Dark Man is Coming.
He asked waiter about the menu and placed his order.
After a while a family came on the table next to him & placed their order.
To the guy’s dismay, they got served FIRST.
They started laughing and eating. One of them bragged how he knows someone in the hotel.
The guy called the waiter and asked.
The waiter calmly replies: Yours is a special order being prepared by the Chief chef. Theirs is a regular order prepared by the students in attachment because the top chefs are preparing your order. That’s why it’s taking time.
Please have some juice in the meantime, he said and left calmly.
Short after six waiters brought this guy’s order. Unknown to the guys, the hotel owner was his long lost friend who recognised him and decided to surprise him.
He changed his simple meal to a Five-star meal. The people next to his table were shocked. They couldn’t stop staring and started mumuring why he got such VIP treatment.
This is life.
Some people are ahead of you, eating their meals, mocking you & talking how they are better than you. How well connected they are.
You are waiting for your meal and wondering why is it taking so long. You endure the taunts, mockery and humiliation.
May be you are going through stress, anxiety or depression.
Don’t worry…
The owner of the world has seen you and he doesn’t want to serve you a simple meal.
Yours is a special order hand made by the top chefs. That’s why it’s taking time.
When it comes the laughing party will be silenced for good.
I worked for a mid size firm in the technology field for 25 years. Over time technology changed and eventually the system i supported was outdated. I never was really interested in learning the new stuff I was aging and I was pretty much burned out in that job. As time went on my system was phased out and eventually eliminated. I knew my time was up. I waited for that pink slip for over three years whilst doing nothing but surfing the web, catching up on current events and social media. By that time I was so bored, felt so useless and the days dragged on so long I was ready for that pink slip. When it finally came I was so relieved I was ecstatic. It took me several years to find another job that paid 1/4 of what that job paid and I worked my ass off for that tiny wage. But at least I felt worthwhile and somewhat useful. It’s not all about the money.
Three or four years ago, I, along with several of our day-shift officers, was dispatched to a theft call at a local grocery store. The complainant, an elderly lady, told us that while she was shopping, a man grabbed her purse from her shopping cart and ran from the store. She was very upset, as she had quite a bit of cash in her purse, along with some jewelry and other valuables. We went out into the parking lot and a woman told us that she had seen a man run from the store with a purse and that he ran around the corner of the building toward the back. I sent three officers around the back of the store to look for the suspect and told two other officers to canvas the parking lot and try to locate any other witnesses.
I then drove around to the back of the store where the officers were looking in every possible hiding place for the suspect. After a few minutes, one of the officers shouted that she had found something. She was holding up a purse matching the description of the purse the complainant told us had been taken. The purse looked as if it had been ripped open to make it easier to quickly search for valuables. While some of the items remained in the purse, most of the contents, including the valuables appeared to be gone.
I radioed one of the officers in front of the store and asked him to bring the complainant around to the back. When she arrived and got out of the police vehicle, I showed the lady the purse that was found and asked if it was hers. She took it from me and frantically started looking through the the remaining contents of the purse, discarding what appeared to be trash and items of insignificance as she searched. “It’s not here!” She told me. “My mother’s wedding ring set isn’t here!” She was distraught. “It appears that the thief took everything of value,” said one of the Officers. “Maybe we can get a description and find it at one of the pawn shops.” The woman was inconsolable. She explained that the ring set was the only thing she had left to remember her deceased mother. “How would he have found it?” she asked, “It was hidden in the lining.” She showed us where the ring had been concealed in the lining of the purse. We had to admit that it had been well concealed and it seemed unlikely that a thief who was in a hurry to get away would have taken the time to check for anything hidden. However, the purse had been torn, so it did seem possible that the ring fell out of the purse when the thief tossed it as he made his escape.
“Where did you find the purse?” I asked the Officer who had located the item. “It was right there, in that dumpster,” the Officer replied, pointing to a large dumpster behind the grocery store. We all walked over to the half full dumpster and took a peek. “It was right here,” the Officer told us, gesturing to one end of the container. Another Officer who was peering into the dumpster contents reached in and retrieved a pen that appeared to be expensive. “ Was this in your purse, Ma’am?” The Officer asked her. “Yes it was,” the lady replied. “My grandson gave me that pen about six months ago.” “Well,” I said to to the officers, “Who wants to go dumpster diving?”
The chances of finding the ring set seemed remote, but we decided that it was worth the effort. We agreed that each of us would take a turn digging through the dumpster for 20 minutes at a time. After gloves were passed around, the first officer went in. After 20 minutes, we switched out and the next Officer took the plunge. After about ten minutes of foraging, to our dismay, from the bowels of the dumpster came a cry of triumph from the second Officer, “Found it!” The Officer popped up out of the dumpster, proudly clutching the ring set. I’m not sure who was more pleased; the lady, who probably thought she would never see the ring set again, or the three of us who had not yet taken a turn digging through the dumpster. The lady was in disbelief (so were we), and very grateful. With tears in her eyes, she insisted on giving us a reward. I explained that while we appreciated her generous offer, we did not accept rewards and that we were just pleased that we had been able to help her. After several more minutes of discussing the miraculous recovery of the ring set, obtaining a description of the thief and a list, description and value of the stolen items, the lady left the scene.
As the five of us stood near the dumpster, I noticed for the first time how truly filthy the two Officers were who had climbed into the dumpster. “I can’t be sure until we have an expert make a determination, but it’s my guess that those uniforms will need to be incinerated,” I told them. “You guys did a great job today,” I told them. “Go home, take those uniforms off and put them in black plastic bags and then take at least three hot showers. See you tomorrow.”
The actions of those Officers that day were by far the dirtiest thing I have ever seen a fellow police officer do.
Thanks,
Captain John Sharp
The Stand – Explosion in the last scene “I brought you the fire” (S01E08)
Let me help to makes western admirers amongst orientals and Chinese nations such as Japan-and South Korea, people from greater China such as Hong Kong and Taiwan and neighbours such as Phillipines and Vietnam see light.
I am qualified to advise and share my experience. I was born in Malaysia and now a Singaporean who were a starry eye west admirer for say the first 20 years of my life.
Today I am a practical and pragmatic person who sees things differently. If your nation is a direct neighbour or in Chinese neighbourhood, try to comprehend the following.
China has been around for 5000 years as your neighbourhood and during 4800 out of the 5000 years China were really really strong. In fact so strong it could if it wants to, to walk right into your nation and claimed it for good. But they didn’t. Japan, Korea, Philippines, India and others remained a fully sovereign nation. Appreciate that.
Just look at the nation that lies and spread fear about China, the U.S. it is barely 247 years old yet it started as a 13 states union and in less than a hundred years it stole another 37 states from its neighbours. And what did the U.S. do in Asia! It murdered 3 million Vietnamese, a million each in Philippines in Mindanao, Laos and Cambodia, and at least 2 million suspected communists in Indonesia and colonised the Philippines for close to 50 years.
And they do that as a nation 10 thousand miles away from Asia! China is stone’s throw away from your shores yet you are independent! So be logical and honest about who is the aggressor and who respects your sovereignty? If you are fair China has a 5000 years gentleman. The U.S. is a 247 years hoodlum you never want to get close with
Next let me help you know your future. China is the world’s most humongous market. Your nation is blessed to have such a huge market at your door step. They can buy your products and resources and yet supply you with value for money product at a song.
They are not the despicable west who wants to change your way. They even say their socialism with Chinese characteristics is not exportable and urge you to seek your best political and social system going forward. US says it is their way or the highway! In fact the murdered 5 million Indo Chinese to make them democratic unsuccessfully.
Go to the U.S. to have fun and travel around, do business with them as they are a big spender. But whatever you do remember who really is with you and where is your future with. Most of all remember where is your nation is geographically and China will always be there! It cannot be floated away and so are you stuck there.
Don’t ever let your nation be another Ukraine, the U.S. want your people to die and your nation to be destroyed just to poke China in the eye, just like how they used Ukraine to poke Russia in the eye, unfortunately one time too many. Don’t let them have even one CIA or NED officials in your nation. And don’t ever be used as a cannon fodder.
Grow up and know right from wrong. Korea for example, whether you stay rich and get richer depends on China not the U.S. The only thing the U.S. can help you is simply to get your nation destroyed! China will always be there, it will grow to be 4–5 times the size of the U.S. economy before then of this century. And as a market for Korea, it will be bigger than your next 20 biggest market! So get real, grow up like me, be a realist and be smart.
Vote in pro Chinese candidate. Vote in a leader that has no inclination to do shit for the U.S. And telll the US. that you are a friend and a partner of China, and that you want them as tourist and investor. But under no circumstances will you allow them to interfere in your nation and in Asia. Asia is for Asians. If you have issues involving the US is a sure way to implicate issues and create discord.
The Search for Noah’s Ark and the Aliens in the Book of Enoch
Alien Abductions in the Book of Enoch and the Search for Noah’s Ark Enoch warned the Giants and the Watchers of the world. Repent or feel God’s wrath. They ignored his warning.
The floodgates of Heaven burst forth and water rushed over the Earth, destroying everything. The only thing to survive is a single vessel, a huge ship: the Ark. 5 months later, the waters recede and the Ark made ground on a mountaintop. A man named Noah emerged, and civilization began again.
Some version of the Noah’s Ark story exists in almost every religion and every culture on Earth. But did Noah and the Ark really exist? There’s evidence that they did. So much evidence, that it was classified by the CIA for almost 50 years.
But why classify it? Well, there are two problems with the Noah’s Ark story. One, the Ark is much older than anyone thought. And two, the man named Noah? He wasn’t a man. At least, not a man from Earth.
“What’s the worst accident that you’ve witnessed at work?”
Back in 1998 to 2000 I was an IT consultant supporting the computers at The RAND Corporation. My first office was a bull pen with a window facing the tunnel where Interstate-10 becomes CA-1 the Pacific Coast Highway.
I heard a crashing noise through the window. I looked towards the tunnel. Out of the tunnel came a couple of cars tumbling as they decelerated from freeway speed to zero. Unfortunately one person was not wearing seat belts. The body flew out of one of the cars. One of the other cars smashed into the road at that point where the person had hit the road. Most of the body was ejected away from the wreckage. I had nightmares for at least a year.
I asked for a different office. My new work station was in a janitor room with a window. I worked in a room with mops, cleaning chemicals, a tape drive for computer backups and a couple of computer terminals. The window looked the other direction out of the building so I could see palm trees and most of Santa Monica Pier.
Actually at the office the worst accidents were cuts from metal edges. Go get a tetanus shot. Maybe a stitch. As data centers improved it got to be rare that anyone would get cuts.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind Air Traffic Control Scene with airport deleted scene included.
Generals love new toys, especially cool looking toys that their soldiers get to wear. They love adding things to improve their soldiers. Sometimes those things are, in fact, cool and useful!
They do tend to forget however that soldiers are human and must then carry, in substandard conditions, that cool piece of gear.
Thus I give you the most useless piece of gear I was ever issued.
The IOTV deltoid protector.
Looks cool? Check.
Actually protects the soldier? Check!
It’s a win!
Not quite.
I was issued these lovely pieces of equipment and then promptly sent to Iraq in May.
You might not know this, but it’s REALLY hot in Iraq and that heat ramps up around April. Given my position as a SAW gunner, I was already carrying 95lbs of kit, not counting an assault pack, in temperatures that were quickly approaching 95–125 degrees. And my 1st Sgt informs us that we’ll all be wearing these beauties on patrol. I am not impressed for three reasons:
1: It was already hot as hell and one of the few places my sweat could soak through and cool me off was my shoulders. Now those would be covered. I’m up to 120 weather on patrol.
2: Several studies have shown that infantryman carrying more than 1/3 of their body weight suffer severely adverse consequences to their ability to fight effectively. I was already carrying 95lbs. 3–4 lbs might not sound like much but when your body armor is already creating incipient back problems, those pounds add up. Imagine getting up off the ground from a prone position, rushing 10 to 15 yards and throwing yourself bodily down on the ground with a 90 pound rucksack on your back. Then imagine someone asks you to add more weight to that.
3: Of all the places that I would choose to get shot if I had to, I’d love to get shot in the shoulder. I could fight more effectively with one hand then I can with a wound in my abdomen, very little in my shoulder is vital, and frankly the benefits just weren’t there given the cost required of me.
Fortunately my chain of command saw sense and after about two weeks of using deltoid protectors we were given permission to remove them from our kit. I put mine away and didn’t even look at them for the rest of the deployment. I did have to pay for one I couldn’t find when I got out… Those things are expensive for such a useless piece of equipment!
In 1978, I saw a guy dressed like a bum in a bar. He asked several people to buy him a beer, and they refused and make negative comments about him. I felt a little sorry for him the way he was being treated. He came up to the bar, sat beside me and asked me to buy him a beer. I brought him a few and we talked. I found him to be quite intelligent. He then said he had the next round and would buy me a beer and I could keep the change. He put what I thought a 1 dollar bill on the counter. The bar tender gave him change for $100.00. At first, I refused to take his money until he told me who he really was.
He was a millionaire and half owner of a racetrack. He explained as a rich millionaire. He had no real friends. People only pretended to be his friend because his is rich and hoping to get his money. He had no wife or girlfriends for the same reason. His rich backstabbing associates were no better. He said money is not everything and that he has a sad and lonely life. He said sometimes he will dress and act like a bum to see how people will treat him if they thought he was not rich. Some people heard what he was saying. The next thing we had, people flocked around us. He said see. At first, they didn’t want anything to do with me. Now that they know, I am a millionaire. Now they want to be my friends. I didn’t know who he was at first. But still treated him with respect and ended up with $98.00.
The word “missing” is not that appropriate here I think. I have to say in the beginning that listing things that are better in China as compared to India doesn’t mean that China is superior to India. There are also numerous things that China needs to learn from India.
First and foremost, there’s the talk about infrastructure. The roads in China are always smooth as silk. Railways that seem like they could host a ballet. And don’t even have to mention the power supply. In comparison, India is often grappling with pothole-ridden roads, crowded and aging railways, and power outages.
Then comes the education scene. The level of education among the labor force in China is something we all can learn from. It’s not just about degrees; it’s about a certain finesse, a skill set that makes the workforce a well-oiled machine. In India, they’ve got the brains, but sometimes it feels like they need to fine-tune the engine a bit.
Diligence. Chinese folks are known for their hard work, their commitment to their craft. It’s like they have an extra gear that many missed. Not to say that people in India aren’t hardworking, but sometimes, that extra pinch of diligence can make all the difference.
Public Safety and Discipline. China is known for its strict enforcement of laws and regulations, resulting in low crime rates and a generally safe environment. Public spaces are often well-maintained, and there is a strong emphasis on social discipline. In contrast, India, like many countries, grapples with issues such as crime, traffic management, and maintaining public spaces with the same level of discipline.
Business Environment. China has often been praised for its business-friendly environment and efficient bureaucratic processes, attracting significant foreign direct investment. India, despite improvements, has faced criticism for bureaucratic red tape and regulatory complexities that can hinder the ease of doing business.
Lastly, sanitation. China has been on a cleanliness drive that’s nothing short of impressive. Public spaces are spick and span, and the streets seem to sparkle. In India, while they have been making strides, there’s still room for improvement.
China’s Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the Lingdingyang waters.
Well, this is not exactly a teacher-student lesson, but a lesson which put me right in my place. I’m a physicist and have a solid base in mathematics. So when my younger brother asked me to solve this, I took one look at the problem and blurted instantly: “oh come on, man! You find this crap hard? Try solving Schrodinger’s equation to start with!”
“Just solve it, Neil!” He insisted.
I was at my usual coffee shop, having breakfast and was a little annoyed at the way I was interrupted. Nonetheless, I decided to switch on my Show Off Mode and solve the damn thing.
I grabbed a serviette that the waiter had given me and scribbled him the answer and sent it through Whatsapp. As soon as it got sent, I sat back and smiled, quite content and proud with the answer that I had given him.
So, here’s the question
And here’s my answer:
Well, 3 unknowns and 3 simultaneous equations, piece of cake, right?
Half an hour later my brother messaged me back.
Noel (My Brother): Shit, man! What a nerd! I totally see the physicist in you taking over.
Me (gloating with pride): So, did you get it?
Noel: Sure did! But I solved it in a different way.
Me: Aaaaannd you got the same answer?
Noel: Yes, I did!
Me: Wow, really?
Noel: Well, all the figures appear twice in the first three diagrams and if you add them all up you get, 2(x+y+z) = 10 + 20 + 24 = 54. So x+y+z = 54/2 = 27!
Me (my pride nosediving): Hey, that’s not bad!
That’s the day I realized there’s always a simpler explanation to everything. You just need to keep your mind and ears open to get it!
Once upon a time, maybe even until the early 2000s, the Western Media had CREDIBILITY
They followed the five principles of INVESTIGATE JOURNALISM
Find the evidence
Establish the facts based on the Evidence
Try to destroy the facts yourself to see if they can stand up to scrutiny using the RED TEAM BLUE TEAM ANALYSIS
Build the Narrative
Write about and Talk about the Narrative
It’s why their coverage of the Vietnam War or the 91 Gulf War or the 99 Kosovo Crisis was so appreciated and admired
Today or even over the last decade, they have started a different course
First Build a Narrative based on what Money Interests & Politicians want (Russia is losing, China is collapsing etc)
Then start selectively FINDING AND TWISTING facts to fit the narrative
Then start FINDING the evidence to fit the narrative and IGNORE all the contrary evidence
Attack anyone who tries to counter the narrative by going personal on them and accusing their integrity or morality or accuse them of racism and bigotry
The Best example was the Ukrainian Crisis :-
First the Narrative was Putin has missiles only for 3 months
That was obviously nonsense
Next was the Narrative that Putin and his economy was collapsing
That was nonsense too
Next was Putin’s ISOLATION
That turned out to be nonsense too
Now it is the fact that Putin has lost 300000 men so far
Again that is nonsense of the highest order
The Narrative becomes lesser and lesser credible and more and more bizzare and weird
The Western Media finds so called ‘Experts’ who will shamelessly fall in line with the narrative even if they know they will be embarrassed later
So many Military experts have been humiliated by their predictions on Putin and yet without a shred of shame, they still go around talking and giving expert opinion
The Real experts like Brian Berletic, Scott Ritter, Colonel Kassad, Doug Macgregor etc have been saying the perfect truth for over a couple of years now
They still follow the old method of journalism
With China the Narratives have changed
First it was Uyghur Genocide
That was nonsense
Next it was Slave Labor
Again Nonsense
Next it was Cultural Genocide
Again Nonsense
As each Narrative becomes more and more unbelievable , the newer narrative becomes even more bizzare
Like this China and the Hard Landing
Every ‘Expert’ who predicted a collapse of China and there have been 60 of them across the last 34 years – have missed their deadlines by almost a decade at least
In 1990, they said China would collapse before the new Millennium (1/1/2000)
Then they said in 2003, that by 2011 China would collapse
Then by 2015 (In 2005)
Then by 2025 (In 2010)
Every single time they are proven wrong
Every single time they double down and give a new date
Even now when China, for a $ 19T economy delivers a 5% growth against a very low global demand and a real estate slump, it’s regarded an economic weakness whereas every economist of repute regards it as EXCELLENT RESILIENCE
Yet when India with its $ 3.53T economy manages 6.5% growth , it’s regarded as a boom when any economist can see that it’s a result of spending and inflation mostly
Likewise UK or Germany are completely ignored
So the Mainstream Media doesn’t any longer have the CREDIBILITY they so enjoyed
Their Economic Experts are shameless men who don’t care how many times they are proven wrong
They are ready to risk their reputation again and again and have lost all their credibility
They all have Political Agenda now
The best way to handle them is like is like our friends the Afghanistan Taliban
Their simple response is “If you publish lies about us, we will burn your daughter alive while you watch”
Crude but Brutally effective 😁😁
Worked well with Laura Ingraham who was so terrified she stopped entirely
The kids in my daughter’s nursery get a milk carton every day in school during milk and fruit time. The milk comes in a paper carton with a small straw attached to it which is wrapped in a small plastic cover.
We just found out today that one of the kids at the beginning of the year struggled with opening her wrapped straw from the cover so my daughter helped the kid unwrap it. And because pretty much all the kids struggled with it, they all gave their milk cartons to her so that she could unwrap it.
So apparently, every day during lunch the kids form an orderly queue so our little one can unwrap each and every kid’s straw in the classroom.
My daughter is lactose intolerant so does not drink milk. She brings her bottle of almond milk with her from home. She unwraps every single kid’s milk carton before she goes about drinking her own almond milk. When the teachers told us that today, my wife cried a little bit inside! Very proud of our LO!
I grew up in a small, rural area in the midwest. Our school bus was the only one with racial unrest. A handful of black children went to the school and all rode this particular bus to school. They had to endure a great deal of harassment, including name calling.
At the beginning of one school year, a new family moved in. The mom was white. The dad had some mixture of black blood. They had a number of children including two middle school-aged boys. The trouble on the bus began almost immediately.
A tall, high school-aged white boy walked up to one of these boys (he was probably about 5’7″ with sandy, curly hair) and said, “Move over n—–.” The new kid replied, “Say it nicely.” The big, white kid repeated, “Move over n—–!” He now had an audience and was enjoying this. The new kid repeated, “Say it nicely.” By now everyone was watching to see what would happen. The big, white kid shoved the new kid to show him who was boss. The new kid calmly stood up, and beat the living daylights out of this big, white kid with his bare hands. He, then, calmly sat down and said, “Say it nicely.” I don’t remember anyone bothering him, or his sisters, ever again.
1K Upvotes! Thank you, everyone. And, yes, this is a true story. I was an eye witness to this event, and was sitting in the next forward seat of the bus. All I had to do was turn around in my seat to see this played out in living color.
“Blood” here refers to family background or lineage. Obviously, I am not referring to the color of blood in a person’s physical body. We often speak of ‘Irish’ or of ‘Italian’ blood.
Seeing The Future Of The Strong Independent Single Women
Chicken Cordon Bleu
A slightly unconventional, but delicious, recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
6 chicken breast halves, skinned and boned
Salt and pepper
6 thin slices ham
3 slices Swiss cheese, halved
1/2 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
3/4 cup margarine*, melted
Instructions
Place chicken breasts on a cutting board; cover with waxed paper, and lightly pound to flatten the breasts. Do not cut through meat. Discard waxed paper.
Lightly salt and pepper the breasts. Place a slice of ham and 1/2 slice of Swiss cheese on each breast. (Cheese may need to be folded to fit on breast.) Roll the breast, jellyroll style; secure with a wooden pick.
Combine cracker crumbs, Parmesan cheese and parsley.
Melt margarine* and dip rolled breasts in the margarine, then in the cracker crumb mixture.
Place in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Originally Answered: If employers rejected you, does it always mean you are worthless or incompetent?
Well….
No. Definitely not.
Take this example, of a clearly worthwhile human being who was rejected for employment by Cadbury in the UK.
Now, Mr. Jones CLEARLY had great worth and was a fine example of a human being. It’s possible his approach to Cadbury when seeking employment could have been improved somewhat, but how could you call him either worthless or incompetent?
He had submitted a very creative sketch of an “Everlasting Chocolate Bar”; who couldn’t get on board with that idea?
He obviously had some good feedback from his various eBay transactions that he was able to provide as proof of his worth.
Who’s really to say that he actually never did “super-secret spy work” that he legally couldn’t talk about?
And consider the kindness and thoughtfulness it took for him to “pay it forward” and include a £5 note with his application so that the hard-working human resources clerk could have lunch!
See? An employment rejection letter sent to a very worthwhile and competent human being.
I don’t have a television, In fact, I haven’t had one since around 2004.
It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s just that I am not interested in one. I occasionally watch movies, but those that I do watch are downloaded torrents, and I watch them either on the laptop of on one of the (too many) pads that we have lying around the house.
Sure, there are television shows in China, and I could watch them, but they are all kind of silly and are of no interest to me. Shrug.
Were I to purchase one, it would be a big waste. Just running all day as “background noise”. With perhaps a video or kids show every other day. Ah. We have different priorities.
Sometimes I wonder if I am an outlier. Or is this just the way that society has changed? I don’t know. I really do not know.
Maybe it was me that changed.
Or perhaps… just perhaps… I am no longer addicted to that propaganda box. And once away from that “drug” I find that I no longer need it.
The sanctions are actually quite deadly, if it was some other country.
The US used SWIFT as weapon on Syria, Iran, and Russia in recent years.
Banning someone from SWIFT should be the strategical threat, like nuclear weapon. However, the US probably really doesn’t have any more conventional method to force the “enemy states”.
When the atomic bomb got dropped, the world suddenly realized that it’s not that devastating.
With enough countries being considered as “enemy”, they are now able to form their own environment. It means that they are able to establish an internal circulation, so that the sanctions from the western group became virtually invalid.
Iran now is able to sell its oil to China or with currencies other than USD. This does not only lowered the usage of USD in international tradings, but also partially took the right to price the oil. Petrol dollar is the foundation, at least one of the supporting pillars, of nowadays US economic hegemony.
It’s the same for the Entity List of US government. When there were only a few companies and organzations on it, they were technically isolated from the world, and it was devastating.
However, with enough companies being sanctioned, they are able to support each other. US government sanctioned Huawei, so that TSMC cannot make chips for Huawei. However, conveniently, the US sanctioned SMIC too, which is a Chinese chip maker in Shanghai. Now SMIC is able to hold hands with Huawei with no hesitation.
It used to work because after the collapse of USSR, there was only 1 world leader. It was either the US way or the highway.
Then the US pushed Russia into the corner and hoped Russia to kneel before it. This reached a peak when the US successfully launched a color revolution to overthrow the pro-Russia authority. What the White House didn’t expect is Putin putting his pride aside and holding hands with China.
Russia has sources, China has manufacturing, and both countries are vast.
They are forced by the US to became the leader of the “evil world”, and started to provide sanctuary for countries which have nowhere to go.
Logic of the US: You are my enemy if you are not my friend.
Logic of China: We may not be friends, the least we could do is to coexist in peace.
The US on one hand doesn’t want China to be in its group, because China is not Japan or South Korea, it doesn’t just do whatever the US wanted; on the other hand, the US doesn’t want China to be in other groups, including forming its own, because that will weaken the control power of the US group over the world.
You cannot have everything.
It might be the case in the 90’s because the US was the only super power.
But time has changed.
Maybe one day Russia would turn against China, but that would for sure be after the decline of the US.
The Tiny Cell called “Little Ease” was the Most Feared Room in the Tower of London
The story of Little Ease begins with a prison break from the Tower of London.
In 1534, a man and woman hurried past a row of cottages on the outer grounds of the Tower. They had almost reached the gateway to Tower Hill and, not far beyond it, the city of London, when a group of yeomen warders on night watch appeared in their path.
In response, the young couple turned toward each other, in what seemed a lover’s embrace. But something about the man caught the attention of a yeoman warder. He held his lantern higher and within seconds recognized the pair. The man was a colleague, fellow yeoman warder, John Bawd, and the woman was Alice Tankerville, a condemned thief, and prisoner.
So ended the Tower’s first known escape attempt by a woman. But Alice’s accomplice and admirer, the guard John Bawd, was destined to enter the Tower record books too: he is the first known occupant of a peculiarly infamous cell used during the reigns of the Tudors and early Stuarts.
The windowless cell measured 4 square feet (1.2 meters) and bore the faintly prim name of Little Ease. Its effect was simple. The prisoner within it could not stand nor sit nor lie down but was forced to crouch over, in increasing agony, until freed from the suffocating, dark space.
In 1215 England outlawed these kinds of grim practices through the passage of Magna Carta, except, however, by royal warrant. The first king to authorize it, and he did so reluctantly, was Edward II. He submitted to intense pressure from the Pope to follow the lead of the king of France and demolish the Order of the Knights Templar, part of a tradition begun during the Crusades.
King Philip IV of France, jealous of the Templars’ wealth and power, had charged them with heresy, obscene rituals, idolatry, and other offenses. The French knights denied all, and were duly tortured. Some who broke down and “confessed” were released; all who denied wrongdoing were burned at the stake.
Once Edward II ordered imprisonment of members of the English chapter, French monks arrived in London bearing their dreaded instruments. In 1311 the Knights Templar “were questioned and examined in the presence of notaries while suffering under the torments of the rack” within the Tower of London as well as the prisons of Aldgate, Ludgate, Newgate, and Bishopsgate, according to The History of the Knights Templar, the Temple Church, and the Temple, by Charles G. Addison. And so the Tower—principally a royal residence, military stronghold, armory, and menagerie up until that time—was baptized in pain.
Did the instruments remain after the Knights Templars were crushed, to be used on other prisoners? We cannot be certain, although there is no record of it. The next mention of a rack within the Tower is a startling one—an unsavory nobleman made Constable of the Tower pushed for one to be installed. John Holland, third duke of Exeter, arranged for a rack to be brought into the Tower. It is not known if men were stretched upon it or if it was merely used to frighten. In any case, this rack is known to history as the Duke of Exeter’s Daughter.
It was in the 16th century that prisoners were unquestionably tortured in the Tower of London. The royal family rarely used the fortress on the Thames as a residence; more and more, its stone buildings contained prisoners.
And while the Tudor monarchs seem glittering successes to us now, in their own time they were beset by insecurities: rebellions, conspiracies and other threats both domestic and foreign. There was a willingness at the top of the government to override the law to obtain certain ends. This created a perfect storm for torture.
“It was during the time of the Tudors that the use of torture reached its height,” wrote historian L.A. Parry in his 1933 book The History of Torture in England. “Under Henry VIII it was frequently employed; it was only used in a small number of cases in the reigns of Edward VI and of Mary. It was whilst Elizabeth sat on the throne that it was made use of more than in any other period of history.”
Yeoman Warder John Bawd admitted he had planned the escape of Alice Tankerville “for the love and affection he bore her.” Unmoved, the Lieutenant of the Tower ordered Bawd into Little Ease, where he crouched, in growing agony.
The lovers were condemned to horrible ends for trying to escape. According to a letter in the State Papers of Lord Lisle, written on March 28, Alice Tankerville was “hanged in chains at low water mark upon the Thames on Tuesday. John Bawd is in Little Ease cell in the Tower and is to be racked and hanged.”
Today no one knows exactly where Little Ease was located. One theory: in the dungeon of the White Tower. Another: in the basement of the old Flint Tower. No visitor sees it today; it was torn down or walled up long ago. Besides Little Ease, the most-used devices were the rack, the manacles, and a horrific creation called the Scavenger’s Daughter. For many prisoners, solitary confinement, repeated interrogation, and the threat of physical pain were enough to make them tell their tormentors anything they wanted to know.
Often the victims ended up in the Tower for religious reasons. Anne Askew was for her Protestant beliefs; Edmund Campion for his Catholic ones. But the crimes varied. “The majority of the prisoners were charged with high treason, but the taking of life, robbery, embezzling the Queen’s plate, and failure to carry out proclamations against state players were among the offenses,” wrote Parry.
The monarch did not need to sign off on these kinds of requests, although sometimes he or she did. Elizabeth I personally directed that torture be used on the members of the Babington Conspiracy, a group that plotted to depose her and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. But usually, these initiatives went through the Privy Council or tapped the powers of the Star Chamber. It is believed that in some cases, permission was never sought at all.
Over and over, names pop up in state papers of those confined to Little Ease:
“On 3 May 1555: Stephen Happes, for his lewd behavior and obstinacy, committed this day to the Tower to remain in Little Ease for two or three days till he may be further examined.”
“10 January 1591: Richard Topcliffe is to take part in an examination in the Tower of George Beesley, seminary priest, and Robert Humberson, his companion. And if you shall see good cause by their obstinate refusal to declare the truth of such things as shall be laid to their charge in Her Majesty’s behalf, then shall you by authority hereof commit them to the prison called Little Ease or to such other ordinary place of punishment as hath been accustomed to be used in those cases, and to certify proceedings from time to time.”
After Elizabeth and the succession of James I came the most famous prisoner of them all to be held in Little Ease, Guy Fawkes. Charged with plotting to blow up the king and Parliament, Fawkes was subjected to both manacles and rack to obtain his confession and the names of his fellow conspirators. After he had told his questioners everything they asked, Fawkes was still shackled hand and foot in Little Ease and left there, though no one knows for how long.
And after that final burst of savagery, Little Ease was no more. A House of Commons committee reported the same year as Fawkes’ end that the room was “disused.”
In 1640, during the reign of Charles I, the practice was abolished forever; there would be no more forcing prisoners to crouch for days in dark airless rooms, no more rack or hanging from chains. And so, mercifully, closed one of the darkest chapters in England’s history.
In the 1950s and 1960s, China needed Penicillin very badly plus Sulfonamides
The US used a harsh Korean War rule to restrict all shipments of Penicillin and Sulfonamides to RED China and passed a law demanding that Hongkong, Singapore and Philippines have END USER CERTIFICATES for shipments of these drugs
So THE US MAKERS SIMPLY ADDED CALCIUM CARBONATE TO THE DRUG MIX and sold the same penicillin plus calcium carbonate for 40% extra cost which the Chinese paid
It was deemed very legal in federal and circuit Court and UPHELD in 1967 as ‘Fair Business Practice’
So ultimately when there is demand, there will be a supply
Nobody can change that
Raimondo is no fool
Privately she knows none of these policies would work and she knows that she is butchering the same FREE TRADE principles that kept the US as the world’s most reliable nation all these years
Yet the fact is Chinas growth has stunned them all
That China is narrowing the tech barriers at such an astounding rate is something nobody expected
In the 2018 paper to the Congress, the Technological Independence of China was predicted to be 2048 , in THIRTY YEARS
Trump later said he had pushed that further
Yet in 2021, the same experts reassessed and claimed Chinas Technological Independence could be as early as 2035
Now it’s 2032, DESPITE THE EXPORT MEASURES
In fact the stronger these restrictions are, the more likely China will need to break strangeholds and that would lead to newer Independent Technology
Today China can buy Less Sophisticated AI Chips from Chinese Entities
The Quality is same as NVDIA
Tencent for instance makes excellent high quality AI Chips at the lower and mid levels of computing power that are now the lock, stock and barrel for Russian and Belorussian markets and even the Saudi markets
Only the last two generation or the most sophisticated AI Chips made by NVDIA has no rival in China domestically
It is these Chips that China wants
If China doesn’t get them, NVDIA will sell them to China by producing a slightly less sophisticated version (Maybe throw in a few transistors less) with say 97% efficiency and sell them to China by passing the sanctions and winning legally
You see the problem
If US sells China everything openly, China will beat US by 2030 in every field of emerging technology like AI and Quantum computing
If US restricts exports to China, China will develop it’s own high tech supply chain and that may delay it’s ascendancy until 2035 but after that China no longer needs any Tech from the West and the whole world will have a Multipolar world where US can no longer use it’s technology as a bargaining Chip
Either way the Writing is on the Wall
Zydeco’s Pork Tenderloin Etouffee
Ingredients
1 ounce oil
1/3 pound diced onions
1/3 pound diced celery
1/3 pound diced green bell peppers
1 teaspoon garlic puree
2 ounces tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon basil
2 tablespoons honey
1 quart veal stock
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of chili powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of black pepper
Instructions
Sweat onions, celery and bell peppers in the oil.
Add the tomato paste and garlic.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.
My uncle was an outlaw, an honest-to-goodness criminal who did multiple stints in prison. He was a biker, but he wasn’t stable enough to be a member of the Hells Angels. He was a small guy who looked a lot like Charles Manson.
People didn’t mess with him because he was prone to violence, skilled at fighting, and willing to use weapons when he had to. He fully embraced the criminal lifestyle. Around Christmas, the largest of his pot plants would usually be decorated as a Christmas tree.
One evening on my grandparent’s farm, he decided to make a bonfire out of an old date-packing conveyor belt. The flames must have reached 50 feet or more into into the sky, and were likely visible from any nearby farmhouse. The fire department sent a truck out to extinguish the fire.
But my uncle wouldn’t let them put out his bonfire. Faced with an angry, shirtless, tattooed guy who looked like Charlie Manson. They called in the Sheriff’s Department.
A youngish Hispanic Deputy got out of the car. My uncle thought he could push this guy around like he did the fire department. This young deputy had been a college wrestler. When my uncle tried to stop the fire department again, this deputy gave my uncle a first class attitude adjustment.
He was wearing the bruises from his arrest when my grandmother bailed him out of jail.
Lucky Luciano Put a Hit on a Rival Mob Boss using Fake IRS Agents
Born Salvatore Lucania (but better known as Lucky Luciano) in Sicily in November 1897, the future brains of the New York mafia took the name Charles Luciano after he was arrested for dealing heroin and his parents disowned him. By the 1930s he was known as “Lucky” Luciano, although no one can say with certainty what first prompted the nickname.
The leading theory for his being known for his remarkable luck was his surviving a savage beating in October 1929. Luciano was not only beaten but stabbed by a group of men who then dumped him on a beach on Staten Island, left for dead. A police officer discovered him, and Luciano was taken to the hospital. As a result of the attack, he had a deep scar on one side of his face and a permanently drooping eyelid.
His attackers’ identity was murky. Sometimes Luciano said it was three police officers who beat him, other times it was thugs sent by mafia boss Salvatore Maranzano because Luciano worked for a boss that Maranzano was at war with. Whatever the reason for the attack, within two years, Maranzano was dead and out of Luciano’s way in his meteoric rise to the top.
The 1920s were in many ways flush times for the underworld, thanks to Prohibition, which handed the Italian, Irish, and Jewish gangs lots of opportunities to make money. But the New York City underworld was in the throes of a deadly rivalry between two men: Sicilian immigrant Joe Masseria, known as “Joe the Boss,” and the more recent arrival, Maranzano, driven out of Italy by Benito Mussolini, who hated the mafia. Following restrictions on immigration by Italians to the U.S., mafia members fleeing Mussolini applied for political asylum, saying they were oppressed by fascism.
Luciano worked for Masseria–which is why he was beat up and left for dead–but he was weary of the turf wars, because they were keeping people from making money in not just rum running but gambling, racketeering, robbery, and prostitution. He was part of an up-and-coming gangster class, along with Frank Costello, who despised the “old country” ways of the Sicilian bosses they called “Mustache Pete’s.”
Luciano had been a criminal since his early teen years. He dropped out of school, and at 14, took a job delivering hats, but there was heroin hidden in the hats. He later explained his fondness for crime by saying, “I never was a crumb, and if I have to be a crumb, I’d rather be dead.” After a prison term of one year for drug possession, he flourished in an East Harlem gang, and was mentored by Arnold Rothstein, the racketeer who is believed to have fixed the 1919 World Series.
Luciano decided to double-cross his tiresome boss Masseria, so he made a deal with Maranzano to kill him and in return take his place and cease hostilities. He invited Masseria to a lobster lunch in Coney Island, Brooklyn, on April 15, 1931. “Before dessert arrived, Luciano left for the toilet,” wrote Selwyn Raab in Five Families. “Mysteriously, Masseria’s bodyguards vanished from the restaurant as four of Luciano’s killers suddenly appeared and riddled Joe the Boss with a volley of gunfire.”
But if Lucky Luciano thought that matters would improve after he took his boss’s place, he was wrong. It was set up that there’d be five families controlling their own gangster turfs in New York City. Maranzano, however, declared himself capo di tutti capi, boss of bosses, and imposed a lot of rules on everyone. Now Luciano decided that he needed to eliminate the boss of bosses.
Doing so wouldn’t be easy. Maranzano was always accompanied by a fleet of bodyguards, he drove a bulletproof Cadillac, and his office was in a fancy building overlooking Grand Central Station, with the address of 230 Park Avenue (later the Helmsley Building). But Luciano was able to learn that his target was having tax problems and Maranzano had instructed his bodyguards to not carry guns to the office because, any day now, the Internal Revenue Service was expected to descend on him.
At this point, Luciano turned to his old friends, Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. When he was a child, Luciano lived on the Lower East Side, on 1st Avenue between 13th and 14th streets. He became close friends with his neighbor Lansky and then Siegel.
For the hit on Maranzano, they came up with the idea of outfitting a group of men in suits and ties–and guns and knives.
Saying they were with the IRS, the assassins showed up at Maranzano’s 9th floor Park Avenue office on September 10, 1931. At that point, Maranzano was fanatical about only employing Italians, and he insisted that the whole mafia do business with exclusively other Italian gang members. None of the “IRS agents” looked at all Italian, so Maranzano believed they were genuine and went into a room with them. There he was killed.
And with that, Lucky Luciano rose to power in the New York City mafia, and as the man who put the “organized” into organized crime, eventually became the Number one gangster in the entire United States.
One: Just because the bank approves your $800,000 loan doesn’t mean you can afford the payments.
Two: Buying a fancy custom home that has unique designs and architecture.
Per my inspector, those homes have the most problems and leaks of any of them. If you buy a standard house design, or one in a neighborhood with a bunch of similar houses all clearly built by the same builder, you set yourself up for success more. Those homes, even if they seem boring, are proven models and have been built over and over by the builder. All the problems have been worked out.
Three: assuming a fixer upper is going to be easier than it is. When you walk through a house, you may see a few items that you can easily fix. Make a list of those items, count them up, and when you get home—triple it. If you can still manage that much work—have at it.
Four: carpeted floors. It tends to get super smelly and is harder to clean.
God forbid you have carpet in your bathrooms or by water sources.
Then, you are just asking for it. I can smell the mold from here.
In 2025, The U.S. Will Finally Begin Preparing To Fight A Nuclear War With Russia
A point of view out of the United States. Trust me, it's bad, but NOT dire. Do not freak out. -MM
Will the upgrades that are coming to our strategic nuclear arsenal be ready in time? Right now, hopelessly outdated Minuteman missiles that first went into service in the 1970s form the backbone of our strategic nuclear arsenal. The silos where they stand ready to be launched still use rotary phones and 8 inch floppy disks in many cases. Once they are launched, the brand new S-500 anti-missile systems that the Russians have deployed will be able to intercept them. Meanwhile, the Russians have introduced a brand new intercontinental ballistic missile known as the Sarmat. A single Sarmat carries enough firepower to destroy an area the size of Texas, and our anti-missile systems are not able to deal with this new threat. The balance of power has fundamentally shifted, and so we desperately need to update our capabilities.
Unfortunately, this process will not even begin until 2025.
So we better hope that we do not get into a shooting war with Russia during the next couple of years.
The U.S. has been developing a brand new ICBM known as “the Sentinel”, and it is desperately needed…
The control stations for America’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles have a sort of 1980s retro look, with computing panels in sea foam green, bad lighting and chunky control switches, including a critical one that says “launch.”
Those underground capsules are about to be demolished and the missile silos they control will be completely overhauled. A new nuclear missile is coming, a gigantic ICBM called the Sentinel. It’s the largest cultural shift in the land leg of the Air Force’s nuclear missile mission in 60 years.
The silos lose power. Their 60-year old massive mechanical parts break down often. Air Force crews guard them using helicopters that can be traced back to the Vietnam War. Commanders hope the modernization of the Sentinel, and of the trucks, gear and living quarters, will help attract and retain young technology-minded service members who are now asked each day to find ways to keep a very old system running.
This is something that I have been warning about for years, but most people didn’t want to listen.
Now our military is in a race against time, because the clock is ticking.
Overall, 750 billion dollars will be spent to overhaul our strategic nuclear forces, and it is being projected the silo work for the Sentinel could begin “as soon as 2025”…
The Sentinel work is one leg of a larger, nuclear weapons enterprise-wide $750 billion overhaul that is replacing almost every component of U.S. nuclear defenses, including new stealth bombers, submarines and ICBMs in the country’s largest nuclear weapons program since the Manhattan Project.
For the Sentinel, silo work could be underway by lead contractor Northrop Grumman as soon as 2025.
I am glad that they are moving forward.
But if work will not even begin until 2025, when will it finally be completed?
Until the Sentinel is ready, the Russians will continue to possess a major strategic advantage over us, and they know it.
If the war in Ukraine spirals out of control, we could easily find ourselves facing a nightmare scenario.
The Russians have been steadily gaining ground in Ukraine in recent weeks, and over the past few days they have started to gobble up significant chunks of territory.
The Ukrainians are running out of warm bodies to throw into the fight, and that is a major problem.
They are also running out of ammunition and equipment, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky just made a trip to D.C. to beg for more money…
Zelensky is in D.C. to ask Congress to pass $61 billion more for Ukraine, on top of the $113 billion they approved early this year. However, it looks increasingly likely that any more funding for Ukraine will have to wait until next year.
The Biden administration requested the funding as part of a $106 billion package, which includes only $13 billion for securing the border, but Republicans say it does not go far enough, and are calling for a number of reforms to reduce the number of asylum seekers and illegal border crossers, which recently hit 12,000 per day.
Johnson said at a Wall Street Journal event on Monday that Democrats and the White House must agree to some or all of the border-security measures outlined in H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act.
Even with all of the money that we have given him already, his forces are still losing.
And even if we give him what he is asking for now, Russians forces will continue to advance.
Zelensky is holding a losing hand, and as the Russians advance he is going to become very desperate.
And very desperate people do very desperate things.
Eventually, I expect that events in Ukraine will force the U.S. and Russia into a showdown.
When that day arrives, will the U.S. be ready?
Earlier today, I came across an article about a calendar that is being sold in Russia that shows “a Russian soldier outside the US Capitol building in Washington DC with a drone and helicopter overhead”…
A Russian veterans organisation is selling a 2024 calendar featuring a muscle-bound Vladimir Putin.
The calendar continues a series of propaganda images including one showing a Russian soldier outside the US Capitol building in Washington DC with a drone and helicopter overhead.
Many Russians believe that a war with the United States is inevitable.
The first thing to understand is that commercial shipbuilding and building warships are completely different businesses.
Commercial shipbuilding is like building a family car. The technology, equipment, and quality standards used in the two businesses are very different.
Just because a country has strong commercial shipbuilding capabilities does not necessarily mean that it has strong warship manufacturing capabilities. For example, South Korea has huge commercial shipbuilding capabilities, but it does not have strong warship construction capabilities. Their naval equipment is almost entirely dependent on American technology authorization.
China has huge commercial shipbuilding capabilities (accounting for 60% of the world’s total). Will this help their warship manufacturing?
Helps keep costs down during peacetime.
China’s large shipyards are typically dual-use, meaning they are building container ships at the same time they are building Aegis destroyers.
The commercial business dilutes the shipyard’s operating costs, and various costs are allocated to commercial projects. This makes them offer very low prices when building warships. The Burke III destroyer costs approximately US$2 billion, while China’s similar Type 052DL destroyer costs only US$500 million.
Obvious advantages in emergency situations.
1. Numerous facilities
In order to build very large commercial ships, China has countless giant shipyards and gantry cranes. They have 50 giant docks and supporting large equipment that can build aircraft carriers. The only one in the United States is Newport News Shipbuilding.
2. Large supporting production capacity
Warships require not only shipyards, but also countless raw materials. From the most basic steel and non-ferrous metals to diesel engines and steam turbines. In order to satisfy commercial business, China has huge production capacity for these things.
3. Abundant talents
The shipbuilding industry has limited automation and a high proportion of manual work. A large number of skilled shipbuilders were needed. In order to meet the annual shipbuilding needs of 20 million tons, China maintains a team of 180,000 to 200,000 skilled workers (some surveys say that including various small shipyards, the number exceeds 500,000). The United States only has a shipbuilding business of 100,000 tons per year and only has 18,000 skilled shipbuilders.
When the Navy needs it, they can clear out commercial projects and put all their resources into warship manufacturing. The picture at the beginning of this article shows the ability of a Chinese shipyard to build 6 052D destroyers and 2 055 cruisers at the same time (5 ships are being built on the slipway, and 3 ships are outfitting equipment).
Imagine that starting tomorrow, China and the United States begin to build warships with all their strength. The materials, facilities and personnel required by China are all complete. As long as they get the order, they can immediately start construction of 10 aircraft carriers, 20 Aegis destroyers and 8 nuclear submarines at the same time.
However, the United States has limited resources and can only start construction of one aircraft carrier, two Aegis destroyers and one nuclear submarine immediately. At the same time, the United States needs to urgently build large shipyards, purchase and install large cranes, purchase equipment and train workers, and gradually expand production capacity within 2-3 years.
By the time the U.S.’s manufacturing capabilities reached a level similar to China’s, China had already built ten times as many warships as the United States.
Solution to the Fermi Paradox Found! Scientists Hope They’re Wrong
That employee was me. I managed a division of AECOM, a huge multi-national architect/engineering company and was laid off along with many others because I was not billable. The person who made the decision was at least 4 levels above me and I had never even heard of him. My boss actually called me at home and asked me what in the hell was going on because he wasn’t even consulted. The reason that I was not billable was because I was meeting with potential clients and writing proposals along with managing the division. The division went from about 100 engineers and designers to around 12 in about 18 months because I was the person who brought in the work and nobody filled my role when I left so the work ran out. As it turned out I was hired literally the next day by our biggest client who wanted to develop their own engineering capabilities and within a couple of months I brought around a dozen of my former employees over to the new company.
Years ago I had a blind date. We had talked on the phone and the guy asked if he could take me to lunch. Not MEET me for lunch, but take me. He was inviting me so I assumed he would pay.
We met at a casual inexpensive chain restaurant. I had something modestly priced – it was probably around $7 (like I said, years ago). When the bill came, he told me what my share was – he actually said, “You had the french dip plus an iced tea, so your total is…..” I was pretty surprised but I figured that the cost of my lunch was worth finding out what a cheapo he was so I wouldn’t waste any more time dating him. But here’s the kicker – he had a Buy One Get One Free coupon! So his meal was free and I paid for mine! That was enough for me. He walked me to my car and asked if he could see me again. I said, “No” and he looked surprised and asked why. I said that anyone as cheap as he was shouldn’t date. Thank goodness he never called again.
$500 tip on a $12 meal. It was at a diner in New Jersey. When my father was about 80, he lost interest in eating. My brother and I finally insisted he have dinner at a restaurant every night. My father reluctantly agreed. He found a local diner where he felt comfortable. Over time, he became very friendly with a waitress there. She treated him like royalty (in fact, all the staff did). He was by no means wealthy, but he always left a generous tip. The waitress would give him cookies to take home and was genuinely happy to see him every day. Many times when I would go with him, I would see her smile when he came in, run over to hug and kiss him, and just take wonderful care of him. It was one of the only joys for the last years of his life. Earlier this year, my dad died. When I went back to handle his estate, one evening I went to the diner for dinner. I told the waitress that my dad had died (she suspected as much, having not seen him for over a month)…and after eating there, I left her a $500 tip. She deserved every penny and more.
Tracking him through “discarded DNA,” police arrest a 72-year-old “suburban grandfather” suspected of being the Golden State suspect
For years a serial killer and rapist traumatized the entire state of California, committing at least 12 murders, before coming to a seeming halt some 40 years ago in his horrific spree of violence. For victims and families of victims, not knowing who committed the crimes caused lasting emotional damage. That changed on April 24, 2018.
“In a perfectly executed arrest, my detectives arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, 72 years old,” said Scott Jones, Sacramento County Sheriff, at a press conference. Police were able to match DeAngelo’s DNA to evidence from the investigation, saying they used “surveillance and discarded DNA.”
USA Today published a story saying that police investigators submitted the DNA of someone whom they believed was the suspect, gathered at a crime scene, to Ancestry.com, not officially as police detectives but as a regular customer of the genealogical research site, and were then able to narrow the search through matches to relatives of the person with the mystery DNA, using “trees.”
This use of Ancestry.com is raising questions. In a story published by the Associated Press, Steve Mercer of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender said there aren’t strong privacy laws to keep police from trolling ancestry databases. “People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family,” Mercer said, adding that they “have fewer privacy protections than convicted offenders whose DNA is contained in regulated databanks.”
However, the arrest of DeAngelo is also sending shock waves of relief throughout California. He is believed to be responsible for 12 murders, 45 rapes, and more than 120 residential burglaries between 1976 and 1986.
According to an interview in the Los Angeles Times, Jennifer Carole, the daughter of 1980 victims Lyman and Charlene Smith, “said she had long thought that the person who bludgeoned her father and stepmother to death had probably died in the following decades. To find out he was not only alive, but living among them in Sacramento, was an overwhelming revelation, she said.”
“In my mind I thought he was dead the whole time,” Carole said to the press. “I’d compartmentalized it. But to find out … he’s been in Sacramento, where all my family lives … it’s unbelievable. How can he have just been here?”
A cold-case unit with the Ventura County district attorney renewed their efforts to find the Golden State Killer within the last two years. The FBI offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to an arrest in 2016. “We all knew we were looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
A series of rapes in an area east of Sacramento in 1976 were first linked by the authorities because of their proximity and the similar description of the rapist — a white male with blond hair who was close to six feet tall — and the sadistic rituals that he inflicted on his victims. His targets were women home alone and women at home with their children. The suspect went on to rape women with their husbands present and then the two of them would be murdered.
Neighbors of DeAngelo, whom the Washington Post described as a “suburban grandfather” in a headline, said that he kept to himself and sometimes yelled at people over infractions like mowing their lawns too early in the morning, but gave absolutely no indication of anything more frightening. He showed an interest in model airplanes, some say. He was the father of three daughters and had a number of grandchildren.
DeAngelo was a police officer in Auburn, California, in the 1970s but was fired after being accused of shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent. He retired last year after working 27 years at a distribution center for Save Mart grocery stores, the chain confirmed.
Public interest in the Golden State Killer was sparked this year with the publication of the true-crime book I’ll be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, written by Michelle McNamara, who died in April 2016 before finishing it. The book, published in February 2018, was completed after her death by a journalist and researcher recruited by her husband, the comedian Patton Oswalt.
The Golden State Killer was believed to have tracked the movements of his planned victims. He wore gloves and a mask and spoke in an angry whisper. Investigators at the time suspected he had military or law enforcement training.
The New York Times wrote, “Mr. DeAngelo was arrested by investigators using some of the same tactics employed by the suspect to stalk his victims — the police surveilled his movements, studied his routines, and pounced when he left his house.”
Eagles – Hotel California (Live 1977) (Official Video) [HD]
China would need to spend 1 Billion RMB a day to fight in the South China Theatre across the Taiwan Straits and Sea of Japan
Quad would need 2.5–3 times this or around $ 400 Million a day to be able to equal China given the cost and scale of production that is severely lagging
This means a 100 day war would cost China around 100 Billion RMB ($ 14 Billion) versus a whopping $ 45 Billion for Quad
Assuming a 3 year war, that would be 1 Trillion RMB ($ 140 Billion) for China versus $ 450–500 Billion for Quad
I am sure only one guy will be coughing up all that money and that’s USA
India, Australia, Japan combined won’t cough up $ 1 Billion
Since China now pays for its food and fuel in RMB , it can easily afford 1 Trillion RMB
The US needs to print $ 450–500 Billion and already the strain of printing $ 170 Billion for Ukraine is showing
Next would be the Logistics
Quad has an arsenal of 960 Missiles combined on their patrolling vessels and carrier groups (720 US, 240 Others)
Add another 320 with Japan and Korea and maybe 160 from Taiwan
That’s 1440 Deployable Missiles
China has 2400 Missiles on its Patrolling Vessels and Carrier Groups plus 1200 Land Battery Missiles plus 800 Intermediate Range Launch Missiles all aimed for the South China Sea
That’s 4400 Deployable Missiles not to include 90–110 from North Korea
That’s 3:1 in Chinas favor in just the South China Theatre
Let’s see the Weapon Supply status
Japan, Australia and India are Net Importers of weapons with a near zero indigenous supply line in most naval equipment or aerial equipment or even Intelligence gathering
If India risks it’s limited advanced equipment imported on this theatre, Pakistan can have a field day and so can the PLA on the Arunachal Front or the Ladakh front
Same with South Korea
Thus US has to supply all the intelligence gathering equipment and by chance some fall into China, that’s years of priceless IP reverse engineered
Today US has 20 key pieces of equipment over the Baltics handing intel to Ukraine against 90–120 key pieces handing intel to Russia and owned by Russia
Even if the US manages to quadruple it’s Ukraine strength and bring in 80 pieces of key intel gathering equipment like advanced radar etc, China has close to 250 and that’s 1:3
China will always have the Intelligence advantage
Bottom line is NO
QUAD will lose
QUAD cannot win
Quad will rely on a shock attack and HOPE China has an internal coup and regime change within 60 days
It didn’t happen in Russia and it’s more unlikely to happen in China
The US is too far away and China aint Iraq or Afghanistan
Others are too insufficient to take on China
In its theatre, China is not likely to be defeated
The only thing that can change this equation is if SOMEHOW Russia can be convinced to fight against China on another front
The one bodyguard assigned to Ford’s Theater to protect President Lincoln abandoned his post for a drink on the night of the assassination–and wasn’t fired for it
On the night of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln decided to take in a production of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater, in Washington, D.C. The one policeman assigned to guard the president on that fateful night left his post—to go next door for a drink.
Whether from hubris or humility, Lincoln was unconcerned about his safety, even amid near constant death threats. In August of 1864, he survived an assassination attempt, when someone fired a shot at him as he rode a horse—all by himself. (His hat was recovered the next day, with a musketball hole through the side.) It seems impossible to imagine today, but the president was known to go to plays, to church, and on walks without security.
John Parker was a carpenter and machinist born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He moved to Washington and joined the Metropolitan Police Force when it formed in 1861. He was not an exemplar. The force cited him for conduct unbecoming an officer, drinking (and sleeping) on the job and frequenting a whorehouse, according to Smithsonian magazine. He had 14 disciplinary infractions on his record. Somehow he managed always to get off. When a four-man detail was created to protect Lincoln in 1864, Parker was selected to join the team.
Parker was late to his assignment on April 14, showing up at Ford’s Theater at 7 P.M. instead of 4. Lincoln and his party arrived at his box in the balcony at 9 P.M., after the play had already started. The actors stopped mid-scene while the orchestra played “Hail to the Chief.” Lincoln bowed to the actors, and the play carried on.
Parker was stationed outside Lincoln’s box, in the passageway by the door, a good place to guard a president but a lousy place to take in a play. The bored Parker moved down to the first balcony to better see the performance. During intermission, he went next door to the Star Saloon for a drink with Lincoln’s coachman and footman.
As it happens, John Wilkes Booth was also at the Star Saloon, having a shot of whiskey before his nefarious mission. When Booth arrived at Lincoln’s box, the chair in the passageway was empty. Booth went into the box, shouted “Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged!” and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Booth leaped to the stage, exited the theater, and escaped on his horse. (Booth would be tracked down and killed within two weeks.)
It is of course possible that even had Parker been at his station, he might not have stopped Booth’s assassination of Lincoln.
“Booth was a well-known actor, a member of a famous theatrical family,” Ford’s Theater historical interpreter Eric Martin told Smithsonian magazine. “They were like Hollywood stars today. Booth might have been allowed in to pay his respects. Lincoln knew of him. He’d seen him act in The Marble Heart, here in Ford’s Theater in 1863.”
But Parker’s fellow guards never forgave him, nor did Lincoln’s widow.
“It makes me feel rather bitter when I remember that the President had said, just a few hours before, that he knew he could trust all his guards,” William H. Crook wrote in his memoir. “And then to think that in that one moment of test one of us should have utterly failed him! Parker knew that he had failed in duty. He looked like a convicted criminal the next day. He was never the same man afterward.”
Parker was charged with failure to protect the president, though the charge was dropped. The public did not know of his culpability, though Mrs. Lincoln did. Remarkably, Parker stayed on the White House security detail, at one point being assigned to Mrs. Lincoln, who confronted him as recounted in the 1868 memoir Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave, and Four in the White House, by Elizabeth Keckley.
“Why were you not at the door to keep the assassin out when he rushed into the box?” Mrs. Lincoln said.
“I did wrong, I admit, and I have bitterly repented it, but I did not help to kill the President,” Keckley recalled Parker saying. “I did not believe that any one would try to to kill so good a man in such a public place, and the believe made me careless.”
To which Mrs. Lincoln responded, “I shall always believe that you are guilty,” and sent him away with a wave of her hand.
Parker stayed on the Metropolitan Police Force three more years before finally he was fired for sleeping on the job in 1868. He turned back to carpentry and died in 1890 of pneumonia, an all but forgotten man in the drama of Lincoln’s assassination.
The grocery store I managed allowed cashiers a margin of error of $5.00, plus or minus. Most of the cashiers were usually within $1, either way, but a newbie that the store owner ordered me to hire — she was a friend’s granddaughter — was short a total of $16 dollars — $1, $5, $5, $5 — over her first four days. The cashiers were rarely on the money (zero balance) and most were proud when they were 25¢ or less off either way, so I found it odd that this girl was off by whole dollar amounts on each of her first four days.
So I put a camera on her.
She was scheduled to work a six-hour shift and at the end she was, you guessed it, $5 short. So I reviewed the video and watched her pocket a dollar here and there; she’d appear to be putting it in her drawer but each time her hand would go into her pocket. She did this five times and I knew that I had her.
I went to the owner and he called her into his office before her next shift. He told her what I’d found and that she was, obviously, fired, but he wanted to know why she did it. She said she didn’t want to work as a cashier. She didn’t like the pay, or the hours, or the “stupid people”, and she thought she deserved more for putting up with it all. She also said she didn’t pocket more than $5 because she knew she’d get in trouble if she did. She felt that she was “allowed” to take that $5 each day.
The owner was dumbstruck and decided to lower to amount cashiers could be over or short to $1. And he never forced me to hire anyone else.
I used to teach Special Education. And, I’m here to tell ya that I’ve had arguments with a nine year old kid with a 40 IQ about how to spell a word.
Joey, brain damaged at birth, was capable of learning the correct spelling, just barely capable, but he was entirely convinced that his version of the word was the correct spelling. I took a very long time to gradually get him to change that view, because I could see that it wasn’t about how to spell a word, it was about nurturing in Joey what was plainly there: his love of correct spelling. He was proud of his version, doncha know! And also, of versions of other, much more important things too.
Joey the Saint
Joey had a fixation — he was an assembler of trophies. His father was in business selling trophies and plaques, ya see, and Joey would make bowling, golf, baseball, etc. trophies out of the pieces his father could not use in the business and gave to Joey to play with. These were scuffed or dented, but to Joey they were GOLD. He made some of the goofiest looking amalgams — football players in full stride with a football tucked in one arm and a tennis racket in the other, for instance. And it was always catch as catch can, but Joey didn’t care. He just loved assembling them, thought they were very marketable, thought of himself as a businessman like his father. Oh, he was full of esteem about it, let me tell ya. It was, you see, just about the only thing Joey could do well “in his own eyes.” With a 40 IQ, Joey was looking at a future like a life sentence without a chance for parole.
But Joey was happy.
And Joey taught my class, in one stroke, something more important than ANYTHING I ever taught anyone in that class.
One day, Joey came to school with three big boxes. His father helped him bring them in. And his father and I stood there and watched Joey teach us all. Joey opened the boxes, and out came a special, unique statue for every kid in the class. 18 statues made by Joey who couldn’t spell the word “statue.” 18 statues that were to Joey, by his own inner logic, as precious as fingerprints that could only be assigned to one and only one person. 18 statues in boxes that Joey knew so well that he could dive into the boxes after saying each pupil’s name and instantly pull out Pedro’s statue, then Anna’s statue, then Cathy’s statue . . . 18 statues with names assigned to them. Joey knew which was to go to whom.
Silently, for Joey could hardly talk, he gave each statue out like it was a soul. And every kid there opened themselves to Joey’s vision of the moment and took their statues into their hugging arms like each trophy was a newborn babe. Joey gave everyone a symbolic kiss on the forehead to take home. Everyone deserved a symbol of “job well done,” thought Joey. And 18 kids with almost no chance to succeed in life, hummed with delight.
And no one I’ve ever seen in my whole life was as happy as Joey that day. He so innocently beamed his love.
That’s my goal in life. Be as happy and as wrong . . . and as right as Joey.
Addendum. So very grateful for all the heartfelt responses. When I wrote this decades ago, Joey was so much fresher in my mind. I now see that writing style as a bit “much,” but I dare not change a word. Also, the title question is not my doing, so I cannot justify changing it either.
This essay’s success is due solely to Joey — not my writing. This essay is his, not mine.
I worked for a financial call center. I excelled there and loved my job. I was there for nearly 3 years and during the last 6 months my attendance suffered greatly. I had pain from a hernia and had taken time for those occasions and had repair surgery, so I had STD for that. I was also going through a very bad divorce and the emotional distress was so extreme that I couldn’t eat or sleep. I worked odd hours of the night because I was working during UK operating hours and by the time I would finally fall asleep, I’d have to be up 2 hours later.
My manager knew all of the issues impacting me, yet, never thought to look into how to help my situation at work (being an exemplary employee). I was one day called in to HR and was terminated. I later found out that I could have taken another short term for stress, and had I been informed sooner, it could have saved my job.
I explained these things to HR, but it was too late. Apparently, my manager had become intimidated by me and the success I achieved in a short period of time and didn’t want to help me, I learned.
After my termination and the walk of shame, being escorted out, HR summoned my manager to discuss what I had to say. That woman began text messaging me, upset that I would place any kind of blame on her. I told her that I was no longer an employee and to stop messaging me. She still messaged me.
Next day, I contacted HR about her harassment of a non employee and she was terminated.
Instant karma!
The only unsolved skyjacking case in U.S. history might have a break: “D. B. Cooper” is Robert Rackstraw, a Vietnam vet and ex-CIA operative, investigative team claims
On November 24, 1971, on a rainy afternoon in Portland, Oregon, a man approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. He wore a dark raincoat, a dark suit with a skinny black tie, a neatly pressed white shirt, and loafers. He appeared to be in his forties, nearly six feet tall, with receding hair. “He looked like a business executive,” witnesses said later.
Using the name Dan Cooper, he used cash to purchase a one-way ticket to Seattle on Flight 305. The man, who carried a black attache case, sat in the last row of the Boeing 727 for the 30-minute flight, seat 18-C, ordered a bourbon and soda. After the plane took off, he handed an attractive flight attendant a note, which she slipped in her pocket and ignored.
A bit later, when the flight attendant passed by him, the man leaned toward her and whispered, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.”
With that, the legend of D. B. Cooper was born.
Hours later, in the Seattle-Tacoma airport, Cooper, now wearing sunglasses, boarded a second plane empty of passengers and with only a flight crew. After he showed the flight attendant on the first plane the bomb in his attache case and she conveyed the note’s contents to the pilot, his instructions had been followed.
He now had four parachutes and a briefcase containing $200,000 in $20 bills. (What he did not know was that while the plane circled the Seattle airport, FBI agents photographed the money.) It was now night time, and rain was getting heavier.
The man had more detailed orders to be followed: the plane would follow a southeast course to Mexico City at the minimum airspeed possible at a maximum 10,000 foot altitude. The landing gear would have to remain deployed during takeoff and the cabin be depressurized. As with all of his communications, he was quite polite.
According to the FBI document on the case: “Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, a little after 8:00 p.m., the hijacker did the incredible: he jumped out of the back of the plane with a parachute and the ransom money.” Two aircraft from a nearby air force base had been following the airliner, but saw nothing.
Extensive searches on the ground found no trace of Cooper, his parachute, or the money. The FBI says, “Calling it NORJAK, for Northwest Hijacking, we interviewed hundreds of people, tracked leads across the nation, and scoured the aircraft for evidence. By the five-year anniversary of the hijacking, we’d considered more than 800 suspects and eliminated all but two dozen from consideration.”
It is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in FBI history. Despite theories put forth in books, documentaries, symposiums, and an enthusiastic website, no one has proven the identity of D. B. Cooper (a journalist mistakenly turned “Dan” into “D.B.” and it stuck). None of the photographed money turned up until 1980, when a boy found three packets of the ransom cash in a stream near Vancouver, Washington.
One of the most widely believed theories was that Cooper died in his audacious jump from the plane. He had a parachute that couldn’t be steered, he jumped at night into a heavily wooded area, in the rain, in clothes certainly not practical for such an act. On July 8, 2016, the FBI announced that it had “redirected resources allocated to the D.B. Cooper case in order to focus on other investigative priorities.”
But in late January 2018 a startling claim was made to the media: D. B. Cooper was actually a former CIA operative named Robert Rackstraw, alive and well and living in Southern California.
A team of private investigators hired by TV producer Tom Colbert that has been working on the mystery for several years said they cracked a code proving the infamous hijacker is, in fact, a man who has ties to the San Diego area named Robert Rackstraw, and he is still alive. Rackstraw is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and, according to the investigators, an ex-CIA operative.
Portion of Brian Ingram’s 1980 discovery
The code was contained in a Dec. 11, 1971, letter the cold-case team got their hands on that they say was sent by “D. B. Cooper” to several major news outlets. The taunting letter, which the newspapers did not publish at the time and officials said were a prank, was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
“The letter, which went to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times and The Washington Post, contains strings of letters and numbers at the bottom of the page,” according to the Seattle Times.
A code breaker on Colbert’s team, Rick Sherwood, was able to decode the letters and numbers, and he said they pointed to the three Army units Rackstraw was connected to between 1969 in 1970 when he was in Vietnam.
The encryption was meant to serve as a signal to those in his units who knew the code that he was alive and well after the jump, Colbert said. He also taunted law enforcement by including “SWS” in the letter, which stands for “Special Warfare School.”
According to the website dbcooper.com, “Colbert said Pentagon records he obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show detailed skill sets Rackstraw received from Green Berets in 1968, including 400 hours of Special Forces classes, HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) parachuting, psychological operations (PSYOPS) and other training.”
In addition to claiming to have found the real D.B. Cooper, Colbert said he has strong evidence that the FBI deliberately worked to keep the hijacking case unsolved —due to Rackstraw’s CIA ties.
Although his CIA employment is not confirmed, Rackstraw, 74, was not an angel by any definition. He was charged with murdering his stepfather but acquitted in a trial in 1978.
He once reportedly tried to fake his own death by using a Mayday call and bailing out of a rented plane–it quickly unraveled. He was even arrested in Iran and deported back to the United States, which certainly doesn’t happen every day.
According to the Washington Post, “he faced charges of aircraft theft, possession of explosives and check fraud … Colbert said Rackstraw was convicted and spent more than a year in jail before being released in 1980. Rackstraw’s attorney said he couldn’t confirm those details.” Those who feel that D. B. Cooper was a polite mastermind who behaved like a business executive are unconvinced that Rackstraw, who hit lists of possible Coopers in the late 1970s, was this man.
When tracked down recently by a TV crew, Rackstraw, when asked if he were the real D. B. Cooper said, “What difference would it make?” Rackstraw’s attorney has said that he denies any part in the skyjacking.
He was 28 at the time of the skyjacking, and one of the original flight attendants, when shown photos of Rackstraw, said he did not resemble the man she saw on the plane in 1971.
In a press conference in front of FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., Colbert said, “The FBI may hold the strings, but Rackstraw holds the ripcord. And thanks to his coded bragging, it’s now been pulled. We’ll be waiting for him at the drop zone.”
More doom and gloom out of the United States. Ugh. Not. That. Bad. Don't buy into all the fear mongering. -MM
Time is running out. Lately, I have been hearing from so many people that believe that 2024 will be the year when our society goes over the edge. Our financial system is teetering on the brink of disaster, crime is absolutely exploding all over the country, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, food banks are facing unprecedented demand for their services, and I believe that 2024 will be the most chaotic election year in the entire history of our nation. And of course all of this is happening in the context of a global environment in which war, pestilences, economic problems, famine and natural disasters are all on the rise. A “perfect storm” is raging all around us, and millions upon millions of Americans have become deeply concerned about what our immediate future will look like.
So where will you be when things finally hit the fan?
During the past several years, we have seen a mass exodus of conservatives from blue states. For example, Fox News is reporting that 65 percent of those that have recently moved to the state of Idaho are Republicans, and only 12 percent are Democrats…
Data published by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office shows that out of the nearly 119,000 people who recently moved to the state, 65% registered as Republicans, compared to just 12% registering as Democrats.
The data, which was reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that out of the roughly 20,000 Americans who moved from Washington state to Idaho, 62% registered as Republicans, compared to 12% as Democrats, 24% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.” The percentage of registered Republicans originally from Washington who recently moved to Idaho is actually higher than the state’s overall percentage of registered Republicans, which sits at about 58%.
Out of the nearly 40,000 people who left California for Idaho, a whopping 75% registered as Republicans, the data reviewed by Fox News Digital show. Only 10% of the California pool registered as Democrats, 14% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.”
Wow.
Real estate agents in Idaho are urging potential clients to “escape liberal hell” and to get to the state “before the coming collapse”…
The Seattle Times noted that real estate ads advise residents in states such as Washington to “escape liberal hell” and move to Idaho.
“Time is not on your side, flee the city NOW before the coming collapse!” another ad for a house listing in Idaho states, the outlet reported.
Perhaps you are thinking that you should move to Idaho too.
Unfortunately, for many Americans it is already too late, because property values in some areas of the state have more than tripled.
Of course property values have also skyrocketed in desirable areas in many other red states as well.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates have also soared, and as a result home payments have risen to absolutely absurd levels during the Biden administration…
WSJ analysis of the housing market:
Average monthly new home payment when Biden took office: $1,787
Average monthly new home payment today: $3,322
You can still try to relocate.
But it will cost you much more than it would have a few years ago.
Renting is also an option, but we have just been through a period of time when rental prices have also jumped substantially…
After suffering through a three-year period when rents jumped by 30% or more in many U.S. cities, renters are now starting to enjoy small breaks like this.
Ultimately, if you were planning to relocate, you should have already done it by now.
But the good news is that conditions are still at least somewhat relatively stable as we approach the end of 2023.
So if you want to get out of Dodge, you can still do it.
In fact, for many of you this may be your last chance.
But don’t wait too long, because the clock is ticking.
At this point, most Americans can feel that something has gone horribly wrong. The warning signs are all around us, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day.
Even Warren Buffett can sense that a really big shift is coming. During the first three quarters of this year he sold off a whopping “$28.7 billion of stock”…
Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway sold $28.7 billion of stock in the first three quarters of 2023 in a move that some economists have interpreted as ringing alarm bells for the American economy.
According to the company’s earnings, the Nebraska-based firm of the legendary investor and billionaire, known as the Oracle of Omaha, sold a net $10.4 billion of stock in the first quarter of the year. In the second quarter, it sold close to $13 billion of shares and bought less than $5 billion. In the third quarter, it sold about $5.3 billion worth of stocks.
As Buffett is considered one of the greatest investors of all time, as well as one of America’s richest men, his moves are closely observed and analyzed.
He didn’t make so much money by being stupid.
Buffett may not fully understand all of the specifics, but he realizes that something is up.
As our society crumbles, most of the population is not going to be able to handle it.
For the third consecutive year, many psychologists across the country say they are seeing patients struggle with worsening symptoms, many of them needing longer treatment times.
Those are among the findings of an annual survey by the American Psychological Association, released this week. The APA first launched this survey in 2020 to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing psychologists.
A majority of psychologists reported that more people are seeking mental health care this year, adding to already long waitlists. Over half (56%) said they had no openings for new patients. Among those who keep waitlists, average wait times were three months or longer and nearly 40% said that their waitlist had grown in the past year.
Global events just continue to accelerate, and 2024 is less than three weeks away…
Abandoned in space in 1967, a U.S. satellite started transmitting again in 2013 Nov 28, 2017
After learning that a satellite that’s been silent for decades has suddenly started sending out new signals you may, of course, suspect that the device has been hijacked by aliens now trying to communicate with Earth. Perhaps they’re warning us that they are planning an invasion!
It’s possible such thoughts ran through the mind of Phil Williams, an English amateur radio astronomer based in Cornwall, who was the first person to pick up the strange signals coming in as “ghostly sounds” in 2013. It turned out that the transmitted messages were coming from an abandoned LES1 satellite, but experts needed three more years to authenticate that this was indeed the American satellite that was “lost” in 1967.
LES1 was one of several units produced and launched into space by the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in between 1965 and 1967. These units, primarily designed for testing new satellite communication technology, were each labeled with numbers, running from LES1 to LES9.
As it turned out, the launch of the first four satellites did not go that well. LES1, in particular, failed to reach most of its planned objectives. Contact with the satellite was completely lost two years after its launch, and it has ever since revolved around our planet, staying entirely out of touch. Things went better for the later four, LES5 to LES9 units; the LES7 unit was canceled as the program was then coming to an end and there was no more funding for it.
What surprised everyone in 2013 is that LES1 started sending signals in repeats of every four seconds. Phil Williams has suggested that a failure in one of the device components is what perhaps caused it to start sending signals again.
The designated frequency of the signal is 237 MHz. However, the satellite manages to send the transmissions only when its solar panels are directly exposed to light. The signal reportedly ceases once the craft’s panels fall into the shadow of the satellite’s own body. “Tension in the solar panels jumps, and it can do the phantom signal,” Williams has stated.
It is probable that the satellite’s on-board battery is entirely diminished by now, so what powers the transmission of the signals is a bit of a mystery. As to whether LES1 poses any threat, there is apparently nothing to fear. This is yet one more piece of space junk spinning around in orbit.
What’s more striking is that the electronics used in LES1 were produced five decades ago and though they’ve been exposed to the severe conditions of space, they still appear to be in some sort of working order. And five decades ago is a long time in terms of the technology and its development.
LES1 was launched more than a decade before the probe Voyager-1 was launched into space to explore the outer realms of the solar system. And the electronics used back in the 1960s were way simpler than those used since, hence, perhaps, their durability.
The news of this out-of-date satellite coming back online after so much time staying silent has certainly surprised everyone within the scientific community. The satellite was launched February 11, 1965, from Cape Canaveral. It ceased sending signals just two years later. Still, this is not the only case of a satellite having been lost and then found again.
It also happened to the much more costly Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft (SOHO), which disappeared without a trace back in 1998. SOHO stopped sending signals while conducting its mission of observing the sun. NASA astronomers eventually located the lost craft and re-established contact with it as it was helplessly spinning in space.
In the case of SOHO, it was reportedly a glitch in the software that led to the craft’s malfunction. The satellite was eventually fully recovered, and it continued its set mission. But in the case of LES1, it all seems a lot more strange and way more unexpected as such an old piece of equipment had been long forgotten.
The Feed Bag Chicken Gumbo
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
4 to 6 chicken breast halves
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup fresh or frozen okra
1 cup fresh, frozen or canned corn
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
Dash of red hot sauce
1 tablespoon gumbo file (mixed with water until gooey)
3 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
2 cups uncooked rice
Instructions
Place chicken breasts in a kettle with enough water to cover. Cook until done, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken to a platter. Strain chicken broth.
Return broth to kettle. Add celery, green pepper, onion, okra, corn, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, Cajun Seasoning, hot sauce and gumbo fil paste. Bring to a rolling boil.
Chop chicken into bite-size pieces and return to kettle. Add tomatoes. Bring back to boil. If soup is too thick, add chicken broth.
Cook rice according to package directions.
To serve, place desired amount of rice in serving bowl. Add gumbo.
52-year-old Washington woman, Susan Shannon (pictured below), wanted to destroy the life of her old friend, a successful US Army colonel, David Riggins, and possibly make some big cash out of her bogus claims, but she never expected the outcome of her decisions.
In 1986, Sussan and Riggins were both cadets at West Point, the U.S. military base in New York. While Sussan dropped out of the military, Riggins excelled. But just before he received a major promotion in 2013, Sussan started dropping bombs on her blog which haunted Riggins.
In her blog posts, she claimed she was brutally r-aped by Riggins while the two were cadets. Her claims got to the authorities leading to Riggins’s dismissal, this hurt him badly because he was just about to receive a life-changing promotion when the chaos started.
Once he left the military, Riggins fought back and sued her for defamation. Following several probing, investigators discovered that Sussan had made everything up.
She was asked to pay $8.4 million in damages to Riggins: $3.4 million in compensatory damages for hurting his reputation and lost wages, and $5 million in punitive damages. This will keep her a pauper for life.
In the fall of 2008, a few months into the Great Recession, my family was actually in a pretty good spot, financially. My wife and I were both working full time, we were renting an apartment, and we had only one kid at the time. We were saving to buy a house.
One night, I convinced my wife that we would be stupid if we didn’t take advantage of the stock market crash. I’d been interested in purchasing stocks, we had about $30,000 in savings for our house, and stocks were at near record lows. She agreed to let me spend just $1,000 on stocks.
The idea was to start with $1,000, and buy a few more stocks each year. We never followed through with that. We ended up opening college funds for our kids and IRAs for ourselves instead, but my original stock account from that night still remains.
I considered buying some stock in Apple. I was still a PC user then, but I really liked my iPod. I wanted to purchase stocks in companies whose products I used.
But I decided against Apple. I went with Disney and a few other companies instead.
My original $1,000 investment is worth about $3,500 today.
The day I decided against Apple stock, it was selling for around $13 a share. I could have bought 77 shares for $1,000 that day.
Today, those shares would be worth almost $16,000.
Had we skipped the house and put all of our savings into Apple shares that day, we could have sold all of that Apple stock today and bought a half-million dollar house in cash.
I was downsized from a company I had been with for a pretty long time. Every year I would work really hard to make my goals so my bonus would be maxed. The cap was $1000. The CEO of the company had 4 houses, several race horses, and 3 private jets. The company made a ton of money. I moved on to another, much smaller company about the middle of September the same year. Needless to say, my bonus that I had been working for most of the year evaporated. I didn’t give it much thought beyond just being grateful I found another job that paid me equally. Christmas came around and I didn’t think much about it because nobody had ever mentioned anything about bonuses and I had only been there about 4 months. The last payday before Christmas the CFO popped in and just casually asks everyone if they’d received their bonus, tells everyone not to eat too much, and he’ll see us all next year. I didn’t even bother to look up. During lunch a coworker asked me what I was going to do with my Christmas bonus. I told her that I didn’t get one and that was to be expected since I had just been there a short time. She told me I should check my bank because the CEO was very generous and isn’t the type to leave someone out. So, I checked. There was my paycheck direct deposit and holy crap! Another deposit for $10,000 from the company! I later found out that mine was a gesture compared to some others. I’ve been there 8 years and counting now. The cash bonuses fluctuate more now than they did back then, but I’ve never gotten anything disappointing. I’ll be there the rest of my life.
Albert Einstein’s Strict List of Conditions for his Wife to Follow
Albert Einstein’s relationship with his wife was a bit rocky to say the least. In contemporary times, prenuptials seem to be almost as common as vows. Before you walk down the aisle and say, “I do,” you first have to sign here, here, and here.
Contracts are not a new element of marriages. The act of getting married is, itself, a legally binding contract — provided it meets the requirements of the state or country in which the ceremony takes place. For example, according to New York City Bar, in New York, as in many other jurisdictions, “If either of you are still legally married to a former spouse, or do not meet the age requirements, then you are not legally married.”
Throughout history, marriage contracts have been negotiated between rich and influential families, with papers signed outlining the gains and losses of each party in the union — such as dowries payed and lands redistributed. To this day, you need to obtain a license to have a marriage legally recognized.
Today, a growing number of engaged couples wanting to avoid upset in any potential future dispute sign a formal prenuptial agreement — a private contract that both parties agree would be a fair way to split their combined assets.
It outlines dos and don’ts, haves and have nots, should the couple choose to split up in the future. They’re an increasingly popular element of a marriage, especially in the celebrity realm.
In some cases, postnuptial agreements come into play. These are agreements in which the couple draws up a contract after they are married, outlining certain requirements for the continuation and betterment of their union.
History provides an unfortunate example of a celebrity postnup that only served to make matters worse: it was written by Albert Einstein to his first wife, Mileva Marić. Einstein met Marić in 1896 at the Zurich Polytechnic, Eidgenossische Technische Hoschule, when she was studying for a teaching diploma in mathematics and physics. FemBio notes that Marić was the “second woman to finish a full program of study at Department VI A: Mathematics and Physics.”
Over the years, the friendship founded through their shared work interests developed and eventually lead to marriage in January 1903.
Their union was blessed with two sons, Hans and Eduard; but speculation exists, based on letters sent to each other, about a first child, born out of wedlock the year before the couple was married. Her fate is unconfirmed.
After 11 years of matrimony, though, the couple agreed that there was no longer any romance between them. Einstein and his wife agreed to approach the subject logically. They didn’t want to divorce recklessly, so for the sake of their children’s continuity, they decided to stay together.
According to Walter Isaacson in his book Einstein: His Life and Universe, Albert Einstein’s wife had some behavioral conditions to follow, which he outlined in the following list:
“You will make sure: that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order; that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room; that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.”
“You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego: my sitting at home with you; my going out or travelling with you.”
“You will obey the following points in your relations with me: you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way; you will stop talking to me if I request it; you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.”
“You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.”
Concise and direct, the list drives a hard bargain. It sounds particularly harsh considering it was issued from a husband to his wife. Mileva agreed to his conditions anyway.
Logic can’t dictate such a strong emotion as love, or lack thereof. A few months went by before Mileva changed her mind. Taking their two sons, she left her husband in Berlin and moved back to Zurich. They officially divorced five years later, having not seen each other all that time.
He may have been able to calculate the amount of energy contained in a given mass, but Einstein couldn’t write the perfect formula for maintaining a marriage.
My old dongle died… and / or was orphaned when my Lunix Mint updated the OS. In any event, I needed a new one.
A “dongle” is something that you plug into your computer. Like though a USB port.
Wifi is exactly that. While my laptop has a builtin wifi, I am running Lunix Mint, and the chipset is Microsoft Windows propriety.
American versions were about 10x the price of their Chinese versions. So I bought a dongle out of Shenzhen. It’s a good unit.
I bought a nice 2.5G / 5G / 6G version. It ran me about $10 us (65 yuan). The American version is about 800 yuan + taxes + 25% import tax. Is limited to 4G. No 5G and 6G.
The American version is ten times more expensive, and has less functionality.
The Chinese version is AWESOME!
It runs on Ubuntu. Which is a Linux distro.
Lunix
…Ubuntu
……Lunix Mint
………Lunix Mint Cinnamon
When it was plugged in, nothing happened. Bummed me out, but I didn’t freak. And calmly looked up on Lunix.
But I went on a Lunix forum, and followed the instructions found there….
I ran…
inxi -Fxxxrz && rfkill list && lsusb && mokutil --sb-state
I figured that I had previous bad or broken versions. So a clean-out might be necessary.
Followed by…
apt --fix-broken install
Then I ran the commands to pull the driver from the Ubuntu repositories, and then the Linus Mint translation runs…
My little girl goes to a preschool and she has little cute friends there.
Since it is the time of winter vacation, they had a small cute little party on the last day of school before the break. They had a performance, where almost every child performed (except one who refused to smile and was upset with his mummy over something- he was so cute).
Anyway, after the performance, there was an arrangement for refreshments too. Some was arranged by the school and some were contributions.
Since it is a preschool and children studying in the school are 25–30, arrangements were done accordingly.
When the food was served, I took a plate, added a cupcake for my girl, a cracker, grape-cheese stick, a cookie and a very small piece of cake. I took it and led my girl to a chair where we ate from the same plate.
There was another mother who sat next to me. She brought two immensely full plates. I don’t really mind people filling their plates as long as they can finish the food but her girl took a bite of a cookie and left entire things as it was and she had cakes and muffins and then she said, “Oh! I can’t finish it off. Too much sugar. I guess I will have to leave that. See, even my girl didn’t eat a thing. She insisted to get muffins and cakes and chips and now she doesn’t want to eat”.
I was astounded. How could someone be so inconsiderate. We all could see that food spread on the table was meant for everyone present there. That was the reason I took refreshments, not a meal. This woman had no guilt over wasting so much food. Why did she take such big portions in the first place? Even my girl wanted two cupcakes but I suggested that she have to finish the first and if required we would take the other one of different colour. She agreed and chose a pink one!
The same lady was also talking about how she purchased three umbrellas because she didn’t like the colour of the first or the style of the second, how she purchased clothes worth 500 dollars for her three-year-old in a single day, how she overspends on weekly groceries, what she shops and from which brand et cetera.
Similarly, there was another lady who overfilled her child’s plate and left her eating while she had her share.
We all know how little a three-year- old eats. Even if the child is very hungry, let him/her finish some portion first and then refill. We have no right to waste food. It makes you look so uncool even if you carry Kate Spade bags and wear Zara blazers.
In August 2023 a group of 11 Russian and Chinese warships conducted “exercises” near Alaska’s outlying islands. They were tracked by US Navy destroyers but remained in international waters which was perfectly legal. It made page 5 of the Washington Post (below the fold). In September 2022 a convoy of three Chinese and four Russian vessels, including a destroyer and a guided missile cruiser passed by the US island of Kiska (near Alaska). It was shadowed by a US Coast Guard cutter but nobody got too offended.
Pictured below Russia’s Viktor Leonov (SSV-175) an armed surveillance vessel that loves to loiter just outside the 12 mile limit of US territorial waters along the east coast. Or, as the question puts it “floating just off the coast”. Some of its favorite spots are the US naval bases at Norfolk, New London and Cape Canaveral. It has been doing this for years.
Apparently it occasionally gets bored with “floating just off the coast” and tries to break the 12 mile limit, in particular disrupting commercial shipping lanes. What has the US done about these repeated unbearable provocations that hurt the feelings of the American people? The Leonov is shadowed by a US Navy destroyer, lately the USS Mahan, whose primary task is to tell the Russian vessel to get the hell back outside the limit. That’s the response when alien warships are “floating just off the coast”.
Below is the AGI Yantar, a Russian vessel optimized for intelligence gathering and mounting deep sea submersibles. It likes to hang around the east coast underseas cables. One more thing for 2d Fleet to keep track of.
FWIW: we’ve had Russian nuke boats cruising around for decades now and managed not to get overly excited about it. They usually get shadowed by 2d Fleet but that’s about it. There is a debate over whether current Russian sub activity off the E. Coast is greater or lesser than it was in Soviet days.
Dad was straight Chevy/GMC product. I was strictly Ford. 2002 we changed places and neither of us were happy. He had a book of somewhat minor but annoying problems right from the start. He had the car for a few months. Went to pick up his grandson from school one day. On the way home, grandson made to roll the window down. Did not budge. As soon as he dropped him off, he zipped straight to the dealer. He wasn’t as gentle shutting the door as normal. Stepped up to the counter and proceeded to read them the riot act working in the point that he never had problems like this with his Chevys through the years. They told him to go to the waiting room where there was a fresh pot of coffee and sit back. They would check it out right then. He stormed in there poured his coffee, his butt brushed the chair seat not even fully seated yet when the tech opened the door telling him he was good to go. He exploded. You haven’t even had the time to pull it around yet and you’re telling me it’s ready??? I can’t believe you’d even think of trying that. I’m so fed up. It takes 3–4 trips in to fix anything and now it’s fixed in 30 seconds? Tech just grinned and asked him to come out to the drive. Put him in the driver’s seat telling him to position himself as if he was driving. Tech walks over to the passenger side to show him the window is working. Dad is flabbergasted. Tells the tech he knows that wasn’t working when he came in so what was wrong? Well sir, turn your head to see just where your arm is now. Looking under your elbow, do you see that switch? That’s a lockout button for all the windows so that kids can’t play with the windows. With that switch activated, the switches in the other doors are bypassed and will not work. Redfaced, embarrassed, he was apologizing for his attitude. Asked them what he owed for a checkout fee. They laughed it off telling him the entertainment value he brought in more than paid for it.
In 1960, after winning over $100,000 in the lottery, a sum equivalent to around $3 million today’s money.
A thing that could have been a cause for celebration for many became a curse for Australian Bazil Thorne.
His winnings set the stage for a harrowing sequence of events, propelled into motion when newspapers, in a spectacular breach of privacy, splashed Thorne’s details across their front pages.
Shortly after, his son, Graeme Thorne was kidnapped for ransom.
The kidnapper stated: “I have your boy. I want £25,000 before 5 o’clock this afternoon. I’m not fooling. If I don’t get the money before 5 o’clock, I’ll feed the boy to the sharks.”
The situation spiraled out of control as the kidnappers panicked upon realizing the police were involved.
In a desperate and senseless act, they murdered young Graeme before the exchange could occur.
On Tuesday 16 August, nearly six weeks after the kidnapping, Thorne’s body was finally discovered hidden on vacant land, sending shock waves across the nation.
The meticulous police investigation culminated in the apprehension and conviction of the perpetrator, Stephen Bradley, a Hungarian immigrant.
The trial, lasting nine days, resulted in Bradley receiving penal servitude for life, the severest sentence available in New South Wales for murder at the time.
This heartbreaking story reverberated beyond personal grief as it spurred a permanent change in Australia’s laws, cloaking the identities of lottery winners in anonymity to protect them from such fates.
With what I’ve heard and read about past winners, this sudden wealth that many fantasize about might just as swiftly transform into a curse for some.
Refuel Café Louisiana Buffalo Shrimp
Forget the wings! Now you can have delicious Buffalo Shrimp.
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
5 ounces Louisiana-style hot sauce
1/2 pound whole butter, cold, unsalted, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound jumbo Louisiana shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
6 cups oil, preferably canola
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
Instructions
In a small saucepan, reduce the hot sauce until thick, add the heavy cream, bring to a boil, and lower the heat.
Over low heat, stir in the butter in stages, keeping the sauce hot the whole time. Set aside, but make sure it stays hot.
Heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Whip the eggs and add the milk for an egg wash.
Bread the shrimp by rolling them into the flour, then dipping them into the egg wash, and rolling them in flour again.
Fry shrimp in the hot oil for 3 minutes (depending on the fryer).
Remove shrimp from oil and dry with a napkin.
Put shrimp in a large bowl, add the reserved sauce, and toss.
Plate the shrimp, draining most of the sauce from the shrimp as you do so, and top with bleu cheese crumbles.
Yesterday actually. I was coming out of a store and I heard something behind me. When I looked back I saw a family behind me of two young girls, a mother, and father. They were white. The two girls were acting like monkeys and making monkey sounds. The mother and father were laughing. I got in my truck which was facing them and started it up. I really wasn’t sure who the gestures were being directed at until they did it again just before getting in their car which was right in front of mine while looking at and laughing at me. I looked at the mother and father and, as the mother laughed, I looked at the father just to see if he actually saw and was okay with what they were doing. The smirking sneer on his face said everything. They meant for me to see that. To feel that. And although I have confronted racism and racist people before, I think it was the kids doing what they did that hurt me more than I had felt it before. The mere fact that kids had been taught that kind of nastiness and that it was being deliberately directed at me for no other reason than I’m black just brought immediate tears to my eyes. I couldn’t even help it. I looked the other way so they wouldn’t see me.
Green Acres – Eb & The Flying Saucer
WARS ARE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANS, ANIMALS AND NATURE EDITOR’S NOTE
So it finally happened. The US Empire literally overextended itself in lies and conflicts, and ended up showing the world it is no longer a credible Hegemon.
Undeniably, the epochal turning point, so eagerly awaited in the Global South, came when Russia’s armies clearly defeated—against massive derogatory prognostication—the military might of the collective West in Ukraine, a gigantic accomplishment, while China quietly became the most powerful industrial engine in history. What’s probably most embarrassing to the West’s ruling cliques, those still capable of self-reflection, is that the rapid emergence of these two formidable peer powers resulted in large measure from pathetic policy errors that could have been easily avoided. Washington and its criminally complicit allies didn’t have to lose their supremacy so quickly, but greed, contempt for life and truth, and terminal corruption, not to mention the mounting, incurable ills of capitalism, their true religion, took their toll and imperial arrogance did the rest. The US and the EU are now tottering, flailing about on the world stage, showing the ravages of massive leadership failure. Dangers aside, this is good for the rest of humanity.
Washington’s problem is systemic and organic. That’s why in the midst of this self-inflicted crisis the West’s huge disinformation machine is showing signs of disarray. The totalitarian degree of censorship and deception required to deny the truth about Ukraine and now Israel apparently stressed and finally broke the walls protecting the official narrative, and now the truth, so long repressed, is pouring out from a million places like a mighty tsunami. Since truth improves the chances of survival for everyone, this is to be celebrated.
Ironically, the unmasking of the Empire occurred because Israel—Washington’s pampered Zionist protegé—has behaved in such a manically depraved way, its criminal acts so cowardly, repugnant, and unrelenting, that even parts of the mainstream media have begun to crack under public pressure and report, however gingerly, vital truths. This has sufficed to show the sheer evil, blatant hypocrisy and complicity of the Empire, further shredding the remnants of its reputation. The upshot is that the onetime feared American Empire—from its core to its satrapies—is now stuck in a multilayered, multipronged crisis, not the kind of crisis that a pathetically mediocre and often half-delusional leadership can handle. The world can do a lot better than this, and with just a little bit of luck, it will. —PG
IMPORTANT: The Greanville Post is today the best edited and annotated hybrid “aggregator” of anti-imperialist articles in the anglophone world (we print original and external materials). Don’t let it die at a moment when a victory in the battle of communications for a new type of world is more crucial than ever. Mass political enlightenment precedes mass mobilisation.
Ah, “Not For Hire.” This is actually an interesting piece of trucker lingo that can lead to a bit of confusion if you’re not in the know.
So, when you see “Not For Hire” emblazoned on the side of a truck, it’s basically saying that the truck, along with its driver, is not available for commercial services. It’s like a taxi with a “Off Duty” light, except the truck was likely never on duty to begin with.
Why display this, you ask?
Well, it has to do with regulations. Commercial trucks are governed by a slew of regulations that include commercial licenses, logs, maintenance standards, inspections, and insurance requirements. When a truck is “for hire,” it means it’s operating under a commercial entity that conforms to these regulations and is available to transport goods for others for a fee.
A “Not For Hire” truck, on the other hand, is typically privately owned, and they’re declaring that they’re not subject to the same degree of government oversight because they’re not making money from transporting goods. This might be a business transporting its own products, like a farmer taking his produce to market, or a company truck carrying equipment to a job site.
The designation helps law enforcement and other authorities quickly identify what kind of regulations to enforce with that particular vehicle. After all, nobody wants to get bogged down in paperwork for no reason – the truck isn’t a commercial service, so it doesn’t need the same level of scrutiny.
And for any would-be regulators or officers eyeing the rig with thoughts of a potential infraction, that sign is saying, “Move along, nothing to see here.” It’s a bit of a bureaucratic force field.
But let’s be clear, “Not For Hire” doesn’t grant immunity from all laws; these trucks still have to comply with safety regulations and general traffic laws. It just means they’re not engaging in the business of hauling other people’s stuff around for profit.
When push comes to shove, “Not For Hire” trucks are just out there doing their own thing, not soliciting commercial transport business, and hence they’re playing by a slightly different set of rules. It’s one of the many nuances of the road that keeps things interesting – and complicated. Just like life, right?
My Dad walked to and from work everyday. He also walked home and back at lunch time.
I didn’t give a thought to his habit of walking. Growing up in a small town, we all walked , more so than other places. We never had a huge distance to get somewhere. Or to get back.
Mom got her drivers license after she was 40. We had always traveled in my dad’s fuel truck if we needed transportation. Mom couldn’t and wouldn’t drive it. In warm weather, my sister and I rode on the outside of the truck.
It had little cubicles we could fit down into. On rural trips, we often rode on the front.
When Standard Oil sold, Dad changed jobs and we got a Plymouth. A big boat of a car! Unless we were unable to get somewhere on foot, it sat at home.
My father walked that road to and from the school where he worked, rain or shine. Hot days and snowy, freezing cold days. He never missed a day of work.
When cancer invaded my dad’s body, he became unable to care for himself. It was heart wrenching to see him humiliated by others seeing him so vulnerable. Modesty was only one thing he had to let go of.
During his illness, I saw his poor misshapen, swollen knees. He had never said a word about his painful knees to any of us kids.
Mom said he suffered terribly because of this for years.
I was saddened and humbled by what he did to provide for all of us.
Being Icelandic, and being so few people here, we are more in touch and know our story quite well.
Our graveyards are full of these. 6 siblings that died in a span of a month. Every spring, what was known as child illness moved across the country and took kids everywhere. Parents were helpless and could just cry as they lost all their kids. Even I am connected to these poor kids. The parents did have more kids and most of them became adults. The illness was called diphtheria. One relative of mine has over 20 kids which all were lost to this decease and in the end they had 2 kids that survived.
This was harrowing and unmeasurable sadness.
Since the late 1940–1950, we haven’t had any such illnesses. Nothing. Polio is unheard of but is making a comeback.
People are simply idiots, morons and easily convinced of stupid things. Propaganda works.
If Magnus and Ingibjörg, the parents of the above children could tell you anything, they would tell you to vaccinate your children.
There is a saying that no one should bury their children, yet there is a group of people who seemingly are anxiously waiting to do that.
But here is the sad part. The top antivaxers, the people on TV in interviews and “news hosts”, who tell people to not get vaccinated, they are all vaccinated themselves. That includes Robert Kennedy jr.
Hi, Sinkei428. Thanks for the interesting question.
Of course you can!
As long as you have money and a mobile phone with which to scan the food seller’s QR code and make a mobile payment, you can have as many meals as you want!
Food can be very cheap and affordable here, so feel free to splurge and eat as much as you like.
The 肉夹馍 (Ròujiāmó, a.k.a. Chinese burger) shown in the picture below is filled with stewed pork and eggs and only costs 8 yuan (USD 1.12)
You can add some 凉皮 (Liángpí, cold skin noodles) and snacks to make it a more substantial meal.
Should set you back no more than 15 – 20 yuan (USD 2.10 – 2.80)
You can also use a variety of apps to have food delivered to you. Food is literally at your fingertips 24/7.
3
Red Fish Grill Remoulade
Ingredients
1/2 bunch chopped parsley, finely chopped
1/4 bunch green onion, finely chopped
1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 lemon, juiced
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup Creole mustard
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 tablespoons fresh horseradish
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups vegetable oil
Instructions
Combine all ingredients, except for the vegetable oil, in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
Slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil with the blender or food processor still running.
I had an old boss speak to me that way. I made a mistake and said , “I’m sorry.” He responded, “You’re right. You’re sorry. Your a pathetic excuse for a human being.”
I was fresh out of high school. Very shy. And this 40+ year old man just ripped me a new one. I looked at him, and told him “I apologized. I made a mistake. But it is not okay for you to speak to me that way.” And I walked away. He later came and apologized to me. He was retired military and had a habit of speaking to employees that way. He never did it to me again.
On another occurrence, I had another employer be rude and disrespectful in front of an all staff meeting. She shushed me during the meeting when I brought up an idea. Then after went into her office. I told her that, “that her actions at the meeting were not acceptable. You tell me how valuable I am to the organization then treat me like you don’t want me here.” She didn’t remember doing it and then started to cry. I stood up and said, “You shushed me. You were disrespectful and rude. And I’m the one supposed to comfort you? I’m going home for the rest of the day.” While normally i don’t recommend leaving- in my scenario it was okay as I was almost done and salary. And honestly I did not care at that point if I got fired. I found a new job a month later.
Say something and if warranted start looking for a new job. No job makes it okay for anyone to belittle you-ever.
I live in Hong Kong, which has the highest per-capita ownership of Rolls-Royces of any city in the world. The thing is, most of the Rolls-Royces you see here are chauffer-driven. So no, I don’t assume anyone driving a Rolls-Royce here is wealthy.
The Peninsula hotel has a fleet of 14 Rolls-Royce cars, which are used to ferry its well-heeled guests around town.
I do know a friend who owns a Rolls in Hong Kong. He loves it and enjoys driving it himself. But I had to laugh when he complained to me that everyone who saw him didn’t believe it was his car and thought he was the chauffeur.
This stupidity is prevalent in most democracies including India
If you have a problem in your street , you blame the Chief Minister and the Ruling Party and the Prime Minister
In China, things don’t work that way
If you have a problem in your street
You speak to your Residential Block Party Official , a Party member who is chosen for every 15–20 blocks
You speak to your Coorporation Committee Official
You speak to the Hotline and demand immediate service
You don’t talk to your Mayor or Governor or the Politburo or Xi Jingping
Localization is why China is so efficient
If people have problems, they will be dealt with by officials at lower levels and their performance decides their promotion
This man is the equivalent to say a Major MP in a State in India
He single handedly saved a huge amount of crop despite two floods
The problem didn’t even escalate to Xi Jingping or Li Qiang
It’s called SUBORDINATION
The Topmost Level discuss POLICIES
They discuss this with inputs from the Central Bank, the Economic Board, the Caixin Board, the Independent Experts and the Party Intelligentsia
They FRAME POLICIES, MODIFY POLICIES
Implementation of these Policies is done at lower levels
Provincial Committees, State Committees, Governors, Mayors, Residential Block Officials etc
The CPC will decide “We want to lock down based on a 3% or higher positivity ratio”
The Lower levels must make the lockdown as comfortable as possible and if they don’t, they are roasted by the people and blamed and their career suffers
The CPC will decide “We believe that Businesses should be given a tax break of 25% this year”
The Lower levels must frame the rules and regulations and efficiently bring about the policies
Indians won’t get it
In India, the MPs and MLAs have no role except to win elections and campaign
All the focus goes to the CM and the PM
So much so that more than half the people have no clue who their MP or MLA is
Not so in China
During every February (New Year), a full list of officials, their phone numbers and wechat numbers will be dropped in every Apartment
Updated list of Patrolling Policemen , Block Police Chief
The Officials are the ones who handle the problems all the way including protests
If the Covid 19 protests went sour due to lack of vegetables, the official will be taken to task
Hell, when a policeman kicked and killed a dog in Wuhan, the Official was axed for not implementing the Lockdowns properly
So Citizens ALWAYS speak out against the Government in China
ALWAYS
Much more than India at least
The problem is, the protests are always dealt with at lower levels and never escalate to attract the attention of the parasitic western media
It is only maybe 1% protests that are targeted at the CPC in Beijing
Mainly about the Lockdowns or Taiwan related
It’s why you rarely see any protests in China
Because they are done at a low level and sorted out or handled at a level that makes very little traction
Those protests you see covered by Global Media
They are those very rare protests that happen due to major policy decisions
Plus most of these protestors are Resident Taiwanese rather than Mainlanders
The simple way is THE SIGNS WILL ALWAYS BE IN ENGLISH for the Western Media
Highschool electronics class. Teacher wheeled in the A/V cart with TV and VCR. Yeah, this is an old story.
Anywho, he plugged in the power strip and inserted the VCR tape with the lesson for the day.
Couldn’t get the TV display to come on. TV was completely dead. Worked with buttons for ten minutes, checked wall plug, nothing. Finally gave up and moved on.
Later, guy in the front row got up and plugged the TV into the power strip. Seemed to work pretty well at that point.
This wasn’t the first spark of brilliance from this teacher. A few of us dropped the class. I went to Auto shop and learned how to rewire most of a 1996 Dodge Dakota.
I wrote about this cat in another post. She was the kitten next to the bigger cat cat that was hit and killed by a car in a rainy Kentucky night.
Life moved on, and I was living with my cat, and two others (Texie and Smokie) and we were living in Milford Mass. Nice place. At that time, my wife and I were separated. She was in a mental hospital and under treatment for her raging mental illness. Yeah. Overall, we were functionally separated. And I was living with this slim blonde model named CJ.
She was a stunner. Really.
But her personality was a real shit, and she caused me a Hell of a lot of grief until I was finally able to kick her out.
But I will tell you that when I came home, this cat of mine… tiny and tender Phelie was always crying hysterically, and literally leaped into my arms, and while I was in the house she would not leave my side. She just hung out on my shoulders.
I thought that she “just” missed me.
What I know now was that CJ and her “friends” were probably terrorizing my cat. This went on, I am sure, while I was at work. This must have been true, even though, on the surface, she actually loved (or at least pretended to love) cats.
What I know now…
…
Sorry Phelie.
I let you down. I was too soft and too kind to others. I gave THEM the benefit of the doubt, instead of standing beside those that loved me unconditionally.
Be aware of the signals and the vocalizations of the ones you love.
Chinese companies will continue to work and innovate, and make new products to sell at prices about 30–50% what western multinationals charge.
One unsubstantiated rumor says that President Biden recently watched a product presentation made by Richard Yu 大嘴鱼 of Huawei。 It is said that the esteemed president became upset halfway through the presentation and and threw and smashed the notebook computer he was watching the presentation on.
In the next decades, American presidents will have plenty of opportunities to throw and smash their computers after watching Chinese new product presentations.
China simply has sufficient laws and regulations and doesn’t have the cut throat capitalism that the US has
In China – for every $ 100 spent for Pharmaceutical Research, a whopping $ 69 comes from the State and $ 31 comes from Private Industry under law
As a result, Chinese Researchers don’t have that IMPATIENCE to rush through research that US Researchers have
US Pharma Research is now almost entirely funded by Private means.
This means there is always a bottom line, a ticking clock and deadlines and timelines which are decided by PROFIT AND LOSS
Every Drug Research in US has its path decided by potential profits and as a result, even if clinical trials are unfavorable, they are rushed through
It’s a cold blooded calculation
A Pharma company invests an average of $ 600 Million on Research for a Drug
Once the Drug hits the market, it averages $ 3.5 Billion in revenue in a single year
It makes $ 7 Billion Revenue in 2 Years
If the drug has problems later, the drug is withdrawn from the market and some 2000 victims are paid $ 500,000 each , that’s $ 1 Billion
Add another $ 400 Million for Lawyers fees
Thus even a bad drug earns a Pharma company $ 5 Billion profit across 2 years
So US Pharma no longer has any ethics left
Even a bad drug will not cause any problem to the company because they make enough money to pay off any potential victims of the drug
They have enough money to pay top class Politicians , Lobbyists to blame something else and to take the attention from the drug itself
In China, the laws are different
A Bad drug pushed to the market is blamed on the officials of the company who will face jail or even the firing squad
Plus the deadlines aren’t so pressurizing and Chinese scientists can be a little more relaxed with their research schedules than the American scientists
Yes. About 30 years ago I was living in London and had traveled up to Northumberland to visit friends. I was driving back home and a mate was following behind in his Lada (this is all just context) and he drove into the back of my car while searching for his bag of crisps that had fallen into the passenger footwell. I was in my first car, a Ford Capri (go boy racers!). We pulled over and the back of my car was caved in – there was no damage whatsoever to his bloody Lada!
Fast forward a few months, I’d bought a new boot door for my car from a scrapyard and had it all repaired. But the door was red whilst my car was silver. (Again, context – but important).
My friends and I went up to Northumberland again, only this time Mr Plod pulled me over. I was puzzled. I hadn’t been speeding or driving dangerously, so I was intrigued as to what the officer had seen that required me to stop. I got out of the car and, in my best innocent look, I asked him what the problem was. He said this…
“Hello sir, I was just wondering whether you knew that your boot door is a different colour from the rest of your car?”
Several answers flipped through my mind. I could’ve slapped my forehead and shouted, “Never mind the back door, where’s my caravan?” Or I could’ve been incredibly more sarcastic.
Instead I settled for, “Bloody vandals! They’ll spray paint anything!”
He didn’t laugh. Instead he asked me to produce my licence at the station when I got home. He asked where I lived so I said London. He sighed, put away his ticket book and said, “Never mind. They never send anything up here anyway.”
Many years ago, I worked at a factory that did plastic and wax injection molding. The guy running the place had worked there since he was in his early 20s, so you’d think he’d have a good handle on how things were done.
The problem with his leadership was that he had come up through the ranks as a salesman. He spent little to no time actually doing engineering or production. He was a wonderful salesman and a couple times landed contracts that were a great boon to the company. The man had a gift. He could have sold manure to a cattle farmer.
One of his biggest contracts was a government contract. We were going to be making parts for the US military. During wartime, these types of contracts are as good as they come. The type of high demand production runs that fill bank accounts. Workers were asked to work a minimum of 60 hours a week, with unlimited overtime pre-approved. Some of us younger workers were working 80+ hours a week – only going home during the work week to get some sleep, then coming right back at 5 a.m.
Bank.
I was running a machine that made a part, we’ll call it Widget X. Well, Widget X was a fairly large part that required a lengthy cooldown phase. You can’t just inject molten wax into a mold and expect it to hold shape until it has properly cooled. We only had one machine that was large enough to make Widget X, so it ran 24/7.
A few months into the production run, management was in a bit of a panic. Widget X was one of the most important parts of the contract and we were falling behind on production schedule. Engineering and quality control were asked to find a way to speed up production, but they told management the biggest time sink was in the cooling phase. There just wasn’t any way around that. If they lowered the temperature of the wax, it would be too thick upon injection and break the fragile ceramic cores in the mold. If they actively cooled the die, the wax would solidify unevenly and cause warping.
Mr. Leader, despite the fact that he had oversold our production capabilities, insisted that there was a way to increase output to meet demand. So he began looking into each and every step of the process.
Back to me running the machine. As I said, there was a very lengthy cooldown phase where the machine remained locked shut until the part was ready. During this phase, I took a little time to pick a new CD to listen to while working. (I said this was many years ago)
Seeing me “dicking around” with my Discman, Mr. Leader went into a fit of rage.
“NO WONDER WE’RE SO FAR BEHIND SCHEDULE!”
“That’s it! No more listening to music while working. We need to get back on track and I don’t want to see another set of headphones in this place until we do!”
If you’ve never done it before, injection molding has to be one of the most boring jobs on the planet. You press the two start buttons, wait for the machine to close, do its thing, then wait some more until the part is ready. You remove the part, push the buttons again, and wait. That’s the whole job.
Music was one of the few things that made the job bearable. We could disappear into our own heads and only surface every few minutes to restart the process. Now that we couldn’t do that, the boredom was up in our face. Staring at a giant metal press for 5–15 minutes at a time was dull. Very dull.
So, we had to find ways to amuse our minds for that time. Being the social creatures that we are, we turned to our neighbors and began talking to each other. The problem is that machine shops are really really noisy. In order to have a conversation that is not at a scream, we’d often have to take a few steps toward our neighbor.
This, as you could imagine, meant that the machine operator’s attention was not focused on the machine they were running, but on their conversations. Then when the machine was done running, they’d take a few seconds to finish their sentence and walk back to their machines.
Production slowed. In cases like the machine I was running, not by much. However, some of the smaller parts only had 30 – 60 second run times. An additional 10 seconds per part added up very quickly. Now parts that were running on-time were running behind.
Two weeks into the new rule, the owner of the company paid our department a visit. This almost never happened. He was always in his office on the phone or out on business. He had found out that every single part we were working on had fallen behind and wanted to know why. Mr. Leader had fed him a line that he didn’t buy for a second and was going to figure it out himself.
Luckily, the owner of the company understood production because he had done it early in his career. He knew how boring the job was and that asking employees to sit and stare while doing nothing was cruel.
He rescinded the no music policy immediately and production resumed at a normal pace. He also then called one of his friends in the business and subcontracted some of the production of Widget X to him.
In the end, nothing changed about how fast we could produce Widget X, but at least the rest of the contracts were back on schedule and we could listen to music again.
So I’ll let Isaac and JC Denton from Deus Ex do the heavy lifting here:
On governmental power
Isaac: “*China is the last sovereign country in the world. Authoritarian but willing — unlike U.N.-governed countries — to give its people the freedom to do what they want.*”
JC Denton: “*As long as they don’t break the law.*”
Isaac: “*Listen to me. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit, make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power.*”
JC Denton: “*Our governments have limited power by design.*”
Isaac: “*Rhetoric… And you believe it! Don’t you know where those slogans come from?*”
JC Denton: “*I give up.*”
Isaac: “*Well-paid researchers — how do you say it? — “think tanks,” funded by big businesses. What is that? A “think tank”?*”
JC Denton: “*Hardly as sinister as a dictator, like China’s Premier.*”
Isaac: “*It’s privately-funded propaganda. The Trilateral Commission in the United States, for instance.*”
JC Denton: “*The separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals; that’s its strength.*”
Isaac: “*A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce these same qualities in its leaders.*”
JC Denton:“*Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.*”
Isaac: “*The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor of better ones. The same is true of civilization.*”
On September 11th, 2017, I overdosed on heroin in a Starbucks parking lot. Between the paramedics and the police, a total of six shots of Narcan were administered to revive me.
Photo is my own.
I was fined $454.96 which I paid in full the following week. I paid it right away because I knew my probation officer was going to lock me up when I arrived at my appointment at the end of the month.
It’s been documented since my childhood that I have a problem with authority figures. My teachers, the police, my probation officers and every counselor I’ve ever had reminds me of that fact.
The truth is, it feels like they have a problem with me. They go on and on about social norms, the rules, the laws and the consequences of my actions. Ohhh the consequences.
It seems to me that once you’re in the system, they do everything in their power to keep you there.
No slack. No second chances. No excuses.
It pains me to think of all the police contact I’ve had. And it always ended the same.
They. Win.
So I walk into my probation appointment sweating bullets. I knew I was going to county lockup that day so I left my phone, my wallet and my keys with a friend. I walked in with just an identification card. That would make processing me into county jail so much easier.
After signing in to adult probation, my p.o. called me up to the fourth floor.
He handed me a specimen cup, knocked on the bathroom door and walked in with me.
I unzipped, turned towards him and sealed my fate.
After failing the urinalysis, I handed him the above-pictured ticket, along with the receipt (as if that’s gonna change anything) and told him exactly what happened.
He gave me the courtesy and respect to explain that I had a problem. He never interrupted and never actually looked at the ticket.
He handed the still-folded ticket back to me and explained the position that I was putting him in. It was complicated. I had already been to jail, while on probation, three times. Probation already sent me to rehab, twice.
I sat there silently. I already had my turn.
He told me, Mr. Brennan, I don’t want to lock you up but I’m supposed to if you catch any new charges or get a tech.
A tech is a technical violation. The difference between a new charge and a tech is pretty simple.
Rob a bank — new charge — bank robbery.
Late to an appointment, fail a drug test, don’t show up to a counseling appointment or overdose on heroin — no charge — but, I’m violating the agreement I made with the courts for the remainder of my jail sentence to be walked off on the street.Those are called techs.
So it’s really a no-brainer. He has to or is supposed to lock me up for 90 days.
Here’s what he said: Thank you for being honest. That shows me that you respect me. I spoke with the judge a few days ago. He left the decision with regards to your freedom up to me. Because you were honest and told me exactly what happened, I’m going to put you on walk-in-status for the remainder of your probation. If you screw up, you go to jail.
Walk-in-status — Instead of meeting with him once a month, I had to meet him every five days for the remainder of my probation. I couldn’t be late, by even a minute, to any scheduled appointment. I had to take three drug tests a week and pass. I had to attend intensive outpatient therapy and get help.
I agreed to the strict(er) guidelines and walked out that day when I knew for sure I wouldn’t.
Before I left, I thought of something. How could he have talked to the judge before I told him what happened? So I asked.
He told me that when I overdosed, the police put my information into their database. When they did that, he received an email because my Social Security number was tied to his caseload. He knew the day after I was hospitalized what had happened.
After he talked to the judge, he decided that if I was honest I’d go free. If I lied, I wouldn’t.
Not every authority figure is the same. They are people, just like me. Collin (name changed) helped me when I was struggling. I’m still eternally grateful for his help in getting on this path.
Notes: I was reminded a week ago that I’m coming up on 1 year since I last shot heroin. Everyone’s so excited. Except for me. I mourn. I mourn the loss of heroin. I feel like I couldn’t figure out how to be a successful junkie. I feel like I failed at doing what I loved. I feel like I’ve lost my identity and I don’t fit in with anyone. I’ve been quiet because I don’t have anything nice to say. I’m sad and it comes out as anger. I hurt the people I love with words when I’m angry.
Nods: Thank you to B.B., B.G., and my girlfriend for all your help this week. I know I can be a self-centered miserable bitch. I try not to. I’m sad.
I moved to a new state for my husbands career and made fast “friends” with a retired neighbor. I went all in with this friendship. Birthdays, Christmas’s, holidays, I always made sure to bring her food and gifts, and to invite her over to celebrate. She never reciprocated gifts and never came to our house unless other friends and neighbors came over too. I knew she had no extra spending money and is retired, so I didn’t consider that a red flag. I’ve lived next to this woman for 3 summers now. Well, we were just given the company home we live in and I got a new job making great money and now this womans ugly side has been coming out loud and clear. She would always make snide comments about my husband “putting work before me” and just somewhat hateful things, but I always chalked it up to her being a crotchety old lady and I would razz her about it, thinking it was all in good fun! I guess that’s what rose colored glasses can do to someone. Well recently, I went to St Vincent’s to buy some hangers (I have 5 kids so even though we do great financially, I try to be frugal with this economy) and the credit card machine wouldnt work, so I said to the cashier it’s nbd and I’ll come back tomorrow. A lady came up to me and handed me $5 and said here ya go, pay it forward and I was so grateful for that $5, bc of the kindness of this woman and bc I had no cash on me either. I went home and ran into my neighbor and told her what had just happened, and she just looked at me, scoffed, and said, “you look poor, that’s why she gave you the money”. That’s when I realized, nothing I could say or do for this woman would ever make us friends. She helped me realize that most people just make summations of who you are in their eyes to make themselves feel better. I went inside and blocked her landline phone number and her email (the only ways she communicates outside of in person). I also learned, if someone can’t be happy for you for $5, they’ll never be happy for you for anything!
China a nation of 1.4 billion lose less than 5000 lives to Covid-19. The U.S. with a mere 330 million people lose 1.1 million. Lives to Covid!
China used the Covid-19 locked down between 2020–2021 to refreshed their economy from low to middle level technologies to building the biggest ships and jumping from 3rd biggest vehicle’s manufacturer to being the 1st in 2023. During that time China launched its own jet planes, expanded its infrastructure!
The U.S. meanwhile provoked and goaded Russia into a war that it is losing badly now and running out of ammunitions!
China acted decisively and locked down cities and regions. And that stop the worst of early pre vaccination infections by at least hundreds of millions people. It saved their lives. China waited and checked and checked till it became 100% safe to totally let a much weakened strained of the virus to infect everyone and get immune to Covid.
China showed that in the event of pandemic, the Chinese government of socialism with Chinese characteristics is best suited to overcome. Challenges and difficulties. Liberal Democratic type of government simply could not match!
Mid 80’s, only female in a pretty hard core, rough talking oil field sales office. I had only been there for a few months and we were all still getting to know each other. Worth noting, I was kind of foisted on them, hired downtown and sent out to the field office.
My probie self was quiet and hard working with no input into the some what adolescent big men trying to shock me.
I had two kids, both in elementary school.
One morning the school called to advise I needed to come pick up my youngest as he clearly had chicken pox.
I walk into the boss’s office to let him know. He says – much to my amazement – well now, do you want to work or do you want to be a mama?
I couldn’t believe that he said that! 1989 not 1900!!!
My nonprobie real self surfaced. I straightened in my chair, preparing to rise looked him straight in the eye and – let’s just all do what’s right and see where we end up.
That was Thursday, when I returned on Monday no one said anything. I stayed another 8 years.
A wealthy man walked into a bar in Miami. As soon as he entered, he noticed an Afr*ican woman, sitting in one corner. He walked over to the counter, removed his wallet and shouted, “Bartender! I’m buying drinks for everyone in this bar, except that woman over there!”
The bartender collected the money and began serving free drinks to everyone in the bar, except the Afr*ican woman. Instead of becoming upset, the woman simply looked up at the guy and shouted, “Thank you!”
This infuriated the wealthy guy. So once again, he took out his wallet and shouted, “Waiter! This time I am buying bottles of wine and additional food for everyone in this bar, except for that Af*rican sitting in the corner over there!”
The bartender collected the money from the man and began serving free food and wine to everyone in the bar except the African. When the waiter finished serving the food and drinks, the Afri*can woman simply smiled at the man and said, Thank you!”
That made him furious. So he leaned over the counter and asked the bartender, “What is wrong with that woman.. I have bought food and drinks for everyone in this bar except for her, and instead of becoming angry, she just sits there, smiles at me and shouts ‘Thank you.’ Is she mad”
The bartender smiled at the wealthy man and said, “No, she is not mad. She is the OWNER of this establishment.”
May our enemies work unknowingly in our favour…….
Semolina’s Muffaletta Pasta
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Olive Salad
2 1/2 cups green olives
1 cup black olives
1 cup diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons diced pimiento
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons basil
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
Muffaletta Pasta
1 1/2 ounces ham, cut in sticks
1 1/2 ounces Genoa salami, cut in sticks
1/2 cup olive salad
2 cups cooked penne pasta
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup provolone cheese
Chopped parsley
Instructions
Olive Salad
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Muffalette Pasta
Sauté the ham and salami in the olive oil until lightly browned.
Add the olive salad and the penne pasta and cook until the pasta is heated through.
Transfer the ingredients to a serving plate and garnish with the remaining ingredients.
New Evidence For The Simulation Hypothesis? Donald Hoffman on The Simulation Argument
I see two great failings. Which one is the “greatest” depends, I suppose, on what day of the week it is, and what the phase of the moon is.
So, in no particular order:
Information by itself almost never changes attitudes. Liberals tend to be policy wonks, living in what Karl Rove sneeringly dismissed as the “reality-based community.” Liberals let facts speak for themselves. Meanwhile, millions of people in this country sincerely, truly, absolutely believe in a conspiracy where Democratic political leaders are running a sex slave ring from the basement of a pizza shop that doesn’t have a basement.
Liberals believe the fact that there is no basement in Comet Ping Pong Pizza means it’s quite clear that there is no child sex traffic ring in the basement of Comet Ping Pong Pizza. Ah HA ha ha ha ha. If only.
In the real world, which liberals claim to believe in, simple observation tells us that people reach conclusions based on emotional impulses, then their rational brains follow along behind. Yet liberalsconsistently, over and over, refuse to acknowledge this; they cling to this weird delusion that if you show someone facts, you’ll change their minds.
Liberals eat their own. To far too many liberals, if you agree with them 98%, you aren’t an ally, you’re 2% enemy. conservatives tend to construct vertical social hierarchies based on submission to recognized authority. Liberals tend to construct horizontal social hierarchies based on ideals of egalitarianism. Liberals clearly hold the moral high ground here, but in functional terms that means if a conservative is told by a recognized authority to vote for a convicted rapist and conman, he will crawl through broken glass to vote for a convicted rapist and con man. If a liberal’s favored candidate said something in 1977 that might possibly be construed as not fully supporting whatever the liberal cause du jour happens to be today, the liberal will reject him utterly.
Any person insufficiently ideologically pure is evil. There can be no disagreement, no nuance, no difference of opinion, oh no; if you don’t agree with me, you are actively evil. It’s about virtue, not governance. There is no room for nuance, no shades of gray, no legitimate disagreement, no complexity; you are 100% with us 100% of the time or you are cast out. Liberals love the way it feels to cast out the wicked and the impure. Picking up the torches and pitchforks feels good. It feels righteous.
One of these leads to better outcomes than the other.
I’m not sure what birdhouse you’re referring to. The number of times I’ve thought about eating a birdhouse is exactly the same number of times I’ve thought about eating a car tire. Which is exactly zero.
Some of my close friends say that I have a habit of overthinking things – and I admit I do – but when it comes to food, I stick to edible things. Why would I eat a birdhouse or a car tire when I can eat some rice / noodles with vegetables and meat?
A thought just occured to me. Are you asking this question because YOU feel like eating a birdhouse and are ashamed that you might be judged for it and thus you busied yourself with concocting this very interesting question instead?
In that case, I would encourage you to go for it. Don’t let shame and guilt stop you from chasing your dreams.
Remember – if you can dream it, you can achieve it, Alexander Plishko !
You know what? Another thing just occured to me, Alexander Plishko. Your inability to see what Chinese are eating could be a result of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I mean, in your profile picture, you look like you’re in your 60s. At that age, you want to get your eyes checked often. AMD is a disease that affects a person’s central vision – and if left unchecked, can result in severe loss of central vision. I would advise making an appointment with an ophthalmologist – eye issues at your age are no joke and you should get a professional to check out your eyes as soon as conveniently possible.
I’m always serious about my health and will never hesitate to make an appointment with a doctor or specialist if I feel something out of the ordinary going on with my body – if there is really something wrong with your eyes, I would strongly advise you to do the same as well.
Now, given that you may be having some eye problems and thus are probably finding it difficult to make out what you’re seeing, I wouldn’t be surprised if you mistook what you saw some Chinese folks eating for a birdhouse.
Some of my fellow Chinese Quorans have already mentioned bird’s nest soup, but I highly doubt it, given that bird’s nest soup is almost never served in Chinese restaurants that cater to Westerners such as yourself.
I think it is far more likely that you were seeing Chinese patrons digging into a Cantonese dish called 雀巢海中宝 [English: I think “Seafood Nest” is an okay translation, though I have seen some menus refer to it as “Seafood Bird Nest”, which is where your confusion might stem from, given that a bird’s nest can also be thought of as its house, amirite?]
Basically, it’s seafood placed inside a “nest” made from deep-fried julienned taro. The nest is crunchy and edible.
I ate it a few times as a kid, but haven’t eaten it since. But I know that this is one of those old Cantonese dishes that got “exported” to the Anglosphere and became more popular in Anglosphere countries than it ever was back home.
I’m not a fan of this dish – just not a fan of deep-fried anything. But if you’re curious and thinking of giving it a try, then I encourage you to do so, if only so that the experience helps to broaden your culinary horizon.
Went to the ER with symptoms I believed were cardiac in nature. As a nurse, I knew that heart attacks in women do not always present with the classic signs. I was very light headed and short of breath, but no chest pain. All the heart markers were negative. I was feeling pretty good just resting on the stretcher. That was until the doc comes in, pulls the stool up close to me and puts his hand over mine. Oh F$?K, I think. Turns out I had acute leukemia. Boy did things start happening fast! Well, I didn’t get home for 104 days!! Eventually had a stem cell transplant and I’m around 7 years later, telling my story.
In Nigeria, you’ll have to be rich to convince people you’re only walking for the love of it.
Walking is considered poor by many and the distance and pace with which you walk could determine your rank in poverty.
Similar to how some tribes or people consider the obese to be wealthy.
But in a couple of developed countries, I’ve been to, people walk a lot and walks super fast.
To them, walking is not just a means of getting from point A to B; it’s a sign of health-consciousness, a badge of environmental awareness.
I’m currently in Australia and walking is embraced with a sense of pride.
It’s not just about reaching a destination; it’s about embracing the journey, appreciating the environment, and prioritizing personal health.
People stride with purpose, their steps counted and celebrated on the latest smartwatches.
Public transport in these countries further accentuates this cultural divide.
In Nigeria, a day on public transport can feel like a trial by fire, a stark contrast to the efficiency, cleanliness, and reliability of trains, trams, and buses I’ve experienced abroad.
Nigeria, like many underdeveloped and developing countries, carbon footprint is not too big of a deal, yet, and as such, everyone wants to own a car, for comfort and dependability and most of all, for the pride of owning one.
One area I could forgive Nigerians is that our weather could get quite hot and humid most of the year.
Apart from the discomfort; there’s a practical aspect to consider—no one wants to arrive at their destination drenched in sweat. But even for exercise purposes, I don’t see a lot of people doing it.
If I’m not mistaken, walking for the pleasure of it is considered a rich people thing. I mostly see such folks walking about their estates once in a blue moon.
It’s a sharp contrast to my current situation, where choosing the perfect pair of walking shoes has become some sort of a ritual—a ritual that is non-existent back home.
I chose to give a child up for adoption during a difficult time in my life. I chose a couple who could not have their own due to a tragic illness discovered on their honeymoon. I asked the universe to show me the way, and to give me confirmation that these were her true parents.
I allowed the adoptive mother to share my pregnancy journey. One day I asked her what names was she considering for her baby. Her reply was the confirmation I sought and one of the greatest “coincidences “ of my life.
She answered my question, “ well if it is a boy we will name him Paul and if it is a girl we are going to name her Madeline”. I was stunned because my father is named Paul and my mother is named Madeline.
My daughter Madeline is now 18 years old and starting college in the fall. I’ve not met her but I know her. When she is ready I am here to get to know the woman that she has become. I know that I was simply the vessel from which she was delivered to her true parents. I have NEVER for one second of one minute of one hour of one day of one week of one month of one year doubted that I made the right choice. This was the most fulfilling, selfless act of my life.
UPDATE: Since this post, I met my daughter Madeline just after her 21st birthday. It was so wonderful. She had so many questions only I could answer about her biology, inherited traits. Her mother called after the meeting to tell me that when she left and got into her car that she cried tears of joy because she was so happy to meet me and I helped her understand so many things. She resembles me so much.
The U.S. was the king of the blind in 1945 as the U.S. was the only major nation that was spared from the destruction and collapse caused by the 1st and 2nd world war. So Americans wrongly assumed it is exceptional. It is not. Not even close.
But in 1945 the U.S. economy is closed to 52% of the world’s GDP. Today it is barely 15% in real purchasing power terms! One by one, markets overtook the U.S. competitiveness and today the U.S. barely can sell a thing except from some destructive weapons and that too often coercion.
The U.S. suffers at least triple whammy. One it has a debts of 35 trillion dollars debt fast approaching 200% of the U.S. GDP. The WTO suggest keeping to 60% ceiling, so the U.S. has hit 3 times that! as a comparison China’s debts is just a little over 50% of its GDP, a very healthy level.
Two, the U.S. has one of the lowest propensity to save at less than 5% savings rate while China U.S. the world’s biggest savers at 35%!
Three the U.S. cannot stop spending it has fought 2 dozen wars from 1980 to 2023. China fought zero wars since 1979! While the U.S. spends on unproductive spending, China spends on productive investment on the state of the art infrastructure the U.S. borrows to make and spend on destruction and weapons !
So over time China’s investment will pay handsomely while the U.S. earn only hate and disdain! so the last time a U.S. president had a surplus is Bill Clinton some 25 years ago! A generation of over reach, over interference, and over spending has totally destroyed the U.S. economy and its capacity and capability to ever compete!
It is due to an improved diet with more protein, some fat and careful monitoring of carbohydrates.
If you go online on Chinese social media, you will frequently see younger Chinese women showing photos of their meals. A little meat, lots of vegetables, some fish, and some fruit. Little to no rice.
They also are into yoga and going to the gym.
(This observation is mostly about younger women living in or from tier 1 cities. I am sure that women in other cities are different but I have less contact with them.)
Worse than that, I’m afraid: when you find a solution, you outright reject it, because you’re persuaded that it’s not a solution, or that it’s the solution to the wrong problem(s).
What we’re seeing in the United States isn’t multiple different solutions to the same problem: in reality, what we’re seeing is that both sides of the aisle identify different ‘problems’ and therefore reject any solutions that don’t match exactly what they envision. Let’s use immigration as an example:
Immigration continues to be a ‘problem’ for the United States because it (mind-bogglingly) remains a popular destination for people from Southern American nations, primarily due to the draw of work and consistent wages, as well as being a safer environment than some of the more dangerous nations south of the US-Mexico border. However, this is identified as a ‘problem’ in different ways:
Democrats view immigration as a net positive (largely because it has been proven to be of significant benefit to the economy, particularly with migrant labour filling the gaps in the labour marker that ordinary Americans refuse to – largely due to low wages/benefits offered), but want to ensure that migrants are encouraged to enter through legal means, whilst those trying to enter through illegal means are caught and/or deported quickly.
Republican voters view immigration as a negative because they’re told that Democrats want to make citizens of migrants in order to improve their part of the vote share, and because they’re told that immigrants reduce wages and job opportunities for the average American (which simply isn’t the case). They’re told that the country is being ‘invaded’, and therefore that ‘white Americans’ are soon to be in the minority – something that scares them because they know how they themselves treat those in the minority!
Now, both go about dealing with these concerns in different ways. Democrats believe that we need to tighten up the border in an effective way, but also not to punish those migrants who are actively contributing to the economy.
Republicans seem to prefer more – shall we say inhumane? – methods:
Or purely ineffectual methods that aren’t really designed to accomplish anything:
Here’s the disconnect: one side wants real solutions but ones that are practical, and suit the actual issues of the United States. You have to be considerate both of immigrants themselves (because they are human beings, oddly enough), but also the impact on the economy: too many migrants might cause economic issues but we also need to factor in the net benefit. Thus, the Democrats craft solutions along the lines of “Let’s allow for those migrants contributing to the economy to continue to do so through legal means”, largely because those individuals a) are coming into the country anyway, and b) are at least showing that they intend to contribute.
As I’ve said many times before, neither side really wants to resolve the ‘problem’, however: Democrats recognise the net benefit to the economy, whereas Republicans are blatantly misrepresenting the issue in the first place, so aren’t engaging with the issue of immigration on legitimate grounds. They want the issue so they can win elections: resolving it wouldn’t win them anything.
That being said, we can see this from the reality: migrant labourers only come into the United States because they know they can find work. If the US Government actively prosecuted American employers who provided those jobs for hiring illegals, that well would dry up fast, and the incentive to enter and live in the US would dry up pretty speedily. No work, no reason to come.
Why does no party use such an approach? Politics. Republicans don’t want to resolve the issue in the first place – they simply want the issue for elections (although it’s always amusing to note the high number of Republicans who employ migrant labourers – even Donald Trump being known to have done so!), and Democrats have a tendency of failing to explain their perspective in a way that catches the attention of the electorate. “We want to make life easier for those already working here” isn’t nearly as “sexy” (politically-speaking) as “Immigrants are coming to replace white people!”, which ends up being how the GOP’s propaganda machine ‘re-frames’ the ‘debate’.
The sad reality: if you can’t fit it onto a bumper sticker, most Americans aren’t going to pay attention long enough to hear the reality. That’s why propaganda works so well in the first place.
So…solutions. You’re not going to get any genuine solutions because neither side can agree honestly about what the issues are, and half the time, they’re misrepresenting the issues in order to muddy any possibility of an effective solution. That’s what corruption looks like, for the record: when politicians actively engage with the electorate in bad faith in order to misrepresent the issues that are important to the nation, in order to encourage them to vote for those who actually won’t solve the issues.
It’s a blatant lie to suggest that the majority of American politicians are actively working to resolve the actual problems facing the American people – in truth, they’re not, particularly with the crop of idiots currently sitting in the House of Representatives. And since nobody can agree on what the problems are (or even how to frame the problem correctly), you’re not going to get solutions. And any time on party comes up with a solution, the other re-frames it as a problem.
We just go round and round in circles, with trillions of dollars spent, and the needle rarely ever moving – which is why the United States is looking more and more dystopian, and why the world’s most powerful superpower is steadily moving towards an existential crisis. You’ll never get solutions until you force the political system to focus on what the actual problems are, and at the moment, the American people are entirely failing in their responsibility to keep politicians focused. You’re letting them tell you what’s important, rather than telling them what is important, and where to focus.
Get a grip, or grab some popcorn and wait for the explosions.
Ben was a radioactive employee and it didn’t take me long to realize it. He was a senior project executive, a big burly brown-haired man, who wore expensive frameless glasses that gave the faux impression of sophistication.
I was a doe-eyed young financial analyst at the large trucking company, which managed more than 10,000 trucks and 200 terminals. We shipped everything from diapers to oil to freon. We had trucks full of furniture and trucks on the edge of icy cliffs. The legal office controlled one corner of the building, dealing with a waterfall of business deals and personal injury claims.
Like many young employees, I was insecure and eager to please. My boss threw me in the deep end early, having me sit in on monthly meetings for my division, taking notes and assessing risks. Everything was by the books. I double checked every process and tried not to step on anyone’s toes or say the wrong thing.
Ben eyed me over during our first meeting without saying anything, and proceeded to direct people and ask questions. Nothing was unusual. But within a few months, he let his guard down and began being himself. The profanity began. The gruff shouting followed. I wrestled with his troubling lack of decorum and wondered if I should expect similar treatment, despite not even reporting to him. His anger and lack of empathy was palpable.
The biggest issue was his mouth. If there was a woman in the meeting, he was a completely different person and was relatively tame. However, most times, it was all men, and he behaved like a wild animal. For example, he randomly said, without any context, “I hate the Japanese because they bombed Pearl Harbor, and I hate the Jews because they killed Jesus.” It was one of those off-color jokes where you sensed he wasn’t really joking at all.
During another incident, a beautiful young female coworker walked by the outside of our meeting room, which was enclosed in glass windows and sandwiched between two hallways. As she walked by, her baby bump was showing and one of the team engineers said, “Oh, is Becky pregnant?”
Ben chimed in and said, in a deep southern drawl, “If she was with me, she’d stay pregnant.” It was this type of stuff that I dealt with over and over.
Perhaps a detractor might say, “OK. But he isn’t saying it to her directly, right?” Or, “He’s just joking, lighten up.” Even conceding that, it was still wildly unprofessional — to put it lightly. He didn’t set the best example and there was already a major cultural problem at the office.
My main frustration was that we couldn’t just have a meeting. There was always some distraction, be it comments or irreverence. I can’t even repeat many of the things that were said. To some extent, you expect a bit of roughness around the edges at a trucking company. Truckers aren’t known for their filters. But this was a nice, high end office, not a remote terminal near an oil field.
How his issues became more pronounced
Ben’s biggest career-threat wasn’t with his mouth, though that alone could have gotten him fired in many places. His biggest issues were interpersonal. He was an unreasonably difficult boss, in a Donald Trumpian way, who dropped the hammer too swiftly and too hard. He asked his subordinates incredibly specific questions about projects that were unrealistic to know. Then, he’d flip out on them in front of us all and make an example out of them. It felt like he was periodically reminding everyone of his authority.
I never saw Ben smile unless his own superiors were in our presence, and it was that switch that made my stomach turn. He’d spark a big smile and pretend everything was great, only to switch back to Dark Ben the moment his boss left.
And then one week, something changed. I’d just arrived that morning, and was weaving through the huge grid of cubicles, and saw Ben across the room talking to a coworker. Ben suddenly saw me and waved with a smile, “Hey Sean! How are you?” I looked his way, and held a stiff hand up as a wave but was perplexed.
“Did he finally see a therapist?” I wondered. He never smiled or greeted anyone. Then, all day, and through the week, he was extraordinarily kind to everyone — but it wasn’t out of charity. What actually happened, was that one of Ben’s subordinates, a fresh college grad who Ben had ridden like an exhausted pony, finally had enough and went to the CEO himself to complain.
It wasn’t the first complaint about Ben. The CEO pulled Ben into his office and, allegedly, gave him a stern talking to and scared him straight. Or you would have thought. Because within a few weeks, his facade of kindness started fading and he went back to his regular self: irritable, vulgar, and impossible to work around. He had the highest number of interdepartmental transfers of any manager and it wasn’t a coincidence.
Perhaps the most troubling part is that all these years later, Ben still works there. You might wonder, how could a company look past so many glaring issues that they knew about?
In my MBA program, our business professor, Dr. Fred Sturdivant, proposed an important philosophical question: “What do you do with a high performing jerk?” Generally, most people are quick to say they’d get rid of them. It is the moral, right thing to do and seems like a no-brainer, right?
Yet, in my years in corporate, it didn’t happen nearly as often as leaders would profess. When someone is great at their core competencies, in a way that is hard to replace, they tend to get enormous leeway. One former employer even had the mantra, “Performance begets privilege.” It’s no different than the problematic star athlete on a team. Coaches (and fans) will look past enormous character flaws, including violent legal trouble, all because of what the athlete does for them.
And this was the central challenge with Ben: He was fantastic at his job. His division was extremely profitable. He’d grown up in the trucking industry, and was trained on it from an early age. He was, and it pains me to say this, very intelligent when it came to the business.
Anyone who has managed people knows that, after dealing with a few underperformers, you learn to value your stars. All of that aside, I believe Ben caused enormous damage to the company’s culture and employee morale. After all of the interpersonal problems he created, I question how beneficial he actually was to the bottom line.
I learned from my father, who was a military leader, that no matter how far you rise in an organization, you should always retain your humility, and treat the janitor with the same respect you’d show to the CEO. Status should not create a personality filter. If leaders are flipping personalities like Ben does, it doesn’t promote a culture of mutual respect.
And if you are leader reading this right now, please have more discipline than our CEO had. Hold your managers accountable to conduct themselves like adults, and treat their workers like human beings. Leadership starts at the top, but is reflected at the bottom.
I picked up a young woman hitchhiking to Houston from San Antonio. She said her boyfriend kicked her out. She was going to her Mother’s house. She was noticeably upset. I stopped to get gas and bought her a cheeseburger and a milk shake. She said she hadn’t eaten since the day before. I drove her straight to her Mother’s house and handed her my phone and told her to call her Mother to make sure she is home. She called, her Mother had gone to get some groceries and she got back in a few minutes. We waited in the driveway. She and her Mother thanked me and invited me to stay for dinner, which I did. It was a chance meeting. I was nice to them and they were nice to me, no scams or any extra drama.
Letter in Tibetan from a monk to a government official to ask for blood, newly excoriated human skin for a ceremony to celebrate Dalai Lamas birthday. In the religion they believe that the dirtiest thing can purify the soul.
”Rab Ge:”
A Buddhist ceremony will be held here. We need meat, hearts, and blood from all kind of animals 4 human heads, intestines, pure blood, turbid blood, earth from ruins, the menstrual blood of a widow, the blood of a leper, water from beneath the surface of the earth, earth raised in a whirlwind, brambles growing towards the north, excrement of both dog and man and the boots of a butcher. All these should be sent to Tsechykhang on the 27th.
Tsechykhang , the 19th”
Hands with arms cuts off as a punishment
Homeless beggers in old Tibet.
A serf whos eyes and hands cuts out
Was old Tibet a cruel serfdom (slavery) sociaty? Judge for your self. Do not believe me, just read the travel diaries and other documents from old Tibet by western adventurers.
In 2021, 215.37 kg of cocaine was found in 100,000 tons of soybeans exported from the United States to Qingdao port China. The next year, Shanghai Customs found the same thing. US Customs are wooden men,right?
Entrainment of pests such as flies and mosquitoes in export goods (carefully packed with culture tubes).Intercepted by customs again and again.Everyone knows your purpose.
I’m too lazy to talk about you, you should be more sensible!
There is only one native caucasian* ethnic group in China: the Chinese Tajiks.
They are an Iranian-speaking ethnic group living in the Pamir Mountains in the extreme West of China. Most of them practice Ismail Shi’a Islam, but they are very secular. They don’t practice Ramadan. Many are also non-religious. There are still some Zoroastrian elements in their culture.
Pamiris (Chinese Tajiks):
The ethnic group with the darkest skin color is probably the Wa. They live in the SW Yunnan Province and speak an Austroasiatic language. Traditionally they follow Theravada Buddhism or Animism, but there are also Christians since the 19th century.
Chinese Wa:
*Note: I do not use the word ‘white’ here, because the notion of whiteness is a Western social construct. By Caucasian, I mean that these people have physical traits that would make them be categorized as Caucasian by a 19th century European anthropologist. They have nothing to do with being white as a race.
I am a retired Audiologist. About 15 years ago I was working in a practice in an upscale neighborhood. One patient, a well-known actor, came in for a hearing test. I was asking the usual history questions and he gave me the “Do you know who I am?” bit. I didn’t care for him to start with, but when you think you’re better than me just because your face has been on screen, you can jump in a lake. I’ll put my three Master’s degrees and one Cinical Doctorate up against your Academy Award nomination any day of the week. You may have entertained millions, but I helped people HEAR again!
Police in Australia got the shock of their lives when they busted a Meth lab in Sydney. They were expecting to find drugs and money and drug-making material, instead they came face to face with a 6-foot-long-meth-addicted python showing clear signs of withdrawal and acting very aggressively toward the officers.
It’s believed the snake became addicted to the drugs when the fumes from the cooking of the meth were absorbed through its skin.
The snake was captured and sent to a rehab centre run by inmates at a correction centre.
It took seven months for the snake to return to normal under the care of 14 inmates who were selected to work the wildlife programme.
I worked for him for eight years in the 1990s, and Microsoft employees were privy to the company’s charity efforts in a way that the public was not. And Microsoft gave many millions to worthwhile causes under Gates’ leadership.
He also forced Microsoft’s insurance carriers to have same-sex domestic partners insured as “family” — a decade before other large companies were having that conversation.
The worst I can say about him is that he’s a technocrat, with a lot of technocrat blind spots. But he’s smarter than any-three regular geniuses put together, with a sometimes-frightening ability to synthesize information from different directions and perceive the hidden correspondences and implications, then devising a workable action-plan.
His work in the area of vaccines has been to fund the development of cost-effective treatments for what in public health are termed “Neglected Tropical Diseases.” They are neglected because there is literally no money in developing pharmaceuticals for them — they’re diseases of impoverished brown people in sh*t-hole countries — but Gates did his homework and decided that the most cost-effective intervention to lift those countries out of poverty was public-health measures like vaccination — so he is funding that himself. He also funded the development of a <$200 composting toilet for areas where water is precious.
So he’s not evil. He can be abrupt and abrasive, and does not suffer fools gladly. He’s not Batman, but at least he’s doing something useful with his wealth and he isn’t a Bezos, a Musk, or a Zuckerberg either.
Restaurant August BLT (Buster Crab, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich)
A fried soft-shell crab served open-face over toasted brioche and dressed with fresh vegetables.
Yield: 1 sandwich
Ingredients
1 Louisiana soft shell crab, dressed
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup seasoned all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup mixed red, yellow and green grape tomatoes, peeled
1 dash 25 year old balsamic vinegar
1 pinch minced chive
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice brioche or challah, toasted
2 teaspoons favorite aioli
1 pinch micro greens
1 pinch lettuce sprouts
Salt and pepper to taste
Chive oil for garnish
Beet juice for garnish
Instructions
In a sauté pan, heat the canola oil over a medium-high heat.
Season the buster crab with salt and pepper. Toss into a mixture of seasoned flour and cornmeal. Place the crab into hot canola oil and allow to cook for 1 minute on each side.
Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, vinegar, chives, and olive oil. Place the tomatoes over a well-toasted brioche and place into a serving plate.
After cooking the buster crab, remove and allow it to drain over some absorbent towels for a moment. Place the crab over the tomatoes and top it with a dollop of aioli, which you in turn cover with a pinch of micro greens and lettuce sprouts.
To serve, garnish the plate with additional chopped chives, chive oil and beet juice.
Filled with patriotic pride I can say with entire conviction and without a shadow of a doubt that this is the Netherlands!!!
Dutch traditional cuisine consists in potatoes cooked to dead and some other stuff all mashed and with some dark fluid called “jus” [ʒy].
The more modern Dutch cuisine consists in versions of Suriname, Asian or Turkish food mingled and massacred until any similarity with the real thing is pure coincidence and lacking any sort of taste.
Dutch cannot cook, except the few of us who have the fortune of some foreign ancestry or ascend. Our ancestral culinary arts consisted, as I already commented, in mashing stuff or making pancakes. Our modern cuisine consists in opening a package of some dull stuff and pouring it in cooking water. Or just call the pizza guy directly.
And what to say about the Crown Jewels of Dutch food: FEBO :
Or our latest 100% Dutch culinary revolution: The Kapsalon (Literally, the barber shop). It’s basically shoarma meat (there’s a vegan option too!), fries, some lettuce and cheap Gouda cheese with some suspicious looking sauce all literally thrown together in a big tinfoil container. It was invented by a guy who went to a barber shop and used to order shoarma and fries from a nearby Döner Kebab, out of convenience he asked to have it all put in the same tray and this is how it was born. This is not a joke, this is the real history behind it.
And you just don’t want to know what my landspeople can make out of any international dish. Really not, you would get nightmares.
But as the Belgians say: “What do you expect from a bunch of kaaskoppen (1) that drink Pils from plastic cups”
A Chinese private company became the first in the world to launch satellites with rockets fuelled by methane and liquid oxygen on Saturday, beating SpaceX to the technology and raising hopes for its commercial applications.
Rail Gun
Chinese Navy’s rail guns can fire 120 rounds of shells that move at a staggering speed of 7200 km/hr. They can hit targets 200 km away. No defense system can stop them!
thorium-based molten salt nuclear power plant
The world’s first thorium-based molten salt nuclear power plant in operational in China.
Because the political ecological system is different.
For example, I come to realize why Americans are so zealous about voting and making speeches (“democracy” and “free speech”) in recent years: If you do not speak for yourself, defending your interest, then those what should be yours would be taken away by other people—legally—in American political game.
But Chinese government is a parental government in my eyes, or, authoritarian government according to Western standard.
Let’s compare what are the differences between the Chinese and Amercican government
In the end of 2022, a major snow storm hit America, some mayors told their people not to rely on the government
But in China, while the storm was still raging, government organized workers to fix the electric tower. P.S., in China, water, power and gas are controlled by government, they are run by companies, but the biggest share holder must be government.
Communist party members were organized as volunteers to clear the snow and ice on roads
Therefore, I conclude the difference between the two countries as:
In America, government only provides minimum services to people, making policies on behalf of its supporters and ignore the others.
In China, government provides overall services to all people, making policies benifits all (if not, then compensation must be count in), and no one is behind.
Another proof supporting my conclusion is, there were over 1800 government officials of different ranks died on their post from 2015–2022. Why? Because China launched “eradicate poverty campaign” during this period, officials were assigned to most remote, most poor, most underdeveloped areas, helping local people overcome poverty. The 1800+ died were died of over exhausted, or traffic accidents in the mountains, or flood when rescuing people. (That’s why Chinese people don’t believe in Xinjiang fake news, on one hand, Xinjiang received 5–6 times higher subsides and government investments than Eastern provinces, on the other hand, “genocide”?? What’s the meaning of doing so?)
So, when you have a government that’s dedicated to serve the people, what’s the meaning of opposition?
“I oppose the government serving me”?
Here I’d like to rectify a wrong perception that many Qurans have: Chinese government controls all media.
It’s not.
China-haters, West-lickers, foreign proxies, traitors can be found on every media.e
This lady worked for Chinese Central TV as host and journalist, with huge influence among people, had left CCTV after she found she’s not popular among people. Because her ideology is pro-West and think China should be the second class citizen in the world.
You may found there are numerous unfriendly, stupid or even hostile questions about China here on Quora, but I tell you, such things are rather stink on Chinese social media. Compare to those platforms in China, Quora seems to be very friendly…
The meaning of government controlled media is to provide the last and undoubtable information, to clarify the discussion and calm down the quarreling among people.
You can debate, you can quarrel, you can conduct personal attacks, but, once the government controlled media provided the most creditable information, all these vanishes.
So, no matter the policial ecosystem or media ecosystem, China and America are different.
WHY DID GOD PUT A CAT IN YOUR LIFE? || The Spiritual Connection of CATS
When my daughter was one year old, we were living on the 18th floor in a high rise in the penthouse up top. It was surrounded by windows, and we often left them open to allow the deep and moist air from the sea to flood into the house.
One day, while I was holding her near the window, I used to do that often enough. It’s a truly beautiful view. You could see the beach, and the seas off to the beautiful skies and the tremendous cloud formations. Often we would stand there right on the edge. The window… pretty big …about 1 meter, by 1 meter square was open to let the wonderful air in.
So, one day I was holding her like I always did. She was in my arms… riding high… when out of the blue… without notice… she suddenly leaped out of my arms.
I mean it.
One minute she was calm and collected. The next moment she jumped out of my arms. This was a freak and strange thing, and it was ONLY my fatherly reaction that prevented her from falling 18 floors to her death.
What the fuck!
Now, ever since then, I am terrified of open windows in our home and we have multiple layers of bars and wires to prevent such an event from reoccurring.
You never know what is going to happen in your life. Prepare for the worst, but please keep a very positive outlook and do great and kind things to all.
Today…
Destructive for men and women
Popeye’s Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
3 (16 ounce) cans red beans (2 cans with liquid, 1 can drained )
1/2 to 3/4 pound smoked ham hock
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon lard
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
4 to 5 cups long grain rice, cooked and drained
Instructions
Pour 2 cans of beans with their liquid into a 2-quart saucepan. Add smoked ham hock and water. Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour until the meat starts to loosen from the bone.
Remove from heat and cool until the hock is cool enough so the meat may be removed from the bone. Place the meat, beans and liquid in a food processor. To the mixture add onion powder, garlic salt, red pepper, salt, and lard. Process for only 4 seconds. Beans should be chopped and liquid thick.
Add the third can of beans that have been drained of their liquid. Process just for a second or two; you want these beans to remain almost whole.
Pour bean mixture back into to pan and cook slowly on low heat stirring often until ready to serve.
Serve over rice.
Dire Straits – Sultans Of Swing (Official Music Video)
Reported abuse, even though I knew it would end my marriage and change my life completely.
I met him when I was 16. He was the first boy I’d ever fallen in love with. He was the first boy I called my boyfriend….and he was the boy who had every other first you could imagine.
I gave him everything I had. But it still wasn’t enough.
I found out the night I turned 23 that my husband of 5 years had molested my 13 year old sister. I didn’t know what to do. What to say, or how to react initially. If I’m being honest, part of me wanted to run away. Part of me wanted to go drown myself or take a bottle of pills. I could not wrap my head around what I had just learned. I remember looking into my sisters eyes and seeing how afraid she was. She kept saying through sobs over and over, “I’m so sorry I ruined your marriage. I’m so sorry I ruined your life.”
But it wasn’t her fault.
I called my parents (they were on vacation at the time) about an hour after my sister told me. I regret not calling them the second she told me. I should’ve been stronger.
The next day, we found out my husband had also molested my 9 year old sister. My parents told me they wanted to call the police. My dad seen I hadn’t slept all night, so he told me to go home and that we would call them together, when I came back.
I can’t tell you how close to suicide I was in those few hours. I drove home and kept wanting to press on the gas as hard as I could and slam into the side of the freeway. I wanted to die.
Who was this horrible person I’d just been married to for the last few years? How did I not see this happening?
Later that day (24 hrs after my sister told me) I called the police to report what he had done to my baby sisters. They came and interviewed us all separately. We had to go to the police station so my sisters could give their accounts of what happened again. They were brave and they were strong.
I cooperated with the police. They said without my husbands confession, he would never be prosecuted for doing what he did. Despite physical evidence showing both my sisters were telling the truth, there was no DNA linked to prove it was him who had done this to them.
It’s been almost 2 years, and nothing has happened. I separated from my husband that very day I found out. I knew my sisters were telling the truth about what he’d done to them. Not once did he deny their allegations…all he could say was “Please don’t call the police.”
Things have been hard on my own. Money is tight…we are still technically married, which I am ashamed of. I’m saving up for a divorce. My goal is to get it done this year.
He has gone on to live life happy like nothing happened. He met a girl online a month later and they’ve been together ever since.
My sisters struggle still, and I see how those events changed them. They go to counseling weekly, and my parents tell me it’s helping them.
I’m very often depressed and regret so much in my life.
But if I had to go back to that day and make that choice again to call and report what he had done….I’d do it all again.
To the person who is struggling to make that decision, tell the truth. It will be hard…but it’s the right thing to do.
Imagine surviving the Titanic by swimming through the arctic water with nothing more than a pair of shorts, then being one of the only survivors out of your 70 friends being blown up in WWI, and then escaping another sinking ship on the coast of Greece.
This was a reality for John Priest- a British stoker (someone who puts coal into the ships’ furnaces) who survived so many ship crashes by the skin of his teeth that he was nicknamed the unsinkable stoker by the media.
Born in 1877 in a working class district in Southampton, England, it seemed like John naturally had luck on his side. In 1912 when jobs become increasingly rare thanks to strikes and riots, John was one of the very few who was able to get a job as a Stoker onboard the Olympic, spending hours a day hauling coal into massive furnaces for a few shillings an hour.
It was there when one of John’s nine lives were spent. When the Olympic collided into the HMS Hawk in 1911, John was nearly killed on immediate impact. However, being the lucky sonofabitch he was, John slipped away at the right moment, sparing him being one of the 576 men who died that day. Incredibly, this wasn’t his first close call with death. He had previously worked aboard a ship called the Asturias that was badly damaged in a collision on its maiden voyage.
After surviving two ship crashes you would expect that maybe it was time to find a new career.
However, John decided to take a job on the Titanic simply because it seemed “safer” than other ships. And who could blame him. The Titanic was a massive cruise-liner, with thick walls and virtually indestructible. Hell, the Titanic was nicknamed “the unsinkable” by its crew. No way in hell could something like the Titanic topple to the bottom of the sea.
They were wrong. On Sunday, the 14th of April 1912, the Titanic hit a whopping iceberg off Newfoundland. Unlike the passengers who had very little knowledge of what was going on, the stokers down in the boiler room were going through literal hell. Icy water poured through the cracks drowning workers and furnaces alike—John and his comrades had to swim through the arctic flood wearing northing but shorts and a light cotton shirt.
Many of his friends drowned or simply froze to death, but John climbed his way through the Titanic floor by floor, hall by hall until he finally was able to get onto the deck.
However, he was too late. By the time he got onto the deck, the last lifeboat had left the Titanic. In panic, he decided to jump over the edge into the ice-cold water, where he bobbled alongside passengers and crew members alike. Screaming for help and pushing through frozen bodies, he was finally rescued by lifeboat No. 15; he ended up being one of the only stokers who survived the crash.
Yet his greatest feat would happen in 1916 during the Great War. In February 1916, The Alcantara, a battleship that John worked on, intercepted the German raider Grief, which was disguised a Norwegian ship. As Alcantara approached, Grief opened fire. There was a short, ferocious, close-range battle, at the end of which both ships were sunk.
The part of the ship John was on got hit directly by one of the missiles. A couple of his friends were blown up in front of him but John managed to escape withhis life.
When he returned to work, it was aboard Britannic, Titanic’s other – even bigger – sister, which was serving as a hospital ship ferrying wounded soldiers back to Britain through the Mediterranean. Having already survived a collision on Olympic and the loss of Titanic, it must have been with no small amount of trepidation that he joined the third of the celebrated White Star Liners.
If Priest did feel any nervousness, it was entirely justified. On 21 November 1916, the great ship struck a mine and sank near the Greek island of Kea. Once again, he emerged from the very depths of a foundering ship alive.
Luckily, this crash wasn’t as bad as the Titanic or the Alcantara where he saw his friends die beside him. Nearly everyone made it—however 30 people did perish.
After Britannic, Priest would achieve one final escape from a sinking ship. On 17 April 1917, he was a stoker aboard the hospital ship Donegal when it was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel. He suffered a head injury and would not serve again during World War One. 40 men died but yet again, John made it out alive.
Most likely realising that his luck was gonna run out any time soon, he decided to retire and have a family. He was often at the very worst part of a vessel from which to escape, and yet he survived an astonishing litany of torpedoes, mines, icebergs and collisions to live out his days spinning tales in the pubs of Southampton. In 1937 his luck ran out. He died peaceful in his sleep.
The name “unsinkable” applied rather better to him than it did to the mighty Titanic.
When I was in high school, we ate lunch at your typical school cafeteria.
Our school had a shortage of cafeteria ladies, so the line was always frustratingly long. We’d stand there, for 20+ minutes waiting for horrible greasy food.
Every day, there was this huge football player who would saunter in and casually cut into the line — at wherever he saw one of his friends. He was popular and had plenty of friends. So this usually put him near the front.
The guy was built like a brick sh#thouse. His neck was as wide as my thigh (not that that says much). He could have easily kicked my ass.
Every day he continues coming in and cutting the line. For weeks this goes on, and I start getting more and more pissed off. Nobody says anything.
“Why does this guy get to cut the line?” I kept asking myself.
Sure — it only extends my wait by 30 seconds I’d wager. But it was the damn principle. This is kindergarten stuff. Wait your turn in line.
So finally, he came in one day, cut in front and I lost my cool and shouted, “Hey dude.”
Nothing.
I got 2x louder, “Hey dude — over here.”
He turns around and faces me from up near the front of the line. I held my hands wide and said, “Are you just going to cut the line every day? We are all here waiting like we’re supposed to. Get in the back.”
I expected him to get in my face and deck me.
Instead, he looked down, almost like an ashamed puppy dog, and relocated to the back of the line. I suspect the entire line was staring daggers alongside me.
Sometimes — you’re supposed to get pissed off. It’s on you to transfer that anger to a solution.
Don’t just vent.
Stay focused on the damage the person causes, not them.
I was in Florida visiting friends for spring break the year after graduating from UVM in 1991. I was staying with a fraternity brother in his apartment, located in a very large apartment complex typical of Florida, huge buildings that all look the same and have the same layout. They were practically identical, except for the numbers of the different buildings. We went out drinking on night and I got too drunk, fell off a barstool and got kicked out of the bar – without my friends, but with some other guy that lived in the same apartment complex as my friend.
Well, somehow we made it back to the complex, and I went with this guy to his apartment to do bong hits and keep drinking. I woke up the next morning with a raging headache, dry mouth, no idea where I was, and still drunk. I stumbled out of the apartment, out of the building and into another building that I thought was the location of my friend’s apartment. I found the door and started knocking rather loudly, thinking of course they were all hungover and still sleeping.
I heard a voice on the other side of the door asking “who is it?” I said “come on you mother fucker, open the door, you know who it is!” The voice denied knowing me, which upset me, so I kept insisting they stop kidding and open the fucking door. This went on for several minutes, until finally the door opened and there was a guy standing there with his wife and children!
I was mortified! It never occurred to me that I was at the right apartment number but the wrong building i.e I was staying in unit 11–125 but this was unit 13–125 or something like that. I apologized profusely and stumbled out of there, thank god they didn’t call the police.
The reason is that Krokodil is an ersatz drug. It is really shitty stuff, and no sane person will use Krokodil if reasonably pure heroin is available.
You do not buy Krokodil from a drug pusher. You cook it by yourself – and it can be cooked only where codeine is an over-the-counter drug as codeine is the raw material for Krokodil. In other words, Russia. No drug pushers want to kill their customers, and in Colombia the drug cartels quickly cleansed Krokodil off the streets – they did not want to lose their clientele.
The only asset of Krokodil is that it is cheap and it is a do-it-yourself drug. But since most of the junkies are not chemists, they don’t have the faintest idea on what they are doing. And they pay the price of their ignorance with their lives.
Chemically Krokodil is desomorphine. It is an opiate, which is prepared from codeine with SN2 nucleophilic substitution – basically the same process on which methamphetamine is made. The process is known as “Russian flag” – white codeine, red phosphorus and blue iodine.
The process is to first dissolve the codeine-containing tablets into a strong baseous solution (which will render the codeine into a freebase) and extract the codeine with organic solvent (paint thinner, gasoline or diesel oil). The water soluble compounds associated with codeine in the tablets are washed away in this step. Codeine is then backextracted into water as sulfates or chlorides with battery acid and added with red phosphorus and iodine. The stuff is then cooked so that the iodine forms phosphine, hydrogen iodide and phosphoric acid. Hydroiodic acid is a well-known reductant of nitriles, halides, and alcohols in organic chemistry.
The reduction process occurs using hydriodic acid alone or iodine and red phosphorus that form hydriodic acid in situ. The role of phosphorus is to convert back the molecular iodine formed during the reaction to hydriodic acid. The reduction involves a cyclic oxidation of the iodide anion to iodine and reduction of iodine back to the iodide by red phosphorus that is converted to phosphorous or phosphoric acid and phosphine. This step allows the cleavage of the methoxy group of codeine to form a hydroxyl group because when ethers are treated with a strong acid in the presence of a nucleophile, they can be cleft to give alcohols and alkyl halides. Hydriodic acid is also capable to introduce an iodide molecule in the codeine ring, forming an alkyl halide that is reduced after this This is not difficult because iodide is a large leaving group a very stable anion. This is known as Nagai synthesis. It is the same synthesis as making methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine.
The hydroiodic acid dehydroxylates the codeine molecule, forming alpha-iodocodeine, which is further demethylated with hydrogen iodide into alpha-iododehydrodesomorphine and further into dehydrodesomorphine. The double bond of dehydrodesomorphine is finally saturated to make desomorphine. When the colour of this concoction turns from dark purple (iodine) into light shitty brown, the cook is ready. The battery acid is then neutralized with drain cleaner. The result is a real witches’ brew which nobody except those who have lost all their will to live will shoot in their veins.
The tragedy is that this concoction could be rendered into completely harmless (okay, relatively harmless as opiates are not harmless) with two simple operations – liquid-liquid extraction from alkaline solution with organic solvent and recrystallization from ethanol. Desomorphine itself is no more dangerous than heroin. Alkaline solution, because it converts the desomorphine into freebase, which is insoluble to water but soluble to the organic layer. Recrystallization to further purify the stuff.
This concoction is bluntly put icky. Yes, there is some desomorphine there, but also the intermediary products (like dihydrodesoxycodeine [methyldesomorphine]) and iodocodide. And side products (other codeine analogues). The situation certainly isn’t improved by the fact the desomorphine is optically active, and the yield is racemic. Oh, and there are unreacted battery acid, unreacted iodine, unreacted red phosphorus and solvent residues – perhaps leaded gasoline – present. If you are lucky, you may have a samogon still for the distillation to distil those stuffs away. If not – ARMFYAOYO.
Because of the crap synthesis, the large part of Krokodil is mainly toxic by-products, phosphorus, pill binders, unreacted codeine, methyldesorphine, some strange codeine analogues and a small amount of actual desomorphine. Pure desomorphine is about eight times as potent as morphine and about three times as potent as heroin. The large amount of problems such as gangrene seen with Krokodil is the result of many junkies lacking the skill and inclination to purify and refine a drug and hence shoot up all the leftovers from their concoctions.
Okay, and then you are so desperate you inject that stuff. All those contaminants go in your body. And they really poison you from inside. Causes of this damage are from iodine, phosphorus and other toxic substances that are present after synthesis. Addicts often use readily available but relatively toxic and impure solvents such as battery acid, gasoline or paint thinner during the reaction scheme, without adequately removing them afterwards before injection.
You can recognize a Krokodil user from his or her smell. A Krokodil user smells from automotive fuel – he or she will sweat all that stuff off.
Krokodil has never made it to the American nor European streets, and never will (except in the expat Russian communities). It is simply so shitty stuff that the drug pushers will do everything to keep it away. Even evil has standards.
The most eye opening thing is just how much happier I am.
I was middle class, a Dentist making good money, socking some away for retirement. A lovely wife, a nice home, a Range Rover, a beautiful daughter.
Then I noticed that someone was stealing a lot of money from my business. Investigation revealed it was the “lovely wife” and when I confronted her she divorced me. She got the house and I got the mortgage. I did manage to keep the dental practice because it paid the child support. Plus she got a settlement of $90000. The family court in its wisdom would not even look at the $300,000 theft. And I was still in love with my wife and could not file charges with the cops.
Add in stage 3 kidney cancer, then add in stage 3 bladder cancer, then add in prostatitis, various infections and a 10 year on and off hospital and treatment journey. (YAY! the WA health Department)
And before you know it your $240000 a year lifestyle comes down to a $24000 a year lifestyle.
I have never been happier. I get $1000 a month USA social security and a similar amount from the Australian government. I retired and used my pension money to pay out the mortgage and convert the dental surgery into a home for myself. I have a couple of boarders to share the costs and we all seem to get along.
The true unexpected gift is that there is NOBODY yelling at me all the time, stealing from me, belittling me, slamming doors, maxing out credit cards, maxing out charge accounts with stores, preening in front of the mirror, getting drunk every night and becoming belligerent and violent. Then blaming that behaviour on her supposed Cherokee heritage.
He’s sort of famous for having mega-yachts. That’s a whole niche industry for billionare’s and he’s all in.
First, there’s this one that is $500M and was rejected from a port recently here in Florida for being too big.
Then he has this “smaller” yacht that has a helicopter and pad on it. This below boat is literally an “add on” boat because they couldn’t fit a heli-pad on his other yacht.
They are both obnoxiously enormous and for all the criticism you could give to Bezos for his ways of making his money, the yacht in particular is absolutely beautiful:
Bezos and Musk are an interesting contrast in ultra-billionaire’s. Musk keeps signing himself up for more work and drama.
Bezos decided to cash in and go live. Can’t say I blame him. You can bring all your friends out on the boat, have a paid crew that feeds you and keeps the place clean. It doesn’t sound like a bad life.
The Chinese birth rate crashed spectacularly over the trump term, and it wasn’t just covid.
Ask the several hundred million strong migrant labor from rural China about how the trade war and US sanctioned forex manipulation screwed with their livelihoods first.
There is immense pain in china, just because of the speed of the change forced on China externally.
No Chinese will seriously believe anyone who tell them foreigners are not messing with mainland lives when Huawei cannot even make phones to sell to mainlanders!
The silly message is only broadcast in foreign languages as entertainment for foreigners.
What more do we need to say when Joshua wong is considered the legitimate representative of Hong Kong at the reichstag and Capitol while a slew of mainland and Hong Kong officials are sanctioned?
No different from going “Chinese. Ha ha ha.”
Mystery in Cisco Grove: Don Shrum’s Encounter with UFOs, Aliens and Robots
The Problem of Evil is one of the biggest theological and philosophical conundrums in not just Christianity but any religion that claims to have an all-powerful and benevolent deity who watches over us.
For Christianity, the Problem of Evil is such a big deal that its various solutions get a collective name, theodicy.
It’s a philosophical rabbit hole people have devoted their entire lives to, and still, to this day, we do not have a good all-encompassing solution. So anyone who told you they could resolve the issue in 3 paragraphs either is lying to you or didn’t understand the issue at all.
The most common rhetoric is the so-called “Free will defense.” The idea is that since people have free will, God couldn’t stop humans from using their free will and committing evil deeds. But the free will defense does not explain why natural disasters, such as earthquakes and famine, happen and why the innocent must suffer because a few people decided to be assholes.
I hope you have fun on your journey of learning about the Problem of Evil. It’s an arduous struggle with very disappointing results, but a worthy pursuit nonetheless.
Here’s a question to get you started: can God create a boulder that’s so heavy he himself could not lift?
It is called an omnipotent paradox. It is part of the Problem of Evil.
Pappadeaux Sweet Potato Pecan Pie with Bourbon Sauce
Combine mashed sweet potatoes, sugars, egg, cream, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and butter in an electric mixing bowl and beat at medium-low speed until smooth, do not overmix.
To assemble pie, spoon sweet potato filling into the pastry-lined pie pan. Fill shell evenly to the top with with pecan filling.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean. Store pie at room temperature for 24 hours.
Serve pie slices with Bourbon Sauce on top or to the side.
Pecan Pie Filling
Combine sugar, syrup, eggs, butter, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon in an electric mixing bowl and beat on low speed until syrup is opaque, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in pecans, mix well.
Bourbon Sauce*
Combine cream and milk in a large mixing bowl. Slowly whip in pudding mix. Add bourbon and continue whipping.
Add vanilla extract and whip until mixture is well blended to sauce consistency (should not be as firm as pudding, but should not be runny).
Notes
* Sauce should be made about one hour before use; it will thicken as it sits.
HYPERSONIC Race 2.0 Begins: China Introduced ‘WAVERIDER’ With New Tech
I was a new hire as a mechanic in North Dakota. Techs are hard to come by up there and there is far more work than there is people qualified to do the job. For that reason, a human turd worked with me there. He had been there for years and from what I hear was a decent mechanic. He was having trouble figuring out why a heavy duty truck would not start. He had been working the problem for weeks and could not get it. Trucks were my specialty so the service manager asked me to put some fresh eyes on the problem. I had it diagnosed within a few minutes and it made the other guy pretty upset, his ego was bruised.
The other tech insisted I was wrong, I showed him I was correct and headed to the door to re-enter the shop. He blocked my path and started yelling at me, telling me I was not going to go and tell the boss I figured it out so quick. If I did he threatened to kick my A double S. I insisted I was going in and told him to get the hell out of my way. He shoved me back away from the door, not a good idea to do to a veteran with extensive training. I informed him that if he touched me again I was going to rip that arm off and beat him with it, then I reported what happened.
The boss did nothing. He didn’t want to lose his tech, even though he knew damn well it was a fireable offense. The guy came out of the office talking smack about how it was going to happen again. Other people saw him shove me, and heard him threaten me. Instead of fighting him, I called the cops. After all, it was assault so screw him. Cops showed up and he got hauled off and spent the night in jail. Then when he returned the boss still did nothing. A couple of weeks went by and this guy kept talking trash. I was honestly afraid I was going to hurt the guy if he came at me again so I called OSHA. They came in and both the boss and the turd were both fired. I quit shortly after, who wants to work for a place like that?
A pretty unlucky military event was when one of the most advanced U-boats, capable of taking down British and American war ships, was sunk because of a poo.
In World War Two, a German navy submarine named the U-1206 departed from the port city of Kristiansand, in Nazi-occupied Norway, and began its first combat patrol. Its job was to sink and destroy American and British trade ships.
This U-1206, unlike former submarines, had a new and “improved” toilet which allowed the U-1206 to stay deep underwater while people could go to the toilet and flush it without going to the surface, which was not possible before, as in other submarines, you had to go up to the surface whenever you wanted to flush the toilet which was a big problem because Allied ships could see you.
Advanced and new as it was, the toilet was extremely complicated. First, it directed human waste through a series of chambers to a pressurized airlock. The contraption then blasted it into the sea with compressed air, sort of like a poop torpedo. The toilets also needed a specialist on each submarine who received training on proper toilet operating procedures. There was an exact order of opening and closing valves to ensure the system flowed in the correct direction.
One day the specialist on the U-1206 decided it was a bit boring waiting to flush a toilet every couple of hours, so he took a walk around the submarine. But unfortunately he went for too long, and the captain, Karl-Adolf Schlitt, went to the toilet and decided to flush the toilet himself.
But Schlitt was not properly trained as a toilet specialist. After calling a random engineer to help, the engineer turned a wrong valve and accidentally unleashed a torrent of sewage and seawater back into the sub.
From there on, everything escalated quickly. The unpleasant liquid filled the toilet compartment and began to stream down onto the submarine’s giant internal batteries, located directly beneath the bathroom, which reacted chemically and began producing a toxic chlorine gas.
As the poisonous gas filled the submarine, Captain Schlitt — choking literally on a weird sewage chlorine gas — ordered the boat to the surface. The crew blew the ballast tanks and fired their torpedoes in an effort to improve the flooded vessel’s buoyancy.
Unfortunately for Schlitt and its crew, it got even worse. British planes on patrol saw the ship surfacing and attacked it, killing three men, and, because of that, it started to sink.
Somehow, the rest of the crew survived and floated all the way to the Scottish coast in rubber dinghies, where they were captured and taken to a POW camp for the rest of the war.
Schlitt survived the war and died in 2009. His submarine, on the other hand, rests on the bottom of the North Sea to this day.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was one of the most unfortunate events in military history ever.
But 2024 is going to be different. How different, remains to be seen. But I have hope; I am optimistic.
It is the year of the DRAGON.
Chinese Horoscope 2024 – Year of the Dragon
The Chinese zodiac marks the start of a new cycle with the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, when one animal gives way to another. On February 10, 2024, the Year of the Dragon begins.
The Dragon is a powerful and auspicious creature in Chinese mythology, representing courage, creativity, and innovation. 2024 promises to be a year full of possibilities and opportunities.
According to the Chinese zodiac, the Dragon is the most powerful and auspicious animals. It represents strength, wisdom, luck and prosperity. The dragon is also associated with one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal or water. Each element gives the dragon a different personality and destiny.
The Year of the Wood Dragon 2024 is also known as Yang Wood on Dragon, or Jia Chen 甲辰 in Chinese. The fixed element of the Dragon (Chen) is Earth (Wu 戊), which represents stability, honesty and loyalty. The variable element of the Dragon in 2024 is Yang Wood, or Jia 甲, representing growth, creativity and flexibility.
The Wood Dragon is the most creative and visionary of the dragons. They are optimistic, ambitious and adventurous. They like to explore new ideas and challenge themselves. They are also generous, compassionate and loyal to their friends.
Therefore, the Year of the Dragon in 2024 is expected to be a time of visionary leaders, innovators and problem solvers. 2024 is also predicted to be a great year to start new projects, explore new opportunities and create value for yourself and others.
Some of the most promising sectors for business growth in the Dragon Year 2024 are fintech, AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, and solar energy. These industries are driven by innovation and demand for cutting-edge solutions. To succeed in these competitive markets, businesses need to embrace new technologies and communicate their value proposition effectively.
The year of the Wood Dragon 2024 is special because it is a rare combination of the dragon’s power and the wood’s creativity. It is a year of innovation, vision and growth. It is a year to pursue your dreams, express your ideas and expand your horizons. It is also a year to be generous, compassionate and loyal to your friends. The next Year of the Wood Dragon in the Chinese zodiac will be 2084, which is 60 years from now.
A Black and White Cat Kept His Owner Awake Until the Ambulance Arrived
Mr. Andrew Carnegie arrived in America in 1848, with no money and with no formal higher education.
His parents decided to move the Carnegie family to the United States after a famine hit the Scottish countryside.
At thirteen years old, Carnegie found a job that would pay him $1.20 for a 70-hour week.
During his free time, Carnegie read books loaned to him from one of the local libraries.
These books impacted his life so much that later he donated millions of his money to building over 2,500 public libraries and educational institutions around the world.
When Carnegie was about 18 years old, Thomas Scott, the owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, employed him as a telegraph operator at a salary of $4.00 per week.
By age 24, Mr. Scott saw great potential in the young Carnegie, and promoted him to superintendent of a division of the Railroad Company.
Mr. Scott eventually became Carnegie’s mentor, a relationship that changed his future.
The experience Carnegie gained working closely to Scott was a vital ingredient in his success in the steel industry.
Years later, Carnegie sold his company to JP Morgan. That was what made him the wealthiest man on earth, and the philanthropist he later became.
To answer your question, what is the best piece of advice you could give someone about life?
1.- What are you filling your mind with?
Are you consuming your free time with worthless social media? Carnegie read books. He invested continuously in his personal growth.
Stop wasting your time!
2.- Are you trying to figure out how to do it alone! Who do you take advice from?
Carnegie was inspired by Mr. Scott. He listened to his advice. He was a hard worker. He was coachable.
Don’t try to do it alone!
Meaningful
Rhodes Runzas
Ingredients
12 Rhodes Texas™ Rolls, or 24 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed but still cold
4 cups sliced cabbage
1 cup sliced yellow onion
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 ounces ground beef
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
Sauté cabbage and onion in oil. Cover and steam for 40 minutes.
Brown ground beef in a large pan, and drain well.
Add cabbage, onion, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper and cook for an additional 20 minutes.
Flatten each Texas roll, or 2 dinner rolls into a 6-inch circle. Divide filling among 12 circles (about 1/3 cup).
Place 1 tablespoon mozzarella cheese on top of filling. Pull edges around filling and pinch to close.
Place on a large sprayed baking sheet, pinched side down. Brush tops with melted butter.
In January 2019, Copdy Litz made a 10-foot snowman with his fiancée and his sister, and then posted this on Facebook:
It received a lot of admiration online as well as from his neighbours. However, when something marvellous attracts admirers, it also brings jealous assholes. Same thing happened with this snowman.
Turns out that one day when Copdy was away, a douche driver tried to destroy the snowman by ramming their car into it. To their horror, however, the result wasn’t as amusing as the driver was expecting.
When Copdy returns home, he sees this:
Tyre tracks leading to the snowman but they stop abruptly and the imprint of a bumper can be seen exposed in the snow. The snowman is still standing. Any idea how?
Do you see that black-brown part where there’s no snow? Well, that’s a thick tree stump used as a base for this snowman, but it was concealed by the snow. Hence, when the driver decided to ram their car into the snowman, they had no idea of the surprise they were in for, and ended up crashing their car into the sturdy stump. That’s why you see the imprint of a bumper on the snow and no more tyre tracks beyond the snowman.
[1] Sadly, the driver fled the scene after this surprise they received, and therefore, there’s no photo to show the damage on their car, but I bet it must be a good one (lol).
Copdy Litz later revealed in an interview that the purpose of using a tree stump as a base for this snowman was to teach vandals a lesson because such incidents were very common in his region. For sure other vandals must have learned the lesson.
Anyway, this display of instant karma seems pretty satisfying to me. If only I could see the damaged car, I’d be more satisfied.
I bought a car in TX. Private party. In winter. To drive to MN. On turnpike it was getting cold. I stop at Goodyear shop near a hotel. “I want radiator flush, engine block heater installed, -20 antifreeze”
got estimate, signed, walked to hotel, called with room info as next day Saturday they were open till noon. Next day 11:30 am check out, walk over. “owe did not have correct size front plug replacement block heater. So we put a lower hose heater in. We charged your card, here are keys we are closing early”
I KNEW lower hose not recommended. As angles all wrong. Warmed water flows to radiator first. NOT engine. But what can I do? So I will drive. Go to local Goodyear shop have it corrected.
50 miles hose blows apart. I had bought gallon antifreeze as knowing how shops screw filling empty radiator. But gauge looked great. Using knife I tighten hose clamps, add gallon antifreeze strait, limp to rest stop, gallon water, next town.
Get to local Goodyear. “we are not in same Goodyear chain as that place. But we will give you $5 off new hose, new frost plug heater, installation and full antifreeze replacement”. I did it myself.
Many years ago, I worked in a small sewing factory that made water ski vests. When I was hired, I was paid by the hour but was told that I would get raises based on my work, and the sky was the limit. I soon discovered that there was a very low cloud cover.
I got a small raise after one month. I was assigned to do the finishing job, but devised a new method and could complete 600 vests a day. The other workers could not keep up with me, and I had to learn all of the other jobs so that I would have at least 300 vests ready to finish.
Minimum wage increased; new employees were now being paid 10 cents an hour less than I was. I asked for another raise based on my performance and was told that if I kept doing what I was, I would get a raise in 6 weeks.
A month later, the owner brought in an “efficiency expert” who looked at my finishing job and suggested “improvements”. The improvements made me do twice the work for half the numbers.
The next day, I tried to talk to the owner about it. He told me to try it for six weeks, and I would get a raise. But, I was two weeks away from my promised raise. I said, “I quit!”
A couple of weeks later, I ran into my supervisor. She said she had to do my job until they could train someone else. After two hours of doing the “improved” method, she realized why I quit and went back to my method.
I also ran into the person they trained to replace me. She could complete 50 vests a day, instead of my 600.
The business went bankrupt 3 months later. There was a riot and police were called when the boss showed up with no paychecks on payday 🙂
I once responded to a job ad that advertised a pay rate of $10–25 per hour.
I showed up to the business to do an interview with the owner. The guy was busy so I had to wait 30 minutes past my scheduled time. Apparently, the guy didn’t even remember what was on my resume, nor did he seem to care. He didn’t even ask about my skills and mostly just talked up about himself and his business.
Finally at the end of the interview, he offered me the current minimum wage ($9.25 at the time, it was going to increase to $10 in a few months) and that we can “sit down and talk” about increasing the rate after a month.
This was an IT software and hardware repair shop and I had a master’s degree in computer science with several years of work experience. I wasn’t looking for a massive salary rate, but a side gig that paid reasonably well. I wasn’t going to work for minimum wage and then hope to God this business owner was going to be convinced to double the rate after one month.
I was really surprised by the salary rate, but I caught myself before I might have reacted negatively and said, “I’ll think about it.” I probably would have accepted it at $15 an hour, but minimum wage for a position that requires some technical knowledge, did not make any sense to me.
I thought about it and there were just too many red flags:
He didn’t read my resume, which isn’t respectful of my time to go to an interview.
Did not even offer the pay rate mentioned in the advertisement. He lied.
Clearly a sign that this guy is going to be very stingy, so the 1 month “sitdown” salary evaluation meeting did not look promising at all.
Doesn’t seem to be able to keep employees for very long. This was based on what I asked during the interview.
Needless to say, I followed up with an email saying that this wasn’t what I was looking for.
Update: Some bonus info I recalled recently. I remembered him mentioning in the middle of the interview that he had a mortgage to pay as if to get sympathy. I realized after the interview he was already thinking about making that shitty offer.
I used to be an Amazon Flex driver on the weekends to make some extra money. The base pay was $18 an hour and if I did my deliveries quickly, I was making more than $25 an hour.
They have a program where you sign up to be an “independent contractor” and get paid for delivering a certain number of packages in a prescribed amount of time. It was a lot of fun even though you have to basically fight other people online to get a run.
One day I was out making deliveries and I noticed a car pull over at a house where I had just dropped off a package. I thought to myself that it must be the homeowner and stopped to deliver the next. But, I kept an eye on the car and sure enough, they were following me and grabbing my packages.
I called the police and kept on delivering. Within 5 minutes, a police car pulled them over and as soon as I saw that they had them stopped I turned around and went to speak with the officers.
Come to find out that they had followed me out of the station and began taking my packages from the start. I looked in their car, and they had grabbed 9 of my packages! Had I not called the police, who knows how many more they would have gotten. They were arrested on the spot and taken away in handcuffs.
I was incredibly angry, because not only had they stolen my packages, but now I had to go back and deliver them all again!
It screwed up what should have been a very simple day, but I was thrilled to know that these porch pirates got what was coming to them!
Americans thinks the world thinks the world of them!
They are full of it!
Can you believe that the U.S. thinks people in Iraq welcome them warmly after they carpet bomb Baghdad killing civilians including women, children and babies! What Iraqis are doing is the lured them into the lions den and sniped them and bomb them into smitten! But U.S. officials and some Americans think the Muslim and Arab communities loved them!
About 20 years ago I worked for a huge Multinational American Call Centre that had opened a centre in Belfast. I worked hard and got several commendations and promotions, eventually being in charge of Annual leave for all the Call Centres in the UK. Problem was, the call centre didn’t want to spend money on software to track annual leave.
So I made it, on excel, as they didn’t support Access, go figure. Anyone who knows, will tell you access was far better for something like tracking annual leave for over 2000 employees across 3 sites on, but I am damn good at excel, and I made it do things its really not designed to do.
For 3 years I told them that it wasn’t fit for purpose and I needed proper software. Eventually we got a new director and they seemed to take note of what I was saying. So they looked at what I was doing, how I was doing it, and then decided to outsource it to a team in a South African Call Centre and Lipa City in the phillipines, apparently paying the two teams was less than my salary. They asked me to create an instruction manual for the tracker so that these guys could do my job, and they would move me to another department.
Once completed, they terminated me, paying me 10 weeks severance for my time served plus owed leave. I warned the centre Director he was making a mistake, he just laughed.
4 weeks later I got a phone call from a friend who still worked there, the Leave tracker had crashed as the teams running it weren’t doing the daily maintainence in the manual, they had also deleted the back ups to save disc space. There was no record of who had taken what leave and who had what leave left to take. So with 3 months left in the financial year, they ended up having to give all 2316 members of staff their full leave entitlement again (turns out payroll didn’t bother recording what they had paid to whom and for why).
I phoned the Director and simply said, “I warned you what would happen, but you decided you knew better, good luck.” He simply hung up, no response. 3 weeks later he was terminated for costing the firm millions in additional payments for all the extra leave.
I lasted just short of 8 years, he lasted just short of 8 months.
I worked for a large aerospace company in the Midlands. I never worked more than my contracted 38 hours/week, travelled away from base once a month and needed an overnight stay 2-3 times a year.
I was approached by a large consultancy to work for them and had a first round of informal meetings. Their HR person then phoned me and asked me about my current salary and expectation. Before I answered, I asked her to confirm what had been hinted at in the first meeting, 50–60 hours per weeks, 2–3 overnights a week. Yes she said. In that case, current salary +20%. She went quiet and then asked why I expected that much. Extra hours and nights away. We are only allowed to offer 7% over current. I replied “I’m sorry, but that fails the Tesco test.” What’s that she asked. “I could work the extra hours stacking shelves in my local Tesco for minimum wage, make more money and still sleep in my own bed.”
She Changed Her Face In Front Of The Camera Within 10 Seconds
A king is ruler of a sovereign country. An emperor is the ruler of the whole continent, considered to be higher than any other secular rulers. The Islamic equivalent is caliph, the Zoroastrian equivalent is shahanshah and the Hindu equivalent is maharaja.
Traditionally there were two Emperors in the Christian world: the Holy Roman Emperor (Western Emperor) and the Eastern Roman Emperor (Eastern Emperor).
Once the Eastern Roman Empire fell in 1453, the Russian grand prince Ivan III the Great assumed the title of Czar (from caesar) and Peter I the Great nominated himself as the Russian Emperor.
The French Revolution was basically a re-enactment of fan fiction of Rome. First they deposed the King, then they declared Republic (which went pear-shaped in five years instead of 500) and finally Napoléon imitated Augustus and declared himself the Emperor of France. By doing this, he juxtaposited himself with both the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire – itself more or less a fan-fiction of the Western Roman Empire) and Romanovs (Russian Empire – a fan-fiction of the Eastern Roman Empire). Naturally there could be only one, so Napoléon had the Holy Roman Empire abolished in 1806. Instead, the Habsburgs would claim the title of Kaiser des Österreiches (Austrian Emperor). Which made sense, as Czech was a kingdom, Hungary was a kingdom, Croatia was a kingdom and the rest of the Austrian lands were principalities.
Finally Germany unified under the Kingdom of Prussia in 1870. Since Germany was a hodgepodge quilt of kingdoms, princedoms, republics and city states, King Wilhelm declared himself as the Kaiser (Emperor) of Germany (from caesar).
All European Kaisers and Czars fell in the WWI. Ever since 1918, there hasn’t been an Emperor in Christian lands.
Also China and Japan have had an Emperor. The Chinese emperor was deposed in 1912, China becoming a republic, but Japan has maintained its emperor (mikado). The current Emperor of Japan is Naruhito, and his reign is called Reiwa.
I know the exact moment when I realized I was an adult.
It was the Christmas of 1998. I was in Beijing. I was one of those spoiled rich brats who went on a joyride with my fancy friends in my fancy car that my dad bought me. So that night, although none of us were Christian, it seemed like a good idea to celebrate some random holiday, drive to a dance club and have some fun. We were fully prepared to get drunk and party until dawn.
I was driving with 4 other friends in the car and I got into an accident. I was very scared, it was completely my fault. We realized no one was hurt and tried to leave. But the police arrived at the scene before we could drive off. And things got really serious.
I remember this old police officer, he had this “seen it done that” attitude, and asked “Who’s the driver?” I said that it was me. And he asked “Could you explain to me what happened?” I said “I want to wait until my dad is here.” And he asked again: “Are you the driver?” I said I was. And he replied, “If you’re old enough to drive and get yourself into this mess, you’re old enough to explain to me what happened and take responsibility.”
He was not mean, he was not angry with me or anything. He just said it as a matter of fact. And that’s the moment I realized I was an adult.
Why I choose to raise my child in CHINA and not the WEST
Nobody was talking about Chinese EVs until they took the world by storm at the Munich car show this year.
It was all Tesla, and more recently, the Germans and Koreans. The Japanese were not in the game at all, preferring ICE hybrids.
No one was paying attention to the charging infrastructure put in place in China, or the huge number of models from diverse manufacturers no one outside of China had any experience with.
My friend says there are at least 100 Chinese EV brands operating today.
100! China today is where the US automobile industry was pre-war.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the CPU? Because this is the English medium, and there is an automatic filter on any news that puts a positive spin against the narrative of the Chinese being a backward sub-human species who cannot innovate and therefore copy and steal exclusively from the west.
Read the Chinese to keep up with the Chinese.
Don’t read ABOUT them.
Otherwise, be prepared to be surprised/shocked repeatedly by the Chinese.
This Just ΗΑPPΕNED In The Netherlands, Υet Something Εven More Bizarre Is ΗΑPPΕNING IN AMERICA
It was 1989 in Richmond Virginia. Even though I was in my first year as a cop with the police department I was assigned a new recruit from the academy to be his field training officer. This young man was an immigrant from Jamaica. He said that his mother had read my future and that I needed this to keep me safe, and he handed me a bloodstone. As I was looking at it we got an alarm call for an industrial site that was a quarter of a mile away from where we were parked. I turned the key to the patrol car and nothing happened. I decided we would get out and run the distance to the site. When we were about two hundred yards away the building exploded, blowing the both of us back ten to fifteen feet. I still have scars on my left forearm that I instinctively put over my eyes. When we went back to the car it turned over the first time. My trainee looked at me and said, “My moms be looking out for you!”
If the car had worked we would have been there when the building exploded, and we would have both been dead.
My mother-in-law always pointed out that, if Hollywood were depicting medieval Europe accurately, between one-third to one-sixth of young adult women between the ages of sixteen to forty should be visibly pregnant when they waddle into range of the camera and every shot of urban areas should be swarming with young children (the majority of which will eventually die before reaching adulthood). You should have at least four children visible in every scene in which at least one adult is visible.
It was a world without legal birth-control, and women had a large number of children if they weren’t nuns. Walking down a medieval street, you would have seen swarms of children—think Rwanda-level disparities in the young compared to adults. Margery Kempe in the early 1400s, for instance, had fourteen children by the time she was forty. A reasonable guess at the normal number would be for an average married medieval woman to have ten children, of which fewer than a third would survive to adulthood. The most common cause of adult female mortality in the medieval world appears to be death in childbirth.
During each woman’s pregnancies, I believe there is little visible bulge until the the last few months of pregnancy. After that, she should be visibly pregnant. The swarms of children should be everywhere, running in the streets, crammed into alleys and houses, and pouring through doorways constantly.
A little background — I was working in a chain drug store in Southern California, the only employee who came to work, on Christmas Eve. We were a 24-hour store, so, having cleaned everything, and faced all the stock on the shelves, I was thinking how to murder the “dancing Santa” (bad recording, 2 1/2 feet tall, and poorly made).
10:30 (22:30 for 24 hour clocks) a guy comes in, freaking out. His wife has recently left him for her “hot stud boyfriend”, with whom she has a brand-new baby. They are divorced, but she got the kids on holidays. He had bought and wrapped the presents for the kids (daughter, son), and dropped them off at her boyfriend’s house — left them on the porch, because she refused to open the door until he left. He gets home, and finds the kids waiting on his front porch. His ex-wife’s mother had just dropped them off, and left them alone, because ex-wife, new baby, and “Hot Stud” were going to his parents for Christmas, and she didn’t want the kids “getting in the way”. Grandma had plans of her own, and refused to take the kids with her.
Ex-wife left him with two kids with no change of clothes, no presents, not enough groceries, on Christmas Eve. And there was no way he could not make her sound like the totally selfish bitch she was.
Semi-happy ending. I abused the hell out of my authority as the manager, and “store-used” or “over-ride discount”ed everything we needed to put together a Christmas for his kids.
Each of them got a ream of paper, the largest box of Crayola (crayons) we had, a generic fuzzy toy, and two other toys that he thought they might like. Each present was individually wrapped in a different paper, with big fancy (store-bought!) bows, and a Christmas card on each present, plus each one got a good sized bag of “stocking stuffers”. (Pocket sized toys and games, candy, fruit, nuts, etc). Then I threw in (from me) a couple of bags of Christmas candy and chocolates.
It’s Christmas Eve, and your mother has her mother drop you off at your father’s house — who isn’t even home — because she doesn’t want you, because she has the new baby that you aren’t even allowed to touch.
A few weeks before my nineteenth birthday, I was sitting to the right of my mom. When I went to look at her, she pointed out that my left eye did not track with my right eye, which made it look like I had a lazy eye.
The next day, after we had all laughed it off (because it did look quite goofy), my mom made an appointment with a neuro-opthalmologist. We went in on a busy Saturday and after he examined my eye, he requested that we make another appointment on a day when he would have more time to dedicate to me and the testing that would have to be done.
About two weeks later, my mother and I went to his other office and he examined my eye. He asked me if I had experienced any double-vision recently, and I realized I had. So, he explained the possible reasons for the eye (which he diagnosed as sixth cranial nerve palsy): it was an infection, or, in very rare cases, a brain tumor. He ordered a chest x-ray, blood work, and a head MRI.
The blood work and chest x-ray went well and nothing was found. Going into my MRI, my mother was optimistic, but I just had a feeling that the diagnosis was going to be bigger than a little infection. After the MRI, my mother and I got lunch and were high in spirits. When we returned home, I got to work on my classes (they were online- thanks, 2020). A few hours later, my mother ran into my room, very upset, and told me to come to the phone.
My doctor was on the other end. He told me that I had a mass in my brain that was pressing against my sixth cranial nerve. He suggested that it was a very rare form of bone cancer in my brain called chordoma that had grown on my skull base, in the middle of my head. I was diagnosed two days after my nineteenth birthday.
Since then, my diagnosis was confirmed and I had surgery to remove the tumor. I had many complications, like infections and brain fluid leaks, but I made it out. There was about 5–10% of the tumor left, so I underwent proton radiation therapy to kill the rest of the cancer. In a few weeks, I will have been in partial remission for a year 🙂 I also had eye surgery about ten months ago to correct my eye, which was stuck looking inward since my first surgery. Since then, I’ve been dealing with a lot of other issues because of my tumor and treatment, like chronic nerve damage/pain, Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, but I have a wonderful team of doctors who have provided me with great treatments.
I was a freshman in college when I was diagnosed, and now I’m going to be a junior. I’m studying psychology and music, and I participate in my college’s choirs, theatre productions, and student life team. In the future, I’m hoping to get my Master’s degree in mental health counseling and work as a therapist for adolescents and young adults with disabilities, rare disease, and cancer. I would also love to perform professionally in my city’s symphony orchestra/choir and maybe even audition for America’s Got Talent.
If I were to pick the first biggest reason 2023 will be remembered (if it isn’t because of the brewing World War III that seems to be on the verge of breaking out) it will be as the year that A.I. became a reality.
Translator wages have been flat, and in the United States (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) there is the need for a total of 14,000 in the country at a stagnant average wage of about $50,000 with roughly 10% unemployment in the field.
Finding out
Bohemian Goulash Soup
Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat, diced
6 cups beef broth or bouillon
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 tablespoon caraway seed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cubed
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Heat butter or margarine in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Sauté onion until golden.
Stir in paprika and vinegar.
Add meat, broth, marjoram, caraway seeds, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook gently, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until meat is tender.
Dilute flour with a little cooled liquid from pot. Stir into soup.
Add potatoes and cook until potatoes are tender.
Yield: 6 servings
Go and get it
Killing C.I.A. Informants, China Crippled U.S. Spying Operations
WASHINGTON — The Chinese government systematically dismantled C.I.A. spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward.
Current and former American officials described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades. It set off a scramble in Washington’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain the fallout, but investigators were bitterly divided over the cause. Some were convinced that a mole within the C.I.A. had betrayed the United States. Others believed that the Chinese had hacked the covert system the C.I.A. used to communicate with its foreign sources. Years later, that debate remains unresolved.
But there was no disagreement about the damage. From the final weeks of 2010 through the end of 2012, according to former American officials, the Chinese killed at least a dozen of the C.I.A.’s sources. According to three of the officials, one was shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building — a message to others who might have been working for the C.I.A.
Still others were put in jail. All told, the Chinese killed or imprisoned 18 to 20 of the C.I.A.’s sources in China, according to two former senior American officials, effectively unraveling a network that had taken years to build.
Assessing the fallout from an exposed spy operation can be difficult, but the episode was considered particularly damaging. The number of American assets lost in China, officials said, rivaled those lost in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., who divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.
The previously unreported episode shows how successful the Chinese were in disrupting American spying efforts and stealing secrets years before a well-publicized breach in 2015 gave Beijing access to thousands of government personnel records, including intelligence contractors. The C.I.A. considers spying in China one of its top priorities, but the country’s extensive security apparatus makes it exceptionally hard for Western spy services to develop sources there.
At a time when the C.I.A. is trying to figure out how some of its most sensitive documents were leaked onto the internet two months ago by WikiLeaks, and the F.B.I. investigates possible ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russia, the unsettled nature of the China investigation demonstrates the difficulty of conducting counterespionage investigations into sophisticated spy services like those in Russia and China.
The C.I.A. and the F.B.I. both declined to comment.
Details about the investigation have been tightly held. Ten current and former American officials described the investigation on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing the information.
The first signs of trouble emerged in 2010. At the time, the quality of the C.I.A.’s information about the inner workings of the Chinese government was the best it had been for years, the result of recruiting sources deep inside the bureaucracy in Beijing, four former officials said. Some were Chinese nationals who the C.I.A. believed had become disillusioned with the Chinese government’s corruption.
But by the end of the year, the flow of information began to dry up. By early 2011, senior agency officers realized they had a problem: Assets in China, one of their most precious resources, were disappearing.
Better Understand the Relations Between China and the U.S.
The two nations are jockeying for influence on the global stage, maneuvering for advantages on land, in the economy and in cyberspace.
Wooing Indonesia: China and the United States are engaged in the strategic battle for influence over the resource-laden nation of nearly 300 million people. So far, Beijing has the edge.
Investing in Mexico: Alarmed by shipping chaos and geopolitical fractures, exporters from China are setting up factories in Mexico to preserve their sales to the United States.
The F.B.I. and the C.I.A. opened a joint investigation run by top counterintelligence officials at both agencies. Working out of a secret office in Northern Virginia, they began analyzing every operation being run in Beijing. One former senior American official said the investigation had been code-named Honey Badger.
As more and more sources vanished, the operation took on increased urgency. Nearly every employee at the American Embassy was scrutinized, no matter how high ranking. Some investigators believed the Chinese had cracked the encrypted method that the C.I.A. used to communicate with its assets. Others suspected a traitor in the C.I.A., a theory that agency officials were at first reluctant to embrace — and that some in both agencies still do not believe.
What we consider before using anonymous sources.Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
Their debates were punctuated with macabre phone calls — “We lost another one” — and urgent questions from the Obama administration wondering why intelligence about the Chinese had slowed.
The mole hunt eventually zeroed in on a former agency operative who had worked in the C.I.A.’s division overseeing China, believing he was most likely responsible for the crippling disclosures. But efforts to gather enough evidence to arrest him failed, and he is now living in another Asian country, current and former officials said.
There was good reason to suspect an insider, some former officials say. Around that time, Chinese spies compromised National Security Agency surveillance in Taiwan — an island Beijing claims is part of China — by infiltrating Taiwanese intelligence, an American partner, according to two former officials. And the C.I.A. had discovered Chinese operatives in the agency’s hiring pipeline, according to officials and court documents.
But the C.I.A.’s top spy hunter, Mark Kelton, resisted the mole theory, at least initially, former officials say. Mr. Kelton had been close friends with Brian J. Kelley, a C.I.A. officer who in the 1990s was wrongly suspected by the F.B.I. of being a Russian spy. The real traitor, it turned out, was Mr. Hanssen. Mr. Kelton often mentioned Mr. Kelley’s mistreatment in meetings during the China episode, former colleagues say, and said he would not accuse someone without ironclad evidence.
Those who rejected the mole theory attributed the losses to sloppy American tradecraft at a time when the Chinese were becoming better at monitoring American espionage activities in the country. Some F.B.I. agents became convinced that C.I.A. handlers in Beijing too often traveled the same routes to the same meeting points, which would have helped China’s vast surveillance network identify the spies in its midst.
Some officers met their sources at a restaurant where Chinese agents had planted listening devices, former officials said, and even the waiters worked for Chinese intelligence.
This carelessness, coupled with the possibility that the Chinese had hacked the covert communications channel, would explain many, if not all, of the disappearances and deaths, some former officials said. Some in the agency, particularly those who had helped build the spy network, resisted this theory and believed they had been caught in the middle of a turf war within the C.I.A.
Still, the Chinese picked off more and more of the agency’s spies, continuing through 2011 and into 2012. As investigators narrowed the list of suspects with access to the information, they started focusing on a Chinese-American who had left the C.I.A. shortly before the intelligence losses began. Some investigators believed he had become disgruntled and had begun spying for China. One official said the man had access to the identities of C.I.A. informants and fit all the indicators on a matrix used to identify espionage threats.
After leaving the C.I.A., the man decided to remain in Asia with his family and pursue a business opportunity, which some officials suspect that Chinese intelligence agents had arranged.
Officials said the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. lured the man back to the United States around 2012 with a ruse about a possible contract with the agency, an arrangement common among former officers. Agents questioned the man, asking why he had decided to stay in Asia, concerned that he possessed a number of secrets that would be valuable to the Chinese. It’s not clear whether agents confronted the man about whether he had spied for China.
The man defended his reasons for living in Asia and did not admit any wrongdoing, an official said. He then returned to Asia.
By 2013, the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. concluded that China’s success in identifying C.I.A. agents had been blunted — it is not clear how — but the damage had been done.
The C.I.A. has tried to rebuild its network of spies in China, officials said, an expensive and time-consuming effort led at one time by the former chief of the East Asia Division. A former intelligence official said the former chief was particularly bitter because he had worked with the suspected mole and recruited some of the spies in China who were ultimately executed.
China has been particularly aggressive in its espionage in recent years, beyond the breach of the Office of Personnel Management records in 2015, American officials said. Last year, an F.B.I. employee pleaded guilty to acting as a Chinese agent for years, passing sensitive technology information to Beijing in exchange for cash, lavish hotel rooms during foreign travel and prostitutes.
In March, prosecutors announced the arrest of a longtime State Department employee, Candace Marie Claiborne, accused of lying to investigators about her contacts with Chinese officials. According to the criminal complaint against Ms. Claiborne, who pleaded not guilty, Chinese agents wired cash into her bank account and showered her with gifts that included an iPhone, a laptop and tuition at a Chinese fashion school. In addition, according to the complaint, she received a fully furnished apartment and a stipend.
Once, I was truly between jobs: had quit the old one, and a signed contract to start the new one in 2 months.
I was looking forward to spending 2 months doing nothing but sleeping, playing pool, drinking, and having fun.
Then an ex-colleague and friend called: the little firm he worked at was having serious IT problems; could I come in and consult/fix things?
So I put on a suit, pack a CV, head down to their office, and quickly see the worst computer setup I have ever witnessed on Wall St. Like, it’s a bundle of ancient Windows boxes doing God knows what. They couldn’t do things like keep the system running, never mind managing risk, or managing orders, or any normal business function.
I figure $40K for me, plus $20K in real server hardware, and they can have this on the road to fixed in a month.
My friend and I go into the CEO’s office, lay out my CV, I present a rough plan and cost estimates. The CEO just grabs a black marker and starts crossing out everything in my CV he feels is inapplicable: stuff like “Yale University” and “computer science.” Then he says “Your resume says you’re unemployed, $10K should be enough!”
My friend turns green with embarrassment, but I just get up and walk out. Through the trading floor of frustrated people yelling that the system has crashed again and they can’t enter trades.
Well, my doctor has stated that I need to stay in the hospital for a week or longer. And then afterwards, I really have to be very moderate and calm in my activities. Apparently, I can trigger my blood pressure to launch towards the stars, and I need to tame that beast. So, this is MM going calm and serene.
Drinking is going to stifle for a spell. Same with smoking, and many of my favorite vices. Sigh.
Gotta be good, and lend myself to some serious chill.
…
I really get upset about the crazy relationship scene that the West has collapsed into. And this mix of rampant sexuality, free-lovin’ (not that I’m complain’) and isolationism with a woke political class is just another sign of a seriously collapsing Western society.
Men need love.
Women need understanding and compassion.
And let’s not forget about our kitties. Right?
Let’s all strive to be a tad better to ourselves, and to those around us. It’s so easy to get caught up, and ignore our very own needs and situation.
…
We need to chat about food. And stews are great Winter fare. (Unless you live down under) then I would recommend prawns. Stews are great, and I’ll guess that many readers haven’t had a home-made stew in some time. I suggest that you make up one and enjoy it.
With butter and bread.
Life is too short otherwise.
Today…
Cajun Meatball Stew
Ingredients
Meatballs
1 pound ground round or chuck
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs (3 slices)
2 tablespoons each minced parsley and cold water
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon each cayenne and pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 green onions, trimmed and minced (save tops for gravy)
2 teaspoons salt
Gravy
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups cold water
4 envelopes or 4 teaspoons instant beef broth
1/4 teaspoon salt pinch of pepper
1/3 cup minced parsley
4 green onion tops, sliced thin
Meatball drippings plus vegetable oil to total 1/4 cup
Instructions
Meatballs
Combine beef, bread crumbs, green onions, parsley, garlic, egg, salt, cayenne, pepper and cold water in a medium size bowl. Mix lightly and shape into 24 balls. Place on tray and chill for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in large, heavy skillet and brown meatballs quickly on all sides (don’t overcook or the meatballs may toughen).
Drain on paper towels; save drippings.
Gravy
Place combined meatball drippings and vegetable oil in a large, heavy saucepan or skillet. Blend in flour, and heat and stir over moderately low heat until flour begins to brown, at least 10 to 15 minutes. Good Cajun cooks take about 45 minutes to make a roux. The roux should be a rich topaz brown.
Add water and instant beef broth gradually, whisking until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Add meatballs to gravy. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
Stir in parsley and green onion tops. Heat for 15 minutes longer.
Serve in soup bowls or on plates with the meatballs and gravy ladled over fluffy rice or egg noodles.
I’ve seen this question hundreds of times over the years on Quora and the knee-jerk answer is always some version of “Follow your passion is terrible advice.”
There was a time when I thought exactly that and wrote a similar answer. Sure, following your passion can lead you to become a starving artist or a passionate amateur beach volleyball player who lurches from one financial crisis to another.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have accountants under neon lights, droning through their days like robots, their life becoming a series of monthly, quarterly and annual closes.
Having been on both sides, I didn’t see a lot of difference in the happiness between those two groups.
My biggest advice is to “see the grey” and not take anyone’s career advice as a one-size-fits-all tip. Be like a CEO and take in differing perspectives of your VPs, and attach weights to each piece of advice given your own circumstances.
Don’t ever, ever, treat anyone’s advice as gospel. And that includes anything I say or write.
Hustle culture has spawned this nauseating obsession with meme-quotes from billionaires that supposedly solve all of our problems.
Spoiler alert: I don’t give a shit what Elon Musk said. He’s smart and capable. But he came up through a very narrow silo in the world. His circumstances are extreme and hardly applicable to most of our own. Hell, I’m half-convinced he’s a narcissistic sociopath.
You can do what you love. Or you can learn to love what you do. Life changes. New passions evolve and the economics of those passions make new paths possible while destroying old ones.
You may wake up one day and realize you hate the thing you thought you’d spend your life doing.
The only constant in success is hard work and focus.
The more I’ve accepted that life is a fluid situation, with everything in constant change, and given assumptions always being tested, the better I’ve done.
Work hard, stay flexible, and expect waves of upheaval. Because I promise those waves are coming. We all get our turns.
The first military tactic, and for thousands of years the most successful by far, was “stand together in a line and point our sharp sticks in the same direction.” Here’s the Sumerians doing it about 4500 years ago:
Proto-warfare involved individual fighters going essentially one-on-one with other individual fighters: think a modern gang fight or bar brawl. But you can’t really do that if the guy you are trying to fight has two guys immediately adjacent to him also holding spears: they’re going to stick you. If the guys in the line have shields and/or armor, you can’t even hang back and chuck shit at them, which was the other proto-warfare classic.
Now, this sounds really easy, but it turns out it actually isn’t. Warfare involves a bunch of people you hate trying to kill you. The natural response to that is to either (1) sensibly run away, or (2) run over and get the bastards first. Standing in a strict formation with even spacing is fairly unnatural in those circumstances: you need to practice it a lot, especially if you want to have any hope of moving.
(1) in particular is hard: even if you know that in theory your phalanx will survive a cavalry charge, it’s a harder sell when you have a couple thousand pounds of muscle and steel coming at you at a gallop. Gaps in your line means you are fucked: it’s hard to convey how absolutely shafted (pun intended) disordered infantry are in the face of cavalry, but it might be helpful to recall that the reason Napoleonic and Civil War soldiers stood in closely packed formation while getting mowed down by musket and cannon fire was because that was the safer alternative. And, to make things even more fun, the first guy to run away is probably going to be fine: he’s got all of his buddies holding them off. The last guy is going to get shishkebabed by a Gothic/Frankish/Norman/English lance, so how much do you trust your buddies?
(2) also isn’t actually easy to overcome, either. If you are a professional soldier, you might like the fighting. That’s how you get honor and, more importantly, loot. If it looks like you’re winning, you might really want to be the first person on the scene. You might make a lot of money. This is actually how the English lost at Hastings. The English housecarls, who were pros, successfully stood in a line with the pointy sticks the right way against a half dozen Norman charges, but broke when the Normans faked a retreat. They were then slaughtered.
But yeah, “get my guys in a line with sticks the right way” was sufficient for Alexander, the Romans, and Napoleon to get into the world conquest game. Simple, but that shit really works if you can actually do it. But you do need to actually do it.
We bought a building that previously had section 8 tenants. None paid on time, the very first month that we owned it. The housing authority didn’t pay either. After 8 phone calls spanning 3 weeks, during which time we had already given 3-day notices to pay, and filed for eviction, the housing authority finally called us back, asking what the heck we were doing evicting THEIR tenant.
We informed them that under state law, we were following the required procedure for eviction for non-payment. They told us that under the terms of the 17-page Section 8 Contract, we could not evict the tenant for any reason whatsoever, including non-payment. We asked why they didn’t pay us on time, and they replied because we had not signed the Section 8 Contract yet, after the purchase. Ah-Hah!
We then informed them that we would be proceeding with the eviction, and would not be signing the Section 8 Contract. They told us that the previous owner had already signed it, and it is not revocable! They then threatened us with legal action if we continued with the eviction.
We told them that we had already consulted our attorney, who told us it is illegal to enforce or coerce anyone into signing or upholding an agreement that they did not willingly enter into. Thus, upon the sale of the property, as clearly stated within the Section 8 Contract itself, and apparently unbeknownst to the Housing Authority, the new owner has a choice to enter into Section 8 or not. And, oh by the way, selling the property is the only way to get OUT of Section 8, and the only way to evict Section 8.
The Housing Authority huffed and puffed, and went away. The tenants were evicted.
End of Story. Yes, it is legal. We’ll never do Section 8 again, ever, for any reason whatsoever.
An articulate well known diplomat with high integrity and trust Wang Yi is meeting a 6 year old mindset, with Neocons drumming his voice with China hate and U.S. hubris thinking China is still in its 100 years of humiliation and the U.S. is still the one eye king after everyone loses both eyes after 2nd World war in 1945.
I hope for Blinken’s sake he will stop talking like the U.S. is the angel and China is the devil. He may think so but 180 out of 195 nations think it is the other way around. Best don’t even go there! Pretend to act civil and learn humility. That will go a long way Blinkyboy!
Confucian ethics says it is better to overestimate your opponent and underestimate yourself than the other way a around. The U.S. needs a lot of this balancing. China don’t listen to hot air after all. China sees more than hear. Anyone can say anything.
The U.S. better not talk about its own self made propaganda, lies, misinformation and fabrications. China is way too smart to let you lecture. Moreover the U.S. has done too much evil to even dare preach. Better focus on how to work with China on each others progress. Projects of common interest and goals to enrich the world, China and the U.S.
Without China the U.S. will die of pneumonia, with China it may suffer common influenza once in a while. Sure China will fly with the U.S. and still travelled at breakneck high speed rail without the U.S. but the faster China goes the more the U.S. will benefit too. If it knows humility.
We bought a house in a small California town, primarily because of our dogs. It had two and a half fenced acres, and was in a semi-rural area. Our dogs were getting old, and we wanted them to have a peaceful place so that they wouldn’t be stressed while we were at work. Well, it seemed like we bought a house in the “snob hill area.” During the first week we were there, a man stopped by our gate and informed me that our car was too old, and that we needed to get a new one. I told him that we were new to the area, and asked him to recommend a dealership. He did so, and I told him that I would meet him there the next morning, and to remember to bring his checkbook. For some strange reason, he hasn’t spoken to me again.
In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc), also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?
From a Navy perspective…
In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc)
Being on ships, there are some things you can and can’t have. No one, except a few watches, carries a gun on a regular basis. Generally, they’re issued out prior to watch, during security drills, or during actual events that threaten the security of the ship. Having a personal firearm onboard would have been useless, as it would always need to be locked up in the armory. There’d be no reason to have a personal firearm. The only people who MIGHT be allowed to have one would be the Commanding Officer, or a flag officer.
As for knives, I used to have one or two I carried everywhere while on ship. I was an engineer, and knives are essential, but not issued. I usually had a large Buck folding knife (I liked how they kept an edge), along with a small Swiss knife on my keychain. At one point I did have a double edged boot knife that I would keep hidden, specifically because they weren’t authorized. And only certain fixed blade knives were allowed (based on size).
Other types of gear we could go outside of regular issue were certain uniform items. When I was in, we had what were officially called “chukkas”, but which we all called “boondockers”.
These weren’t too bad, if they fit right, and they got more comfortable as they wore in, but they were about as mass produced as you could get, and the quality was inconsistent. They had steel toes that would cut through the inner lining and tear your toes apart, and a little saltwater would destroy the shine and eat the leather.
So, many of us would spend a small fortune on civilian shoes, much like these…
The Navy was fine with them, as long as they had steel toes and were black (for enlisted). They were supposed to be leather, too, but a lot of us would go for the ones that were synthetic, specifically because they were water proof.
There were other items that were not “issue”, but were sold as extras in the uniform shop. Back in the 80’s, there was a light black jacket we called the “Johnny Cash” (not to be confused with the black working uniform with the same nickname). If you ever went to certain overseas ports (generally Hong Kong), you could get your dress blues lined with an Asian motif embroidery on silk. This was out of sight for inspection, so the command never had a problem with them.
As for “extra equipment”, we sailors really didn’t need much more than what was already given us. We were allowed to bring on personal items, as long as they could be stowed properly. Electrical items always needed to be safety checked, and might need a request chit (permission slip) to bring it on board, but I usually had a computer for cruises, and game consoles were popular.
…also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?
This all depends.
Your primary issue for almost everything is in Boot Camp. That’s all your uniforms, toiletries, and other kits, such as sewing. These are always new, and upon issue, you have to identify your items with you name. In my time, we had a “stencil party”, which consisted of the entire company sitting down on the deck and using a machine cut stencil and special pens, we stenciled our names on everything.
I can literally smell the stencil ink as I write this. Not unpleasant, but strong.
From that point on, you’re responsible for replacing any items that aren’t up to standard. You get an annual allowance for this, and you can choose where to buy your gear.
I have broken service, and my uniforms weren’t in the best shape when I got back in. I was given an allowance that was meant to buy a new seabag (what we call our full set of uniforms), but I decided to save a little money and go “used”. There are always “boot drops”, the recruits who didn’t make the cut, and they have to return their uniforms. These were in good shape, but stenciled. We could buy our uniforms used, then cross out the old stencils and add our own. Saved about half what I would have paid for new.
Ships also have a lost and found, and those items are sometimes auctioned off for the welfare and rec fund. You could get some decent items from that.
As for weapons, well, you don’t keep your service weapon when you leave. Those are turned around and reissued. You might get new, you might get used.
The Evidence has been submitted and the case is closed
The Judgement has been delivered.
DEATH.
…
The MEA tried many times to help out but Qatar refused to comply
So there is no point discussing the evidence
We can go to the ICJ but given that Qatar is a gas lifeline to Europe, I am certain ICJ will pass
They openly bankroll the Hamas and yet not even a pinky finger has been pointed at them to this day
We need to get our boys out
That’s crucial
Now I am almost certain, the death sentence would not be carried out.
It never does
Except Eli Cohen and a handful of others, most spies are never killed or executed
Eventually there will be trade offs and exchanges
My guess is if India backs a Two State Solution in UN and votes against Israel for a cease fire and UN involvement in the Gaza conflict, that alone could secure a commutation to life imprisonment
Typically there could be a round robin exchange
Meaning a third country could mediate the release of hostages in exchange for India doing something for this third country
Like US or Russia or China
Ideally if we had a few Qataris in our Jail, we could do a swap
We don’t
Qatari tourists to India are non existent
We can’t pull out business contracts because we have only 6% and the Chinese would grin and happily take over
We can’t pull out of Oil and Gas contracts because we have no major long term deals and these are fungible goods
Of course they will, that is a a done deal, in fact they have already. Overtaking the U.S. is a piece of cake. A bunch of war monger selling stuffs no one one wants to buy at astronomical prices because they pay their greedy CEO 100 times that of China with workers that demand 10 times higher salaries working half the hours and insist 5 times more benefits!
Never mind this, the Yanks believed they can spend till thy kingdom come and spend like there is no tomorrow! China will pretend that they fear the U.S. but to the Chinese they not need to lift a finger, Uncle Sam will bankrupt it selves.! Hubris will bury them. Superiority complex will destroy themselves!
Let me help you hubris and racist Yanks understand the real world. As long as you still think the world belongs to you, the easier it is for us! China today in reality is at least twice bigger than you and that is being highly overestimating Uncle Sam and underestimating ourselves!
At the very worst., China is growing 5 times faster than you. The U.S. is totally fxxked! But we will pretend that the Chinese is 50 years behind the US! You loved that don’t you?
Embrace a lifestyle that costs only a fraction of your earnings.
Living below your means is like having a superhero cape you never have to show off. It’s the ultimate life hack for me, it makes one feel invincible, calm, and in control.
It’s likened to standing in a rock-solid tower while chaos swirls around you, that’s a feeling words won’t be able to capture.
In many places, especially in my home country, living modestly is more than just a money-saving trick; it’s a shield against life’s darker corners.
It keeps you off the radar for all sorts of unpleasant situations, from kidnappings for ransom to targeted robberies.
It also makes you less of a walking ATM for friends, family, and even strangers who see you as their personal bailout fund.
Choosing simplicity when you could go grand is a power move. It’s like having an invisible army guarding your peace. You’re not just scraping by; you’re flourishing but on your terms.
This lifestyle is the ultimate stress-buster. You’re cruising in a relatively comfort zone where you’ve got the choice but not the pressure to splurge. When you do spend, it feels like tossing a pebble into a pond, not like drilling a hole in a dam.
Living this way gives you access to a type of joy most people can’t even put into words, let alone experience in their lifetime.
Imagine being able to book a dream vacation or buy a dream home on a whim, leaving everyone around you stunned. That thrill is something money can buy only with a huge dose of discipline.
When you can comfortably afford your belongings, life takes on a different hue. You’re the boss, and everything you own is just a tool to make your life better, not a golden calf to be worshipped.
You only hurt one person, you, when you chose to live above your means. It is a recipe for sleepless nights and constant stress.
Being smart about how you live pays dividends in happiness and freedom, the very assets that are truly priceless.
There was a tall, lanky fellow who always wore long sleeves and sat down the table from me in engineering class. He didn’t talk much, had a strange sneeze and mostly kept to himself.
I had a sneaking suspicion he was smart, really smart. I shouldn’t have cared either way but between my bloodthirsty competitive side and penchant for people watching, my radar was always on.
And it wasn’t like I had any evidence, grades, test scores or even a remote conversation to draw my conclusion from.
All I had was a subtlety I’d noticed: His body language.
It was a cool confidence juxtaposed with a complete lack of stress on his face.
This absence of stress is not to be confused with slackery. He was laser focused on our material but rarely took notes. That pencil just sat by his hand begging for playing time, but no. Class didn’t seem to faze him. It was as if he was just in cruise control, coasting along while we all paddled to keep up.
He would go on to graduate first in his class.
But I had confirmation before that.
One day towards the end of the term, our teacher put a very high level problem on the board and asked who knew the answer. I immediately looked at him – he knew the answer. I could tell. His head sat still while his eyes were darting around waiting for someone to answer.
He was smart. He had it in his pocket. But he wasn’t looking for attention.
The teacher reiterated, “Anyone?”.
Finally, he slowly raised his hand and read off the answer like a trained assassin: calm, cold and collected.
You don’t need test scores to realize someone is smart.
Just watch them, it’s usually there. And it’s usually the quiet ones. Still waters run deeper.
China is TAKING OVER! Tiangong Space Station HUGE Update
Zero! Unless the US cancels all sanctions and restrictions it has placed on China. China is using the proceeds of its bond selling to buy gold. The expectation is that China will begin using gold backed currencies whether the Yuan or a BRICS currency. China sees the US headed for bankruptcy or at best, a financial and economic restructuring. So far, the US continues to print dollars and spending like there is no tomorrow, especially its spending on foreign wars. Yesterday, it was Ukraine, today it is Israel, tomorrow???
Schumer’s recap of his meeting with Xi has the tone that is as condescending of a lecture by an adult to a child. Here are all the points.
Point #1: At the foundation of our relationship must be a level playing field for American businesses and workers as well as responsible competition. We need reciprocity. That means allowing American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete in America. I made clear to President Xi that we do not believe there is a level playing field or reciprocity now.
Schumer is complaining about a level playing field? Reciprocity?
This is from a Congress and administration that has more than 1,200 Chinese tech companies on the Entity List and cried economic coercion when China placed restriction on one U.S. companiy. And he’s “making it clear to President Xi” that the U.S. wants a level playing field?
Point #2: “I raised the huge structural inequities and serious imbalances the U.S. faces in its economic and trade relationship with China. For decades, the Chinese government has erected significant barriers aimed at restricting the ability of American companies to compete in an open and fair manner in China. I made clear that the United States cannot sit idly by and that we must address the Chinese government’s forced technology transfers, theft of intellectual property, required joint ventures, and intimidation of U.S. businesses operating in China, among other troubling actions, that undermine economic reciprocity.
“Specifically, I also raised the need to remove restrictions and open up the Chinese market to U.S. companies, including from the semiconductor, financial services, and aerospace industries, and putting an end to policies that intimidate U.S. businesses operating in China.
What restrictions? What structural inequities?
Shouldn’t U.S. companies be making their own decisions on these? And as they say, the proof is in the pudding.
U.S. companies are making money in China. This is why they’re in China. It is precisely because of the structural benefits that China offers that U.S. companies are accepting the Chinese terms for doing business in China. U.S. companies can at any time decouple to India but are not because of the superior structural benefit China offers. And it is also why there is a “structural inequities” between the U.S. and China because, like India, we do have the infrastructure and manufacturing resources to compete with China’s. And this is not China’s fault. If the U.S. and India want to compete, then its incumbent on themselves to build the requisite “structure”.
Evidence of China’s open market? There’s Tesla in China’s automotive market and Apple in the mobile market, both market leaders in the world’s largest market. Nvidia was also the market leader in the world’s largest semiconductor market but its the U.S. banning them, not China.
Point #3: “Equally important to the need for reciprocity is the need for China to take more aggressive action to stop fentanyl from coming into America. Right now, the scourge of fentanyl is costing tens of thousands of lives and destroying American families. I called on President Xi to work with the United States to stem the flow of precursor chemicals that are fueling America’s fentanyl crisis.
And how exactly is China suppose to do this when precursor chemicals are not even banned substances in the U.S.? Fentanyl is a legal drug precribed by U.S. physicians for their patients.
Enforcement of illicit drugs is the sole responsibility of the U.S.. Blaming China is just a sorry excuse for failing at controlling an epidemic of our own making. It’s our greedy Pharmas in collusion with the FDA and physicians that promoted opioid use and solving this can only done by us alone.
Point #4: “I raised with President Xi the unfolding atrocities carried out against Israel and the need for the world community to stand together against terrorism and with the Israeli people, and pointedly requested from President Xi that the Chinese Foreign Minister strengthen their statement; they did.
Schumer is lecturing China on its foreign policy. He stressed the “unfolding atrocities” against Israel but omitted the greater “unfoldering atrocities” that the Israelis are committing against the Palestinians that he wants China to ignore.
Point #5: While we must ensure that our trade policies are fair, the United States will also prioritize our economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. Our delegation made clear that America is not seeking a confrontation with China, but we will remain steadfast in our commitment to promoting stability in the region, freedom, and democratic principles, and vigorously defend our values around the world.
This is just BS political talk. He’s saying that U.S. policies should be fair but justified when it’s not when we prioritize economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. So the U.S. subsidizing companies to the tune of $52 billion on building chip fab in the U.S. is ok but accusing China of doing the same subsidizing its tech companies as unfair and illegal trade practice. And its ok to sanction China from advanced chips and machines that make them – even forcing the Dutch, South Korean and Japanese companies to join – is justified for the sake of U.S. national security.
Now, how different would a Biden meeting with Xi be from Schumer’s? The Democrats has an election in 2024 and this will be nothing more than an electionering tactic at China bashing to win votes.
Radical Culture Change
Russia’s Top General: “Ready for Post-Conflict Negotiations”
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said today “Moscow is ready for negotiations on post-conflict resolution of the crisis in Ukraine and on further coexistence with the West.”
Russia knows Ukraine has lost. Russia knows the West can no longer provide weaponry or money to keep that conflict going. Russia knows it’s defense production is SEVEN TIMES GREATER than all the West combined. Yet, they are extending an olive branch.
Hal Turner Remarks —
We in the West should seize the moment and take this opportunity to move forward in peace.
Sadly, I fear the West simply CANNOT seek peace. I think the West – especially the United States — is literally Bankrupt. I believe the West **needs** a nuclear war or at least a partial nuclear war, so they can blame their financial collapse on the war. I perceive the West **needs** debt forgiveness and the only way they can get it is through mass destruction.
It seems to me the West needs to be able to go to their creditors and say “Our cities are destroyed, our people are dead, our economy is smashed. We have no hope at all of ever paying you back. We need debt forgiveness.”
If I am right, the Creditors, seeing this is the actual reality, will have little choice.
I suspect at that point, the very people in the West who perpetrated the massive financial destruction, get to walk away, free and clear, **remain in power ** (that’s the key) and start the whole shitshow all over again. Then, in maybe another 75 years, they have to do it all again. Round and round the wheel spins. Same old, same old.
If the West turns down this move for peace that Russia is offering, then ALL OF US know the whole Russia-Ukraine thing, and the whole Israel-Hamas thing, was specifically designed to intentionally CAUSE nuclear war for debt forgiveness.
Nothing else about these situations, makes any sense to me.
This is especially true of athletes in their mid and late 30s.
Men’s testosterone begins to decline around 30. We don’t recover as fast and lose a bit of our power over time. It’s a subtle change that catches up to them.
And many champions don’t know when to walk away in their prime.
Ronaldo is now sitting the bench on Manchester United:
True soccer fans knew this day was coming—as in fans who aren’t Ronaldo fanboys. He wasn’t playing at a high enough level to start on Manchester United. He was leaving the midfield too open while he camped out waiting to score goals.
He’s 37 and feeling his age. And that’s fine. Father Time catches up to everyone.
The sad truth is that this happens to the best of athletes. And it’s never more evident than in combat sports. Fighters that seem invincible, will go from being 31–1 to suddenly losing 8 of 10 fights in a row.
Muhammed Ali stuck around wayyyy too long and at least accelerated his mental decline.
Anderson Silva used to look untouchable. And then, age 38, he began a long losing streak.
Losing 6 of his last 8 fights.
The only person smart enough to walk away seems to be Khabib Nurgademedov. He was 29–0, and the allure of 30–0 whispered his name—but he stayed disciplined and knew to step away.
Meanwhile, his nemesis Conor McGregor has been racking up losses.
It’s a good metaphor for life.
Some phases of our life have an expiration date. Relationships. Jobs. Parties. And if you stick around too long, it just makes things worse.
The most dangerous creation of society is the man who has nothing to lose.
Today, at age 34 our combined net worth is $1.6M, not including equity in our home and equity in a small business my wife runs.
I can tell you our story, but it will probably bore you to sleep.
I had it in my head at the age of 25 that I wanted to be a millionaire in 15 years. So I sat down in front of a computer and opened up excel. I made a simple spreadsheet that assumed market returns of 7%. I then calculated how much we needed to save each year to obtain millionaire status by 40. We then proceeded to save the amount of money generated by the spreadsheet and invest in index funds, basing our lifestyle around the remaining income.
That is it.
Why did it happen sooner?
My wife hated her job. She was treated with very little respect by some members in the office, I suspect because she was young and good at her job. So she left. I told her to take some time for herself and figure out what she wanted to do. Little by little she began doing some book-keeping and tax work for former clients (she is an accountant). As word got around, more people called. She began networking and eventually built up a small accounting business with her and two employees. It’s humble, but we are able to save 100% of her earnings which helped us reach our goal sooner.
If you met me on the street you’d think I was a generic 30-something with all the same stresses of a corporate job, house and kids that most middle-class 30-somethings deal with. You’d probably assume I was barely getting by when you saw my dirty 14-year-old car, especially after you learned that I like to commute by bike most of the time anyway.
And that’s it. Having means is often more about your life style than your earnings. Unfortunately I’m not a savvy business man who made millions in his 20’s while driving a Ferrari and flying first class. I used a spreadsheet, saved that amount of money and built my lifestyle around that savings rate.
Then my wife and I woke up rich.
I told you it was a boring story.
Cajun Pork Chili
Ingredients
2 pounds ground pork
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet red bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano*
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper
Instructions
In a heavy saucepan, cook the pork over medium heat, stirring to break up the meat, for about 5 minutes or until browned. Pour off the fat.
Add onions, and cook until tender.
Add garlic, red and green peppers and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
Add tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a spoon.
Stir in kidney beans, hot pepper flakes, oregano, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Notes
* If you prefer a more traditional chili flavor, use cumin instead of oregano, and add chili powder to taste.
The MWI is real, and it is valid. However, the idea in the movie that consciousness is equally shared between the world-lines is a tad distorted. Instead the centering of consciousness on a given world-line is the actual REALITY within this universe.
At a tense meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's body is taken over by Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the "Alphaverse."
Alpha-Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist because every life choice creates a new alternative universe.
In the Alphaverse, the late Alpha-Evelyn developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely.
The multiverse is threatened by Jobu Tupaki (Alpha-Joy), whose mind was splintered after Alpha-Evelyn pushed her to verse-jump beyond her endurance; Jobu experiences all universes at once and can verse-jump and manipulate matter at will.
She has created a black hole-like "Everything Bagel" topped with everything,[18] which appears as a toroidsingularity[19] that could destroy the multiverse.
Evelyn is given verse-jumping technology to fight Jobu's minions, who converge on the IRS building.
She discovers other universes in which she made different choices and flourished, such as becoming a kung fu master and film star; she also learns of Waymond's plans with the divorce papers.
Alpha-Waymond believes that Evelyn, as the greatest "failure" of all Evelyns in the multiverse, has the untapped potential to defeat Jobu.
Gong Gong is taken over by Alpha-Gong Gong, who instructs Evelyn to kill Joy to stop Jobu from using her to enter Evelyn's universe.
Evelyn refuses and decides to face Jobu by gaining powers through repeated verse-jumping.
Alpha-Gong Gong, convinced that Evelyn's mind has been compromised like Jobu's, sends soldiers after Evelyn.
While they fight, Jobu locates and kills Alpha-Waymond in the Alphaverse.
As Jobu confronts Evelyn in her universe, Evelyn's mind splinters, and she collapses.
Evelyn uncontrollably verse-jumps alongside Jobu across bizarre and diverse universes.
Jobu reveals she does not want to fight at all, but that instead, she has been searching for an Evelyn who can see, as she does, that nothing matters, while killing the Evelyns that do not agree with her.
She brings Evelyn to the Everything Bagel, explaining that she wants to use it to allow herself and Evelyn to truly die.
Upon looking into the Bagel, Evelyn is initially persuaded, and behaves cruelly and nihilistically in her other universes, hurting those around her.
As Evelyn is about to enter the Bagel with Jobu, she pauses to listen to Waymond's pleas in her universe for everybody to stop fighting and to instead be kind, even when life does not make sense.
Evelyn has an existentialist epiphany and decides to follow Waymond's absurdist[20] and humanist[21] advice, using her multiverse powers to fight with empathy[22] and bring happiness to those around her; in doing so, she repairs her damage in the other universes and neutralizes Alpha-Gong Gong and Jobu's fighters.
In her home universe, Evelyn reconciles with Waymond, accepts Joy and Becky's relationship and tells Gong Gong of it, and talks with Deirdre after Waymond convinces Deirdre to let them redo their taxes.
Jobu decides to enter the Bagel alone while, simultaneously in Evelyn's universe, Joy begs Evelyn to let her go.
Evelyn tells Joy that even when nothing makes sense and even though she could be anywhere else in the multiverse, she would always want to be with Joy.
Evelyn and the others save Jobu from the Bagel, and Evelyn and Joy embrace.
It is a fantasy. Which is still a fun illustration.
So that is OK, don’t you know.
But what does the audience get from this movie?
That there is a multi-verse; and MWI.
That you can travel between different world-lines.
That the traveling consciousness can absorb simultaneous experiences that color the actions in the reality.
I personally view this movie as an entry bridge towards enlightenment of the true and really pertinent reality that we all experience.
World-line slides… shown in the movie.
The three key points above are all in alignment with MM’s MWI narrative.
Edward. We called him Crazy Ed. At 12 years of age during a family reunion he grabbed his dad’s shotgun and started shooting. He got mad at his parents over some little crap. Shot his ma, pa, aunt and was chasing his uncle but ran out of shells. In a juvenile prison, this was the 1960s, he tried to poison a few people. And beat another thug with a broom half to death before they hauled him off. He was a polite, fairly polished, soft spoken youth. Looked like a mousy little accountant, glasses and all. He told people when he got he wanted to be a hit man for the mob. He enjoyed killing. I have no doubt that’s what really became of him.
I was an IT director for a company that had been acquired by a much larger company. When I declined to move to their IT location half a continent away, I was laid off. by phone. (my whole group was effectively laid off because they moved my group’s functions to the parent companies group much larger group and they all refused the move).
This was not unexpected, but the knowledge transfer had not taken place yet between the groups. (it was just beginning)
I accepted the severance package and told them we needed to call my counterpart in the corporate group to make sure the transfer was done securely.
When they asked why, I said that as an IT directory I have all the adminstrator passwords and could literally shut down the business if I was upset about the termination. I want to make sure that any issues that come up will not be pointed back at me or my team.
They agreed to conference call with my counterpart so he could take the necessary steps to secure the system.
The call went like this:
Me: Hey! You need to change all the administrator passwords on our unix servers and close out some accounts:
Him: Why?
Me: My group and I just got terminated and you need to secure these servers to make sure everything stays copacetic. You need to terminate my accounts, all access, and those of my team laid off effective immediately to protect corporate and customer assets.
Him: <explodes>What Assh*t did that? We haven’t got anyone to manage those systems, There has been no knowledge transfer on what the systems are used for, <folornly>I’m screwed!
Big Boss: That would be me. Just do it.
Him: OK, OK. I am logging on to the servers. What is the command? Oh Sh*t, I can’t ask you can I….
Big Boss (to me): This is a surprise. Would you be willing to stick around for a couple of weeks….
Me: Sorry- Even though I don’t particularly have an issue about being laid off, Corporate Security Rules identify me now as disgruntled employee and I am not allowed access to secure systems or even the building spaces.
When I was about 17 years old, my dad walked in on me and my then-boyfriend having sex.
The house I lived in at the time was located directly across from my high school. I was enrolled in a lot of sports, as was my boyfriend. Our practices often didn’t start until a half an hour or so after school ended, so most days we had a little bit of time to, um, kill. This particular day, I thought my dad would be at work. We raced to my house, went to my bedroom, and went at it. A few minutes later, without warning, my dad did the thing he always did – knock, then immediately open the door. Seriously? What was the point of knocking? I’ll never understand.
So there I was. His precious baby, naked with a boy. I did the only thing I could think of, which was to do a little *roll* off the bed, and then a second *roll* to hide myself underneath my bed. Leaving my bare-bummed boyfriend to the nightmare above me.
The only words my dad said was, “get dressed.”
I did not go to practice that day. Instead, I had to have dinner with my dad, alone. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. I was mortified.
We tried to have small talk???? “How was your day?” “Fine, yours?”
Worst. Day. Of. My. Life.
Cajun Style Cube Steaks
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
4 (4 ounce) beef cube steaks
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 (15 ounce) can no salt added tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
2 cups hot cooked brown rice
Instructions
Place foil grilling bag on cookie sheet. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of flour in bag.
Arrange steaks in single layer on top of flour; top with pepper and onion.
In a small bowl stir together tomato sauce, Cajun seasonings, and remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Spread evenly over steaks and vegetables. Seal bag by double folding open end, leaving room for expansion.
Coat grill rack with nonstick cooking spray. Heat grill to medium indirect heat.
Slide bag from cookie sheet onto grill rack. Cover and grill for 35 minutes.
Remove bag from grill. Use kitchen shears to carefully cut open bag.
We had a a couple of very dear and long- time friends coming over to watch a DVD a few evenings ago. I went into the living room to make sure the sofas were clear of books, newspapers, knitting etc, but there was still some clutter around. The odd grandkids’s toys sitting in a corner. A laptop my husband was fixing for someone In bits on the coffee table. I said to my husband “ Oh, it looks OK. It’s only Angela and Colin coming.” Then I thought that’s a horrible thing to say! But then it occurred to me – it was, in fact, a great compliment. They were like family. I don’t do a big tidy up, making it pristine, if my daughter is coming with her children. Like them, Angela and Colin are part of our lives. It’s clean and comfortable, but it doesn’t have to be “ visitor ready.” When they arrived I told them what has gone through my mind, and they agreed – they would feel the same about us.
Newlywed Has MELTDOWN After Husband Gathers Proof Of Her Cheating For Their “At Fault” Divorce State
All these stories are so sad. But this one seems to be really authentic. The human situation sucks. Ugh. I am sorry for all three people.
USA and Australia are clearly stolen nations or stolen continents after barbaric and phenomenally cruel slaughter of natives living in their land for centuries. These lands don’t belong to the present inhabitants and it must remind all humans in earth of what savagery and imperialism occurred during the 1600–1900 where rampant European colonialism and aggression happened throughout the world.
Australia and the Americas have to be seen as naked aggression and raped of land and destruction and real genocide whatever culture is a 200–300 years old remnants of these atrocities.
China and Japan has long history spanning thousands of years. It possesses history and philosophy of life and both nations were helped by Confucianism and its ethics of discipline, hardworking, respect for the elders and authorities and constant learning and meritocracy. Both are highly educated and very successful societies. For a while Japan was infatuated with western style colonialism. Not the Chinese as it sees that is wrong to steal other people land.
Nations that grew out of stealing land that belong to others naturally sees themselves entitled. Dominate its regions. The U.S. Latin America and Caribbean while Australia the Islanders and thinks they have a right to command South China Sea too. That to me is clearly wrong and high handed with a tinge of colonialism.
Both Australia and the U.S. benefits from the so called international rules based order that favours the west at the expense of the developing world. But that privilege is being stripped away bit by bit. And truly free competition is beyond them. Hence the huffs and puffs.
Only one word RESPECT. Without respect US will always think their way is always the right way. China is not trying to change the U.S. liberal democracy. That is the U.S. way the U.S. sees fit for the U.S. it is the U.S. that insist China must not practice Socialism with Chinese characteristics! There lies the problem.
As long as one thinks and believed that they and only they knows best no relationship can work. The U.S. must know that to each it’s own. And one man’s meat is another man’s poison. I dare say the problem in the entire 100 years passed us that the U.S. wanted every nation on earth to be submissive and subservient to them!
China is very mature. China wants a rich and prosperous USA to sell to and to go for holidays. It doesn’t want to change a thing. The U.S. wants to weaken China. It wants China to be split into a 100 bite size nation for the U.S. to chew on it! It sees itself as the standard, the authority and the god ordained nation to rule the world.
That disrespect cannot go on. It gets no where. A 5000 years responsible civilisation cannot accept a 247 years old rogue stolen nation of cowboys telling them what to do.
This is HOW MUCH My Vending Machines Made in 365 Days!
I have taken a while to collect my thoughts. Some things need to be said.
This will be a disturbing post. So let’s cling precariously to reason. Please.
Two things are obvious here. The first is that the actions by Hamas rip a new gash in the face of humanity. No thinking person can deny this. Generally reliable news agencies like Reuters [1] report:
“We’ve seen dismembered bodies with their arms and feet chopped off, people that were beheaded, a child that was beheaded,” a reserve warrant officer identified only by her first name of Avigayil told reporters.
She said multiple cases of rape were found by forensic examination of the bodies, which have been stored in refrigerated containers.
A large number of international journalists have viewed graphic footage [2] that documents these atrocities:
Other sequences showed a militant with an agricultural tool hacking at the head of a man lying on the ground, gunmen killing wounded female Israeli soldiers and a jubilant Hamas fighter calling his family: “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands. I’m using the dead Jewish woman’s phone to call you now.”
Only a really crazy conspiracy theorist with his underpants on his head would doubt that these terrible things are absolutely, shockingly real.∗
But there is one more thing …
The other obvious thing
Hamas planned this attack meticulously over months—almost certainly with Iranian support.
[3] Israeli intelligence failed comprehensively. But no, these are not that obvious, other thing. The second thing is the answer to the question “Why?”
One answer is “Because Hamas hate Israel, hate Jewish people, and want to erase Israel from the face of the Earth, as they have often declared”. This is almost certainly true, but it is too glib. It is not the answer. If you follow this reasoning, then Hamas are like a fox in a henhouse—ripping away until no living thing is left alive.
The problem with this glib answer is that it doesn’t make complete sense. Yes, of course those who killed 1400 Israelis and kidnapped many more did so with almost indescribable savagery. Yes, of course they went out of their way to document the bloodshed and atrocities. And yes, of course, this is a new low—by even the lowest imaginable standard.
But this is far less than half the story. Those who set up this atrocity surely knew how Israel would respond. They could predict that Israel would pummel Gaza. They invited a blockade, and an invasion by the Israeli army. So the correct answer to that “Why?” question is …
This is all going according to script
Hamas knew that this would result in a huge number of deaths of their own people in Gaza.
Hamas are hoping that thousands—or even tens of thousands—of their own people will die. They have planned for a bloody fight in Gaza, with civilians all around. They want this. They want large numbers of children to die in Gaza. This is part of the plan.
At least thirty Israeli children died. By 24 October 2023, two thousand three hundred and sixty children had died and over five thousand had been injured in Gaza. [4] This is precisely what Hamas want. It is part of their plan. It is surely what they predicted. They are malevolent—but they are not stupid. So then, why did they do this?
Why?
They knew that Benjamin Netanyahu would have no choice but to retaliate not just in kind, but on a vast scale. They knew that had he said something like:
We will not descend to their level. We will hunt down every single one of these terrorists, but we will do this in our own time. Not one will escape. We will move mountains to preserve international law, and protect innocent civilians …
… then he would have been labelled ‘weak’. He would have been out on his arse. The atrocities were so bad that people would have demanded an immediate military response from his successor. This is the main reason why the atrocities were quite deliberately so atrocious.
So thousands of children are dead, and thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians of all ages will still die. Quite according to the script that Hamas has laid out. They don’t care. In fact, it’s precisely part of the plan.
Now you asked:
Will people forget the massacre of innocent Jews by Hamas after seeing the Gaza attack?
No, of course not
That day will live in infamy. But it won’t matter.
Because the countries around Israel will also never, ever forget the vastly greater number of children who died. They will never forget Israel’s response. And here’s the truly terrible thing.
For every one who died, several more will spring up, their heart filled with hate for Israel. There are about two million people [5] packed into the Gaza strip. It’s like a vast kindergarten—and from this kindergarten, hundreds of thousands of people will emerge, and none of them will forget Israel’s actions.
Israel is running things entirely according to Hamas’ script. And when they deviate, they do so in the wrong direction …
A bonus for Hamas
Israel has even provided a few unanticipated bonuses that make things worse. For example, Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan has accused the Secretary General of the UN as follows:
[6] The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.
This was in response to his speech on 24 October, [7] that went as follows:
I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.
Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.
All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. I respectfully note the presence among us of members of their families.
Excellencies,
It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.
But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Another perhaps unexpected bonus for Hamas is how Israel has cut off supplies…
Fuel
By far the most important supply Israel has cut off is fuel. No, not water. Not food. Fuel. [8]
This is because the hospitals with their thousands of bomb-injured and crushed people need fuel to run. And water cannot be pumped (or even desalinated) without fuel. Oh yes. The Israelis also supply one third of the water to Gaza. And this has been cut off, too.
They are allowing a few percent of the supplies needed. This will result in multiple deaths, particularly of vulnerable people—the elderly, and children, and the sick.
The most disturbing bit
In the video clip associated with this post, the Israeli defence minister describes Palestinians as ‘human animals’—and says that this justifies cutting off food, fuel and water.
This is from the international playbook [9] of dehumanisation:
During the Holocaust, Nazis referred to Jews as rats. Hutus involved in the Rwanda genocide called Tutsis cockroaches. Slave owners throughout history considered slaves subhuman animals.
In summary
So this is the way I see it. Israel has provided a knee-jerk response.
In consequence, their entire state may not survive. This will likely take a few decades to play out—but I think Israel has just signed its own death warrant in the blood of thousands upon thousands of the sick, the elderly, and children.
This is precisely what Hamas scripted. Israel has simply followed the script.
I find this all tragic beyond words.
My 2c, Dr Jo.
∗
It’s sad we even need to say this. But already the conspiracy nutters are out there in force.
Image was generated by Poe/StableDiffusion in response to the prompt “a fox in a henhouse with lots of feathers and blood”.
Based on my observations after having lived in most of the Anglosphere and in West Europe, I feel that many of the people from said countries would not consider Singaporeans “Native English Speakers”.
Which is pure snobbery, in my opinion. I guess they see themselves as the gatekeepers of who can or cannot be a native English speaker.
I have been to Singapore several times, and in the early part of my career, I was even seconded there.
While it’s true that there are many Singaporeans who grew up in a Chinese-speaking (or Malay-speaking, Tamil-speaking) household and might not have reached the level one would expect from a native English speaker, I also came across many Singaporeans (admittedly, I only worked with Chinese Singaporeans during my time there), the young ones, especially, who could only speak English.
Sure, they’re ethnically Chinese, but their Chinese is…. below even the rudimentary level. Like, if you ask them something very simple and basic like “Can you state the four cardinal directions in Mandarin?”… they can’t.
If they can’t even do something as simple and basic as that in Chinese, and their main language, the one they’ve been using since birth, is English – then how are they not native English speakers?
If you don’t consider them native English speakers – then the question becomes: So, what is their native language?
They can’t, or, to be generous, barely, speak or read Chinese. The only language they know is English.
Shouldn’t that, by definition, make them native English speakers?
Or is it really possible for someone to not be a native speaker of any language?
I would definitely consider this demographic of Singaporeans native English speakers, but, you know, I’m not one of the “gatekeepers” mentioned above, so my opinion might count for nothing.
Taking my morning shower, I felt a twinge of stomach pain. “Man, I’m really hungry!” I thought. “I’ve got to hurry up this shower and get some breakfast.”
Then I started to feel a little light-headed. I put my hand out and braced myself against the shower wall. I felt even more faint. “I could pass out and fall in here,” I thought. “I’d better get out.”
So I did, and as I was toweling off, I started to feel nauseated. I went to the toilet and threw up—blood! Holy shit! I called to my wife, “I’m vomiting blood.” She came and took a look; “You sure are!” It wasn’t a whole lot, about 30 ml of bright red blood and mucus, but it was scary as hell. I was hoping it was only an ulcer or something, but I couldn’t help thinking cancer, especially since a friend of mine had recently died of stomach cancer. It was mid-January and my daughter’s wedding was coming up in April. “I’m not going to make it to Nicole’s wedding,” I said to my wife.
The nausea passed. I finished drying off, laid down in bed, and fell asleep for 2 hours. When I woke up, I threw up more blood.
It turned out that it was in fact cancer. I had a rare type called GIST—gastrointestinal stromal tumor. There was a tumor in my upper stomach exactly the size of a billiard ball. But I’m writing this 7 years later. I lost very little stomach to the surgeon—only an area a little larger than a (U.S.) silver dollar—and I was eating at a fine Italian restaurant in Houston five days after the surgery, everything from red wine to tiramisu. I danced with my daughter at her wedding and I’m a grandfather now. I’ve been fine and very healthy since that surgery. Scared the hell out of me in 2010, though.
I hope never to have another bathroom experience as bad as that one.
Baby Poo
Huawei and Meituan announce collaboration to develop HarmonyOS ecosystem
Huawei and Meituan announced a comprehensive partnership to innovate industries, apply technologies, and develop businesses using HarmonyOS. Huawei will fully back Meituan in launching the development of native applications for HarmonyOS.
The announcement comes on the heels of Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next is expected to ditch Android app support as early as 2024. Several of Huawei’s self-developed OS concept stocks rocketed and hit the daily limit after the news was released, according to ChinaDaily.
Huawei partners with Meituan for HarmonyOS ecosystem
Meituan is a Chinese tech giant that offers a wide range of services, including food delivery, online grocery shopping, and ride-hailing. It is one of the most popular apps in China, with over 600 million active users.
Huawei’s confidence in its alternative ecosystem strategy on the mainland received a boost in late August when the company launched its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, its first 5G handset since the Mate 40 series was released in October 2020.
The Mate 60 Pro was met with strong public support, and Huawei became mainland China’s fastest-growing smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2023.
Recently, multiple job applications in China have announced the launch of HarmonyOS app development. For example, 同程旅行_旅游_旅游线路_旅行_出国旅游_自驾游_周边游_旅游网站 (formerly known as Tongcheng) announced the launch of HarmonyOS native version App development, with plans to complete core version development by the end of 2023.
In addition, a number of internet giants, including Meituan, have listed several job openings related to HarmonyOS. For instance, Meituan publicized a variety of HarmonyOS-centric roles, such as Senior HarmonyOS Engineer and HarmonyOS Infrastructure Engineer.
According to data, as of August 2023, the HarmonyOS ecosystem boasted over 700 million devices and was supported by more than 2.2 million developers actively contributing to its development. By October 30th, the number of devices upgraded to HarmonyOS 4 had surpassed the hundred million mark.
The connection between “body count” and “cheating while married to a man”
They are still slowly trying to clean it up. The areas that were too dangerous are called Red Zones. Restrictions within the Zone Rouge still exist today. After the war, the French government declared a 460-square-mile area unfit for human habitation or development. It stretches roughly from Nancy through Verdun and onto Lille, with various non-contiguous zones so riddled with unexploded shells (many of them gas shells), grenades, ammunition, and human and animal remains that it was simply too dangerous to enter.
In the 1920s and ’30s, the government oversaw the planting of 36 million trees, mostly pine and spruce, in part of the Zone Rouge. This the Verdun forest.
The Department du Deminage, was created after the war. Over the decades, it has helped to reduce the extent of the Zone Rouge, destroying hundreds of thousands of munitions and chemical shells, and has returned some land to civilian and agricultural use. They calculate that they have 300 years work ahead of them before they have cleared the whole battlefield. French farmers collect a huge amount of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, and bullets every year. It is called the “Iron Harvest.”
Some areas remain entirely off-limits, the soil so full of arsenic that 99 percent of all plants die. There is still the ever-present threat of unexploded shells. There are many ghost villages that were left abandoned after the war, deemed beyond repair. The bodies of roughly 80,000 soldiers whose bodies were never recovered are still there. The bomb depressions are still there.
I mean, that’s the simple, and charitable, way to put it.
The more complex answer is…less charitable.
Most people don’t have moral principles. They have a general set of guidelines they absorb from the society around them without really questioning too much. These guidelines are tribal in nature, and as often as not are more about marking in-groups and out-groups than about a coherent, consistent set of morals.
A great many people want to think of themselves as “good,” but aren’t particularly interested in thinking a lot about it, and particularly aren’t interested in sacrificing comfort or lifestyle for it.
And given that what passes for morality in many folks is actually a set of tribal signifiers, they most definitely aren’t willing to give up social standing for it.
In fact, I’ll wager you that more than a few people who truly consider themselves moral, scrupulous people willing to give up money for morals, will still toss their values aside the moment they involve loss of social standing.
We are social creatures. We need the support and approval of the people around us to survive. Not just in the sense of an income stream to keep ourselves fed and a roof overhead, but in the sense of a social group—without that, we suffer.
So yeah, confronted with social censure for not adopting the opinion of the people around them, most folks absolutely will surrender their values. Confronted with losing money for not adopting the opinion of the people around them, most folks absolutely will surrender their values. If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good you’re one social smear campaign or a few hungry days away from letting go of what you imagine to be your most cherished moral principles.
Originally Answered: What is the best case of “you just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?
Ooh yes this brings back the memories from the early 1980s.
A bunch of us went to the next town for a few drinks and a laugh. I seem to recall one of the lads (not me) was getting married so for reasons that won’t become apparent we trooped off to a bigger town 10 miles away instead of our own little town.
We walked into a quiet little pub, grabbed some drinks and sat down on a round table which perfectly suited our group of seven.
The pub was totally empty apart from us and the barman. It was very early in the evening.
A group of three guys walked in and one of them looked very angry. Big and mean he was too. They walked straight over to us and the angry guy looked directly at me.
Angry – You! You’re a big cunt. Let’s have a fight now. Outside!
Me – No thanks mate. We’re here on a lads’ night out and don’t want any aggro.
The lads – Nah come on mate. We just want a drink. Blah blah blah.
Angry – Come on you cunt. Let’s fucking fight now.
By now he’d walked around to my side of the round table. He was a big and very tough-looking guy and I really didn’t want a punch in the mouth off him. I was probably the biggest in our group at 1.90 metres and 110 kg but even so, I didn’t want to fight this big lummox.
Me – Listen mate…
Angry punched me in the side of the face so hard I thought my head had come off. Blood spurted out but no teeth. It hurt a lot and I just held my face thinking “what the hell do I do now?”
I didn’t have to do anything. Andy, who is a very slender and weedy and very sweet young friend of mine stood up.
Andy – No-one hits my mate. Big mistake.
Angry – Oh yeah. What you going to do about it you strip of piss?
Andy sent him sprawling across the next table with one perfect punch to the face. Angry got up and together with his two mates left the pub without another word being said.
The barman walked over and spoke to Andy.
Barman – Wow. That guy you just floored is the hardest guy in town!
Me – Not any more he isn’t. Cheers Andy.
My face hurt for ages but thankfully no serious damage. Andy was our new top mate of the group.
I was offered a $500/month truck allowance, by my employer, to use my own vehicle on service calls. I bought a used truck, for that purpose. I had to carry a $1 million liability insurance policy, due to some customer’s requirements, in order to drive on their property, too. Then, he changed the number to $250. I told him that wasn’t what he had originally told me. That Friday, he gave me a note, as I left to do service calls, and said to think about it. All it had on it was “$350”. Monday morning, I showed up early, and loaded EVERYTHING that belonged to me into my truck. When he showed up, I gave him my building keys. He wanted to know what was going on, and I said “I’m gone.” When he asked if that was how I negotiated, my reply was “I don’t negotiate with liars.”
I sent postcards to the customers I did work for, telling that I was no longer with that company, but was available to keep their equipment running. I was the ONLY one at that company who knew how the stuff worked, and all the repair business went to me. The company had to down-size, and then sold out to a competitor, so my old boss went from owning his own business, to being just another employee.
Too late! The U.S. allows South Korea to produce chips in China, and China is not doing it!
Too late for South Korea, the China ship has sailed.
On a regular basis? Taking a giant gas guzzling car and lifting it to make it even less fuel efficient.
The trucks you see here in America are so obnoxiously big and with callous disregard for global warming. It’s crazy when you drive around here in Florida: 70% or more of the cars are SUVs or Trucks. Literally, 70% or more.
It’s definitely a cultural thing but I wish it would go away. The guys in these lifted trucks are almost always the hyper aggressive drivers the push up behind you and lay on the horn and then flick you off as they go by.
But then, a few minutes later, I’ll see one of them pulled over by a cop. That’s always the most gratifying feeling.
US Supreme Court Tackles Game-Changing Social Media Censorship Case!
Well that’s exactly the thing. The point of attacking the harbor was so they could take on America. There are two reasons that Japan carried out the attack.
The Paper tiger
The Japanese referred to America as a “paper tiger.” What they meant by this was that their military was all bark and no bite, and if the fleet was destroyed there was no way America could come back. What the Japanese underestimated was America’s production capabilities. America was at the time of 1941 one of the largest and most efficient producers of the world, and while FDR was of the intention to stay out of the war, the factories of the United States were churning out tanks, rifles, planes, and ammo to the Soviets fighting the Wehrmacht in the Europe, and Britain fighting the blitz, the Italians and Germans in North Africa, and the Japanese in Burma, China, and Australia. US Shipyards were just as impressive, with destroyers and merchant marine ships built by the hundreds, sold to Britain to protect against the u boats tearing up the Atlantic trade. Japan made the mistake of underestimating the capabilities of US industry. When the US declared war on Japan in retaliation, production went towards building their own military, including the navy. The US navy numbered in the thousands, from the dozens of capital ships to the hundreds of destroyers and submarines, and all of the auxiliary ships and escorts included. In addition, right after the attack the navy raised most of the sunken ships in the harbor. Of the eight battleships we lost, five were raised and went back into the fight, one of them sunk on refloating, and only two of them remain there, USS Arizona and USS Utah. Pearl Harbor remains one of the greatest tragedies in US history, but because of America’s industrial might, it was not the end.
2. The target
From a tactical perspective, another reason for Japan’s attack was what they believed they would destroy and how it would impact the fleet. The Japanese’ main target was not the many battleships and destroyers that were stationed in Pearl Harbor, not the oil tanks, command, or airfields- These were very significant, and their destruction was all devastating to our efforts in getting in the fight, but the most important targets were but one part of the navy:
The US Carriers
It is often said by historians that Pearl Harbor was the end of the days of mighty battleships and battlecruisers and the dawn of the carrier. The six Japanese carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Zuikaku, and Shokaku, were the most important part of the Japanese fleet, and carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese knew that the US would only have a chance against the Japanese carriers with the carriers of their own. Therefore, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor believing that the US carriers were there. Fortunately for the US, and the Allies as a whole, the carriers were at sea, safe from the carnage. As a matter of fact, the battleship USS Utah was painted to look like a carrier from the sky, to train US dive bombers, and because of this saw some of the heaviest bombardment of all of the ships, being one of the ships unable to be raised from the bottom. The assessment that the US carriers were essential to the US staying in the fight proved correct. The US launched the Doolittle raid the following year, striking Tokyo for the first of many times in the war from the carrier USS Hornet. The Shoho was destroyed in the following battle of Coral Sea at the cost of the carrier Lexington, but where we really see the tide turn in the Pacific is Midway. The carriers USS Hornet, USS Enterprise, and USS Yorktown crippled the Japanese fleet by destroying Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu. This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the stroke of luck we had with our carriers out at sea when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor.
Admiral Yamamoto, the brilliant Japanese commander who was behind the attack, which I should say despite its failure to knock out America was still a well planned and impressive attack, astutely believed that a drawn out war with the United States would end in defeat, and despite his best efforts to prevent a drawn out war, he was correct. In the film portrayal of Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! He is quoted for saying:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve.”
Yamamoto was killed in April of 1943, and with the carrier might have Japan gone as well, the rising sun was doomed to set.
Men are GIVING UP on Women and their hypergamy
There is such a serious problem with RELATIONSHIPS in the West.
Her department acquired a new department head, a newly promoted V.P.
One of his first actions was to identify all of the highest paid (and most productive) managers and terminate them as a cost cutting measure. At that point managers at my wife’s level were considered “at will” employees and, as such, could be terminated at any time with or without cause.
In any case, the V.P. then proceeded to fill the vacant management positions with much lower paid and less qualified staff. All of this happened within a matter of hours on a Friday afternoon. My wife was understandably quite distressed when she got home that evening.
Over the weekend, though, my wife received a call from the executive V.P. who oversaw her department. He called from his home in Southern France late in the evening so he could speak to my wife in the mid afternoon here in SoCal. He asked her to please report to work as usual on Monday morning.
When she got to work on Monday everything was back to normal and the new department head was gone. Fired for incompetence.
My wife stayed with the company more than a dozen years after that. She was eventually terminated permanently after her department had been sold to a different company. This time, though, she received a rather generous golden handshake — 32 weeks severance pay — as she left for the last time.
This is why men are no longer approaching women; Top 10 reasons WHY
I never experienced unconditional love until I got a dog.
Very likely. Their recent MOU to develop semiconductor lithography, naval shipbuilding, marine nuclear reactors are just another episode in that relationship. The glue that binds them is energy and technology. China needs energy and Russia needs technology. Trade between both countries are growing exponentially, currently at about 40% per year. Russia recently announced it would allow China to build a container port in Vladivostok, another indication China is preparing to use the Arctic belt road via northern Russia.
My opinion: There could be a day when Russia buys warships from China. It has already begun with Russia buying a Chinese frigate. It could also be possible that Russia and China will jointly develop gen 6 and gen 7 fighters and bombers, reducing non-recurring costs. Russia needs ‘China speed.’ China needs Russia’s energy from oil/gas to uranium. It is also likely that Russia and China will standardize military calibers and weapons between them so interchangeability and user knowledge will be compatible between both countries. The SCO makes the case for this standardization to increase to SCO members.
Both are BRICS and SCO members and both organizations are growing which gives them more world influence.
It wasn’t exactly on accident. I worked in the office of a commercial laundry business and they asked me to come in on a Saturday to mail out the monthly bills. During the time I was there the assistant manager came in and started hitting on me. He kept urging me to “go in the back and make out”. I refused and soon one of the drivers came in and he had to go talk to the driver. I finished up with the bills and went home. I told my boyfriend “Well, I don’t think I will be working there very ling”. Sure enough the next Tuesday I was let go for some “bookkeeping errors” that weren’t errors and I had been doing them for months without any problems.
What men and women want
Creole Meatloaf and Macaroni
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 onion, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 1/4 cups elbow or broken macaroni
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 to 1 1/2 cups meat loaf, cubed*
Seasoned salt and pepper
Instructions
Cook onion and green bell pepper in butter for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add next four ingredients and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and simmer, covered, about 1/2 hour, stirring frequently.
Add meat loaf and seasoned salt and pepper to taste. Heat through.
Notes
* Use leftover meat loaf.
What will these snowflakes do when things get REALLY tough? We haven’t even started yet.
For a serf: It sure beats being a slave. You are treated as a human being, you have your law-encoded rights and responsibilities, your taxes usually were reasonable and your lord had the responsibility to protect you and provide a free access to the castle. He also had the responsibility to provide you work and livelihood, and if he abused you, you had the legal right to flee to a town.
For a freeman (franklin or yeoman): You had the right to your life, body and livelihood, you could freely carry weapons outside a town, you did not pay rent to a lord and you could choose your profession. And should things go sour, you could freely move to a town.
For a town dweller: Towns were semi-independent domains who often were subordinate to the king alone, and while working can give you living, trade will make you wealthy. Townspeople usually were richer than countrypeople, and towns were bastions of freedom.
For a clergyman: You are the subject of the Mother Church and Father Pope alone, and nobody else. You are no more a subject of the lord, the king or the emperor. You will learn how to read and write, and you are free to pursuit your intellectual tendencies. If you join the Cistercian order, there are good chances you become a great engineer.
For a civil servant: You are the subject of the King alone, and nobody else. Same as with the church on intellectual pursuits, but you also may marry and have kids.
For a nobleman: You are first and foremost a soldier. You practice martial arts and train for war, military skills, leadership skills, equestrian skills and anything needed to serve in arms. You are exempt of taxes because upkeeping a military lifestyle is expensive. Your life is likely to be violent, nasty, brutish and mercifully short, but you might become a knight and a lord one day if you avoid that.
For a lord: You are a semi-independent ruler of your domain, and you are the lord and the hidalgo. You owe allegiance to the King alone, and you either pay it in taxes or serve 30 days in his service. Your main profession is to be the supervisor of the peasants who work on your estate, and maintain the balance between overworking them and providing them decent livelihood. Sorry, no ius primae noctis – that is an Age of Enlightment myth.
For a King: Think positively. You do not have the same absolute power as the sultans and czars in despotism, but neither you will face the same chances of getting assassinated or ousted or mutilated as they experience, and you do not need to kill your little brothers to ensure the throne. It is a good idea to run the country as a family enterprise – give important tasks to your younger siblings – and use the most talented of the lords as civil servants. Just maintain the balance between Church, Lords and Commoners, and you will do just fine.
If you are asking me personally, what is my biggest regret, I would have to say that I regret not taking more pictures of things I did when I was younger, and not documenting the adventures I had.
I find that after 50+ years on this earth, I remember bits and pieces of my life, but there are big chunks of my life that I cannot recall, so having more pictures of those events and having a documented record of those activities would be something that would truly bring me joy, being able to remember more of the life I lived.
My international company failed to have routine office supplies at our US location. Entirely. No office supplies.
So one day I needed a new pen. There were, of course, none. But rather than going out and buying my own at a local store, I decided to order one just to be ornery.
So I filled out the formal requisition form for one pen. I justified it (I wrote stuff and my old pen was empty), then used the proper channels to submit the requisition. The form:
Traveled from my California office to the main US branch office in Boston.
Boston routed the form to their home branch office in London.
London sent the form to the main International headquarters in Paris.
Paris approved the req. then…
Cut out one layer of bureaucracy by sending the approved form direct to Boston (the Paris and London offices hated each other)
Boston sent the approved req. back to my office.
I was then able to go out and buy one pen at corporate expense from the local store.
I was tempted to ask for a sheet of paper next, but Boston eventually decided to fund a small office supply in our location.
Oh. The Internet was around, but I should add that the original requisition form was hard copy. A piece of paper. That form physically travelled from California to Boston to London to Paris back to Boston then back to my office before I bought my pen.
This is what the Nile looks like when it goes through Sudan
This is The Sudd. It’s Arabic for “barrier”. It’s also part of the Nile. It’s also much bigger than what you see here. It’s not much better even when it floods. Imagine you’re an explorer in, well, any time really and you come across this. The Ancient Egyptians tried to navigate past it for centuries. They utterly failed. Then the Romans decided to have a go at it. They failed too. Europeans tried in the 19th century. They had no better luck.
And where there’s swamp, there’s malaria. Good luck with that.
Europeans only found the source because they decided to avoid it entirely and attack it from the other direction, exploring into Central Africa. That’s not much easier.
Richard Burton decided to make a go of it. He started in lovely civilized Zanzibar and worked his way overland until he found Lake Tanganyika. “Eureka” he exclaimed, “I have found the source of the Nile”.
However, the guy he brought along with him, John Speke, told him he was nuts. Tanganyika was too low and too small to account for the fact that the Nile never ran dry. Burton told him was an idiot and they returned to England triumph…. no, wait, the scientific community wasn’t convinced.
So Speke got to go on his own expedition. He turned north instead and found the much larger and much bigger Lake Victoria.
He returned to England well, not triumphant, but with enough good data to get funding for another expedition to try to make it to the Sudd and not only did he do that, he found another source of the river that met up in the Sudd, what we now call the “White Nile” as opposed to the larger source flowing out of Lake Victoria, the “Blue Nile”.
So, Speke gets the credit, literally for “connecting the dots”.
Image: Me sitting on my porch at my home in the Central Valley of California.
Well as a disabled person, I am legally blind the cruelest thing, in my opinion, was not said with words.
Deeds speak out loud and clear.
I took a class on a subject of interest to me.
The teacher with a happy smile in her voice told me she had a special place in class for people like me.
It was the back corner, furthest away from all of the others in the class.
Total isolation. I could hear the other members of the class, I could see the shadows o of the other members of the class.
When the class had a pot luck of snacks at the last week of class, somehow I didn’t get the e-mail to ask me to take in something. So I didn’t.
Then no-one actually told me directly that there were snacks available nor did they come over and tell me about the pot-uck offerings.
Though they did make quite a bit of a racket, going back and too to the snacks tables and telling each other who had brought which items.
Another classmate came to the class in about the second week and was sat close by in the same corner. She only attended one week and disappeared. She was profoundly deaf. We could chat okay as she could lip read. But as for interacting with the class it was difficult.
Me being bloody minded as I am, finished the class. I paid good money so I wasn’t going to surrender to unspoken insults.
Biden Angry, Calls Xi ‘Dictator’, US Business Applauds Xi; US Isolated UN SC; Sullivan Sleepless
Very good, and clearly explains the Geo-political situation today.
I was fired on the day I was going to hand in my resignation.
I hated the company: boss played favorites, personnel feedback was nonexistent, and they were very stingy with vacation time, even if you earned the days.
The third point I found out too late. After earning 10 days of personal time, I requested for time off six months ahead. Not only was it declined, I also got a stern talking-to by the same boss who played favorites.
I was so pissed off that I started looking for a job that very same night.
Within two weeks, I got an offer from a company I interviewed the previous year who kept my résumé in the active bin.
I moved my vacation date to the next month, upped the number of days, and got a business class ticket. I printed a resignation letter once I signed the offer at the new job.
The next day, I cared not an iota at work. I was just waiting for 5:00 so that I can hand in my two weeks.
4:30pm came and I got an email from the boss. I was being let go. They didn’t really say why (not that I cared) but they were going to give me a full month’s pay to help me find a new job.
i cleared out my desk, gave a quick thanks to my boss (co-workers have left at this point), and screamed when I got to my car.
I got the final pay the week after, then collected unemployment for a few weeks, and had a bloody fantastic time on vacation.
Growing up in Florida, we used to play at the beach almost every day. At least once or twice a week, we’d be building sandcastles, or kicking the surf when we’d watch a tourist with wide eyes knowing what’s to come…
I’m an empath, and often tried to warn them. As a pudgy six year old however; I wasn’t usually fast enough. By the time I’d be close enough to yell “don’t touch that!!”, the elderly tourist or drunk college kid was already screaming in agonizing pain! The Portuguese man o’ war looks like a shiny blue balloon, or plastic grocery bag. The venom is insanely painful. I watched about a dozen people pee on each other by the time I was 8.
Pretending you are not hungry when going to an expensive restaurant with friends, because you can’t actually afford to order food there.
Acting like you don’t like after-school sports, because you have to bolt to your after-school job, so you have lunch money and bus fares.
Pretending that family commitments prevent you from going on the school trip. You know there’s no way you can pay for it.
Declining invitations to weddings because you don’t have proper clothes to wear and because you have no way of getting there either.
Spending an extra hour in the supermarket so you can make the best choices with the $28 you have for food for a full week.
Listening with horror as co-workers trash the boss who only gave each a $20 gift Visa card. You, on the other hand, are silent and also excited beyond words – you plan to get much needed shoes, a winter coat, and a backpack at the Goodwill store.
Having teeth pulled, which should instead be filled and capped, because it costs one-tenth this way.
Talking to supervisors in chain food stores to find out what they do with damaged food. (Poor people know these stores often have a place where you can go to collect it.)
Adding water to the quart bottle of milk to stretch it.
Taking home unused sugar packets, tea bags and napkins from the fast food place and feeling grateful for them.
These are my memories of being poor. Although I am no longer poor, these memories keep me grateful, and, more importantly, I will always understand the behavior of those whose actions are continually checked by empty pockets.
After Denmark surrendered to the Nazis in April 1940 the status of Iceland was ambiguous. Although Iceland was an independent state, it’s ‘personal union’ with Demark, and dependence on Denmark for its defence and foreign relations, potentially meant it could be occupied by Germany. Its strategic location astride Britain’s Atlantic supply route to the United States made it vital to the United Kingdom’s security.
Britain invited Iceland to join the war as any and, when they rejected this, plans were made to occupy the island. Four Royal Navy ships led by HMS Berwick (above) deposited 745 Royal Marines in Iceland who met no resistance from the Icelandic police force, who were the only permanent armed presence on the island.
Iceland was occupied first by a British Division, then by elements of two Canadian Divisions and then by a brigade of US Marines. The latter arrived in June 1941, a whole six months before the United States officially join the war. This was one of Roosevelt’s most partisan decisions and greatly helped the British war effort as the Canadians could be sent to Britain, where eventually they would take part in the Dieppe raid and the battle for Normandy. Roosevelt sent the Marines as, being part of the US Navy, they were under his direct control, whereas sending the US Army would have required the approval of Congress, which was uncertain. The occupation of Iceland was not always popular with the locals, but one benefit of it was the construction of Rejkjavik airport.
Although planes and ships based in Iceland saw action, the garrison itself saw no action. There were, however, casualties as a result of the Icelandic climate and terrain. A five man patrol of the Kings Own Yorkshire Infantry were lost to the elements, for example. Despite the cold though, there were definitely worse places to spend the Second World.
NOTE
A lot of people have asked why the US Army couldn’t be deployed before war broke out. The answer is complicated, but it’s due to a policy decision rather than an act of the Constitution. Here are the details:
“At the same time, the War Plans Division raised inquiry concerning the effect of the legal restrictions that prohibited the National Guard, members of the Reserve, and men drafted under the Selective Service Act from serving outside the Western Hemisphere and which limited their terms of military service to a period of twelve months. For purposes of naval defense the President had placed the Atlantic frontier of the western world, quite arbitrarily, along the 26th meridian, which excluded the whole of Iceland. [25] The question was one of policy, not geography; and if policy for the moment dictated a course of exclusion, circumstances at any future time might well prescribe a change in policy. Whatever concern was felt during these first days in June seems to have arisen over the time limit rather than the controversial geographical restriction. On this basis it was entirely rational for the Chief of Coast Artillery to observe that selectees would have to be used in constituting the harbor defense regiment proposed as part of the Iceland garrison. In any event the problems posed by the legal restrictions did not seem insuperable as long as the 1st Division was being considered for the nucleus of the force. Although 75 percent of the officers of that division had been drawn from the Reserve, it was presumed that most of them would volunteer for duty in Iceland. The problem, in this respect, was considered to be one of maintaining secrecy. As for enlisted men, only a “small percentage” of them were selectees, and only about 10 percent of the men of the two antiaircraft regiments-the 61st and 68th-were subject to the restrictions written into the Selective Service and National Defense Acts. “
We were once renting a house and saving money towards a down payment to buy, when the owner came and told us he had to sell and had already and we had to be out by the end of the week. We refused since our lease guaranteed us 30 days. The new owner said that lease was void and had our utilities turned off. So as a goodbye gift, we went to the store and bought some old fish and 10 cans of cat food. There was a fireplace in the basement built of brick and had come separated from the back wall. We dropped the fish behind that. The cans of cat food, we opened and placed in crawl spaces throughout both floors of the house.
Well, according to my ex girlfriend of 40 years ago, I am blind, because I didn’t notice that the hostess, had sat down next to me, leaned in close to talk in a loud room, laughed at my jokes (hey, I’m funny) and played with her hair.
My girlfriend said it was so obvious she was about to throw up. Guys are oblivious.
Steve Jobs sold all but one of his stocks in Apple when he left in 1985, when Apple stock was at an all time low. He founded NeXT and was the majority owner when Apple bought the company, though at that point he was almost out of money, on the brink of bankruptcy. He also bought Pixar and it has been rolling out blockbusters every other year for 20 years. He also invested in other companies. Toy Story alone made Steve Jobs a billionaire because Pixar was publicly traded company.
Woz on the other hand gave away a lot of his stock. He financed more than a few huge rock concerts that lost a lot of money. He started a company making remote controls that failed and lost money. He got divorced more than a few times. He helps old Apple employees that are out of luck and deal with sickness. He gives away a lot of his money. But you don’t need to worry about him, he still has a lot and he is according to everyone who actually knows him, a super nice guy. He was never in it to have money, he just wanted a computer that he could fiddle with.
China Warns US “Don’t Try THIS” As Biden Prepares To Hug Xi
Just develop the smart bombs to change the equation from MAD to MGD – i.e., from the “old-fashion-not-so-accurate assured” to the “IoT-satellite-guided guaranteed” way of mass destructure.
These are the AI-enabled hypersonic bombs that cannot be defended against and only a few hundred launched from a control center are needed to completely annihilate the entire country the size of Russia, China or the U.S. Then the 5,000-plus warheads in the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the U.S. would become redundant and useless.
Even the triad security concept of land, air and sea delivery system becomes redundant. No need for those expensive bombers and subsmarines to deliver nuclear warheads as backup when those smart ICBMs can do the job.
The calculus for disarmament becomes very straightforward and simple.
War can be so simple when you know its guaranteed and forever.
And isn’t it why Biden is trying to deny China our advanced chips?
We were in a beautiful relationship for about 3 years. And then suddenly she over texts, broke up with me. No explanation given. Like every other guy, I cried, pleaded for just one reason, and all she said was it’s over, I don’t want to be with you. She has changed her college a month before the break up. And like I suspected she fell out of love with me because there is new guy who approached her. Quite similar to everyone’s love story. Lol
Anyway, I was literally shattered, and broken. I couldn’t believe the girl I thought to be my future left me in such a dire condition.
It’s been three years since she is gone. Yesterday, I got a phone call from her at 2am. Basic points from the calls were:
She was unhappy, crying profusely over the phone. She said she don’t have anyone to trust and talk to, except me. And yes, I talked to her because pretty much I loved her too much.
She said the guy cheated her, and when asked him for a breakup, he said he will going to kill her, he abused and hit her off. And she thought everybody will leave silently like me.
I asked her to do a police complain, she said, she doesn’t want her parents to know, she is stucked.
After few minutes on call, she was laughing, talking to me as if we were never separated, I was wondering how easy the things are for girls.
Then she told me even before her father and brother, I am the person she trust and respect the most. I was flattered but I knew, it’s no more important.
I was again at ground zero, I felt happy talking to her, but the wounds were yet fresh.
I tried not to make her feel bad and bid her bye.
Today I Changed my phone number, and email id!
I do love her a lot, still? Yes. But I cannot give her the power to destroy me again.
One day, I had a woman come into my checkout line and wanted to buy ALL the $1.00 Bic cigarette lighters at the checkout stand.
Between the two sets of lighters, she was purchasing about 35–40 lighters.
I was then ringing up all the rest of the completely full shopping cart of stuff she got in line with. At the end, she then handed me a bunch of coupons.
I was already on guard because buying so many lighters was very unusual. I looked at the coupons and there was a whole stack of them that were for $4.00 off of a $6.00 Lady’s Bic shaver.
She never purchased any shavers, and I told her these coupons could not be used, as she did not have the item.
She said they were for the lighters. I told her, “No, this is for 4 dollars off the shaver, not the lighters.”
She insisted that it would accept, and scan for, the lighters, too. I agreed. I told her I knew it would, but it was because of an error in the coupon codes, and it was not deliberate. We had been made aware of the error and did not accept it. She persisted in telling me that if it scanned, we had to accept it.
“No, Ma’am,” I said. “The coupon has to be for the item the coupon is for, not something else.”
What she was attempting to do was get 4 dollars off a 1 dollar item, giving her a negative 3 dollar balance with every lighter purchased. With about 40 lighters, that would leave her total at -120.00 dollars, which then got balanced out with all the rest of the items in her cart. Had I not paid attention to the actual coupons and just blindly started scanning them, not only would she gotten 40 dollars’ worth of lighters free, she would have gotten over 120 dollars’ worth of other merchandise completely free without paying a single cent.
I told her that what she was attempting was theft. She got irate and claimed it was not theft because she was not trying to take the items out without purchasing them. I told her that was exactly what she was doing by running what she knew to be a scam.
She then did not want to buy any of it, and wanted me to void off all the items.
That is when I got rather devilish myself. I told her quietly that no, she was going to buy everything rung up, as-is, without the scam, or that I would be calling the police for her to be charged with theft of well over 180 dollars’ worth of merchandise.
Either she got charged with theft, or bought what she wanted to buy at the correct total. But, it was not getting voided.
She bought it all.
I never saw her in the store again. Before that, she had been a semi-regular customer, always holding up the checkout as she constantly scammed coupons for far more than what the coupons were supposed to allow.
can’t do the 15th,” John said. “Can we push it back two weeks?” I looked at my calendar, trying to align the dates with our friend Derrick. Then, after finding a great window, John came back with another complication. I rubbed my temples in frustration.
I’m 40 and most of my friends are married and buried in toddlers. They also live in other cities. I try to arrange a trip each year, but coordinating it feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Beyond the scheduling conflicts, I’m in competition for their PTO with grandparents and extended family.
As a kid, it was all so simple. The only prerequisite for new friends was the spirit of play. If the other person was down, and nice, they became friends. In college, it was all about who I partied with and saw the most frequently. Everyone was so social. Then, this blur of obligations pulled us all apart.
As social primates, friendships are central to our health and happiness. Yet so many of us are painfully lonely and it isn’t entirely our fault. Since the 1950s, sociologist have asserted that modern life makes it difficult to meet the three conditions for close friendships: proximity, repeated and unplanned interactions, and an environment that encourages people to confide in each other.
Which is why it feels so forced to be planning hangout trips months in advance. It feels like I’m scrambling to keep legacy friendships on life support. I can scarcely plan to meet for dinner with people without complications.
In school and college, it was so easy because there was endless time for socializing, and we were all on top of each other in dorms and classrooms. And, we didn’t have real bills and adult problems. So how can we make more friends as adults?
Converting new friends
Per one study, it takes 40–60 hours within the first six weeks of meeting someone to turn them from an acquaintance into a casual friend. It takes another 80 to 100 hours to elevate them to true friend status. Which feels like a ton of time as a career driven person. But these connections can be built up over longer stretches.
The obvious answer for me was work, back when I had an office job. But the people at my office weren’t necessarily the people I wanted to spend my time with. Sometimes, we just have to work with what is in front of us. It can even boost competency. Researchers found that doctor coworkers who became friends, performed better at their job. A personal connection and trust can boost performance in team environments.
In March of 2020, four teens were stuck on a boat in Cuba. They’d intended to fly back to the Netherlands. Then the pandemic struck and they decided to sail home. The intensity of spending weeks on the boat together, working to navigate as a team, turned them all from strangers into close friends. One friend said, “Being around someone 24 hours a day, you tell them everything. You don’t do that when you are home.”
My friend, who went to prison in his early 20s after being caught up with a bad crowd, said the same thing happened during his five year stint. Today, he is doing fine and in his late 40s, but is still friends with his former cellmates.
The challenge is that we apply more filtering mechanisms with age. We often filter people out by political views, social class, and do so without realizing it. It’s useful to be attuned to what you want in a friend, but beware of letting this turn into snobbish gatekeeping.
Getting a grip on potential friends
One study used Christmas cards in Western society to approximate social networks and estimated each of us have around 121 acquaintances. Other studies have found wide variances from this number. But it is exceedingly rare for anyone to have zero acquaintances.
These acquaintances are potential friends and not to be dismissed. Weak ties, as sociologists call it, are still great for mental wellbeing even if it is just a brief conversation. Today, I found out my beloved gym of seven years is closing. The owner, Joe, let me in for a final workout, even though the lights were off and they were cleaning up. We found time to chat about life and his decision to quit. I’ve always enjoyed talking to him so we exchanged phone numbers to potentially hang out. The other option is to reconnect with older friends you haven’t spoken to in years.
Accept that rekindling friendships is just more work in adulthood. Remember when your buddy got their first girlfriend or boyfriend and stopped hanging out? That’s everyone now. If you have a partner, it’s worth thinking through which potential friend has a partner who would vibe with them.
Also, practicing “self-disclosure”, or opening up about your life, is proven to boost connections with people. One study found three great insights about disclosing. One, people who give more intimate disclosures tend to be more liked than those who don’t. Two, people disclose more to those they like. And three, people like you more after you disclose. This comes with a caveat: don’t make it too personal, too soon. Avoid mud slinging from your divorce and giving play-by-plays from the bedroom.
The importance of maximizing time
My buddy has two kids and said he has one hour of total free time each weekday, and that when he finally gets that hour, he is desperate to decompress and have some time alone. Yet he also wishes we hung out more. This is a common theme around the country. People are lonely and crave more connection. Operate with this assumption, rather than starting from the assumption of someone judging or not liking you.
Remember to think about the places you frequent, and the potential friends you could make and maintain through those interactions. List out a few acquaintances and consider upgrading them. The key with any of these people is to also do things outside the place you regularly see them.
If you don’t see people on a regular basis, consider joining a club or taking up a hobby that involves other people. Then, get to work. Initiating doesn’t have to be heavy. Just something as simple as, “We should hang out some time.”
Lastly, be real and have conversations. Don’t spend 45 minutes talking about the weather. Vulnerability has a mutually boosting likability effect. You’ll both be happier in the end.
Don’t say “I am here if you need anything” when being more specific will truly help. “I am coming over tomorrow to drop off some soup” is way better.
Don’t glance over someone’s shoulder when they are in the middle of a story that matters to them.
Don’t look at your phone at all when you are spending time with someone.
On a plane if your seat is tight don’t recline it. Also, let the person squeezed in the middle seat use both arm rests.
Be extra nice if someone is serving you: giving you a manicure, bringing you food, preparing you a drink. Also please don’t hit on them. They are not charmed. They are serving you.
If anyone says “you hurt my feelings” the only correct response is “I am listening.” Not “I didn’t intend that” or “I was joking” or “wow you are sensitive.”
If you can make someone’s day a bit smoother, please do.
People want to feel heard more than they want advice.
People want to feel seen more than they want to be fixed.
People want to be sincerely complimented more than they want constructive criticism.
Say thank you a lot. Say it all the time. Add why you are saying it. “You always get my coffee just right. Thank you.” “You make my day sunnier. Thank you.” Thank you for reading, sharing and commenting on what I write. It encourages me. It makes my day.
American Couple React “America Compared: Why Other Countries Treat Their People So Much Better”
It looks a little like this, only in a old claw-foot bathtub…
Wikipedia says…
A bathtub Madonna (also known as a lawn shrine, Mary on the half shell, bathtub Mary, bathtub Virgin, and bathtub shrine) is an artificial grotto typically framing a Roman Catholic religious figure.
These shrines most often house a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary but sometimes hold the image of another Catholic saint or of Jesus. Infrequently, more than one figure is represented.
While often constructed by upending an old bathtub and burying one end, similar designs have been factory produced. These factory produced enclosures sometimes have decorative features that their recycled counterparts lack, such as fluting reminiscent of a scallop shell.
The grotto is sometimes embellished with brickwork or stonework, and framed with flowerbeds or other ornamental flora. The inside of the tub is frequently painted a light blue color, particularly if the statue is of Mary because of her association with this color. Over time, distinguishing characteristics of these shrines can become blurred. Instances occur of shrines whose statue is missing and conversely of grottoes being removed, leaving a statue in place.
One time, I was traveling with my little sister on a nine-hour flight. We were harassed by a drunk man in the middle row for the entire flight, which was incredibly uncomfortable. He kept staring at us, trying to touch us with his arms and legs, and getting up to stand next to our seats and stare and laugh, trying to get closer with his face.
There were still six hours left before we reached our destination. I spoke to the flight attendants and burst out crying because it was so uncomfortable. My little sister was also crying. The flight was full, so they couldn’t move us or him. The flight attendants tried to talk to him, but it was no use. He became weird and slightly aggressive.
There were still a few hours left to go. The flight attendants had a male flight attendant from business class come down to us and talk to us and comfort us. He stood behind our seats for the rest of the flight.
The other flight attendants were so sweet. They kept coming with snacks and sweets for us, and they even went to their private locker and gave us their own snacks and candies that they had brought. They wanted us to write down the whole incident so that the pilots could see it. The pilots then decided to call the police.
I worked in Theatre for many years. Out-of-work actors often earn stop-gap money waitering. Here are two neat reposts.
A famous (I’ll leave her anonymous) actress had been difficult in a high-end restaurant all evening. Nothing was good enough for her. Eventually the waiter handed her the dessert-menu. The actress barked angrily at the waiter: “What the hell is Banana cream pie?”
The waiter politely replied: “Which word, exactly, is causing you difficulties?”
Another actor/waiter pal had a difficult patron snapping her fingers at him and yelling: “Boy! Over here, boy!”
The waiter, ever so calmly said to her: “Madam, if you tell me where you lost your dog, I’ll gladly help you find him.”
Come up with a calm, elegant put down; it’s much more stylish than taking other people’s bad manners to heart and getting rattled. You also end up with some terrific anecdotes.
I bought a huge house backing onto a stream, and on the other side of the stream was a golf course. My next door neighbors were a famous professional hockey player, and a neurosurgeon on the other side.
It had a carpeted garage with built in oak cabinets.
It had a thousand square foot master suite, walkin closet, and ensuite. The Jacuzzi was surrounded by windows that actually opened, it was on the third floor.
I was having Christmas one year and a very competitive relative, who had a nice, but not awesome house, was asking for a tour of the house.
The windows around the Jacuzzi were open. He said, you can hear traffic with the windows open, I like my place better.
I would never dream of finding fault with someones house, especially when they asked for a tour. I was stunned. No mention of the grand entrance way, with the sweeping spiral staircase, that split in two directions. No mention of the mountain view from the 20 foot tall windows. No mention of the finished walk out basement that allowed you to play in the stream. Just criticism of the one tiny flaw he could find.
I being the polite person I was, just said, I have learned to live with it, when I have the third floor Jacuzzi windows open. He didn’t have a third floor, and the year before, he complained he couldn’t use his Jacuzzi, because the hot water tank wasn’t large enough to fill it. So I knew the working Jacuzzi bothered him.
You couldn’t hear the traffic on the bottom two floors, because of the houses and trees blocking it. You could only hear it, when the windows were open on the third floor, and just barely then, because the road was a km away.
Walked in, saw handiwork of someone’s halloween prank. Red liquid / Gel / Syrup / idk was everywhere. Walls, floor, stalls, sinks, ceiling… everywhere.
Executed a perfect 180, and ran into couple of guys carrying a skeleton (liberated from nearby classroom).
Year before that, had a few smoke bombs left over from 4th July, decided that student population of Library wing needed a bit of drama. Wrapped paper matches around fuses, lit matches, and calmly walked out and left building.
Nothing happened, no alarm, no mass exodus, etc. Being young and stupid, I revisited the scene od the crime. Opened door, walked around corner, and there were 3 teachers and resource officer standing by sinks / drowned smoke bombs. Executed a perfect 180 to leave, and was told to stop before could get out. School resource officer found the matches on me…
Was told was same matches that were used. I glanced at drowned non-incendiary devices and told him “Nope, these are white with red heads, those are all black”. Was asked why had them, replied “just had them by mistake after asked to change partners in Chemistry after lighting my Bunsen.”Mr Maeker, chem teacher, confirmed that I was asked to move, but did not disclose his class used *wood* matches.
The story of Joe Arridy comes to mind, marked by misfortune from the very start.
Born to parents who were related and faced with severe learning difficulties, having an IQ of just 46, Joe didn’t even start talking until he was five.
School was a bust; after just one year, the principal told his parents to keep him home.
His family life was rocked when his dad got laid off, and unable to cope, they sent Joe to a state institution. But that place offered no refuge, instead, Joe found himself the target of cruel bullying.
Life threw another horrific punch when, as a teenager, Joe was attacked by a group of boys. That awful incident got him sent back to the institution, where he’d already suffered so much.
At 21, Joe hit the road, riding the rails like many did during the tough times of the Great Depression. It was a rough existence, and sadly for Joe, it led to the most unjust chapter of his life.
Accused of a gruesome crime; the r*pe and murder of a young girl in Pueblo, Colorado. Joe’s fate was sealed by a confession that was disjointed and filled with inaccuracies.
No physical evidence linked Arridy to the crime scene. His conviction was based solely on the questionable confession and the loose testimony of witnesses and was only pardoned posthumously.
He went to death row but carried a strange kind of joy, one that stood out in the grimness of prison life. He was fond of a toy train, a symbol of his childlike innocence, which he spent most of his days playing and kindly gave it to a fellow prisoner right before he was executed.
On the day of his execution, Joe didn’t grasp the finality of what was happening. He left behind a bit of ice cream, which he requested for as a last meal, asking for it to be refridgerated for later, not realizing there was no coming back from where they were taking him.
The sobering story of Joe is a stark reminder of life’s unpredictable harshness and the importance of compassion and unwavering justice in our society.
And to also remind people who have it a little easier in life than others to be eternally grateful.
I worked at a nursing home as a physical therapist and one of my clients was a retired cable TV executive with end-stage Alzheimer’s. After he passed away, I went to his wife’s home to offer my condolences and as I was leaving, I saw an older Cadillac in a covered carport behind the home.
A 1975 baby blue Sedan de Ville with a white vinyl top and a 500 ci V8 under the hood. I was fascinated and asked the widow about the car. She said it was her late husbands and that he had purchased it brand new. But before he was able to enjoy the car he developed Alzheimer’s and was no longer able to drive.
I told her if she ever wanted to sell it to let me know and left.
She contacted me later when she was moving and said she would like me to have it since I worked with her husband at the end of his life. We settled on a price and I bought the car with 24,000 original miles on the odometer. As I was leaving, the wife handed me a box of brand-new original floormats that had never been opened.
After driving the car around for a few days, I discovered a constant “thumping” that would increase with speed. After taking the car to a mechanic, he explained to me that the tires were original from the factory and although there was plenty of tread left, the tires had developed flat-spots from sitting in the driveway for years.
I replaced the tires and the car now has about 60K. Rides like a Cadillac.
Biden neocon war drums beat louder
“As an American, I can tell you firsthand that folks are so unengaged in these events and their consequences. It appears that we believe we’re undefeatable. Our hubris will destroy us.”
China adopts a strategy that is not exactly the Socialist Price Fixing but more of a Price Control
And purely for foodstuffs
China has in place a market mechanism for prices to rise and fall, a sort of a farm futures index
China also engages in buying 44%-77% of all the grain produced and Pork Produced and all other Agriculture produced in China , minus a few products like Fruits or Pears Or Shrimp etc
They pay according to the market index
Then when and if prices rise higher, they release foodstuffs from their storage and increase supply and this automatically lower prices to acceptable levels
This is because China has a storage capacity of 33 months for Grain at a 3.28% wastage
This is astounding for a Country that in 2007 had a 11 month storage capacity with 18% wastage
Now this is technically against Economic Laws
However Adam Smiths Free Market didn’t include manipulations
In the West, Agro Futures and Prices are pretty much capitalist controlled and can surge and fall in a way controlled by cartels
It’s worse in Africa , far worse
And Pakistan, by God it’s atrocious
Surprisingly India has a good old fashioned system like the State Purchases and Mandis that keep prices controlled
So my belief is Government should practise staunch capitalism and free market as long as :-
The market is dictated by PURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY and not by Cartel players
Education & Food & Health & Transport are excluded from pure capitalism and treated as Public Services
To the best of my knowledge only 17 Nations practise the above including China & the GCC& Scandinavian Countries
It smells like mothballs, and the woman at the counter is at least 126 years old.
What’s this? An antique lamp. Looks old. I pick it up and wipe off the dirt and…
*POOF*
A genie.
He’s big. Blue. Sounds a lot like Robin Williams.
He says I get one wish and can’t ask for more wishes. I get it. The United Genie Association (UGA) doesn’t want one person taking all the wishes. They want to share the love. It’s a noble idea… but it’s one I can sidestep.
“I WISH… to be given the option to accept the same thing that every person wishes for when they find this lamp”.
Boom.
Someone wishes for a million dollars a week later… I’ll accept it too.
Someone wishes for the power of flight a month later… I’ll accept it too.
Someone wishes for world peace a year later… I don’t want that (not because I’m against the cause, but what are we going to do with TWICE the world peace?).
I haven’t asked for more wishes.
I’m just being offered a gift now and then.
Checkmate genie.
Now get back in the lamp. There’s an antique apothecary table I’ve got my eye on, and I want to get back to my shopping.
Yes you can. My cousin had her car stolen while at work. While riding the bus home a few days later, she saw it in a grocery store parking lot. She jumped off the bus keys in hand and sure enough, it was her car. Still hadsome of her belongings in it. Still had her registration and other documents in the glove box too. So she hoped in, locked the door and called the nonemergency police number to report she found it. It started up fine so they said she could drive off with it. As she was on the phone with them, someone came out of the store (with a cart full of groceries) and screamed at her that it was their car and to get out ECT. She cracked the window just enough to tell them it was her car, they stole it, and that they were idiots for leaving HER registration in the glove box. She then said I have the cops on the phone if you want to talk to them. They took off running. Left their groceries behind. She proceeded to load them into her car and drive off with the $200 worth of food. She said she took it as payment for stealing her car. She said what are they gonna do? Call the cops and say “Yea the lady who’s car I stole a few days ago took back her car and stole my groceries”
China could destroy the UK economy at the stoke of a pen.
Pull HSBC’s banking licence in China. HSBC is a UK bank. It’s got several trillion in assets and relies heavily on Asia and China now. HSBC withdrew from the US market as they were caught money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels.
The UK government would bail HSBC out and need to print 900–1500bn to do so.
GBP would suffer mega inflation.
Next up sanctions to push that inflation up some more. Without Chinese imports and exports to China their inflation would go up another 10–25% that would cause loss of faith immediately and they’d be looking at £50 bread. Massive riots would happen at this stage.
Biden Threatens War With China Over The…Philippines?
How deluded are these people if they think the US can talk down to China about anything at this stage, let alone human rights…
Obviously, the exact timing depended to a significant extent on the nature of the ground but, in the British army, a man was considered capable of moving, on average, a cubic foot of earth in three minutes. It was assumed that the rate would start at a cubic foot every two minutes in the first hour and then decline to a cubic foot every six minutes by the fourth hour. The work rate also slowed as the trench was dug deeper as the earth had to be lifted further. Reliefs should be provided at least every four hours.
A contemporary example I have seen suggests that forty men, using 40 shovels and 20 picks, could dig a:
forty rifle trench, 18″ command, traversed, recessed, and with head cover, in easy soil, in seven hours.
It is further noted that the minimum practical distance between men working was 5′ if a pick was being used and 4′ otherwise.
A full trench would be 6′ 6″ deep, being constructed of a 1′ 6″ parapet (above ground level), a 3′ drop to the fire step and then a two foot drop to the bottom of the trench. Initially the trench would be 4′ 6″ deep (including the parapet) and a minimum of 18″ wide. As soon as time allowed, the area behind the 18″ fire step would be dug out another 2′ and 2′-3′ wide to create the passage trench, the bottom of which would now be 6′ 6″ deep.
Of course, when under fire, they didn’t start building the full trench all at once. It would have started as a shallow scrape around 6′ x 2′ x 1′. That’s 12 cubic feet and would have taken around 40 minutes to dig. The scrape would then, successively, have been deepened so that it could accommodate a kneeling man (3′ deep) and then a standing man (4′ 6″ deep).
A scrape is defined, in considerable detail, thus:
[The soldier should] tear up and collect any vegetation within arm’s reach, and heap it up loosely as a screen at full arm’s length to the front.
(Lying on the left side of the body, and using the pick or blade of the grubber, according to the hardness of the ground, he should quickly hack the earth loose in a furrow, about 1′ 6″ feet away on the right side, from as far back to the right rear to as far forward to the right front as he can reach.
Then holding the grubber by the handle close to its head, thumb pointing towards small end of handle, and, using the blade as a scoop or hoe, he should scrape the loose earth out of the furrow and heap it up close in front of his left eye and shoulder. He should hack loose another strip of earth along the near side of the original furrow, so that the grubber will strike into ground which is probably softer than the crust, and can thus be undercut and wrenched up from below. He should continue to scrape loose earth towards the parapet and hack off the crust until the furrow is about 1’ 6″ feet wide. Any lumps of earth available should be used to build up the near edge of the parapet as steeply as possible.
Each new lot of loose earth should be disposed so as. to thicken the parapet in a direct line between his head and the point from which the most accurate fire appears to come, or, if the enemy’s fire seems to come from every direction, he may extend the parapet right-handed in a general horseshoe round the front of he trench, keeping. the past of the parapet over which he intends to fire about 6″ lower than the remainder, and of bullet-proof thickness if possible.
When the depth of the trench reaches about 6″ at the front end and 12″ at the back, and the parapet is 6″ high and bullet-proof, some vegetation, if any is available, should be scattered over the parapet to conceal the earth thrown up. The soldier is then ready to join the firefight.
The following diagram shows the evolution of the scrape (A) through successive digging to the full trench (E).
When sapping or extending an existing trench, the working face, and thus the number of men that can be employed, is obviously limited and it was expected that a trench could be extended by between one and two feet per hour.
Before I was old enough to go to school my best friend was a little boy named Lester who lived across the street. We were almost inseparable. Then, just before starting school, we moved away. We visited Lester and his family a few times over the next couple of years, and then my parents started saying it was too far away and making other excuses for not visiting. After a while I got used to not seeing Lester any more, but I never forgot him.
After I had grown up, finished college and gotten married, my wife and I went back to my hometown and visited my mother. While looking through Mom’s old photo albums I came across an invitation to one of Lester’s birthday parties. Mom then told me the truth about Lester for the first time. One day she and Lester’s mother had taken us to the doctor together for our regular checkups. My results came back normal, and Lester’s showed he had leukemia. He still looked healthy when we moved away, and for the next couple of years. But then he became visibly ill and my parents didn’t want me to know, so they found reasons to stop the visits. But Mom secretly kept writing and talking on the phone to Lester’s mother for several years afterwards, and knew that he died not long after our visits stopped.
Even though it had been many years I was very shaken and saddened by that news, and to this day I wish I had been told what was happening and had a chance to say goodbye. All this happened in the late ’50s and early ’60s (I was born in 1955). Then, a few years ago, I decided to try and find out what had happened to Lester’s family. Mom had died in 1999 so my only recourse was to search online with what I had from my own memories. After a long search I finally came across a picture of Lester on a genealogy website and sent an email to his cousin. She put me in touch with her mother, who was one of Lester’s sisters. We exchanged several emails with memories of Lester, and though she wasn’t much older than him she vaguely remembered the little boy across the street (me) who had been his friend. I scanned several photos of him and me together from Mom’s photo albums and emailed them to her, including a few in which he was wearing the same clothes as in the picture they had put on the website. She was glad to know someone outside the family still remembered her little brother with fondness.
I’m 68 and I still wish I could have seen him once more, but this experience at least finally gave me a little closure.
Thanks for the a2a. Why? Those of us old enough to remember all the manufacturing jobs going to China know that capitalistic greed is the reason. Owners and CEO’s thought paying Chinese workers rock bottom prices was more cost effective than to continue producing product in the US.
I don’t blame China. They needed the jobs back then. They took those low wages because it was better than none. It was better than starving in the Great Leap Forward. They were just providing for their families, same as the rest of us. I don’t begrudge them their success and rise to greatness.
In fact, I am impressed and absolutely thrilled with how far China has come. By the way, you get what you pay for. Pay them low wages and you might get low quality. Pay them well and you may see high speed rails and virtual reality. What you get from China is really up to you.
But don’t resent China or the people. Resent the factory owners. Resent your bosses that took your job out from under you. Blame the true villain instead of the straw man.
Rats reach giant sizes in the battlefield of Ukraine as they feed on corpses of the dead soldiers and they’re never out of new meat.
The Western Siberian oil basin is the largest oil and natgas producing region in Russia. One would think that locals benefit from cheap gasoline.
Residents of Orenburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, and other neighboring Russian regions who live close to the border go on gasoline tours to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan filling tanks and canisters with much cheaper gasoline. For A-92 the difference is about 50%; for A-95: 30-33%, for diesel fuel: 30-37%.
What gives? High taxes to pay for war in Ukraine.
In Russia, the share of taxed in the liter of gasoline is much greater than in Kazakhstan. The excise tax on diesel fuel in Kazakhstan is 540 tenge (90 rubles), while in Russia 9,556 rubles per 1 ton (the share of excise tax per liter of fuel is 8 rubles).
The excise tax on imported gasoline in Kazakhstan is 1,839 rubles per ton while in Russia it’s 13,262 rubles, or about 10.3 rubles per 1 liter.
As a result, the share of the tax component in the liter of Russian gasoline at the moment, taking into account the excise tax, mineral extraction tax, and VAT, is over 70%!
Therefore, Russians pay extra for gasoline in order to dispatch fellow citizens to feed rats in Ukraine! Lucky rodents.
In the Perm Krai, an 11th-grader was given military summons right at school after celebrating Conscript Day. “Rats are hungry,” said the representative of the conscription office.
The Hamas delegation led by a member of the Politburo of the militants Abu Marzuk arrived in Moscow. They plan to discuss with their Russian counterparts how to conduct surprise targeted raids and kidnappings, share secrets about how to fool intelligence services, and receive additional lessons in paragliding.
But you do not worry, I’m sure that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who first came to power two years after Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus killed all his competitors. These elderly men are birds of the same feather and flock together. Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has regularly entertained Taliban, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas as they have one crucial thing in common – they have dedicated their lives to fighting America’s hegemony .
During the Civil War in Sri Lanka, Mossad sold weapons to both sides of the conflict. Likewise, after seeing Hamas out of the door, Putin will meet with a delegation from Israel.
Military service is advertised on buses. Russian state agency plans to have ads on space rockets. In case aliens will see the phone number in the outer space and decide to become heroes of Russia.
The Head of the General Staff of Russia’s friendly India stabbed Brutalsky in the back and turned the knife one hundred and eighty degrees.
“Russia’s geopolitical importance will decline over time, even though it is a nuclear power.”
Flashing his nuclear head has been Putin’s favorite pastime for the duration of two years. Having an Indian general say publicly that they’re not impressed with the endowment and that the size doesn’t matter is appalling.
Russia depends on India. India can squeeze Russia for discounts as they have to sell oil somewhere while India has many options where to buy it.
After the start of Special Military Humiliation, the whole world stopped being afraid of Russia witnessing the low level of training of the military and the lack of modern weapons.
India is now considered a space power with its own lunar mission, while the Russian moon probe crashed and burned, the mission unaccomplished.
Sergey Shoigu should issue a threat that they would nuke the Taj Mahal and invade Goa on the pretext that thousands of Russian creatives are engaged in non-conservative and non-traditional activities there.
Many years ago I worked at a Toyota factory in the USA. One day we had some visitors from GM taking the factory tour and the visitor’s center was hospitable and had them meet some of the engineers and technical people (I was in IT and honestly had the best personality to deal with visitors so was invited along).
The GM people asked us to see our rework yard. I had no idea where or what that was so I asked my colleagues what it is and where it is. They were as confused as me.
When asked, the GM folks told us it’s the lot where they keep cars that come off the assembly line with defects so that they can be patched up and sold.
So we took them to the small warehouse area where we keep the dozen or so cars that come off the line with a minor issue that we can fix and make it as good as every other car. More often than not it was an issue with the stitching on the seat or a steering wheel or something like that, and we would just replace the part that was imperfect.
GM guy: “Where’s the rest of it?”
Me: “This is it. What do you do?”
GM guy explained they had a large lot for cars that come off the line with faulty body work or engines or transmissions, and they’re patched up so they can be sold. Then he said “what do you do with your defective cars?”
We explained that it rarely happens, and when it does we study it, figure out what went wrong, fix the issue so it won’t happen again, and then either keep the car for further study and training purposes or crush it. Nothing that comes off the line with a serious defect leaves the factory.
And that’s why Japanese engines (and vehicles) are known for reliability. Yes, tolerances are tight and yes, Japanese companies avoid untested technology. But that’s secondary.
The main reason is that anything defective that gets produced is studied, not sold, and then improvements are made so it won’t happen again.
The Japanese do make bad cars sometimes. They just don’t sell them.
Not everyone can say that.
Edit: Thanks for your awesome comments everyone. This is the sort of thing that makes Quora fun.
Second edit: Since Edward Deming keeps getting mentioned in the comments I feel I should address his influence on Japanese industrial processes. I’m no expert on Deming but from what I’ve read he’s clearly a remarkable man who had a tremendous impact on Japan’s postwar industrial development. With that said I feel it’s wrong to entirely credit him with Japan’s reputation for building quality products. He could have made the same contribution in other countries and received different results. Deming planted the seed and the Japanese nurtured the plant. Deming certainly deserves accolades for his contribution but the main credit for Japanese quality goes to the Japanese themselves. By all accounts Deming was a very humble man and certainly would agree. The world is a poorer place without him in it.
Iran Defense Minister to USA: Ceasefire in Gaza or be “Hit Hard”
Iran’s defense minister said Sunday that the U.S. would be “hit hard” if Washington doesn’t push for and implement a cease-fire in Gaza.
“Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war in Gaza and implement a cease-fire, otherwise they will be hit hard,” Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Chinese people, by nature, are very calm/collective/and incredibly hard-working.
I have never seen/met even one Chinese in Canada/or China who is boastful, talks too much, and delivers nothing. Their talk is zero percent, and delivery is almost 100 percent. I have worked with Chinese Canadians at different levels for nearly fifty years.
By nature, they are very humble.
They are not gossipy/very goal-oriented.
And they are wired to work very cooperatively and team-spirited.
To describe Chinese: There used to be one advertisement. It used to say: Let your fingers do the talking.
Regardless, It was an advertisement for OLD TIME: Yellow Pages, before the internet. Some people may remember these Yellow Pages in the phone books used for publicity for all kinds of things/services/almost everything.
For Chinese people, I have a similar thing to say: Let the achievements of the Chinese do the talking.
I have observed and tried to implement/copy some of their trademark habits.
To win from the Chinese is almost mission impossible.
I could write many things about others, but these are my impressions/observations, it may upset some people.
And
It is sufficient to say that China and the Chinese will rule the world for a long time from now onwards.
A word of caution:
Yes, I am very aware of the lifestyle of rich kids: A present is small numbers but eventually will put one nail in the coffin. It happens to every race/country/company: To become complacent/wasteful/lazy/let it go. It is a usual growth curve, stagnation, and dying of wealth and power.
Yes, I am aware of the shortcomings/evils/of the riches, too. There is a start of problem of obesity.
Yes, there is an onset of flaunting new riches, too.
Yes, there is the onset of being complacent.
Yes, there is the onset of being lazy.
Yes, some of the new affluent Chinese kids are becoming obese/lazy/show off/useless/they come to the West to live in penthouses/fancy cars/big money in the bank by the daddy/and blow away dady money.
One line sums up: China and the Chinese: Let their achievements do the talking.
No race can compete with them: They are killing -machines in every field. And most of our neighbors are Chinese, and our kids went to school with their kids.
There is zero tolerance for not excelling in academics in a Chinese household.
I want to share something: One of our kids was neck to neck-with the Chinese kids in school. Chinese, by nature, as said earlier, keep to themselves, do not discuss their game plan, and work very hard. They surprise the competition with the result.
They did the same thing with China: They closed the doors to outsiders and put their houses in order. When they opened the doors, the world had a big surprise.
Go to China, see it yourself: Come back to the “Developed” so-called first world and see it yourself.
Rest assured, the world will not be the same: Life will be insensitive for the rest.
It is NOT only their industrial might: It is also relatively crime-free/corruption-free/full equality of women/and not wasting money in useless wars. During my six visits, I found that most people in China hope for a bright future.
Sadly, the West was in gloated form, complacent form, and ignorance form, and China’s bashful behavior of not flaunting took the whole world by surprise.
And
Due to the Chinese’s very reserved nature, not flaunting, keeping a shallow profile, however, the fact of life in Canada is they own massive real estate. In one city where I make most of my living, Chinese money is behind in all gigantic projects. And in other words, China owns an enormous share of Canada. (Please note this statement is based on my gut feelings/observations.)
It is also a myth that most Chinese are atheists. There is no truth to it. The Chinese have found the real God (Do your good Karma and do not worry about the results). Their massive churches are not ONLY for praising the LORD. There is all mutual business, comparing notes about the kids’ super achievements, kids helping kids, and parents exchanging their business cards. In the end, yes, it comes to Praise the Lord.
I have worked with almost all the races on the earth in Canada. Rest assured, NOT even one race except the Chinese can work together. You do not need supervisors/guards on any other race; if one tries to come out of the hole, the other members of his race pull him down, except the Chinese, they will lift the one who is trying to get out, and the same way the whole pit will be empty. Moral: That is why the Chinese are the wealthiest community in almost every country. (The hole is a metaphor for the poverty of comers; helping each other is a metaphor for a deep bond for each other, coming out of the hole to enjoy prosperity.) These were all metaphors and my observations.
Here is a bit more information on the author:
Something about myself and my family: I was born a few years ago; India was independent in 1947in the Punjab region of India, in a Hindu/Punjabi family. I did a BSc with two extra B.A. subjects and a BEd MSc from Punjab University Chandigarh. Now, it is in the U.T.
I moved to Canada in the early 70s when I was in my early 20s, enrolled in a grad program at U of Guelph, and finished my MSc with almost double the courses than expected and a lovely thesis on an industrial problem of that time.
I became very interested in learning about China and the Chinese in primary school. Our teacher was very impressed with China/Buddhism/Culture/and so on. He sowed powerful seeds in my mind about the great civilization of China. I vowed that one day I would visit China. I saw it six /visited times, and I just scratched the surface. Then COVID hit the world, and my continued journey stopped. Hopefully, I will start again to explore China.
I have been in Canada for close to fifty years. My wife and I raised our kids. Now, we are blessed with grandkids.
I hope it helps.
Sam Arora: MSc Food Science U of Guelph, Canada MSc Dairy Science U of Punjab, NDRI, India
Beautiful Shanghai: The area is called The Bund. In the background, the Pearl Tower salutes China’s rise to the Unofficial Chairman of the board(In my view). China and the Chinese showed the world that everything is possible with super hard work, And that is the real essence of Hinduism: super Karma.
Most Chinese people do not believe in reducing anyone’s height. They increase their very quietly and with total devotion.
It is possible that in the eighteenth century, the US may have adopted the metric system of measurements if it were not for a series of unfortunate events that befell Frenchman Joseph Dombey. Mr. Dombey was sent to America in 1794 to help the Americans reform the imperial system of measurements inherited from the British. The Americans had with the help of the French defeated the British and might be interested in a non British measurement system.
Dombey took with him copper prototypes for the newly devised meter and kilometer, which he intended to present to Congress. Unfortunately, his ship was blown off course to Guadeloupe where French royalists imprisoned him. H, Dombey was released only to be captured by pirates who stole his measurements and held him for ransom. While in captivity the unfortunate Frenchman died of a fever- thus depriving America of the the opportunity to adopt the metric system.
The morphine syrette used in WWII and Vietnam had a wire loop pin with a guard in the end of the hollow needle that was used to break a seal where the needle was attached to the tube. After breaking the seal, the wire loop pin was removed and the hollow needle was inserted under the skin at a shallow angle and the tube flattened between the thumb and fingers. After injection the used tube was pinned to the receiving soldier’s collar to inform others of the dose administered.
In the infantry, usually the medics carried them however some soldiers did carry some in case needed.
Today’s wounded soldiers suck on lollipops.
The new treatment offers an alternative to the morphine needle you see in the World War II movies, with medics jabbing a syrette into a soldier’s leg or arm.
The Fentanyl lollipop offers medics a faster way to ease the pain of a battlefield injury as the drug can be absorbed more rapidly through a lozenge in the mouth than from a needle injected into the muscle.
The absorption is actually faster through the blood vessels in the mouth. You don’t have to worry about shock which will constrict the blood vessels in a major muscle in a leg or an arm.
I was young and unwed. The doctor I saw attended me nicely, tried to counsel me, teach me about babies, etc, assuming at 17 I wasn’t capable.
After my beautiful baby was born and about 3 months old, at a routine check up, the doctor began asking me odd questions about wanting my freedom, needing money, etc., until he finally got around to saying he wanted my baby. Said he could do more for her than I ever could blah blah blah.
I was dumb struck. Insulted beyond belief. Scared me, too.
I told him he wasn’t her mother and could do any more than I could because he could never be her mother.
An odd response, I suppose, but I believed it then and still today. I was young, naive, resourceless, etc., but I knew he could never love her like I did (and do).
I got pulled over in Florida on Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County. FHP trooper came up to me and asked me how I was doing. I replied, “Well, honestly, I was doing pretty good before I met you.” He laughed and replied, “Oh yeah. Ninety five. Ninety FIVE!”
Now it just so happened that he pulled me over right in front of an interstate marker sign. So I pointed at it and said, “But look right there. The sign says 95.” He laughed and then pointed to a piece of paper lying beside me on the passenger seat. “What’s that right there,” he asked. Um. A ticket. “Let me see that.” I handed it to him. He looked at it, then said to me “You’re going to screw around until you lose your license.”
Then…he let me go. I couldn’t believe it. I think he realized with the ticket he was about to give me, coupled with the ticket I already had, actually would result in a suspension of my license. I think that because I gave him a good laugh, he decided to cut me a big break.
When I was 17-years-old, I was working as a waitress in a hotel restaurant. I was clumsy as hell and uncomfortable serving people. I started as a kitchen hand so I was used to being in the back and safe from the patrons.
One day, a group of four from England, came in wanting to be seated. We only had one table available and we hadn’t cleared it yet so as they walked toward the table. I’m panicking about getting it prepared for them.
One of their party is an older gentlemen probably in his 40s and he’s quite handsome. He looked a little like Mads Mikkelsen.
He was just like this and pretty fetching in my eyes. So, I apologized to his group and there were really gracious about it. They were lovely, lovely people. However, just as I’m removing a water jug from the table and one of the other girls is cleaning it, I bang into the gentleman as I’m turning and I spilled water all the way down the front of his shirt and all over his trousers. I’m instantly horrified and I’m pretty sure I actually stopped breathing. He just said, “Ooops!”
He grabbed a serviette and starts dabbing at his shirt and without thinking and TRYING to be helpful, I also grab a serviette and I “dab it on his crotch”. Realizing the mistake I’ve made, I just drop the serviette and walk away back into the kitchen followed by the other waitress who is pissing herself by laughing hysterically while I’m nearly crying.
I had to return to their table to give them their cutlery, and as I’m placing it on the table, my hands are visibly shaking from my shame and embarrassment. However, the people at the table are so friendly, they’re laughing and joking so I feel less shitty about accidentally molesting the nice man. They were staying at the hotel so I saw them a couple more times during breakfast and dinner again the following night. Every time the group came in, they stopped to say hello and asked how I was.
To this day, I cringe and I still see the embarrassed look he gave me when I had my hand on his crotch. Oh, floor…please swallow me!
Johnny Depp. He had zero acting education or prior experience. He simply accompanied his band mate (!) to an audition for A Nightmare On Elm Street before a band rehearsal and waited in the lobby. Director Wes Craven spotted him, noticed his boyish good looks and said “You! Get in here right now.”
I’d say that qualifies as practically falling into a movie career.
A programmer named Tim Paterson worked hard writing code for a new operating system. Later that year in August 1980 Seattle Computer Products, shipped the first version of the operating system.
One day, a young energetic guy with large eyeglasses walked into the company searching for the operating system named 86-DOS.
He negotiated a non-exclusive license for $25,000 and took it to the computer giant named IBM. He showed the demo, offered a few modifications that they were requesting and closed a deal.
A few weeks later, in May 1981, this bright guy named Bill Gates who worked on a startup named Microsoft went back to Tim Paterson and hired him to further develop the software.
On July 27, 1981 he paid another $50,000 for the full rights, totaling $75,000 and renamed it to MS-DOS.
A month later, Microsoft was shipping MS-DOS on IBM personal computers, and within a year Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to over 70 other companies!
Eventually this work turned Bill Gates and Paul Allen into the world’s richest men.
This my friend, is one of the best examples of “Work Smarter, NOT harder!”
I’m not sure that this counts as cheating, but a couple students did exploit a loophole.
It was about 2000, and I was teaching a large (~200 students) circuit theory course at the University of Washington, in Autumn quarter, in the big lecture hall in Bagley Hall. As the time for the second midterm approached, students began clamoring, “Professor Sahr, how can we get extra credit on the exam?” I kept telling them, “just study for the exam, okay? And do your best. No extra credit!”
But the students kept whining and whining, and finally (exasperated), I said this: “Okay, any students who cross Drumheller Fountain on the day of the exam get 10 extra points.” The students said “awwww, you’re no fun.”
You can probably see where this is going.
At any rate, the day of the exam arrives, and the weather just sucks. It’s mid November, and (unsurprisingly) it’s raining cats and dogs, and the wind is blowing. As I stagger over to Bagley Hall, I notice that Drumheller Fountain is on — there are these water jets in the middle of this 100-foot-diameter fountain which is (by the way) about seven feet deep. And I think to myself, “why in hell is the campus running the fountain right now?” because the wind is blowing the spray all over the place, and making a miserable day even more miserable.
Anyway, I get into the auditorium, and I look around. Everyone is kind of bedraggled, because of staggering through the rainstorm outside. Obviously there’s a lot of water on the floor, because of the 200 or so students tracking it in with their wet feet and clothes.
But it seems to me that there was kind of more water than I would expect, even on such a rainy day. Glancing further around the room, I notice something weird off to the side: it’s a rubber raft. As I look up into the seats, I see the hundreds of students, but then I notice two students sitting next to each other, and *nobody* is sitting near them. These two students are wearing orange survival suits, and it dawns upon me that these two idiots have crossed Drumheller Fountain in that rubber raft.
I had a friend of my father-in-law’s reach out to me in desperation. His daughter was about to graduate from U. Buffalo with a major in cinematography. She was working on her final project and her Mac crashed on her. He implored me to help her out as best I could.
I got her laptop and pulled the drive. I popped it into an external enclosure and it had 10k available. A hard drive should have 15+% free so the computer can write temp files to it. 10k is REALLY bad. Then I heard a click come from it. This is desperation time, now. A click from a hard drive usually implies a “head crash”. This occurs when the magnetic reader inside the drive makes contact with the platter that has the data written to it. It’s usually a fatal situation.
It was about 9PM on a Saturday. I broke out a bottle of Jameson’s and knuckled down for some serious thinking.
OK, the reader is making contact with the platter. I need to make the platter smaller, so the head comes off it. Come on, science, help me out here. What makes things smaller? COLD! I took the drive and stuck it in my freezer (in a ziploc baggie). Then, I built a box that could hold the drive, and I attached a bunch of computer fans to it, pointed down where the drive will lay. After a couple of hours, I removed the drive from the freezer, stuck it in the box with the fans, and fired it up.
NOTE: the fans were there, not for cooling, but to prevent condensation from forming on the drive and its controller card.
I fired it up and was able to recover the entire contents of the drive. I finished the bottle and powered down the drive. Just for S&Gs, I turned it back on and it failed HARD, like it’s never gonna work again, “hard”. I just managed to recover it as it was on its final death throes.
I told my FIL’s buddy to send me another (bigger) drive and that I was able to recover everything. He asked, “How? I thought it was completely dead.”
“SCIENCE!”
Somewhere out there is a cinematographer who owes her college graduation to me, Jameson’s, and science!
The B-52 does have a toilet, but it is very basic and primitive. The toilet is located behind the offense compartment, which is where the pilot, co-pilot, and electronic warfare officer sit. The crew members have to use a bag to defecate and dispose of it when the bomber’s mission is over.
There is no privacy, as there is no door or curtain. The toilet is also very close to the classified communication servers, which can be awkward and uncomfortable.
The B-52’s toilet is not very convenient or comfortable, but it is necessary for the crew members who have to fly long and demanding missions. Its pilots and crews have to follow strict procedures and protocols, such as pre-flight checks, post-flight checks, flight planning, flight testing, and flight training, to ensure the safety and readiness of the aircraft.
Its pilots and crews also have to deal with varying atmospheric conditions, such as temperature, pressure, and humidity, which can affect their health and comfort. The B-52’s toilet is one of the few amenities that the crew members have on board the aircraft.
So the B-52’s toilet is not very convenient or comfortable, but it is necessary for the crew members who have to fly long and demanding missions.
When I was 19 years old I was in an elevator in a high rise building at night on my way to the 50th floor.
At the 5th floor, the elevator stopped, a man got in and pressed the ground floor button. Once the doors shut he suddenly grabbed my purse! I stood there looking at him while he frantically started pressing the first floor button.
I explained to him the car would go all the way up to the 50th floor first but he ignored me and kept pressing the button.
We slowly went up. It was quiet and creaky. Old elevator in an old building. No cameras (that I know of).
About halfway up I asked if he could take the cash out and leave me the purse so I would not lose my pictures and identification. He said “sure”, took the cash, handed me the purse. I mumbled thanks.
When we got to the top and the doors opened, he said “please stay in the elevator until I get off”.
So I stood there in my corner, nervous, but also calm while we went all the way down to the first floor where he got out. The doors shut and I went back up to the top floor.
In the country, there are elections every five years, there is no other candidate in the elections.
2.Owning cars.
In North Korea, only rich people, powerful people and government officials can on cars including luxury cars.
3.If you commit a crime, the rest of the family would go to jail.
In North Korea, committing a crime would lead your Innocent family to be in jail as well if they didn’t commit a crime.
4.There is an abandoned propaganda village within the border of South Korea to attract south koreans who desire to defect to north korea.
5.You will find almost every empty roads in that country.
In North Korea, almost every roads in that country are very empty with few cars and people.
6.Don’t talk to locals when you’re a tourist.
When you’re tourist, you’re not allowed to talk to locals citizens of that country.
7.Western products are not allowed in that country as well as products from South Korea.
Because of the sanctions by the international community, products from the outside world including k pop music and products from South Korea aren’t allowed in that country.
Despite the ban of these products by the North Korean government from the outside world, people smuggle them and they are sold in black markets.
8.People aren’t allowed to wear jeans in that country.
Jeans aren’t allowed in that country because the North Korean government thinks that they are western made clothes.
Years ago I was on a tour with a bunch of classmates in Northern California.
Naturally, we had to stop at In N Out and since most of my classmates were from the East Coast, it was their first In N Out experience. They quickly learned that you could order as many hamburger patties as you liked for your burger and one guy decided to push the limits.
In true first timer fashion, he ordered an 11×11, meaning eleven patties and eleven slices of cheese between the same bun. The burger cost him more than 20 bucks and for some reason he ordered fries as well. He couldn’t finish the damn thing and ended up wasting a good portion of it. This was before camera phones and social media, so he was even able to get a picture and brag about it. The glory of ordering an 11×11 was lost to a rubbish can that day.
Fortunately, In N Out won’t put more than 4 patties on a single burger any longer. That’s my understanding anyhow.
No, but they are certainly among the most powerful and formidable weapons in the world. Nuclear-powered submarines are not weapons themselves, but platforms that can carry and launch various types of weapons, such as torpedoes, missiles, and mines.
Some of these weapons can be nuclear-armed, which means they can deliver a nuclear warhead to a target, causing massive destruction and radiation.
Nuclear-powered submarines have several advantages over conventional submarines, which are powered by diesel engines or batteries. Nuclear-powered submarines can operate at high speeds and depths for long periods, without the need to surface or refuel. They can also travel long distances and access remote areas, such as the Arctic or the South China Sea. They can evade detection and countermeasures, thanks to their stealth and maneuverability. They can provide a credible and persistent deterrent, as well as a rapid and flexible response, to potential adversaries.
Nuclear-powered submarines also have some drawbacks and limitations, which make them less than the most deadly weapons ever made. Nuclear-powered submarines are very expensive and complex to build, maintain, and operate. They require highly skilled and trained personnel, as well as strict safety and security measures.
They are vulnerable to accidents and malfunctions, which can result in radiation leaks, fires, or explosions. They are also subject to international laws and norms, which regulate their use and proliferation. They are not invincible, as they can be detected, tracked, and attacked by other submarines, ships, aircraft, or satellites.
I’d appreciate an upvote if you found this answer helpful or informative.
In any military, young recruits are often highly idealistic — as many of us are with any new profession.
These recruits have played Call of Duty and watched Full Metal Jacket. They love battle and are excited to go full Rambo and blow things up.
And then they experience war for the first time.
They are shot at. They see a friend bleeding to death, knowing they can do nothing to save them. The recruits learn the hard way that war is true horror.
In the US Army, there’s a phrase, “Standard Operating Procedures are written in blood.”
It means that every stupid rule a cadet is drilled on, is there for a massive reason. Other units have learned these lessons in a very, very difficult way.
No, not all of your life’s lessons will be written in blood — but you may pay a steep price if you don’t listen to people wiser than yourself. They’ve seen things.
Cajun Pot Roast with Maque Choux
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (2 to 2 1/2 pound) boneless beef chuck roast
1 tablespoon dried Cajun seasoning
1 (9 ounce) package frozen corn
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Instructions
Rub entire surface of beef roast with Cajun seasoning.
Place roast in 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker. Top with onion, corn and bell pepper.
In small bowl, combine tomatoes, pepper and hot pepper sauce; mix well. Pour over vegetables and roast.
When he was 87 and slipping into dementia, I asked my father exactly this on one of his “good days.” He smiled and said that it had been worth it, even when he became the last of his siblings alive and started to lose his ability to remember names, first, and other things later.
He became a very gentle person to be around (he had been an angry and argumentative Democrat for most of his life) and enjoyed his children, grandchildren, and even their pets. We got along better than we ever had. I remember taking him to the Fourth of July parade and whispering the names of people who came up to greet him. Once he knew their names, he could have a great conversation. Then I brought him back to a school reunion and that was wonderful. He needed no introductions as everyone wore a name tag.
Having watched my father in those years, I hope that I may live long enough to navigate old age just the way he did despite his obvious infirmities.
I’ve worked with the company I’m presently employed with for not quite 12 years. Up until a year ago, we were a small personable, easy going, family owned company of about 250 drivers. If you were around for any length of time, everyone in the office and shop knew you, and vice versa. That was up until about a year ago when the owner of the company retired and threw us under the bus by selling us out to a larger company and everything changed.
It’s common practice for just about any trucking company to require any damage to their equipment be reported and documented. With my company, if the damage was minimal, the report would still go in the driver’s jacket, but no further. It would stay in-house instead of being reported to a national data base.
I’ve always been the type to man-up in situations such as this. I was raised that way, and it was the right thing to do. Even leaving small damage unreported could result in the next driver having to have it repaired and possibly being late for a delivery.
So, after pulling out of a customer’s driveway and cutting it too tighly, I felt something go bump in the night. Upon further inspection, it appears I clipped one of those large landscaping rocks placed to prevent idiot drivers like me from cutting corners too tightly, and running over their curbs. When I stopped for the day and was doing my mandatory post-trip inspection, I came upon this,
Thinking it was no biggie, and my company would normally think likewise, and wanting to do the right thing, I called it it. What happened next was nothing short of a shit storm. The new people acted like I ran over a carload of nuns. Initial phone call to my parent company, followed by a call to the new company’s safety department, followed by a call-back the next day from same, followed by submitting pictures and a full accident report, followed by a call-back from the new company to review of same, followed by a never-heard-of-before-review from Greg in our safety department.
When I related the story to the former head of our . safety department, her reaction was, “It was just a fuckin’ rim!”, as she shook her head.
Trust me, if it ever happens again, I won’t think twice about going palms up with a “Dunno nuthin’ ‘bout it. When I dropped it off, it was fine “, should anyone inquire.
I was driving down the freeway and all of a sudden I couldn’t see the cars ahead of me. It was if someone had pulled a shade down in front of my line of vision. I could see all around the shade, but not right in front. Although it was only for a few moments, the terror I felt was devasting.
I was a 21-year old college student, a senior at academically prestigious school, getting good grades, working part time, and enjoying a fun social life.
So, what was the matter? Where did the intense headaches come from? Why did I frequently wake up in the middle of the night, jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom, to vomit repeatedly? Why did I feel that I was about to fall down whenever the sidewalk was a little uneven?
Then there were those crazy nightmares I was having.…. I dreamed one night that I was driving on the freeway. The car next to me pulled up right beside me. The driver pulled a gun out. He shot me in the head. My head exploded. Everything became dark. I woke up in a terrified sweat. What on earth was wrong with my head that I would have such a dream?
In spite of everything, I was doing okay and maintaining my studies. But finally it became too much for me to handle. Especially the shade covering my eyes on the freeway.
I saw several doctors. They said I was fine.
I went to a psychologist. I figured that since the doctors said I was fine, it must be all in my mind. The psychologist listened to my symptoms. He said that I didn’t need to see a psychologist. Instead, I needed to see a neurologist and he urged me to see one right away.
I took his advice and went to a neurologist. The neurologist admitted me to a hospital. Still no answers. Many tests were done, but it was during the days before C-T scans or MRI’s were used, so it was hard to figure this out. Finally a diagnosis was made: brain tumor.
Surgery was scheduled. They operated for 10 hours, and were able to remove half of the tumor. The surgeon told me the tumor was the size of a large orange and that if I hadn’t been diagnosed when I was, I would have had 6 months left to live. It was just taking over my whole brain and growing so fast.
I was in intensive care for 2 weeks. I can’t remember too much about that time. It seemed like a dream, for just a few hours.
Then, more surgery. And then some more.
I lost the ability to walk. I couldn’t see very well. I lost hearing. I was fed intravenously. Because I had stroke-like symptoms, one side of my body became weak and uncoordinated. I no longer could hold a pen and write.
I had physical therapy and occupational therapy to regain some of the skills that I had lost.
I finally left the hospital and went home to live with my parents. The tumor was not all gone, but I needed a break. I needed time to get stronger before the next onslaught of surgery.
While I was home, I had physical and occupational therapy at a nearby hospital. I still couldn’t walk or write, but I was beginning to feel better. In physical therapy I worked on learning to walk with a walker and then eventually on my own. In occupational therapy I worked on strengthening my very weak hand. I did many activities with my hands, including making some beautiful crafts. Occupational therapy was so much fun! I loved therapy.
I went back to the hospital and had the last surgery. Finally the tumor was gone. After some more time had passed I felt that maybe it was time to return to school.
Living on my own again was not easy. I still couldn’t walk or write well. But I persevered. Sometimes I fell down. I used a tape recorder during lectures since I couldn’t write fast enough to take notes, and my professors gave me extra time to write exams. With the support of my family and professors, I did well and succeeded.
As graduation approached, a brilliant idea occurred to me. I remembered the great time I had in occupational therapy, and how I had been helped so much. Maybe I too could become an occupational therapist. I thought of how wonderful it would be to spend my life helping others just like I had been helped. I decided that yes, I would try, and so I applied to a master’s degree program in occupational therapy.
There were many more applicants than spots available, but much to my delight I was accepted into the program!
The program was so difficult and very competitive. But I worked hard and after two years became an occupational therapist.
That was 40 years ago, and I am still going strong. I have worked with literally thousands of patients during my career, from little 1-pound premature babies all the way up to 103 year-old patients in nursing homes, and everything in-between. I have loved every minute of it.
Occupational therapy is a flexible career with an abundance of interesting and meaningful jobs available. During my career, I traveled the world, met and married my husband, gave birth to and raised two beautiful children, and enjoyed my life!
I turned what could have been a terrible, frightening experience into something really wonderful.
My sister-in-law once called me to borrow my fax machine. This was in the days before most people had computers and internet. She had a very important document that had to be faxed to a company showing proof of payment.
I took my fax machine to her house that night, hooked it up, walked her through the simple instructions and left.
She called me at work the next day in a panic. She said she had tried to send her document several times and it would not go. This was important, and she needed it sent right away. I was getting off early that day so I agreed to go by her house and help her with it.
When I arrived I checked the machine and connections and everything seemed fine. I told her to send it again so I could see what was going on. She did everything correctly and at the tone hit Send. The fax machine pulled the paper through and indicated a successful receipt at the other end. My sister-in-law grabbed the paper as it came back out of the machine and said, “See. It doesn’t go, it just spits it back out.” My jaw hit the floor. It turns out she thought the actualpaper was being sent over the phone lines.
After I explained the concept to her, I let her know that this story would be told at every family get together for the rest of my life. It is now firmly a part of the family lore and enjoyed by each successive generation.
My sister-in-law fortunately took it in stride. She declared it her worst blonde moment and laughs as hard as anyone when the story is retold.
P.S. My sister-in-law did call the company still to confirm receipt. They told her they had four copies and that was absolutely sufficient.
Close? I accidentally found out I was going to be demoted which lead to me quitting.
In my 20s I worked at one of those places that made huge cookies, I was specifically hired by the manager to be the assistant manager, she’d worked with me as a key holder at another place so she knew I would be good at it. A few months after I was hired the owner sold the business.
One day I was hanging out with the Manager L when she got a call from one of the kids at cookie shop. “Hey L, the owner is in here with some chick he says is the new Manager, what’s going on?”
Too bad L had no answers for her, we had no damned idea what was happening. She and I jumped in the car and headed to the cookie shop to talk, in person, to the owner.
Sure enough, he was demoting L into Assistant and me into just a regular employee. Neither of us had done anything wrong, the new owner just planned to make this new lady a manager. He told us a bunch of BS saying she had experience bla bla… but we found out later she was actually just his girlfriend. We told him how messed up that was, and that both of us would quit if he planned to do this. He was unrepentant, even gaving us the whole “I’m sorry you feel you need an apology” line.
She and I looked at each other, got up and walked away.
Apparently he truly didn’t understand what had just happened because when he saw the kid who called us changing the schedule he was confused. When he was told by her we had just quit, he was completely stunned and didn’t understand why we would have done that. Dude, we literally told you to your face that’s what we’d do if you demoted us for no reason other than to put someone else in as manager, WTF did you think would happen?
Turns out the girlfriend was horrible as a manager, and the owner ended up folding in a few months. Funny how that happens when you take actions that force the people with a clue out, and put someone clueless in just because you are dating them. The two of us were the ones who knew how to run the store, knew how to run the fundraising side, which is where most of the money was made. He screwed himself by being an idiot.
Cajun Butt
Yield: about 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
1 (6 pound) boneless pork butt
15 to 20 garlic slivers
3 tablespoons red pepper flakes (or less)
4 tablespoons yellow mustard
3 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s Original Seasoning
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Cut 15 to 20 slits 1 inch deep on external surface of pork butt. Press one garlic sliver into each slit with thumb, to bottom of slit. On top of each garlic sliver, insert 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes in the slit. Pinch slit closed.
In a bowl, mix mustard, Cajun seasoning, brown sugar and black pepper. Mix well and apply to pork butt. Lightly dust with a coating of red pepper flakes.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Smoke-cook using apple and hickory chips on a covered barbecue pit off the heat for 1 hour per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F.
Perhaps one of the most effective improvised weapons was the Rhino tank. An ordinary tank – usually a Sherman but with improvised steel teeth welded to the front.
In 1944 just after D-Day the Americans, Canadians and British troops were getting held up in the ‘bocage’ countryside of Normandy. Bocage consisted of high hedgerows built on thick banks of earth. This environment proved ideal for German ambushes, providing plenty of defensive cover. It also meant that the Germans could pick off tanks because they would be funnelled down the lanes, or forced through the narrow gaps in the bocage hedgerows. The Germans knew exactly where the tanks would come through and could lay anti tank mines, or train their guns on that exact spot. If the tanks tried to avoid the gaps and instead drive over the top of bocage embankment, it was so steep that it would expose the thin underside armour. Allied tanks were getting wiped out. Until this man, Sergeant Curtis G. Culin had an idea.
When one of his fellow soldiers joked and said they needed a big set of teeth to bite their way through, Culin didn’t laugh but took the idea seriously. He welded some of the steel that the Germans had used as tank traps to the front of his tank, like this.
The teeth allowed the Sherman to burst straight through the hedgerow, surprise and then destroy any Germans waiting in ambush on the other side.
When General Omar Bradley saw what Culin had done and saw how his tank was able to smash its way though the bocage hedgerows, the General ordered that as many tanks as possible be fitted with this improvised weapon. The Normandy beaches had been filled with landing spikes which were conveniently just the right shape and type of steel to make the ‘teeth’.
This simple but effective innovation enabled the Americans to swiftly move on and cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and then move south and meet up with the British and Canadians cutting off the Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
I bought the house we are in now exactly 10 years ago in “as is” condition. In fact this was the entire listing:
“Seller and agents make no representations and warranties. Sold as is.”
The house is in a fairly upscale suburb, and was about 15 years old at the time. There was plenty of cosmetic damage — water damage on the hardwood floors, a filthy kitchen, holes in some drywall, a half-full leaky pool clogged with algae. Plus the interior and exterior were just sad looking, with ugly brown paint and outdated stained oak stairs.
But the funny thing was that no matter how carefully I looked, I could not see any actual serious problems. In fact, it was a bank repossession, and I eventually figured out that since it looked so bad they just assumed there were real problems, and they listed it the way they did to avoid any liability. Over 100 people looked at the house, and we were the only ones who put in an offer, and we got it way (way!) under the asking price, which is rare in Toronto.
I was planning on doing a full renovation anyhow, so I didn’t care about the drywall and flooring. The entire kitchen went in the dumpster. And for $600 we repaired the pool, and it worked perfectly.
I’ve been here for 10 years now and we have not had a single serious problem with the house.
I am sitting outside Quoraing this morning and I took this picture 60 seconds ago:
When you can’t destroy a target by dropping bombs vertically, you can drop them horizontally. That’s what the 617 Royal Air Force Squadron did in May 1943.
The squadron carried out Operation Chastise, designed to destroy German dams and hydroelectric power stations. Reconnaissance and simulated bombing runs revealed that bombs dropped vertically on top of dams were not effective. So instead, the RAF used an experimental bouncing bomb, designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, that was dropped at low altitude onto the surface of the reservoir and skipped along the water horizontally until it hit the face of the dam.
The strategy proved effective. “The Möhne and Edersee Dams were breached…Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more were damaged. Factories and mines were also either damaged or destroyed.”
Lancaster bomber dropping bouncing bomb during the Operation Chastise raids on Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
The operation was later the subject of the movie Dambusters, released in 1955.
I remember seeing a girl, her parents were millionaires due to a massive inheritance.
She would try and talk about her “Working class background” how the struggle was real.
One day she was telling me how her parents only bought her a brand new mini when she passed her test and how that went to show how much her family had struggled. One of her school friends got a brand new Range Rover.
I listened to that thinking “My Mum couldn’t have afforded a driving lesson let alone a car”
My sister’s daughter and her husband were about to lose their house in Texas because neither of them had jobs, they had one very young daughter and were expecting another baby. My 80 year old mother couldn’t stand to watch this happen. So, she took out an equity loan on her house and lent them $100,000. They were supposed to make the equity payments for my mom, and at first they did and were supposed to pay the whole loan back when they sold their house.
A few months later, they sold their house but told my mother they needed her money as a down payment on their new house in california. So, they kept the money, and continued making the monthly payments until they had a big fight and split up. Suddenly, no one wanted to make the payments on my mother’s equity loan so my mother had to. If she couldn’t keep up on them, she would have lost her house.
She is now 85 years old, completely disabled, living on a tiny pension, and trying to pay off this loan. Since my niece split with her husband, they did not make payments on their house either. So, it went into foreclosure, and Mom cannot even put a lien on it to get her money back.
Needless to say, I am truly disgusted by my niece’s behavior as well as her husband’s. I have now sent my mother money; my sister has sent her money, and another one of my nieces has sent money. The only people in the family who do not seem to feel terrible about this are the two people who should.
When i decided not to break up with my boyfriend at that moment.
I had just joined post graduation course and found this guy who was extremely caring about me. Within a month, he proposed me. I was confused however i said yes.
We use to talk, study and laugh together. However even after six months, i was not sure about our relationship.
AND Here comes the blow. He was back to his hometown. He was ill since a week. Meanwhile, i had a introspection round with my roommates. I found i was still unsure about our relationship. So i decided, on the next call, i will tell him that this is not the right time to fall in love etc., we should be friends only.
He called me around 8 PM. I was full prepared to say him a No. As soon as i picked the phone, he was crying on the other side. He was suffering from a fatal disease, Meningitis. I could not gather courage to leave him at this crucial moment. I just said, “I am with you today and always. No matter what happens.”
He was not in position to join college. His parents was insisting him to leave the college and repeat next time. He refused and joined the college next month. He had not recovered fully. In fact, he lost his hearing power around 40%. When he came back, he told me – how my words motivated him to join the college again. I took care of him. I used to call him reminding his medicines, diets etc. Meanwhile, i actually fell for him and then never told about that breakup thought.
Today, i am happily married with him.
P.S. I do not want my husband to know about my breakup thought even today. He is on quora. So i am writing anonymously.
I visited a radio station for an interview, at the station manager’s request. At the time I was somewhat “known” as a pleasing radio “personality” and therefore many stations wanted to talk to me.
Part of the interview process includes a station tour where the owner or manager shows off their office, production facilities, etc.
But at this particular station, I noticed all the shelved albums (well over a thousand) were locked in place by a steel bar which prevented their removal from the shelf, unless the bar was unlocked.
But who the Hell would steal the records? During business hours, when the station was open, advertisers or promoters might come in, but they were always accompanied by station staff, so visitors couldn’t steal an album (or even a 45). So, when the doors were locked after 5 PM, who did that leave as a potential thief?
Answer: the DJ who was on air, and the news guy or gal. Sometimes, the sales manager might come in.
So, the owner of the station was paranoid about theft from his or her own people! I had worked at a number of stations, and had never seen a lockdown of the music library. It had to mean that employees and top management were not happy with each other, and I was NOT going to work in that kind of environment.
Thus, I stopped in my tracks and said, “Thanks for the tour, but I don’t think this will work for me.” And I was out the door before anyone could say, “Huh?”
Years ago, I lived in an apartment in a two-family building. Upstairs and downstairs.
The landlord had rented the downstairs to a woman and her three teenage kids. They were obnoxious, had fights constantly, played music so loud it literally shook the walls, and despite multiple complaints by other neighbors to the landlord and the police (because yes it was that bad), nothing was done.
While technically, landlords are supposed to do snow clearing after a snow fall, getting some landlords to do so in a timely manner is more effort than digging out the snow yourself. This was one such landlord.
That winter we had a bad snow storm, a few feet of snow.
The downstairs neighbor knocked on my door to ask when I, the older woman with no kids, would be shoveling out the apartments and driveway, all of it, by myself.
I told her I wouldn’t, but we could split the cost to have someone come over and do it since the landlord was extra full of excuses as to why it would take days to get to the property and do so.
She laughed and said she wasn’t paying. She then told me I was welcome to hire her 3 kids to dig out the entire property. Her kids were a big part of the problem as to why the cops were coming over constantly, and so no. I’d previously had problems with her children opening my mail and putting it back in my mail box or opening deliveries of mine. There was no way I’d pay them.
Oh hell no, first you expect someone older than you to do the work for free, then expect that I will pay your kids, who are apparently perfectly able to do so, to dig YOU out? Fuck that.
A friend’s husband was offering to dig people out for a reasonable rate. I contacted him and hired him. When he got there, I explained the neighbor issue and what I wanted and was willing to pay for. He was only to clear out MY half of the driveway/garage/sidewalk. Her sides were still untouched, because no one(Me) would pay her kids to do it.
He went the extra mile, splitting the snow between the yard, and her side, of everything. AKA her side ended up with more snow that needed to be cleared.
This level of petty
Picture from Google.
She complained to the landlord that:
1. I refused to shovel her side of the property for her and her family (I was not obligated to do ANY property maintenance at all)
2. I had refused to hire her kids to do it
3. I had hired someone and refused to pay him to clear her side.
Now this was a kinda shitty landlord, but still… I was amused that the landlord contacted me about it and agreed to reduce my rent the amount I paid to have MY side cleared, as well as tell me about the downstairs neighbor’s complaints about me.
Until I moved out, whenever there was snowfall, you would see a similar clearing pattern on the property. SO much so the other neighbors joked about it, and refused to hire her kids to clear their properties as well.
EDIT: Apparently there are a large number of people who feel the need to comment about how she could just use my side of the stairs as if I lack a functioning brain. Seriously, the level of condescending ‘splaining in the comments is a sad statement on so many here. Thanks all you Captain Obvious’.
Of course she could, as could the postal worker who had to use them to deliver mail(Something not one of those commenting about her using the stairs seemed to consider).
Her being able to use them or not wasn’t the point. So many of you making the same comment as if the more of you who say it, the more I will regret it, or as if I didn’t realize that years ago when I did it is mind-boggling.
For those clueless ones that feel the need to comment the obvious, you all missed the obvious point that it wasn’t about her use of the stairs, but the refusal to clear her side on her command.
My partner (not my husband). My mother had been really sick from cancer for 18 months, we were told that she was unlikely to make it past the weekend. With that being said I was completely distraught… my partner of 9 years said pack your stuff and leave first thing in the morning (400km drive). He woke me up at 430 am, had already packed the car and fueled it up for me. Had a travel mug of coffee ready and said call me when you get there. I left 5am Friday morning.
mum passed 8am Saturday morning (the next day). I called my partner and told him, he said I’ll move heaven and hell to get there as soon as I can. I said, don’t worry, there is nothing you can do, just be here in time for mums funeral (the upcoming Friday).
in the mean time, it was my birthday 4 days after mum had passed. My family tried to make it as special as it could be. But, it was quite a somber occasion. At 8pm, there were headlights at the top of the drive way (rural property). I know the sound of his car. I’m like it’s *partners name.
he had worked 12 hour shift (construction) then drove 400km to be with me in my darkest time to help me feel better on my birthday. In the days after mums passing I had not been able to sleep, or cry or anything but just barely function. I slept solidly that night.
I know most would say that or like to think their spouse would do the same. But, that level of love and support got me through my darkest days. Love this man so very much.
Unfortunately, this is the point. The U.S. is not filty rich but filty poor.
All those money for Ukraine and Israel we got by using the printing press. We’re now $33 trillion in debt.
We can’t pay for basic utilities to keep our house in order but we believe we’re still able to live the high life of showing off to the rest of the world how powerful we are.
Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongol conqueror, had a unique approach when it came to treating his soldiers. Known for his strategic brilliance and military prowess, Khan understood the importance of a strong and loyal army in his quest to build the largest empire in history. So how did he treat his soldiers?
First and foremost, Genghis Khan believed in meritocracy. He valued skill, loyalty, and bravery above all else. Regardless of their background or social status, anyone who demonstrated these qualities had the opportunity to rise through the ranks of his army. This approach fostered a sense of unity and purpose among his soldiers, as they knew that their achievements would be rewarded.
Khan was also an astute observer of human nature. He recognized that soldiers needed to be motivated and inspired to fight with unwavering dedication. To achieve this, he led by example. Genghis Khan was renowned for his courage on the battlefield, often placing himself at the forefront of his troops during crucial engagements. This not only boosted morale but also instilled a sense of camaraderie and trust among his soldiers.
In addition to leading from the front, Khan took great care of his troops’ physical well-being. He ensured that his soldiers were adequately fed, equipped, and cared for. The Mongol army was known for its skilled horsemen, and Khan prioritized the breeding and training of horses to provide his soldiers with superior mounts. This gave them a significant advantage in maneuverability and speed during battles.
Furthermore, Genghis Khan implemented a system of rewards and recognition for valorous acts. Soldiers who displayed exceptional bravery or achieved notable successes on the battlefield were given honors, titles, and even land. This not only motivated his soldiers to excel but also created a sense of pride and camaraderie within the ranks.
However, Khan was also a strict disciplinarian. He demanded discipline and obedience from his soldiers, as he believed that a well-disciplined army was crucial for maintaining order and achieving victory. Disobedience or betrayal was met with severe consequences, ensuring that his troops remained loyal and committed to the cause.
Woman EXPOSES The INEVITABLE Problem With Dating Modern Women | TRAINED/GROOMED To Be Masculine
I was in talks to design a business plan for one of those “Become a Millionaire” guys – aka a “Life Coach”.
As we moved along in talks I immediately got the heeby jeebies from the guy.
He was in his late 50’s and only seemed to brag about things he did in high school and his early 20’s. When I would ask about subsequent years, just to understand his career narrative, he would get thin on details and then squirm and change the subject.
So then I watched a few of his media interviews where his go-to story was about this incredible and vivid vision that came upon him when he was a child. A vision that he would someday become rich.
To his credit, it indeed came true. He was a wealthy man.
But it became true because he inherited his dad’s company when his dad passed away unexpectedly. He then immediately sold the company and spent the next 30 years doing a whole lot of nothing.
So now he is one of those people going around telling everyone he knows “that ONE special secret to getting rich”. He released his first book on becoming wealthy, which a bunch of unfortunate suckers bought.
And, no, I won’t tell you the title because he will sue the hell out of me.
But I’ll give you the cliff notes version, “Get rich by having a rich dad.”
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there that are like him.
Preying on people’s hopes and dreams in search of a dollar.
The American industrial system does not have such production capacity.
American shipyards do not have such production capacity: There is only a dry dock suitable for manufacturing aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers waiting for repair are still queuing;
The steel mills in the United States do not have such production capacity: The last scandal involving the use of low-quality steel made in Kobe, Japan, by US nuclear submarines has not yet passed. This batch of nuclear submarines with quality issues cannot dive at all, and diving into deep water will explode due to increased pressure. American warships are even unable to withstand the impact of fishing vessels, which fully proves the quality issues of the steel used in their shipbuilding.
There are not enough skilled workers in the United States
20 And Back – The Super Soldiers Defending the Kuiper Belt
Joe Biden is taking the World to the brink of World War III
What can the American people do about it?
SQUAT
…
Until 19/1/2025 at least, there is nothing any American citizen can do about it except watch the World plunge into war under the watch of a senile idiot who needs Diapers
So what is the use of saying
Biden is destroying USA and he must be kicked out
It’s just empty gas isn’t it. It’s just 10 words at the end of the day. Biden laughs and keeps doing whatever he likes for four years, unchecked
…
Same with every Democracy in the Planet
At the end of the day – WHAT IS THE END RESULT OF ABUSING OR CRITICISING THE LEADER?
Nothing
Either the Media suppresses it or people shrug and brazenly keep doing what they are doing
…
Take India
We have had Protests on every decision that has ruined the country
Demonetization, CAA, NCR etc
They matter Squat
Once in, Modi is in power for minimum 5 years and he can’t be shaken by the common man
…
France?
Same story
All those Protests and Screams and Shrieks about Pension reforms and Macron did exactly what he wanted
He is in charge till 2027
…
Same with South Korea , exports plunge to historic lows and people scream and protest but does it matter? Nopes
Taiwan?
Japan?
Germany?
So many protests begging to end the war and Germany openly and brazenly calls for Escalation
So what is the use of this damn free speech? You can say the words but they are worthless in every possible way
Now China
Yes
Maybe in China, saying these 10 words could be counter productive
However the people’s voice in China is heard much better than in any democracy
Lockdowns were ended post protests
Rural Banking Reforms were initiated after Protests
Crackdowns on Real Estate Financing was initiated after Protests
1.03 Crore Jobs have been added due to vigorous Weibo Netizen criticism
Tagging Schoolkids Or regulating online gaming has been deferred due to Weibo online protests
Plus the Biggest Biggest Thing…
Recently on the XI Jingping app, they asked if Chinas History for 6–9 Classes be modified and whether Chapters on the Boxer Rebellion and the Opium Wars had to be reduced
The Question was asked of Students who had already passed out their 9th Grade and above
79% Students said NO.
DON’T CHANGE HISTORY
They didn’t.
…
In India, US, and all those wonderful democracies – they don’t ask the kids do they????
So on one hand you have Western Democracies and their lapdogs where you can say what ever you want but can do zilch
Or China where your criticism must be tempered but as citizens you can achieve much greater control on Governance
The Chinese say WE LIKE OUR MODEL BETTER
I kinda agree with them
So you keep your Senile Alzheimer’s Ridden President and your ‘Freedom and Democracy’ and let the Chinese have their own version
I think you might want to edit the question to ask which item from Italian cuisine does the US actually get right.
Italian American cuisine is a cuisine in its own right. Millions of Italians immigrated to America and they adapted their traditional dishes to use American ingredients. Some of the ingredients they used at home were unavailable or too expensive in America, so changes were made. Successive generations didn’t know there was a difference between what they were eating and what was being cooked in the old country. They just accepted the food their families prepared as being Italian cuisine, which at heart, it is.
There’s a lot of water between America’s East Coast, the epicenter of Italian American cuisine, and the old boot herself. It’s that distance that led the creation of Italian American classics. If I had to point at one item the made the leap unmolested though, I’d name Sfogliatelle.
Sfogliatelle are a flaky pastry that originated in Campania. They’re made by rolling out dough, brushing it with lard or oil, rolling it up, cutting it into portions, shaping the pastry, filling it and baking. Sfogliatelle can be baked unfilled or filled with sweetened ricotta, almond paste or candied citrus zest. They’re simple to make and don’t call for any exotic ingredients. It’s the thin flakey layers that make sfogliatelle unique.
Ricotta filled:
If you’ve never tried these pastries, seek them out. They’re amazing and their recipe has not been molested by time or distance.
Life robbed me of my childhood. My parents had to quit school after grade 9 to help support their families. They vowed that my brother and I would not be barred from finishing school and going to University.
But we were poor, so they had no way to pay for it. So they propped me early. I knew by grade six that if I wanted to go to university, I would have to pay for it myself.
So in grade 8, I started mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
In grade 9 I got a part time job and worked 20 hours a week, in grade 10 ,30 hours, and grades 11 and 12 it was 40 hours. I graduated first in my class. I lived in a 10×14 ft room, with a roommate and the bathroom, was down the hall. I worked in the dorm cafeteria. When summer came I got a camp job, where I worked 360–380 hours a month, and they also paid room and board.
This was the way I graduated from university debt free.
So, as soon as I turned 13, I stopped having a childhood, and had an adulthood instead. So much for life being easy for baby boomers.
I’d do it all over again in a heart beat. Its what it took to break the cycle of poverty.
Because I am 71, I knew people who were in their prime of life a hundred years ago (1918) and there were definitely things that they did easily and routinely that are rarely done today:
Baking bread and caramel rolls. My grandmother learned it from her mother but did not pass it on to her daughters, probably because sliced store bread had essentially taken over.
Writing cursive and writing letters. I have saved some of my grandfather’s letters. For a person with an eighth grade education, he wrote simply but beautifully.
Sewing and mending. My grandmother was not wealthy, but she was capable of producing wonderful pajamas for all of her grandchildren on her trusty Singer. My generation has lost the ability to create heirlooms.
Gardening and canning the things they grew. In an era when you were not going to see fresh fruit or vegetables in stores after growing season, people developed great preservation skills. Things like pickles, berries, tomatoes were canned as were peaches and plums when in season. I do not remember kale or zucchini, however, and that was also a blessing.
Memory work. I grew up with great uncles and aunts (all born about 1900) who had memorized massive amounts of poetry and famous speeches as well as scripture. Rote learning was fairly normal in their education, so they did group memorization. We loved to hear their recitations.
I miss those folks. They just slipped away one at a time between the seventies and today.
This wasn’t me, this was my wife. She is a lawyer and was interviewing for a job managing the sale of properties. She was interviewing at a firm that specialised in really expensive and tricky sales and when she turned up to the interview she was told by the recruiter that the partners had told the last two people who were interviewed to leave midway through so they were quite abrupt!
She went to the interview, which went quite well, and they asked her to prepare an answer to a legal sale question. When she looked at it, she knew she had no hope: it was madly complicated and about a type of property sale that is known to be horrendous to do. She thought about trying to brazen it off and decided to be honest and say she had no idea.
It turned out the partners knew from looking at her CV she would have no idea about how to do it; it was something so complex the partner himself had had to do it himself. What they were trying to do was see how she reacted to something she didn’t know. The last two people interviewed had tried to make something up and so failed the test.
I was nowhere qualified as a computer tech but one time a friend of mine brought over a a desktop machine and keyboard and asked me to see if I could get it running as it wouldn’t boot up. Every time you’d plug in the power cord to the wall socket a strange odor would start permiating from the cover. I figured something was wrong with the power supply, which if push came to shove I could’ve probably went to an electronics supply store and bought another one and installed it. I was adept at soldering and replacing some common components at the time, which is why my friend thought that I could fix it.
Anyhoo, I removed the screws holding the cover to the unit, lifted the cover off and got the most absolute shock of my life!! Hundreds of live cockroaches start running out all over everywhere not to mention many more that were obviously dead inside that cover!
I came unglued along with a major panic attack! I’d never, ever had to deal with roaches after I became an adult. I despised them because while growing up my family and I always had a major problem with roaches and they were always into everything and would drop from the ceiling when you went into a room after turning on lights, etc etc etc.
I spent 2 hours stomping on and smashing roaches trying to prevent them from getting into places in my apartment where I couldn’t reach and in the long run wasn’t successful. Ended up moving out to get away from them making sure in the process that I didn’t inadvertently take any with me.
I was not happy with my friend. It caused a major, almost homicidal argument with him and it would be several years before we spoke again. The creepiness and ick factor of watching those roaches pile out of that machine that day still haunts me to this day.
Huawei refused to disclose its foundry information, sending the Biden team into madness.
Let’s talk about smart children. Particularly smart children in the United States. Particularly those in grades K-8 at a public school.
A lot of you reading this are, yourself, a product of the American public school system. Think back to your K-8 years. Do you remember people whose only job was to deal with the students with behavior problems? Were there “special education” teachers who had special classrooms with aides and all kinds of equipment for just a handful of students? Do you remember being bored a lot in school, because your teacher didn’t have the time to challenge you, because they were so busy re-teaching things to the students who didn’t get it the first time? Do you remember a handful of students who seemed to set the pace for the whole class, and that pace was much, much too slow for you? Do you remember a handful of students whose attitudes and behavior set the tone for the whole class? And was that a negative tone that left your teacher spending most of their time dealing with that small handful of students?
That was my experience, at least. In grades 4–8, I was one of about 20 students in a special gifted program in my school. But that gifted “program” was just two teachers who were given a spare classroom in five schools in the district, and they went to a different school every day of the week, and pulled out the gifted students from their classes for an hour, to play logic games with them.
One hour per week. That’s what we got.
Meanwhile, the students on the other end of the spectrum had resources thrown at them, including permanent classrooms with full-time teachers for students whose only “special need” was that they didn’t give a damn about learning.
I remember one incident in particular, when I realized just how much time my teachers wasted trying to get one particular student under control. His name was Anthony. One day, in seventh grade, we were learning about feudal Japan by playing a game where we were all on teams, given items to trade, and could use money we made to hire soldiers, and then there was a huge map of Japan on the wall, separated into regions, with the number of regions under each team’s control represented by different colored push pins.
My team started in Osaka. To this day, I know exactly where Osaka is because of this game back in 1992. I remember that we were the blue team, our main thing to trade was fish, and we began with five pushpin armies.
Also Judith was in my group, which made it even that much more enjoyable for me. She was forced to interact with me for a few minutes each day because of this.
It was a computer-less strategy game. I loved it. The game was supposed to last for a few weeks.
It lasted two days. On the third day, Anthony vandalized the giant game board, and some of his friends laughed. And that was it. The teacher was tired of putting in so much effort for something that students like Anthony just kept ruining. We did the rest of the unit, and every unit afterwards for the rest of the year, through textbook reading and worksheets.
But, as I thought about it, I realized that Anthony had been that way since he was first in my class in second grade. He was always out of control. He always set the pace and the tone for the class. In middle school, he got kicked out of class a lot, which just wasted a lot of time because he rarely went willingly and they had to call and wait for security. But he was always back in the class the next day. He just needed to “chill out.”
That was actually the name of the kick-out room for students like him: the “chill out room.”
I just Googled him and found a story that he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 for “domestic battery, drug possession, and forgery.”
Yep. All of that extra time, effort, and money the public school spent on him… how’d that work out?
That would be fine, if the public schools spent the same amount of time, effort, and money on the upper end of the spectrum.
My point is this: What’s the saddest truth about smart people? Public schools just aren’t equipped to deal with your special needs, because they’re too busy dealing with the special needs of students on the other end of the spectrum. The very people who have the most potential to give the most back to society are the same ones who school prioritizes the least.
Imagine a school system where every dollar spent on students on the lower end of the special needs spectrum had to be matched by a dollar for students on the higher end of the spectrum.
Imagine if, just like schools have resources in place for when the teachers need to kick out the Anthonys of the world, those same schools had resources for teachers to send out the students who were too smart for that day’s lesson.
“Timmy, you can read this and learn it on your own in five minutes, but I’m going to be teaching it to the rest of the class for the next hour. You can go to the gifted resource room and work with the teacher there on more advanced stuff.”
Imagine if, just as schools pay extra attention to students with special needs due to federal laws and fears of getting sued, schools did the same for students on the high end of the spectrum. Imagine if parents could threaten a lawsuit because the school wasn’t meeting the needs of their child… the legally-mandated requirement that the school challenge them on their academic level and not let their classmates hold them back.
Imagine how high your hot air balloon could be now, if not for the classroom sandbags that weighed you down when you were in school.
Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” it should be “No Child Forced To Wait.”
Gavin Newsom goes to China, one-ups Biden and meets Xi Jinping
“As a Californian, I can tell you that not only is Newsom not acceptable to the rest of America, California is not acceptable to the rest of America”.
It is likely that China will sell virtually all of its remaining U.S. Treasuries.
It is useful to look at Russia’s experience in this regard. Russia sold virtually all of its Treasuries in 2018, fairly quickly. At that time, Russia encouraged the world to dump U.S. Treasury bonds. Thus, it is possible for a country to officially not hold Treasuries.
After 2018, Russia continued to hold some foreign currency reserves in U S. dollars. When the Ukraine War started in 2022, the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars held by Russia.
As a result, the world has been forced to look elsewhere to store its savings. Both China and Russia are storing much of their wealth in physical gold. Other countries are doing the same. The planet is also increasingly doing business in currencies other than the dollar.
As a result of these trends, China will increasingly no longer need U.S. Treasuries to do business. In October 2023, China bought its first oil for Chinese Yuan. If this continues, China will get its oil for free, by printing Yuan. America will be forced to trade hard goods for oil in the future.
America’s leaders were very short-sighted to weaponize the dollar. A global reserve currency requires trust. The United States had a money-making machine, and voluntarily gave it up.
FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – TURKISH NAVY DEPLOYING 100 SHIPS AGAINST ISRAEL –~FIFTY (50) U.S. Military Transport Planes in 24 Hours to Middle East
FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – SEE 12:27 PM EDT UPDATE BELOW —— From Friday-into-Saturday, the United States sent no fewer than fifty (50) military transport planes loaded with troops to the Middle East. In addition, the list below shows “unprecedented” naval deployments. Today, Iran said they WILL NOT abide U.S. warnings to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
We begin with Naval Deployments into the Middle East showing 11 Countries in Support of Israel:
All of the above, along with Submarines and other support ships show an utterly massive naval deployment. I am told this present deployment is larger than the ones done prior to the US war(s) against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 1991 and again later.
In addition to all the above vessels, another Aircraft Carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, transited the Strait of Gibraltar yesterday morning around 11:00 AM, enroute to the eastern Mediterranean:
In addition to THAT additional aircraft carrier, the Navy of Italy is also now deploying vessels:
AIR
In the 24 hours period from Friday into Saturday, the United States flew 49+ military transport aircraft from the US to the Middle East, carrying TROOPS!
On top of those troop transport flights, a Significant number of C-17A Globemaster lll and C-5M Super Galaxy Transport Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command have been arriving in the Middle East.
The flight info above DOES NOT even cover the regular commercial airline flights the US has chartered to exclusively move troops!
Yesterday, Saturday 28 October 2023, Germany put 1,000 soldiers on alert for deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency The German Army keeps 1,000 troops on alert for possible deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency, given the prevailing tension in the region as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel.
This flight from Fort Sill, OK has my attention at the moment. Fort Sill is home to a THAAD battery and this flight appears to be headed overseas. There are no helpful ACARS for this flight, but this is possibly a THAAD battery flight enroute to Saudi Arabia:
At about 1:47 AM eastern US Time Sunday, which was about 11:00 AM in Tehran, Iran, the President of Iran said Tehran will not follow US warnings against interfering in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the Press service of the President of Iran: “Israel has crossed red lines, forcing everyone to take action.”
The President made it a point to also say “the presence of U.S warships in the region will make no difference to Tehran’s decision.”
Hal Turner Analysis
Based solely upon the movement of ships, troops, and planes, it is obvious to me the United States is going to war. A big war.
Trouble is the federal government under the Biden Regime has intentionally left the US southern border with Mexico, virtually open. Literally millions of illegal aliens have been entering the country via Mexico since Biden took office.
It is my opinion that many – but not all – of these illegal aliens are a “5th Column” sent here by adversaries to be “sleeper cells.” I believe that when war erupts in the Middle East, that WE HERE IN THE USA will also be attacked by these sleeper cells.
YOU must be ready with emergency food, water, medicine, a generator to make electric in case the grid is taken down. Have CASH MONEY in your possession incase cyber attacks take out the financial networks, making credit, debit, and SNAP/EBT useless. After all, almost no one takes checks anymore. So folks with cash will eat. Those without cash will go hungry.
The utterly massive movement of troops and weapons indicates to me that hostilities are imminent. Which could — and I emphasize “could” (not necessarily “will”) — trigger sleeper cell attacks here in America.
If you wait until trouble starts, then YOU and every other person who failed to plan, will all be rushing to stores at the same time trying to get food and supplies. In short order, store shelves will be empty and those of you who took no action, will find yourself standing in an empty store.
Don’t be like “the masses who are asses” that wait until the last minute to get supplies. Do it right now. Today.
And gas-up your cars, trucks, and spare gas cans for your generator.
Lastly, have COMMUNICATIONS GEAR – a CB or a HAM (Shortwave) radio — so if things go wild weasel, and communications like phone, fax, email, cellular/Internet all go down, at least YOU will be able to communicate locally (CB) and hear international news on shortwave (HAM).
Of course, some of you will say that this story and its advice is sort of like “Chicken Little, the sky is falling.” To those who would scoff I merely point out that, this morning, a U.S. E-6 Nuclear Command Post is now flying over the US East Coast:
The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command.
So it isn’t just ME telling you to take steps to prepare, it’s the US Military, too. Take the hint!
(PERSONAL: Sorry my coverage today begins at this late hour of 11:00 AM EDT. I slept-in this morning. Didn’t wake up until 9:25 AM. I was literally exhausted.)
********** FLASH ***********
UPDATE 12:27 PM EDT —
The Turkish Navy is, right now, transiting ONE-HUNDRED Naval Warships through the Bosporus Strait from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
It is BELIEVED Turkey plans to engage Israel over its ongoing military action in Gaza. War may break out between Turkey and Israel within Hours! ! ! !
Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.
Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.
These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.
The Colossus Machine
The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.
However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.
W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher
Cajun Pot Roast
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) beef sirloin or chuck roast
2 large garlic cloves, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
3 cayenne chiles, or jalapeno chiles, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 (4 ounce) can whole or sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Creole seasoning to taste
Instructions
Cut 1/2 to 3/4 inch slits into beef. Stuff one piece of garlic and one piece of chile into each slit. Season the roast with salt and pepper.
Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Add beef and brown well on all sides.
Add onion, bell pepper and minced garlic land sauté until tender.
Add water to pan to cover the beef.
Stir in the mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce and season with Creole seasoning.
Simmer, covered, for 3 to 4 hours or until tender, adding more water if needed to keep liquid level halfway up the beef.
Notes
You may stir 1 tablespoon flour mixed with 1 cup cold water into liquid near end of cooking for a thicker gravy.
I broke off a 10 year off and on relationship over a single piece of gum.
He and I weren’t on great terms for a long while. It was mostly out of his cheapness. He wouldn’t take me out to eat-we ate at his place. That wouldn’t have been bad except that he bought cheap items and used foods that had expired. I told him I wasn’t eating his cooking anymore, thank you. We watched TV but only shows he liked-he didn’t want to waste his time on my shows. I could watch them at my place.
Things were coming to a head and I knew the next fight we had would be the last. It was November when he called me and asked me to come over and fix his computer. I wasn’t in the best of moods-I finally had a free afternoon with the kids out with their father and I had things to do. Ok, I decided I would go over and see if I could do something to help. I got there and he already told me I had just an hour to get things right. Perfect start-no thanks for coming over, great to see you, etc.
He offered me a piece of gum. I haven’t chewed gum in years because it sticks to my dental work, and he knew it. Why was he offering me gum-was my breath stinky? After I thought about it for a moment, I took a piece. I didn’t even get it open when he started to yell at me-why is everything in your life a big decision? Don’t waste my gum-either take it or don’t! I paid money for that!
I immediately put the gum back on the table. He flips out again-you touched it not you don’t want it! What’s the matter with you? With me? I don’t chew gum, not in years! You knew that! I thought you were hinting my breath stunk so I took a piece of gum. Now you don’t want me to take the gum! Why don’t you make up YOUR mind?
He immediately moved my tech bag away from his computer and began to work on his computer. Don’t you want me to do that? No. You asked me to cone down here to help you, now you don’t want me to help you? Silence. Are we really going to have a fight about a piece of gum after I wasted my time and gas to come here? Silence.
I sat on the couch for a few minutes. I could have just stormed out the door. I wanted to compose myself and make it clear what would happen. I told him that I have spent 10 years doing for him, taking care of him when he was sick, lent him things like my cell phone and my car, then paid the repairs when he broke them and he never paid me back. I have put up with all this, and if we didn’t resolve what was really going on, I was leaving and not coming back. All I got was silence. Are we really going to break up over a damned piece of gum? Silence.
I picked up my things and I left. I never went back. I blocked his number from my cell phone. I had a feeling I knew what happened because he did it to me before. He used to get moody around Thanksgiving time and lots of times we broke up so he could avoid my birthday in December and Christmas/Chanukah/Valentines Day. He used to call around March to renew our friendship but his birthday was in April and he really wanted a present. I just had enough of his childishness, his cheapness and his abusive control. It was just one fight too many and I was done.
He did email me the following April-after I sent nothing for his birthday. I emailed him back that I told him that after our last fight, I was done and I wanted nothing more to do with him. He replied that he forgot what we fought about, and I told him that it was over a piece of gum. Then I blocked his email.
He called from another phone the following September, demanding I stop being stupid and get back together. What a lovely invitation, no woman can resist that, I answered. Then he threatened me. I told him to come over and try to f*** me up. I had an old lead pipe my father had and it had his name on it. I told him I’ll invite my neighbors to watch me smear him all over the street. My temper broke and I told him about the horrible things he did to me over the years. He finally said “I guess you’re mad at me, huh?” I hung up and blocked his new number too.
He attempted to contact me a few times through his friends but I told them I would go to the police and file harassment charges. He finally moved out of New York City-he attempted to contact me from his mother’s home in Tennessee. I blocked that too. He’s been blocked in every social media site so I don’t have to deal with him.
He had 10 years to grow up and apologize. The words aren’t in his vocabulary. I know the piece of gum wasn’t the reason our relationship ended-it was years of my giving and him taking and never appreciating what he got. But that stupid piece of gum was the catalyst. To this day, when I see a pack of Wrigley’s gum, I still smirk with amused disgust.
I interviewed for a support engineering role, the interviewer asked me how a fluorescent light fitting worked. I explained what I knew about the ballast, starter and gas tube etc. He delved deeper and I drew a rudimentary circuit diagram. When he asked exactly how the starter worked I was stumped, so I said “I don’t know”.
He told me that he must’ve had 2 dozen other applicants attempt to convince him how it all worked, but being able to admit I didn’t know something landed me the job. I learnt how knowing one’s limitations is so important.
Despite increased attacks on US occupation bases, Joe Biden has reportedly turned down more ‘aggressive bombing options’ in Syria out of fear that a wider conflict may erupt
NOV 13, 2023
(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)
Several missile and drone strikes targeted US occupation bases in Syria on 13 November in response to the latest round of US airstrikes on alleged Iranian targets in the country.
Fifteen missiles targeted the US base in the Conoco gas field, sources told Al-Mayadeen, adding that US helicopters began making flights ten minutes after the strike.
“The Conoco base was targeted with advanced Grad missiles, which led to the death of four US soldiers,” Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.
Field sources told Al-Mayadeen that the attacks were carried out by the “Popular Resistance” in Syria.
In a second response to US airstrikes, three drones struck the Al-Shaddadi military base in Hasakah, northeastern Syria.
The US Green Village base at the Al-Omar oilfield northeastern Syria, was also hit with a drone. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a coalition of Iraqi resistance factions formed last month in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
The coalition was formed to confront US forces in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and in rejection of US support for Israel in the war, and has been targeting US bases on a regular basis.
Hours before Monday’s attacks, US warplanes carried out several airstrikes in eastern Syria.
Washington claimed the attacks targeted facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent, the US airstrikes “targeted a house in the town of Al-Mayadeen, which led to the death of a citizen and the injury of another.”
US jets have struck Syria several times over the past month in retaliation to the unprecedented surge in resistance attacks against US military bases in Iraq and Syria. Washington has labeled the attacks as “self-defense.”
According to the New York Times (NYT), US President Joe Biden “has rejected more aggressive bombing options proposed by the Pentagon out of fear of provoking a wider conflict with Iran.”
The newspaper also cites Republicans in Congress as saying that Washington’s strikes on Syria “only invite more frequent and more dangerous attacks against US troops in the region.”
There have been at least 48 resistance attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
“At least 56 U.S. service members had been injured. Roughly half of those suffered traumatic brain injuries, and two had to be flown to Landstuhl military hospital in Germany for treatment,” the NYT adds.
There doesn’t seem to be many who are rude. My story is about a beautiful and kind woman.
Many years ago I was in O’Hara airport getting ready to fly home from Navy boot camp. As I waited, I saw what looked like a Hollywood photo shoot going on. I walked over with my nearly bald head and baggy Navy uniform and talked to an absolutely beautiful woman, dressed like an Elf. She was friendly and asked where I was from and what my home was like. We talked for about 10 minutes. As I needed to catch my plane, I thanked her for taking the time to speak with me. I asked her what her name was. It was Ann-Margaret. Surprise! I’ve had a soft spot for her since our meeting.
There have been a lot of memes lately, discussing this subject:
It’s viewed as a sort of work-around to all of life’s problems:
These’s memes are funny and all (sometimes), but they also have some truth.
A good portion of depressed people definitely view suicide as a way out and they genuinely think it’s the only way.
But it’s not.
Sunday, Nov 18 is my late-uncle’s birthday.
No one ever talks about him in my family. And of the few times he’s brought up, is always in relation to his suicide or mental illness.
He lived a pretty amazing life, but the memory of his suicide looms over the conversations around him.
It’s not like we never talk about him, or that suicide is strictly the only thing that we remember about him. There’s just no solace to the memory of his passing, suicide is something that is preventable, it didn’t have to be this way.
And, unfortunately, it’s the same with my idol, Chester Bennington.
In every Linkin Park YouTube music video, all the comments are the same. They’re ALL about his depression or his death.
No one talks about his life, how he made it big after a period of being homeless. How Linkin Park immediately knew who their lead singer was after his audition; how Chester would always do screaming vocal warmups, which could be heard several changing rooms away, before each of his live performances.
No one talks about that anymore.
If I’d killed myself on year ago, all I’d be remembered as was “that quiet kid who killed himself.”
You have a lot to be remembered for.
Stan Lee, who passed away on Nov 12, 2018, is positively cherished by fans.
So much material was circulated recently about his life and work.
There was a meme about how he drew the Peter Parker meets MJ comic strip based on the time he first saw his future wife. There were memes of his cameos in Marvel movies, memes of Infinity war, Spider-man memes….
It was awesome.
And nobody was particularly sad, rather they celebrated everything he did in his 95 year life on Earth.
You have a lot to live for.
And a lot to be remembered by.
And even if things don’t get better quickly.
Don’t tarnish that with suicide.
It’s not worth it.
You are worth it.
You are worth a good life and the world deserves your proud legacy.
During my very first visit to China, there were a couple of things that took me by surprise:
Massive malls absolutely everywhere
I’ve heard that Chinese food is so much better in China than what you get in other countries, but that’s is a massive understatement. There is so much diversity in food options, all of it is amazingly delicious and very reasonably priced. I could not get enough of it, and I can’t wait for my next visit so I can stuff my face with all that deliciousness again!
I didn’t expect to have that much trouble finding restaurants or shops that accept foreign bank cards. Some locations only allow Alipay. Also, apps like Didi are not available to foreigners as you need a Chinese number to sign up, and hailing a taxi is not always easy.
I saw very few tags or graffiti on buildings in big Chinese cities. Those are a major issue in pretty much every European city, as even historical buildings get smeared in tags, so this was a welcome surprise.
Excellent public transportation – so cheap and easy to use!
All the people I’ve met were absolutely lovely and extremely helpful. Also, there are so many older people in the parks, exercising or dancing, which is refreshing to see.
There is never any paper in bathrooms, so you have to carry a roll with you
The only thing that slightly threw me off during my very first visit was that people in China often take pictures of foreigners without asking. I’m very visibly a foreigner, so I always get quite a bit of attention when I’m travelling in Asia. I’m used to that, and I never decline a picture with some curious locals, as I find it a sweet experience. However, in China, while many approached and asked for a photo, there were many more who just tried to ‘’sneakily’’ take it, which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable at times.
As a tiny woman travelling alone I felt quite safe, even at night in less populated areas.
My wife and kids lived upstairs in my parent’s house. My Dad passed before my Mom. When she passed, as the only child, I had to sort out her bills, insurance, etc. My Mom was a school teacher for many years and received SS and a pension. At her time of retiring, she did not make as much as teachers do today. A few days after her funeral, I was sitting at her desk going through her checkbook to see what was paid and so forth. When I looked at the deposits, I started to see bill after bill after bill being paid, leaving her with very little left over. I am still saddened to this day, many years later, that I never knew the depth of how bad things really were. We could have contributed more to the household, but she hid most of this from us, trying to spare us any hardship. This is the single biggest regret I have in her passing, knowing I could have eased her burden, as she was the most loving mother one could ask for. She worked her whole life to teach children and raise me, who deserved so much more in her retirement. I am shedding tears as I write this, and hope that others can take more of an active role in their parents lives (when allowed) while they are still with us.
While employed as a pizza delivery rider, after the lifting of the COVID lock-down, our company decided to pull a fast one.
A memo from the head office was circulated among all restaurant staff at all branches. It basically said that the company was so concerned about our welfare in these trying times that they were willing to keep a percentage of our weekly salary for us as a form of savings. The memo also mentioned that if we agreed to this ‘Pizza Savings’ (my term, not theirs) that we will be getting 0% interest.
My delivery co-worker and I had a field day with that memo. We read it several times in disbelief and laughed. The owners could not be serious.
It was obvious they wanted to get a loan/invest in something. It was as if they told themselves instead of taking a 16% interest loan from the bank why not simply take it from their uneducated restaurant workers, all they needed was our signatures.
I went around some of the co-workers joking about it. Most of us laughed it off but two of them couldn’t understand what was so funny.
‘But we’re getting 0% interest!’ an older woman working the grill said.
She seemed to have the idea that this was a good thing. Apparently she had had so many loans in the past that to her the word interest = bad.
I explained to her it was a savings and not a loan. That with savings you want the highest interest you could get and the exact opposite when it comes to a loan.
‘But isn’t it good to have a savings?’ one of the teenaged girls working the pizza table said.
I explained to her it is a good thing but it makes no sense to save your money with someone giving you 0%. I tried explaining how banks work, about buying shares etc and getting the best rates for your money. Both women looked at me in silence.
In the end they both decided to ‘try it out.’
I didn’t know what shocked me more. The fact that the restaurant attempted that stunt or the fact that it actually worked on two employees.
Controller got fired for all the right reasons. On his way out, and before his access was deleted, he programmed a very, very offensive message on the Windows start menu for the entire company-something along the lines of “fxxx you, (name of the CFO)”. Now I’ll admit the guy had it coming, but will also say that the CFO was the biggest a-hole I’ve ever met. Anyway, it took the IT guys weeks before they were able to fix it (always wondered why it took sooooo loooong).
As a 45 year old, I started feeling very tired. I fell asleep in the bathroom at work one day. Went home and thought I was coming down with a cold. Never actually got cold symptoms, but could barely move my body. It felt like all of my extremities were filled with lead. Then I started getting dizzy. Then I started to vomit. I went to an urgent care center and told them all of the above symptoms and how now I’m vomiting and peeing every 5 minutes. I even told them I was vomiting black stuff which they informed me was blood. I was told I just had a stomach virus like people get on cruise ships. I said I have never been on a cruise ship in my life. I was sent home with antinausea meds. I had lost about 15 lbs in 3 days. That night and next day still vomiting and now breathing in short gasps. Now my body is shivering uncontrollably and I can barely move and still vomiting blood. My kids found me on the kitchen floor and took me to the ER. I was rushed back and found out I was in diabetic ketoacidosis. My body was shutting down. I was about a day away from death. My blood sugar was 854. I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic.
While hospitalized, I received a survey from the urgent care center asking how my experience was. I’ll told them that I almost died thanks to them, but other than that it was great.
Years back when Subway still gave you tickets to collect for free subs, my kids’ mother and I were going to have dinner and movie night with my brother and his wife. Subway was the night’s choice. Well, it is Friday evening and the video store is packed. So we’re standing in line waiting to check out our movies, and she is going through these Subway tickets. She asks me,
“I don’t supposed you’ll eat a 6 inch?”
To which I responded, in a building with over 150 people in it, without even missing a beat,
“No, if I don’t get 12 inches, I’m just not satisfied.”
Children were laughing at me. Had it not been so hilarious, I would be mortified of that story getting out.
A United States Air Force E-4B aircraft, which is a designated National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) took off from Offutt Air Force Base this afternoon, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico, and Transmitted an Emergency Action Message (EAM) to US Nuclear Missile Submarines, using Very Low Frequency (VLF) Comms.
There’s something unnerving seeing a E-4B NAOC (GORDO16) and a E-6B TACAMO (FULL02) launch from Offutt AFB around the same time. As you can see from the FlightRadar24 map image below, that’s what happened.
The E-4B
The E-4B serves as the National Airborne Operations Center and is a key component of the National Military Command System for the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In case of national emergency or destruction of ground command and control centers, the aircraft provides a highly survivable command, control and communications center to direct U.S. forces, execute emergency war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities.
The conduct of E-4B operations encompasses all phases of the threat spectrum. Additionally, the E-4B provides outside the continental United States travel support for the Secretary of Defense and his staff to ensure Title 10 command and control connectivity.
The E-6B
The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command.
Only One Job:
The E-4B and E-6B at the end of the day only have one job: getting the message out (Nuclear launch codes) from the NCA (National Command Authority) to the United States Nuclear Triad by any means necessary.
Those means include a variety of waveforms including VLF, HF, UHF, SHF and beyond.
A B-52, B-2, ICBM Silo, or Submarine, will decode these encrypted messages and either launch their nuclear weapons at an intended target – – or not – – based on the decisions of our elected public officials.
So imagine my dismay when surveillance picked up the E-4B transmitting an EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGE(EAM) while out over the Gulf of Mexico this afternoon! More specifically, the aircraft was messaging our nuclear missile SUBMARINES because it was using VLF, Very Low Frequency, to send the encoded message. VLF is the band that penetrates the ocean to sufficient depth, to reach our submerged nuclear missile subs.
USA civil war?
The state of Colorado ruled Trump ineligible for the 2024 election. An account of something something insurrection democracy something.
As it stands, Trump will compete in only 49 states in the election.
It is likely, others will follow. If a few swing states do it, then result of the election is successfully altered.
If supreme court does not strike these down, the United States is officially no longer a democracy.
If supreme court strikes it down, the damage is still done. People will lose trust that their vote matters.
The country is headed into civil war.
Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 21 2023 16:26 utc | 3
Began the telemarketer. We’d been getting a lot of those calls in the past few weeks and I was about 19 or so, so my evil little comedic mind was at work.
Here’s the thing: no one asks those bastards (you know I wanted to say something else) to call us personally! We want them to stop. It was back in the early days of this crap and many of the accents over the phone were still American.
“I have amazing news!!”
“You found a kidney??!”
“Uh, what?”
“You found a kidney!!!! You’re from the hospital, right? We’ve been waiting by the phone and- and I just can’t believe this is really happening; bless you; thank God!”
“Um…no… I’m… calling about (something he suddenly had dramatically less confidence in).”
“You- you’re not from the hospital?”
“No, sorry, I-“
(I turned my head from the phone and didn’t really muffle it properly.) “Oh, don’t cry, Sarah, sweetie! They’ll find one! It’s okay sweetheart, don’t worry.”
(I turned back to the phone.) “I’ll just call back later.”
“Thanks; I’m sorry: could you please keep the line clear? We’re waiting to hear from the hospital.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do that.”
It got played about 2 more times and then those bastards stopped harassing us by phone to buy or sign on to their whatever.
Meanwhile, about China…
US are completely paranoid about China overtaking them, their tactics to block them has simply backfired spectacularly, so the US resort to scaring every neighbour of China into thinking they are going to invade them, including us.
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand 19h This is a good read on “why the American technological war against China could backfire” and “supercharge China’s creation of an independent computer chip industry”. theconversation.com/why-the-…
It’s exactly what is happening and at the end of the day, as the article makes clear, it’s all about hubris.
It was always beyond delusional for the US to believe that it could stop the technological progress of a country that IS AHEAD OF THEM on all metrics that matter for it, as detailed in the article: – “Chinese high schoolers score the highest in the world in reading, science and mathematics” – “Chinese universities are outperforming institutions in the rest of the world in the vast majority of disciplines”. For instance, critically, China has 6 of the top 10 universities in the world in engineering whilst the US only has 2… – China produces more than double the number of STEM PhDs every year than the U.S. – “In 2022, China overtook the U.S. for the first time as the country or territory publishing the most research articles in prestigious natural science journals” – “China published the highest number of scientific research papers annually between 2018 and 2020, and had 27.2 per cent of the world’s top one per cent of the most frequently cited papers, compared to 24.9 per cent for the U.S.” – According to research done by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute “China is leading [the world] in 37 of 44 cutting-edge technologies, including nanoscale materials and synthetic biology” – Etc.
Conclusion from the article: “When it comes to the use and production of knowledge-based industries, China has more advantages than any other country in the world. American actions will create a new generation of Chinese high-tech firms that will compete directly with the U.S. and western businesses from whom they used to buy their products. These firms will produce more affordable products than their western counterparts, and could dominate technological infrastructure in the Global South.”
In a nutshell the very notion that China is a country whose technological progress could be stopped is almost criminally deluded, and derives from both a deep misunderstanding of China by the US and a deep overestimation of American capabilities… Adopting this strategy is backfiring big time and will without a doubt yield a considerably worse result for the US than if they’d favored a “coexistence” collaborative approach 🤷♂️
When I worked security, I knew people whose job consisted entirely of occupying a space for a long period of time.
Technically, they were securing the area and they had a walkie-talkie to call the rest of us if anyone tried to go into the area who shouldn’t have been there. But no one ever tried to get into those areas.
I worked at an outdoor concert place that had upscale restaurants around the perimeter of the grounds. Those restaurants closed when the show started, and security guards were put in the restaurants to make sure no drunk concert goers tried breaking into them.
I volunteered for that position once, and never again. I literally sat in a dark, empty restaurant for four hours. I could hear the music outside, and I could see people walking by the windows, but no one tried to come into the restaurant. No one ever tried. It was so boring… I requested to be in front of the stage for shows after that.
I was skidding through my freshman year, sleepwalking to classes and nursing hangovers. I’d just stepped into an elevator on our first day and noticed Professor Kaplan standing next to me. I’d heard about him. He was allegedly one of the best professors, a former Harvard lecturer.
I turned and said, “Greetings professor! I believe I’m attending your lecture today.” Holding his notebooks, he turned, smiled, and said, “My condolences.” And then he proceeded to give one of the best lectures I’ve ever seen. His display of humility in that elevator made him that much more endearing.
Self-deprecating humor, done lightly, and framed in a positive way, is powerfully charismatic. It makes people feel comfortable and appeals to their insecurities. But if you make a joke about your third wife leaving you, you might be overkilling it.
A lot of people think I’m paid to write the things I write, I merely have a fair bit of free time. Today was the last day for my day job until next year, tomorrow is a massive party though…
Anyway me and a couple of other shit posters irritate enormous amounts of westerners merely by our free time shit posting.
People don’t like to argue against me because I like to use western media to debunk western media. Last night for instance a person said the BBC is honest. I then showed them two BBC clips together and one was very different.
Imagine 500million extra internet users even MORE aggressive and shit postery than me? I say 500 million because while 900 million people can write English to an OK level only about 500 million are proficient.
Imagine ME x 500 or x 5000. And here’s the thing, I’m overseas born, so I’m a hell of a lot easier going than a lot of Chinese people.
Back in 2006 me and a friend had been Christmas shopping, and it was a big outing for me, I had been battling Leukemia for a number of years, and after having a bone marrow transplant I was finally able to be out of a sterile environment,.
We went into a Restaurant and were seated right next to a table where 3 quite over weight women were seated.
I was very thin, I am 5 foot 7 and at the time weighed about 105 lbs. I didn’t have much of an appetite, so when finished my meal was barely touched, the waitress asked me if I wanted a box to take food with me, and I said no.
Well that prompted one of the “ ladies” to loudly say say “ Skinny Bitch, you can tell SHE is on drugs”!
I just looked at her and said “ well, not since the bone marrow transplant, thankfully I am done with Chemo.”
Back in 1981, I was kitchen manager at a new pizza place in town. We were about 4 months in and turning a good profit. The guy who managed the place was a great guy and everyone who worked there loved him. The actual owner of the place had a daughter with a boyfriend. He fired our boss for no reason and said his brat’s boyfriend was the new boss, a guy who had never worked in food service before (it’s just a pizza joint, how hard could it be?). Then we were told we would need to be attend a meeting to talk about these changes at 4:00pm. We did the following: 1) added shit-tons of salt and cayenne pepper to existing pizza sauces, 2) changed the printed recipe for dough to make it unlikely to rise correctly, and if it did rise to certainly taste bad, 3) change the sauce recipe to make it inedible, and 4) swap all the lines around for the soda machine, so that when you dispensed from Coke, Dr. Pepper came out, etc. We only had beer in bottles, and our bottles were longneck deposit bottles, and they hadn’t picked them up yet, so we loaded all the beer into the back of a pickup truck, filled the beer cooler with empties, and took the beer to an undisclosed location. Four o’clock came around and everyone was there. New boss, his girlfriend, and the owner were there and as soon as the new manager was introduced, we got up, walked out the door, and soon found ourselves at said undisclosed location, partaking in recently purloined beer and repeatedly calling in take-out orders that would never be picked up. Did I mention, there was a reservation for a party of 30 that night at 6:00?
Besides making a bad life decision that cost him his life, he also got the opportunity to take a step back but decided to dive back in immediately:
There is an island called “North Sentinel” which is home to 150 natives who vehemently refuse all contact with the outside world.
This rule makes sense, as these human beings are not accustomed to the diseases of the modern world, and any contact could lead to contamination that would be fatal to their small tribe.
But this didn’t stop John Allex Chau, a 27-year-old preacher, from travelling to the island to preach about Jesus Christ.
He was showered with arrows which, fortunately for him, all missed their target.
Logically, he decided to return the following day for a second attempt.
A completely dumb decision, as the poor man would never leave the island alive.
Didn’t he think God was maybe sending him a divine message the first time the arrows missed his head?
A few years ago, I was charged with ordering breakfast sandwiches for everyone in the office for our morning meeting.
As I went around and got everyone’s orders, ‘Dave’ specifically asked for no mayo on his sandwich. I made a note on the order next to his name that said “NO MAYO” and sent in the order.
Half an hour later, I was distributing the sandwiches and heard Dave say, “Oh, har har har. You’re so funny, Kate.”
I came over to see what he was talking about and started laughing.
Dave’s ‘sandwich’ was comprised of two buns that were swimming in mayo.
No egg.
No bacon.
No cheese.
No ham.
Just an ungodly amount of mayo everywhere.
Someone had to have emptied half a container of mayo in between the buns, and thought, “Hmmm… not quite enough”. And then slathered the outside of the buns, and then thought, “Nope, doesn’t cut it!”. And then wiped more mayo on the inside of the packaging.
After I finished laughing, I took it back and showed the cashier who was absolutely appalled at the mayo monstrosity in my hands.
She went in the back and asked the other guys what the hell had happened and why on earth they made a mayo sandwich.
Apparently they thought it said “Only mayo.”
In which case, they fucking nailed it.
Modern Women Are FREAKING OUT As 63% Of Men Have WILLINGLY Left The Dating Scene
Keep it simple. 50% of women in the 20s and 30s today will NEVER get married, and will NEVER have children. Up your game girls
I was 18 and at home with dad, while mom and my brother had gone out of town.
He asked me if I wanted to watch any movie and I replied a big enthusiastic yes.
I suggested a Bollywood movie Gangster. He agreed. I hadn’t seen the movie’s trailer. What a mistake.
We went to the mall, got the tickets.
When the awkward scenes started, he turned to me and said,
“You should watch such movies with your friends. Why did you tag me along?”
“I am sorry I didn’t know they had such scenes.”
“No worries. Let’s see the movie now. Next time see the trailer before suggesting it to me.”
When it got over we went over to the food court for dinner.
I noticed a guy and wondered where have I seen him when my dad said,
“He is not your type.”
“What?”
“He is not your type.”
“Who? I was not looking at him in that sense.”
He smiled.
“What makes you think he is not my type.”
“He has a moustache. You hate moustaches.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well you know right, I had a moustache till you were a toddler? You would constantly pull them and say you hate it. Why do you think I have been moustache free all these years?”
I smiled at the memory when he pointed to another fellow and said,
Not me, but I was there. My mom was driving and my brother & I, about 9&6 years old, were fighting in the back seat. She’s yelling at us to stop fighting, and didn’t realize that she got into the town speed limit zone (35 instead of 45).
The cop came up and asked why she was going so fast, and she told him. Next thing you know, he’s got the back door open and is lecturing us about how mom needs to pay attention while driving and if we are fighting in the back seat she can’t. And if he catches us fighting in the back seat again, he might have to arrest us. Then he told my mom to drive safe, and to let him know if we caused any more trouble.
Years later, I asked her if she remembered. She laughed, and let me know that of course she did. He had been one of her classmates, she had known him since they were little kids.
I read a book about a magician who performed a stunt where he was locked into a glass box above the city. He did not eat for 53 days, he could only drink water. His stunt had to quit as doctors were monitoring his vitals and after 53 days they started to get too bad.
I couldn’t believe someone could fast that long without food and live, so I wanted to try it myself. I like challenging myself in weird ways I guess. But, I had to make sure I wouldn’t die first, a lot of people told me I probably would.
It turns out, fasting has been used for centuries as a form of healing. Catholic churches had fasting centers where people could come when they got sick back in the day. Jesus, Gandhi, and pretty much every religious figure did it. It was well known that fasting healed the mind and the body.
I read a lot of literature on how fasting has reduced cancerous tumors and even autoimmune diseases. I read about all of it’s supposed health benefits: teeth whitening, skin clearing, tumor shrinkage, plaque eating, and fat reduction. They all sounded good to me. It said you got a heightened clarity of mind after 21 days so that was the time frame I decided to do.
I began my fast. The first day wasn’t bad. The second day I got really hungry and then it went away. The third and fourth day were bad. I was so hungry I didn’t even leave my couch. I just sucked down water all day and slept. Apparently, after 72 hours your body goes into ketosis and starts living off of fat reserves. I think it took closer to 96 hours for me.
After that, I completely lost my hunger. I actually had a lot of energy. The hard part wasn’t eating, I no longer wanted food. The hard part was boredom!!! I suddenly went from eating 3 meals a day to eating nothing. The time I spent cooking, eating, and washing dishes was given back to me, probably at least 4 hours. I couldn’t work out (bad on a fast) so that was out. I couldn’t do any social things because those all involved eating a meal, drinking coffee, or alcohol, none of which I could do at the moment. So, I became ultra productive. I got all my homework done weeks in advance, I started crocheting and painting, and I slept a lot. My mom and friends received calls from me every day. I had so much TIME.
Some days I felt weak, but other days I had a ton of energy. I felt great and really happy. My skin cleared up a lot after the 10th day and I did notice my teeth getting whiter. My tongue got white stuff on it; according to the internet that’s a way your body gets rid of toxins. I lost around a pound of weight a day.
After the 21st day, I was ready to eat again out of boredom. I started by drinking a decaf coffee. That was a mistake, my stomach had lost its lining so the acidity of coffee made me throw up. Everything I ate was really intense. Fruit tasted sweeter and everything had so much flavor.
Overall, I’d lost 24 pounds and I looked really good. But, I had never regained hunger. That meant I still had fat stores on me. If you fast long enough, you’ll regain hunger one day which they call your “true hunger”. That means your fat reserves are up and your body will start eating your muscles to survive, so you really need to start eating after that! I’d also lost some muscle, I was weaker at the gym now, but I regained my muscle quickly.
Most people, if you’re a normal weight, can fast 20-40 days before regaining hunger, before their total fat stores are up. After regaining hunger, your body starts to eat muscle tissue for energy, which includes your heart, and it’s only a matter of time before it will give out. Perhaps 7–20 days until death as preducted by some studies.
But, if you’re overweight or obese, you’ll have a ton of fat stores ready to use. One guy fasted for 384 days under medical supervision on nothing but water and tea with no adverse affects. I’m sure he could have made it quite a while longer until his fat stores were completely up but he ended the fast when he hit 180 lbs.
So the answer is, it varies. But, if you’re of a normal weight, your maximum is probably somewhere from 20-40 days until your muscle tissue begins to get compromised.
Yep! I was 17 working at a mom ’n pop kinda thing, local hardware store. The type where entry-level workers just write in what they can work on a calendar posted in the back room.
Well, one day, the owner came to me and told me that there was about $50 missing from my register. I was usually one of the closers, and I always went to the bank with the nighttime lead to drop off the deposit. I thought maybe I just counted wrong or something. The owner said that if he saw that kind of discrepancy again, I would be fired. I said ok, yes, I understand. I worked for about another week, but I could tell that I was being watched by hawks.
So when I went the next week to write myself in on the schedule, I saw my name crossed out with White-Out on the calendar. Confused and a bit suspicious, I wrote myself back on. When I came in for work, the owner pulled me aside and told me that there was another $70 found missing from my drawer and that I was no longer employed there. Well, ok, fine. Maybe I can’t count, or I’m just an idiot, but whatever. I kind of knew I was going to be fired soon when I saw my name whited-out on the calendar.
For the record, I was at a party with a bunch of random neighborhood friends a few years later, and I overheard a guy I used to work with talking trash about the hardware store and how he robbed the place blind and didn’t even get fired for it—someone else did.
Almond Chicken
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
1 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons soy sauce
12 ounces Chinese pea pods
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup natural whole almonds
3 to 4 tablespoons water
1/3 cup sherry
Instructions
Skin, bone and cut up chicken breasts into 1/2-inch cubes.
In a bowl, mix ginger, honey and cornstarch and blend in water, soy sauce and sherry.
Thaw pea pods if frozen. In a wok, heat oil over medium heat.
Add almonds, stirring and cooking for about 3 minutes.
Add chicken and cook just until meat turns white.
Pour in sherry mixture and cook until sauce thickens.
I was working in a supermarket in October 2001. I bent down to pick a can of beans off the bottom shelf on an aisle.
As I stood up, my vision shattered.
Image: My vision shattered much like looking into a light diffuser on a fluorescent light.
I also began with a severe headache on the right side of my head.
Over the next few days the headache went away but my vision remained poor inmy right eye.
I was sent to a local eye hospital by my doctor and there I was told after several days of testing that I had Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder in the same family as Lupus.
The eye problem was a blood clot that had formed and destroyed the blood supply to the retina of my right eye. Treatment was to be life long and I would need to take blood thinners, then Warfarin though today I take other blood thinner drugs.
I also had to have extensive laser surgery on my right eye to prevent further damage from the clot and resulting new blood vessel growth.
Five and a half years later, when I was going through a non theraputic dosage of Warfarin. I had a similar event, a blood clot formed in my left eye. Destroying that retina and leaving me legally blind.
Let me help to makes western admirers amongst orientals such as Japan-and South Korea, people from greater China such as Hong Kong and Taiwan and neighbours such as Phillipines and Vietnam see light.
I am qualified to advise and share my experience. I was born in Malaysia and now a Singaporean who were a starry eye west admirer for say the first 20 years of my life.
Today I am a practical and pragmatic person who sees things differently. If your nation is a direct neighbour or in Chinese neighbourhood, try to comprehend the following.
China has been around for 5000 years as your neighbour and during 4800 out of the 5000 years China were really really strong. In fact so strong it could if it wants to, to walk right into your nation and claimed it for good. But they didn’t. Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam and others remain a fully sovereign nation. Appreciate that.
Just look at the nation that lies and spread fear about China, the U.S. it is barely 247 years old yet it started as a 13 states union and in less than a hundred years it stole another 37 states from its neighbours. And what did the U.S. do in Asia! It murdered 3 million Vietnamese, a million each in Philippines in Mindanao, Laos and Cambodia, and at least 2 million suspected communists in Indonesia and colonised the Philippines for close to 50 years.
And they do that as a nation 10 thousand miles away from Asia! China is stone’s throw away from your shores yet you are still independent! So be logical and honest about who is the aggressor and who respects your sovereignty? If you are fair China is a 5000 years gentleman. The U.S. is a 247 years hoodlum you never ever want to get close with, unless you are inviting trouble.
Next let me help you know your future. China is the world’s most humongous market. Your nation is blessed to have such a huge market at your door step. They can buy your products and resources and yet supply you with value for money product for a song.
They are not the despicable west who wants to change your way. They even say their socialism with Chinese characteristics is not exportable and urge you to seek your best political and social system going forward. US says it is their way or the highway! In fact they murdered 5 million Indo Chinese to make them democratic unsuccessfully in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Go to the U.S. to have fun and travel around, do business with them as they are a big spender. But whatever you do remember who really is with you and where is your future with. Most of all remember where is your nation is geographically and China will always be there! It cannot be floated away and so are you, you are stuck there.
Don’t ever let your nation be another Ukraine, the U.S. want your people to die and your nation to be destroyed just to poke China in the eye, just like how they used Ukraine to poke Russia in the eye, unfortunately one time too many. Don’t let them have even one CIA or NED officials in your nation. And don’t ever be used as a cannon fodder.
Grow up and know right from wrong. Korea for example, whether you stay rich and get richer depends on China not the U.S. The only thing the U.S. can help you is simply to get your nation destroyed! China will always be there, it will grow to be 4–5 times the size of the U.S. economy before then of this century. And as a market for Korea, it will be bigger than your next 20 biggest market! So get real, grow up like me, be a realist and be smart.
Vote in a pro Chinese candidate. Vote in a leader that has no inclination to do shit for the U.S. And tell the US. that you are a friend and a partner of China, and that you want American’s as tourist and investor. But under no circumstances will you allow them to interfere in your nation and in Asia. Asia is for Asians. If you have issues involving the US is a sure way to implicate the issues and create discord.
A bunch of young dumb grunts are meandering about the country looking for bad guys, WMDs and whatever else General Mattis (pbuh) felt was appropriate at the time. In this case it was myself and the United States Marine Corps.
Being young, dumb and American, we naturally did not speak much Arabic besides the usual peacekeeping terminology like get your hands up, stop, get down and f#ck off. As is common in these conflicts, we tend to recruit native speakers to act as interpreters.
For reasons unknown, I happened to remember one of these dudes in particular. Let’s call him Joe Hammad for the sake of security. Now these guys usually don’t work anywhere near their hometowns in country because let’s be honest, in the eyes of the bad guys, hell even in the eyes of many locals, these guys are narcs. Snitches get stitches and all that but ramped up to 3rd world standards.
In exchange for helping us communicate with an often unfriendly populace, these dudes are offered visas to go stateside should they fulfill their obligations. For many reasons, this often doesn’t happen. Remember the snitches thing?
Fast forward to 2014. Suburb of a large Arizona city. My broke ass is out of the military and between employment so I decide to put an ad on Craigslist to let a room of my house for rent. Thank goodness I was financially smart enough to have owned my own home at the time.
Within a few days of placing the ad, I have a nibble or two but this one guy comes with cash in hand. I meet him on the porch when he arrives. He’s an Arab man of medium height, about 45 years old and well spoken with a sharp sense of humor. Within minutes we both had a clear spark of recognition.
And that’s how Joe Hammad from Iraq became my roommate after the war in Iraq ended.
I can’t say for sure whether or not you’re missing any secret ingredients, since I don’t know your recipe. I am certain you’re missing one key component though, and that’s heat.
Chinese restaurants cook over commercial wok burners, which put out 125,000 BTUs of heat. Your home stove might generate 15,000 BTUs out of its largest burner. That’s a pretty significant difference.
The heat of a wok burner imparts a distinctive flavor onto foods. When foods hit the polymerized surface of a hot steel wok, they instantly release moisture, which leaves the food in the form of steam. The foods are tossed through the rising steam, where they capture the droplets of water, and fall back into the wok. This action, repeated over and over, is the essence of wok cooking. The intense heat also causes rapid browning and caramelization and gives the food a distinctive smokey flavor. The flavor, known as Wok Hei in Cantonese, is what makes Chinese take out so crave able, and can’t be duplicated on a home stove. None of what I described can be duplicated, to the same degree, on a home stove. It just doesn’t generate enough heat.
My daughter’s car was hit by a speeding unmarked police car. I have written about this and she is recovering well. When I got to the scene, she was still trapped but the fire brigade were on the scene and had everything in control. While they were waiting to cut my daughter out, the lead fireman came over to me and told me to take as many pictures and as much video as I could and to make sure I got pictures of the officers involved. As soon as I started taking pictures a uniformed policeman came over and said that I had to stop as it was an active crime scene. I said that was nonsense and carried on taking pictures. He carried on saying I should stop. I told my wife who had just turned up to take pictures as well. The policeman just walked away. We took loads of pictures and videos, the witnesses telling us what happened. It took two months for the police to give my solicitor any indication that an officer was involved in the crash and this was only because he sent them some of our photographs. They now say there will be no criminal charges to either driver and that his speeding was legal as he was on a covert operation. He was unhurt and walking around, he never once came over or asked how my daughter was. I am glad that I did not listen to the policeman and I am sure that the video and pictures will help in the civil case.
Back when I was (a lot) younger, after a softball game both teams (mine and the other side, who were all good friends on and off the field) came back to our cars to find someone had parked lengthwise behind three of our cars. None of the three could get out because this unthinking individual parked lengthwise and not in a valid parking spot behind them.
We waited about 20 minutes or so chatting, hoping the person would come out and move. They never did. It was a smallish car, a Corolla, so several of us carried the car to the space in the hedge where people had access to the softball fields beyond. It fit perfectly, the front bumper against one side of the gate and the rear bumper within two inches of the other side. Note this wasn’t a metal gate, it was a hedge with an arbor vitae forming the “sides” of the entrance.
Then, out of sheer schadenfreude, we waited. Some left, of course, but most of us were there about 45 minutes later when the person came back to discover their car was basically unmoveable without cutting down a tree owned by a private entity, or have it dragged out by tow truck.
Going Anonymous as my parents follow me and I don’t want them to know this.
I was young ,probably in 7th or 8th standard when I used to do this.There is a bakery near my home of which I still am a regular customer .I buy things from the place at least 5 times in a day.
As we were regular customers we had credit system of paying the owner .We used to pay our credit on a monthly basis. So basically anyone from my family could go and get anything from the bakery and the owner would just write it in his accounts book and we used to pay the whole amount at the end of the month.
Me being really smart found a loop hole and would buy a lot of snacks,basically all kinds of items available for me to eat . I would just buy snacks worth Rs 2000 or so when the owner was not at the counter. He had an assistant who did not know how t read or write so he used to tell me to write it in the accounts book and I would just pretend to write everything and hand him over the book and he never used to check or bother about it.
I did this 3–4 times when I started to feel guilty about this because clearly it was shoplifting or stealing.
I later made a promise to myself that I will never do this again and would pay the whole amount I had stolen to the shopkeeper once I start to earn .
I completed my graduation this year and started working at an MNC and after I got my first salary the first thing I did was to take the money and confess to the shop owner about this.
He got angry at first but looking at my honesty he accepted the whole amount that was due which was about Rs 10000 and thanked me for this.
I told him not to tell my parents about this as they will be really disappointed .
This was the happiest day of my life as a big burden that I carried for almost 6–7 years was finally gone.
I’m not a mechanic, but wanted to share this story.
I needed a new battery for my Jeep Cherokee. I went to the local place that handles my maintenance. I was in a hurry and also needed an oil change. I brought the vehicle into the Maintennance bay. The guy went to get a new battery. He said something about the battery being backwards, or similar statement. It had something to do with not having the exact battery needed. The engineer in me thought that we should wait to get the right battery, but I didn’t push the issue. I had to be somewhere and was in a hurry. The guy puts the battery in and asked me to try to start it. Smoke billowed out of several places inside the vehicle. Wtf was going on?!? This guy had reversed the poles on the battery and had effectively electrocuted my jeep. To say that the electrical engineer in me was upset was an understatement. I had to be somewhere. I got them to fix my Jeep so that it would run. I was irate. It was a Friday. I had to be somewhere all weekend. I was back on Monday morning. Thankfully, they did pretty much everything right. The mechanic had quit, thankfully. There were some additional repairs that had to be completed. Everything was covered.
A few years later, I needed some warranty or recall thing done. The dealership wouldn’t handle the recall work because of non Jeep parts. I went back to the local shop, and they replaced everything with Jeep parts. The dealership handled the recall work.
while I was mad about the incompetence of the mechanic, the local shop did the right thing.
It’s a wild assumption, but one very likely case is Yemen
For those who quite don’t know, the situation in Yemen is like this
The green region is under Houthi control (backed by Iranians), the light red is controlled by Hadi government (backed by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain and even USA), the yellow is the Southern Transitional Council (a movement that wants South Yemen to come back as it existed prior to 1991), and the white is al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, also called AQAP
Now one would expect either of the sides to fall, however seeing the way each one is sticking to their captured lands, it looks that another division of Yemen may actually happen. If the AQAP could be vanquished , then the country would end up with three separate authorities, leaving the whole field very much open for a possible trifurcation . It’s quite possible that the Southern Council could get vanquished too, if that happens then a bifurcation would happen, leading to once again a North and South Yemen to emerge.
The difference would be that unlike the previous versions where North Yemen was an independent Arab Republic and South Yemen was a communist state, this time North Yemen would be an Iran-backed client state whereas South Yemen would be a Saudi-UAE backed client state.
Too white
Chicken Cubes with Cherries, Pineapple and Lichees (Bo Lo Lichees Gai Kew)
Ingredients
1 chicken breast
1 teaspoon sherry
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon anise pepper
1 tablespoon chopped scallion
1 egg white
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups vegetable oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup lichee juice
1 cup lichee meat
1/2 cup maraschino cherries
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
Instructions
Bone chicken and cut into cubes; mix sherry, light soy sauce, anise pepper and chopped scallion together, pour over chicken and marinate for 30 minutes.
Beat egg white and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch together. Pour over chicken breast mixture.
Heat oil to 325 degrees F. Deep fry chicken. Drain on paper towels.
Mix sugar, ketchup, vinegar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and lichee juice in saucepan; stir until thickened. Add lichee meat, cherries and pineapple. Stir until hot, then serve over chicken.
This was Central Florida, the lawns were St Augustine grass that with lot of water, mulching and fertilizer, they grew a couple inches a week, and the leaves are wide and tough unlike the soft lawns up north.
My neighbor disliked me because I built a 2 story house and that blocked the view of the lake. We worked for the same company and he was upset that I was hired in at a management level although he didn’t work for me.
Our lawns were about a 1/3 acre, so a Saturday cut and trim would easily take 3 hours with a normal lawn mower.
He bought a basic riding lawnmower, and he would drive his mower on my property, up to 5′ before making a U Turn. That was OK, except he would make the hard turn on top of my sprinklers. Almost every week, I had to replace the broken PVC pipe, digging up my lawn. I tried several things to dissuade him, but in the end on a Friday night, I brought home about 20′ of a high strength braided steel cabling. It was the smallest diameter I could find. I uncoiled it surrounding the sprinkler heads pushing down into the tall grass so you would never see it. But you would hear it, and I was in my garage when I knew he ran over it. The racket it made was frightening.
Even a 25″ blade on a 10 HP motor couldn’t cut it. But it did wrap it around the shaft and stalled the motor. All 20 feet of the cable was gone from my yard.
He had to push his mower to the garage, and spent the rest of the day disassembling his mower to untangle the mess.
The Only Billionaires who are restricted from leaving are those who are Directors of Public Companies or Director’s/Top Executives of Companies that owe minimum 10 Million RMB in Loans to Banks or vide Public Bonds
They need an exit visa
Others can leave when they want
Many Billionaires from the Mainland have their families in Singapore, Australia and USA while they live in the Mainland for 6–9 out of 12 months a year
The only rule for them is they cannot repatriate in excess of $ 300,000 a year out of China , that too for very specific reasons
So what they earn in China, must be kept in China at all costs
They try sending more money out, they face upto 18 years jail
So keep your family wherever you want, have Villas in Sydney or Florida, Send your mainland sons to UK for school but THE MONEY YOU EARN IN CHINA CANNOT LEAVE CHINA OR YOU NEVER SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN FOR AT LEAST 10–18 YEARS
How about instead of notorious we focus on an evil genius that should be more notorious? Nazi scientists always get all the focus but what if I told you Japan had their own version of an evil scientist and he was an absolute monster.
Meet Shirō Ishii – a serious piece of sh%t
This guy was a Doctor and microbiologist- and a rather smart one at that. He was regarded as a brilliant person for nearly his entire life. He was well educated and joined the army as a doctor. While there he caught the eyes of his superiors and was sent for further education at Kyoto Imperial University.
During WW2 he was placed in charge of Unit 731 and this is what he was known for.
What was unit 731? Well, they were a scientific unit that conducted experiments and thought up new ways to win the war. Some examples of things they did include
Imprisoning women, raping them until they got pregnant, and then running horrid painful experiments on them just so they could see how certain poisons affected pregnant women.
They would infect people with syphilis and then cut them open (while alive and awake) so they could see what their bodies did as the infection progressed. Women, men, and even children were forcibly infected
This is called vivisection- its the practice of cutting someone open while alive to see what their body is doing and its typically done when experimenting on animals. In unit 731 they did it to people without anesthesia- always resulting in a slow agonizing death for the person.
Injected people with animal blood to see what happens (bad way to die)
Placed people in centrifuges and spun it until they died
Deprived prisoners of food and water to see how long it was until they died
Placed people in low-pressure chambers until their eyes popped out
Burned people alive to see how long they would live
Injected people with saltwater to see what would happen
Poisoned people to see the effects
gave people radiation poisoning to see the effects
Leave 3-day old babies in the cold just to see how long it took them to freeze to death
Tested flamethrowers on live people
Tested grenades on live people
Removed organs for fun. For instance, they would remove someone’s stomach and attach their esophagus to their intestines directly.
Tested hundreds of diseases and biological weapons on people
In all, around 10,000 prisoners were killed by Unit 731 and as many as 20,000 were tested on. The biological weapons produced by this unit were used to kill as many as 500,000 civilians
On a side note not even the Nazis used chemical weapons in WW2 (they only did in concentration camps). The ONLY nation to employ chemical weapons against civilian and military targets in WW2 was Japan.
You may wonder what happened to Shirō. I mean we caught him and put him on trial for war crimes right?
Nope
He was given full immunity in exchange for full disclosure of his tests. American microbiologists stated that Shirō’s findings were extremely valuable and impossible to replicate unless the experiments were done again.
Shirō lived out the remainder of his life a free man and died in 1959.
A businessman went to a shoe store to purchase a new pair of shoes. He was a prominent person in that town. After selecting a pair of shoes with size 8 he asked the salesperson to pack it. The salesperson had just started his career and joined the shoe store a few days back.
The businessman soon discovered that he had left his wallet at home. He told the salesperson that he would take the shoes with him and make the payment the next day. The salesperson being new to business excused himself in order to discuss this matter with the store manager. The manager knew that the customer is an eminent businessman; however, was reluctant to deliver the shoes without payment. At the same time, he was not ready to lose a sale too. He advised the salesperson to handle the situation in the best manner possible and left the place.
The salesperson stood there frozen for a few minutes unable to decide. He then returned to the customer, started packing the shoes and handed the package to the customer.
The next day the customer arrived at the store with the shoes he had purchased, made the payment for his purchase and told the salesperson that “After opening the package I found one shoe with size 8 and the other with size 7. Maybe you packed them by mistake. Can I have the shoes with size 8 please?” The salesperson apologized for the inconvenience caused and replaced the wrong size shoe with the correct one. The customer collected his shoes and left the store with satisfaction.
The manager happened to overhear their conversation and realized that the salesperson had used his presence of mind and handled the situation very well. They didn’t lose their business as well as the customer.
Moral
It is by the presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. If an individual has a calm state of mind, his attitude and views will be calm and tranquil even in the presence of great agitation.
In the fourth grade, Mr. Mowry, our high school biology teacher, visited and gave a lecture. Afterward, he asked the class to name the smartest animal.
One kid said “chimpanzee.” Another said “dolphin.” I kept waving my hand, but he ignored me. (He later told my mother he knew I knew the answer.)
Finally, after the rest of the class ran out of ideas, he asked me. The class looked incredulous when I said “human beings.” After all, people aren’t animals.
His response was “Life has only two choices. Plant or an animal. Which is it?”
(When I had him as a teacher in the tenth grade, I pointed out there were other life forms, such as fungus and bacteria. He acknowledged that, but figured it was a bit much for a fourth grade class.)
In any case, it felt like my fifteen minutes of fame.
I was at a wedding once where the Groom ended up in hospital with achohol poisoning, but it wasnt what you think.
There is a tradition where I live, where right after the ceremony, the bridesmaids “steal” the Groom and take him for a drink. While the groomsmen do the same thing with the Bride.
An hour later, right on time, the groomsmen had the Bride at the next venue where the dinner and dance was to be held, but there was no sign of the bridesmaids and the Groom.
We guests sat around for a bit, wondering what was going on, and eventually food was served despite the fact there was no Groom, and the Bride was looking more and more upset.
It wasn’t until the start of the wedding dance that news filtered through about what happened.
The Groom had never, up to this, had a drink in his life. And the over enthusiastic bridesmaids had made the guy down several hard drinks in that hour.
And, he reacted really badly to them.
So badly they had to take him to the emergency room to be treated for poisoning, and that is where he spent their wedding night.
The rest of the wedding evening for us as guests, kinda fizzled out as you can imagine. But that poor Bride was in tears and left shortly after the dinner to be with her new husband.
Once you VISUALIZE CORRECTLY, the SHIFT happens IMMEDIATELY. (This Is How)
A lot of things, but I’ll focus on just one for this answer. Maybe other parents can relate:
Cooking for the family is a one-person job.
My children always want to help me cook. I remember, as a child, I always wanted to help my mom cook, but she only let me help on the weekends. Now, I usually only let my kids help me cook on the weekends, too.
In fact, during the week, I kick them out of the kitchen, just like my mother did with me 30 years ago.
Why?
Because, after a long day at work, cooking is actually very relaxing… if you’re doing it alone. Cooking with children is mostly just teaching and supervising. I do that all day. I don’t want to come home and do more of it most days.
Plus, when children “help” you cook, it just slows you down, and I’m usually in a hurry to make dinner before my wife gets home.
My children also tend to stand right behind me when I’m cooking, and I’ve tripped over them before. So now, for speed and safety reasons, I have a “the only person who should be in the kitchen while I’m cooking is me” policy on weekdays.
My mom took me to see this doctor when I was 8 years old and she wouldn’t tell me how come. When we got there the nurses took me in and got me ready for the doctor. They had me laying down with things on my arms and legs so I couldn’t move. I thought this was really funny but I was really embarrassed because I didn’t have clothes on and they could see my boy part. When the doctor came in she started looking at my boy part and she asked me if I know why my mom has brought me here this morning and I didn’t know why. I was like yikes when she told me that in a moment they are going to be circumcising my boy part. I have friends that are circumcised and I know what that means and I was like yikes. They give you stuff so it wouldn’t hurt but I still feel her doing stuff to it and I was like yikes thinking about what she is doing. After it was done and mom come in and got me I was really embarrassed because everyone seen it and know what happened to me. We went for breakfast after and mom told the waitress why I had pajama bottoms on. That was the most embarrassing day ever.
Because the biggest killer and tormentors of Muslims (IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES) this century has been the UNITED STATES!
Back home, Muslims have been discriminated, and watched like a hawk by the authorities, especially those of Middle-east descent.
The last time America “rallied” the Muslim world was the first gulf war, where a UN coalition liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Cooperation has been downhill ever since. Even MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudia Arabia, has cooled relationships with America and delivered repeat diplomatic snubs. America’s strongest and most important Muslim ally in the Middle East is working hard to diversify risk, such as settling in non-dollar currencies.
Besides, the evidence is weak, and nothing like the blatant genocide/war crime broadcasting live from the Gaza strip today.
I was camping at a campground in Northern California, and had gone to the bathroom in the morning. A guy was washing his hands with his ten year old son. This guy was decked out with a full on safari outfit, right down to the hat and it was clearly brand new.
When they had finished washing hands, the Dad took a few of those super cheap, thin, brown paper towels and dried his hands. When his son reached for his own paper towels, the Dad said “uh uh. Waste not, want not!” And handed him his soggy, used, brown paper towel and the kid had to try to dry his hands with this gross, soggy wad of used paper towel. The dejected look on the kids face said it all.
I was so disgusted with this guy and felt so bad for the kid. If he was so desperate to save such a minute amount of natural resources, he should have let the kid wash and dry first, and used the kids leftovers.
it really felt like psychological abuse, but he said it with such vigor that I think he was just an ignorant narcissist.
It was a Friday night and the last day of school. My son would be a Senior in the fall.
When I pulled down our street on my way home from work, I noticed both sides of the street were lined with parked cars. You probably guessed it. My son had turned our house into Animal House! We had just had a pool built and it was full of kids every afternoon. I didn’t mind. I could relax knowing where my son was.
But this wasn’t one of those afternoon get-togethers. This was a full blown wild party. Girls were naked in the pool, and there were whiskey and beer bottles everywhere. It looked like half the high school was packed into my house.
My fear was someone leaving drunk. I couldn’t let that happen. I found my son. I told him and the group with him that I was going to my room and would let them have their party, but I needed everyone to leave me their car keys. I didn’t want anyone leaving drunk.
In my state, 17 yr-olds are not old enough to drink. I am responsible for each one as long as they’re in my house. I’d also be responsible for them drinking at my house, I could be arrested. But my worry was getting those keys and keeping them from leaving. I’d figure something else later.
I had what looked like 10 sets of keys that kids had gave me. I told them to write their name on their keys. I thought that once I got their keys, I wouldn’t be so worried and I’d contact parents and let them know what was going on.
I’d been home about 15 min, and went in my room to change out of my work clothes. In under 10 min, I was out of my room and was going to get more of the kids’ keys. Problem was, no one was there. The house was empty, and the cars on the street were gone, except for a few that were probably passengers now. Not one kid was in sight, only a few articles of clothing had been left floating in the pool.
I was furious. My son had left too. He wasn’t answering his phone either. I called a few parents and explained. A few didn’t enjoy being bothered with it. None of them seemed concerned. I was so upset I puked. I didn’t know what to do, or where to look. I just prayed they were all safe at someone’s house. I cleaned the house, and every 30 minutes called and texted my son. He never replied. I tried to sleep, but I kept thinking about all the terrible things that could happen to them, how one night of partying can ruin the rest of their life. I couldn’t stop thinking. I probably buried my son a dozen times in my mind that night. Around 3am, I dozed off
At 4:14am, I got a call. The connection was poor, and I couldn’t hear every word, plus there was a lot of noise. I heard “this is blablabla with —-sheriffs —-EMT paramedic—-permission to treat———!l? Ma’am? Hello? We need permission —-accident involving 4 minors—-please ma’am!
I was yelling, “ Yes, yes, you have my permission to treat them.” I kept saying it over and over, because our connection was so bad. I wanted them to hear me.
The call was dropped. I hit redial on the phone, but it wouldn’t reconnect with who just called. I didn’t know where the kids were, who was with my son, or the details of the accident and the injuries. It was like being trapped in a horrible nightmare. I didn’t even know where to begin. I called all the hospitals and police stations in the area. Nothing.
I have never felt that much pain and heartache at the same time. I wanted to be with my son. I was no longer angry, I just wanted to to be where my son was. I kept envisioning the worst. I paced the floor while holding my bible, and praying those next few hours. I hit my knees and begged God to take me and leave the kids here in good health. For hours I was frantic. I was shaking and felt so helpless. The not knowing was tearing me up. I felt crazy.
At 6:20am I get a call from the hospital. She can’t discuss the accident or injuries. She just gave me the address and names of the passengers. These 4 boys were in a hospital a 4 hour drive away. I had to drive 4 hrs, having no idea of what condition my son would be in. This had become the worst night of my life.
This drive was a long 4 hours, plus a bad storm had rolled in and made driving difficult. I kept thinking, “ Why doesn’t my son call? It has to be bad if he’s not calling me.” The hospital was in a small town on the way to a popular city on the bay. I couldn’t believe it! They had left the house and driven to the beach. I kept thinking about all the empty beer bottles and whiskey bottles I’d picked up at the house. My mind was thinking the worst.
It had gotten pitch black, and the wind was gusting. I was driving into a bad storm, lightning struck all around me. The rain was so heavy, I could barely see the lights of the gas station ahead of me. The cars on the road had all pulled in to wait out the storm. I figured I should too. thought I’d fill up with gas, but there wasn’t a pump not in use. I pulled over by the air pump and just then lightning stuck a transformer, it was on fire. My nerves were shot. The explosion scared me so badly that I almost pee”ed my pants. I couldn’t take it. I decided to get out of that parking lot before a gas pump exploded. Just as I was about to pull out, I heard the sirens. Tornado sirens! Wtf! I was done, I couldn’t handle this. I just wanted to be with my son. I didn’t know what to do. The rain was now falling almost perpendicular to the ground. My windows were rolled up, and still the rain was coming in. My car was shaking. I put it in park, turned off the key, and just sat there crying and praying. I couldn’t see anything out of the windows. I heard another loud explosion, but couldn’t see what it was. I shut my eyes and cried. I listened to the wind and thunder and sirens. My car was shaking so badly I thought the doors were going to open. Then everything stopped. The wind had pushed me to the end of the parking lot next to the railroad tracks. There were railroad tracks (the big wooden beams) all around my car. I guess the wind pulled them up and tossed them around. I put the car in drive and drove. I was hyperventilating, and pulled over at a rest area. I began thinking I would never make it to my son.
I made it to the hospital, and found the corridor they were on. When I got off the elevator I was looking at a waiting area. My son and his one friend were sitting there talking and laughing. A cop was sitting with them. I ran to my son, and he stood up. At that moment I didn’t know if I wanted to hug him or punish him. (Of course I hugged him.) I was looking at his face and arms and I wanted to count his fingers and toes just like I did the first time I held him. He was holding me as I was crying tears of relief. Not a scratch on my son’s body. All four boys were fine!
The cop told me that he had seen a car in a corn field and stopped to check it out. Apparently the crash had just happened when he arrived because the tires were still spinning. My son had fallen asleep behind the wheel. When the car went off the road onto the shoulder he woke and his reflex was to turn the wheel. This caused the car to spin and he lost control. It hit a cable line and the car flipped 5 times. One boy in the back seat flew through the windshield and landed 30’ from the car. He drove a hatchback, and the other boy in the back seat was thrown out of the back. No one was wearing seat belts, but not one boy needed a stitch. Thank God! The cop said he didn’t think he’d find anyone alive. It was the worst accident that little town had ever seen. I was so relieved that everyone was fine. The cop told me that when he was walking up to the car he followed a trail of beer cans all the way to the car. They were unopened and no one had been drinking. They were tested and they were all found to be sober. The car had flipped through the corn field, and the cop said the corn probably softened the blows.
We had to go to the wrecker yard to pay for towing The cop told me to prepare myself. There was no way to prepare myself for what I was about to see. His brand new car didn’t have one place on it that wasn’t damaged. You couldn’t tell what you were looking at. The front and back looked the same. The door handles were the only thing that made you know which end was where. Ears of corn were sticking out everywhere. It was a sight. I stood there crying and holding my son and his friend. They cried too.
I don’t remember if my son got a ticket. I do remember that I had to drive him to alcohol awareness classes twice a week for a month. And once a week I had to drive that 4 hrs to see the judge for a month. The car was sold for scrap for $325. I joke now, and say that we would have gotten more for the corn. The other two boys were arrested for having marijuana on them. They had to wait for their parents to get them.
This happened 19 yrs ago. Last year I was visiting friends near that little town. We went to play bingo one evening. I was talking with a couple sitting across from me. I had mentioned that the last time I’d been down this way was for a bad accident that my son was in. The man looked at me and said “OMG! You’re —’s mom!” He knew my sons name, and said he was the cop on the screen. He told me how he has never been able to forget that morning and the accident. He still has nightmares about walking up and finding 4 dead boys. His wife said it really got to him. She had told her husband that he needed to maybe find the boys and once he knew they were okay, maybe the nightmares would stop. But he didn’t have contact info. I showed him pics of my son and grandson. This man cried right there in the bingo hall. I think it did us both good. I hope he’s sleeping better.
I truly believe we a learned something that day. It definitely changed all involved.
Also there’s another more shrewd reason: Any beer that is NOT opened isn’t one that they have sold and it can allow them to 86 a patron who is sneaking in beers to drink.
While this is, of course, uncommon in higher class establishments, in lower-end bars, patrons have been known to BYOB as the prices of the bar’s offerings are unacceptably high in their opinions, necessitating the “need” for them to sneak in their own and defray some of their drinking expenses. The bartender and servers can tell if they see a beer that’s unopened or witness a patron opening their own beverage that the bar didn’t sell it, and they can eject the patron(s) involved.
This actually was quite common at some of the establishments that I used to frequent in North Carolina decades ago. One of the worst fights that I have ever witnessed was when a bartender tried to eject a patron who brought their own and the patron struck the bartender with a bottle. Unfortunately for the patron, things weren’t like a movie and the bartender proceeded to beat the shit out of him which including some kicks to the head when the man was down. Had some other patrons not stopped things, we probably would have witnessed a murder. I left shortly afterward and I never returned to that establishment.
Anyway…an unopened beverage is one that wasn’t sold by the bar and that’s another reason for the bar to open theirs.
Suddenly (for me). He had been planning it for a while as he had met someone else. I found out and confronted him. He admitted it and left. I cried alot mainly because I had two very small children and another on the way. To be honest I was scared. However within a few weeks I began to notice things. The atmosphere in the house was calm and happy and it was MUCH tidier and better organised. . I was far less stressed and not shouting at the children. Mornings were a breeze because I was in charge and there was now a routine. Bedtimes were easy for the same reason (this had been a nightmare before). I enrolled the children in after school activities which they loved and hadn’t been able to do before because ‘we couldn’t afford it’. Also their friends could come over for tea (not allowed before). I had loads of spare money because no one was buying cigarettes or alcohol. Then the icing on the cake… a gorgeous new baby came along. Life was good and 21 years later its better than I ever imagined possible. The woman he left me for is much better for him. She treats him the way he treated me. I am happily married and the children are all grown up. The end of that marriage was the beginning of my life.
Chicken Slices with Sichuan Peppercorn Sauce (Jiao Ma Ji Pian)
Ingredients
1/2-1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
5 green onions, green part only, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chicken broth
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 pound cooked sliced chicken
Instructions
Soak the Sichuan peppercorns in a small bowl of very hot water for 5 minutes; drain.
Puree the peppercorns, green onions and salt in a food processor; transfer to a small bowl.
Add the broth and soy sauce, stirring until well combined; stir in the sesame oil. Drizzle over the chicken slices.
I’ve written this before and it seems right for this answer.
When young, this is the strangest thing we found in our yard.
Dad had a house built in a new subdivision just out of town. It was one of the first houses. It used to be prairie land.Here’s the story.
Yes. We had a very large, beautiful back yard with fruit trees, lilacs, birch and spruce. It was like a park. Anyway, mom had my older twin sisters and I doing yard work, or helping in yard work because she wanted us to learn about planting, growing and nurturing. Lori and Tracy hated yard work. It was like being on a chain gang to them. “When I have my own place, I’m not having one, bloody plant,” Tracy said. Only she didn’t say bloody. The twins were sixteen here, I was fourteen. I was digging a hole to plant a small tree mom had bought and my spade kept clunking on something.
Lori was raking and Tracy weeding in the garden with a hoe but no plant was safe with Tracy around. Good and bad plants were sliced to death. She figured the worse she did, mom might not ask her to help anymore. “They’re all green anyway!” The girls had better things to do. They would have much rather been with their friends, boys, or shopping for clothes.
I dug around this thing, pulled it out and cleaned some of the mud off of it. It was a small, very old statue like object about a foot and a half long and a eleven inches high.
“Hey guys, come here,” I called my sisters. I always called them guys. They came running over glad to get away from work. We cleaned off the mud as best we could. “Holy shit! Do you know what this is?” Lori exclaimed. “RJ, bring it by the house.”
It looked like it was made of cement. I lugged the heavy thing to the house. Lori turned the hose on it and washed off the rest of the mud. When finished, we stood there looking at a small, very old, well worn statue of a baby kind of laying down in its side. That’s what it clearly was.
Lori looked at Tracy, then me. “I think it could be a grave marker, for a baby. Maybe some pioneer’s child died and they lived around here and buried the child and the father made this statue to honor the baby.” My sisters were real life Nancy Drews plus they had vivid imaginations. Lori had it figured out in minutes. Tracy and I agreed. We couldn’t come up with anything better than that.
“Unless,” I said, “This is a prehistoric baby that was buried and fossilized.”
“Don’t think so,” said Lori quickly.
“Ok,” I said agreeing with my big sister maybe a little too quickly.
“There were no humans in the dinosaur era,” she added, “it’s a babies grave marker.” We lived a way out in the suburbs. Dad bought the land and built a rather large house on it. Pioneers could have lived here and buried their child.
We got mom and dad to come out and have a look and they thought it quite interesting. “Dad, maybe if I dug up around there I might find some more neat things,” I said holding my spade. The twins agreed. “No,” mom said, “knowing you, you’ll have this backyard looking like a prairie dog village.”
We wondered what to do with the baby statue. “Why don’t you put it by your pet cemetery?” Mom said. In the far corner of the yard we had a little pet cemetery with some birds, turtles, fish, my gerbil Gerry, and a squirrel we found dead in the yard. All our pets who died except the bird that flew through the open living room window and my rabbit I took out in the back yard the first day I got him. He hopped away, under the fence and was gone. I was not allowed any pets after that except a fish named Cleo, after Pinocchio’s fish. Cleo was kept in Lori’s room because I overfed the last two fish and they died. “You’re supposed to sprinkle food in lightly,” said Lori, “not give it a big buffet!” I was not trusted with fish.
Anyway, I’m getting way, way off the subject here. We liked the idea of the baby stone guarding our pet cemetery and that is where our unexpected find ended up, watching over our deceased pets. “We have a lot of pets buried out here,” I said after setting the statue near the cemetery.,
“Yeah, and you killed most of them,” Lori said messing my hair. Tracy laughed.
“I did not,” I said, “just two fish that I gave too much to eat and the turtle who escaped and was found under my bed.”
“Cause you left the lid off his pan,” Tracy said. “I think he was trying to crawl into bed with you.”
We stood there looking at the stone baby, as we called it.
“Back to work guys,” mom called, “Tracy, you’ve chopped weeds and good plants, I told you the difference.”
“They’re all green mother, all look the same,” Tracy said under her breath as she walked back to the house.
It was a pretty neat find that we all remember. To this day, we are still not sure of its story but it was a small statue of a baby laying on its side in rest.
It is a child laying on its side in a fetal position facing you, head on a pillow.
Legend of the Phantom Fortress | The Ghost Plane that Flew and Landed Itself
A girl I knew, we’ll call her Jen, had a pretty lousy dad.
He was on disability from the government and hadn’t worked in years because of a ““““back injury”””” that didn’t hinder him from partying, playing basketball and romping around with girls.
Consequently, he was perpetually broke and living paycheck to paycheck.
Jen’s mother divorced her father when Jen was 2, largely because of his inability and lack of desire to work.
She remarried another man. They had kids, which was fine, but Jen always felt like an outsider in that household.
Her biological dad was in her life but never came through in the most important moments.
Her birthday came around and when I asked if her dad got her anything, she said, “He couldn’t afford to get me a present.”
Without thinking I said, “But wait? Didn’t he just take a surfing vacation to Mexico?”
She sulked and said, “Yeah…”
I felt terrible. Wished I hadn’t said anything.
A birthday present might seem like a small thing, but it is a big deal to a kid.
Airlines have a rule that everyone must be in their assigned seat on take off.
It is because if there is an accident it makes their processes easier after the fact.
Once the plane is in the air, the attendant may move people around.
You have the choice of moving or not – often if you do, the seat offered to you will be better than the one you have. But check first.
I was in the situation where I had an aisle seat in a bank of 3, and the other two seats were taken up by a couple who were extremely fat. They didn’t speak the language I spoke, but by gesture the man was pretty clear what he wanted, and was getting really angry with me. However, I had sat down and stayed there. There literally was no room for me between them, as it was I could barely keep my seat. He called the flight attendent and was insisted I swap. She explained to him, and then to me, in English, that she had to insist we keep our assigned seats until we were at cruising altitude, and she assured me I wouldn’t have to sit in the middle. When she came back, she asked me if a window seat in bank that had no other people in it was acceptable – of course I jumped at the chance. (I tend to be a bit claustrophobic and find being able to look out the window a true joy.)
But I did go, on the mistaken belief that the pedicurist could relieve the discomfort from my ingrown toenails. So a friend told me.
I had no appointment; had to wait. Reading women’s magazines and crayoning in the coloring books for children. I never was very good at that.
The air was thick, redolent, I should say, with estrogen fumes; choking. They were sucking the oxygen out of the room.
There they were, all those females reclined in chairs, sort of like dentist chairs, their feet in little bath tubs. I had never seen that, before. Good Lord, deliver me.
So I deployed my best defense: I turned invisible.
It must have worked; none of the women seemed to recognize my presence, or even my existence. No problem, there; I get a lot of that, anyway.
But, alas, as my power of invisibility slackened, a technician noticed me, and motioned me toward a chair. We could not speak; her language was Vietnamese and mine was Klingon. Hand signals, gestures.
But then, as I reclined, and the warm water engulfed my feet, I started to relax. Then came the gentle massaging of my feet and toes, soon followed by the most gentle clip-clipping I have ever known.
The finale was a massage of my lower legs whereto were applied various emollients and ointments, emitting scents of citrus and of juniper, frankincense and myrrh. I wondered if I was being prepared for burial.
Its called tip creep, I was in a hardware/automotive store a few months ago, when I went to pay, it asked if I wanted to leave a tip. The top suggestion was 35 percent. I glared at the poor cashier, and she said, dont blame me, the new credit card/debit machines all came preprogrammed like that. She had no idea if management had asked for it, or if essentially all new machines were like this. She told me to complain to management, not her, and so I did.
I think its an American problem. I was shocked that many states had frozen minimum wage increases for 25 years.
In some states you only get a couple of bucks an hour, if you make your minimum in tips. This is sick, boost minimum wage to 15 or $16 an hour. Get rid of the bribes, err , tips. When I was in Egypt, if you wanted your government paperwork processed faster you paid a facilitation fee, if you wanted the plumber to move you up the priority list, again it was backshees ( I m not sure of spelling) or a facilitation fee.
Thats what we are moving towards. First it was restaurants and bars, then hair stylists and masseuses, then fast food restaurants, then pick up at pizza joints, then hardware stores. At a hardware store, where I self served, who gets the tip? Would the cashier get 35 percent of all sales, I want that job.
Here in Canada where minimum wage is $15 or $16 , we pay the same tip as the US where its $2.33
So my guess, is that the credit card machines have tips as a default, and fast food restaurants have no incentives to remove it, because who would they give that tip to?
Years ago, I was traveling with a gentleman who owned multiple companies, all successful, and was worth multiple hundreds of millions. He had rented a car several days before my arrival (I flew in later), and he offered to drive to the airport for the flight home. As he drove, he explained to me that the car was not full on gas when he picked it up, but the rental car checkout person had given him his business card and assured him if there was an issue with the amount of gas on return, he would handle it. As you might expect, on return they wanted to charge him something trivial like $15 to top up the tank. He was livid. He paid, just to get to the flight, but then spent the next hour on the phone and at the gate, and onto the plane, stopping only going through security, arguing on the phone to have it removed. Couldn’t let it go. This man was probably made more money in interest in 1 minute just sitting than he would have saved in a hour+ of arguing. It could not have been worth his time, or rather, his time could have been so much more effectively used.
In my experience with folks at this level, and I’ve met a few, it’s a compulsion. They simply cannot let it go. They will spend a million dollars to make $1.2 million in an instant, but will not spend $5 if they feel taken advantage of.
Col Douglas Mcgregor: “It’s OFFICIALLY OVER! We have WASTED TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS ON THIS..”
Rest assured the CEO is not doing it out of the goodness of his heart.
Most likely what happened is the CEO or company realized they need your expertise in something or to train your replacement. Or perhaps as some others pointed out, the company forgot to dot their I’s and cross their T’s when terminating you. Perhaps they had to fire you for cause but didn’t follow progressive discipline procedures. In order to protect themselves and avoid a lawsuit they are bringing you back to perform these tasks.
If you do go back, insist on signing a contract for a certain duration like 12 months. I’d also insist on a certain raise like 25-100%. Whatever you think is reasonable. Insist on no derogatory information in your file. I’d also add language that the contract could only be voided for cause and company bears the cost of the arbitration.
If the company brings you back keep in mind they will try to part ways with you when they no longer need whatever short term assistance so start looking for another job immediately.
Do not under any circumstances come back under their ‘reinstatement’ conditions. You are better off collecting unemployment and looking for other opportunities.
In China, the subway is a social infrastructure, not a profitable business.
Although the subways are operated by “subway companies” in various cities, they are usually state-owned enterprises.
In other words, the equity of the subway system is controlled by the government.
Therefore, in an accident like the Beijing Subway, there will be two different responsibilities.
1. Legal liability
The subway company must make up for the losses, which includes repairing damaged vehicles and facilities, rescuing injured passengers, and paying their medical expenses and emotional distress. They also face criminal prosecution if anyone dies.
In short, they must bear all the responsibilities that a Western subway company should bear.
Of course, insurance companies also play a very important role. They will activate insurance clauses to provide necessary compensation.
2. Political responsibility
Since subway companies are state-owned enterprises, they must bear more political responsibilities than private companies. In other words, an official must be held responsible for the accident.
First, the subway director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Management Bureau must bear direct responsibility. He may be subject to isolation and review to determine whether he has committed malfeasance. If suspected of committing a crime, he would be thrown in jail. If not, you are usually fired.
Secondly, the director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Bureau must assume management responsibilities. He usually needs to make a public apology and be demoted or transferred to a minor position.
Also, the director of the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau must assume management responsibilities and accept investigation. Are they doing their job and completing routine inspections and supervision? If not, it’s usually demoted or fired.
In China, for any important social incident, government officials will be investigated and held responsible. If you think that after the accident, some official stood up and said: “We are very sorry.” Then it could be over, and then you’d be totally wrong.
I don’t know if it’s witty or not, but it stunned the other person and was extremely satisfying.
When I was in my early twenties I worked at one of those cookie stores in the mall. I was working With my friend L who hired one day when a man in his 60s or so came up. I started helping him and L went behind me and kind of playfully kicked me, I laughed and told her not to kick me. I’ll agree it was childish, but that isn’t what upset that man. I’m guessing that just dropped me that last little bit lower in his eyes and he figured he needed to tell me off.
“I think you should be kicked for having that shit in your face.” I had a small nose stud at the time.
For just the tiniest hair of time I was stunned and had no idea what to say… then he opened his mouth again.
“What does your dad think of that?!” Big old smirk, oh he thought he had me on that one.
But I knew I won.
“I don’t care, he was an abusive alcoholic that almost beat my mom to death and molested me at eight, and he’s dead now. My mom however thinks I’m amazing in every way and is happy we all turned out well.” Big smile. All true by the way, I just don’t normally tell strangers all the details like that in go.
His face fell and he stared. Then he grabbed his cookie and stomped away.
We had to announce to the rest of the family any time we were going to use the bathroom, and how long we thought we’d be in there.
This was because we only had one bathroom and my father got really mad at us if we interrupted him while he was in there, or if my sister was in there for a long time, as she tended to do when she was a teen.
Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of my sister knocking on the door to get into the bathroom, like it was an emergency, shortly after my father went in there. It was never really an emergency. She just needed to fix her hair or something.
My dad: [Goes into bathroom, newspaper in hand.]
Thirty seconds later, my sister comes out of her room and starts knocking like crazy on the bathroom door.
My dad: [Godammit I just got in here! Leave me alone!]
So, every time any of us needed to use the bathroom for any reason, we’d stand in front of it and say, loud enough for everyone in the house to hear, something like:
“I’m going to the bathroom now! I’ll be in there for about ten minutes!”
Then we’d pause, in case someone wanted to use it quickly before we went in there.
I didn’t realize until I was an adult that announcing to your family that you were going to the bathroom wasn’t a normal thing to do.
YES… when I was in South Africa, I hired a maid through an agency. She arrived on the appointed day. She gave me the agent’s papers and introduction letter, and she asked me where she should start. I said she could start with cleaning the oven. “Oh no,” she said, “I don’t clean ovens”. “That is OK,” I said, “make yourself a cup of tea and make some breakfast for yourself and then I will give you your money and you can leave”. She looked very crestfallen and told me she needed the job. I said “OK; then clean the oven and you can stay”. She cleaned the oven.
She stayed for 30 years, and every month we had the same conversation. She left the agency after a month and she became my best friend, my companione.n, my housekeeper, my babysitter, and my nurse when I was ill. When she retired, I paid her a pension for the next 12 years till she died of COVID-19. I miss her very much. She was a wonderful woman.
In my youth I was hard up for a summer job so I took a position delivering newspapers. I was a substitute driver for the regular person doing the route. My paper had a shed where I and the other drivers would come to load up our papers at about 4 am, and across the alleyway there was another shed where the rival newspaper distributed papers to it’s drivers.
One morning I park in front of my paper’s shed to load up. As was my usual practice I used the tying machine in the shed to secure a couple dozen papers to throw at the beginning of my route and loaded them in my car. I then loaded stacks of papers that I put rubber bands on while driving to use for the rest of the route.
I found that while I was doing all this, the delivery truck for the rival paper had unloaded several large stacks of their papers just behind my car. I was ready to leave for my route but could not start because the papers were in my way. I went over to the other paper’s shed and asked the guys there to please move the papers so I could leave my parking spot. They laughed at me and said I could move them myself.
So, I did. I got in my car, started it up, put it in reverse, and backed out of the space. The stacks of papers went flying, my rear wheels driving over many of them. I then accelerated forward over the papers and they shot out in a satisfying rooster tail all over the parking lot and I was off for my route.
I was working in a record store that had booths to listen to records before you bought them. I was in a booth setting it up for someone to listen when the boss/owner was outside the booth, not knowing I was there. He started to complain that he did not like my hippie looks and did not trust me. The next day, the manager quit (I do not know the reason), and the boss came to me the next day and wanted me to take over as the store manager. I told him I would think about it. After work, I called the ex-manager and asked why he quit. He said he was sick of the two-faced liar that was the boss and he had got a job with a new company called the Wherehouse (an up and coming big chain record company, He asked me if I wanted to be the assistant manager which paid a lot more than I was making.
The next day, I called the boss/owner and told him that I did not want the manager job, and, by the way, I quit. He tried to talk me into staying when I said, “Then why did you say…” and repeated everything he had said about me.
“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans”
In 1914 the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia (in the Balkans) would be the event that led to WW1
Then in his final days, he said
Jena came twenty years after the death of Frederick the Great; the crash will come twenty years after my departure if things go on like this.
Exactly 20 years after Bismark’s death Germany would lose WW1 and nearly collapse.
In his final meeting with Wilhelm, he stated
“Your Majesty, so long as you have this present officer corps, you can do as you please. But when this is no longer the case, it will be very different for you”
Indeed when the present officer corps moved on and were replaced by the next generation Wilhelm was forced from power and exiled in shame.
Let’s tell some more Bismark facts because the guy was just such a hoot.
During his younger years, he famously got in an average of one duel per month and never lost. Duels as in fights to the death with swords.
While working his first job for the government, he disappeared and left his post randomly only to appear weeks later with the daughter of some English gentry.
There was an assassination attempt during his rise to power. A man shot at him six times and then was disarmed by guards. Bismark said he was fine and walked home. Hours later the royal court doctor finally got in to see Bismark despite the protest of Bismark. Turns out all six bullets hit him but none of them did much damage. Bismark was just unconcerned about the whole thing.
Bismark was a local lord in his younger years. He had an estate with some peasants who worked for him. He would announce his entrance into their homes by shooting a gun in the air or releasing a fox.
He would drink two bottles of champagne and smoke two cigars for breakfast
There was a period where rebels took the Prussian King (his king) hostage. At the time Bismark was still a countryside lord minding his land. He decided to raise his farmers into a peasant militia and free the king. As he went to leave with his militia, a local man told him to stop whipping up the peasants and go home. Bismark responded, “You know me to be a kind man, but if you try to stop me I will shoot you”.
For all of his antics and wild personality, he ended up marrying a very calm, devout, conservative Christian lady.
The rest of his story is a little less flashy but just as interesting. The man was a freak of nature. He played Europe like a chessboard for decades. He created Germany and accidentally the French Republic, and he was one of the most brilliant political minds ever.
Let’s end with some fun quotes because why not.
“If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.”
Next a few Andrew Jackson facts.
After being elected president of the United States, Andrew Jackson faced an assassination attempt. Richard Lawrence bought a gun and approached Jackson to shoot him. The first shot misfired, and the second shot misfired as well. Jackson noticed this and proceeded to attack the man and beat him with his cane. Jackson’s guards had to pull Jackson off his assassin — what a mad lad.
After winning his election, Jackson threw a rager in the White House inviting a ton of random people in to drink heavily. The party went on for hours and was out of control. Jackson was forced to flee the out-of-control party through an upper-floor window.
Andrew Jackson loved to duel, like step back and shoot each other type duel. In a duel with Charles Dickenson, Jackson did something bonkers. As the men turned, Jackson just stood there. You see the rules were that both men had to stand still until both shots were fired. Charles turned and shot hitting Jackson around his ribs. Jackson then took his time to aim so that his shot would be fatal. He calmly took a bullet so he could kill his opponent guaranteed.
When Jackson’s friend approached him about this, Jackson said
“If he had shot me through the brain, sir, I should still have killed him.”
I have been living in the US for about 7 months now. I am strictly comparing my life in India and here:
India has PayTM: You don’t need to carry cash, cards. Most businesses, even small stores, auto rickshaws have paytm facility. Here I cannot, cannot, leave my credit card at home!
Public Transport: Is almost non-existent, at least where I live. There is the Caltrain, at a 1 hour frequency, and some buses and VTA, but they usually do not cover the routes I need. And I cannot just take an auto rickshaw to the grocery or Target/Walmart. If I don’t have a car, I need to depend on Uber/Lyft which are expensive.
Online shopping experience: Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart, Amazon, most e-commerce biz in India have home pickup for returns, which you don’t have here.
Laundry is a headache: Most apartments do not have in house laundry, dryers, and making several trips to the laundry room is not something I enjoy. Not to mention, it is expensive too ($1.5 laundry + $1.25 dryer per load)
Medical Services are way too expensive and not easily accessible: Medicines and vaccines are expensive. Something like a tetanus shot which costs Rs. 50 (less than $1) in India, costs $80 here. I can get spectacles made for Rs. 2000 (~ $30) in India, but it would cost me upwards of $300 here. In India, I do not need an appointment in most cases, and I can walk in to a clinic. For my son’s eye checkup, I got an appointment for after 2 months. For the spectacles, the optometrist said they do not have the technician available and can only accommodate us after 3 weeks(!!).
Paper wastage: I get so many paper adverts in my mail every two days, which go straight in to the bin. Sheer waste of paper! And the DMV refused to accept a soft copy of one of my documents. They said they need a hard paper copy! I thought the US was at the forefront of the Digital revolution.
Tipping: Expect to pay about 15%-30% more than your actual restaurant bill, for the tip. There is no service whatsoever, servers just come and put your food on the table.
Shopping experience: Shopping here is not something I enjoy. There is usually no one around to help you with sizes, suggestions or finding something. They simply tell you to go help yourself by saying that whatever they have is out there, so you are left to find stuff yourself.
Lifeless atmosphere: Every city, village in India is vibrant, full of life (and noise 🙂 ). I miss that very much here.
Of course, my answer is restricted to my observations and my small sphere of life. There are definitely greater differences, social, political, economical, which some people have put up here. I just listed some that common folks like me might experience.
Thank you for the upvotes!
Just a couple of months short of completing a year in the US, and I keep finding things that I wish were different ( I know I sound very cynical, but I am not, and I do appreciate the good things in the US too)
Going to add a few more to this list:
10. Road trips aren’t as much fun as they are back in India. Half the fun of those long road trips lies in watching the scenic beauty on the way and halting at roadside dhabas or tapris for chai and bhajiyas or food. Be it any highway, you are bound to find one or two such small roadside hotels or dhabas where you can stop and savour hot food and talk and laugh with your companions. I do not find that here. Road trips are just driving on long freeways or interstates where sometimes people tend to fall asleep due to the monotonous driving.
11. International shipping : There are very few choices in that regard, namely FedEx, UPS and probably DHL. And they are quite expensive. FedEx gave me an estimate of between $100–200 plus $30 for the box ( which is not charged separately in India) for a 4lb (less than 2kgs) shipment. Whereas, our parents sent us 8 kgs of Diwali faraal 🙂 from Pune for less than $70.
12. I miss the air of celebration or festivity here. During Diwali, Indians might put up their festive lights and diyas on their patios, but they do that and go back into their houses and shut the doors or pull the blinds. That’s that! That was Diwali here. Sad. But, the same Indians celebrated Halloween with such gusto, I was left wondering is this what happens when we move to the US? That we forget to celebrate our own festivals the way they ought to be while embracing the festivities of the West? While I see nothing wrong with the latter, I would have definitely loved to see more enthusiasm towards the former.
13. Gun violence: The gun violence happening in the US is being covered in almost newspaper and sites. It has created a general unsafe atmosphere. Especially the shootings in schools and colleges, innocent young lives being snuffed out by some senseless act of violence are tremendously sad.
14. New Year celebrations: India – restaurants, malls, roadside dhabas, almost everywhere that you get food, open till 5 am. US- most restaurants closed post lunch or early evening on 31st Dec and closed whole day on 1st January. So, we had very limited choices of restaurants to go to for New Year’s Eve dinner.
15. Limited places for kids to play: Most apartments here do not allow kids to play inside the apartment premises. Kid scooters, bicycles are not allowed. Playing in corridors is also discouraged so as not to disturb residents during quiet hours. Going to a park everyday is not possible. So, all in all, kids have only the school grounds to play mostly. It would be very helpful if apartments designate a play area for kids.
When my son was an infant, after my wife’s maternity leave was over, she went back to work about 30 minutes from our house. My job was about 90 minutes from our house. I had to leave home by 6am every morning to take my son to my in-laws for the day, so I could make it to work on time. Then, I had to be the first one out the door at work to make it back to my in-laws so I could pick up my son and bring him home. On a good day, I would be home with him by 6pm. On a bad day, particularly if it was snowing, we might not make it home until 8pm.
One day, my son slept through the morning ride to my in-law’s place, and was asleep when I went to get him at the end of the day. I realized, when I went to sleep that night, that I had not seen my son awake that entire day. Worse… he hadn’t seen me that day.
So I started looking for a job closer to home. Over the years, I’ve taught at four different schools, always getting as close as possible to my own house, to maximize the time I get to spend with my children. I’ve got my commute down to fewer than ten minutes now. It’s great! I even come home on my lunch break so I can walk the dog some days.
When I was very young, I’m guessing about 5 ,my uncle gave me a letter holder that was shaped like a dachshund, it became my favorite toy.
My grandfather was visiting, and he saw me playing with the letter holder. Which was dogs front and rear separated by coils, which would have held letters.
He said, “you’re playing with office equipment, that’s not for little boys, you don’t want that do do you “ I assured I did, that it was my favorite toy. He took it anyway. My mother wouldn’t stand up to him, and he was gone.
When he died about 10 years later. I went to his office to get my toy back, just on principle. It wasn’t on his desk, my grandmother said that she had never seen anything that looked like what I described.
When I was about 8, we had a standalone bathroom sink that just stuck out of the wall. My grandfather very nicely made us a stand that went around the sink, with two doors on the front. It allowed us to store stuff in the bathroom. It looked professionally done. He said it was practice for the one he would build himself.
A month later, he came down with one that was miscut badly. He took it into the bathroom and replaced the good one with the garbage one.
He said that he needed the good one in his nice house, and the crappy one wouldn’t look out of place in our house, and he didn’t want to spend the money on new supplies.
Honestly! Who would take back, what was supposedly a gift of love, that he had made for his daughter.
Writing anonymously so it don’t come to bite me back…
To win some times you ‘really’ have to lose
I was working for a US based MNC in India’s self proclaimed Silicon valley.
I was leading a team, the work was too strenuous. I was clocking in around 12–17 hours of office time everyday for almost 8 months. My health started to deteriorate (constant back problems) due to long hours of sitting. I was not able to spend time with my newborn baby. Had to practically live in office for almost couple of months. And to top it all , Management was the least bit supportive , they take employees for granted and make their life hell. As in most services based companies , work life balance is a distant dream. They thought Vacations are an aberration, And thought that the more miserable an employee became the more productive he becomes.
To cut the long story short , I decided enough is enough and that I would pull the plug on the job. I work for my life sustenance and not the other way around. The problem is we have to serve 3 months of Notice period, which is a big NO for most recruiters. During the week when I was mentally preparing for this ordeal, my Manager approaches me saying , your performance is OK, but we are initiating a Performance Improvement Program (PIP) for your own benefit. Which they thought would make me more productive. They thought this would make me teach a lesson, and I would work ‘HARDER’, and this was a process were they monitor me for a month and would let go if employee is not performing better. This is an absolute horrendous experience for any employee to go through. Let alone somebody who literally ‘broke their back working’.
But this was a boon in my scenario if I fail not only they would let me go in a month but also they would give me four months Salary ( They don’t want the undesirables to hang around). I kind of simply stopped working , and made sure I fail in ALL the review meetings , we don’t want to leave anything for chance do we? , with a puppy face of course. So at the end of the Month , I was relieved of my duties and I received 4 months of my salary in due time. And I landed the next job in 2 months which gave me 30% hike as well.
There was a time, quite a few years ago, when I worked as a cashier at Burger King. I mostly worked at the front counter, taking orders and keeping things neat and tidy up front.
One night, I noticed that our drive-thru times were seriously lagging, even though we weren’t that busy. The kitchen was sending food out quickly, and I was bagging it up just as fast, so why did we have four orders waiting to go out the window?
I went to investigate and found my drive-thru employee in the middle of a meltdown. We had a dinosaur for a system back then, and the drive-thru was tricky because the register didn’t tell you how much change to give back, just how much the order cost. To help those who needed it, we kept a calculator by the register, but apparently, nobody had thought to let the new girl know it was there.
Honestly, though, she wasn’t the only one who struggled with making change, and it always shocked me how many people were incapable of doing basic math without technological assistance.
Long story short, I ended up teaching many of them how to make change without the calculator, but it was shocking how many high school and college kids could not make small change.
After my husband was killed in an accident, friends and family sent their condolences and were ready to help me with whatever they could. Many brought us meals and others took care of the yard work and some gave money and gift cards. I was very grateful for all their kindness. It was overwhelming how kind people were, it brought tears.
In time things began to settle down. I was cooking out meals and mowing the yard. But what continued on was the sympathy. I’d be in Walmart and I’d see a friend or neighbor, and the conversation would be about how I was doing and how sorry they were, and even when I’d say I’m doing fine and just want to get past the pain, it was as if they didn’t hear me.
Everytime the phone rang it was someone who was reaching out, praying for me, and asking if I was ok.
It’s hard to be grateful and appreciate all the support, but at the same time wanting to move on without hurting anyone.
Grieving my loss was going well. It was front constantly reminded of the tragedy that set me back. I had to stop answering my phone so I could heal. One day someone was knocking relentlessly at my door. I opened it to find a friend that I hadn’t talked to since before my husbands death. She was telling me to get my purse and come with her. I asked where we going? She said to have some fun, so grab your purse and let’s go.
Not once did she bring up his death. We talked about the stuff we had always talked about. We got our nails done, ate lunch at our fav fajita restaurant and stopped at a few antique stores. When we got to my house I asked her why I hadn’t heard from her and why she didn’t even ask how I was doing. Her answer was, she didn’t need to ask how I was doing, she knew how I was doing, she said you were grieving. I let you grieve. Nothing I could say or do would benefit you. I figured that after a few months of grieving you’d be ready to get away from everything and everyone that’s keeping you from moving on. She hugged me and said softly, Lori, it’s time to move on and live your life.
G’day folks, this is your captain speaking. Sitting next to me is my old cellmate Dave ‘Eye Patch’ Gordon who failed his driving test but passed the FAA exam, so as long as there’s no roads up there, we’ll be pretty safe. ‘Dave turn that oil leak light off please.’ We’ll be flying up over New York, then over Canada, where, on the way in, we were shaken like a shitting dog, so we’ll try and avoid that really rough air – no promises, but we’ll try. Then we’ll turn and begin our passage over the Atlantic. That British Airways jet parked next to us gave us the bird last night, so we’re likely to give that asshole a close pass on climb-out. Our cabin crew, led by the gorgeous and ample Lisa will serve you dinner later. Enjoy a few drinks on us and when we turn off the no-smoking sign, light-up those Malboros and be kind enough to throw one in my direction. In the meantime, while we’re waiting for our slot from these union controllers, spare a thought for us pilots, whose lives depend on these assholes when they walk off the job. We’re flying an old 747 original today, so if you hear it moaning and groaning or even see an engine fall off, we have three others, built in 69 and patched up with some really good glue. Dave, turn that fucking oil leak light off.
Maybe they do but unlike the U.S. China has culture, US don’t. Unlike the U.S. China knows right from wrong., the U.S. don’t! Unlike the U.S. they are mature, he U.S. is not! probably will never be! China don’t want anybody to attack anybody!
China don’t want another death. China want a safer and better and more peaceful world. These Arab and Muslim world want China to help make a better world. Not one that the white Caucasian can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide that they feel like carpet bombing them to kill their grand parents and their babies and children and they can pluck from the sky any excuses such as WMD or made up genocide such as Uyghurs forcing Japan into a 30 years stagflation!
Arabs an Muslims are not wrong, they want a life that the U.S. cannot fxxked the up! Or steal every penny that they work hard to save. But U.S. insist that they must have the monopoly rot do genocide and slaughter! Why?
Because of their skin colour! Because of their religion and their Anglos Saxon culture! They can kill and not be killed! Because like whites Caucasian humans they deserved to raped any coloured women and lynched any coloured human because they are 4/5 of an actual human!
Yes their message is that there are are behind the Chinese. If the U.S. misbehave they will all fight a war that totally destroy America. China is frankly calming them down! The world ought to rid the U.S. rules based International order 50 years ago!
DNA Clinic Reports: Half Of Men Who Take Paternity Tests Are NOT The Real Father
1. Try to maintain a positive attitude as much as possible, it will make you more productive and better equipped to handle challenges.
2. Challenge yourself by setting realistic goals that stretch your capabilities and inspire you to work harder.
3. Take regular breaks throughout the day to give yourself time to relax and recharge.
4. Surround yourself with positive people who support you and help you achieve your goals.
5. Visualize success in your mind’s eye – see yourself completing the task or achieving the goal in a clear, focused way and visualize this outcome happening with ease and enthusiasm.
6. Break down tasks into small manageable steps to help avoid feeling overwhelmed or discouraged by large projects or goals.
7. Create positive self-talk statements that motivate and remind you of your goals, abilities, and purpose throughout the day.
8. Minimize multitasking and focus on completing one task at a time for greater clarity and productivity in your work or personal life endeavors.
9. Reassess strategies that have not worked for you in the past, rather than feeling like a failure try again with a different approach if necessary for success in any situation .
10 Finally remember, patience is key! Allow yourself adequate time to grow and accomplish objectives in life without putting too much pressure on yourself to succeed quickly .
Well this is not exactly of being fired or let go from a job but the revenge factor is there. Pretty immature now but at the time a very sweet one.
Back in the 80s I was on my senior year to become a CTA by Christmas. The well done summer job in the research lab of the local paper mill was rewarded by a job offering after I graduate. We set the contract signing to end of November. Surely I was happy about this.
Cometh the day of signing and the head of the HR explained they’ve received an order from high up that I cannot be hired. No names or reasons were given. After pulling some strings I got to know the picture.
In the lab school we had two classes and the teacher of the other one was an mean old frustrated witch for whom anybodys happiness and joy was a thorn in the eye. Nobody got along with her but since she was about to retire people just put it up with her. She of course heard about my job offer. As we of course all knew her husband was the chief of all labs at that papermill. The order not to recruit me came from him and was based on some bullshit about me. I personally never met him so it was easy to guess where the order came from. When I confronted the Witch about this she just smiled vily and said something nasty which prooved my suspicions. I was so furious I didnt know how to sit or think straight. Eventually left town to work at the university lab instead and academia actually became my career.
She was a dedicated gardener and had a collection of massive palm trees and other plants in our coffee room. Comes the graduation day all her plants suddenly turned brown and died. She was utterly upset about this and with watery eyes was thinking of some parasite attacking them. She was right – that parasite was me equipped with 2 kg of sodium hydroxide pellets dissolved in 10 l bucket of water. Poured on the plants the evening before graduation…
This is now over 33 years ago and I regret killing her plants…sorry for that….but at the time the revenge factor was pretty sweet.
I was sitting in a student bar many years ago with some friends. There was a young lady there who me and my friends knew from the Aikido class we went to. She was much better than us and we didn’t know her well but we had said hi as we went to her table.
A couple of large guys came in being rather loud and obnoxious. We ignored them but one of them decided to start hassling the young lady who was sitting alone at the bar reading her course book. We would have got involved but she didn’t need us to! She told him no, he tried to grab her and then, like a flash, she just put him in a wrist lock. She didn’t move from the bar, just put the lock on one of his hands and he collapsed in agony, a few seconds later she took it off again and repeated her request for him to go away. This time he did, rather sheepishly!
Chicken Bokeumtang (Spicy Korean Chicken)
Ingredients
1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cut into 11 pieces with bone in and skin on
1 pound potatoes, peel, halved or quartered
3 to 4 carrots, peeled, cut into large chunks
2 onions, cut into large chunks
8 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons Gochujang, Korean red pepper paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon honey or granulated sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
4 green onions, sliced into 2 inch pieces
Instructions
Bring enough water to boil to blanch chicken in a large Dutch oven; add chicken into boiling water, bring back to boil, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Drain chicken into a strainer and rinse pot quickly. Rinse chicken under cold water and place back to pot.
Add potato, carrot, onion and garlic to Dutch oven.
In a small mixing bowl, combine gochujang and next 6 ingredients. Add combined sauce into pot and toss everything together until chicken and vegetables are evenly coated with sauce. Cover, bring it to boil over medium high heat. Stirring frequently.
When it starts boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring frequently for first 20 minutes of simmering to prevent burn bottom of pot.
Stir in green onion and remove from heat.
Transfer to a serving plate, garnish with some more sesame seeds.
Serve with warm cooked rice, kimchi and other your favorite side dishes!
БОЙЦЫ ДОЛЖНЫ ОТСТОЯТЬ МАЛЕНЬКУЮ ДЕРЕВНЮ. МОЩНЫЙ ВОЕННЫЙ ФИЛЬМ БОЕВИК! ЛУЧШИЙ ФИЛЬМ ПРО ВОЙНУ! Ржев
In China, if you hit a dog or a cat, or any pet for that matter, and the owner comes out and makes a claim against you for killing or wounding their pet, the insurance company will pay no questions asked.
It is automatic.
Most insurance is no-contest up to 3000 RMB, and many (but not all) go up to 5000 RMB for the death of a beloved pet involved in a car accident.
You would NEVER see this anywhere else.
…
So, consider this scenario…
In China, Fido bolts across a busy road. He gets hit, the car and driver slows for a minute but then continues to drive on.
A day later, the owner finds the crushed bones of Fido.
He files a police report, which NORMALLY causes the AI cameras in the region to identify what actually happened.
And just like the Tom Curse movie “Minority Report” the car is identified, the driver is identified, and the time of death is established.
The driver is contacted. He apologies, and his insurance is notified.
There is a insurance pay out to the aggrieved pet owner.
…
This would NEVER happen in the USA. But it’s pretty common in China. It’s an accident and there are no civil or criminal penalties for the driver, but the aggrieved pet owner needs to be compensated, and this is the way China does it.
At one, the funeral of an elderly woman, her only child used the eulogy to mock and insult her to the startled crowd. Also, there was no body and no mention of one. We showed up to a bare room where her child stood at the podium and went on about her shortcomings for about forty-five minutes, until we were dismissed. No gravesite was ever disclosed. To this day we have no idea what happened to her.
At another, a relative leaned over a coffin and contemplated the deceased as he took a long, loud slurp from a Super Big Gulp.
via The Blaze
And, although strictly speaking this took place after the funeral, I should mention my spirited aunt who tormented my uncle from Beyond. She informed everyone as she was dying that she’d reincarnate as a bird and peck out the eyes of those who’d done her wrong. After the funeral, which was in early spring, her husband came home and a bird was nesting in the back porch overhang. It chose to dive bomb him at the worst (best?) possible time, and for the rest of his life he swore the bird was his dead wife returning to haunt him.
My grandfather was a WWII sniper. It was always funny to me…he had the worst eyesight you could imagine, and I remember seeing pictures of him as a little boy with glasses thick as milk bottles. But by a very wide margin, he was the best shot I’ve ever seen.
One example is something that happened when I was a little girl. We used to go to an annual state fair, and one of the attractions was a turkey shoot. Basically, it was a wooden maze that a live turkey would run through…the body was hidden, but as the turkey ran, he’d bob up and down and his head would be visible for a fraction of a second every now and then. Contestants would pay to take a shot – you stood maybe ten yards behind the maze and you had one shot…if you hit it, you won the (dead) turkey and some sort of cash prize.
We watched other shooters…apparently it was a big test of manhood among the locals, and all the heavy-duty serious shooters were out there, many in camo with various military or law enforcement patches. Definitely some seriously mean looking dudes. The tool of choice seemed to be an expensive looking shotgun, and while some of the shooters seemed to come close, the turkey always eluded them. Many shooters tried, but the turkey was still alive – I started to think maybe the whole thing was rigged somehow, and that there really was no way to win.
Thing is, the crowd was loud enough that you couldn’t really tell where the turkey was at any moment. It might make a beeline for the exit, or it might linger in the maze. It might hear something and keep its head up, or it might not…very unpredictable, and shooters would have to spot the turkey, swing their weapon and get a shot off in almost zero time.
Many of the shooters seemed to use a technique where they’d just pick a small area of the maze and keep their guns focused there. Didn’t seem to make a difference…the movement was just too fast to acquire the target and get a shot off.
My grandfather watched the event too, shaking his head at each of the shooters and telling us what they were doing wrong. At one point, my father suggests that grandpa should show them how it’s done…only issue is that he doesn’t have a shotgun.
Out of pure coincidence, grandpa had taken my older brother to the range a few days prior, and my brother remembered that his .22 was still locked in the trunk of the car. Grandpa starts considering it, and he asks the folks running the event if he can shoot a .22 instead of a shotgun. There was discussion whether this was allowable, but before you know it, my father and older brother head off to fetch the .22.
Grandpa takes out the .22 and the crowd sort of laughs…here’s this feeble 70-something with thick dark glasses and a pretty well worn .22 that might just as well have been a slingshot. People try to explain to him that he needs a shotgun, and one or two of the shooters even offers to lend him one…I remember him laughing them off with, “well, what kind of contest would that be? I have to at least give the poor bird a fighting chance.”
Of course, by now, grandpa’s pride was at stake, and there was no way he was putting down that .22.
Grandpa pays his fee and lines up. He draws a crowd, and with the help of my dad, he gets down into a kneeling stance, and suddenly he looks a little more like he knows what he’s doing.
I was maybe ten, and grandpa looks at me and tells me to stand close, but not too close, and to put my fingers in my ears. I remember him telling me he wanted to make sure I had a good view, and someday I’d either tell my kids about grandpa’s amazing shot, or I’d be telling them what a silly old man he was…either way, he wanted me to witness it.
The buzzer goes off, the crowd starts yelling and the turkey starts its run through the maze. I remember seeing its head bob up and down a few times, and then as it got about halfway through the maze, I hear grandpa’s shot ring out.
We didn’t see the turkey after that…it wasn’t clear if it had been hit or it just ran to the end of the maze with its head down.
Then I heard someone in the crowd: “the old man hit it!”
And sure enough, grandpa hit the turkey with one shot from his lowly .22.
The crowd was going crazy, and I asked grandpa how he did it: “easy – I just watched for the gleam of the sunlight in its eyes.”
I thought he was kidding, but when the bird was fetched, we found out that grandpa managed to put a bullet exactly through the eyes of the turkey…in fact, the bullet went in one eye, and out the other. If I hadn’t seen grandpa shoot before, I would have thought it was pure luck, but I knew better.
We didn’t know it at the time, but grandpa had pancreatic cancer – he died within the next six months…this event, grandma complaining about having to go home and roast a turkey even as she beamed with pride, and the twenty dollars grandpa gave each of us as thanks for believing in him, were some of my fondest memories of my grandfather.
I’m sure there are others that could make that shot, but when you consider his age, physical condition, primitive equipment, and the stress of the situation, it was one in a million in my book.
I was just a girl, probably about 10. My Dad was driving the family to my Grandmother’s place for Sunday dinner. Dad stopped behind a car at a red light when it happened…
Now to know my Dad was to love him. He was all of 5 feet tall, had polio as a child so was bent over with a hump back and had an undeveloped leg in a brace. He was a talker, could converse with anyone. He sang and played the guitar, he boxed with my little brother and built a mean fire when we went camping. He couldn’t chop wood or put up a tent or anything that required muscle, but he could and did, entertain his friends and family as they did it for him. Not one person ever resented helping my Dad. He had a way of making everyone feel comfortable, like he’d known them forever. So… he was a gem.
This day was just like every other Sunday. Except for what happened at that light. I don’t really remember what caused the problem but my Dad did something that pissed off the guy driving ahead of him. This guy slams his vehicle into park and gets out of the vehicle then starts stalking over to Dad’s door. My Mom is worried but not him. He got out of his door, walked all 5 feet of himself up to this brute, stuck out his hand and said something like “I seemed to have annoyed you somehow.” I don’t remember the conversation but I do remember the guy shaking my Dad’s hand and apologizing for getting mad over nothing. Yup, took the wind right out of his sails in a few seconds. Quite the guy.
I became friends with Gordon in Grad School. Gordon suffered from Acromegaly. Acromegaly is a hormonal disorder that develops when your pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone during adulthood. When this happens, your bones increase in size, including those of your hands, feet and face.
He never had friends and had been shunned his whole life. I heard a voice (as I do when it is very important) that said to befriend him. I did, going out for chicken drive-thru, having long talks and visiting each other’s houses. His mom was very curious of me.
I wanted to have a graduate party, about 100 students, at my Dad’s house. Guess whose name was at the top of the flyer? Three hosts, including Gordon. Supertramp was on the record player and it was a great time.
Wonders of wonders, Gordon announced he was going to throw a party. It was word of mouth since there was no internet. Gordon had timed it so his parents were out of town. I arrived early to help. He was busy setting out nuts and such. Unfortunately, it was pouring down raining, hard. Gordon lived in an outer suburb of the city, so it was a drive.
7:30 came and went. Nobody showed. Nobody.
I started to talk to Gordon that it was raining hard, and people do not like to drive in the rain, etc. He listened but was still busy.
At 8:00, there was a ring on the doorbell. Then another, then another.
EVERYBODY was there. He was so happy and I was happy for him.
The next day I went to help clean up. All good.
Later he told me his parents wanted to know why there were shoe prints in the bathtub.
I have had success in school, business, and my marriage, but one of the proudest moments was seeing Gordon’s face that night.
I was working at the corporate headquarters of a major Consumer product goods company in the late 80s. They were undergoing the threat of being purchased by a tobacco company, which was going on at the time (late 80s and early 90s). As such, they were having a significant 14% layoff to improve their position in a potential hostile takeover. (and it did work!), Well, there was a lot of hurt and pain the morning people came in to discover they were pink-slipped. One guy and there was some concern from a PR perspective, was a guy who had worked at this company for over 40, yes, 40 years! He was a year out from retirement(meaning he planned to retire the following year) , and the company was giving generous severance packages. Well, the guy under the terms of severance was getting the maximum full year of 100% pay for 52 weeks. Basically, he was retiring with full pay and retirement benefits but was able to do so a full year early. He and his wife had planned a world cruise to the year after his retirement. Evidently, the first call he made was to his wife to book the ship and pack because we are going this week! He was so gleeful that he had to be escorted out of the building because his utter joy was inappropriate for so many in that office who were now unemployed and hurting. They were also concerned that at his age, he might have a heart attack from his ecstasy and how the press would report it!
I was at an outdoor shooting range and had been talking to the guy next to me during cease-fire breaks. He had his granddaughter with him and he was shooting an old .22 revolver at a 25 yard target. Two men came in and went down to the 10 yard range and were blasting away at their targets, often hitting the ground in their haste. At the next cease-fire, they packed up and walked down the shooting line to leave. The guy next to me said something to them about maybe slowing down their shots and focusing on accuracy. They informed him that they were rookie cops and that they knew what they were doing because of their extensive weeks (days?) of training. He replied that he was a retired Louisiana cop and held up 2 of his targets that he had pulled from the range. He had been shooting heart shapes into the target with that old revolver. As they left, I heard one of the rookies tell the other, “We just got schooled, didn’t we.”
The best badass story I ever heard was in the news here maybe 20 years ago. A guy was running the register at his little convenience store when a punk came in and pulled a pistol demanding money. The store owner started complaining about being robbed several times and that he needed to get a gun. Then he asked the robber how much he would take to sell him the pistol. The robber gave him a price, the owner paid him, took the gun, and turned it on the robber and told him to put his hands up. The story made the news because the police thought it was such a great “dumb criminal story” that they pulled the robber out of his cell at each shift change and made him tell the cops coming on duty what had happened. His lawyer threatened to sue the police department for embarrassing the guy.
I never got amazing grades in my science class. Or any classes really. I was a very distracted student. Class was boring. I enjoyed daydreaming in the back.
But I won the school science fair in 9th grade.
Almost as fun as winning the science fair?
Enjoying death stares from all the smart kids.
I was told that the smartest girl in our class, Liz, who went on to study at MIT, was pissssed. Both of her parents were doctors. She fancied herself a descendant of Science.
The quote that got back to me was, “I can’t believe I lost to Sean.”
But alas. Lose she did. Yours truly, Captain Dumbass, topped a future MIT Grad.
What was my experiment, you ask?
Well, for context, this was back in 1998 after a bunch of major oil spills had occurred and the news had lots of terrible stories about wildlife dying, covered in the tar-like oil.
My experiment measured the use of different types of animal hair in oil spill cleanups. I used hair from barber shops, llama farms, horse farms, and beyond in the experiment, which was done in the backyard in a kiddy pool.
Several types of fibers ended up testing with better results than the synthetic buoys used during actual oil spill cleanups.
After winning regionals at a local university, we traveled to states a month later, where about 50 science experiments were featured.
I think I was the dumbest guy at this science fair, but I placed 3rd somehow.
The guy who placed 1st, a 15-year-old, designed a roof that doesn’t blow off during hurricanes. He brought his own wind tunnel and everything.
Yeah, he kinda deserved the gold.
But I was happy with 3rd. And for having trolled the smart kids at my school back home.
May 6, 2008. My husband of 28 years came home early from work one day, sat down at the table and told me he was just fired for having an affair with a 25 year old girl at work. In that moment, with that one sentence, everything inside me shut down and I was in shock, numb. Until then, I had truly believed he was my best friend and I was a lucky woman.
We ended up losing our dream home, went bankrupt, sold everything of value and cashed out our retirement to survive (I have a good job but his salary was 4x’s mine). We now live in a small apartment like we did when we first got married. Those are just “things” though. What hurts most is how it affected the future of our (then) teen children. We couldn’t help them through college or keep them on health, dentist, and car insurance. All for a few quick fucks.
He is extremely remorseful and worked long and hard to win my heart back. Our marriage counselor considers us a huge success story. I have forgiven him and all seems happy now. But secretly, whatever it was that went numb inside me on May 6th at that breakfast table, has never come back to me. I’m afraid it never will.
I hope if you are married, or even happily employed, that this post will make you think twice should you need to.
The only crucial battle of WW2 that the Axis almost won was the Battle for the Atlantic. This plane and the others that performed anti-submarine patrols enable the flow of men and materials from America to Britain.
When I was growing up, I saw my father going to office every day. He would eat his breakfast at 9 and leave for office by 9.30. It was a six days week during that period. Since he was a civil servant, he had to many times go for work even on Sundays and holidays.
When I was in school and then in college, I seldom missed my classes. It was fun going to school and college and meet with friends and participate in all activities.
When I joined my job, everyone in office used to come in time without fail. There were many who wouldn’t even avail their full quota of casual leaves (15 in a year). There were a few instances when due to Deewali or some other vacations, there were continuous holidays for 4–5 days. People used to wait for offices to open.
Even today, in most government offices, there is no concept of working from home. All government employees go to office every day.
During the covid pandemic, most of the private sector companies introduced the concept of work from home. It was the need of the hour and was very convenient for the employees. Lots of people shifted to their home towns and worked from there. It became a new normal.
Now that the things have gotten back to normal, a number of people are still preferring to work from home. I know a few youngsters who resigned their jobs when the companies asked them to report to office for work. They became too comfortable perhaps working from home.
Maybe I am old school, but for me staying home all day is not done. I want to go to my office and work.
I was 14. No friends. Each day I dragged myself home to where I lived with my schizophrenic Mother, just the two of us. I would be in trouble for something: I lived in a perpetual state of confusion as I often couldn’t remember what she told me I had done. She told me I was stupid and needed to go to a special school because I didn’t know what I had done wrong. In the past she had often slapped me until my nose bled and beat me with the metal pole of a fly swatter, but that stopped the summer before high school. She told me she didn’t love me repeatedly for months. According to her I was a horrible daughter. Her friends from church had stopped coming weekly to yell at me and slap me senseless as well. I knew when she sent me away with my Aunt and Uncle the summer that had passed she had read my diary, where I detailed all the abuse and talked about wanting to die. She denied reading it, but it stopped the physical abuse so now it was just verbal and believe it or not that hurt just as bad. I was unloveable and alone.
She didn’t work and depended on government assistance. She just sat at home chain smoking and playing cards. During the week I woke myself up, made breakfast, went to school. She complained about the smell of eggs in the morning and of course I was useless. I had a hard time socializing, and she decided she didn’t like the friends I’d managed to make the previous year, so put me in a very small private Christian high school the church paid for. As a low income, single parent house I was a freak among higher income two parent families. So I spent my days an outsider and bullied at school and then came home to be bullied some more. I got in trouble once because someone told her I walked around with my head down and never smiled! I remember trying out and making the school play that year. I was so proud. My Mother decided to use that as leverage for her every whim: if I did anything wrong (sang doing dishes) she threatened to not allow me to be in the play. It got so bad I just quit the play rather than have it continually be held over my head as a threat.
A school councillor regularily made me talk to him. I refused to give anything up. He persisted. He asked me if I was abused: as she was no longer hitting me I said no. I had no words to explain the verbal abuse. Being stupid and unloveable didn’t seem to qualify. Then one magical day a girl at school approached me and we became friends. A few weeks later she asked me if I could spend the weekend at her house. Her house was beautiful and she lived with her parents and siblings and it was loud, noisy and chaotic. On the Saturday of this weekend sleep over, my new friend had to take piano lessons so I was to hang out in her room until she got back. I was surprised when both her parents wanted to speak with me while she was gone. They informed me that the school had asked them to be my foster parents and presented me with a ‘contract’. They gave me 30 minutes to decide if I wanted to live with them.
I was 14 years old. I had no friends. My Mother was the only family I had ever known. I knew I was stupid. I knew that I was worthless and unloveable. 30 minutes was a ridiculous amount of time for a decision that would change the course of my life that I was too young to make. I didn’t know these people at all. But a voice in my head screamed at me to do it, with everything it had. So I took that leap of faith. I jumped off the cliff away from everything I’d ever known.
My roller coaster ride wasn’t over my any means, but to this day I am so grateful I left. My life 30 years later is wonderful and I often wonder where I would be if I had stayed growing up in that house.
I spent several weeks in a Prisoner of War camp in Central Bosnia. Conditions were bad and so was the food. We basically ate the same things every day:
Breakfast.
A small slice of bacon with bread. The bacon was as tough as leather and full of bones. If you were lucky, one of your roommates was working outside and brought you some Turkish coffee.
This slice of bacon looks much better than the ones we ate. (Photo: Rainer Zenz, wiki:de)
Lunch.
Most of the time, there was no electrical power and our food had to be heated over a small fire in the backyard. Our captors just threw a bunch of tinned food into a big pot of boiling water. There were two different meals: peas with beef and beans with beef. You always had to be careful when you opened the tins because they were under pressure. Once, I opened a tin and the content just sprayed over my T-Shirt.
Dinner.
We either had another slice of sh*tty bacon or tinned sardines with an onion. Both, the bacon and the sardines, were extremely salty which caused you to drink a lot of water during the night. This was a big problem because there were no toilets in the rooms. If you needed to pee, you had to knock on the door (waking everyone up), shout the number of your room to a guard, and wait. There was only one toilet for all of the seventy prisoners and it could take an hour before someone came to open the door.
The aircraft itself was pretty crappy but that didn’t matter as kinks would be worked out later.
It’s main job was to attack targets in Western Europe and its speed could not be matched by NATO interceptors stationed in Europe except the British Lightning and the F-104 Starfighter … BUT …
The Lightning had a short range and was only operated from British soil, it couldn’t go after the Tu-22. And the F-104 was a very good interceptor but the Europeans used it in the low-level fighter-bomber role, so again not a real threat to the Tu-22.
On top of that, the Tu-22 was a versatile aircraft that could carry a wide range of weapons.
But the most important aspect was psychological.
The fucking commies have a bomber we can’t intercept !!! and NATO collectively shit its pants.
Think about all those billions wasted on modern NATO Air Defences while Khrushchev had already decided to go with ballistic missiles instead of bombers.
With a large arsenal of relatively cheap missiles, the Soviets could have taken out expensive NATO Air Defences and then mop up the rest with cheap (and often crappy) bombers.
The Soviets couldn’t keep up with the West financially so they came up with a wide range of ploys to force the West to spend money on expensive systems that could be easily circumvented … and usually NATO fell for it (they still went broke in the end, but that is another story).
I don’t like to share my personal life with anyone, so writing this anonymously. Though I have made some mistakes in life, this one really tops the chart.
So me any my father were never really close, although he cared for me but never really showed it (like most indian dads) and I was the same as well. It was my final year engineering exams when I received a call from home, it was my sister who said that dad just fainted and we are taking him to the hospital. I reached as soon as I could, he suffered from brain haemorrhage. Though the doctore saved him, he was not able to walk or speak properly after that. He was 57 at the time.
After 3 years went by, we had accepted this fate and were living peacefully. My dad was now able to take care of himself(doing his day to day activities that is) and he used to exercise as well, since the doctors mentioned it was very important for him to keep his body moving.
One fine day he complained to us that he is having some chest pain so he’ll skip exercise, we all thought it was due to gas so didn’t pay much thoguht to it. This continued for 3–4 days after which I had an argument with him and I shouted these exact words to him “You are just finding excuses to not exercise, there’s nothing wrong with you. You are just being lazy.”
Guess what! Next morning he started sweating really bad and fainted. We took him to the hospita and found that he was suffering from a heart attack and doctor said that it must be going on for about 4–5 days now. He asked us how come we didn’t notice any symptoms and we were all blank and cried like anything.
He was not so lucky this time, after being in the ICU for 15 days, he didn’t make it. Life has never really been the same since, beacise all I can think of now is our last coversation in which I shouted at him. That’s my last interaction with him, the amount of pain and guilt I feel now, if I could give everything I have just to change that one moment where I shouted at him, I would not even think twice.
But I can’t, after that day I’ve realised the importance of words and parents as well. Although they may not always show but we(their children) are the best thing that ever happened to them.
Please guys, treat your parents with the love and respect they deserve, because you don’t know which conversation is going to be the last one.
1. They are extremely punctual. For eg: I had a dinner planned with my labmates at sharp 6.00 PM. I was in my room till 6.00 PM and I wondered where everybody has gone as no one was to be seen. Suddenly, I remembered that there was a dinner at 6.00 PM and immediately I rushed downstairs. I reached at there around 6.02 PM and saw everybody there in their seats waiting just for me and they had set a plate with the food for me. When I sat down, then they sang their prayer and started eating.
2. People politely line-up in front of the metro unlike in Delhi metro where people cover the whole door just to get inside (at least that was my experience when I traveled in Delhi metro during my visit there) and it is considered rude to speak in the metro.
3. Even if train is delayed by 15-20 seconds, a message is displayed “Sorry for the inconvenience”
4. Technology is used even in toilets to keep the seats warm and bidets are there. There is also an audio track to mask the unappealing sounds you emit 😛
5. Has excellent garbage management: For eg. Mon, Thu – Burnable, Wed- Non-burnable, Fri- Bottles and plastics to be kept in street corner
6. You can find almost everything of daily use in the 100 yen shop. Not to mention the cheap electronic goods in Japan.
7. There is a 10,000 yen note. And the travel is very expensive. For eg: a ride of 2 km by taxi costs 710 yen in Tokyo.
U.S, tech companies are unfortunately being squeezed by our own government. The Chinese market is existential to these companies. . . . and its the U.S. government banning them from this market.
Biden is continuing trump’s sanctions of China’s tech companies – that latest salvo being the ban on U.S. tech companies from selling to China the latest version chips. But for what end?
Bottomline, on a head-to-head confrontation, the U.S. just can’t win because ultimately, you need to be able to sell what you produce. And this has to be through China because they are the market.
And by banning U.S. tech companies from the Chinese market now is allowing Chinese startups to take over the vacuum left open and effectively replace the U.S. tech companies not just in the Chinese but the global marketplace over the long term.
Back in the ′90s, a new neighbor moved in to the house just down the block. He was a single guy in his early 40s, seemed to be one of those guys who worked with his hands and kept mainly to himself. But… it wasn’t very long before we (as in the ENTIRE block) found out that he was a jerk.
He had a beautiful vintage ‘69 Ford Mustang GT 500, with (what I found out later) one of the fastest engines ever commercially made. Here’s one below, and you have to admit, it looks absolutely stunning, eh?
Well, the neighbor in question definitely thought so as well, especially the over-powered engine. But in a suburb, where can you show off the power of the engine, really?
How about EVERY MORNING AT 5 AM when he went to work.
Every morning, that lunatic would pull out of his driveway, rev up the engine and demonstrate why that car could go 0–60 in 3.3 seconds! That car (and he) would go straight down the length of the block in practically 2 seconds and burst out onto the cross streets until he disappeared in a tell tale cloud of smoke and exhaust. Our neighborhood had become a 5 AM RACE TRACK.
To put it lightly, the entire neighborhood was NOT impressed. The sound of that car engine could be heard from two blocks away. I think practically all of the residents went to him in the period of a week asking him to not drive so recklessly and dangerously and wake up the entire block every weekday (and some weekend) mornings.
He would fake concern, and assure everyone he won’t do it again. And of course, he did it again and again. We complained to the cops, and they gave him a warning several times, but at the time there were no laws on the books in Montreal about sound decibels between 11 PM and 5 AM. Needless to say, we were stuck.
This went on for about two months until winter set in, and I and several neighbors were assembling the local outdoor hockey rink. As we were filling in the rink, making the ice and so on, we were talking about the jerk when an inspired idea suddenly flashed in our heads. Looking at the wooden boards that we used to make the ice rink, a devious plan came to mind. We rushed back to my kitchen as soon as we could, and started to work on the math. Later, we went door to door to see who we could conscript to help with our evil plans.
(By the way for all you car enthusiasts and collectors, I have NO idea why this guy was using such a classic car as a daily driver, and why drive it in the winter either.)
A few more weeks we all waited (by this time, the secret neighborhood revenge task force grew to about 30 households) for an ESPECIALLY cold day in Montreal (-20C and below) and waited for the chance to execute our plan… and then the forecast came of one especially cold night and day. The time had come.
Seeing as the neighbor always went to work at 5 AM, he almost always went to bed around 9 PM. Assuming that he would take about an hour to get ready for work, that gave us a window of around midnight to 3 AM for our plan. And like clockwork, at the stroke of midnight, 30 people came out, with small shovels, wood brackets (the ones we use to make local rinks), buckets and several hoses from the houses surrounding the target house. We all worked efficiently and effectively seeing as we never did anything like this before. Brackets went up. Snow got piled in. Water poured in.
Did I forget to mention again that it was -24C that night?
By 3 AM, we were all done. Our act of vengeance was complete, and had a few more hours still to harden and solidify. And yes, you’ve probably guessed what we did… and at 5 AM, we heard a very loud man ranting and raving, wanting revenge on whomever that did this, screaming that he was going to do horrible things to the people that did THIS to his beloved car.
Oh, as for what we did… imagine the next two pics COMBINED to see what we did to that beloved ’69 Ford Mustang GT 500.
Yes, we turned his car into A HUGE ICE CUBE.
Needless to say, when life resumed on the street around 7 to 8 AM as people were going to work, we were greeted to a pretty pissed-off guy hammering at iron-strong ice walls surrounding his car. He wouldn’t even look at anyone as people passed by, and only kept muttering to himself something pretty nasty.
It was about three days before he managed to get his car completely free, and that involved a LOT of hot water, hours of labour and god knows what else he had to do. Add on that he had to get back to work each day, the mornings were peaceful as there was nary a roar or sound of anything.
The cops came and asked for statements from everyone in the area to find out who could have done something so terrible, but no one pointed at anyone, and everyone reiterated about how that neighbor had been a jerk from day two. He even went door to door, absolutely furious and demanded that someone tell him who did this. I think someone must have called the cops on him because he was threatening too many people. Needless to say, his complaints fell on deaf ears, and even the cops, who I think figured out that this was a group event, brushed his rantings away and threatened him with arrest and told him to calm down or else. Overall, a pretty satisfactory conclusion.
Well, there was a slight miscalculation though… the hot water (then cold) had to drain somewhere, and went down the street turning half the block into an ice rink for a while. Still, aside from a few bags of sand and ice, plus the help of the city and ANOTHER warning from the cops about how he was endangering the street, it was still a successful operation with only a minor inconvenience.
For the next few months, the mornings were quite peaceful. No more 5 AM revving or barreling out of the neighborhood like a bat out of hell. And in the spring, a For Sale sign popped up on his lawn. By the summer, we greeted a brand new family to the neighborhood, and life went on in a sleepy (no longer sleep-deprived) suburban neighborhood in Canada.
An acquaintance of mine took his daughter’s college savings away so that he could buy a boat. He did this the year before she went to college to “teach her responsibility” after they had an argument.
After they got into a (relatively minor) fight he told her she had two choices:
1) They could transfer ownership of an almost-paid-off car to her.
2) Let her keep the college fund they’d been growing (they told her this fund was for her, her entire life).
She chose “Keep the college fund”. He changed his mind, took that option away, made her take the car anyway, and kept the college fund for himself instead. Perhaps 2) was never an option, but he hoped she’d choose the car so he wouldn’t feel like such a jerk for taking her college money away.
Shortly after taking her college fund away, a brand new fishing boat appeared in his driveway. It looked a hell of lot like he just wanted an excuse to get his boat.
I am still in abject disgust.
She was a fantastic student and had been told throughout her life that her college would be paid for if she had good grades.
If my daughter had great grades and had the desire to go to a good school, even if I was poor, I would work 3 jobs to make sure she could have the best education.
School always came first in my family so I didn’t understand his actions. Bad grades were quickly punished. Good grades forgave many sins.
Natchitoches Meat Pies with Pepper Jelly
Pepper Jelly is also very good over cream cheese and served with crackers.
Yield: about 90 to 100 meat pies; 9 to 10 half-pints Pepper Jelly
Ingredients
Filling
2 pounds ground sirloin
2 pounds ground pork
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon red pepper
1 cup chopped green onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil for frying
Crust
2 cups self-rising flour
1/3 cup Crisco shortening
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
Pepper Jelly
2 cups finely chopped bell peppers
20 to 25 jalapeno peppers, some but not all of the seeds removed
7 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 (6 ounce) box Certo pectin
Instructions
Filling
Cook ground sirloin and pork until it crumbles. Add salt, black pepper, red pepper and green onions. Stir in all-purpose flour. Set aside to cool.
Crust
Sift self-rising flour into a large bowl. Cut shortening into flour. Add egg and milk. Form dough into ball.
On a floured board, roll about a third of the dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough in circles about 3 inches in diameter. Place a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture on each circle. Dampen edges. Fold over filling. Crimp edges with a fork and prick with fork on top. Deep fry at 350 degrees F until golden brown.
Serve with Pepper Jelly.
Pepper Jelly
Chop peppers very fine. Place peppers, sugar and vinegar in a tall pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 7 to 8 minutes, then add both pouches of Certo pectin. Boil for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Put into sterilized jars and seal.
Serve Pepper Jelly with Natchitoches Meat Pies.
Notes
You may need to repeat the crust recipe three or four times to use all of the meat mixture.
Freezes well. Place uncooked pies on cookie sheet in freezer until set. Put in recloseable plastic bags and freeze.
His name is Wang Enlin. He is a Chinese farmer. He was a primary school dropout.
In 2001, his farmland was flooded by chemical waste from a nearby chemical company. The chemical pollution made the land unusable . Wang had written to the local officials about the pollution but he had no idea what law the company had broken by polluting his land.
‘I knew I was in the right, but I did not know what law the other party had broken or whether or not there was evidence.’
He decided to study law by himself, so he would be able to sue the company.
He spent 16 years educating himself about the law, from 2001 to 2017.
He studied law books in a local bookstore.
He sued the company and had won the first round of the legal battle against Qihua Group which is a state-owned chemicals company.
Took a friend’s child (11m) to swim class. The instructor was a 19 yo college varsity swimmer. First class of the day, heard her talking about her new swimsuit and how her BF got it for a romantic trip they were taking that weekend, but since she had not done laundry, she pulled it out early.
She always swam a couple of hard and fast laps before starting class, finishing with this dramatic pop out of the water to stand infront of where her class gathered. This day was no different. Turns out her suit was a joke swimsuit, made with dissolving threads. It was intended to fall apart in the hot tub of where ever they were going for the romantic weekend. She did her normal dramatic pop out of the water to stand on the deck in front of her class, and let’s just say those 11-year-old boys got quite the education that day.
Showed up for a college English class just as the class was starting. There was only one seat left by the time I got there.
That seat was next to a very hot woman who was way out of my league. So far out of my league that I didn’t bother talking to her. Why set myself up for failure, you know?
Over the next few classes, people kept sitting in the same seats, even though they weren’t assigned or anything. I started to talk to the woman, mainly because the professor had us discuss some things with people near us. Eventually I got comfortable talking to her and forgot she was so far out of my league. Then, after class one day, I offered her a ride to the other side of campus, even though it wasn’t a large campus. I told her I wanted to show her my new car (which was true). She accepted, we started talking more.
Finally, I asked her out; she accepted. We dated for five years, got married, had three kids, one dog, bought a house, and now she’s sitting next to me, trying to figure out how to set up some new speakers she got for Christmas.
All because I was the last one in class and had to take the one seat that was left. Otherwise, I would never have sat next to someone like her.
Cheating Wife LOSES IT After Husband Puts Her Through The Ultimate Mental Gymnastics Before Divorce
Tactically Interesting.
"It's always the dad that ends up broken about the actions of his daughter..."
I was the company’s first employee. It started with just me and the owner working from his living room. He promised me as the company grew so would my paycheck. Two years later… I am running the whole back end of the company out of two warehouses and he is running the front end and doing the administration side. As he travels the world I step up and run it all. He bought his wife and father each a Lexus. I was still living with my grandparents and driving an old beat up car because I couldn’t even afford a studio apartment anywhere in our county but my annual review was coming and since the company and his pay had grown exponentially, I expected a large raise.
My annual review was nothing short of perfect, but all I got was a $0.25 per hour raise. It was bull****. He cried when I gave him my notice, but in my opinion, he kind of asked for it. I would have gladly stayed if he kept his word and my pay really had grown as the business did. After I left apparently there was a power struggle with all the employees in both warehouses all fighting over who would be in my position and it fell apart. He begged me to come back and help it get under control again but that was a big NO.
Harsh truths about men and divorce
Xi calls for letting internet better benefit people of all countries
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for letting the internet better benefit people of all countries when he addressed the opening ceremony of the 2023 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit via video.
Xi said that the vision of jointly building a community with a shared future in cyberspace, which he proposed at the second WIC in 2015, has garnered widespread international recognition and positive responses.
The vision answers the questions of our times related to resolving the development deficit, addressing security challenges, and enhancing mutual learning between civilizations, Xi said.
Xi stressed that the international community needs to deepen exchanges and practical cooperation to jointly advance the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace to a new stage.
He called for prioritizing development to let the fruits of internet development benefit more countries and people.
Xi emphasized the need to improve public access to information-based services, bridge the digital divide, and improve people’s livelihood with internet development.
Calling for building a more peaceful and secure cyberspace, Xi stressed the need to respect cyber sovereignty and each country’s way of internet governance and the need to oppose seeking hegemony, bloc confrontation and arms race in cyberspace.
Xi went on to underscore the need to crack down on cyber crimes, strengthen data security and personal information protection, and properly respond to the risks and challenges brought by sci-tech development to rules, society and ethics.
China is willing to work with all parties to implement the Global Artificial Intelligence Governance Initiative and promote the safe development of AI, Xi said.
He also called for building a more equal and inclusive cyberspace. He stressed the need to better promote the shared values of humanity.
Xi underlined more high-quality online cultural products and efforts to fully showcase the outstanding achievements of human civilizations and actively promote civilization preservation and development.
After working for several companies, I came to a grim conclusion. In most organizations, only ~10% of people are truly high performers. They have great attitudes, are self-starters, smart, and great to work with.
25% are hard-working, competent, and carry most of the company’s workload. About 50% are lazy and just cross the minimum standard of work. 15% are completely incompetent and shouldn’t be at the company.
Many in this bottom 65% are gone at 5:01 PM despite being on a performance improvement plan. And the thing that stinks: many of them once held promise in the eyes of the interviewer. Nobody wants to hire and manage a dud.
Many in that bottom wrung are managers too. They slid up to their own level of incompetence (the Peter Principle). There’s another key distinction between the top 35% and the bottom 65%.
Their attitude.
The high performers don’t grimace when something goes wrong because it means more work. They don’t pout or complain incessantly about their job.
They are all in. They are there to crush their goals.
I noticed this in particular with the Indian coworkers who were there on a work Visa. They were the ultimate in keeping their head down and working, never complaining, and investigating problems thoroughly.
They appreciated the opportunity in front of them. They weren’t spoiled and had grown up in a competitive academic environment.
The head of my department was anonymously accused of sexual harassing a female senior student. Immediately an investigation was started, and he was put on hold.
When first days, and then weeks passed, it became obvious that in this kind of case, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. I always thought it had to be the other way around.
(Stupid me.)
The weird thing was that although the accusation had been filed anonymously, the student was named in the document — she had not filed it by herself. After a round of interviews, it also became clear that she had not been harassed at all.
In fact, she was totally shocked by the way she had been questioned, as if she had been almost forced to “admit the accusation.” But nothing had happened, which she had repeated over and over again, and still the same questions came.
From the beginning, I was involved in the case as a confidant, and after reading the accusation, it became crystal clear who had written it. (And it wasn’t the girl.) This was a retaliation of the darkest evil, written by people who wanted to get rid of the man, and this was the easiest way.
They tried to erase his every accomplishment by making him a sexual offender. And it actually worked.
Because although he was totally cleared in the end, many people had already decided that he was a sexual predator before the outcome of the investigation. And that type of people usually don’t change their mind afterwards.
And although he was declared innocent, soon after he was “asked” by the dean to step aside as the head of the department (to save the faculty from losing face), and a new head was appointed.
I was running late to a family gathering at my older brother’s house. When I got there I saw my cousins step son going under the water in the pool.(my cousin leaning on the fence,) watching this happen and does nothing. Turns away, my son, the same age and build as the other boy, dove in to help. He can swim, but not well enough to handle a panicking person. I was on my way to the pool, removing my boots to help the first boy, when I saw my son I panicked. Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to help, but become someone else needing help. Meanwhile no one is paying attention except my ex wife. So now I have to get undressed, leaving my underwear on. My clothing would have been too heavy to swim with a child in each arm. By the time I got to the edge my ex was there with 2 towels. And I said, “see, that’s what I’m talking about. He treats those kids like shit. And he just walked away seeing him go under”. Not more that 10 seconds later my aunt was jumping down my throat, saying I was just an ass…… and then it was the rest of my family. I said I am speaking out in defense of a child and you are calling me messed up. But he can watch the kids go under, yelling for help and turn around? I never went to another family function again. And recently decided that I am going to just disown the entire lot.
She: Do you have any specific seat preference, sir?
Me(lightly): A seat beside a cute girl would be great.
She(smiling): Sure, you can take that chair and sit beside me.
Slightly taken aback by that unexpected response.
Me: Not now, but maybe some other time. You can give me your number and I would definitely call you next time I’m in the city.
She: That’s private.
Me(delivering my well rehearsed dialogue): Ultimate privacy is a myth. God sees everything. The cloud records everything. NSA files everything. So, live transparently and don’t waste useless energy hiding yourself.
She(placing the ticket on the counter): Here’s your ticket, sir. If it’s meant to be, we’ll meet again. Till then have a nice journey.
Me(with a wide smile): Thank you.
Later in the flight while I was reading a novel, my attention diverted towards something scribbled at the back of my ticket which I was using as a bookmark. To my horror I saw this:
A half written name and mobile number with a smiley.
One of the security staff must have torn and kept the other half. I re-winded that conversation and cursed myself a million times for not paying attention.
Now, every time I travel through Mumbai I just glance through the Jet Airways counter once, just in case….
A bored, 25-year old intern in Microsoft – named Wes Cherry wrote Windows Solitaire (Klondike) in his spare time and never got royalty for it!
The story in his own words:
I wrote it for Windows 2.1 in my own time while an intern at Microsoft during the summer of 1988. I had played a similar solitaire game on the Mac instead of studying for finals at college and wanted a version for myself on Windows…
At the time there was an internal “company within a company” called Bogus software. It was really just a server where bunch of guys having fun hacking Windows to learn about the API tossed their games.
A program manager on the Windows team saw it and decided to include it in Windows 3.0. It was made clear that they wouldn’t pay me other than supplying me with an IBM XT to fix some bugs during the school year — I was perfectly fine with it and I am to this day.
A few people have paid me “a penny” as a joke. I’d get them in the mail, or in person if someone introduced me as the author of Solitaire and the obligatory no royalties conversation came up. I think I’m up to about 8 cents now.
Microsoft thought that Solitaire will train people how to use mouse, a newly introduced input device back then.
Initially he programmed a Boss Key into the game, which would instantly switch out the game with spreadsheet looking display. He knew already how addictive the game is. But, Microsoft told him to remove that feature.
He is also creator of Pipe Dream which was part of Microsoft Entertainment pack. Although, this time he was paid a few thousand $ in stocks for that (those worth millions today!).
After his internship, he joined MS Excel team.
Today he is growing apples (fruit!) on an island west of Seattle.
In 2004, Microsoft’s Chris Sells described Solitaire as the most-used Windows application in the world surpassing MS-Office itself!
To celebrate Solitaire’s silver anniversary, Microsoft arranged a Solitaire tournament on the Microsoft campus on May 18, 2015.
Hats off to this genius intern, who took the internship to another level just out of self-interest!
I was baking a banana bread yesterday. When I took the loaf out of the oven, my finger accidentally touched the hot baking pan. I exclaimed, “Sonofabitch!”. My husband heard and rushed into the kitchen, “What’s that?”. I showed him my finger, “The hot baking pan burnt me!”, faking a cry. “Lemme see!”, he held my finger and gave it a ton of small kisses. “Better?”, he asked. I nodded and grinned like a little girl.
Sometimes, there is a helicopter hovering over our property. When my husband hears it, no matter what he’s doing, he will drop it, rush out to the backyard, and look up to watch the helicopter. Then he will come back inside, and announce to me with a grin, “It’s a helicopter!” like a seven year old boy.
We definitely are two kids living together (three, if we count The Teenager), and it’s pretty good. I recommend it!
I was once told that a patient in our waiting room was disruptive and probably drunk or high. I got him back to my office, and began to ask him questions. He talked about working all day outside. At that point, something struck me as odd. I asked him how long he had been in our office—less than ten minutes.
It was the hottest part of the Texas summer, and his clothes were dry. There had not been time for them to dry out. He was not sweating.
I got staff to help call EMTs. He went to the hospital with heat injury. He had been in heat stroke. He told us later that the hospital thought he might have kidney damage from it, but he recovered.
Everyone knows cold can kill you. Not as many know that heat can. If you are out in the heat and someone who has been sweating stops, or starts acting crazy, get help. People die from heat stroke, and pretty quickly.
I will never forget it. K.K. Lim had taken me to breakfast at a restaurant in Singapore known for their Laksa. It really is delicious. We were eating and talking and having a pleasant time.
When it was time to leave I pushed back from the table, forgetting the stool I sat on had no back. I proceeded to fall off of it, flat on my back. Did I mention it was a popular restaurant with high traffic? Lots of people to witness my embarrassment.
K.K. was afraid I was hurt and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to show my face there again, but I was fine. Extremely embarrassed, but fine.
We’ve had a pretty stable routine the last three years, my dog and I: Before we both go to bed, I walk her, then come home and brush my teeth. While I’m brushing my teeth, she goes to the bedroom ahead of me.
A few months ago, we came back from our final walk of the day, and I went to brush my teeth, expecting her to go upstairs to the bedroom. But she didn’t. She just stared at the basement door.
I didn’t think much of it at first. I finished brushing and began walking up the stairs, expecting her to follow me. I was only about two steps up before she started barking at the basement door. I told her to “knock it off,” thinking that she was barking at some other dog’s barking in the distance outside that I didn’t hear. She does that sometimes.
But she wouldn’t stop. She seemed distressed.
So it finally dawned on me that she was trying to tell me something. Something was in the basement that she wanted me to see.
So I opened the basement door and went down the stairs. Sure enough, she was right… there was a problem. I’d left the door to the outside from the basement wide open. I was taking things out of the basement earlier, and I totally forgot to close the door completely. The wind must have opened it all the way.
Had she not let me know about it, it would have been open all night. God only knows what woodland creatures would have found their way into my basement that night.
I rewarded her with a piece of bologna… her favorite treat. Well, really, any meat that humans normally eat makes her really happy.
Elon Musk: Taiwan is an integral part of China; the country will incorporate Taiwan 100 percent
Succeeding to American billionaire Elon Musk’s public indication that “Taiwan is an integral part of China,”which drew backfire from Taiwan authorities according to CNN, in a recent media video, Musk once again voiced his opinion about the Chinese island, which has gained widespread support from the Chinese public.
And the video has gone viral:
China does feel very strongly about Taiwan.
They’ve been very clear about that for a quite long time.
I understand the frustration. A couple of my kids had friends that were constantly underfoot. After talking with my kids, there were good reasons those friends didn’t want to go home, and were just looking for a safe haven to shelter in.
At that point, I stopped treating them as guests, and started treating them like my kids. If there were chores to be done, then everyone did chores. If there was homework, everybody sat down and did homework. If we had errands to run, everybody got in the car and we did errands. If any guest balked, they had a simple choice to make—they could participate with us or go home. Easy peasy.
Yes, it jacked up the food bill. Oh, well. I still have children and grandchildren who are no blood relation to me. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When in doubt, be kind. But being kind doesn’t mean giving over control of your home to someone else.
A few years ago, I was teaching Earth Science to college undergraduates, and I had brought in a bag of small oranges and a bag of larger grapefruit—because you can stack them in various ways, as a visual aid to demonstrate how atoms are packed together in mineral crystals. Sort of like this:
Anyway, when class was over, I offered the fruit to anyone who wanted some. . . and a student came up and took an orange. She happened to mention that this would be the first time she had ever eaten an orange.
I said “Whut?” or something like that. Who the heck reaches the age of twenty without so much as trying an orange at least once?
In the ensuing conversation, it came out that my student’s mother evidently either couldn’t cook, or didn’t want to cook. . . and my student had been raised on fast food throughout her childhood and teenage years—burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and so on. (For the record, I don’t remember if she had only eaten McDonald’s food specifically, or if she balanced her diet with other fast food chain menus.) She had never tried—or had only recently tried—all the fruits and vegetables that I pretty much took for granted as I was growing up.
You might think that someone who’d grown up on a diet of nothing but fast food would weigh 800 pounds and have lost all her teeth to scurvy, or something like that. But this student was of normal height and weight, and had no obvious medical conditions that I could detect. As a professor I try not to pay too much attention to my students’ looks, but as such things are commonly reckoned she was not bad-looking at all—and pretty smart as well; she did quite well in the class.
So I’m damned if I know how she did it, or what kind of trick metabolism she must have had—but it is evidently possible to eat McDonald’s food for many years and suffer no obvious ill effects. I still wouldn’t recommend it, though.
As I recall, she enjoyed the orange.
RICH Chinese LEFTOVER Women Are Not Attractive to AVERAGE Men Despite Women Being Outnumbered
A Chinese man had brought a dog home from an animal shelter after adoption.
The dog was caring and obedient; however, one night the owner found the dog awake. The dog stood outside the man’s fenced bedroom door. He had been staring at the man while he was asleep.
The man shrugged it off, thinking that the dog was getting used to his new surroundings. But when the pattern was followed night after night, the owner was scared for the dog.
The owner used to play with the dog to make sure he was exhausted at the end of the day and would eventually sleep at night.
But the dog would stay awake and gaze at him every night.
The man showed him to the vet, but the dog was declared healthy.
Finally, the man went to the shelter from which the dog was adopted to seek closure.
The shelter workers revealed that the dog’s previous owner wanted to get rid of him as he had a pregnant wife and he found it difficult to take care of the two.
The owner waited for the dog to fall asleep and then left him at the shelter.
When the dog woke up, he realised that he had been abandoned. Deeply traumatised by it, he found it difficult to trust his new owner and feared being abandoned again if he fell asleep.
Upon learning this, the owner broke into tears. He removed the fence and shifted the dog’s bed beside his own. He believed that this would help build the dog’s trust, lost after being abandoned.
I had a teacher in the 5th grade who kept calling me Jessica. I’ve dealt with this my whole life. Usually, my go to is to politely say, “Excuse me, but my name is Jerrica actually. It’s not Jessica.” That is what I said to this teacher the first day of school. He didn’t respond. He called me Jessica EVERY SINGLE DAY. I corrected him, and he would laugh at me or just shake his head.
At one point, he even said “No, Jessica is your name, stop trying to change your name.” I had a few friends in class try to explain to him that my name is in fact JERRICA. He told them to stop encouraging me.
I asked my mother what to do about this predicament. She, being the wonderful and supportive woman that she is, suggested that I ignore him until he called me by the correct name. So that’s exactly what I did. It got to the point that he was literally crossing out my name on my assignments, writing Jessica on them, and taking points off of everything I handed in with my actual name on it. I would end up with zeros for the day for “being obstinate and refusing to participate.”
I had a D in his class but was an A/B student in everything else. He requested a conference with my parents, and he requested that they both attend as my father was in his opinion the more reasonable parent. As soon as he sat down he started in about me, using the wrong name. “Jessica ignores me in class.,’’ “Jessica does not complete assignments.,” “Jessica is disrespectful.”
My mom asked him what he was talking about and if, in fact he knew how to read. My dad said “I don’t know who Jessica is, but I’m sorry you’re having issues with her. My kid’s name is Jerrica.” He apparently told my parents they shouldn’t have given me such a difficult name, and that this still should not have resulted in the behaviour I exhibited in his class. To which my wonderful father replied, “If your name was Joe and I called you Steve every day for four months, you would be pretty pissed off too.”
I got a grudging, half-hearted apology from my teacher and ended up with a B for my final grade. He never used my name after that, but he did stop taking points off when I wrote it on assignments!
Three takeaways from Wang Yi’s U.S. visit
A meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, two rounds of talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken across two days, strategic communication with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and separate sit-downs with members of the U.S. strategic and business communities.
This is what China’s top diplomat Wang Yi has achieved during a closely-watched three-day visit to Washington that concluded on Saturday.
During the visit, the two sides had “in-depth, constructive and substantive” strategic communication on many issues of common concern, and jointly sent a positive signal of stabilizing and improving China-U.S. relations, said Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and China’s foreign minister.
Here are three key takeaways from his visit.
Road to a San Francisco meeting
Throughout the visit, the Chinese foreign minister stressed, more than once, the importance of following through on the common understandings reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart when they last met
on the sidelines of the G20 Bali Summit in Indonesia.
During the Bali meeting on November 14, 2022, the two heads of state conducted their first face-to-face talks since Biden took office in January 2021. Xi said China and the U.S. should respect each other, coexist in peace, pursue win-win cooperation, and work together to ensure bilateral relations move forward on the right course without losing direction or speed, still less having a collision.
Biden, on his part, told the Chinese president that the U.S. respects China’s system, and does not seek to change it; that it does not seek a new Cold War; that it does not seek to revitalize alliances against China; that it does not support “Taiwan independence,” and does not support “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan;” and that it has no intention to have a conflict with China. The U.S. side has no intention to seek “de-coupling” from China, halt China’s economic development, or contain China, he added.
In the roughly one-hour – more than double than originally planned – meeting with the U.S. president on Friday, Wang said his visit is aimed at communicating with the U.S. side to follow through on the Bali meeting, and proceed toward a San Francisco meeting, so as to prevent bilateral ties from further deteriorating and bring the China-U.S. relationship back on the track of healthy and steady development at an early date.
During the talks between Wang and Blinken on Thursday and Friday, both sides agreed to make joint efforts for the meeting between the two heads of state in San Francisco, which is set to host the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies in mid-November.
“The road to San Francisco will not be a smooth one, and it will not be left to ‘autopilot,'” warned the Chinese foreign minister when he was hosted by the Aspen Security Group, a policy program of a namesake think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
Wang urged real efforts on the part of the U.S. side to eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus, and accumulate results to make the meeting happen.
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that the U.S. side, in conducting its so-called Indo-Pacific strategy, has been making trouble for Beijing on the Taiwan question and the South China Sea issue, among others.
“So the key is to watch whether the U.S. side can really follow its words with actions,” the scholar told CGTN.
Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, meets with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington, D.C., the United States, October 27, 2023. /Chinese Foreign Ministry
Need to restart dialogue
The Chinese foreign minister’s trip followed Blinken’s Beijing visit in June, as well as a visit to China by a bipartisan delegation of the U.S. Senate led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier this month, and was partially coincident with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s week-long stay in China that is still underway.
Wang stressed the importance of keeping communication channels open between the two sides during his talks with Blinken. In the coming days, both sides will hold separately China-U.S. consultations on maritime affairs, arms control and non-proliferation, and foreign policies.
“China and the United States need dialogue. We should not only resume dialogue, but also have in-depth and comprehensive dialogue,” he told reporters while standing next to the U.S. secretary of state before their formal talks, which eventually lasted over seven hours across two days.
The call was shared by U.S. strategists, who told Wang in their meeting on Saturday that the U.S. strategic community does not agree with the rhetoric about the so-called failure of U.S.-China engagement and wants the two sides to restart dialogue in various fields.
To stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations, both sides should also have objective understandings of each other’s strategic intentions, Wang told Blinken, in his latest call for following through one of the common understandings reached between the two presidents at the Bali meeting.
Wang Yiwei, the expert on international relations, said it is important to put a strategic framework in place for the two largest economies to manage their relations.
“If ‘competition’ is the word [to describe the bilateral relations], then the competition should be an orderly one, not one with no bottom line, no principles or no rules,” he said.
It should be in line with the expectations of the international community, and be responsible for globalization and the international market, he added, referring to the U.S. rhetoric of “de-coupling” or “de-risking” its supply chains from China.
People-to-people exchanges
During Wang’s visit, China and the U.S. also agreed to further increase direct passenger flights between the two countries, on top of the commitment made during Blinken’s June visit.
Hours after the talks between the two top diplomats, U.S. officials announced that flights between the U.S. and China will increase to 70 per week starting November 9.
The Chinese civil aviation authority said the increase in flights will help facilitate personnel, economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.
In terms of promoting people-to-people exchanges, the two sides also agreed on a China-U.S. Coordination Meeting on Disability Affairs to discuss the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in disability affairs in the coming days.
Structure
Louisiana Cajun Style Hot Tamales
Yield: approximately 25 dozen tamales
Ingredients
Meat Preparation
10 pounds beef shoulder meat
2 onions, quartered
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
Salt
Pepper
Water
Cornmeal Mush
2 pounds shortening
3 pounds cornmeal
Salt
Pepper
Meat
3 large onions
2 garlic buttons
2 bottles chili powder
1 small bottle red pepper
Salt
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
Instructions
The night before you make your tamales, wash each corn shuck and place in water to soak overnight.
Boil meat until done and falling off bone, about 1 1/2 hours.
While meat is cooking, make mush in heavy skillet. Get shortening hot and add salted cornmeal. Stir meat until golden in color. Make a paste by adding soup off the meat and stirring until smooth.
Take meat off bone and grind together with onion and garlic. Add chili powder, red pepper and salt.
Put shortening in skillet and fry until onion is cooked, stirring constantly. Add tomato paste and soup from meat making it soft. DO NOT GET IT TOO SOFT.
Spread meal mush on shucks about 1/4 inch thick with a flat knife. Then put meat on top and roll into tamale shape.
Notes
DO NOT UNDER-SALT THIS DISH. Cornmeal requires a lot of salt.
What was the most inappropriate thing someone has done in a church service?
Around twenty years ago, when I was pastor of a former congregation, there was a young woman named Anna,* who attended the church. At the time, Anna was in her mid-twenties, but had the mental functioning of a young child. She was brought to church by a kind and caring couple who had a heart for helping people like Anna, and as Anna began inviting her friends to church, we soon found ourselves with four or five of Anna’s friends attending on a regular basis. We had a ministry to some wonderfully unique people dropped right in our laps.
Most of the church did a wonderful job of ministering to these folks. They loved them and were very patient with them. Along with Anna, I fondly recall Mike, who like Anna lived in a group home. Mike would slip into my office at the church and leave little action figures for my then small children. My boys couldn’t wait to get to church and see what Mike had left them. On any given Sunday, there would be Star Wars or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures in a zip lock baggie on my desk. Mike was a real character and he possessed a sweet and caring nature. Later, his family moved him to a group home in Chattanooga, Tennessee and I eventually lost touch with him, but he will always be remembered as the Boo Radley of that little group.
During all this, Anna asked me if she could sing in the church choir. I referred the matter to our church choir director, a kind and compassionate man, and he saw no problem with it. The choir, around twenty members, welcomed Anna as one of their own. Anna couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but it was a joy for her to be up there with the choir on Sunday morning, and her sheer delight of singing along with the choir made it a blessing for all of us.
Not long after Anna began singing in the choir, a cantankerous church member named Madge, whom I have written about here before, came to me one Sunday morning before church with yet another complaint, which was no surprise, as I could always tell when Madge was complaining; her lips were moving. The conversation went something like this:
“Pastor, it’s embarrassing that this woman, Anna, is singing in the choir.”
“Awe, come on Madge; she enjoys herself.”
“I don’t care! She’s an embarrassment to this church!”
“Madge, didn’t Jesus say something about letting the children come to him for such is the Kingdom of Heaven?”
“Yes, he did, but she’s still an embarrassment.”
With that, she huffed away and that was the end of it. Her comments and attitude towards Anna and her friends were among the most inappropriate things I have ever seen during a church service or at church.
Eventually, Anna’s family moved to another town, and welater left that church and I was called to another congregation. However, for the last twenty years or so we have kept in touch with Anna. We consider her a very special friend. Last April, her family brought her to our part of Virginia for a visit and my wife and I took her out to dinner. Here we are enjoying some time with our old friend Anna.
Friendships come in all forms and with all sorts of people.
He writes quite a few things and almost always does 1–3 of the above things sometimes all of them backing them up with calculations a lot of the time.
Same thing with Carl Hamilton he questions things and quantifies things.
If more people did that? Politicians wouldn’t get away with half the shit they do. Yet here we are with people literally saying it’s true because the BBC said so!
Reuters a WESTERN News agency counted the number of protesors in Hong Kong.
So let’s go through the thought process above with the 2 million protestors.
Do some calculations.
Does it pass the smell test.
Check later on things you think to be true and see if they are no longer true.
2 million is almost 1/3 of the population.
2 million cannot fit into such an area as other than telephone box challenges you can’t fit more than 3 people per square meter.
So let’s critically read the Reuters source.
Who wrote it
Why did they write it
What possible bias is there?
What was the methodology?
Reuters – Western news source so according to westerners themselves unbiased. If anything anti China.
They wrote it to check on the massive claims.
The possible bias is they side with the protestors.
The methodology was putting cameras at bridges and certain buildings and counting people passing every few minutes.
Meanwhile the 2 million claim? It came from Jimmy Sham
Let’s do the above with Jimmy Sham.
Who wrote it
Why did they write it
What possible bias is there?
What was the methodology?
Who is Jimmy Sham. He’s a anti government rioter, he was encouraging violence there are speeches you can still find videos of them on Yandex but not google.
Jimmy Sham claimed he’d been attacked for well over a minute by 6 men with hammers. Yet he managed to recover within a few days with only a slight cut to his forehead. Jimmy Sham also produced fliers documenting his attack 2 days before the ‘attack’ Hong Kong leaflets at the bottom state the date of printing.
Why did he write it – To claim more support than there actually was. PORI at HKU (they parted ways) found only 16% had any real support for what the protestors wanted.
What possible bias? – Again he’s anti China.
What was his methodology – He made it up.
Yet westerners are convinced Jimmy Sham is completely credible and Reuters isn’t.
Here’s what I learned from dating/marrying a poor guy: the idea that since he’s not working, he’ll clean and get groceries and cook, is completely lost on men.
They honestly think they can watch TV and play video games all day then when you get home, complain that there are no Doritos and the dishes are all dirty. With a straight fucking face.
And have the nerve to accuse you of assigning them “busy work” when you realize they aren’t going to do it on their own so you still have to be in charge and make them a damn list because they don’t mind wearing the same dirty socks for a week.
There was a time I would have gladly supported the family if I was getting the home handled as part of the deal, but taking care of a fully grown child in addition to everything else is too much to ask.
You broke? If she’s paying the rent and buying the food, you better be cooking it and not just ordering pizza on her card and leaving the laundry in a pile because you put it through the machine but couldn’t be bothered to fold it, sort it or put it away because you had a raid starting.
In the Second World War and under the ruthless command of Surgeon General Shirō Ishii, Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army conducted a string of depraved experiments on Chinese civilians.
Shirō Ishii.
One of the most heinous of these experiments saw soldiers gift chocolate to Chinese schoolchildren. Why was it heinous? Because the chocolate was laced with anthrax. Killing unsuspecting children with chocolate was far from the only cruel experiment undertook by Unit 731, though.
In another example, they went around villages offering “vaccinations” on the pretence that they would protect inhabitants against a rising epidemic. The truth was actually the reverse; they were creating epidemics by injecting residents with the live, deadly forms of pathogens like cholera. The cruelty in these examples is clear; they were taking advantage of people’s good faith and stabbing them in the back.
They were, in essence, weaponizing people’s trust.
An older, post-war Shirō Ishii.
Whilst Shirō lounged around in his pristine mansion, eating, relaxing and bathing without a care in the world, the civilians condemned to hellish terror by him were spewing their guts up, writhing in agony and taking their last breath. However, none of that would be enough to see him face punishment.
Understandably even in that era, the kinds of experiments conducted by him would not have been green-lit by most other countries, meaning that Shirō had unique information that other countries coveted. Using that, he was able to get immunity from prosecution in exchange for divulging everything in relation to his research.
With that, Shirō was allowed to go free and live out the rest of his life despite the trail of death that he’d left behind him. The kick in the teeth is that the information he provided proved to be of little use anyway, so he really did get off scot-free in the end. After the war, he opened his own medical clinic and became well-liked in the community, caught religion and lived out his remaining years in peace.
For a simple example, if you binge eat a huge delicious unhealthy brunch, you’ll likely get a double crash: your dopamine and blood sugar levels fall at the same time, leaving you on the couch groaning. If you drank a few mimosas, consider it a triple crash.
A more extreme example is ecstasy. I’ve never done it but my ex did and I was around a bunch of people who were high as a kite on it.
It’s super bizarre to watch. Everyone is touchy-feely, warm, and excessively friendly. However, not in the way that someone on cocaine is, talking fast and moving around a lot. Ecstasy produces a massive release of dopamine. They’d always do it and then go to raves and dance until 4 AM. It was nuts.
Consequently, it carries a huge dopamine hangover and makes people sadder and less motivated for weeks. I saw it several times with my ex. She was miserable, mean, and incredibly hard to be around.
Nothing is wrong with seeking healthy sources of pleasure, but moderate it and resist the urge for chemical sources of it. The price of entry isn’t worth it.
Biden’s invitation to Xi Jinping to visit the United States was just a delaying tactic by the United States. For two reasons:
For the needs of the new round of elections.
Currently, the United States is deeply tied to Israel. In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it has strongly supported Israel despite the opposition of the world, and even put aside its support for Ukraine. Therefore, under the current world situation, the White House first compromised with China and gave China some “verbal promises”, such as “reiterating the one-China policy”, “no arms sales to Taiwan”, requiring China to purchase U.S. debt, stabilize the U.S. dollar market, and stabilize the U.S. economy, to trick China into lifting certain sanctions against the United States. After the situation in the Middle East slows down in the future, the White House will go back and tear up the agreement.
The United States is so shameless, so China will not have any illusions about the United States.
I think another way to ask your question: why don’t more Infantry use a scope on their rifle?
This is my M-4 (I’m in the middle) for Ought-Three Invasion of Iraq, April 4th, 2003, modified with a 14x Leopold scope:
So, if you want to spend a little bit of money, you can change your Army issue rifle into a “sniper rifle” of sorts. That Leopold scope was better than binoculars, and was always ready. I still had an M2 laser to aim, and believe it or not, I could even still use the Iron-sight. That scope was extremely useful tactically. Just being able to check out whether movement at 500 yards was friend or foe was priceless.
Let me help you with some myths about snipers you might be entertaining:
Myth buster #1.
Snipers are great at choosing a target, but they are not a mass casualty producing weapon. Mortars and Artillery are still today doing 60–90% of the killing. It’s true snipers can call in the artillery/mortars, and that makes them even more deadly, but you still have to realize any soldiers on the battlefield with a radio and a hiding spot can and does do the same thing.
Myth buster #2. There are tactical snipers and there are sniper teams. Tactical snipers are just a dude with a scope, in any Platoon. They will usually be in a Scout Platoon, but could be Infantry/Mortars as well. That is just a dude with a scope, and I agree with your question: units should have more dudes with scopes… Sniper teams are ultimately wasted resources, who do not assault or help with the attack beyond suppression. However, it is a gamble; sometimes they spend weeks hiding, and hit a high value target. If you kill the enemy General, then the gamble of wasting your manpower for a week payed off. If you are a 30 man infantry platoon, dividing out a third of your force just to have three OP-sniper teams waiting in a hide, is ultimately wasteful. Most of those sniper teams will do nothing, and come home having accomplished nothing.
My favorite Scout Sniper in Iraq, switching to M16 so he can help assault:
Navy SEAL Sniper Team who do their own thing, and do not help assault:
Myth buster #3.
Wait until we fight an equal Army, like China or Russia, who actually takes ground from us; wait until you see what Infantry do to captured snipers. When your Army retreats, those sniper teams are stranded. If those enemy have any suspicion about whether that sniper has had success on the battlefield, those Infantry will make him squeal before they say goodbye.
There were many people that had done this so I can not take credit for it but it was amazing. There was a certain bank that would give you 5% rebate for purchases. So the trick was I would buy gift cards with the credit card and then take the gift cards and pay the credit card bill with an online bill paying service. This would lead to about 3.5% profit. It got to the point I was spending the whole credit limit of the card each day to buy the gift cards. I had a $19,000 limit on the card. So 4 times a week I would spend $19,000 on the card, come home and pay it off with the gift cards and then go out and do it again. There were some people that did this for over a year. I was only able to do it for about 4 mths before the credit card company shut it down. It was nice while it lasted.
China urges joint efforts before highly-anticipated Xi-Biden meeting
Ahead of the highly-anticipated meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden, a Chinese official on Monday called for joint efforts from both sides to bring bilateral relations back on track.
China hopes the U.S. will act on its commitment of not seeking a new Cold War with China, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning in response to a query about the upcoming China-U.S. summit meeting.
China doesn’t seek to change the U.S., nor should the U.S. seek to shape or change China, Mao said.
The Chinese government has confirmed that Xi is set to meet with Biden in San Francisco, where the two leaders will also attend the 30th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting.
Mao said China views and handles its relations with the U.S. in accordance with the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping. Major-country competition runs counter to the trend of our times and provides no answer to the problems in the U.S. or the challenges in our world.
“China does not fear competition, but we do not agree that China-U.S. relations should be defined by competition,” said Mao.
Speaking of concerns, the U.S. needs to respect China’s concerns and legitimate right to development, rather than emphasizing its own concerns at the expense of China’s interests, Mao added.
“To seek to remodel other countries in one’s own image is wishful thinking in the first place and typical hegemonism which is going nowhere,” she said.
Mao stressed that the Taiwan question is China’s internal affair and resolving it is a matter for the Chinese that brook no foreign interference.
“Successive U.S. administrations have made clear commitments on the Taiwan question,” Mao said. During the summit meeting in Bali, the U.S. said explicitly that the U.S. government doesn’t support “Taiwan independence,” Mao noted.
“The U.S. needs to honor its commitment to one China and oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ with concrete actions,” Mao pointed out.
Over the South China Sea issue, China is committed to settling relevant disputes through negotiation and consultation with relevant countries and will not waver in our determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Mao said.
“China will neither take any inch of territory that is not ours, nor give up any inch of territory that belongs to us,” Mao said, urging the U.S. to stop creating pretexts and interfering in the disputes between China and relevant countries over territorial and maritime rights and interests.
Noting the world is paying close attention to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Mao said China stands on the side of equity and justice, stays in close contact with relevant parties and is committed to deescalation and protection of civilians.
“We hope that the U.S. will follow an objective and just stance and play a constructive role in halting the conflict,” said Mao.
I started working at age 8. Mowing lawns and collecting bottles and newspapers to sell at recycling.
At age 12 I had two paper routes, one morning and one evening, and still mowed lawns.
At 15 I was working at a grocery store after school and on weekends. I took drivers ed in school and at that time you could get a provisional license within 180 days of your 16th birthday.
Could only drive dawn to dusk. I told my parents as my 16th birthday approached that I wanted to buy a car. They said no, and how could I possibly pay for one. They had no idea I had almost $10k stashed in a secret place in my dresser.
On my 16th birthday I climbed on my bicycle, with twenty $100 bills in my pocket, and headed for the Volkswagen dealership 14 miles away.
When I arrived I spotted a Bahama Blue 1968 VW on the lot. A salesman came out and asked if he could help me. I asked about the car. He asked where my parents were. I told him they were at home. He went inside and came back with a sales manager. Manager said, “Son, you can’t buy a car because you can’t sign for a loan unless your parents do it or you’re 18”.
I responded “Who said anything about a loan? How much is the car?”
It was a dealer demo and had 2,500 miles on it. I’d done my homework and knew the going prices. “I’ll give you $1400 cash, right now.”
The manager said, “But you can’t buy a car at 16!” Wrong. “I can’t borrow money but state law says I can own a car in my name.
If you won’t sell me this one, I’ll just go somewhere else.” After much consternation and discussion, a few phone calls to the owner of the dealership, they wrote up the sale.
I had called an insurance agent earlier in the week, and called him with the info. Told him I’d be right over to pay him if he’d issue a binder for the dealer.
He did, and I drove from the dealership to the agents office and paid him. A full year of insurance in ‘68 was $120. Drove home and my asshole father had a fit, but he couldn’t do anything. I moved out on my 18th and never looked back.
Put 235,000 miles on the Beetle. Wish I still had it!!
A close friend of mine shared a story that always warms my heart. She had been going through a tough time, dealing with the stress of her job and personal life. One evening, feeling particularly down, she decided to take a long walk to clear her head. Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the time and soon found herself in a part of town she wasn’t familiar with, after dark.
Just as she started to feel uneasy, she noticed someone approaching her. It was a colleague from her office, someone she’d only spoken to in passing. He had seen her walking and, concerned for her safety, decided to follow at a distance to make sure she was okay. When he caught up to her, instead of just offering a ride home, he suggested they grab a cup of coffee at a nearby café.
They ended up talking for hours. He listened to her troubles, shared some of his own, and offered a comforting perspective that helped her see things in a different light. It wasn’t a grand gesture or a dramatic declaration of love; it was a simple act of kindness and empathy at a moment when she needed it the most.
Years later, they’re happily married. She always recalls that night as the moment she realized she’d found someone truly special. Someone who, without even knowing her well, showed her kindness and compassion when she needed it most. She often says it was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for her, not because it was extravagant, but because it was genuine and heartfelt.
Yes, After a recent merger, I was on a MGT call with the new CEO(. He was like…’Alright team, all of the changes will be done by May 23rd (3 weeks)’. I was not aware of any of the changes, and knew immediately that I would be part of the changes. I was in the early stage of a house sell and purchase and knew that losing my job would create a problem for the new loan, so I immediately rescinded my offer on the house, and never signed the sell contract. Sure enough May 23rd, I got the call at 9 a.m. that my job was gone. Best thing ever! I could not stand the new CEO.
I took the summer off, travelled with my wife, and then looked at 3 offers in sept, increasing my income and stock significantly. Fast forward to a year later. I sold my house for $250k more than I had verbally accepted in 2021, and was able to get my dream house on the golf course!.
Everything worked out well and 2 years later, I am killing it with my new company!
Joining BRICS. This means China and Xi will have nothing to do with the U.K. There’s just absolutely nothing in it for China. The U.K. brings nothing to the table.
As for the U.S., the U.K. can’t afford to decouple. Better to feed off crumbs than nothing at all. The U.S. has nothing to spare especially now that we have to spend billions to support Israel.
I heard this, if memory serves, from a Frenchman whose grandfather was in the Free French forces.
Said grandfather once remarked this:
It was 1945, merely months after the Germans were thrown off my country, and every man I could talk to was in the Resistance. Everyone. Then I wondered, if there had been forty million people in the Resistance, how the hell had the Germans kept France occupied for years?
The truth of it is, when a country is occupied, most people are minor collaborators. For most places, life goes on as it did before the occupying troops arrived, only the authority changes. To keep on with the French example, for the most part, you’d live just like you would a few months earlier, except the police on the streets would be reporting to Germans and sometimes a few German soldiers would be visible passing.
The reason for that is as varied as the people who lived like this. Some feel apathy, others cowardice. Others do not want more blood to be spilled, some see no personal incentive to fight on, some see no point in it all. But for this reason or the other, people do nothing.
Things become problematic when, if, their allies, or the intact parts of their country, come to break the occupation.
Because when that happens, everyone wants to pretend they fought valiantly, like lions, for the freedom of their country.
And so, as the liberation forces approach and the occupiers pack up and leave, they band into gangs, seeking among themselves scapegoats, people whose collaboration with, or apathy towards, the occupiers were more visible than others. They use accusations of collaboration to settle old grudges and deal with jealousies. Societal order breaks down utterly and is replaced by mob rule of the worst sort, where women can be accused of being German whores because of some jealous bastard, where accusations of war profiteering and snitching run galore, where a man’s life is one convincingly accusatory voice away from destruction. Instead of justice, there are executions, humiliations, beatings meted out to those decided by a mob, oftentimes without a single Resistance member involved, so that its members can feel good and pretend they were helping the liberation all along.
If anyone wants to see what happens when the court of public opinion is the only court available, let him look at any occupied area just after the Germans left. He’ll find arbitrary judgment meted out by people who want the status of having been with the Resistance without suffering through its pains, meted out by people just brave enough to look into the eyes of whichever poor man or woman was the next target of the mob, but not brave enough to look into the barrels of German carbines.
This is sickening.
Ten thousand people were executed summarily without even the barest farce of a trial in France alone. Hundreds of thousands were humiliated, accused, cast out, by people no better than they were. And this is merely a single country. Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, all repeated the same scene.
Just how callously, no, not callously. Just how bloodthirstily a movement supposedly for the good of its nation has devoured the members of which it arbitrarily declared traitors is a horrifying sight.
The answer to how, with this context, is clear.
By whatever punishment the law allows, in a fair trial.
Or we will have this instead:
And if anyone here is thinking that this is not a deeply troubling sign of profound injustice, let me remind you.
The way the victims of the mob were picked, that could just as easily be you.
These are not “squeegee men” just being annoying and obnoxious, and they are not merely delinquents running past with a key to your door and taking off laughing to one another.
They were throwing rocks (legally deadly weapons, assuming you’re talking about decent-sized rocks, not pebbles), surrounding the car, and making you feel it was not safe to leave.
John Locke opined that it was justified to kill someone who tries to steal from you, because a man who will violate your right to property won’t stop at your right to life. This isn’t the way the law works, generally, but… when it comes to using force in self defense, the relevant question is twofold: 1) Do you, subjectively, have a sincere belief that your life is at risk? 2) Would a reasonable person in your circumstances believe his/her life was at risk? Note that “Is your life actually at risk?” is not one of the questions.
So, you don’t have to think like a juror. You don’t have to give these thugs the benefit of the doubt [Note: it’s been mentioned to me before that “thug” is sometimes taken to have racial connotations, but you don’t say what race they were and I don’t care – white thugs, black thugs, Latino thugs, Asian thugs, or Purple-People-Eater thugs are all thugs]. You don’t have to make the generous assumption that all they want is to commit petty vandalism.
If they are surrounding your car and willing to use physical force, then you are at their mercy – the only thing stopping them from escalating to physical battery, rape, or murder is their supposed good will… and you have no obligation to rely on that.
So honk once for warning, count to three (out loud if you prefer, but silently is fine), then gun it. Any injury will be in self defense.
As for the stop light – non-criminal regulations (and even many criminal statues) yield to the affirmative defense of “necessity”. Basically, the law considers human life and well-being more important than slavish obedience to the law, so if you run a red light to get away from assailants, the law considers that justified.
Disclaimer:
This answer is not a substitute for professional legal advice. This answer is a response to a generalized fact-pattern based on the personal recollection of the posting attorney, and not a response to any specific case or based on any diligent legal research. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship, nor is it a solicitation to offer legal advice. If you ignore this warning and convey confidential information in a private message or comment, there is no duty to keep that information confidential or forego representation adverse to your interests. Seek the advice of a licensed attorney in the appropriate jurisdiction before taking any action that may affect your rights. If you believe you have a claim against someone, consult an attorney immediately, otherwise there is a risk that the time allotted to bring your claim may expire. If you act on any information contained within this answer, you do so at your own risk.
Two weeks after I started working for a company Walmart pulled their contract with us. They were 60% of our production.
Things got crazy fast as the owners tried to find new customers and cut costs. One night a coworker and I were working late when he came into my office and showed me the new budget schedule our boss accidentally left in the copier. It listed all our names and salary by month.
Mine however showed salary for me only until April then nothing. Being the astute finance professional, I knew what that meant. I got my paper out on the street seeking new employment.
As March rolled around with no new job in sight I was understandably worried; then luck shined down on me. My boss’s boss suddenly took ill and suddenly I was needed again, at least temporarily.
This gave me some breathing room but I knew my days were numbered. I continued my searched. Then one night, again working late, that same co worker stopped by and showed me a legal bill showing charges associated with the sale of the company. Now we both knew the end was near and a race against time.
A few months later we were all called into the lunchroom where we were told the company had been sold. As accountants we were told to close the books one last time before being let go. Everyone filed out quietly and returned to their work areas. As I sat in my office contemplating my next move I got a call from the recruiter I had been working with. Good news he said, you have a new job! As I like to tell the story, I was unemployed for 20 minutes.
I closed the books one last time for company A on Friday and started my new job on Monday. I firmly believe somebody up there was watching out for me.
My story starts nice – neither poor nor abused or depressed. My father worked in a PSU and was doing well financially. My mother was a house wife and is the sweetest. We resided in a tiny town in Middle India. I am the eldest son of three children. I studied well, got into an NIT – premier engineering institute in India.
But my under-graduation was a waste. No, I wasn’t one of those never-wanted-to-do-engineering type of person. I like engineering but like many young and naive people, I didn’t like working hard. I slacked a lot. In the first year, I got 2 backlogs. I did not clear them up in summer hoping to clear them up along with other semesters. I wanted to enjoy my first summer. But it only got worse after that. I accumulated 8 backlogs by the end of my graduation. During this whole time, I was least worried. Seniors had told us grades didn’t matter, ideas did. And we worshiped these words. Only, I did not create any relevant ideas either. I lied to parents constantly and they never knew that my marks were so bad. I even made fake marksheets to show them. I started smoking, drinking and was having fun doing all these. I bought a second hand bike during my third year too.
I participated in lots of extra curricular things though. I was member of the writing club, the Rotaract club, and also a dance club. I used to dance well. Despite my poor academics, I was sure I would make it in life. I thought i was smart, talented and witty and had lots of start up ideas too. And I knew seniors far dumber and with more backlogs who have had awesome careers. I fell in love with a girl too. We started dating and by the end of Btech, we were soulmates.
It should not be a surprise that the only job I grabbed was a 15k per month NGO job. But to me, it was shocking. “I was so smart. How come no company took me!” All my friends left after the course and I had to stay back to clear my backlogs. Slowly reality started hitting me. It was still hard to admit that there were difficult backstories to all these senior-success stories. Hence, I was still adamant not to join a stupid NGO job. I told my parents I am not interested in job and took money from my dad saying I wanted to prepare for UPSC. I tried working on my start up ideas during that time but I realized that it was not easy. No one was ready to fund and I wasn’t skilled enough to build it all on my own. So I thought I will just try UPSC instead while clearing my backlogs. A month passed by.
Then the worst happened. My father suffered a stroke and passed away that winter.
I couldn’t even meet him once, all because I was too fucked up to go home. I hadn’t been home since my third year summer. My family was devastated. While my dad’s salary was good enough, he didn’t have any major savings per se. My mom was old. And my sister was studying in a private Btech and my brother was about to give his high school finals. Everything came crashing down.
I went to mom and said, “I am sorry, Mom. I couldn’t be what you wanted me to be.” But as expected, my mother told me that she only wanted me to be her son and nothing else. She told me I can prepare for UPSC as long as I want and have no pressure to take a job since dad’s savings would work for atleast 2–3 years. She would be very happy to see her son as an IAS officer. And if I didn’t get selected, I could get a job anywhere after passing from an NIT. I was so devastated after hearing this I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t lie anymore but I couldn’t tell her the truth either. That her son was a failure. That no company would take him. That I wasn’t capable enough for UPSC. That I had no goals.
But I knew I had to be strong. I calculated dad’s finances and realised we can go by a couple of years with that if we spend carefully. I started looking for job. I tried to contact the NGO just so that I had 15k in hand atleast. Luckily, they agreed to take me after my summer. I tried getting other IT jobs at the same time. I kept preparing for UPSC but as you know, it’s not easy.
After my summer was over, No company took me, so I continued to work in the NGO. As I said, I wasn’t skilled either. So, I took courses from course-era and udacity to build my skills on the side. I took projects in Freelancer to get some extra money. I was working 20 hours a day with hardly any sleep. My UPSC exams were not up to the mark. But I kept trying. During all these time, I released all my anger and frustration on my gf. My gf and I had constant fights. At the same time, her family wanted her to get married and with her words, it seemed like she wanted to too. And you can’t blame her, the way I was treating her, I would have dumped me too.
And one day finally, she told me that she cannot fight anymore. She asked me to cut all contacts with her. I did.
I cried that night for the first time since father died. I realized what I had lost. But I thought that I wasn’t in a position to fight for her. I wished I could stop her. But I didn’t know how.
The next three years were extremely hard. I moved from the NGO to an IT company but the salary was only 25k per month. Our economic condition was the worst. There were leaks in our home. I stayed in a small shared dormitory to make ends meet. I couldn’t buy anything new for my family even on festivals. I was so broke. My sister was in her final year and I was hoping that atleast she would get a decent job to support the family. My mother was thinking of keeping our house and land in mortgage to make ends meet as my brother will start bachelors soon. I was feeling defeated at that point of time.
I had appeared UPSC 3 times. The last two times I had cleared the prelims but couldn’t clear the mains. This 4th time also, I cleared the prelims and was hoping to get further.
I was depressed and suicidal by now. I stopped all kind of social interactions. I avoided meeting my friends. And only talked to my mom and my siblings daily.
But finally, in 2016, the UPSC results did carry my name. I joined IOFS.
Now, my sister works in a good PSU, just like dad. And my brother took up commerce stream. My mom is happy and healthy. We repaired our house and there’s no question of mortgaging it.
What lessons life taught me?
That just because everything is good now, it won’t stay like that for ever. That just because something worked out for someone else, it won’t work out for you too. That grades are important. That hard work matters. That UPSC can be cleared.
Why MEN have MIDLIFE CRISES: you have to practice being selfish
Yep, you read it right. Killing someone, taking some innocent teenage girl’s life, is the worst thing to happen to ME. Quite ironic, isn’t it? So here’s what happened.
It was about the 27th of March, 2007. It was a windy Tuesday evening, and I was driving my minivan down a foggy lonely road, and was going well below the speed limit, because I couldn’t see anything. I was listening to Lazarus by Porcupine Tree, and merrily making my way to my family, when I suddenly saw a teenage girl, whose name I later found out to be Laura, crossing the street oblivious to my van, and by the time I saw her and hit my brakes and turned my car, I had hit her. I immediately leapt out and raced to look at her, and she was fine. She was on the ground, but there was no bleeding, and she looked conscious but bruised. She got up by herself, and apologized for crossing the road without looking. I was proud of myself for braking in time, but I apologized for not seeing her too. She said that she had a bruise on her abdomen, and a pain in her leg. I suspected a minor fracture, and wanted to call 911, but she asked me to take her to the hospital myself, as she said she was in pain. Just as she said that, I thought to myself, how can a girl get into an accident so easily. I braked, and I swerved. She still got hit. What if she wanted to get hit? What if I take her to the hospital, and she accuses me of something that I can’t defend myself of, and not calling the cops would make me look guilty. So, I called the cops. They came, dealt with me and my insurance, and took her away to the hospital. I went on my merry way home, and forgot about it.
2 days later, I get a call. A call from the police, saying that Laura had died of internal bleeding. I was speechless. The doctor apparently said that she could’ve been saved if she was in eariler, but that was not certain either. I went over to the police, where the family of the girl was waiting for me. As soon as they saw me, they started blaming me for their little girl’s death. They said that I stole a life, that I was probably drunk, and that I should’ve gotten her myself. The cops pulled me aside and asked me to ignore what they said, because calling the cops is always the best option. It didn’t really leave a mark on me at the time, until I was driving home one day, and Lazarus started playing. I stopped the car and broke down. I had taken a life, an innocent 17 year old life, just because I was scared that she was going to set me up. I had nightmares about it for years.
I went to a therapist, and she asked me to get rid of my van, not listen to Lazarus, and to not blame myself for her death. Everyone kept telling me that it was no fault of mine, but in the end, I know that it was me who stole a life. It was me, who stole a daughter from a lovely couple, and a sister from a 6 year old kid. It was me, who killed her.
I know that I shouldn’t really blame myself for it, but it was me who hit her. It was me who didn’t take her to the hospital. It was me who didn’t bother listening to her complaints about being in pain. If I could, I would trade my life to get Laura back. But since that’s not possible, I’ll just be in this regret forever.
That, by far, is the worst thing to happen to me.
Ignore Yellen’s Pleas! China Sells $62 Billion in US Bonds, Adds 7.82 M Ounces Of Gold Reserves
When I was first living with my (present) wife we were living in Nanshan. This is a suburb in Shenzhen, China. We had a little dog. She was a Bomei. The dog’s name was “yo yo”.
Well, my wife wanted to save some money and cut yo yo’s hair herself.
The only thing was… well… she was drinking alcohol when she did it.
Uh oh.
…
Poor yo yo.
She shaved it all off, and yo yo was so very, VERY pissed off.
She would go to the standing mirror, look at herself, sigh and then go back to her bed and sleep off her depression.
It was a long time ago. Maybe 2003 or 2004.
Poor little Yo Yo.
Trust me, everyone… a word to the wise… never cut your dog’s hair when you are drunk.
Europe had just emerged from a terrible Great War, and everyone wanted to cut the ties with the past. The World War One was simply a terrible disaster which cost the lives of millions of fine young men and destroyed gazillions worth of property. And the World War One effectively killed Christianity in Europe. The industrial mass carnage was simply too much.
Europe was wiped mentally and spiritually into a blank slate, and this also included fine arts and architecture. New Totalitarian ideologies, such as Communism, National Socialsism and Fascism had emerged, and the new generation hated anything bourgeoisie, anything hand-made, anything posh and cute, anything feminine. One of the most important men in the architecture of the era was Swiss-born Edouard Jeanneret aka Le Corbusier, whose pamphlet Towards a New Architecture was the start bang of the run of hideous, ugly and banal architecture.
Of course Corbu did not aim for hideous, ugly and banal. What he wanted was natural light, air, sanitation and effectiveness. The centuries old European cities had very little to speak about commodities – many did not have central heating, central water supply nor indoors loos. (They came only later.) And he wanted to make a total break with the 7000 years of architectural legacy. Not evolution, but revolution. this is how the box-arts architecture emerged.
According to Corbu, the problems of architecture are the same all around the world, and the solutions also are the same all around the world. Everything returns to the three basic forms – cube, cone and ball. Away with gabled roofs, decorations, ornaments, frizes, symmetry, anything unnecessary! Light! Warmth! Joy! Buildings are nothing but vertical streets! Sameness must prevail! Everything shall be the same from Arkhangelsk to Antofagasta!
Meanwhile in Germany, the Bauhaus sported similar ideas. While le Corbusier leaned towards Fascism, Bauhaus was a Communist hotbed. Everything shall be mass-produced! Away with pastel colours and genteel forms! Away with decorations and ornaments! Everything shall be standardized!
The new architecture – International Style– spred incredibly fast. Because the year 2000 was near. This was the future – and it did away with past. Everyone now waited for year 2000. It was to be a concrete milestone of the future. See, the odometre gears revolve and the new numbers set in. And the architects wanted to build bridge to the future.
Nazis and Fascists were enamored of the new style. Bauhaus was done away because it was a hotbed of Communists, but the Nazis adopted the Bauhaus style eagerly. Likewise in Italy, Futurism was the offficial style of Fascism in arts and Italian Rationalism in architecture. Not some kind of Neo-Classicism which one could expect.
Came the World War Two, and the cities in Britain, Netherlands, France, Germany and Eastern Europe were simply obliterated. They had to be rebuilt – and they were rebuilt in the new style. And a new technique of building – Plattenbau – had been invented. The large panel system-building revolutionized construction and made houses cheaper than ever.
But this meant also the revolution on architectural thinking. The old buildings had been built indefinitely, or at least as long as the razing craze, fire or aerial bombardment would destroy them. Now the concept of lifespan entered in architecture. Edifices would last 50 to 60 years after which they would be ready to be demolished and replaced. So there was no reason to build beautiful any more.
Two world wars had killed the artistic soul. The architecture must be true and honest. The world is ugly, so architecture must be ugly. The world is fragmented and broken, so the architecture must reflect it. The materials must be left raw and unfinished to be honest to them. Brutalism had been born.
And the future was closer than ever. The 1960s finally demonstrated the future was at hand. True, we didn’t know exactly what the future would be like, but we knew that it had to be one of a few alternatives. The future was a world with a distinct architecture. It had its own way of speaking. It had its own technology. It was for all intents and purposes a different land where people dressed differently, talked differently, ate differently, and even thought differently. It was where scientists were wizards, where machines were magically effective and efficient, where tyrants were at least romantically evil rather than banal, and where the crystal spires and togas would prevail.
Then the long-awaited Year 2000 (or rather 2001, if you prefer) came. The odometer wheels revolved and the numbers turned. Suddenly we realized we lived now in that future which we had built in the 1960s – and it was no different from the past. It is now 2023 – we are well in that future – and nothing has really changed. The world did not change by revolution, but by evolution. Meanwhile, the centuries- and millennia-old towns, cities and buildings had evolved by constructing modern age amenities within – without destruction, simply by building waterworks, sanitation and Internet connections within those buildings built centuries ago and made to last for centuries. Evolution 1 – revolution 0. “Building a bridge to the future” sounds just as corny as building a causeway to next Tuesday.
For people of the generations who had lived through the tarnished promises of the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Computer Age, and the This That and Another Age, the year 2001 was a gateway. We waited twenty, thirty, forty years and some longer to pass though that gate into a time when spaceships the size of ocean liners plied between colonised planets, where cities were colourful collections of brand new towers without a single old building or blade of grass.
Turned out the future was hideous, banal, bland, ugly and simply terrifying. And it was not the future anymore. It was now. The future was now here, and had become the present. We no more had a past, and we no more have a future either – what we have is perpetual present, here and now. The years turn and nothing really changes. Or should I say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And now the lifespan thinking in architecture is bearing fruit – we are losing those futures now. The Brutalist and the Plattenbau buildings are now reaching the ends of their designed lifespans, and they are being pulled down. Every day we lose one or more of those futures. Most of us say good riddance – nobody except arts and history professionals will miss those ugly, hideous and banal buildings like we miss the destroyed beautiful buildings of the past centuries.
Here goes the Vesiputoustalo (Waterfall House) in my hometown. Built in 1985, it was abandoned in 2017 and demolished 2022. The house had a terrible mildew and internal air problem, and had a functional lifespan of barely 32 years. Another future becomes a heap of gravel.
So why our world is still plagued with ugly architecture despite having more architectrs now than ever in history? Because the doctrines of Modernism and International Style still prevail in all architectural schools and technical universities in the world. The students are still today indoctrinated to build that same hideous architecture as has been built during the past 90 years. Repeat styles are not allowed unless they repeat the past 50 years.
And yet, all futures have now been explored. The same has happened in architecture as what happened in the fine arts in the 1970s. All isms have been tried and all turned stale. Like Gollum, we have now explored all the roots and all the caves and they turned empty. This general disillusionment has now produced the spiritless and soulless Postmodernist architecture. Anything goes.
Most of all, it is all about money. Building ugly is cheap. Cutting corners and cutting away anything unnecessary is a way on saving money and on costs.
The dreams of le Corbusier and other Modernists turned out nightmares in the real life.
Leave The West! Move To China Now!
Like it or not, Russia and China are running circles around the USA. Better learn Mandarin and Russian. We love you Sabrina!
Creole-Style Pork and Red Bean Chili
On a spiciness scale of 1 (mild) to 5 (hot), this chili is a 3 with chaurice only or a 2 with pork tenderloin and chaurice combined.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 55 min | Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 pounds chaurice sausage (or other spicy pork sausage, like chorizo), removed from casing*
2 cups finely diced yellow onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup finely diced green bell pepper
3 cups cooked Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
3 (14.5 ounce) cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Pork & Veal Magic
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups thinly sliced green onion tops
Kosher salt, to taste
Fresh thyme leaves, for garnish
Instructions
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven set at medium-high. Add the chaurice sausage, and, using a wooden spoon, break up the sausage into bite-size chunks. Stir and cook until the sausage is fully opaque, about 8 minutes. (If also using pork tenderloin, do not add yet.)
Add onion and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes.
Add celery and bell pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, dried thyme, tomatoes, garlic, and Pork & Veal Magic®. (If using diced pork tenderloin, add it at this time.) Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add tomato paste and stir until thoroughly combined, taking care not to break up the beans. Bring chili to a boil, stir in green onions and add Kosher salt to taste. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.
Garnish individual bowls of chili with fresh thyme leaves.
Notes
* For a milder flavor, use 1 pound chaurice and 1 pound pork tenderloin, diced.
Me, wearing a Best Buy shirt and buying something from the 7–11 down the street: “Hello”
7–11 owner: “Oh hi, how are you today!”
Me: “Pretty good I guess. Best Buy isn’t giving me enough hours though.”
Owner: “Do you want to work here?”
Me: “…yes, actually.”
Owner: “Can you start tomorrow at 6am?”
Me: “…yes, actually.”
Owner: “OK, see you then.”
Now, to be fair, at that point I’d been in that particular 7–11 maybe 3 times a week for 3 years leading up to then, and I knew the owner and his family decently well.
But still. I went in to buy cigarettes and left with a new job. Pretty nice.
Russia-US security agreement. Conflict on two fronts w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live)
We, fortunately, have not yet had a house fire, but some neighbors of my daughter did. The whole family was at a movie and arrived home to find their house on fire, and firemen already battling the blaze. The house was saved, but there was extensive and very expensive damage, making the house uninhabitable for months. The fire had started from a clothes dryer left running, and a blockage caused the motor to overheat.
Since then, I have two rules: Never leave the house with the dryer running, and also, clean, not only the dryer vent after every load, but also the dryer line to the outside on a regular basis.
I also, at one time, prevented a major fire at work when I smelled overheated electrical wires. I had a great deal of difficulty persuading the maintenance people to cut a hole in the ceiling where I could smell the wires, but they finally did, just as the flames erupted.
As on date there is an oversupply of 17.2 Million Homes in China
There are 17 Million homes built or being built without takers , built in anticipation of being sold for which developers have already borrowed loans
The Cumulative loans on them are around 3.4 Trillion RMB ($ 500 Billion) needing interest payments of around 165 Billion RMB a year
There are a further 35 Million Units built or being built with takers but which haven’t been concluded and with at least 50% payment pending
The Cumulative burden of these units is around 6 Million RMB ($ 813 Billion)
88% of these Homes are in the Top Cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc
That’s $ 1.3 Trillion worth of homes waiting to be sold or fully sold
The Reasons for the lack of demand include :-
Very tough requirements to avail mortgage loans since 2018
Restrictions on Second and Third Home ownership since 2020 as part of Common Prosperity
Tier 2 and 3 Cities developing very fast and real estate much more affordable. In Chongqing City i can buy 143 Sqm for 1.625 Million RMB against a mere 52.5 Sqm in Shanghai
General lack of faith in Residential Property as a source of Investment anymore
Yes Chinas worst case scenario is a $ 1.3 Trillion HIT assuming China decides to burn the entire issue and pay for all these units and plug the hole
However since China won’t raise debt to pay off the hole like US or India would, it means Chinas strategy will be long term and that will take at least 6 years or until 2028 to absorb this amount effectively and cost maybe 1.5% a year in growth (Hence around 4–4.2% instead of 5.7% a year for the next few years)
China could raise 10 Trillion Debt and plug the hole fully tomorrow. It is the only nation on earth that can do so. Yet if it does, it begins to follow the US into a path of no return which China, a producer economy doesn’t want to do
Good news is today, there is no fresh problem
The old problem has to be sorted out and that will take a few more years
This Is Why So Many Women Are Single
” I’m loyal, but I am not monogamous” ” I’m loyal , but I am bisexual ” ” I’m loyal , but I have all my exes in my DMs to this day” ” I’m loyal , but I do OF ” To me , the reason why a lot of these ladies are single/ in pseudo relationships is because they don’t know what the word loyal means .
Two years ago, my son moved from the UK to the US (Texas). He works in IT (network engineer). His salary now is more than double of what he made in the UK. He got married last October and his wife works a minimum wage job. Yet, combined they make more now than me and my wife ever did.
So, you would think that he’s now better off than when he worked in Britain. Think again.
Healthcare costs a fortune. Last month, my daughter in law needed emergency dental surgery (root canal). Co-pay 3,000 USD.
Since he’s a recent immigrant, his credit score is not all that great. Meaning he can’t get a mortgage to buy a home. So, they’re paying 2K pcm in rent.
Since public transport in the US is either in a shocking state or non-existant, they both need cars to get to/from work. Cost of buying/running/insuring something decent is substantial.
Utilities are generally more expensive. The monthly electricity bill in particular is high (because living in Texas means you run the AC pretty much all of the time).
Food prices are about the same, though the portions are larger. Quality is a lot lower. Steaks in particular: all water and hormones. Sugar in everything.
So while is monthly gross pay is higher than this side of the Atlantic, his monthly disposable income (after all the bills are paid) is a lot less. It would be fair to say that they live paycheck to paycheck most months. When my son and his family want to come over for a visit, we pay for their trip. Whilst he’s a real go-getter and loves his job (and the opportunities he has in the US) my daughter in law is beginning to realise that they would enjoy a superior quality of life in Europe.
I worked n the restaurant business on and off for around 15 years. In all that time, I was lucky enough to work with good hard working people. There was only one person I will never forgive, a person who I worked with who I thought was a friend. We used to tend bar together on busy nights and we made pretty good money. There used to be a group of guys on a bowling team who would come in once a week a they always left us a large tip. I remember after they left I was cleaning up the bar and noticed there wasn’t their usual tip there. I asked “my friend “ if she took the tip off of the bar and she said no. I didn’t think much about it until the owner of the bar pulled me aside and told me my coworker told him I pocketed the tip. I’m many things , but I’m not a thief. She eventually admitted to stealing tips because she was in a lot of debt. She was fired
“Can you help us save him? the nurse asks. “He’s failing fast. Not responding to medication. We have nothing more here to keep him alive.”
“What do you mean?” I say. “ You mean the doctor can’t give him more drugs? Please, please.”
“Who’s at home? Does he have a favourite stuffy? What about a pet? Think about it and let us know.” The nurse is detached and unemotional.
And I’m falling apart.
It is a cold, blustery winter morning in January, 1984. Winters in Northwest Canada can be brutal and this week was especially miserable. The wind heaped the snow in large drifts around the house; not our house, mind you. Living at the in-laws. A devastating fire a short time ago. I say, “Good to remind us how the homeless live.” There is no time to feel sorry for ourselves.
“Shh, shh, baby, my baby, shh.” I sing as I rock back and forth to calm him down.
His arms flail. He lets out a piercing scream. Growls. Racks my face. Finds my eyes and claws at my eyeballs.
Our family physician writes on his prescription slip: Query spinal meningitis. Sends baby and me to a paediatrician. “This is an acute emergency,” he says calmly. “Your appointment’s made.”
Hysteria rises in me. My legs turn to jelly. The sound roaring in my ears is deafening.
And baby son lies still. Pale. Too still. Pale. Deathly still.
Another race against time. I remember a small crowded room of bored patients. I remember a nurse calling my son’s name. And I also remember rushing down a flight of stairs, throwing open a door, and racing into a crowded street.
My husband looks wide-eyed at us.
“Go. Go. Go. He’s dying. Oh my God, he’s dying. Hurry to the General.”
We screech to a halt in front of the hospital. I stumble awkwardly nearly blinded by tears flowing freely now. The specialist, just seen, races by with his doctor’s bag in hand.
I run into the hospital and a front desk clerk gestures towards the elevator. “Run. They’re ready.”
We call for the resident priest.
“Please baptize him.” I choke on my words then. “And give him the Last Rites if need be.”
Life stands still at times like this. Husband and I huddle together, entwined branches of a single tree. We sit in parallel, silent prayer begging God for mercy. We’ve waited thirteen years for our little boy, a son who will carry on a dying family name. We can’t bear the thought of losing him today.
Hours later, after his abdominal surgery, the attending doctor walks towards us. We search his weary face, but find no answers. His words come haltingly.
“The fight’s just begun. Your son is critically ill. “
He quickly describes our son’s diagnosis, surgical procedures, present condition.
Intussusception. Bowel blockage caused the small intestine to telescope into the large intestine. There was total blockage. The surgeon made an incision in his belly and removed eighteen inches.
Tells us finally that our son’s odds of survival: ten percent.
Ten percent? We prop each other up, slump over in our chairs, cover our faces, and cry.
The next week is a blur. I call my mom and beg for prayers. She phones everyone she knows. Holds prayer gatherings at her home a couple times weekly for a month. Attends Mass and asks the priest if she can address the congregation at each of four Sunday Masses. Continues to give updates to her various support groups.
There are new developments daily. Our tike is a fighter. He is watched around the clock by rotating nurses who hang over his crib. When he starts yanking out tubes, his hands are tied together with cotton restraints. The staff won’t listen to my pleas. “I’ll sit here all day, all night holding his hands, but please don’t tie him up.”
They send me home. “You’ve got to sleep. You can’t save him all by yourself. Trust us.”
But he gets worse. Lies listless.
Still. Pale. Too still. Pale. Deathly still.
Then, without warning, cardiac arrest.
Husband and I pass a crash cart on the way back from the cafeteria. Not for a moment do we think it comes from our son’s room. We are oblivious to the gravity of his condition until the doctor intercepts us. “Your son’s heart stopped. But he’s fine. We did our job.”
Suddenly our son is floundering once more. The medical staff run out of answers and I can see the troubled look in their eyes.
“Any suggestions, folks?“
Our daughter is three. She loves her brother as if he were one of her precious Barbie dolls. Packs him around like a sack of flour. Lines up stuffies in his crib and makes up plays which make him giggle. Helps me change his cloth diapers, even the poopy ones.
And I think, she’s one hell of a trooper, too. Held her baby brother in a freezing car a month ago while I alerted the neighbours to call the fire trucks.
Sister leans over his crib and says, “Hi, little guy! “ Simply that.
And he cocks his head and listens.
Three simple words from a protective big sister makes all the difference.
He starts fighting. And wins his battle.
………….
Son’s life and health have been a challenge over the years; however, as difficult as circumstances might be, our mighty fighter perseveres.
Three days ago his big sister’s “little guy” turned thirty-six.
When I was a kid, a truck dropped off a huge box at our house that was addressed to my mother.
According to the paperwork, it was an automatic dishwasher, something that had just been invented, and we had no idea why we suddenly had one.
It took a few phone calls to figure out that, months earlier, my mother had entered a free sweepstakes at Zayres department store and the appliance was a prize.
She was scared to death of the newfangled device and never even hooked it up.
Yeah. It was funny as hell. I got a call from my counterpart at corporate. He has gotten laid off and he called me before they could escort him out to tell me we were getting laid off in three months. I confronted my boss and she turned ashen white but in the end she was honest with me.
Scott Ritter – “Palestine and Hamas have won.. Israel is in BIG TROUBLE!..”
In the United States, do not argue with the police. They are armed and they are jumpy because so many other people in the US are armed, including a lot of people who should not be.
Several years ago an Italian professor attending an academic conference in California crossed a street at a location other than a designated crosswalk. It would not occur to an Italian in a million years that this might be a crime. A cop saw him and shouted at him. He, being Italian, questioned the officer. The officer hurled him to the ground, tore his clothes, roughed him up and took him to jail for refusing to obey a lawful order given by a police officer. (He was eventually released without charge.)
The fact is, if the police are violating your civil rights, or even if they are breaking the law, there is nothing you can do about it at the time. Resisting them risks your being shot. Obey without question.
I was on a date with a veterinarian. She was a beautiful brunette with big eyes. She was a bit crazy too.
It was our second date and we were drinking a beer at a restaurant and somehow, we got to talking about how kids were growing up too fast, which is code for them sleeping around at too young of an age.
Just as I was drinking a sip of a beer, she said, “Yeah, I mean, I guess I get it. Kids are curious and going to experiment. When I was 6-years-old I stuck a pen in my p#ssy.”
I choked on my beer really hard and starting coughing. She immediately turned red, blushing with embarrassment for having been so candid and said, “Are you ok? Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I was also red at this point from my brief oxygen shortage. I waved it off, still coughing, and said, “No worries at all! Kiiiids these days.”
MOBS SWARM US NUKE BASE, LEBANON/ ISRAEL ON BRINK, NUCLEAR SUB NEAR IRAN, IRAQ MOBILIZING
“President” Biden distributed 100 nuclear warheads all over the world. WTF?
I was a teenager. It was a temporary job. They had this big mail machine that folded letters, put them into envelopes and sealed them.
My job? It was sit stand between three of these machines and to squirt some water on the brushes every few minutes. The auto wetting water tank was broken and it was cheaper to hire me as a teenager (this was before UK minimum wage so it was about 30p an hour) until they could replace the water tank. You had to give it 3 sprays for it to be in the sweet spot anymore and the envelopes would be too wet, any less and too dry.
It drove me absolutely spare as the machines would beep each time a letter went through it. You had three machines beeping and you were stood there with a bucket of water and a couple squirty bottles. You’d hear the beeps in your sleep.
An actual wood burning fireplace. I got my first one in 1986, and every place has had one since. Unlike a wood stove, I can have a fire three seasons a year, without overheating my house.
When the first fluffy flakes of winter start falling, my wife and I start a fire. We might have a glass of wine, possibly a hot rum toddy, maybe mulled wine, brandy, or maybe peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate.
We sit in front of the fire, eating Brie and crackers, maybe some other snack. Possibly popcorn.
When it gets close to Christmas the Christmas music is playing. Two puppies at our feet.
Every Christmas when family comes over, we have the fire burning in the background, the tree is center of attention, but everyone loves hearing the pine snap crackle and popping in the fireplace.
The restructed events of the disaster have been pieced together over the years.
Mount Vesuvius was a known volcano in Roman times but it had not erupted in several centuries. No one knew why some mountains erupted and no one could predict when they would. However, due to the nature of fault lines in this region geologists now believe smaller earthquakes and eruptions simply relieves the pressure along the fault line that runs along Italy.
The Latins had no way of knowing that. All they know was volcanic soil grew good crops and volcanic ash was a key ingredient in Roman concrete. Italy was also the world’s factory at the time, so the area around Vesuvius centered around the city of Pompeii who was a big exporter of wine and metal tools. This was a pre-industrial society, so most people rarely went outside walking distance of their homes and for most residents this was their whole world.
In the days before the blast, many minor quakes were reported in the area around Vesuvius. No one knew what this meant, but Roman academics would later take this as the sign of potential eruption.
The exact moment of the blast was witnessed by the historian Pliny the Younger. He was reading Livy while his father governor Pliny the Elder was eating lunch. Indeed, the blast occurred during the lunch hour, as the most common find in Pompeii were tables set for lunch that were buried in ash and partially preserved. Pliny’s mother called them over to the window urgently and they looked and saw Mount Vesuvius’ summit turned into a tower of ash. Explosives didn’t exist in this period, and Pliny tried his best to explain how it appeared the force of the hot gas inside the mountain blown away the summit. The danger this caused was lost on no one, and Pliny the Elder gathered his soldiers to travel down across the Bay of Naples and rescue as many as he could while his family went away.
This was the worst kind of eruption. The lava is actually the least dangerous part of a volcano. Safe enough to be a tourist attraction at a distance and safe enough geologists is firefighting gear collect lava samples directly. The second most dangerous is the ash and rock because it tends to fall out of the sky and/or form hot avalanches Earth called pyroclastic flows. The hot gas is the most dangerous as it both suffocates and burns. Common gasses are CO2 and HS that are commonly disolved in solutions underground but bubbles up like a soda fountain inside the mountain. This causes volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows.
The residents of Pompeii went outside and it was soon raining ash and rock as Vesuvius vented its contents into the sky. Evacuations started immediately, and anyone who wanted to stay was quickly convinced to leave with the first pyroclastic flows that nearly reached Pompeii. As Vesuvius lost pressure it stopped being able to support a column of ash and rock and this collapsed forming the flow. However, that simply restricted the throat of the volcano, allowing pressure to build up again in a cycle that only got worse as the day progressed. The first victims found in the bottom layer of ash in Pompeii were all killed by falling rock.
Travel was a big deal in a pre-industrial world as you would be gone for days and it was quite strenuous. Among items victims were carrying included bread, coins, and housekeys. The latter back in those days was a heavy iron thing that didn’t easily fit in a pocket. Most of the dead from Pompeii were persons unable to flee including a soldier with a bad toothache, a near term pregnant lady and her husband, and an old bedridden man and his teenaged grandson among others. Most of these people were not buried with their houses as the ash levels rose, but were killed lady by hot gas. Indeed, this is how we know the pyroclasic flows got worse through the afternoon, as the victims closer to the mountain are typically buried deeper in ash. The final pyroclastic flows killed the most people including Pliny the Elder who stayed behind after his men loaded up a boat of refugees in order to organize the evacuation.
This is also how we know there were a lot more victims than we find buried in ash because Pliny the Younger recounts how these bodies were all recovered and given proper funerals. Likewise, we know there are many more bodies that have not been found as much of what we know of is concentrated in the city itself when the majority of this region’s population was dispersed in the countryside. However, country folk were much more dispersed so finding said bodies is far more difficult and more is discovered every decade.
All that said, the bulk of the population managed to escape. The eruption only effected the immediate area of the blast and once out of sight of the mountain people survived and later returned to find a volcanic plain where the city had been. The layer of ash and pummice stone was roughly 20 feet deep and it simply wasn’t worth it to unbury the homes, many of which had collapsed under the weight. The whole city was effectively homeless and Emperor Titus personally arrived to survey the damage. Titus directed both state funds and his personal money to rebuilding Pompeii, and within two decades a planned city emerged. However, no one in Italy ever forgot how on one day that was otherwise like any other a mountain simply exploded for no reason and that most of the victims simply happen to be downwind of the disaster.
You likely seen those sculptures of Pompeii victims, but those are not bodies. The bodies rotted away leaving voids in the ash, and archeologists simply filled the voids with plaster to reveal the Pompean’s final moments, most clearly dying in agony.
Brian Berletic: War is COMING as China Rejects Dangerous US Maneuvers in Taiwan
“Let’s be frank about the Taiwan issue, where the US is involved. The US cares next to nothing about the well-being of Taiwanese people, who are Chinese in race and ethnicity. Why should they? Look at the way the US government treats Asians in their own country, many of whom are citizens. So what about other nationalities? Yea, that somes it all up in a nutshell.”
I’ma be honest, it’s fucking nerve racking. I had to give the period talk when I dont even know the period talk. I had to be the one to wake her up at 2am when she was 8 with police behind me to tell her that her mother overdosed and died. I get up everyday and makes sure she gets to school, leave work, pick her up and take her to excuricculer/home/friends/wherever the fuck, then go back to work and finish my 12 hour shift. Pick her up if not at home. Cook/order/figure out dinner, spend some time with her try to get to laugh at least once a day, make sure she gets her shower in, hug her tight kiss her forehead tell her I love her and goodnight, then go lay down and try to sleep myself …to wake up and do it all again.
Wanna know what I can’t do? Break down and cry. Blame her mom. Blame my mom. Blame the world for putting me and her though what we been through. And some days, that is all I wanna do. But when I feel tears in my eyes I’ll walk back to her room and look at her sleeping, usually her back to me.
I remember then why I keep getting up every morning
I’m in my 70s and retired now, but years ago, worked as the President’s assistant for an accounting firm.
Many times over the 4 years that I worked there, he would say, “I need this done by Monday.”
I would jump right on it and work all weekend if necessary. The reason being, he and the other owners of the small company treated me like gold.
I was a single Mom. When I first started working there, I was separated from my alcoholic husband, heading to divorce. I had no money to pay the mortgage or car insurance. I confided in one of the owners and the next thing I knew, they handed me a check to cover everything past due. They deducted a small amount each week from my paycheck to pay them back.
There was no problem if I had to stay at home with a sick child. If my work for the day was done, they had no problem if I hit the road early to avoid rush-hour traffic. My hours were flexible because they knew if they needed me to work late or on the weekend, I would cheerfully do it. They gave me great raises. They valued me as an employee and I never took advantage of it.
Not all small business owners are horrible people. I was lucky to work for such a great team. The only reason I left was to remarry and move out of state. I heard later they sold the company.
World at end of 200 yrs of North Atlantic rule: Sachs
I’ve worked with Chinese tech companies. Their engineers and scientists are devoted to their families, employers and country.
China has the capacity to leap frog the US in many different technologies. Take your pick, they are on it.
The Chinese government places a high value on a highly educated population. Engineering and scientific professionals are leading a revolution in advancing scientific innovation in China.
Their current leader, Xi, was a chemical engineer before becoming involved in his political career. In fact, many Chinese politicians are former engineers, refreshing thought isn’t it?
The motivations for innovation in the US and China are a key point in China leap frogging the US. Both countries reward success in innovation with financial incentives.
But, the Chinese have a greater sense of pride in their country and it’s future.
The US is presently extremely divided politically, current leadership is seeking short term monetary goals over the advancement of scientific innovation.
China may take the lead in further technological and scientific breakthroughs in this environment.
I had this scenario happen to me. A group of us were on a whitewater rafting trip and we went to dinner. All of us got the buffet, which was huge and had everything you could imagine (including prime rib). One of the couples both ordered the prime rib dinner off the menu, with appetizers, desserts and extra sides. When the waiter came to check on us and see how we were doing and if we were ready to pay, I spoke up and said “separate checks for all of us, please”. The waiter winked at me, other couples smiled, the couple that ordered the dinner had a fit. “We agreed we would split ALL costs! We can’t afford this unless we do”. I just smiled and said “we agreed that we would split costs, that was before we realized we would be taken advantage of. It’s separate checks for us from now on”. The other couples instantly said “agreed!” and “I didn’t agree to split the cost of a $125 dinner for you two when ours was $30!” I got the death glare, and neither of them spoke a word to me after that. When we got home I noticed I was blocked on everything. Oh well. They weren’t friends of mine and I found them to be not team players-not someone I would choose to be friends with.
I have a relative that I thought was a wonderful person and mother. Her spouse died suddenly when their daughter was 13 or 14 (they live in a different state than I do).
About a year after her spouse died, I start getting phone calls from her daughter in the evenings. I discovered her mom would go to her boyfriend’s house and cook he and his daughters dinner, while her daughter ate cereal for dinner at home.
Over the next several years, I spent a lot of time talking the teen through issues, concerns and challenges that mom wasn’t around to address.
Mom didn’t even know her daughter was taking college courses in her senior year of high school because she wasn’t there when she attended the classes in the evenings.
When it was time for the teen to go to college, she got into a great school. Mom told her she couldn’t go to it because they didn’t have the money. When the daughter went off to the lesser expensive and prestigious college, mom married the boyfriend, bought a larger home with a pool in the backyard, bought a facelift, and a luxury car. The daughter had only 2 pairs of jean to wear at college.
At the end of the daughter’s freshman year, she calls mom to let her know when she’ll be home. Mom tells her it would be better for her to stay at college over summer break.
Her daughter explains that she lives in a sorority house and it closes in the summer. Mom didn’t care, she told her to find somewhere to live… during final exam week.
The daughter calls me crying and I take her for the summer to live with me. I got her a job at the company I worked at and we made the best of it.
The insensitive and cruel things my relative has done to her daughter over the years is more than I can list.
By the way, the daughter went on to get a doctorate, despite her narcissist mother who I have zero respect or affection for.
Humans started using their own feces as compost pretty much as soon as agriculture was invented. The practice continued in many places well into the 20th century.
However, the practice soon proved to have a lot of drawbacks. Humans in the early agricultural era didn’t know about bacteria, and crops fertilized with human dung often caused outbreaks of disease because those gut bacteria persisted in the soil until they found a new human host.
As such, people learned that although it was fine to plant cereal crops, or any plant with a long stalk in such fields, and not to plant carrots or other root crops for at least a year. By that time pathogenic bacteria had usually died out.
Because horses, pigs and cows don’t share a lot of gut flora with humans, it was soon found using animal dung had the same effect with fewer drawbacks. It was perfectly safe to use a few acres of land as cattle pasture for a year, then plant the following year.
I’ll tell you something about Jim who doesn’t want to come to the company parties. He thinks if he does a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, that is all he owes you. He doesn’t think having a job means the company owns him, body and soul. Even if he knows that not attending the parties means a black mark against him, he still won’t go.
I’ll tell you something else. Before I retired, I worked for a lot of different organisations, some large, some small, and there were always some Jims. They got along well with their co-workers. They did their jobs and did them to the best of their ability. They were often prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty at work. But that was where it stopped.
Here’s the thing though. In every organisation, for every Jim, there are at least 25% of your staff who are Jim wannabes. They all wish they had the nerve to say no, but they don’t want to risk their jobs or their pay raises or their promotions, or even just the disapproval of their co-workers. They won’t tell you this because, as we can see by your question, in your mind this is not somebody exercising their right to say no to a social event. It is a problem that needs to be “handled”.
They don’t go home from the company party and say, “Wow, what a blast.” They walk in the door limp with exhaustion and say, “Thank god that’s over!” They probably put on a convincing act while they were there, but they didn’t want to spend their private time with a bunch of people they are already spending at least eight hours a day with. If they want to party, they want to do it with family and personal friends.
If you want to “team build” either with parties or other activities, do it within regular working hours. Jim probably still won’t like it very much, but at least he is getting paid for it. And it will not be breaking into the precious free time he needs to recharge his batteries so he can be an effective employee for you.
You’re going to need a bank of fryers and I wouldn’t fry them from raw. Frying them from raw will break the oil down really quickly and force you to either shut down the operation to change the oil or serve crappy wings. You don’t want to do either of those.
So, get your wings and brine them overnight in a simple solution of water, salt and sugar. Then drain them and bake them until they are cooked through. Cool the wings and package them in batches that will fill a fryer basket. Say 2.5 pounds per plastic bag and refrigerate them until it’s time to cook them.
On site, set up your fryers, your cold boxes of wings, a station for hot holding and saucing and a table for serving them to the customer. The cooks fry the wings, dump them into the hot holding units from one side and the service workers pull an order from the bin, place it into a bowl, toss the wings in sauce and then serve them to the customers. You can use heat lamps overtop of the wings to keep them hot, which you can rent, along with deep fat fryers that run on propane.
I worked a few summers at a home for children who’d experienced abuse and neglect. Their caseworker had just dropped them off; two beautiful little girls with big, blue eyes that swallowed their faces. They were two and four years old and they were very quiet for children their age. I looked them over, and immediately noticed several things: they had rope burns around their ankles, matted hair, and both were underweight and wheezing like they had the croup.
On closer examination I noted that the older of the two had bitten the insides of her mouth so hard that not only were they bleeding, but infected. I could not hold back my tears. They came with barely any clothing or personal effects, but many children in foster care share that experience. And later that evening when they were settled and I read over their file I knew they had lived a nightmare.
There had been an older sister, but she had died, thus prompting a welfare investigation in the first place. They found a woman addicted to drugs with a boyfriend who cooked meth—and they tied their children up in ropes to keep them out of their way. That was eighteen years ago and memories of those two girls still make me teary eyed. Questions like this immediately bring them to the forefront of my mind. I hope they finally found peace.
I had gotten out of the Army in 1971 (was drafted) and working my old job in a drugstore. I was growing a beard and letting my hair grow. A older customer came in and started criticizing my hair and beard (this was in the deep south). He said I was a disgrace. I let him know I didn’t need his permission or approval . He went to my boss and said the same thing. My boss basically said “He spent 2 years defending this country, he can wear his hair any way he wants.” . The customer left and my boss winked at me.
A 42 year old lady came in with severe abdominal pain and nausea. She wasn’t vomiting. No other symptoms or problems, except for multiple prior visits to the ER with the same problem.
Many doctors had tried and failed to diagnose and treat her. She had been to all the specialists at all the regional Universities. The famed Cleveland Clinic even took a crack at her.
All the tests were negative including blood work, poop samples, X-rays, scopes in both ends, the camera pill (a camera that the patient swallows, it takes pictures as it traverses the gut), and various scans.
She had CT scans, MRIs and various nuclear scans. There were scans with and without IV contrast and oral contrast. There were scans of her arteries, and scans of her gallbladder. Her gallbladder was a little weak, so a weak surgeon jerked it out without any benefit.
She had every blood test for cancer known to man. Multiple biopsies were always negative. I thank God that no tired pathologist ever imagined any cancer cells under the microscope. This lady already suffered so much at the hands of her healers.
X-rays were done many times with and without Barium. Some of the X-rays were done as videos. She might have had enough radiation to kill any tumor!
And the scopes! Multiple scopes down the throat and into the stomach and duodenum. Another scope down the throat through which a catheter is passed into the bile duct and pancreas to inject contrast that highlights the ducts for more X-rays. A urologist even scoped her bladder!
She saw stomach specialists, liver specialists, gastrointestinal surgeons, kidney specialists, urologists, neurologists, and even psychiatrists.
There’s an old saying in Medicine, if the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. This poor lady had been beaten with every specialist’s hammer in 3 states!
When they couldn’t diagnose her, they just skipped straight to the cure. She failed multiple curative procedures and dozens of medications. There were medications to neutralize acid, coat the stomach, decrease acid production, anti-spasmodics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, antibiotics, anti seizure, antifunguals, and plain old pain medications.
She learned to refuse the pain medications, because she was smart enough to realize that she would be written off as an addict, that doctors stop trying if they think you just want opioids.
She has been put on every dietary restriction, and treated with every fiber supplement. She knew it all because she had tried it all!
The first night I saw her, I just told her that she had already seen many doctors much smarter than myself, working in a low level ER. But I did what I always do in these difficult cases.
I sit down and shut up and listen. I talk about weather, sports, hobbies and family; anything but medicine. But mostly I listen and observe. I try to get the patient talking more than myself. It’s an attempt to make a brain-to-brain connection for a two-way flow of truth. It is engaging the patient’s mind as the powerful problem-solving machine that it is.
Two minds together are more than 1+1=2. It’s more like 1+1=4. And it doesn’t really matter much that the other mind has limited medical knowledge. In fact, this process can sometimes work better if at least one of the minds is unspoiled by medical dogma.
So there we were, in the middle of a hectic ER night with several people trying to die. I talked with her for a few minutes until a nurse convinced me that another patient was closer to the next world than this one.
I grabbed the patient’s hand and begged her to be patient. I promised her that if she would wait for me, that I would give her my best shot. She was obviously in pain, but she attempted a smile and closed her eyes as I left to find something easier to do, like make a room look like an axe murderer walked in on a meeting of hemophiliacs anonymous, by saving a trauma victim.
That night was one of those nights that leaves me feeling a bit PTSD. I just wanted to crawl into my hut for a couple days. Yes, I have an actual stick-and-grass hut in the woods for this purpose.
But I have a soft spot for kids. The nurses all say that kids like me, and I am a pediatrician. I hate to leave a kid at the end of my shift, knowing that the next doctor may not feel as comfortable with kids.
I picked up the last chart in the rack (this was years ago), and saw that it was a 3 year old girl with abdominal pain. She was on the other side of the curtain from my 42 year old patient whom I had completely forgotten, or I would have spent the end of my shift with her as promised.
I took a deep breath and switched my brain from high pressure ER doc mode to easy and relaxed pediatrician mode. I walked into the room and quickly recognized a familiar problem. I explained to the worried mother that it was a simple stomach virus, that young children can’t tell the difference between pain and nausea. I explained that I was going to treat her pain with a tablet called “Zofran” for nausea, that dissolves in the mouth. I told her that I would be back in a few minutes and I left to give my order to a nurse.
By this time it was well after the end of my shift. The nurse I found said, “There you are! We thought you left! Did you forget about the 42 year old woman with abdominal pain? She’s been lying in there for hours!”
Of course I had totally forgotten her, but I remembered fast and said, “No! Of course not! I promised to spend some time with her if she would wait until the end of my shift!”
At that the nurse winked and nodded her head knowingly. I said, “No! Not like that! Look, can you give this little girl 2 mg of Zofran?” And I turned back to see my forgotten patient.
She was still in obvious discomfort but was waiting patiently. I walked over and placed my hand on her shoulder. Before I could say a word, she said, “That was great!” I didn’t know what she meant until she said, “You’re so good with kids, you should have been a pediatrician.”
She did not seem surprised when I said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I am!”
She joked, “No wonder I’m no better, my doctor is a pediatrician!”
I laughed. She tried to laugh. I poked my head around the curtain and asked the mother if it was okay to open the curtain? This violates protocols and is probably illegal, but I was too tired to care. I was simply trying to create an atmosphere to promote dialogue. A pleasant mother-baby dyad seemed the perfect antidote to the chaotic night this lady witnessed.
So now we had three minds working together. We talked to the little girl. She was smiling and feeling better already and asking for food. We talked about little girl things like toys, birthdays and sisters.
The mother thanked me. The Zofran trick worked wonderfully, despite her doubts. Then she looked at my patient and said, “He’s a wonderful doctor; listen to whatever he says.”
I asked her for permission to share her case and then I explained to the mother with a smile how that she had no idea, that this poor lady has some incurable ailment that has stumped all the specialists at all the Universities.
And then my patient and the mother began to talk about her case. As soon as the mother realized that it was a case of chronic abdominal pain and nausea, she drew an analogy to her daughter’s simple acute stomach virus.
I shook my head at the absurdity of it and was about to interrupt this conversation that was quickly getting off track. And then I remembered my rule for difficult cases (shut up and listen!).
My patient said, “Believe me, I have tried every stomach medication and even some herbs. Zofran does nothing for me.”
But my mind was zipping through all my experiences with chronic pediatric abdominal pain. I thought of the episodic nature of my patient’s condition. I asked her weird questions l usually reserve for pediatric cases like, “What part of the world did your ancestors come from? Any children in your family with health problems? How old is your house? Do either of your parents get migraines?”
She said, “Nobody has ever asked that question. My mother and father have both had migraine headaches their whole life. My brother gets them, too!”
And then I knew the diagnosis, even though I had assumed it was impossible and had never heard of an adult case. There is a condition called “abdominal migraine” that affects young children. There is usually at least one parent with migraine headaches, but most of these kids will get better by age 12. Their abdominal pain just stops. A certain portion will develop migraine headaches about the same time their abdominal pain goes away.
But I had my doubts. Pediatric abdominal migraine is easy to treat with simple medications that had failed to help this lady. But what if I gave her a common adult migraine treatment such as a vasoconstrictor? The pain of migraine is caused by too much blood flow to the head. Medicines that constrict blood vessels can be curative.
These medications work best if given very early in an episode. My patient was hours into this episode. As expected, the first dose in the ER that night did not relieve her pain, but it did do something much better: it gave her hope.
I gave her a prescription and sent her home, still in pain. But she was so grateful and she thanked me profusely. I felt a little anxious that maybe I was giving her false hope, for surely it could not be this simple? Surely the specialists thought of this?
Several months later she was in the ER with a sick family member. She was beaming and radiant. When she saw me she said, “That’s him! He’s the one who cured me!”
Tears were rolling down both our faces that night.
COVID-19. I have had several conversations here in the US with people who teach. They have all pointed to how awful the current batch of kids are when it comes to classroom learning. They can’t sit still nor pay attention because they lacked the classroom environment at that formative age to reinforce those skills; learning is nearly impossible. Meanwhile China adapted quickly to initial lockdowns, and by April 2020 normality had returned. My niece serves as my personal data point for what happened, and she has had no significant interruption in her education as online instruction was brief.
The haphazard lockdown strategy of the US combined with a retreat to virtual teaching will have a major effect on the labor force come 10 years from now. China’s strategy of strong, nationwide lockdown at onset followed by an elimination strategy allowed the country to more or less weather the storm more gracefully. One can have criticisms about how the country left COVID, but the end result is that the period of normality from spring 2020 through fall 2022 was the right target to reach, and the impact will play out in the coming years.
The current seemingly higher economic growth rate of the US is unsustainable and superficial because the inflation rate in the United States is much higher than that in China.
Since the 1980s, although the US has pioneered technological revolutions such as information technology, the Internet, and life sciences, and revolutionary technologies have brought new markets, services, products, and high-tech companies, it stands to reason that total factor productivity growth should be very high, but the new rounds of technological change have not prevented the gradual decline of U.S. productivity.
Statistics show that the average annual growth rate of total factor productivity in the United States has dropped to about 1% in the past 40 years, and even less than 0.7% in the past 10 years. The third industrial revolution did not bring about a substantial increase in total factor productivity growth in the US like the second industrial revolution that occurred during the industrialization process. Economists call this phenomenon the productivity growth paradox.
Forecasting a country’s potential growth rate is very important for judging its economic direction, but it is not easy. In 2022, China’s GDP may be 72% of that of the United States. Assuming that the U.S. economic growth rate would be 2.2%, China’s economic growth rate would be 5%, and the U.S. dollar and RMB remain at the current real exchange rate, based on this calculation, China would catch up with the United States in 2029. However, potential growth is not actual growth. A country’s ability to achieve its potential growth rate depends on whether sufficient demand exists. In the past three years, China had mainly relied on investment and exports to create demand. Thus, China must increase domestic consumption to create sufficient demand.
An important reason for China’s economic success lies in the close integration of a competent government and an efficient market. The invisible hand of the market and the visible hand of the government play a positive role in promoting economic and social development. The Chinese government focuses on key industries that promote national economic growth through five-year plans, industrial policies, and allocation of financial resources. Technological changes that occur in node industries are transmitted and amplified through the production network, forming a spillover effect, driving the emergence of a large number of upstream and downstream market entities, and producing a multiplier effect on the overall economy.
The closer an industry is to a node (the area with the highest density in the production network), the greater its impact on the economy. Empirical research also shows that investment projects with longer industrial chains generally bring more jobs, tax revenue and growth to the local economy.
Total factor productivity growth is a decisive factor in a country’s economic performance. Since the Industrial Revolution, no country or economy has been able to maintain a total factor productivity growth rate of more than 2.5% for a long time after completing the industrialization process. Since for advanced economies, sustained high productivity growth is the exception rather than the norm because when the share of the service industry increases significantly, it becomes more difficult to maintain rapid growth in total factor productivity.
The real estate industry is a long-chain industry and is of great significance to boosting domestic consumption. Putting all factors together, the consumer market can be expected to recover in 2023. Before the epidemic, consumption growth was above 7%. If China wants to achieve a potential growth of 5.5%, consumption growth of 5.4% will be enough. It is now no longer appropriate to call the Chinese economy an investment-driven economy.
In many areas, China has reached the global frontier in mid-level technologies, and hidden champions have emerged in almost every industry. For example, China was originally a latecomer to the electric vehicle industry, but it has become a leader within 10 years. Relying on development and innovation, China is becoming the largest contributor to the global clean economy.
The Chinese government has successfully prevented and resolved major financial risks through active and prudent deleveraging efforts. Money only generates value when it is used in the real economy. Serving the real economy has become a priority for financial institutions. The negative impacts of aging in China are actually overstated, at least for the next 10 years because over the next 30 years, artificial intelligence and automation will replace more workers than will be lost due to aging.
China has a large state-owned industry with a net capital stock of 60 trillion yuan. The central government has begun transferring state-owned shares to social security funds. These shares will generate enough dividends to support the social security system for the aging population.
In the long run, the economic growth rate of China will be higher and better than that of the US.
When our son was around 3,(he’s now 48) I took a parenting class where it was recommended that you give your child a choice of 2 things that were both acceptable to you, so the child felt that he or she had some control over their actions. One night we had company for dinner. One of our guests was a psychologist who frequently lectured both in the US and abroad.
When it was bedtime, my son said he didn’t want to go to bed, so I gave him a choice. “Do you want to go to bed in your own bed or mommy and daddy’s?” He answered by saying “I want a Coca Cola”. I repeated the bed options, his bed or ours. He repeated his desire for a Coke. We went back and forth like that a few times, then he put his hands on his hips and said “I want a Coca Cola! Will you pour it or shall I?” He was using my parenting method on me!
Our psychologist friend fell off his chair laughing. I scooped up my son and put him in his bed. Our friend told us years later that he told that story in all his lectures from that time on, until he retired.
Back in the day, when physical mail was still delivered to companies, I executed my quiet sabotage. The CEO was a weird one. He would open all the mail, read it, write his comments directly on each piece of mail and then distribute it to the appropriate person. Mind you we had roughly 50 office staff and 100 factory employees, so we weren’t a tiny operation.
The CEO instituted 2 cost savings. We were not allowed to purchase staples or paper clips. We were all given some little device (as a replacement stapler) that folded corners of papers and then perforated that corner so that the papers couldn’t separate.
And his feeling was that enough paper clips that came with the mail so we should just reuse them. It was ridiculous and impractical.
I khew that I was going to be fired at the end of the week in the afternoon and decided to annoy him. I went to Staples and bought all the office employees 2 boxes of staples and 2 boxes of paper clips. Sure enough Friday afternoon, I’m let go and then the CEO left right immediately. The wuss didn’t want to see how much of impact my dismissal would be on morale.
I was given the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone. So I walked desk to desk and gave each person staples & paper clips. I heard, the next week, that the CEO went bonkers seeing everyone having them. Lmao
The Duran: Neocons DESTROY Themselves as Russia and China Forge New World Order
The Duran discusses the failures of the neocons to maintain the US-led unipolar order amid Russia and China’s global rise.
Huawei and Xiaomi are both Chinese technology companies. This is true.
But essentially, Huawei and Xiaomi are Chinese technology companies with completely different natures, so their treatment is also completely different.
To accurately distinguish the differences between the two companies, we must start with the history of world globalization and the changing role of Chinese companies.
Before the 1980s, China was one of the poorest and backward countries in the world, almost isolated from the modern economy.
When China opened its doors in the 1980s, the Western world discovered that this was such a special country.
It has a huge poor population, but most of them have basic education.
It has a sound industrial foundation, but its technology is very backward.
He has huge territory and rich resources.
It has relatively complete infrastructure, including roads, railways and electricity.
At this time, the West had just carried out the first round of globalized industrial transfer, moving low-profit, polluting and risky manufacturing industries to Asian countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand.
However, these countries have limited population and scale, and limited capacity. As industries increase, salary levels increase rapidly and become less cheap.
Moreover, the education level of the population in these countries is limited, the infrastructure is limited, and there are many restrictions.
At this time, China was like an endless pasture. No matter how many cows the cowboys threw in, it could quickly accommodate them.
As a result, China quickly became the new continent for Western manufacturing.
Throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the 20th century, China was like a magnet attracting manufacturing industries from around the world, and countless companies developed in China.
They all follow the model of Western hope:
Version 1.0 Chinese Company: Processing and Manufacturing
1. Design, technology and standards provided by Western companies
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Western companies are responsible for sales
In this stage, Chinese companies shouldered the heaviest and hardest work, but could only obtain 10% of the profits, while Western companies took away 90% of the profits.
The Nike sneakers we wear, the French bags in women’s hands, and the various toys children play with are all products of this model.
The Chinese produce these things, but they cannot afford to consume them.
Of course, although the profits of the Chinese are meager, the total amount is huge. Therefore, during this period, they achieved a large amount of wealth accumulation, and gradually accumulated knowledge and talents.
Some companies are beginning to try to enter a new stage.
Version 2.0 Chinese company: independent production
1. Chinese companies purchase designs, technologies and standards through joint ventures or introductions
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for local sales
During this stage, the share of Chinese companies expanded. They got rid of the pure processing industry and began to focus on technology, trying to build their own brands and market capabilities.
However, during this period, the product quality of Chinese companies could not be compared with that of their foreign counterparts, and they mainly relied on low prices to compete in the local Chinese market.
Haier Electric, Chery Automobile, Lenovo Computer, etc. are all Chinese companies that have risen during this period.
Their degree of autonomy has been greatly improved, but most of their profits are still taken away by Western companies through patent licensing and the import of key parts, and they can only compete in the Chinese market. There is no pressure on foreign counterparts.
Version 3.0 of Chinese companies: independent production, global competition
1. Chinese companies solve most technical and quality problems through independent research and development
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for global sales
Around 2010, Chinese companies grew further. They have more technologies and knowledge systems, and the quality of their products has also improved rapidly. began to threaten Western counterparts in the global market. Especially in the fields of household appliances, kitchen appliances, electronic products, mobile phones and other fields, it has achieved rapid success.
Xiaomi, VIVO, Oppo, Transsion, Haier, Lenovo and other companies are representatives of this stage.
They have mastered the complete design, manufacturing and quality management capabilities of products, and established a good brand and reputation. During this period, products made in China began to be famous around the world and can be seen everywhere around us. Their low prices and high quality put traditional Western and Japanese brands to shame.
But they still have an Swelling of Achilles: key components and technologies are in the hands of their Western counterparts. For example, the Qualcomm chip and Android system of Xiaomi mobile phones; such as the Intel processor and Windows system in Lenovo computers;
Through control of these key technologies and components, the West still takes away most of the profits of these companies.
Take Xiaomi mobile phone as an example. Its core processor comes from the United States, its memory comes from South Korea, its screen comes from South Korea and Japan, its camera comes from Japan, its key communication chips and sensors come from Europe and the United States, and even the tempered glass on the screen surface is a product of an American company. . Chinese companies can only supply low-value accessories such as casings, speakers, and interfaces. According to media statistics, 70% of the value of Xiaomi mobile phones comes from Western suppliers.
Therefore, although Xiaomi has squeezed out the share of traditional peers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Sony, for every mobile phone it sells, Western companies make the most profit, and the Chinese still take away a small part.
Version 4.0 Chinese companies: disruptors
1. Chinese companies master core technologies and solve all problems
2. Chinese companies provide key parts themselves
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for global sales
After entering 2015, some Chinese companies have grown further. They began to get involved in core semiconductors, operating systems, precision sensors, databases and artificial intelligence algorithms. It began to seize the most profitable industrialization in the world and the last economic position of Western developed countries.
Huawei, DJI, Hikvision and other companies are representatives of this stage
They have all the features of a 3.0 enterprise and are beginning to replace Western suppliers. Not only do they make excellent products, but they also use core components and basic software developed entirely by themselves. They intend to completely take away the fattest piece of meat in the mouths of Western companies.
Before Huawei was sanctioned by the United States, it had surpassed Samsung and Apple to become the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. It is completely different from Xiaomi. Almost all the core components of Huawei’s mobile phones are provided by Chinese companies, and they have even begun to develop basic operating systems in order to kick Google out. In the field of communications, it holds the most 5G patents in the world and develops all high-value semiconductors and antennas on its own.
The essence of the above 3 versions of Chinese enterprises, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, is the same.
In the chain of globalization, Western companies take the best parts of food, and Chinese companies get the remaining food scraps. The difference between 1.0 and 3.0 is just the amount of residue obtained.
Therefore, whether it is Lenovo or Xiaomi, although they are technology companies from China, their positioning is within the scope of this rule and is allowed by the West.
But 4.0 Chinese companies are different. They are trying to subvert the rules of the game that have existed for decades.
They still embrace globalization, but they think, why are companies from Western developed countries always at the top of the food chain?
This involves the issue of economic competition between developed and developing countries.
Why do Westerners enjoy the most vacations, the best benefits, and the highest salaries and rewards? And people in developing countries work hard and overtime, but can only get meager pay and struggle to feed their families? Are people in developed countries inherently smarter and harder-working? The Chinese believe that this is not the case and that something is wrong with the rules.
Chinese companies like Huawei are determined to subvert this rule.
In the end, their appearance caused tension in Western countries: the subversives have occupied the entire country, their athletes have come to the king’s castle, and Huawei is the champion at the forefront.
Kings and nobles discovered that they could no longer defeat the subversives through “civilized rules.” How can he maintain a comfortable life in his castle and continue to rule and plunder the entire world in the future? The behavior of subversives must not be allowed!
So they shouted: They are thieves, liars, and traitors, don’t believe them!
While silently picking up the gun in his hand, he aimed at the one running at the front.
Creole Artichoke Bisque
Ingredients
16 ounces butter
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cup beef stock
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
3 large onions, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14 ounce) cans artichoke hearts, undrained
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 cup dry white wine
4 ounces light cream
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
Instructions
Melt the butter in a heavy pot and add the flour. Over low heat, cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Slowly add the stock and when well mixed, add the celery, onions, green onions, bay leaves, thyme and garlic. Let this simmer for 45 minutes.
Chop the artichoke hearts fairly fine and then add to the pot, along with the artichoke water. Cook at a low simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste, the Tabasco, wine and cream and bring to a simmer. Do NOT boil.
The bisque is now ready to serve.
Sprinkle a bit of parsley over the bisque in each bowl.
Tell the truth,but , it wont make any difference, no one will believe you.
I was having drinks after work with my coworkers, and the waitress got off work and joined us. She had been our waitress for over a year and we had no spark in that time. Though she was attractive. When I said I was going home, she asked if I could give her a ride. I dropped her off, and didn’t think anymore about it.
The next day I swapped vehicles with my girlfriend, as she needed a truck to help her sister move something.
She found a brown paper lunch bag in the back seat. It had a lacey bra, panties and unused condoms in it. I was totally at a loss. Then I remembered giving the waitress a ride home. So on Monday I handed the bag to her, and asked if it was hers, and it was. She gave no explanation of how it got in my backseat, or even why she was carrying it.
I asked her to explain to my girlfriend, and she declined, saying she didnt want a whole bunch of drama over nothing. So I got a whole bunch of drama from my girlfriend.
I couldn’t even blame her, or come up with a plausible story. We broke up shortly after that
NOT POSSIBLE: Why US Can’t Compete with CHINESE Monster Drones?
“China also has many AI drones such as the amphibious Nezha that can fly and dive to 23ft under water; shark/dolphin/stingray undersea drones; and an anti-air/land defense system called the Hornet’s Nest that can launch 10,000 explosive drones rapidly each will auto lockon enemy vehicles. People have no idea how secure China’s borders really are today.”
When I was in prison, I worked on the “hoe squad”. This is what “hard labor” actually is. We march out to the fields carrying hoes. Wearing our white prison clothes, we then form a line and then beat the ground relentlessly tearing up the grass to dirt.
However…
If you are sick or ill, you can get “one arm duty”. You end up being set apart and then you just putz around off to the side.
In general, the only time that I got “one arm duty” was after I had a heart attack on the “chain gang”. Though, the doctor who saw me; the “prison doctor” gave me two aspirins and told me to visit him the next Monday morning.
…
Yeah. It was not fun, but little “perks” such as “one arm duty” were highlights of my days in the ADC. Other highlights included being allowed to eat some wild onions, and then mix them with the black beans we ate during dinner.
So remember guys… no matter how bad things might get, there is always some good that can be found about. Beans with onions! Good times! Good times!
This is what happened to University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier when he stole a political flag from his hotel hallway.
Wikipedia
Otto Warmbier
Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state
Warmbier entered North Korea as part of a guided tour group on December 29, 2015. On January 2, 2016, he was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport
while awaiting departure from the country. He was convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel, for which he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with hard labor.
Shortly after his sentencing in March 2016, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury
from an unconfirmed cause and fell into a coma, which lasted over a year.
North Korean authorities did not disclose his medical condition until June 2017, when they announced he had fallen into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill. He was freed later that month, still in a comatose state after 17 months in captivity. He was repatriated to the United States and arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 13, 2017. He was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center
for immediate evaluation and treatment.
Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States when his parents had requested his feeding tube
to be removed.
A coroner’s report stated that he died from an unknown injury causing lack of oxygen to the brain.
Non-invasive internal scans did not find any signs of fractures to his skull.
In 2018, a U.S. federal court found the North Korean government liable for Warmbier’s torture and death, in a default judgment
in favor of Warmbier’s parents after North Korea did not contest the case.
In 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump caused controversy after saying that he believed the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Kim was not responsible for Warmbier’s death. In response, Warmbier’s parents criticized Trump for making excuses for Kim and “his evil regime”.
The APEC summit is about to begin in San Francisco. The key reason why this APEC summit is so important is the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In order to welcome Chinese visitors, the city of San Francisco swept and flushed all streets in just 48 hours, clearing away all homeless people, tents and garbage on the roadside. Decorations are placed on the roads where visitors pass, and some roads are even screened.
For the visit of a head of state from another country, what San Francisco did seemed a bit out of line. When was the last time they did this? No one seemed to remember at all.
I checked the Chinese newspaper data in 1972, and there was this news:
“In preparation for US President Richard Nixon’s visit to China, the Beijing Municipal Government launched a city-wide cleaning campaign. Citizens, students, and soldiers took to the streets. They cleaned up garbage, planted trees, and painted walls. In just one week, Beijing had a completely new look.”
In fact, until the end of the 20th century, whenever important American figures visited China, Chinese cities would do the same thing.
However, I have never heard of Americans doing this.
Now,you must know that it is China’s head of state Xi Jinping who is visiting San Francisco, the United States.
Not the foreign minister, not the economic minister. The last official visit was in 2013, under President Obama. In 2017, President Trump also had an unofficial visit. many years have passed
In the past few years, relations between China and the United States have been tense, and the Chinese President’s visit to the United States again undoubtedly revealed a lot of information. I personally predict that relations between the two countries will soon ease.
With such an important visit, the city of San Francisco was understandably nervous. However, this incident also highlights the fact that the status between China and the United States has undergone subtle changes.
More than ten years ago, former head of state of china, Hu Jintao, visited the United States. Ten years ago, current head of state Xi Jinping visited the United States.
The United States was in good shape at that time and did not need to “make America great again”, nor did it need a “trade war”, nor did it need “trade decoupling” or “risk reduction.” There are not so many homeless people on the streets of the United States, and prices in the United States are at a good level.
During these visits, the United States responded very appropriately. Whether in Washington or other cities, daily life went on normally. Americans confidently present the face of their country to Chinese leaders. No matter what the Chinese head of state sees on the streets, good or bad. It doesn’t matter, this is America, and this is the confidence that comes from the United States.
After all, at that time, the visit of Chinese leaders was, to the United States, a visit by a “backward competitor” to a “leading country.”
But over the past decade, a lot has changed.
From the United States:
1. Social divisions and the widening gap between rich and poor have led to the election of a president like Trump. Under the slogans of “America First” and “Make America Great Again,” a series of actions that harmed allies and irritated China and Russia took place one after another.
2. The United States launched an “easy-to-win” trade war and prices soared. The 2020 pandemic has added to the nation’s chaos. Many people have lost their properties, and there are more and more homeless people on the streets and drug addicts. American cities have become cluttered.
3. In 2023, in order to deal with domestic inflation, the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates. This has caused heavy economic losses to America’s global allies. In the Russia-Ukraine war, the United States lagged behind and was unable to truly contain Russia. The international influence of the United States has declined rapidly.
From China:
1. After ten years of economic growth, China’s overall economic strength has almost become equal to that of the United States. Although the GDP figure is still lower than that of the United States, the GDP calculated by PPP has already exceeded that of the United States. Key data such as social car sales and power generation also prove this.
2. In the economic war between China and the United States in the past few years, China has quickly adjusted after experiencing initial damage. Not only did they successfully respond to the pandemic, but they also expanded exports and boosted economic growth during the pandemic.
3. Amid the containment of trade wars and decoupling, China has attracted 151 countries around the world through the “Belt and Road Initiative” and successfully resisted the “de-risking” actions of the G7 countries led by the United States. China’s export volume will continue to increase in 2023.
4. China did not fall into the quagmire of the Russia-Ukraine war and did not have continuous military expenditures. On the contrary, they obtained more stable and cheaper energy, and a broader trade market.
This change was vividly demonstrated in the last diplomatic game between China and the United States. After Blinken’s aggressive speech, Liu He said: “The United States is not qualified to talk about strength with China.”
For the first time since the Cold War, the Chinese are sending a historic signal: The United States is no longer the only superpower.
Now, behind the seemingly eye-catching economic data in the United States are the debts of companies and individuals that are about to explode, as well as the high interest rates. After two years of debt stimulus and one year of interest rate hikes, the U.S. economy is like a fat man taking stimulants, with his face flushed and his strength boundless. In fact, he could fall down at any time.
China not only avoided global inflation, but also successfully resolved its domestic debt crisis. China is one of the very few countries that has not followed the United States in raising interest rates in the past six months. Although their economy is not as bright as in previous years. But it was very smooth and without any crisis. In the third quarter, major global financial institutions raised their economic expectations for China. In front of the United States, China is very comfortable and still has a lot of cards in its hand that it has not played.
The changes in the forces of China and the United States and the changes in the situation faced by both sides have made this meeting very delicate. In fact, the United States needs this meeting more than China.
In the end, the changes on both sides led to a change in Americans’ mentality towards China’s visit.
They have many more ideas than they had ten years ago:
There are too many homeless people on the streets of San Francisco, so much trash and drug addicts that they cannot be seen by the Chinese head of state.
It would make our great America appear weak and in disarray.
We must work hard to present a strong and beautiful image of the United States to continue to maintain the strong image of the United States in the past.
Not only will this prevent our president from losing face in front of Chinese leaders, but it will also prevent the Chinese from seeing more of America’s weaknesses and raising the price in negotiations .
There is an old saying: every dog will have his day.
I was on a contract in Boston USA for 4 years (back in the 2000’s) and at the end of the contract they offered me a full time job, Green Card, etc.
I asked what are the terms? 5 days leave at the end of the first year, no overtime payments, no company car……
I said I have worked for this company in France for over 20 years and you want me to give up my 65 days annual leave, being paid when I have worked longer hours and a reduction in salary, no job protection and having to take out health insurance.
No, fucking way! I’m going back to France.
Australia Just Destroyed America’s Plan For China!
Few reasons. One I don’t like liars, sitting at my kitchen table talking a bunch of smack gossip, another is telling me how I should do things when you have a zero clue of how hard it is being disabled. Trying to be the boss of me when you can’t even manage your own self. Stealing from me cause you might like what I own. My own grandmother came down to visit and stole my dried flower arrangement out of my bedroom, didn’t ask just five finger discounted it and got half way to the car when I saw it missing from my dresser. My father had an anger issue and to make him feel more manly, he’d make the 30 minute trip to my place actually looking for a fist fight. Mother read me the riot act when I had the nerve of buying a new fridge. So these days, I don’t even allow you on the property you can’t be trusted.
Two of my best friends in high school were dating, all four years. I love them two like genuine brother and sister (still do). Herein, the dude I will refer to as “bro” and his girlfriend “sis”. Nearing graduation, bro moved a state away (close enough to still come to school on time every morning) and almost immediately starting acting different. He had a new friend group who were terrible influence and became close with this other girl and we all kind of knew where this was going but didn’t want to believe it.
We graduated together, they were still together.
He and I went to trade school together, so we hung out on campus. My sis and I live in the same city so we hung out all the time (no, we never had feeling for each other anything beyond “siblings”). All the accusations of him cheating started to be noticeable. One day we sat in his car during lunch and I said to him, “If you cheat on my sis you know that’s the end of this friendship, bro. I love you but I hate the idea of what you’re getting yourself into.” He nodded…it kind of felt like he knew what he was doing was wrong but he was deep in it. He never told any of us two what he was doing but we ended up finding out from someone out of our friend group that he was planning on leaving my “sis” for this new chick.
He ended up doing so, and we lost each other as friends. Sis and I are still close. I haven’t talked to my ex-best friend in over 15 years. Things happen but seeing how he was treating her and lying to the both of us was ridiculous. No need to be leading people on like that. If you’ve moved on, actually move on.
Certainly, the most surprising thing for me when I lived in the US was finding that many Americans believe that, for practical purposes, the rest of the world doesn’t really exist.
To be fair I don’t mean that it is really non-existent, but that Americans think of the rest of the world in pretty much the same way someone in Europe would think of Pluto. It’s something you’ve read about, you know its there. But when it unexpectedly gets downgraded to not really being a planet any more it doesn’t really matter because Pluto can’t really have any effect on your everyday life.
And that’s how a large number of Americans regard the rest of the world – yeah, it probably exists, but it isn’t of any really practical relevance.
Let me give you an example of how this works. During the recent pandemic both the UK and US had idiot leaders who screwed up the pandemic response. But no one in the UK would think that the pandemic had just been made up to make Boris Johnson look bad. After all we saw how it spread around the world, first China then spreading all over Italy and other countries. So, it would be insane to suggest this worldwide problem was all make believe to humiliate Boris.
But large numbers of Americans have no qualms about believing that it was a lefty hoax to make Trump look bad. Its not that they believe the whole world is in on the plot its that since the rest of the world doesn’t really exist and so whether they also had the pandemic or not just doesn’t matter. It’s the same for the recent Israel-Palestine war. After it starts Trump announces that there are Hamas terrorists flooding across the US-Mexico border, because of course Hamas really want to attack the US. After all they can hardly really just want to target Israel, since it doesn’t really exist. To a subset of Americans, it just unthinkable that two sets of people could really have a war of their own. It must somehow really be about America because only America is actually real.
I joined a startup during the initial days of my career. after everything was discussed, I was given the offer letter. I accepted it and went to Mumbai, India to join the firm. After 1 week from the day of joining, I asked the HR for my appointment letter, which he should have given me on day 1. Since a startup and all young people around, I was OK with the delay. After 2 weeks, I was given the appointment letter, where it was mentioned that if ever I resigned from the organization or they terminate me from the firm, I will not be able to join any other firm in the same sector for a period of 1 year. (let me tell you, I am an engineer, with a masters degree in the relevant field.) This was mentioned under the competitive clause. I argued with the HR manager, asking him why didn’t he inform about this earlier, to which his answer was everything cannot be written on the offer letter.
I didn’t accept the letter and asked him to change the clause or else I won’t accept the letter. Now the problem with them was they were not in a position to leave me as I was the only person from that specific field and that field was giving them a good revenue, and I was never gonna accept the letter. Time flew and I was working without the appointment letter.
1 year later, I resigned as the organization was in a loss and was not being able to pay even our regular salary. I found another job in a well-established firm in the same field. So the last day, HR came to me and told that he will not be able to pay the whole amount of my salary, he gave me a cheque of 1/3 of my total pending amount. I was furious but was of no use as I knew this coming and I knew the financial status of the organization. They promised me to settle the amount in next 45 days.
Days passed, no sign of payments. When I called up the HR to know the status of the pending amount, I was told that as I didn’t sign the appointment letter, he cannot pay my salary. I knew what to do. I kept calm and didn’t reply anything. a few weeks later, I asked him my salary slips, I told him I needed those for my PF, and to my surprise, he instantly gave all my salary slips. Now the ball was on my court, and after receiving my Salary slips, I asked him for the pending amount. he told his same answer about my appointment letter; to which I replied, how can he issue salary slips to an employee who was never a part of the organization (which he mentioned earlier to me that I was never a part of the organization as I haven’t signed those papers). he was shocked to my answer, and he fumbled up. I took advantage of the situation and asked to pay my pending amount or else I have no option but to take the matter to the court. within 2 days the amount was credited to my account.
In 58BC, Julius Caesar entered Gaul with ~30,000 Legionarys and Auxillia troops to conduct “punishment” campaigns against the Celts and Germanic tribes. Eight years later, rather than subduing the responsible tribes, he had conquered all of Western Europe.
Caesar never had more than 50,000 total troops at any one battle and yet his Legions killed over 1,000,000 Celts and German warriors in battle, as well as captured another 1,000,000 for enslavement.
This was accomplished through the excellent generalship of Caesar and the training & discipline of his Legions and Auxillia (foreign support troops, who were trained to equal level with the Legions).
The disciplined and ordered men of the Legions were able to stand and hold back relentless charges of undisciplined tribesmen, until the Celts had tired themselves out, before moving forward against the exhausted enemies, killing everyone before them.
Caesar’s final battle in Gaul, to subdue the revolt led by Vercingetorix at Alesia in 52BC, Caesar and his Legions had built and defended a “tactical doughnut”,where ~70,000 Romans besieged Vercingetorix’s army inside Alesia of ~75,000, while defending against up to 250,000 Celts who attempted to free Vercingetorix.
It was quality of leadership, training, discipline, engineering and construction excellence that defeated sheer but undisciplined numbers.
Flamin’ Cajun Riblets
Deliciously seasoned pork ribs that will delight the taste buds!
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
3 pounds pork loin back ribs
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 cup bottled chili sauce
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Serrano pepper*, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca, crushed
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 to 2 teaspoons bottled hot pepper sauce
Snipped fresh parsley (optional)
Instructions
Sprinkle the ribs with Cajun seasoning rubbing it in with your fingers.
Cut ribs into single rib portions.
Place ribs in a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker.
In bowl, mix chili sauce, onion, Serrano pepper, tapioca, lemon peel, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce.
Pour sauce over ribs.
Cover and cook on LOW setting for 5 to 6 hours or on HIGH setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Serve at once or keep warm, covered, on warm setting or lon LOW heat setting for up to 2 hours.
Remove any bones without meat. If desired, sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
Because hot chile peppers, such as Serrano’s, contain volatile oils that can burn your skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with chilies as much a possible. When working with chile pepper, wear plastic or rubber gloves. If your bare hands do touch the chile peppers, wash your hands well with soap and water.
50 MOST DISTURBING Moments Caught On Camera Vol. 10
A rewards program
We had a rewards program in Canada called Air Miles. Both my wife and I collected them before meeting, then merged accounts after getting engaged.
One of the grocery chains gave you 10 times airmiles for prescriptions on the first Tuesday of the month, we had both been taking advantage of this. Then they dropped it to 7 times rewards, any time of the month.
Whenever a store was renovated, they offered massive air miles, at just that store, to get people to come back after the renovation. These were super deals, like spend $200 and get 700 airmiles. Every first Tuesday of the month was 10 times airmiles on groceries. You normally got 1 for $20, but on Tuesdays you got one for $2. They would also have air mile specials on particular grocery items. For example buy 5 packs of flavored rice cakes for $15 and get 100 air miles. Buy frozen chicken wings for $10, and get 100 airmiles. Air miles were worth 15 cents a piece at the time, then dropped to 14 cents, then 11 cents.
But when they were 15 cents a piece, spending $10 for a kg of chicken wings earned you $15 worth of airmiles. They were paying you $5 to buy the wings.
Back to the renovation sales. I had 6 of the grocery stores within 3 km of me. Most within 2. They renovated them one after the other, and the sales each lasted 3 months. Then the next one would start.
So I would hold off groceries, until the first Tuesday of the month, then buy $200 . This got me 700 airmiles, with the coupon, plus 100 airmiles for the 10 times airmiles, plus, I would buy 5 boxes of chicken wings, and 5 bags of rice cakes, which gave me another 600 air miles, plus all the other individual sales. From this one shopping trip averaging $220 , I would get about 2500 air miles, worth $375.
Plus whatever we got for prescriptions. Other companies also offered airmiles, but not as great a deal. But if you shopped at 6 different companies, and you earned more than 6000 airmiles, you got an onyx card, which meant you could get 10 percent more for your airmiles.
So for two years, we got about $5000 worth of airmiles each year..
The trick was to only use them on package vacations, which is where you got the 15 cents per airmiles, and the 10 percent discount.
So we would pick a $6000 tropical flight and all inclusive hotel two, because we were onyx, we would pay $5400, and we would pay that out of our airmiles. At the time, that gave us a spectacular vacation, for buying stuff that we would use anyway.
With the renovations we got two years earning $5000 worth of airmiles, then down to about $3500 worth, then down to $2000. Then they stopped offering airmiles all together.
But, we got two years of free vacations, and another 10 of half price vacations.
I knew people who didn’t work the system, who only collected $300 worth of airmiles over 10 years, and said it was a ripoff, but it worked for us. It was nice while it lasted.
In the Irish Sea
In April 1985, an extraordinary event took place over the Irish Sea, captured by Adrian Meredith in what would become the only photo of Concorde flying at supersonic speed. Adrian, who was flying a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet, had the opportunity to participate in a planned rendezvous with the legendary Concorde.
The Tornado, a versatile and powerful combat aircraft developed and used by the RAF, was primarily designed for air defense, ground attack, and reconnaissance missions. While it could match Concorde’s cruising speed, its fuel consumption rate was significantly higher, allowing it to sustain that speed only for a matter of minutes.
Despite the Tornado’s capabilities, capturing the iconic photograph posed a unique challenge. To maximize its speed and keep up with the Concorde, the Tornado was stripped of all non-essential equipment. The crew made every effort to maintain the pace, racing to catch up with the Concorde as it soared through the skies. However, due to the Tornado’s limited endurance at high speeds, the crew had to make the difficult decision to break off the rendezvous after just four minutes. Meanwhile, the Concorde, an engineering marvel of its time, continued its journey, gracefully cruising towards its destination at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Despite the Tornado’s formidable capabilities as a combat aircraft, it could only briefly keep pace with the Concorde’s supersonic flight. The juxtaposition of these two aircraft highlights the distinct roles they played in aviation history—the Concorde as a pinnacle of supersonic passenger travel and the Tornado as a versatile military workhorse.
Together, the Tornado and the Concorde symbolize the remarkable advancements in aviation technology during the late 20th century. Their fleeting rendezvous over the Irish Sea and the remarkable photograph captured during that encounter stand as a testament to the ingenuity, dedication, and pursuit of excellence that define the aviation industry.
That is what the west thinks. That is what a hubris superiority complex western Caucasian xenophobic racist thinks!
The truth is China is very happy the west especially thinks this way! Do you know why?
Chinese is always 3 steps ahead of these type f westerners. We like the west to be burnt all their cash here and go bankrupt. Parading aimlessly flexing its muscles at 100 billion a month! We loved the stupidity.
We spends nothing and enjoy our popcorns while you implode. So YES IT IS TRUE CHINA CANNOT FIGHT YOU. FLEX YOUR MUSCLES. TILL YOU DISINTEGRATE INTO OBLIVION. GOOD LUCK. HAHAHAHA. WHAT A BUNCH OF FOOLS.
After working my ass off during the pandemic, I was promised an additional bonus. I received a “low performance“ review conveniently timed a day before my bonus was to be paid. The low performance feedback canceled my bonus. Given all the other bullshit I was putting up with, I broke and quit.
I had a nice month off and my new job pays significantly more. Never work for people that don’t appreciate you, there are always others that will.
About three years ago, I wanted a cat. I love tuxedos; I really think they are something special.
His name is Othello. Apparently, he got into a fight in the county shelter one county up from us and was transferred to my county. That should have been my first warning he was trouble. He has a tiny triangle of his left ear that’s missing (it’s not even visible in this one.)
But he was warm, sweet, and cuddly. Just beautiful.
Two weeks in, we are at my mum’s house. I’m trying to bake, but Mr. Tux here decides he wants snacks from the plastic shelving where we kept the pet supplies. A two-hour battle ensues, where I pull him down and five minutes later, he’s back up there again. I finally pulled everything about 6 feet away from the shelving, thinking it will stop him jumping up there.
I go back to what I was doing, and then I hear a crash.
“Darn that cat…” as I walk over there to scold him for the 85th time.
He was hanging off the side of the pet shelf by both front feet, having leaped the 6 feet across the room. I asked him if he thought he was James Bond or something.
I have also discovered:
He can open flip lids with his nose or his paws. I made this crucial mistake when I got his adoptive brother, who was a kitten at the time. I bought kitten food for Mercury and after a half hour’s consideration, trying to outwit my cat again, bought a container with a flip lid. I mimed having paws when I bought the darn thing. I thought I was smart. I left for a night and came back in the morning. There’s the kitten food, spilled all over the floor. The two of them obviously thought I wasn’t coming back and decided to fend for themselves.
He will destroy any package left within reach. He destroyed all the dry soup packets my mother had downstairs in the basement. No idea on that one.
He has busted the screen on my porch TWICE in order to get out into the Great Wide Open. I don’t mean going through it – I mean prying it loose from the wood surrounding the bottom.
I cannot leave one gap in the lid of the food bucket (NOT a flip lid) I keep the kitty kibble and the snacks in, or he will pry the lid off in ten minutes or less. He checks every night. One night, my sister was over and I didn’t attach the lid properly. My sister and I were watching a movie and we heard the lid clatter to the floor. 10 minutes.
He has been known to eat puppy food and dog biscuits.
When angry, he hits things -the curtains, the side of the fridge, the wall, any paper bag that’s handy. Just beats his paws on whatever surface is nearby. He pitched a fit last summer when he broke the screen the first time and I would not let him out. A full on temper tantrum, beating on the door and howling like he was being tortured.
I don’t dare leave food out anywhere he can find it. Anything I make is put away in the fridge or weighted down under stuff he can’t shove off. I have been known to booby-trap stuff so I can hear lids falling if he attempts to knock them around!
He eats plants. We now have one. I experienced to strategize locations to put this one so he wouldn’t nibble it to demise. For his security, i’ll n’t have any toxic plants in the house.
He really loves everybody but me personally. Folks come to your house, and he’s Mr. Personality. Loves everyone. Leaps into laps, cuddles, nice little kitty. I will be mother, and clearly we’re caught with each other, so he doesn’t just like me all that much because We curb his widespread enthusiasm for destruction and mayhem.
I love him dearly and he tends to make life interesting, but oi. I invest half my entire life outwitting him. it is tiring.
She was a good friend, but nothing like that between us. One day I came to visit. Her mom let me in (they lived in a 8,000 sq ft house) and said she’s upstairs. So up I went and there was no Monica.
So I sat down to wait and suddenly out of the bathroom comes butt naked Monica. She yelped. I laughed. Even though Monica was very easy on the eyes, I never saw her like that and it just ended up as a funny story between us.
I haven’t seen her in years, but my daughter is named after her, so that’s how much I cared for her.
Dear god no. Closest I’ve ever come is Dilaudid (injectable hydromorphone), which the hospital gave me whilst I was spewing blood when I went to visit my Talespinner.
Hated it. In fact, I hated it with every fiber of my being. If words could adequately convey my fiery hatred for the way it made me feel, you, Gentle Reader, would spontaneously combust upon reading them.
It’s not just that it made me vomit, though it definitely did that. It’s everything about the subjective experience. It made me feel like I was wrapped in a too-warm blanket made of steel wool and television static. It made me feel like I was floating just a little outside my body, but in a skin-crawling, AmericanHorror Story way, not a fun way. It made everything around me feel blunt and dull, like all the color and texture had been bleached out of the world.
Have patience my friend. Wait for another 50 thousand years. Then perhaps, may be, with a lot of luck your dream might come true. For now go bury your head in the sand.
He Took the Most Unwanted Cat At the Shelter In the Night, the Cat Had a Surprise!
I was asleep in bed, about 2am, when Spider (My cat, not my choice of name) came into the bedroom, placed his mouth by my ear, and Miaowed, LOUDLY. I woke up, suddenly, and not too happily! I tried to push him away, but he repeated himself, then stood up and walked to the end of the bed, and looked back at me. When I tried to lie down, he came back, caught my hand in his mouth, and gently, but firmly, pulled me towards the door. Eventually I gave up, and got out of bed, as he ran to the bedroom door, paused, looked back at me, and waited until I followed him. Eventually, he got me to the French doors in the living room, where he sat, looking at me and then at the light switch, until I turned the light on to illuminate the patio outside. There his baby kitty sister was sitting, in the rain, not coming into the house. I called her, but she just looked at me, until I opened the door, and picked her up. Although she was purring madly, her leg was swinging oddly, and it was obviously badly broken. I pushed her gently into a basket, pulled my clothes on, and called for a taxi to take me to the emergency vet. Without his intervention, she would have been stuck outside for at least another five hours, in the pouring rain, badly injured. The vet said that, without prompt attention, she may well have been dead by morning. Spider had saved her from, at best, considerable pain and suffering, at worst, a painful and cold, wet death. It took considerable surgical skill to save her leg, but without him, she may well not have had that chance. He was a lovely cat; He died aged 18 of acute kidney failure, and I miss him a lot!
When Shanghai was under lockdown due to severe COVID-19 outbreak in April 2022, many residents resorted to group purchases for daily necessities. Among the coordinators of these purchases, one young volunteer showed maturity and a sense of responsibility beyond his age.
Cai Hanxiao, a second-year high school student in Shanghai.
Cai Hanxiao, 17, a second-year high school student living in the city’s suburban Qingpu district, voluntarily took charge of group purchases for the residential community he lived in, helping more than 600 people obtain daily supplies.
Cai shared his experience on Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili. He said, after the residential compound was put under lockdown, like everyone else he had to cook himself. After only a few days, he ran out of fresh vegetables.
Then, Cai posted a massage in a community chat group to find residents who also needed vegetables. After some answered his call, Cai created a new group for collective purchasing.
He pooled together 80 orders and negotiated with a supplier. A deal was made, and the vegetables were delivered to the doorsteps of residents the following day.
After that, more residents joined Cai’s group, and demand grew rapidly. The goods on his purchase list expanded from vegetables to meat and milk.
The young man admitted, at first, organizing group purchases affected his studies. But later he optimized the work flow and started using a mini-program which enabled people to sign up for a group purchase automatically, which saved a lot of time.
“I want to show you high school students are not nerds that know nothing but how to solve problems on exercise books. We can help people solve practical problems in real life.” Cai said.
The one where doctors open the heart, repair it and seal it back. Everything seems so simple on paper, isn’t it?
It was a random Tuesday morning when we visited the Operation Theatre of the CTVS (Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery) department, not knowing what was to come.
One of our senior professors was operating, and she was being assisted by some Resident doctors and nurses.
The surgery was Triple Valve Replacement. It basically involves replacing the damaged heart valves.
Sounds so easy!
The patient’s chest was cut open, the underlying bone was drilled and when they reached the heart finally, I was thrilled beyond expectations.
We all have heard heartbeats on a stethoscope, but to see it beat right in front of you is an altogether different feeling!
A number of different tubes were connected to the heart then. Lots of different liquids were made to run through the tubes.
And then, they put an ice solution over the heart.
This is called cardioplegia – the phase where the heart is stopped from beating. It is during this stage that the actual valve replacement is done.
The tubes help in supplying blood to the heart during this time.
Throughout this entire time, our Professor kept teaching us important stuffs related to the surgery. She could have chosen to ignore us and continue with the tiresome surgery, but she didn’t.
She showed us the important blood vessels and valves. She taught us the mechanism of cardioplegia. She showed us which incisions to make and where.
And all this while, she kept on standing and operating.
After 3 hrs at 1 pm, it was lunchtime for us. But the surgery was nowhere near complete. So me and my friends decided to stay till the end of the operation.
We didn’t expect the surgery to go on too long.
But here’s the thing. We finally came out of the OT at 5.30 pm, having missed our lunch as well as our afternoon classes!!!
But what did we gain?
Our respect for our Professor ma’am increased by leaps and bounds. Her surgical team members kept on changing every few hours, but she never left the OT table throughout the 8 hour period.
If this isn’t patience and dedication then what is?
Coming to the question.
What is something that money can’t buy?
It’s patience.
Master patience, and it will open the doors of greatness for you.
I am eligible for answering this question.A quick background about me.
A good developer with task completion abilities with 4.5 years of experience as of now
Year late 2015 joined the Pune based company this was my second company…Joined as a developer performed pretty well in initial 3 months of probation…They chose me to send on-site for 2 months
I was on cloud 9 and happily went to on-site UK ,performed exceptionally well there and returned to India.Now was into regular job activities of development stuff…
Suddenly HR and Dev manager calls me for a meeting and said you are in PIP..I was taken by shock because in the recent time I was the one who has delivered the most work from team.
They assigned me tasks for 1 month and said we want 100 percent completion the actual time that will be fair to complete the task was 3 months but they given me only one month..I delivered 80 percent and wanted a week extension but they were adamant that you have not completed in one month hence we have to let you go.
Later few of my friends from HR told me that they wanted you out from company and it was a trap.
On the day it was around 6 pm half collegaues were already gone.i got informed that today is my last day.
Gone out of the office cried with a friend for 10 mins and then told myself let’s bounce back and will get a new job in 7 days.
Cleared my stuff started applying for new jobs set the deadline for 7 days.
On the 5 th day I had the job offer in hand with 50 Percent hike
To the rest of the world especially the entire Global South we are clear as hell, why!
Because they are envious and fear China will overtake them and lose their hegemonic powers. The rest are all excuses and made up face saving lies. Frankly it should stop right away.
The more it demonised and blame China the more we see it as China doing well. Most culture including the west I believed, don’t take kindly to a person who bad mouthing someone. It shows that such person are weak and insecure. That is how the world sees the U.S. now.
Don’t do it. It looks bad on you. It makes you look weak. Fooling your own people weakens them. And fooling them int being ignorant and naive of the biggest consumer and producer on earth is like committing suicide! Yes you are right Americans in general don’t know and understand the real China.
But don’t blame them. The U.S. has been spreading lies and demonising China since 1949, 74 years straight! So today’s American has been lied to from their grand parents generation to their parents generation and they were fed misinformation to doubt, hate and fear China.
For a start 99.99% don’t know why 1949. Let me help you starting with this. After world war 2, the US at its strongest point in history go all out to fxxk up China. It is knee deep to ensure a puppet rule China do that it can break up China into 100 tiny nation. But at its strongest. Point it failed to do that even when China is at its weakest and the U.S. is at its strongest.
What about now! China grew from an economy the size of Zambia to the biggest in purchasing power term. The growth of China in the last decade is bigger than the entire G7 by 35%! It can toast the US from coast to coast if the U.S. choose the end of life options.
So the U.S. do the only thing it can do. Talk and do shit. Hence Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, Taiwan, Xinxiang and any shit it can find. Is it helping? Frankly no. Not at all. It counts on fooling people around the world. But instead it only fool their own yanks. But that is good, they can hide their own weakness and failings by blaming even their migraines on China. After all after lying about China 74 years to its citizens. They will buy anything.
Other people don’t hate the human race like you do because you don’t see the human race for what it is.
You see a small sliver of the human race for what it is, and that, plus your own confirmation bias, blinds you to the whole of the reality.
The human race is not all one thing. It’s a blend of light and shadow, good and evil. It’s trendy and oh so fashionable among a certain kind of person to see the dark and think that makes you somehow more knowledgable or informed, but it doesn’t. A nuanced, balanced approach must see the whole.
Seeing the whole means recognizing the evil but also celebrating the good. Hate is easy. It costs to love.
We do not see the world as it is; we see it as we are.
Worrying about what someone else is thinking, saying, or doing will not make your life better.
Celebrities, politicians and the mainstream media don’t live in the same truth as you do.
The person you marry can be the biggest financial decision you will ever make. The right one: an asset who will build with you. The wrong one: a liability that will destroy you. Choose wisely.
There’s literally nothing appealing about going out to bars, drinking and partying all through your 20s. Use this time to create a solid foundation for yourself and your future self.
Choosing a life partner based solely on looks and your sex urges is going to cost you in the end.
Nobody is going to pay attention when you are dead and most likely, they are not even paying attention now. So why be concerned about making mistakes?
The person you see in the mirror who has gone through a lot, the toughest times and is still standing. That’s the same person who deserves all the best from you.
No amount of love from others will ever be enough. To fill the yearning that your soul requires you work on a daily basis to make sure you are in love with yourself.
My husband recently rented a beautiful mansion on Maui via AirBnB. He did it on the AirBnB website. The owner asked him to send the money ($6,000) by a wire transfer because she lives in Europe. Red flag! He contacts AirBnB which confirms the listing is legitimate and it’s common to wire the money that way for international owners. So, he wires the money.
The next day the listing is gone and redirects to a Russian no service page. Apparently someone hacked AirBnB and created a fake listing within it.
Fortunately, our bank stopped the transaction so the money never left our account.
Fast but inaccurate heuristics that fail with Type 1 errors have positive survival value.
So think of the brain, first and foremost, not as an organ of rationality but as an organ of survival, like fangs or claws. The brain is a pattern recognition and categorization machine, and when you think about it that way, it becomes patently obvious why cognitive errors exist.
Cognitive errors are often the result of overly promiscuous pattern recognition or of category errors (or both).
When you live on the savannah, you frequently find yourself in situations where the only thing standing between you and being a leopard’s dinner is very fast pattern recognition. You don’t have time to consider and analyze whether that flash of orange you just saw from the corner of your eye is a charging leopard or not, and whether you should be categorizing it as a threat.
While your buddy Grog is sitting there evaluating the evidence, your adrenal glands are screaming WAAAUGH A LEOPARD IS ABOUT TO EAT MY FACE and you’re booking it out of there.
Result, you live to transmit your genes. Your rational, analytical buddy, the late Grog Grogson, does not.
And these fast heuristics evolve toward Type 1 errors (false positives), not Type 2 errors (false negatives). If you mistakenly think a gazelle is a leopard and flee, you’re still alive. Your buddy Thok who mistakenly thinks a leopard is not a leopard, well…
So the people who survived the savannah had brains optimized for fast but low-resolution heuristics for identifying threats and aggressive, promiscuous pattern matching. Surprise! We no longer live on the savannah, but we still have those traits, legacy code in our firmware.
My professor has not been able to sleep well. He has been getting very dizzy lately. I bought him a fuzzy purple pillow and gave it to him. “Fuzzy pillows fix everything,” I said. He hugged me. It probably won’t fix his insomnia but he knows I care.
I am notorious for waking up late. Because of this, I never check the weather and I never have time to grab coffee in the mornings. When I picked my friend up for school, she always brought me a jacket on cold days and a thermos of coffee ready for me.
When I moved to Thailand, I was very lonely. A group of guys could see I was lonely and asked me to hang out. I couldn’t speak Thai, and they couldn’t speak English, but they took me to dinner most nights though we couldn’t say a word to each other. That meant everything.
The ladies in the office at my school will see my eyes linger on something they’re eating. They know I don’t know what it is. They always bring me a bowl of whatever they’re eating without me asking because they want me to try it. They gave me a whole pomelo last time. It makes my day.
My fruit lady always asks about my family in America. She remembers every detail about my family every time we talk as she cuts my pineapple for me. I’m always amazed she cares enough to listen, remember, and ask more questions.
The opportunity to be kind is everywhere. The smallest acts of love have the greatest impact. You just have to look for them.
HIGH ALERT! Putin and China just changed EVERYTHING with this move, and Biden has NO response
Creole Pot Roast with Dumplings
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, divided
1 (3 pound) beef pot roast
1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained
2 cups sliced onions
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup hot water
1 2/3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped pimiento
Instructions
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef and brown on all sides.
Add tomatoes and onion; cover tightly. Cook over low heat for 2 hours.
Stir in curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook an additional 1/2 hour.
Place pot roast on serving platter and keep hot.
Add 1 cup hot water to broth in pot; bring to a boil.
Blend together flour, baking powder and remaining 1 teaspoon salt.
Cut in remaining 2 tablespoons butter, using a pastry blender or 2 knives.
Add milk, parsley and pimiento to flour mixture. Stir until moist.
Drop batter by tablespoonsful into boiling broth. Cover; cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.
Place dumplings around pot roast.
Strain broth and serve as gravy.
Dating Matchmaker quits working with women, modern women are DELUSIONAL, men go ABROAD
“I’ve seen videos of women giving the long lists of their requirements and, just because I’m a math geek, I’ll look up the statistics and do the calculations. In a lot of these cases, statistically, these men don’t even exist. They’re looking for a winning lottery ticket.”
My wife went to a local DPS (Department of Public Safety) office, and I escorted her, to renew her driver license. While at it, she decided to change her name to match the name on her Certificate of Naturalization when she became a US citizen.
After my wife filled out the required paperwork, the clerk says that in order to change the name, my wife must present a valid court order/document to prove that she had officially changed her name. According to the clerk, the Certificate of Naturalization is not a valid court approved document. Below is a sample of the Certificate of Naturalization.
Anyone with half a brain would realize that it says “United States District Court” in the lower right-hand corner, especially after we pointed it out several times, but not this particular DPS clerk.
Needless to say, we asked her to call her supervisor. Fortunately, the supervisor knew that a Certificate of Naturalization is the real deal and told the clerk to change the name, but not before hearing several “but, but, but…” from the clerk.
To use the mine, the soldier would remove the security pin, and then charge the enemy armor, just like in a bayonet charge, making the top of the mine collide with the objective. The weapon needed to be held by the center with the left hand and by the bottom with the other hand. When the legs of the mine hit the objective, the handle was pulled forward, cutting a pin and making the detonator move forward to the detonator charge. This would set off the mine, blowing up its user and, probably, the targeted enemy armor.
The mine was capable of penetrating about 150 mm of RHA
at an angle of 90º, and up to 100 mm at an angle of 60º. However, the mine would almost always impact at 90º because the impact angle with the objective would be decided by the weapon’s user, and he would probably aim for a 90º armor plate.
The nature of the weapon was similar to a panzerfaust in that it was a single use type weapon. Unlike the panzerfaust the operator was a single use soldier. There were no records I could find of it being used successfully. Of course I don’t know how there would be any feedback on its effectiveness.
The NVA used it as well with some reported success in Indochina against the French and the US later in the South.
In the parking lot at Walmart. I saw a motorhome identical to mine. So I was looking at the twin of my motorhome when the owner walked up and looked at me curiously. I introduced myself. I explained I owned the same model and I was having some mechanical issues. We all got along well, so we exchanged emails and decided to keep in touch. Well we started camping together, a couple of times a year. Our motorhomes were old. Our new friends lived simply. They cut coupons. Shopped at thrift stores. After years of getting together, California had an earthquake and our friends had to leave early to “check the cars” . I was puzzled. My friend explained he had a car collection. On racks in California. I guess he felt after years of knowing us he told us he had been a CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company. They knew by then we liked them for who they are. Not what they have.
The Marijuana Menace 1938 | Crime, Drama, Propaganda | Colorized Full Movie
When I was a boy in High School, I studied French. I did so for three years, and pretty much max’ed out what was available at my school. I studied hard. Learned as much as I could, and did very well… grade wise.
Anyways, in the French Class were a series of books about the Adventures of Tintin. And joy of joys, I was able and permitted to “read” the books, trying to make out the French language in the illustrations.
I don’t know if it really helped me learn French, but it certainly helped me fall in love with the Tintin series. It really did.
I think the biggest surprise from a knock on the door I ever got was about 10 years ago.
An ex-girlfriend showed up at my door, 8 months pregnant …7 months after we split up (which was quite the shock, but I’ll get to that). Basically started dictating terms to me as to how things were going to be as soon as I opened the door. That I had to look after her because I got her pregnant and that she was going to stay at my place now because she had nowhere to go. She made some ridiculous demands about money and child support for an exorbitant amount. She told me that if I didn’t agree to her terms she was going to take me to court and to the cleaners.
I could barely contain my laughter at the situation…
What she didn’t know was that I am physically unable to father children (the conversation never came up because we were not that serious and it was none of her business). It was one of the reasons for my divorce previous to her after trying and going through multiple tests with my ex wife.
So here she (my ex) was at my door with all these demands, threats and looking for a handout and a place to stay after just obliviously outting herself for cheating on me (starting at least a month before we broke up, maybe longer.. maybe the whole time, Don’t know. Don’t care).
Turns out the guy she was with after me found out she was already pregnant before him (she tried to con him too but clearly the math didn’t work.…classy girl) and he gave her the boot.
I thanked her for letting me know that she cheated on me, quickly explained how I knew and knew that it wasn’t mine. Wished her the best and shut the door.
I will never forget that stupid look on her face for the rest of my life as that door closed.
Well my answer is not something I would usually speak of with people. And perhaps not so typical of what has been expressed in regards to this question already. But we are all here to honestly share so I will do so. And to be precise it was not MY jaw that dropped, rather my now ex wife’s and her daughter’s.
So at an extended family dinner one evening the conversation turned to family heritage. Things were variously mentioned about events and courageous endeavours of various relatives long passed away.
So I added a comment of praise for my Grandfather whom I never got to meet, and was coldly and angrily shut down by my Mother for the interest and praise that I bestowed on him.
So these are the words that came out of her mouth which will NOT be forgotten.
And I quote…
”what’s that got to do with you, you’re not even of our blood and you never will be”….
Well you could of heard a pin drop at the table, and I turned to see my ex and her daughter’s mouth’s agape in horror.
This was the moment I found out what being an adopted son really meant to her. And a reminder that to her (at least) I will forever remain a virtual outsider.
Please, this was shared not to provoke pity, because I’m cognitively stronger and happier in life than she will ever be. Rather, it’s just my honest answer.
My family used to have a really bad problem with food thieves. My mom is a baker, so you can usually find some kind of pastry in my house.
When brownies, cakes, and other sweet treats started going missing in the middle of the night, my mom was LIVID. Of course, no one was going to admit to snacking on her stuff, so she found a scapegoat: Me.
Jackson! Why in the world would you eat my pastries!? You know that I was going to take some to work today, and now there aren’t enough! Go vacuum the house!
Despite my cries of denial and protest, I was forced to vacuum the house. Ugh.
I thought it was a one-time occurrence until it happened again. And again. I was repeatedly forced to vacuum the house. My mom was so convinced that it was me who was eating her pastries that she didn’t even bother looking further into it.
I didn’t know who it was, but I knew it wasn’t me.
I had a plan. I was going to stay up all night and catch whoever it was. I waited many a long hour, waiting to hear the rustle of Saran Wrap in the kitchen. Eventually I heard a faint crinkle, and I sprang into action. Lo and behold, my little brother Bennett standing in the kitchen stuffing his face full of Devil’s food cookies.
“I KNEW it was you!” I said.
“What?! Why are you in the kitchen eating cookies, Jackson!?” He replied.
Instantly, I knew what he was up to. He was going to try and tell our mom that I was the one eating cookies in the kitchen. There was no way I was going to vacuum the house again, so I ran down the hall to my parents’ bedroom. Bennett followed, hurriedly swallowing any remainder of cookie.
My mom is already waiting for us; awoken by the ruckus. Right away, Bennett and I start ranting about how the other had been in the kitchen eating cookies.
What Bennett hadn’t realized was that he had gotten chocolate on his face, and the truth was smudged all over his cheeks.
If there’s one thing that my mom hates even more than stealing, it’s lying and letting other people take the blame. I have a feeling that Bennett is going to be vacuuming the house for quite a while.
That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Slap Ya Mama Sweet and Spicy Pulled Pork Soft Tacos
Add a Louisiana twist to your tacos.
Ingredients
1 (5 to 7 pound) pork shoulder
1 whole onion, quartered
2 teaspoons Slap Ya Mama Original Seasoning
1 1/4 teaspoons Slap Ya Mama Hot Seasoning
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 garlic cloves peeled
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Taco size flour tortillas
Instructions
Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Rinse and dry pork roast and place in a Dutch oven.
In a food processor combine onion, Slap Ya Mama seasonings, brown sugar, garlic cloves, oregano, olive oil, and vinegar. Pulse until completely combined. Pour the mixture over the pork. Rub into all the nooks and crannies.
Add 1 1/2 cups water around the bottom of the pork roast, cover tightly and roast for at least 5 hours, turning over every hour. Check to make sure roast is fork tender, then shred the meat using two forks to help pull it apart. I kept the meat in the juices so it would stay moist.
Serve pork on warm flour tortillas and add your favorite toppings. I used our favorite salsa, shredded cheddar, sour cream, fresh diced tomatoes and it wouldn’t be the same without squeezing fresh lime wedges over the top!
I married a woman who is a crack shot with a 9mm handgun (you should see her targets, they’re impressive), almost always has at least two long knives on her, and keeps a crossbow in the kitchen cabinet (yes, I’m serious, no joke). Plus she’s fucking formidable in a fistfight.
Yes. Yes, this particular man very much likes women who can defend themselves.
I once had someone, hand to God, tell me, direct quote, “Franklin, control your women.” Know what I did? I laughed, that’s what I did.
You are right, this view is the same as what I saw.
All the Chinese people I interact with, without exception, say that China is an “underdeveloped country”.
It was already 2017 when I visited China for the first time.
The China I saw (at least the big cities I went to) was completely like a developed country, and many details even exceeded those of most developed countries.
At least in my mind, “underdeveloped countries” should at least be some like African countries, Bangladesh, or even India.
But China is nothing like these places.
They have unparalleled public transportation facilities, convenient cashless payment systems, the world’s widest urban roads, a spiderweb of highway networks, the world’s best high-speed railways, and the world’s most stylish airports.
When I was sick, their hospitals, although overcrowded, were still the most efficient I had ever seen. Their school is in good order. Shared bicycles can be seen everywhere on the streets, and express delivery and takeout are very fast.
There are all kinds of delicious food everywhere at night, it is very lively even in the early morning, and it is very safe.
Chinese people buy the most family cars and the most smartphones in the world every year.
In short, as far as I can see, I don’t see anything that looks like an “underdeveloped country”. Even when I go to a small village in Guizhou, what I see is clean and tidy, although there are not so many skyscrapers.
OK, I asked my Chinese friends with this question.
They always laughed and said to me: “What you said is true, but China is still an underdeveloped country.”
One person told me: “China will remain an underdeveloped country for at least 10,000 years.”
When I couldn’t understand their thoughts and needed further explanation, they would all mention one word invariably: “per capita data.”
I have nothing to say. Indeed, any huge achievements will be eclipsed by a population of 1.4 billion.
For example, per capita income is less than US$20,000
For example, the number of cars per capita
For example, the housing area per capita
For example, the number of doctors per capita
For example, the number of iPhones per capita
They will mention various data, various “numbers per capita”
One young man even mentioned the “number of aircraft carriers per capita” and “the number of nuclear weapons per capita” and then told me that China is the country with the weakest military power in the world. Of course, he meant “military power per capita.”
I think that in the eyes of the Chinese, until their “number per capita” catches up with the United States, they will feel that they are not an “underdeveloped country”.
If you think about it carefully, it seems that their logic is correct.
But every time I visit China and experience firsthand what Chinese society is like, I feel like something is wrong.
After my stroke I ended up in assisted living a few years.
The facility where I was sent was corrupt. They threatened residents and broke laws. So I called up the state ombudsman for assisted living facilities, and she told me many people had complained to her, but none would file a formal complaint because their name would be visible.
I told her if she would support me, I’d file a complaint.
Long story short, I got all kinds of retaliation. Part of it consisted of staff pilfering my personal belongings. The first time it happened, I installed a wifi security camera.
I got footage, and again, long story short, the executive director was fired, and had to pay to move me to another facility.
But one of the things pilfered was not replaceable. It was a silver thimble inlaid with abalone that belonged to my recently deceased mother (b 1921, this was about a decade ago). My mother was a dressmaker, and her father was a master tailor. She said I cut my teeth on thread.
The people who managed that place made my life hell for 18 months. I won, but I suffered losses.
Until last April, I would have said “kidney stones.”
Kidney stones are bad. I’ve now had them three times. The first time I had them, I woke up in the middle of the night with a sensation like someone shoving an ice pick in my lower back. It steadily escalated, growing worse and worse and worse until I could not stand up, could not even sit up, and ended up puking from the pain.
My wife at the time freaked out and called an ambulance[1]. When I got to the hospital, I was curled up on my side on the stretcher screaming in pain when this doctor came up to me and said, “On a scale from one to ten, how bad would you say the pain is?”
I was so incapacitated with agony that I couldn’t even answer his question, so he gave me a shot of Demerol and just like that, the pain was gone, as though someone had flipped a light switch.
That, I thought, was the worst pain I would ever experience.
I was wrong.
This past April, I was making a kettle of tea. The kitchen was a mess, with dishes stacked everywhere. A pot fell from a pile of dirty dishes and struck the kettle, knocking it onto my foot.
Boiling water burns are nasty.
The pain was blinding. I’ve never understood the phrase “blinding pain” before. I do now.
I ended up in the hospital again. I was unable to walk for about a month. My foot looked like a special effect from a zombie movie. I just barely avoided needing skin grafts, but I did end up making repeated trips to the burn clinic.
Burns are the worst. I don’t know if it’s physically possible for something to be worse than a burn.
[1] Because this was the United States, my insurance company ended up denying coverage for the ambulance ride on the grounds that kidney stones are not a bona fide medical emergency. That ambulance trip to the hospital ended up costing me more than a thousand dollars. America, hooah!
If there is unhappiness among Singapore’s wealthiest, then perhaps a bit of introspection could help. People falsely say that money is the root of all evil. They are misquoting a Bible verse that actually says, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Christian or not, surely most people can see the wisdom of those words. When a person works themselves silly so that they can keep up with the Jones’s they are bound to be unhappy. I’d wager those working themselves to the bone so their wives can keep up with Mrs. Jones are even more unhappy.
They say they do it for their families but how close is a family when all of the adults run themselves ragged working ungodly hours? When do they spend time together as a family? I don’t even mean this about Singapore, but in general! What is the point of children if you aren’t actively parenting them and watching them grow up? Maids and tutors get paid for the privilege of spending time with your children? I’m not saying it’s wrong to have a maid or hire a tutor, but if they get to spend more awake time with your child than you, then…why? I promise they’d rather have you than the things you can buy them by working long hours.
What good does it do to fill a bank account until you are too old to enjoy the fruits of your labors? What good does it do to work yourself into an early grave? Are those overtime hours worth the ulcers you’re nursing or the strain on your heart?
The job market is competitive in Singapore. If you don’t work overtime then your rival probably will. There’s this expectation that you should work long hours or you aren’t “hungry” enough. You can’t risk the foreign ex-pat stealing your job. But does it have to be that way? For a long time, the pioneer generation had to work without pause in order to build a country. But they did so hoping that this generation wouldn’t have to pay the high cost of happiness, balance, family time, and rest. Was their sacrifice for nothing? I know; I’m an outsider looking in.
You’ll say I don’t understand or that I’m too idealistic. Maybe. I might chalk it up to a difference between the Asian and Western worldviews colliding, but the Protestant West has had problems with work life balance as well. And I grew up in a family that never lacked for money, but I also never felt very loved by them either. I’d have given my eye teeth to have had a close knit family.
I would ask how many beds can you sleep in at once? How many houses can you live in at a time? How many cars can you drive at once, and do you even need to when Singapore has excellent public transport? Do you really need designer clothes, expensive watches, branded bags, exotic jewelry, or any of the other “ultra luxury” items you can think of? If those things bring you happiness, then by all means, work hard for those things. But I suspect those things don’t make people as happy as one might think if you are correct about those surveys among the wealthy.
I’m not against someone having wealth. I’m not against someone buying nice things. It’s not wrong to want to provide your family with the best you can give them. I’m not against someone living in nice homes or driving luxury cars. I’m not against sending your children to the best schools or leaving them an inheritance. But if you must sacrifice your peace of mind, your family time, your health, your mental health, or your rest in order to attain those things then perhaps reevaluating your life choices might be in order. I know this will be an unpopular opinion but nonetheless, it is my honest evaluation.
Why do you think it isn’t. It is so backward in so many matters. Education, social care, food, gun law. It is probably embarrassing to a lot of third world country to have America lumped in with them. At least they know what the problems with their country is. But American with its brainwashing, convinced their idiots they are the greatest country on earth.
New GM from the UK was bought in. He was there to get rid of people and make the business profitable. What is known in Australia as a “Toe Cutter.”
He flat out told me three things I will never forget:
“I hate how you are the only person in this company that doesn’t have to answer to me.” (My boss was in Canada)
“I’m going to micromanage you out of this business, any email you send for any reason I want you to BCC me in on the email.” (I stopped sending any emails and called everyone back when they emailed me.)
“Hey where are you going, SIT DOWN!”
Number three was the final straw. I turned back to him, whilst still standing I put my hands down on the table and leaned in towards him across the desk. “I’m not one of the your kids, and I’m not your fucken dog, don’t ever tell me to “Sit Down” again.”
When I was looking f or a house to buy, we looked at an old Victorian that I’d always liked the outside of. It was a magnificent hom,e. 3 stories plus a basement. Fine oak paneling in many rooms, wonderful fire place. In one of the upsatairs bedrooms, I opened what I assumed would be a closet…. it wasn’t. What it was was a dumbwaiter.. and still functional. I loved the house! But, it was above our price randge and they were not at all willing to negotiate. THe house had stood empty for quite some time and needed a lot of work, mostly cosmetic but still with the asking price and the work it was just too much for us. I’m still wistful about it whenever I pass by.
That happened to me once at a Mall. It wasnt my fault as I was centred in the parking slot. I went back in the Mall, went to a Dollar Store and bought a small tube of crazy glue, and went back out. I then proceeded to glue his wipers to his windshield. It was a sunny day, so the owner wouldnt even know. I still had to wait, and the driver on my passenger side came out first, so I got in that side and drove away, smiling and hoping for rain soon.
Yes, I can be a vengeful prick.
American Woman In Thailand Found Out That Average MEN Are WINNING Overseas. She Was Shocked.
“I am a 43 year old man. I dated a 41 year old post wall woman for a few months, who had lived in Thailand for half a year when she was young. She stated that getting an Asian woman was no achievement for a (western) man. But apparently dating a post wall (western) woman is an achievement.. from her point of view. She was also miserable and boring, so our relationship ended quickly. My new girlfriend is from Philippines, she’s 25 year old, kind and feminine. Guess which is more fun..”
For the same reason people who aren’t famous take drugs, that sometimes even lead to their deaths.
See, here’s the thing. For a lot of people, drugs aren’t a problem. Drugs are a solution to a problem.
The problem is emotional pain, or depression, or physical pain, or loneliness, or alienation, or trauma.
A lot of folks look at famous, successful people and say, “Look at everything he has! If I had all those things, I’d surely be happy!”
No. No, you wouldn’t, at least not necessarily. Money above what you need to be comfortable doesn’t create happiness. Fame doesn’t create happiness.
In fact, sometimes fame does the opposite. When lots of people know who you are, but don’t really know you, that can create alienation and loneliness.
Not just for the obvious reason that you can never tell if someone is interested in you for who you are, or for your wealth and fame. It’s more subtle than that. You end up in this weird twilight land where people know you (or think they do), maybe have followed your life in the media for a long time, and so they feel a connection with you. But that connection is totally one-sided. You’re this important person to them, but they’re a total stranger to you.
Sociologists call this “parasociality.” It’s really weird and unsettling. It can be deeply, profoundly alienating.
Point is, it’s often pain that leads to drug use, and famous, successful people are no more immune to pain than anyone else.
In my early twenties and spending a couple of weeks with a friend who lived directly on the beach in Venice, California. I was alone in the apartment when a man broke in. He made his way to the bedroom, where I was standing, looking out the sliding glass doors that opened on to the balcony that oversaw Ocean Front Walk and the beach.
When I was a preteen, more or less, my father took my brother and me to his Aikido classes and we eventually had our own little class with the teacher’s son or nephew. I liked it and was not bad at it.
So this guy comes barreling over to me while saying something nasty and reaching out to grab me with one arm. Without thinking at all, I responded with an Aikido move that I had learned as a kid. Along with my partner inertia, I ended up throwing the guy over my shoulder and over the balcony wall.
When the first responders came, he was unconscious, supine on Ocean Front Walk.
One Night Stands: if that is your goal. Plan to get rejected a lot, to put a ton of work in.
Plan on getting really drunk, and having bad sex with someone you’ll probably regret having sex with.
Side Chicks (dudes): a moment’s pleasure, the rush of something new, will quickly be replaced by the persisting paranoia of being caught and the shitty feeling of having cheated on your partner.
Expensive Weddings: just don’t. You aren’t royalty. It puts a lot of pressure on you both for the event and the marriage. And if things don’t work out, those expensive pictures will end up in a drawer anyway.
Marriage*: often – this is rushed. Make sure you know the person. It will make it much harder to leave and you’ll end up wasting your best years because you felt too ashamed to get divorced.
*if it is right – marry the hell out of them.
Trying to persuade someone to like you: love/romance should happen organically, not as a product of you having to oversell (beg) someone to be into you.
A Shot of booze after midnight (or last call): It’s time to start drinking water as soon as PM turns to AM. Otherwise you are just signing yourself up for a massive hangover.
Staying up late: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Turn off the TV. Get some sleep.
Doing it later: nothing in this world destroys more potential than procrastination
Stop it before it stops you. Do it now.
Shiny Objects: Fancy cars, big diamonds, they will be fun for a moment. But you’ll quickly find that feeling fading.
And you’ll quickly learn that “Looking Rich” is a very expensive hobby.
Insurance/ “assurance” Plans: outside of health insurance and car insurance, avoid insurance like the plague. They are designed to be high-profit services for companies. (Now – if you buy something that you plan to use the shit out of, consider insurance.)
Warranties: same as above.
Self-Criticism: let it go. No self-haunting. Criticize yourself once and then correct the behavior. Don’t become your own ghost.
Driving your car fast to impress friends: I know people who are in wheelchairs for life because of this.
Appeasing your parents: you pick your own career – not them. Listen – but don’t become “Project Redo” for their own life.
Credit Cards Debt: avoid avoid avoid. Only use credit cards to build your credit score. If you don’t have stable income, you could end up being saddled with debt collection calls for decades.
Yelling/Hitting/Throwing – there are other ways to resolve disputes with your significant other. Nothing good comes of those things.
Excessive Pills: if you have clinical depression – I don’t discourage you from medicating – do it.
But remember – there is an over-medication problem, in the US and elsewhere. Don’t be another person taking a cocktail of pills every night. Address the underlying problem if you can.
Expensive Colleges: you don’t have to spend all four years at a $30K per year school. There are other options. $120K will be a monster to re-pay. And for god’s sakes – study something that will give you a job of some type. It doesn’t have to be engineering. But make it something.
Arguing with people on Quora: you won’t be turning anyone. You are wasting keystrokes and probably just signing yourself up for a moderation violation.
Winning an Argument: does winning this argument serve a purpose? Or does it serve your ego?
The USA has entered the twilight zone
Strange: U.S. Announces “Ohio-class Submarine has entered CENTCOM Area of Responsibility”
The United States has strangely announced that “An Ohio-Class Submarine has entered the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility. What makes this announcement strange is they didn’t identify WHICH ONE.
It makes a Gigantic difference.
There are, at present, eighteen (18) Ohio-Class Submarines. Fourteen (14) of those carry TRIDENT II nuclear missiles with Eight (8) independently-targetable warheads each. That means that EACH submarine has 160 nuclear warheads.
Four of those Ohio-class submarines (USS Ohio, USS Florida, USS Michigan, and USS Georgia) carry 154 Tomahawk (Land-attack) Cruise missiles, each.
So, the big question on everyone’s mind right now is, WHICH “Ohio-Class” submarine just arrived in CENTCOM’s Area of Responsibility? Nuke or non-nuke?
HT REMARK:Things over there in the Middle East are growing more dangerous by the hour. This situation between Israel and HAMAS has “Disaster” written all over it; and not merely for Israel/HAMAS, but for the entire region and maybe even the entire world.
Whatever is coming is apparently HUGE! At about 4:00 PM eastern STANDARD Time (GMT-0500) here in the USA, the Israeli Defense Force put out a message on social media that they have **NEVER** put out before: “Pray for us.” It’s all over social media right now . . .
UPDATE 7:35 AM EST MONDAY —
I have been told the submarine is the USS Florida, and SSGN as opposed to an SSBN. The G stands for Guided Missile and is the type of submarine armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
(Breathing a sigh of relief . . . .)
Men Made a List of Women to NEVER DATE!
“As a American Black woman and single mother of a young adult son; I’m actually not mad at this list Good for them for clapping back at this foolishness!”
“Basically, to sum up, modern dating for young people these days is pure hell.”
“Lord these gender wars between men and women especially in the black community is quite entertaining sometimes but ultimately just down right sad, smh.”
“I am actually shocked “plus-size” or obese are not on that list.”
“On a recent “Girls Trip” to Miami it was either 5 or 6 females all went there together and they all came home preggers and none of them know who the fathers are… MTR recently covered this story.”
I was actually a customer. I could see the massive massive queue and the flames reflected off the walls and the panicky slamming of woks from just how busy it was.
They couldn’t cope. I saw the old man who looked like a thinner version of my dad overwhelmed when he brought out a tray of food.
I said to her in my finest Hakka do you need some help? The old lady on the counter looked up and was what? How do you know how to speak Hakka? I thought you were a tai look lau… (Mainland Chinese). Short argument, wife (on the counter) says no, husband says ok. I go in and he’s looking after 5 Chinese cookers by himself just like my dad used to do. I help them out for an hour, turns out their sons had gone on holiday. Business dies down and we share a few cans of special brew.
He was a man from Yuen Long and had moved in the 1970s.
It was an interview a few years ago when we still had to go into the office to attend. My interviewer was a young man, dandy. The interview started by him introducing himself as the ‘Best PM of the year’ at the company and currently working in the BigData department (BigData back a few years ago was similar to AI today, everyone talks about it and everyone claims doing it). And he said he would be my boss if I happened to ‘make it’.
The interview went just fine; some technical questions I was able to answer. Then he looked at my resume and asked if I was a teacher because I claimed in the resume that I did teaching. I said I’d prefer to be called a ‘trainer’ more than a ‘teacher’. Then he asked, ‘Teach me something. Better something interesting and something I don’t know about.’ I said, ‘Ok, I will teach you how to bake a cake.’ Then I got into my ‘teaching mode’ (I always think that we need to teach things with enthusiasm to draw interest from learners), and proceeded to talk about ‘baking is like doing science, we need to be precise.’ Then I told him the two biggest tips for baking a good cake: 1. Always prepare the pan before starting to prepare the batter, and 2. Even if the recipe doesn’t call for salt, a pinch of salt would kick the flavor to the next level.
He stopped me, and he went, ‘Jezz! You talk a lot. Really a lot. You don’t need to pretend to be a college professor here.’ I heard that and replied, ‘Oh, yeah, sorry. I don’t always talk that much to everyone.’ He smirked, ‘I’m special, huh? Well, I’m flattered, but you know sweet talk wouldn’t get you the job.’ I smiled, ‘Oh, no. I meant, to smart students, I never have to talk that much.’ His smirk dropped, and he told me the interview was over.
I didn’t get the job, have never seen him again, so I haven’t got a chance to ask him if he has ever tried to bake a cake?
My Aunt backed into my parked car. She came into the house and insisted that I pay for the damage. It was my fault that I was parked where she needed to drive. I told her that my insurance company would only cover the expense if she called the cops and filed a police report. They needed the report for the claim. She called the police who came out to investigate. She told them what happened. They came in to question me. Their first question was “is she for real?”
Welcome to my world.
I wouldn’t fuck you
You can hear the amount of disappointment in her voice when she asked him why. It was like her soul just got snatched.
I worked in a factory in a second level management position. I loved the job, worked hard, and was well paid. It was not unusual for me to be at work on Saturdays. I just did it-I was not expected to.
Well the operations manager called me into his office, and told me he wanted me to work every Saturday. I said that I was generally there on Saturdays, but didn’t like the demand he was making. I asked it I would get additional pay. He said no, and reminded me there were 2 people who refused to work on Saturdays, that we no longer here. I looked at him, and said “well now there are 3”! I walked out of his office, gathered up my personal stuff and left!
About 3 weeks later, he was fired! Did my heart good!
As any decent person would do, I walked up to her and I noticed 3 young children in the car so I knew I needed to act fast since it was a little chilly that evening, I proceeded to ask if she needed some help and she said “yes sir that would be great”.
I opened her trunk and to my astonishment, she had a spare tire but no jack to lift the car up with …. so since we were at walmart, I went and purchased a jack to change the tire on her car.
After about an hour, she and the 3 young children were on thier merry way.
My phone rang as soon as I got back in my car and a child I mentor called me to tell me about his day at school and he asked “what are you doing?” I told him “I was helping a lady with her car”.
He replied with “why?”
I responded “You’re never too important to be nice to people”.
I was riding my horse on a trail that went through a kind of alley between the back yards of very expensive homes in a very upscale development.
The houses all had fences that were about 8 feet high, solid cinderblock. If you went walking down that trail, you wouldn’t be able to see into anyone’s yard.
But when you’re on the back of a horse, you could see over the fences into people’s yards.
There weren’t a lot of people who rode their horses down that particular trail, especially on Monday through Friday. It was usually very quiet.
So I was riding my horse there, on the way back from a long trail ride. I was riding at a walk, and because the trail was thickly covered with wood bark and chips, my horse didn’t make any noise.
As we went down the trail, I heard a rhythmic creak-creak-creak kind of sound. Not loud, but unusual enough that I started looking for the source. (When you’re trail riding on a horse, you stay aware of what’s going on around you, because there are a lot of things that can cause a horse to freak out.)
The sound grew louder as we got closer, and I finally saw the source.
A man and a woman were having sex on a trampoline in one of the yards adjoining the trail. Butt naked and in their own little world. Creak-creak-creak went the trampoline…
They saw me about the same time I saw them. I raised my dressage whip, which I carried on trail rides to sweep spiderwebs that crossed the trail away, saluted them, and kicked my horse into a fast canter and scrammed out of there.
I took my car for its annual safety inspection. The mechanic came out and told me that it had failed for three reasons. First, the front bumper was detaching. Second, the little light above the license plate was burned out. Last, the windshield washer wasn’t working. He suggested that I go to an auto parts shop and get the replacement bulb and also see if they had the right clips to reattach the bumper, or otherwise perhaps I could improvise something, but that I should bring it back to have them fix the windshield washer pump because it’s not easy to get to that so I probably couldn’t replace it myself.
I said to him, “Yeah, I’m going to go the parts store, thanks. But I know for a fact that the washer was working fine less than ten minutes before you took the car into the garage, because I washed the windshield while I was driving over. Look carefully, and you can even see the streaks. It rained this morning and that would have washed away any older streaks.”
I went to the parts store, got the bulb and the clips, and then went home, popped the hood, and activated the washer. A stream of water sprayed over the hood and onto the roof of the car. So, the pump was obviously working fine. What was the problem? After some poking around, I determined that the hose from the pump was simply disconnected. It wasn’t an easy reach, but I managed to reconnect it.
When I took it back to the shop to get my inspection sticker, I said “Y’know, it’s pretty amazing that that it would detach itself like that. It’s almost as if someone yanked on it while nobody was looking, sometime during the ten minutes between the time I used the washer while driving over and the time you pulled it into the garage.”
We were going to China on a trip to visit Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xian. At the New Delhi airport, there was a group of Chinese tourists who were returning to China after visiting India. They were asked to fill some forms and were struggling to fill it in English. One of them requested me, and i happily obliged. Soon there was a small line of Chinese tourists getting there forms filled by me. I didn’t mind as flight was not leaving for next 2 hours.
We reached Beijing and realised that the hotel cab that was supposed to pick us up, was nowhere to be seen. We tried calling and the hotel reception, but they did not had an English speaking staff in the night. For the people who have not visited China, you should know that Hotel has different address and names written in Chinese and English. If you are not carrying Chinese name and address, its very difficult to ask for directions. New to China, we felt stuck and helpless at Airport.
Soon we saw the entire group of tourists i had helped. Seeing me and my wife they waved and asked if we need any help. They immediately made a call to the hotel reception and explained the situation in Chinese. They also waited untill our cab from hotel arrived at Airport.
I really believe that was one act of kindness that was immediately returned back to me as an instant karma!
Because what’s socially acceptable is based on social convention, and social convention is rarely rational.
Society has declared that bikinis are public wear and underthings are private wear that must always have something over them. That’s it. The fact they both reveal the same amount of skin isn’t relevant.
Often, what’s socially acceptable is about what’s common. That which you see in public becomes accepted; that which you don’t, doesn’t. Society doesn’t do consistency checking with each individual thing; that’s not how people work.
A student got sassy with a teacher about a grade and the teacher kicked him out of the room. The student grabbed a pencil and stabbed the assistant teacher in the room. Just in the hand, but still.
So the teacher goes rage mode and physically marches the student down to the deans office. Everyone is initially furious at the student, he’ll be expelled for sure. Assistant teacher is shaken but fine.
Daddy was a big donor to the school and the kid was on the state championship bound Football team. Daddy argued with the school, who reverses the expulsion and instead fires the teacher for “laying hands on a student.”
There were walk outs, several other teachers quit, the local news picked it up, the whole nine yards. Nothing changed. The school kept the little asshole to keep Daddy happy and fired a very, very good teacher.
For me it was my mother. I was told constantly how pretty I was. My little sister was told how smart she was. The message we received was that I wasn’t smart and my sister wasn’t pretty.
Upon graduating high school I was told I didn’t need to go to college because I was pretty and would always have a man to take care of me. My sister went to college (she graduated high school at age 16).
Instead of college, I became a stewardess. It was a great job and I don’t regret it at all. But at age 40, I decided I wanted to go college after all. I graduated with a degree in Accounting and a 3.9 GPA.
It took me that long to find out I was smart.
Congratulations! China develops world’s first super all-analog photoelectronic chip
Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University have developed an all-analog photoelectronic chip that can process computer vision tasks with greater speed and energy efficiency than existing chips, marking the first of its kind in the world.
The research team’s findings, which provide an alternative to existing technologies based around analogue-to-digital conversion, have been published in the journal Nature.
In the new study, the researchers designed an integrated photoelectronic processor to harness the advantages of both light, in the form of photons, and electrons, as found in electric currents, in an all-analog way. The result is called an “all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing,” or ACCEL.
Tests showed that ACCEL is able to recognize and classify objects with a degree of accuracy comparable to those of digital neural networks. Furthermore, it classifies high-resolution images of various scenes of daily life more than 3,000 times faster and with 4,000,000 times less energy consumption than a top-of-the-line graphics processing unit (GPU).
Analog and digital signals are two types of signals carrying information. Analog signals vary continuously, as with the rays of light forming an image, while digital signals are non-continuous, as with binary numbers.
In vision-based computing tasks like image recognition and object detection, signals from the environment are analog, and they need to be converted into digital signals for processing by AI neural networks, systems trained to recognize patterns and relationships in a data set.
However, the analog-to-digital conversion is time- and energy-consuming, limiting the speed and efficiency of the neural network’s performance. Photonic computing, which uses analog light signals, is one of the most promising approaches to addressing the issue.
“We maximized the advantages of light and electricity under all-analog signals, avoiding the drawbacks of analog-to-digital conversion and breaking the bottleneck of power consumption and speed,” said Fang Lu, a researcher from the Tsinghua team.
A review by Nature editors said that the team had minimized the need for energetically costly analog-to-digital converters. “This refreshing and pragmatic approach to artificial-intelligence hardware that is highly energy efficient makes the most out of both electronic and photonic computing technologies,” it said.
Fang noted that the advantage of ultra-low power will help improve the heating problem of chip scaling, and it has the potential to bring breakthroughs in the future design of chips.
Dai Qionghai, director of the School of Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, said that the team has developed a prototype chip, and will work toward making a general-purpose artificial intelligence chip for a broader range of applications.
Sizzling Shrimp Po’ Boys with Blueberry Remoulade
Prep: 20 min | Cook: 15 to 20 min | Yield: 4 sandwiches
In another medium bowl, stir cornmeal, flour, Old Bay and salt.
To the milk mixture, add shrimp, a few at a time, to coat. Remove one shrimp, allow excess liquid to drain off, and roll in the cornmeal mixture to coat well.
Place on a plate or rack. Repeat to coat all the shrimp.
Meanwhile, pour oil 1-inch deep, into a large saucepan; over medium-high heat, heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Gently place 4 to 6 shrimp in the hot oil and fry until golden and crispy on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes; drain on paper towels.
Repeat to fry all the shrimp, adding more oil, if needed.
To serve, spread rolls with Blueberry Remoulade, add lettuce and top with shrimp.
When I was in college, I went to visit my father in Erie, Pennsylvania. I rode my motorcycle to visit him, and parked it outside. I didn’t get along with his wife (my step-mother) and went inside.
On that day, my step-mother was visited by her older brother. He brought his two sons. They were slightly younger that myself, being in High School.
Now, while I was inside with my father, those two kids poured bubble liquid into my motorcycle gas tank. Laughed about it. And of course, the action truly busted up my motorcycle.
…
Sigh.
Anyways… the entire family claimed that “I deserved it” as I didn’t have a lock on my gas tank. Not even remotely true, but I had to grit and take it.
Went without a motorcycle for about a month, while my bike was fixed.
It sucked, but those little snits were able to get away with it.
I swallowed and took it.
…
Sometimes due to situations, you take the hits.
You walk away.
It does not mean that you are weak. It’s just a pothole that you must endure. You learn from it.
My future ex-wife didn’t like Navy life. She met a fellow at work who was a year or two younger, was decent looking, had a new Corvette and a line of shit as long as your arm. She asked me to move out while she “got her head screwed on straight”. A week later, she filed for divorce, and moved in with Mr. Wonderful. “We don’t have anything in common, and you don’t have anything I want”, she said. (Oh, OK). In California it takes 6 months for a no-fault divorce, but both parties must have a financial settlement on the table in order to proceed to “final”. She dragged her heels all the way, saying “no, no, no” to every settlement I put forward, but finally we hammered it out after 8+ months. About 4 months later, she called. “Let’s be friends. We have so much in common.” (Mr. Wonderful wasn’t so wonderful any longer).
I said, “We tried that for 10 years. I didn’t like the way things worked out”.
Strange “Coincidence?” Hong Kong Flu Re-Emerges from 1968 — in far eastern Russia
The first case of Hong Kong Flu since the 1968-69 “pandemic” has emerged in the Sakhalin Region of far eastern Russia.
1968 flu pandemic, also called Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968 or Hong Kong flu of 1968, global outbreak of influenza that originated in China in July 1968 and lasted until 1969–70.
The outbreak was the third influenza pandemic to occur in the 20th century; it followed the 1957 flu pandemic and the influenza pandemic of 1918–19. The 1968 flu pandemic resulted in an estimated one million to four million deaths, far fewer than the 1918–19 pandemic, which caused between 25 million and 50 million deaths.
The 1968 pandemic was initiated by the emergence of a virus known as influenza A subtype H3N2. It is suspected that this virus evolved from the strain of influenza that caused the 1957 pandemic.
Although the 1968 flu outbreak was associated with comparatively few deaths worldwide, the virus was highly contagious, a factor that facilitated its rapid global dissemination. Indeed, within two weeks of its emergence in July in Hong Kong, some 500,000 cases of illness had been reported, and the virus proceeded to spread swiftly throughout Southeast Asia.
Within several months it had reached the Panama Canal Zone and the United States, where it had been taken overseas by soldiers returning to California from Vietnam.
By the end of December the virus had spread throughout the United States and had reached the United Kingdom and countries in western Europe.
Australia, Japan, and multiple countries in Africa, eastern Europe, and Central and South America were also affected. The pandemic occurred in two waves, and in most places the second wave caused a greater number of deaths than the first wave.
The 1968 flu pandemic caused illness of varying degrees of severity in different populations. For example, whereas illness was diffuse and affected only small numbers of people in Japan, it was widespread and deadly in the United States.
Infection caused upper respiratory symptoms typical of influenza and produced symptoms of chills, fever, and muscle pain and weakness. These symptoms usually persisted for between four and six days.
The highest levels of mortality were associated with the most susceptible groups, namely infants and the elderly. Although a vaccine was developed against the virus, it became available only after the pandemic had peaked in many countries.
The H3N2 virus that caused the 1968 pandemic is still in circulation today and is considered to be a strain of seasonal influenza. In the 1990s a closely related H3N2 virus was isolated from pigs. Scientists suspect that the human H3N2 virus jumped to pigs; infected animals may show symptoms of swine flu.
Russia now reports The first case of Hong Kong flu was recorded in the Sakhalin region, according to the website of the regional Rospotrebnadzor
According to the department, the virus is characterized by rapid and sharp development of infection, which lasts a long time and often requires symptomatic treatment. The infection affects the mucous membrane of the nasal cavity and oropharynx, causing inflammatory processes.
Yes. I know a guy who is an accountant. Imagine the geekiest-looking accountant that you have ever seen in your life. Coke bottle glasses, nerdy clothing, white as a sheet. He and his wife were walking down a street in Hollywood, just two nerds out for a stroll. Perfect targets for any street hoodlum. Sure enough some two-bit street thug stepped out in front of the two with a cocky self-assured grin and a knife in his hand, and he ordered them to give him all their money.
Quick as a flash, the accountant grabbed the guy’s wrist which held the knife, gave it a turn, and literally flipped the guy over, breaking his arm in the process. While the guy lay there screaming , the accountant looked down and asked the guy if he wanted some more. The guy just kept screaming, so the accountant let him go and walked on with his wife.
Okay. The backstory on this accountant was that he grew up on a Midwestern pig farm with five older brothers. From the time he was 8 years old he had to carry 50 lb buckets of feed every morning before school. After school he had to work the farm until it was time to go in, do his homework and go to bed. His older brothers were mean. When they weren’t fighting with each other, or getting beaten up by their dad, they were picking on this guy. As a result of his upbringing this guy developed skeletal muscle strength which is hardly ever seen these days. Not only that, he learned to fight guys that were just as tough as he was and who were all bigger.
I have seen this guy working on his own house knocking down walls with a sledgehammer held in one hand. I’ve even seen him lift the front of one car off the bumper of another during a minor fender-bender. To say this guy was strong was an understatement.
He managed to conduct his life in a very civilized manner. He was a great musician and a very talented writer as well, but I have seen more than one guy step out of line around him, and watch The Farm Boy come out. When that happened it usually didn’t take more than a look for everyone to start behaving better.
I was 18 and my girlfriend had committed suicide. I went to my dad and told him what happened. At this point my stepmother and I were at odds, always fighting and never getting along. This had been going on for years. My dad knew this and told her to lay off. The moment my dad left for work, she comes in my room and says that I deserved what happened and that it was my fault she killed herself. I was shocked. I packed my bags and left the same day. I had had enough. I called my dad and told him what happened and that I was leaving.
I haven’t spoken to her since and I don’t want to.
Boudin
Boudin is one of the most famous Cajun recipes. This excellent version has no liver. This is a great dish to make and it freezes well. Many people cut the casing off the boudin before eating it. This dish is a good one to learn because once you have mastered its preparation you can use almost anything in the place of the pork. Some of the most popular are chicken, shrimp, crabmeat and crayfish. Bread is a traditional but not as good replacement for the rice.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds lean pork, minced
2 onions, chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 bay leaves
2 cups water (approximately)
3 cups rice, cooked
20 inch long sausage casings
Instructions
Put pork into a pot along with the onions, bell pepper, parsley, garlic and seasonings. Add just enough water to meet the level of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the cooked rice. Adjust seasonings if necessary.
Tie the 4 sausage casings at one end and stuff them with the mixture. Twist each 20-inch length into three equal lengths. Tie open end.
The boudin can be cooked covered in a little water, grilled or pan fried in a little butter.
I had a manager who said exactly this this to me. He dismissed all my solutions out of hand, as they might cost money. This was a guy who a. stuck me in an office where I couldn’t work, as it wasn’t safe for me to be alone in a building with mental health clients, without an emergency alarm. He refused to install an alarm and so I had to go to work every day for a year with no work to do. Less than a week’s salary would have paid for an alarm. B. He rented and paid for the complete outfitting of an office for the family therapists, with a cctv and so on, despite them telling him it wasn’t suitable. The office reminded unused, the equipment was stolen and replaced TWICE, and they never moved in, in the end -as it just wasn’t suitable.
Come to me with solutions, was complete and utter bullshit from beginning to end.
The only reason I stayed, was it was a permanent and pensionable job, and I was a skint single parent.
We were overjoyed when he retired. I was still so angry with him years later as he’d made my life a misery for so long that I couldn’t attend his funeral. And if you’re Irish, you’ll realise what a big huge bloody deal that is.
Golden spending rule: If you can’t afford two of it, you can’t afford it.
When you’re thinking about buying something you don’t necessarily need, imagine the item in one hand and the cash in the other. Which one would you take?
If you have trouble choosing, flip a coin. While you’re waiting to get the result, your mind automatically starts to wish for what it wants. Then you can choose easily.
Honey does not go bad; if it has gone solid it has just crystallized and can become liquid again with just a little heat.
If you put something down temporarily, say out loud “I’ve put the screwdriver by the microwave” or whatever.
Read the three and four star reviews for the most reliable information on Amazon items.
When moving house, always set up your bedroom/ make the bed first so when you’re exhausted and just had enough you can fall into bed. Nothing worse than being exhausted and having to make the bed before getting into it
If there’s a jar or container you can’t open, run the lid under hot water for about 30sec. Dry it so you can get a good grip, then open. It really works.
Secretaries, tech support, and janitors are the true power in an office. Make friends with them and you’ll be able to get anything you need!
When a friend is upset, ask him one simple question before saying anything else: “Do you want to talk about it or do you want to distract from it? ”
It is important to know when to stop arguing with people, and simply let them be wrong.
If someone offers you something you want, take it. Don’t decline every kind of offer out of politeness.
Bingo truths
The male and female struggle in the United States (West) is REAL.
Many years ago I was visiting one particular North Sea Oil Production Platform as a consultant employed by a specialist contractor. On arrival onboard the platform all the people from the helicopter, who were not regular crew, were directed to heli administration and informed we could not leave without watching a safety briefing video. Some six or seven of us settled down while the helicopter clerk loaded the video player and pressed play.
I was hot and tiered from the early check-in and the long flight. I dozed off after about ten minutes watching the video. I must have been asleep for about five minutes before the clerk noticed. He practically slapped me awake and proceeded to scream in my face. He accused me of being stupid and having a death wish, which was justified, but then began to scream insults and to question my parentage which was far too much.
When he eventually asked if I considered it beneath my dignity to absorb information designed to save my life and did I regard myself above listening to the video that I lost my temper. I stood up without saying a word and marched to the front of the room. I stood next to the video screen and quietly asked him to look at the screen himself.
I will never forget the expression on that man’s face as it dawned on him that it was me appearing on the screen giving the safety briefing. He looked from my face on the video screen to my face standing next to the screen and back to the video just as if he was watching a tennis match. He turned bright red and stuttered an apology.
When I sat down to watch the rest of the briefing he sat at the rear of the room and chewed his finger nails worrying if his job was safe. When the video finished and everyone else had left the room I let him know that he had been correct in chastising me but to tone down his language if anything similar happened in the future.
The War Is Lost – Zelenski Will Leave – The White House Has Failed
That offensive has proceeded at an excruciating pace and with enormous losses, making it ever more difficult for Zelensky to convince partners that victory is around the corner. With the outbreak of war in Israel, even keeping the world’s attention on Ukraine has become a major challenge.
Quoting a soldier on the front of the counter-offensive, the Economistagrees:
“Left Handed”, an infantryman fighting at the front between Robotyne and Verbove, says Ukrainian losses have increased to alarming levels, in part due to the work of drones. The plains of Zaporizhia have turned their back on life, he says. “It’s hellish. Corpses, the smell of corpses, death, blood and fear. Not a whiff of life, just the stench of death.” Those in units such as his own had more chance of dying than surviving. “Seventy-thirty. Some don’t even see their first battle.”
But his convictions haven’t changed. Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace.
On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. “He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”
Zelensky’s stubbornness, some of his aides say, has hurt their team’s efforts to come up with a new strategy, a new message. As they have debated the future of the war, one issue has remained taboo: the possibility of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians. Judging by recent surveys, most Ukrainians would reject such a move, especially if it entailed the loss of any occupied territory.
The war is lost. They know it. But they are unwilling to give up.
Zelenski’s people put the blame everywhere but on the those who have caused the mess. It was the ‘victory’ messaging by Zelenski and his crew that has led the public into utter complacency.
Strategically, Ukraine is losing the war because of the inadequate perception of the situation by society.
This opinion was expressed by the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmitry Kukharchuk in an interview with Channel Five.
He claims that at the beginning of the war, all Ukrainians were ready to defend the country, there were many volunteers. But after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev, the situation changed.
“Immediately after that, I noticed that there were theses in the media that we are fighting with homeless people, that the Russian army does not know how to fight, that in principle victory will be in a week or two, a maximum of a month. That first in the spring, then in the summer, then in the autumn, then in the winter, without specifying which winter, we will go to the Crimea. That the victory is basically victorious. So people were put in a warm bathroom. We have broken down the vision of reality. But it didn’t happen in Russia. They began to realize that the war was not going to be easy for them. They realized that they would have to fight for a long time, ” Kukharchuk believes.
He also says that the Russians are “getting stronger” every day, and if Ukraine really fought the “degenerates”, it would have defeated them long ago.
“That’s why we’re losing. They have these processes going on, and their public readiness is much higher than that of our society. And when they talk about a nuclear bomb, a war of all against all, for some reason it seems to me that they are ready for these processes, ” the battalion commander added.
Napoleon, Hitler and several other folks who had sought war with Russia, had to learn to never underestimate the depth of its resources. Now NATO, the U.S. and its European proxies, are learning that lesson.
The cold will also make military advances more difficult, locking down the front lines at least until the spring. But Zelensky has refused to accept that. “Freezing the war, to me, means losing it,” he says. Before the winter sets in, his aides warned me to expect major changes in their military strategy and a major shake-up in the President’s team. At least one minister would need to be fired, along with a senior general in charge of the counteroffensive, they said, to ensure accountability for Ukraine’s slow progress at the front. “We’re not moving forward,” says one of Zelensky’s close aides. Some front-line commanders, he continues, have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the office of the President. “They just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line,” he says. “But we can’t win a war that way.”
When I raised these claims with a senior military officer, he said that some commanders have little choice in second-guessing orders from the top. At one point in early October, he said, the political leadership in Kyiv demanded an operation to “retake” the city of Horlivka, a strategic outpost in eastern Ukraine that the Russians have held and fiercely defended for nearly a decade. The answer came back in the form of a question: With what? “They don’t have the men or the weapons,” says the officer. “Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?”
In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”
Since the start of the invasion, Ukraine has refused to release official counts of dead and wounded. But according to U.S. and European estimates, the toll has long surpassed 100,000 on each side of the war. It has eroded the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces so badly that draft offices have been forced to call up ever older personnel, raising the average age of a soldier in Ukraine to around 43 years. “They’re grown men now, and they aren’t that healthy to begin with,” says the close aide to Zelensky. “This is Ukraine. Not Scandinavia.”
The Ukraine’s old problems, foremost corruption, persist:
Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
Knowing that the ship is sinking, this its probably what I would do too. Bring anything available onto my personal life raft and prepare for cutting its lines to the mother ship.
The Time piece is a signal. It announces the end of Zelenski’s regime. I am sure that the National Security Council, as well as the State Department, is feverishly looking for an alternative – and for a face saving way to install it.
Someone seems to protect and promote Alexey Arestovich for exactly that purpose (machine translation):
After leaving the Presidential Office with a scandal in January 2023, Arestovich, although he began to criticize the actions of the authorities, nevertheless did it carefully until recently.
But right now, he’s just slamming the ruling team.
Arestovich focuses on two things: the military decisions of the country’s leadership and its domestic policy. … The second version: Arestovich enlisted the support of Americans who want to see more political diversity in Ukraine and are not interested in Zelensky’s monopolization of power.
In favor of this version, they also use the fact mentioned above that the tightening of the rhetoric of the ex-adviser to the president’s Office began after his trip to the United States. Also in this regard, they recall his interview with Gordon in early October, where he says that if the West decides to end the war without reaching the borders of 1991 and Zelensky resists this, then the president of Ukraine will be “changed” in the elections. … “It is possible that Arestovich is supported by a certain part of the Western elites, who care about the breadth of opinions in Ukraine. They say that the country can speak not only with Zelensky’s voice, but there are also different critical opinions, ” political analyst Ruslan Bortnik comments to Strana.
In its grand strategy the White House had sought to pivot to Asia. But the U.S. is – first in Ukraine, in a completely unnecessary conflict the U.S. itself has caused, and, with Gaza in flames, again in the Middle East.
I was hesitant to write this as it is somewhat personal but it might be therapeutic, I’ve already shared so much and I suppose I can without naming anyone:
I went on my partner’s laptop and stumbled across a strange message on her Facebook browser that made me scrunch my eyes —strange.
It was pictures of my partner with another family I didn’t know.
She was holding a guy’s toddler, standing (closely) next to him, and his parents behind them, and she had no wedding ring. Behind them was the Disney Castle.
The direct message was from a woman (his sister) that said “___ told me not to post these on Facebook because things were complicated.”
That was the moment—my eyes widened and I realized something was amiss. “… things were complicated?!?!?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture. That part fucked me up.
Many of you are in relationships. Just imagine the person you love, that you might be sitting next to right now, suddenly appearing in a picture at a theme park (like the above) with another family, “with” someone else. Nobody in that picture you recognize. And everyone appearing to be very familiar with each other.
It would mind fuck you pretty hard, too.
And the more I dug into it, the worse it got.
It was a full-blown affair.
It caused an avalanche on the relationship.
You feel this rush of fury at having been lied to. You are disgusted with the person. You suddenly see all the pieces to the puzzle coming together in your mind, the nights “out with the girls” and “crashing at a friend’s house,” and all the strange subtle behaviors you’d been blind to.
“How could I have not known?”
After discovering the cheating, the sequence of events probably mirrored the same pattern others have experienced.
You confront the person.
They deny, deny, deny.
Finally, they fess up after you wave the obvious evidence in their face.
Then there is this rush of apologies, they are so sorry, they never meant to hurt you, they really want to be with you, the other person isn’t the one, please forgive them, pleasepleaseplease.
As she says this, more evidence and damage seems to rain down behind her. It gets worse with each apology.
From there, it gets ugly fast. The fan is set to max speed. And shit is thrown upwards.
It’s a terrible situation. Because here you have this person that you deeply love. That you have a lot of history with. That you have a shared identity with. And come to truly think of as an ally; a better half.
But now – you have to face a dark, undeniable reality that cannot be ignored, that things aren’t what they once were, and this person isn’t the person you thought they were.
It is the deep, painful cut of betrayal that takes years to heal.
Everything that came before this event gets called into question.
“Were they lying then?”
“What else were they lying about?”
“How did it start?”
“Does this person really love me like they said they did? Then how could they do all of this?”
…
In my case, things couldn’t be reconciled. It went far beyond the realm of repair.
It was a terrible, messy breakup but ultimately it was the right thing. Even though I’ve now come to fully forgive this person, she isn’t someone I could ever trust or be with again.
It sucks, though.
You never think you will be “that person” who gets had in some relationship, who gets run around on and completely duped.
It’s a terrible, hurtful experience and I hope none of you go through it.
I had an exam on English when I was in college, around 19 years old. The night before I had helped my sister prepare for her in-class essay with the same teacher in English. My sister had problems with the course, and I excelled so my teacher suggested I help her.
Anyways, in the middle of my exam my teacher walks up, and without thinking, says “Thank you for last night” and walks away. Everybody in the class looked up at me. It was the middle of an exam, so I couldn’t explain so I just sort of turned around to my friends, gave them the look – look and went back to the test.
I was in traffic court as a witness in another matter. The judge was hearing a case where a 14 year old was driving a motorcycle without a license because he was too young. He was accompanied by his mother. She was small but loud, and the 14 year old was big (looked 18). Throughout the morning she had been nagging him about one thing or another—wasting my time, lazy good for nothing, etc. The young boy was quiet and appeared contrite.
When their time came, the mom again reminded the boy to be quiet and not say a word.
The clerk read the case. The judge looked at her notes and pronounced judgment. “Case dismissed with 60 days suspended sentence on the condition that the defendant does not ride the motorcycle until he turns 16 and gets a license.” This was the least the judge could do.
The mother erupted with anger. “60 days suspended sentence. Are you crazy. He has to go to school. He has to do chores.” Clearly, she did not understand what suspended sentence meant.
The judge then stated. “Are you finished? I could make it contingent on selling the motorcycle.”
Mom: “That’s crazy. You’re nuts.”
The judge: “Suspended sentence contingent on selling the motorcycle and you (indicating to the mom) get to spend the night in jail for contempt of court.”
The boy, who hadn’t said a word all morning. “Thank you, your honor.”
As a teen way back in 1979 I went to work for Neumann Marcus in Dallas. It was still owned by the Marcus family and known worldwide for its service and exclusivity.
our trainer stressed treating everyone, no matter how they looked or were dressed, with the same respectful diligent service. He gave the following example of his personal experience, I don’t know if it was true but it makes the point.
It was a rainy day in downtown Dallas and the store was not busy. He was working in epicure, I don’t know about now but back then they had the most amazing food and specialty kitchen wares. A man in shorts, a wrinkly shirt, baseball hat and unshaven wanders in. His thought was “looked what came in to avoid the rain”.
The man was looking at a very expensive grill and asking questions. He politely answered them but eventually wanted to get rid of him. He asked the man if he had a Neimans card. He said no so he suggested he go over to the Credit dept and they could give him on on the spot.
The man left. When he returned he said “I’d like 2 of these. One sent to my house in LA, one to my house in Malibu.” My trainer was pleasantly surprised. Surprise turned to shock and embarrassment when the man handed him his new Neimans card and he saw the name. “Of course Mr. Sinatra. I will take care of everything.”
The phone rings. My elderly uncle picks up. A young woman is on the line.
“Grandpa?” asks the young woman.
Being a grandfather of 20 children, Uncle answers, “Yes,” then he thinks of who the caller may be.
“Is this Beth?” he asks.
The young woman quickly admits that she is Beth, and then she starts crying,
“I am in Florida with my friends. We get in trouble and I am in jail. Can you send me money for bail?”
My uncle is alarmed. Why is Beth in Florida? What has she done? Before he can ask her a question, the young woman says, “Please don’t tell my parents. They will kill me.” She cries even harder now.
My aunt enters the room to find her husband frantically scrambling for his credit card. She gets suspicious and asks him what is going on.
“Beth is in jail in Florida. We need to send her money,” he explains to her.
My aunt rolls her eyes and grabs the phone from him,
“This is grandma. We are not sending money. Please rot in jail. Bye.”
The cleverness is not the scam itself, but the ability of the scammer to improvise. They prey on vulnerable elderly and toy with the few items they cherish in their twilight years – family, health, and savings. I have a feeling the caller could have swayed the conversation in whatever way was most effective once she identified my uncle as an easy target.
Boudin Blanc with Muenster Cheese
Yield: 24 servings
Ingredients
3 pounds boneless pork butt, cut in 1/4 inch dice
1 pound mixed boneless chicken, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 pound pork fat back, cut into 1/4 inch dice
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 pound Wisconsin muenster cheese, cut into 1/4 inch dice
Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
Grind meats and fat through meat grinder using plate with small (1/8 inch) openings.
Place ground mixture in large bowl of standing mixer and add all ingredients except cheese and salt. Mix with paddle attachment. Fold cheese into the farce.
Case sausages in pork hank, twisting to form 4-ounce links.
Dry for 1 hour in walk-in cooler.
To poach, bring 4 to 5 gallons of water to a boil. When boiling, turn off heat.
Add sausage and cover with lid. Let stand for 10 to 15 minutes or until sausages reach interior temperature of 145 degrees F.
Cool sausages on sheet pan lined with kitchen towels.
Store in refrigerator up to 5 days.
Notes
To reheat: Grill, broil or bake sausage until hot. The sausages can be made into patties and sautéed until cooked through.
The chef serves sausage with Spaghetti Squash “Choucroute” and whole grain mustard.
I have (as of late) been drawn to the horrible stories about infidelity between married couples. Just terrible stuff really. And then one of my followers asked for help on this matter and I responded in a post.
When I get these urges, there are always deeper meanings underlying their intrusion into my consciousness. And it just occurred to me what is going on.
The “marriage” is the United States and China.
The United States is “having sex and fooling round”, and China knows all about it, but wants to keep the relationship stable.
So the United States denies, and denies, and then denies…
What are you talking about?
Nothing is going on?
You worry too much?
You are reading too much into the picture of me and a coworker…
…but the texting behind the back keeps on occurring, and the sex orgies still occur in (apparent) secret.
But China has a PI investigating everything and knows everything. China has transcripts of all the text message. China has videos of the sexual events taken from the phones, and the sexy pictures sent back and forth between them. China knows when, where, how and how often these events occurred.
But hasn’t shown its hand yet.
What will China do?
The normal thing (the most common event) is confrontation; a “lot of fireworks” and screaming and yelling, and then a hostile divorce.
But I really don’t think that China wants, or has any plans, to do that.
China does not want a divorce (a war; in any shape or form.)
However, if push comes to shove, China (as a partner) will make life a living Hell for the United States….
…if push comes to shove.
If all these non-stop provocations keep on occurring while the USA puts on the face that “all is just fine, nothing is going on. You are the one with the issue.“
And were a hard and harsh divorce were to manifest, it would be China who would hold all the cards. It won’t go in any way that the USA thinks.
…
All these are ugly thoughts.
The USA and China are (at least on the surface) making amends. Dating again, things are getting back to normal. Plane Flights are opening up. Businessmen are cutting deals and all the rest.
But the USA is still up to it’s old bag of tricks.
A “color revolution” in Burma by the CIA was just squelched. Lots of dead (CIA trained) insurgents.
“President” Biden got up and made a public warning to China to stop provoking The Philippines…
My gut feeling is that the Chinese know everything, and are just “waiting out” the United States. It will run out of money, resources, banking, finance, and cred sooner than later.
Ai! Hopefully the hidden texts, the late-night “meetings”, and all the rest will come to a quick and decisive end.
Hopefully.
One more year of Joe Biden. Sheech!
I don’t know if I can handle that. Oh Lordy!
I swear that he has his foot on the gas petal towards war and is FLOORING IT.
Well China gave the west a 2 century head start and caught it up in less than 50 years! Go figure. The west don’t have civilisation it has a war mongering barbaric mind set that thinks they are ordained by god to loot and plunder. Colonialism U.S. not civilised it is a cruel, despicable act of stealing land and carrying out genocides to slaughter most of the natives.
Civilisation is like the Chinese and Confucianism edicts on discipline, respect, compassion, hard work, eagerness to learn, winning without fighting. Murder, slaughter, genocide done by the west to steal land and resources is barbaric not civilised.
Star Trek: The Silent Skies | 1920 Universe
This is AMAZING!
Zero-sum mentality in US won’t halt China’s tech rise — Global Times
American automaker Ford said on Monday it’s pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Although the US government is flexing all of its policy muscles available to suppress China’s high-tech industry, US competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies has continued to decline as a result of multiple factors.
Ford’s decision comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages, according to the AP report. Intense competition among global EV manufacturers has unsettled the US automotive industry, which had been a pillar of the US economy, as US automakers are under pressure both at home and abroad.
On the one hand, competition from international competitors, including Chinese EV makers, poses a challenge to American firms, especially as Chinese companies have accumulated technological and price advantages against the backdrop of fierce competition in the Chinese domestic market.
On the other hand, deep-seated problems in the US economy, including insufficient labor protection and the widening wealth gap, have erupted in a concentrated manner. The car industry, like other manufacturing industries in the US, is facing increased pressure due to rising production costs.
As reported by the AP in March, Ford’s EV business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years. If the US automaker wants to catch up with rivals amid intense international competition, one option for Ford is to collaborate with top Chinese companies.
Ford in February announced plans to build the plant in Michigan, betting that making the batteries in the US would help it and Chinese partner CATL attract US customers to embrace a lower-cost technology pioneered in China, according to Reuters. Honestly speaking, Ford’s cooperation with CATL benefits the development of the US EV industry. However, the sector’s survival opportunities are being stifled by politicians in Washington. Republicans in Congress have been probing Ford’s battery plant plan over concerns it could leave Ford dependent on Chinese technology.
As reported by Reuters, Rep. Mike Gallagher said lawmakers were “encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal” with CATL. “Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” he added.
Not only in the EV industry, but also in most high-tech and cutting-edge industries, some people in the US possess an extremely unhealthy and unfair zero-sum competition mentality toward China. However, it is evident that this thinking is counterproductive in promoting the development of domestic US industries.
Apart from Tesla, other American vehicle companies still have a relatively low share in the domestic and international EV markets. Although the US government has devised protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, it is still moving slowly in terms of addressing domestic supply chain issues, particularly in the production of batteries.
Washington is working toward a zero-sum competition with China, with American firms serving as victims. What Chinese enterprises need to do is to confront external challenges, continuously enhance their competitiveness, strengthen technological innovation, seize the opportunities created by Washington’s zero-sum competition mentality – which has caused difficulties for American enterprises – and continuously strengthen themselves.
China is becoming increasingly competitive in EV manufacturing capacity and technology innovation. Chinese EV brands, such as BYD and NIO, have made significant strides in developing advanced EV technologies, including battery technology and autonomous driving features.
China holds a superior position in the EV supply chain, with about three-quarters of the world’s battery production capacity. Moreover, China houses more than half of the world’s processing and refining capacity for lithium, cobalt and graphite, which are essential materials for making EV batteries.
The West’s narrow-minded, zero-sum game mentality has indeed put some pressure on China in the short term, but it cannot fundamentally hinder technological progress. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of learning how to conduct healthy competition with Chinese enterprises and develop its own economic competitiveness, this will just lead to a larger gap between China and the US.
If you don’t understand why I use the word “monster” to describe Huawei, please look at this picture. Here is a summary of the business Huawei is doing.
It is different from traditional foreign technology companies, such as Samsung, SONY, Nokia, and Alibaba, which only challenge advanced American companies in a certain field.
It has launched a comprehensive challenge to its American counterparts in almost the entire information technology industry.
It not only challenges, but has already achieved success in many areas, and this trend is getting faster and faster.
If the US doesn’t stop it, it will slap American companies on the butt in global markets. Just like Toyota and Honda slapped Ford’s ass back in the day.
Currently, high-tech companies are a key means for the United States to gain wealth from around the world. Once these high-tech companies are stepped on by Huawei, how can the United States maintain its status as a developed country and maintain Americans’ living standards?
Therefore, when American companies have no choice but to rely on the U.S. government to take action. Kill the monster before it grows up. As for the reason: threatening national security
Senior shelter cat desperately hugs woman for adoption
“I adopted the oldest cat my shelter had. She was owner surrendered at the age 15 which I just thought was wrong. I named her Hope and she gave me 4 of the best years of my life. Thank you so much for adopting a senior cat. I wish you many years of happiness and love with her.”
REPORTS: Thousands of Ukraine Soldiers SURRENDERING To Russian Army
A special radio frequency being used so that Ukrainian soldiers can safely surrender to Russian forces is now chattering like never before. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are opting to surrender to the Russian Army.
These surrenders were seen even by Clayton Morris, an American journalist, who expressed his astonishment and said, “this is a story the western media does not want you to see.”
Ukrainian forces are laying down their Western-supplied arms and surrendering en masse! Using emergency radio frequencies, they’re receiving food & medical care and even sharing critical intel with Russian forces.
Is this the final chapter?
As Zelensky hears of mass surrendering of Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines he will likely be very concerned. Not about the soldiers; about what happens to him
The question now is who gets to him first. The Russians will want him but the west may want him too. Dead.
They will not wish to have him expose the money laundering, child sex slavery and child organ harvesting that has been going on in Ukraine; the Globalist Parasites cant allow that.
Either way its not looking good for the man in Green.
By most credible accounts, the recent Ukronazi+NATO attack in the Kharkov area was even more costly in KIA/MIA, wounded and lost hardware than the attack towards Kherson. The combined losses from these attacks are staggering.
Yet there are all the signs that the Ukronazi+NATO forces are preparing for even more such attacks.
The Ukronazi+NATO seem happy to trade human lives for territorial gains, no matter how small or how irrelevant that territory is.
The Russians seem happy to trade space and time to protect the lives of their soldiers and equipment.
We could say that the Ukronazi+NATO are trading bodies for shells.
Let’s remember the two goals set by Putin for the SMO: denazify and demilitarize. Both of these goals are human-focused, not terrain-focused. In other words, if a tactical-level withdrawal allows the Russian to kill scores of Ukronazi+NATO personnel and destroy their equipment, they will gladly accept the trade.
The other goal was to protect the LDNR. Kherson is not part of the LDNR.
Territory can be reconquered, equipment is hard to replace, especially complex weapon-systems.
Soldiers cannot be resurrected.
It is absolutely clear that Ukronazi+NATO are “betting the farm” into these offensives. Not only is the coming winter a major threat for them, but the political chaos in the EU and the US this fall and winter means that now is the time to try has hard as possible to conceal the magnitude of the disaster for the Ukronazi+NATO.
So, most of what is taking place now can be summed up in this simple question: who will run out of resources first: the Ukronazi+NATO in terms of manpower and equipment or the Russians in terms of firepower (mostly artillery, missiles and airpower)?
I think that the answer is obvious: Russia wins.
U.S. Plans To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
This is, presumably, the U.S.-Israeli plan for the Palestinian people in Gaza:
Amazing: President Biden is working on a plan with other countries that would allow civilians to safely leave Gaza and cross the border into Egypt. This is great news. President Biden is making sure that innocent people don’t die due to the actions of Hamas. That’s leadership.
No, it is not leadership. It is ethnic cleansing, a war crime disguised as humanitarian gesture. It is ethnic cleansing of people who’s land has been stolen by Zionist settlers. These people would have no right of return to the homes and land they once owned. People who have been put into an open air prison, who have no access to electricity, water and food and are currently under intense attacks.
Egypt, the only country where they potentially could be moved to, is already bankrupt. It can not even provide for its own people. Two million new people from Gaza, all poor and some of them radicalized, would undoubtedly unbalance the Egyptian state.
Should such a plan be put into action it would guarantee that the resistance axis, Hizbullah and various other Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East, would step in. The would attack Israel to prevent such a move.
The U.S. thinks it can deter resistance action by threatening to move in with its own forces. That’s why the USS Herald Ford, its newest carrier, was moved into the Eastern Mediterranean. Rumors have it that a second carrier will come in too.
But the resistance can not be deterred by that. The last time the U.S. tried to intervene in Lebanon it ended up with 241 dead Marines and had to retreat in shame. Hizbullah at that time was only a handful of men. Today Hizbullah has tens of thousands of very well trained men. Then there are also Iran and Russia:
As I said in my analysis today of the NATO intervention in the Israeli northern front, it’s inconceivable that Russia should stay silent in the face of such brazen NATO overreach. This seat-of-the-pants, unmandated NATO panic move will speed up Russia’s pivot from pro-Israel to pro-Arab that started with the deaths of Russian airmen caused by an IAF aggression against Syria and was locked in with Netanyahu’s support for the nazi regime in Kiev.
The Russian military has long identified Israel as an enemy state and Putin is now conceding to them, acknowledging the failure of yet another one of his strategies, namely the political use of the Russian Jewish community in Israel via his “friend” Avigdor Lieberman. Russian Jews in Israel are virulently anti-Arab, so Putin tried not to upset them.
Today, however, with Bibi bringing in the full might of NATO to the Eastern Mediterranean to threaten not only Lebanon but Russian bases in Syria, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. With Patrushin and Shoygu holding the reins of state and a clear and present NATO threat on Syria’s doorstep, expect a strong and unexpected Russian intervention in the multifront Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false. For more information and travel advisories, visit our embassy website: lb.usembassy.gov
Posted by b on October 11, 2023 at 15:43 UTC | Permalink
When I was young I was pretty much left to my own devices as far as personal hygiene and was always had dirty clothes. My parents were drunks and as the youngest of 7 it was total chaos for me. For some reason though this girl in my class who was smart, funny and popular became my friend. She was just the best friend a girl could ask for. Her father was a prominent doctor and she came from a big loving family. Whenever she could she would include me in whatever she was doing.
We were freshman in high-school and were sitting having lunch and a girl who was just as popular invited my BFF to a party but told her not to bring me because her mother wouldn’t appreciate it if I brought vermin or disease into her house. My friend just stood up and told me that we had to get to our next class and didnt engage with her. The next Saturday was the party and I was home sitting in my room and my BFF showed up at the door and said she thought the party was boring and we ended up going to the movies and then to her house for a sleepover.
Fast forward about a week and the girl who had the party was talking about how her mother was upset because their house apparently smelled like something died in it. They couldnt figure out what the smell was. It was awful. My friend said to the girl that “maybe you have some type of vermin in your house.” She then said she didnt think she could hang with someone like her because there could be vermin in her house. This immediately caught my attention. I asked her about it later. She came clean and told me that when she went to the party – she brought with her some canned shrimp and discreetly placed the raw shrimp in places throughout the house. Under area rugs, on top of a grandfather clock even in the hem of the drapes in various rooms. She said that nobody fucks with me – and she would always have my back.
THAT IS A FRIEND
The Average Age Of Ukraine’s Army
Ben Wallace, the former Secretary of State for Defence of the UK, writes in the Telegraph:
Putin is desperately grasping at the final two things that can save him – time and the splitting of the international community. Britain can do something about both. We must help Ukraine maintain its momentum – and that will require more munitions, ATACMSs and Storm Shadows. And the best way to keep the international community together is the demonstration of success.
Ukraine can also play its part. The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelensky’s desire to preserve the young for the future, but the fact is that Russia is mobilising the whole country by stealth. Putin knows a pause will hand him time to build a new army. So just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraine’s mobilisation.
Let us not pause for one day. Let us see this through. The world is watching to see if the West has the resolve to stand up for our values and the rules-based system. What we do now for Ukraine will set the direction for all of our security for years to come.
Think for a moment what the aside insert “The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40” really means. Can Storm Shadows change that fact?
Sollte stimmen, was Wallace da über das Durchschnittsalter an der ukrainischen Front sagt, 40 Jahre, dann sind die schlimmsten Mutmaßungen über Verluste weit übertroffen worden. Paraguay 1870.
Translated from German by Google If what Wallace says about the average age on the Ukrainian front is true, 40 years, then the worst assumptions about losses have been far exceeded. Paraguay 1870.
Paraguay suffered massive casualties, and the war’s disruption and disease also cost civilian lives. Some historians estimate that the nation lost the majority of its population.
Ukraine ain’t there yet. But looking at pictures of Ukrainian soldiers at the front Wallace seems to be right. If you are forty or above are you really still able to run, react and fight like when you were twenty? I am not.
The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.
Have your chili 3, 4 or 5 ways, Cincinnati style. This is also great on hot dogs, smothered with shredded cheese.
Yield: 5 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Chili
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
Have It 5 Ways
1 pound spaghetti, cooked
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely grated Cheddar cheese
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed, drained and heated
Hot sauce (your favorite)
Instructions
Brown ground beef, onions and celery in a large skillet, drain off all fat.
Place slow cooker ingredients into a slow cooker and stir well. Cover slow cooker and cook for 7 to 9 hours on LOW, or for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours on HIGH, stirring during last part of cooking if using HIGH setting.
Cook spaghetti 1/2 hour before chili is done.
To have chili 3-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili and cheese.
To have chili 4-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, onion and cheese.
To have spaghetti 5-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, beans, onion and cheese.
Douse chili liberally with hot sauce, if desired.
US Shutdown CANCELLED, No Money For Ukraine, Economy In Ruins
At the last minute, the US Congress passed a Stopgap Bill to keep money flowing for government spending. However, funding was cut to Ukraine in a shocking move. This is most likely political theatre as American support will likely continue. Here’s why the US government is trapped and borrowing money will never end!
I was a store manager at family dollar and I inherited the store and like 6 employees. I was a new manager and didn’t have much experience in such a leadership role. Fast forward I am learning as the days go by. One of my employees come to me and ask me for a ride from work. I typically don’t mingle with coworkers or employees just to keep the possibility of drama down. Well long story short I ended up befriending this middle aged lady I worked with. She frequently got rides from everyone because she didn’t have a car. I ended up hiring another middle aged lady because she had to get a job to get her kids back from the state(I know I know not a good reason to hire someone but I was young soft hearted and above all a mother) so I gave her a chance. I worked around her visitation and allowed her to work a sporadic schedule. This went on for about two years. Well one day I came in on my day off which I frequently did just to make sure everything was up and running and things didn’t feel right. Everyday at a certain time the cameras cut off and reset to save memory or storage(one do them) well I see those two employees pushing carts full of merchandise to their cars along with other people. So I stop them and the people who were with them and ask them for receipts. They produced receipts for like 5 items but the amount of items In their carts greatly exceeded the receipt description. I fired them on the spot and they took two of four carts back into the store. Their family refused and I called loss prevention and police at this time. I was stressed out because she lost her job which means she was going to lose her children and I know it wasn’t my concern I just didn’t understand why she put her children in that position. They both had been stealing expired and new merchandise for the last 6–9 months. I was shocked at how they behaved so normally around me. I learned a lesson here though, I am more strict and don’t allow my heart to lead my professional decisions! I am an exceptional leader today because of my family dollar experiences!!
Not fight but they were hard to get back. As the younger brother, two years younger, of two older sisters, twins Lori and Tracy, I often had to go into their bedrooms and retrieve my stuff.
Yes it’s odd girls would be taking their brother’s clothes but mine did. Tracy would take my ball cap. She had a lot of blonde hair but that didn’t stop her from wearing my cap. She wore ball caps before girls wore ball caps and she got a lot of looks. She would also borrow a military style belt I had.
Tracy wore jeans ripped on the knees, purposely, to school one day before that came into fashion. The teacher sent her home. He told her that her knees were showing. She went home and changed into a short skirt and came back to school. The teacher stared at her shaking his head.
“Oh my God. My knees are showing. Should I go back home and change?” she said coyly. That was my sister. She was ahead of her time.
Lori would often take my school football jacket and wear it going to games with her friends. She often came to my games wearing it and cheered me on.
It was hard getting these things back sometimes and I’d have to sneak into their rooms that looked like cyclones hit them. Mom called them ‘Cyclonic Rest Areas.’ Fashion models since age 15, the girls had a lot of clothes and they were all over the rooms. You wouldn’t think they’d borrow their brother’s clothes having all those clothes in their rooms. Of course as soon as I got them back Lori would ask, “RJ, can I borrow your school jacket?”
I remember once I had to run out into the backyard to get the dogs out of the rain. Mom’s orders. The dogs never wanted to come in, even out of the rain. I had no shoes but there was a shiny pair of white boots by the back door. I was thirteen then. I put on the boots. I then ran outside and herded in the three dogs. Tracy, 15, was at the door with her friends. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WEARING MY BOOTS? THEY ARE ALL MUDDY NOW!” She scolded. “Do you have any idea how much they cost?”
“Oh, but it’s fine for you and Lori to wear my ball cap, belt and jacket having them smell like perfume later!” I said to her as I took off her boots. She looked at her friends and laughed. She sighed. “Touché!” she said smiling at me.
I remember the girls were at a school football game I was playing in. One of the guys asked, “Is that Tracy wearing your cap RJ?” In those days, girls were not often seen wearing ball caps.
“Yep, that’s her,” I said.
“Wow! She sure looks a hell of a lot better wearing that cap than you do,” he said..
As Apple found out, limited amount of skilled labor and poor quality output. Apple tried to assemble in India and found they had a 50% yield rate and about a fifth of its required manpower needs. Further, as word got around, Europeans are not buying ‘made in India Apple iPhones. Almost all developing countries are similar in condition and experience. Simple things like garments work fairly well, but assembly of high end mobile phones are a bit harder.
While India offered what appeared to be the greatest possibility, Vietnam is always cited. Vietnam has limited skilled labor, lack of electricity, and lack of infrastructure. Again, garments, toys, and simple assembly are possible, but complex items get poor results.
Further, the supply chain is non-existent, so parts have to come from the supply chain developed in China. For Apple, lesson learned. It has lost $70 billion in this exercise to move to India, only to return to China and expand its operation there. The labor costs may be higher, but still cheaper than the US and the skilled labor is in quantity that Apple needs plus the yield rate is almost 100% and the supply chain is well developed.
I would also mention TSMC’s attempt to build a 4nm fab in Arizona, only to find lack of skilled labor, and work culture below that of Taiwan. It appears TSMC has closed the fab, laid off the workforce, and for all intents and purpose, shut down its US operations.
This break-up is epic. And classic. It was the ultimate f*ck you and the horse you rode in on.
A former co-worker had this “boyfriend” for four years. Didn’t want to marry her. “Marriage is just a piece of paper” and all that guff. So this woman was diagnosed at a fairly young age with cancer. Boyfriend still didn’t want to marry her; really, he didn’t want to have to deal with making her medical decisions, caring for her, etc. It became obvious during chemotherapy when she needed tending to.
Luckily, she had adult children and friends who stepped in and did all of the heavy lifting he was unwilling to do—and unable, by law, to do.
The cancer turns terminal. So, of course there’s the issue of inheritance to sort out and other financial and legal matters. This woman wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but she did okay. She had a house that was paid for, and some investments. A nice pension and Social Security benefits, and of course, health insurance.
The ne’er-do-well boyfriend has a lightbulb moment: he could get the house, basically double his monthly living income, and get really good health coverage, if he just married her. So he proposed when she was at her very weakest.
Not being a foolish woman, she told him to take a long walk off a short pier. He scuttled away in disgrace and let her spend her final days in the company of those who loved her.
When she did die, it was very sad. She was too young and still had a lot of living to do. But at least Mr. “marriage is just a piece of paper” didn’t profit out of the deal. Her adult kids got everything instead. To this day, I hold her in very high regard for not letting him bamboozle her.
He got nothing, nada, niente, as it should always be for people like that.
Oliver Anthony Rich Men North of Richmond”REACTION” It Just Got Real
China’s 18 main trunk lines of high-speed railways, only 6 lines are profitable, and the remaining 13 are loss-making.
In 2022, China’s high-speed rail suffered a total loss of US$15 billion.
Therefore, if all high-speed rail in China is regarded as a company, it is a company with huge losses.
But in the eyes of the Chinese, high-speed rail is not a business. They believe that high-speed railway is a kind of social infrastructure. The purpose of its existence is to provide basic services for the entire social and economic development without maintaining profitability itself.
Therefore, as a state-owned enterprise, China Railway Corporation must bear losses. The funds lost are subsidized by the government every year.
The question is, how can the Chinese government have so much money to subsidize high-speed rail?
The reason is simple. After the Chinese built the first key high-speed railway, the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, they were surprised to find that for every US$1 they lost on the high-speed railway, the economic growth generated along the high-speed railway would increase by US$1.8. Three years after the high-speed rail was completed, tax revenue from governments along the line increased by 68%. The economic growth is 1.5 times faster than that of other regions. This increased wealth is enough to build ten more high-speed railways of the same type.
At the same time, there are 140 core enterprises and 500 general enterprises producing high-speed rail parts in China, distributed in more than 20 provinces. A 200 billion yuan industrial chain has been formed, providing a large number of jobs. Just look at the construction process of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which involved more than 700 construction companies and provided jobs for 110,000 people.
Ultimately, high-speed rail became an engine of economic development in the eyes of the Chinese.
Wherever high-speed rail is built, wealth will be greatly increased. As for the funds invested in high-speed rail construction and operating expenses at a loss, they seem insignificant in the face of these increased wealth.
I worked in a small rural hospital in the central part of Texas. This hospital happened to be in between two high-security prisons. It was not a rare occurrence that while being transferred, they would stop at our hospital for blood work, x-rays, cat scans, etc. One time they brought two prisoners to the lab for blood work. (they remained chained and the officers kept weapons at ready.) I drew blood from the first guy. He was charistically covered with prison tattoos; tears, a clock with no hands, and several gang tattoos. He had one I never saw before. On his cheek were the numbers 5150.
I asked the other guy what 5150 meant. He said that guy is completely nuts! Nobody messes with that guy! What does 5150 mean? He said it is Part of the California penal code. It means criminally insane. I don’t who he is or what he did but he sure was creepy.
P.S. I got to know the transfer crews pretty well. we developed a practical joke with the prisoners. For all of their toughness, many of them were afraid of blood draw needles. When I was done with the blood draw I put a pink Barbie band-aid on the site. Then I told them they had to keep it on until they were admitted to their new home. The guards would back me up and say that they had to have proof that the blood was drawn. So the possibly badest, craziest, most evil, person I will ever meet wore a pink Barbie band-aid in prison because of me.
After a countless string of falsehood dangled by American leaders, government agencies, the mainstream media, thinktanks and intellectuals, why are we still debating if a particular American interpretation of China is credible?
Odds are it is false or embellished/exaggerated.
Remember this guy?
He made history becoming the first Cabinet-level official to be sanctioned by China, after passing a genocide determination on China’s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang during his final weeks in office.
Surprisingly, few have spoken up for him, neither blue, nor red.
The State Department has quietly shelved his statement, with its lawyers concluding there was insufficient evidence to make the genocide designation. Antony certainly hasn’t acted on his predecessor’s words, even though the designation remains.
There was also balloon-gate, which was recently absolved by the Joint Chiefs.
“It was a weather balloon we shot down.”
It doesn’t matter how many warheads China has, because Zhou Enlai’s words remain relevant today.
“China has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world once over”.
Stopped a motorcyclist who blew through a 4-way stop intersection. The guy pulled over and after I got out of my car, took off.
I chased him down and again, he stopped. He continued to straddle his bike while I approached him. I asked him to shut down his ride and swing off of it. No compliance. I reached down and turned the ignition off and removed the key. He went ballistic and decided to fight. Guy was huge and clearly under some form of influence. Inhumanly strong.
Tried to mace him, only to have the wind push it back at me. I had left my baton in the car and all he wanted to do was grab my holstered service weapon. We had no portable radios. Frankly, he was besting me and all I could do was keep him from ripping my revolver away from me.
Very, very fortunately, a county traffic officer approached from the other direction and he called it in before diving into the wrestling match. A few minutes later, LOTS of needed manpower arrived and we got the guy down and cuffed. We got him to his feet and watched while he “stiff-legged” it back to my car. Went to put him in the back seat and he wouldn’t fold. Tucked his knees with my stick; nothing. We knocked him back down and shoveled him into the car for the trip to the jail.
Upon booking, he ripped his (artificial) leg off, hopping around and swinging it at the jailers and everyone else……again, subdued and hauled off…aggressive, foul-mouthed, non-cooperative. Next day at his arraignment, a totally different guy! Disabled Vietnam vet…..double amputee….off of his meds. Contrite and apologetic.
Even as the arresting officer, the magistrate gave me no opportunity to comment or o’wise condition the arrest. The vet pleaded guilty and drew a 60-day sentence for battery to police officer(s). To this day, not certain that justice was served, but rolling around in the street fearing for my life was an eye-opener!
Many years ago, I was walking down a road in Bristol (England) and suddenly, a figure burst out of a door knocking me over, He stopped dead, and apologised profusely, helped me to my feet and noting my accent said ’You’re Welsh,- me too.’
He took me inside and got me a coffee, and we chatted awhile, and he said, ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I had to admit I didn’t, So He said ‘I’m Tom Jones’ You know, the singer?
‘Bloody hell, I thought you were in America’, I said He replied ‘I had a date to appear in the Colston Hall and didn’t want to let them down’, ‘What can I do to be sorry?’ he said. ‘You said you were looking for a short-term job, weren’t you?’ ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘Let me help’, said he, and got on the phone and arranged a job for me there and them with a famous wine importer, saying he’d vouch for me ‘cos I’m Welsh.
I was well received and took up the job for the remainder of the time I spent in Bristol, and it opened a new horizon for me to explore in work which changed my life. So, I’ve often looked back to that chance encounter with a bloke renowned for being brutal – but who changed my life.
China is more ADVANCED than we realised!
Since returning to China, our minds have been blown by the rapid technological progress we’ve witnessed! In this video, @Huawei invited us to explore some of China’s most cutting-edge technologies, including robotic arms, futuristic robots, 5G factories, and mind-blowing augmented reality experiences.
LOL. The rest of youse guys are just NOW figuring all this out?
If the PLA liberates Taiwan by force, 99% of Chinese want Japan to send troops to intervene in the China’s internal affairs or China’s civil war.
As for why the Chinese think differently than you think, I think Asians understand.
Even the dispatch of 1 soldier from Japan is something the Chinese would be happy to see.
In 1937, the Japanese launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident under the pretext of the disappearance of 1 soldier, and began a full-scale invasion of China.
So, 1 soldier is enough excuse. New grudges and old grudges can be returned together.
One evening in the London casino I worked at, I was having dinner in the restaurant with another client.
Then at a nearby table very old Greek man had a catastrophic failure of his bowels. This is a very exclusive Michelin equivalent restaurant. The restaurant unsurprisingly cleared, leaving me alone with the incontinent gentleman and his wife. I shamelessly pulled rank and had one of the wait staff wrap a table cloth around the unfortunate soul and then informed our reception that we would take the member home in one of our cars.
The car took the old couple home. The restaurant cleaned up the mess. And we were down one Bruges lace tablecloth. I thought the matter dealt with.
I received a phone call the next afternoon from the irate wife of the unfortunate guest. She took great pains to inform me that the quick thinking car jockey had covered the £100,000 Bentley’s back seat with something like clear plastic wrap. Obviously this was deeply humiliating to the couple. Especially to her faeces covered husband. The fact that he was wrapped in tablecloth after soiling himself in a packed restaurant was apparently not even comparatively humiliating.
The wife demanded I discipline the very rude driver. I agreed* and promised I would, and that the next time anyone fouled themselves in my presence at work I would not try to protect the interior of a hugely expensive car.
*Obviously I did not discipline the driver. He saved us an obscenely large valeting bill!
America is one of the biggest criminals in this modern world. They fights for their economic interest. Media defames nations and leaders from the intelligentsia.
Today there will be talk of a leader whom most of the world considers as a dictator.
Who should have got the Nobel Prize. But got death. Unfortunately, people think them as a criminal.
Libya is an African country bordering the Sahara Desert. There 80% of the land is desert. Only 10% of the land is such that people can live. Most of the parts of the country are such where not a drop of water has fallen for 20 years.
When oil was discovered in the world, oil was discovered in every country. What was found instead of oil in Libya was astonishing.
500 meters down in the desert, a thick layer of water was found, its thickness was somewhere around 700 meters thick.
According to experts, this is so much water that it can give water to Libya for 2-3 thousand years.
Its importance can be understood for a country where 90% of the land is desert.
But extracting this water, sending it to other parts was nothing less than Bhagirath’s penance. The money needed for this work in 1960 was $25 billion. From today’s point of view, it will be above 100 billion dollars.
Consideration on this project was abandoned. But when Colonel Gaddafi became president, they started this work.
The West was opposed to Gaddafi. IMF, World Bank no one gave loan to Libya for this work.
Gaddafi took this impossible project forward by making arrangements with their own nation.
Engineers from South Korea helped in this. Later, UNESCO also trained engineers.
Large pipes were built. So wide that the metro train passes.
The project was inaugurated by Colonel Gaddafi on 28 August 1984.
500 meters deep, 1300 wells were constructed. Which used to carry water through a 4000 km long pipeline. So many dams were built that 12 Egyptian pyramids could be built. Astronauts can also see the well built in it.
$33 billion was spent by Gaddafi. The whole of Africa was expected to be green.
In 2008, the Guinness Book of Books included the project as the largest project ever.
People went crazy with joy when water reached the major Libyan cities of Tripoli, Bayanji. Irrigation started in 13 thousand hectares of land.
But in 2011, America attacked NATO by spreading propaganda against Gaddafi.
The surprising thing is that he dropped the maximum number of bombs on this project. Due to which more than 25% collapsed.
How Western countries have turned the boon to Africa can be seen in ruins.
Now urgently we will sell bottled water to Africa, some Mother Teresa will come and get her converted. The Nobel Prize will take the title of a saint.
Gaddafi was bad, so the people of his country would have understood, who are you people who dropped bombs and missiles.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, this is all he is saying. Your intention is not right. He says Britain robbed India 45 trillion dollars in 100 years. This is the research of UK universities only. India could not become a 5 trillion dollar economy in 75 years. So how much it will be looted can be estimated.
This project was made in collaboration with engineers from all over the world! What makes Gaddafi a great leader.
Burden X Steven James – Rich Men North Of Richmond Remix
My parents needed a new housekeeper because our old housekeeper was retiring, so with a very heavy heart — Hermione had become part of the family after all these years — they hired a new one.
And what a different person she was.
Vera was in her late twenties, good-looking, was energetic and quick, and had a smart mouth. We needed some time to adjust, but we immediately liked her.
Still, some things were really different. Sometimes she was caught red-handed leaving early, but she aways had some original excuse —
“My mom’s really sick. My husband needed urgent help. My boy needed an unforeseen ride. I started earlier than planned.”
It also happened a couple of times when my mom came home earlier than expected, that Vera was on the phone. (A classical rotary phone in the conversation pit in my parents’ living room.)
(Yes, dear reader. A rotary phone. With a cable.)
The excuse was always the same — urgent matters for sick people and needy children.
Till the day when my parents got the phone bill.
It was humongous, and an absurd number of very long calls had been made to an unknown number, each and every time during Vera’s working hours. When she alone was home.
It turned out that Very had a lover, and had used my parent’s house as a call center all along, so that her husband wouldn’t find out.
She was fired on the spot.
Not much later she left her husband for the lover, and that’s the last thing we ever heard of Vera. When Hermione heard the news some time later, she proposed to come back and spend one or two extra years in our family.
Purchase a marine air horn that works with a canister of aerosol gas. I keep two in my truck, one in each door panel. You may know them from hearing them at soccer matches in big stadiums. They are extremely loud and piercing. If you point one in a person’s face and discharge it with a long blast, the person would become discombobulated instantly. It is actually painful and can hurt eardrums. It would render them unable to hear for a minute or more and affect their equilibrium, causing trouble moving, walking, running, or aiming. The surprise effect is stunning; they do not expect anything like that. You then have the option of running and getting the hell away or physically counter-attacking. It is hard to defend yourself when your faculties are compromised. It is also hard to chase someone. Keep the horn in your hand and be ready to give them a second dose if needed. If you do the wise thing and run, you can keep doing short blasts as you are leaving. The beauty of this is that anyone who is within 100 yards of you will be alerted to that sound and will turn to look and see what is happening. The perp is put on full display and probably will abandon his assault attempt. This can be a lifesaver in a gas station scenario where you are pumping gas and getting approached by someone walking up to your car. I tried a test on a friend who was 3 feet away and his back was turned. A one-second blast, aimed at the ground, made him jump three feet and run about twenty feet away. He didn’t know what happened, he just wanted out of there. Think what a 10-second blast directly in the face would do!
Twenty years ago my wife and I saw an ad in the New York Times travel section. Round trip from JFK to Barbados on the Concorde, plus a week at the hotel of your choice (there were 5 hotels to choose from).
The Concorde? Let’s do it.
We called British Airways Holidays. (It was still the early day of Internet commerce. Back in 2000 you picked up the landline.)
“We’re flexible on dates,” I told the agent. “But the hotel has to be the Fairmont Royal Pavilion.”
No problem. The agent found a date that worked and took our money (about $13,000 all in). Pricey, but hey — the Concorde.
Two nights before our departure date there was a message on our home answering machine. “This is British Airways Holidays. We’ve had to make some adjustments to your itinerary. You will now be staying at the Royal Pavilion’s sister property, Glitter Bay.”
Sister property. It sounds like kind of the same thing. Except it’s not. Royal Pavilion is for adults only. Glitter Bay is for families with kids. Lots and lots of kids. We love kids. We raised two. But the reason we picked the Royal Pavilion was because we wanted to spend a week without kids.
I called British Airways Holidays. No answer. They’re not an airline. They’re just the travel planners for the airline and work from 9 to 5. We left a voicemail.
The next morning we called the Royal Pavilion and spoke to the General Manager of both properties. He said, “British Airways does this all the time. They take your money, and then they switch your hotel. Here’s what I can do. For the same price I can put you up in a large one-bedroom private villa at Glitter Bay. It’s off the beaten path, far from the kids, an easy walk to the Royal Pavilion, and you’ll have complete access to all our facilities and amenities. I’ll send my wife over to take photos of the villa.”
An hour later I got the pictures. It was incredible. We decided to take it.
British Airways never called back. The guest relations guy who met us at the airport in Barbados never told us we’d been switched to another hotel. He drove us to Glitter Bay. Or as we called it all week, Glitter Bait and Switch.
Let me sum up that week-long vacation: The Concorde was a once in a lifetime experience. Our villa was spectacular. But still, it wasn’t what we’d signed on for.
The General Manager was a total sweetheart. He suggested that I write to British Airways, but warned me not to get my hopes up for a refund.
We’ll just see about that decided the man who writes for a living. I spent days crafting the letter. A week after I sent it I got a call from a British Airways rep in London. She apologized for the “misunderstanding,” and asked how she could make it right.
I told her I wanted a public apology. An ad in the New York Times travel section telling the world what they had done and promising not to sucker in any more people. She said, “Sir, we can’t do that.”
I told her if she didn’t I would go public on this Internet thing that was still just taking hold and tell the whole world wide web what a bunch of crooks they were.
She said, “I’ll get back to you.”
A week later she called back. “We’d like to offer you and your wife an all-expense paid trip from New York to London,” she said. “We’ll fly you there on the Concorde, put you up in a five-star hotel, and fly you back first class on a 747.”
If she had seen the look on my face, she’d have known she had me. But she couldn’t see me. So I doubled down.
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You already flew me to a hotel I didn’t want to go to. Why would I want you to fly me to another place I don’t want to go to? I want a public apology. An ad in the New York Times.”
“Let me talk to my management,” she said.
Another week passed. She called back. “Sir, we absolutely can’t print a public apology. The best we can offer you is a full refund. Airfare and your entire hotel bill including meals and other amenities and services you may have charged. If you say yes, we will credit your American Express card with the entire amount.”
I grumbled, and told her that it wasn’t what I wanted, but she’d won. I begrudgingly accepted the more than $13,000 refund.
Then I hung up, did a happy dance, and told my wife the news.
The next day I called the General Manager of the Royal Pavilion and booked their best villa for a week the following spring. Three bedrooms. Perfect for me, my wife, my son, my daughter and their significant others. The cost of the villa, along with airfare (non-supersonic) for six people — a little over $13,000.
Best all-expenses-paid vacation ever.
—————————————————————
EDIT — Sometimes I post and hear crickets. But this one — over 100k views and 9k upvotes in less than 24 hours. That’s like Mach 2 in Quora terms. Thank you. Several people asked if they could see the letter I sent.
I’d have thought that after 20 years it would be lost to the ages, but I was amazed to see that it was still buried in my archives. It’s 1700 words, and I’d be embarrassed to reprint it. My recounting of the event on Quora was written with a smile on my face. The complaint letter is me at my pissiest.
But I can give you the highlights. Basically, the letter stated the facts. Re-reading it after 20 years, it’s clear that British Airways was even more underhanded than I remembered, so those facts were pretty damning. The manager of the Royal Pavilion taught me some of the tricks of the trade, and he explained why they waited till I was 48 hours away from departure, even though they knew they had overbooked weeks before. He also assured me that BA overbooked, not the hotel. I made sure they knew I was a very knowledgeable consumer.
My closing was this: “I feel violated and am angry enough to take my complaint to the FAA, the appropriate consumer fraud departments in New York, the travel press and travel newsgroups on the Internet. I also feel justified in pursuing legal action where I would seek compensation for both the cost of a lost vacation and for being the victim of dishonest business practices.”
But my best line was this: “Under no condition would I have considered a vacation at Glitter Bay, much less pay $13,186.90 for the privilege of living in the middle of a high rent day care center.”
It’s hard to go up against a corporate Goliath and win. But every now and then… I hope this is the kind of encouragement you need to never quit trying.
Russian Spetsnaz Captured German Army Officers in Ukraine! NATO Armies Suffer Heavy Losses!
The Kursk was an Oscar II class submarine, one of the largest and most powerful subs ever built. It was armed with 24 cruise missiles and 24 torpedoes, some of them tipped with nuclear warheads.
It was supposed to be a show of force and a demonstration of Russia’s military capabilities.
But something went horribly wrong on August 12th, 2000 around 11:30 a.m. local time.
According to the official investigation, one of the practice torpedoes that the Kursk was loading had a faulty weld in its casing, which leaked high-test peroxide (HTP) inside the torpedo tube.
HTP is a highly reactive substance that can explode when it comes into contact with metal or organic matter.
The leak triggered a catalytic explosion that blew off both the inner and outer tube doors, started a fire, and killed or injured most of the crew in the first two compartments.
Two minutes and fifteen seconds later, another explosion occurred, much bigger than the first one.
This one was caused by the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, which ripped a huge hole in the hull, collapsed several bulkheads and decks, destroyed the fourth compartment, and killed everyone who was still alive in the front half of the sub.
The second explosion was so powerful that it registered as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake on seismographs around the world.
The Kursk sank to the bottom of the sea, at a depth of about 350 feet. The rear half of the sub was still intact, and some of the survivors managed to seal off the ninth compartment and activate an emergency beacon.
But they were trapped, with no way to escape or communicate with the surface.
Meanwhile, the Russian Navy had no clue what had happened. They did not realise that an accident had occurred until six hours later, when they noticed that the Kursk had missed a scheduled communication check.
They did not initiate a search and rescue operation until 16 hours later, when they finally located the sub on sonar.
But their rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather, poor equipment, and bureaucratic delays.
They tried to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the Kursk, but failed every time due to technical problems or human errors.
They also refused to accept help from other countries’ ships nearby, claiming that they had everything under control.
It took them five days to admit that they needed outside assistance, and by then it was too late.
On August 21st, British and Norwegian divers managed to open a hatch to the ninth compartment of the Kursk, but found no signs of life. All 118 sailors on board had perished.
….
Now, there are those who believe that the U.S. Navy had something to do with the disaster, either by sabotaging or attacking the Kursk. Why would they do that?
– To prevent Russia from testing or deploying new weapons systems
– To send a message or a warning to Russia about its military ambitions
– To cover up an accidental collision or confrontation between U.S. and Russian subs
– To distract attention from other issues or scandals in U.S. politics
These claims lack substantial evidence.
Some people claim that there were two U.S. subs near the Kursk at the time of the accident: USS Memphis and USS Toledo.
Memphis
They say that these subs were spying on or harassing the Kursk, and that they either collided with it or fired a torpedo at it.
But there is no proof that these subs were actually there. The U.S. Navy denies any involvement in the incident, and says that its closest sub was hundreds of miles away from the Kursk.
Even if these subs were there, they would have no reason to attack or sabotage the Kursk. The U.S. and Russia were not at war, and the Kursk was not a threat to them. It was only carrying practice torpedoes, not live ones.
And if there was a collision or a confrontation, why would the U.S. subs not report it or try to help the Kursk? Why would they risk an international incident or a nuclear war by hiding their actions?
Some people claim that the second explosion on the Kursk was not caused by its own torpedoes, but by an external source, such as a U.S. torpedo or a mine. They say that the explosion was too big and too loud to be from the Kursk’s weapons, and that it left traces of uranium or plutonium on the seabed.
Again, there is no evidence to back up these claims. The official investigation concluded that the second explosion was consistent with the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, each containing about 500 pounds of high explosives. The explosion was big and loud because it happened in a confined space, and because the Kursk’s hull acted as a resonator.
And there is no proof that there was any radioactive material on the seabed. The Kursk’s reactors shut down safely after the first explosion, and did not leak any radiation. The traces of uranium or plutonium that some people claim to have found were either natural or from other sources, such as sunken ships or waste dumps.
Verdict:
There is no credible evidence to suggest that the U.S. was behind the Kursk submarine disaster. It was a tragic accident, caused by a faulty torpedo and compounded by a series of failures and mistakes by the Russian Navy. It was not a conspiracy, but a catastrophe.
The Chinese people are such a nation that when you give them comfort and enjoyment, they will self collapse, just like every dynasty change in China and the late Qing Dynasty.
But when external pressure is exerted to suppress the development of the Chinese people and limit their pursuit of happiness, the Chinese people will erupt in strong resilience, use their talents to break through the blockade, and ultimately achieve rise.
From resisting Japanese aggression during World War II to becoming the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese people have come step by step due to external concerns.
The characteristics of this ethnic group can be summarized by a famous quote from the Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius two thousand years ago:Born in distress and died in peace and contentment
Coincidentally, the United States is such an ultimate concern from outside, and its extreme pressure and sanctions unite all Chinese people. Regardless of whether they support the government or not, they have found that only by overcoming American oppression can they have a happy life and a bright future.
China has a population of 1.4 billion, and the number of university graduates in China far exceeds the total population of Japan. China has over 70 million science and engineering talents, which is a huge treasure trove of human resources.
For example, the Huawei Mate60 series, which was just released in September, under four years of extreme sanctions and pressure, more than 100 companies listed by the US Department of Commerce worked together to break the world’s strictest blockade and create 7nm chips with independent intellectual property rights and production capabilities. This is the first time in the history of a company or industry’s battle against the world’s only superpower.
In the chip disassembly video, the encoding is all 2035CN.
CN is easy to understand, it implies China. 2035 needs to be explained as it represents China’s national research plan. If completed according to the plan, China will become the center of the world’s manufacturing industry and advanced technology by 2035.
It goes without saying where the sword points
The local manufacturing of high-end chips means that the bargaining power of Chinese local chip consumers will be epic strengthened – the space for manufacturers to rely on exclusive technology to obtain excess profits will be compressed, and domestic companies that need chips to drive their own products will welcome a round of “technology driven cost reduction and efficiency increase” – industries such as AI, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, etc. will benefit from this.
If this is just a celebration of the country and the company, it’s not a big deal. But Chinese consumers joined the frenzy, using their own income to support this domestically produced phone with fully autonomous and controllable technology, and even sparked a wave of frenzy.
This high-end phone with an average price of over $800 sold over 1.6 million units in just 6 weeks, according to Counterpoint data. It is expected that the remaining few units will be sold over 5 million units in 2023, with a full life cycle sales of over 20 million units. Such sales have boosted Huawei’s sales forecast for 2024- reaching 60 to 70 million units. You know, this is the single market of Chinese Mainland, and $800 is not a small amount for a country with an annual per capita GDP of $10000.
Due to the release time of this phone, which coincides with the visit of US Commerce Secretary Raymond to China, Chinese netizens have divided and joked about Raymond and the US government, and even spliced the phone’s advertising image with Raymond’s photo, using the phrase “Raymond is a Huawei certified spokesperson” to mock the US blockade for not being able to stop China’s technological progress.
In the capital market, after the release of mobile phones, there was a wave of enthusiasm in the stock market – various semiconductor related stocks have been strengthening all the way, and SMIC International has ushered in five limit up boards in the stock market.
China’s capital market has always been cautious, but now it is full of confidence. How did you say this confidence came about? I have not yet achieved satisfactory results in the journey of technology with my strength.
The wave of new products from Huawei shows this trend: consumers use money to support the products of consumer electronics manufacturers, and manufacturers can collaborate with upstream chip factories to strengthen production processes after withdrawing funds, gradually increasing yield rates, reducing costs, and polishing production processes to maturity.
Then the chip factory uses the money earned to encourage upstream equipment and material suppliers to upgrade and iterate. This is a virtuous cycle, driven by a large amount of capital and technological capital intensity, and an upward spiral towards development and progress.
In addition to continuously developing on the path of EUV,DUV, China is also exploring other surpassing and disruptive technologies, such as chip lithography factories.
To understand the great significance of this scientific device, it is necessary to first briefly understand some basic knowledge of lithography machines.
As the most core equipment in the chip production process, the lithography machine mainly works by passing light through a specific mask, shrinking it through the lens, and projecting it onto the wafer – the wafer is coated with photosensitive photoresist, and after the development program, a specific pattern can be left behind.
This is the basic process of building integrated circuits on chips by a lithography machine. But with the development of technology, chips have become increasingly complex – in a limited space only the size of a fingernail, people need to put billions of transistors inside.
Therefore, the requirements for lithography machines are becoming increasingly high, specifically for the light source of lithography machines. Because if we want to achieve more advanced process technology, we must have shorter wavelengths.
Early lithography machines used ultraviolet radiation emitted by mercury lamps, also known as g-line light sources, with a wavelength of 436nm.
The most advanced process capable of processing was 250nm. Later, with the development of technology, it was replaced with an excimer laser light source, which can emit deep ultraviolet light at 193nm wavelength, also known as an ArF light source – under the ArF light source, the most advanced manufacturing process is only 22nm.
But the problem is that technological development has no end. The 22nm process cannot keep up with the booming development of the consumer electronics industry, and people need more advanced chips. 7nm/5nm/3nm…
Although these data are common now, industry scientists have long anticipated this trend, and in fact, they have been launching impacts on these process nodes since the 1980s. The result of the impact is that there must be a new light source – the 193nm wavelength of the ArF light source is still too long to meet the requirements.
The final solution to this problem is the Cymer company in the United States, which provides an extremely complex light source – extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of only 13.5nm. The working principle of this light source is extremely complex: a high-energy carbon dioxide laser is irradiated on a dripping target of tin droplets with a diameter of only 20 microns.
This bombardment causes the tin material to instantly produce plasma, which emits extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm – ultimately, these scattered extreme ultraviolet rays are gathered together through a complex lens group and projected onto the mask. This is the effort made by European and American companies and scientists to obtain an extreme ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 13.5nm.
However, this type of light source actually has significant drawbacks. Firstly, it is too complex. In order to hit a tin target with a diameter of only 20 microns, a carbon dioxide laser needs to “shoot” 50000 times per second, and the evaporated tin target can also pollute the precision optical equipment inside the equipment – most importantly, the power of this light source is too low.
Under a 20kW laser bombardment, the radiation power generated by the plasma is less than 500W – not as powerful as a household refrigerator. Low power ultimately leads to impressive output; And the impressive output means that there is no scale effect and the cost remains high. But even so, this is currently the most advanced thing.
Now, it’s time to talk about our so-called “lithography factories”. Huairou HEPS and Xiong’an SSMB actually belong to the same category, as both study “synchrotron radiation”.
And synchrotron radiation is a type of light source. The history of synchrotron radiation light sources is very long: in 1947, scientists first discovered a phenomenon on electron synchrotron: when charged particles with speeds close to the speed of light deflect in an electromagnetic field, they emit electromagnetic radiation along the tangent direction of the motion trajectory – this is called “synchrotron radiation”.
This type of synchrotron radiation has many excellent characteristics, such as high brightness, wide energy spectrum, high collimation and polarization. Therefore, since the 1970s, scientists around the world have been studying light sources based on this synchrotron radiation. In Chinese Mainland, we have four generations of synchrotron radiation light sources: the first generation stands in Beijing (BSRF), the second generation stands in Hefei (HLS), the third generation stands in Shanghai (SSRF), and the fourth generation stands in Beijing Huairou (HEPS).
And Xiongan’s SSMB is actually within this category, but SSMB has taken a step further – Steady state micro bunching, a new light source solution developed by Professor Tang Chuanxiang’s team from Tsinghua University in collaboration with German and American scientists.
The specific technical details are too complex, so we won’t go into more detail. What we need to know is that the most attractive aspect of SSMB light source is that it can provide a variety of wavelengths of radiation, not to mention extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm. Soft X-rays with a wavelength of 5nm are also effortless, and the maximum power can reach 4kW, far surpassing Cymer’s “tin droplet bombardment method”.
Therefore, the implementation of SSMB-EUV light sources is expected to help China achieve leapfrog development in EUV lithography.
At the same time, the SSMB accelerator light source can provide coherent radiation from terahertz to soft X-ray bands with high average power and narrow linewidth, and its time structure can be adjusted in a large range.
It can provide unprecedented tools and means for cutting-edge basic research and applied basic research in physics, chemistry, energy, environment, and other disciplines.
The SSMB accelerator light source has attracted widespread attention from the scientific and industrial communities With the deepening of physical research on SSMB storage rings and the mastery of their key technologies, SSMB accelerator light sources can be expected as light sources for the lithography industry and scientific research.
Their performance will also continue to improve, and the cost will gradually decrease. At the same time, the application of SSMB accelerator light sources will also be more widely expanded.
In summary, we can see that China’s scientific research team is not blindly following and catching up with the West, but is also developing the next generation of technology in a new way while following – this is not a “curve overtaking”, but a dignified linear acceleration overtaking.
I even think that the domestic lithography machine industry is highly likely to replicate the success of China’s new energy vehicle industry in the future: comparing the traditional “tin droplet bombardment” lithography machine is like comparing the engine and gearbox of traditional fuel vehicles.
Time is not waiting for us, and it is difficult for us to reach the most advanced level in Europe and America in a short period of time. But competing for the brand new SSMB light source is like competing for new energy vehicles, where everyone is on the same starting line, and we are even the leading one.
Therefore, I would like to end with Mao Zedong’s famous statement: “Imperialism blockades us, then blockade it. After ten to eight years of blockade, all China’s problems have been solved
‘Steve’, a new person at work (it was about his second or third week) called in one morning to say that his grandma had died. He was told he could take some time off, and get back to us in a few days and let us know how he was doing.
Soon afterwards, co-workers noticed that Steve had unfriended them on Facebook. All except for his line manager who, we can only presume, he forgot to unfriend.
A few days later, Steve posted on Facebook, saying that he’d been robbed.
By a prostitute.
In Ibiza.
When he returned to work, Steve was called into a meeting with the line manager, who opened with: “Sorry to hear about you getting mugged.” By all accounts, it was a short meeting.
Credit where credit’s due, Steve didn’t waste anyone’s time trying to claim that the Ibiza trip had been an attempt to deal with his grief – apparently, he owned up straight away that a friend of his had got cheap last minute flights to Ibiza, and he’d made the dead granny up to get time off at short notice. He was still fired though.
US Suspiciously Activates Global Fragility Act To Intervene In West African States
How does the US have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations? How would the dominant society feel if Russia and China intervened openly in American affairs?
For refusing to help a coworker and making them miss a deadline.
That was the story the guy gave to his boss, who confronted my boss about it, who brought the other boss into my office to get to the root of the problem.
My boss: Did you get X for John Doe?
His boss: He said you refused to help him, and I don’t appreciate people preventing my team from getting their work done.
Me: I haven’t talked to John Doe in ages, but let me check my records.
~pulls up database of work requests which I’d built myself for just such occasions~
Me: Oh it looks like he caught me after a meeting 6 months ago and mentioned it, and I asked him to follow up with details so I would know what to get him… but he didn’t contact me again.
His boss: Oh. Okay, well, that clarifies things.
Me: I’m here whenever he he has free time, or, if he doesn’t want to call or come over, he can just submit a request, telling me what he actually needs, on our intranet page.
My boss was cool, he was used to me being blamed and fully approved of my tracking every interaction I had with everyone I worked with (internal and external)… I was the only female technical staff and was young enough to be the daughter of most of the folks I worked with.
His boss was cool with me after that point… he knew anyone smack talking me wasn’t doing their job and was trying to blame-shift and he’d whip them into shape. He ALWAYS stood up for his guys, so I had mad respect for that.
I set up a worm composter inside my home and ended up with a fruit fly infestation.
It was over a decade ago and I was really into gardening and soil biology.
I had a regular compost bin in my backyard, but it was taking almost a year for my kitchen scraps to turn into finished compost.
I wanted a way to make compost faster and worm composting seemed like the best solution.
From my research, it was supposed to be really easy. You set up a tray with moist bedding and kitchen scraps, and you let the worms go to town. What could go wrong?
Apparently, a lot.
Take one:
When my worm composter and red wrigglers arrived, it was fairly easy to set up.
I placed the worm bin in my back patio, and I checked on them every day for the next few days. The worms seemed really happy.
On the fifth or sixth night, we had a heavy rain. When I went to check on my worms the next morning, I discovered a bunch of worms outside the bin.
When I looked inside, the tray was waterlogged and the few worms left inside had drowned.
Apparently, the heavy rain had caused a bunch of rain to leak into the composter, causing the mass worm exodus of 2008.
Take two:
I ordered more earthworms, and my husband fashioned a rain cover for the composter from a trash can lid.
After I set up the worms, things were going really well for several weeks.
One morning, when I went to add food to the trays, there was a bunch of dried worms outside the bin and a horrible stench coming from the composter.
When I looked inside, all the worms were dead and had already started to decompose.
I had started the worm bin in early spring when the weather was still mild. But as the weather warmed up, the bin apparently heated up too much and literally cooked all my worms, causing the great worm extinction of 2008.
Take three:
There wasn’t any part of my patio that was completely shaded, and even though I had placed the bin in the shadiest part of my patio, it still got too hot.
So I came up with the bright idea that I would set up the composter in my basement. It was climate controlled, and I would never have to worry about rain.
I ordered more red wrigglers and after I set them up, things were great for several months. The worms were munching through the trays, and I was getting rich, finished compost that I added to my garden.
One day, we noticed we were getting a lot of fruit flies in the house. The next week, they grew into a few dozen. Before we knew it, they turned into a full blown infestation.
As I walked through the house, the little pests would fly into my face and get lodged in my hair.
We had fruit flies peppering all the windows, trying to get outside.
At night, we itched and scratched as fruit flies wandered around in the air and crawled on our bodies.
There were so many swarming around our ceilings, that they would trigger our fire alarms, setting them off at odd times of the day and wee hours of the morning.
We tried everything to get rid of them.
We set up vinegar fruit fly traps.
We strung sticky fly strips from the ceilings and pinned fly paper everywhere.
We withheld water from our plants, letting them dry out completely between waterings to kill off eggs.
But still, the population kept growing.
For the life of us, we didn’t know where they were coming from, or why they were multiplying so quickly. That is, until one day, when I went down to add food to the worm trays.
I was pulling a finished compost tray out when it suddenly clicked. I knew that fruit flies laid eggs in moist soil. But it wasn’t until that moment when it occurred to me that I had been making moist soil right in my basement.
Trays and trays of dark, rich soil, teeming with nutrients. What fruit fly mama wouldn’t want to lay eggs in that?
At that moment, I knew that I had to give up my worms.
I took the trays of worms out back, to the grassy community area behind my house. And I said goodbye to my earthworms, as I carried out the great worm liberation of 2008.
Wisconsin Chicken Booyah is famous in the Fox River Valley region — Green Bay, Wisconsin. Booyah and beer go great together. Booyah King, Bob Baye, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been making Booyah since about 1946 in 100-gallon cookers.
Ingredients
1 roasting or stewing chicken (about 4 pounds)
1 pound beef stew meat, with bones
1 pound pork stew meat, with bones
1/2 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
4 cups quartered potatoes
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup carrots, cut up
1 cup green beans, cut up
1 cup fresh peas
1 cup skinned, seeded, chopped tomatoes
2 lemons
Instructions
Put chicken into a deep kettle with the beef and pork. Cover with boiling water. Bring slowly to a simmer, remove scum from the top, and add herbs and seasonings. Simmer very gently, covered, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken and, when cooled, take meat form the bones and cut into pieces. Let beef and pork continue to cook until tender, 45 minutes to an hour more.
Remove and let cool enough to remove meat from bones. Add vegetables to the broth and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
Grate lemon rind and set aside; remove white pith and seeds from the lemons, chop the pulp, and add to the broth. Taste for seasoning.
While vegetables are still crisp, return the meat pieces to the broth to heat through. Serve in large soup bowls and sprinkle with the lemon rind.
This particular company had a major office building with hundreds of employees. All the offices were decorated in shades of burgundy and green. It was quite pretty actually.
Anyhoo… due to changing departments, I was moved from 3d floor NE to 3rd floor SW. As I’m settling into my new space (which was identical to the old space except I looked south instead of north out the window), the head of the Committee On Office Ambiance appears.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “You aren’t allowed to have original artwork in your office because you are not a manager.”
I glance at the generic painting on the wall, one like every office had. It was ugly as sin. But apparently it was an original rather than a print. Miss Committee snatches that piece of original art and returns with a print, which I liked better anyway.
But it gets better.
So years go by and eventually the hydraulics on my chair gave out. The chair would periodically drop me to the floor without warning. Rather annoying as you can imagine.
I ask my boss for a new chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for it. I ask to fix the chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for that either.
This is ridiculous, I think.
So one night I stay late. In the dark of night, I hasten my broken chair down to another office and steal one from an empty. But I get caught! Manager sees me switching chairs. Yells at me because he doesn’t have the budget to fix a chair either, even if that chair is in an empty office. Foiled!
I wait. I plot.
Another night comes and again I wait until not a soul is in the building. I make my switch and I’m not caught! Victory!
Next morning, I’m all happy in my new chair until Miss Committee stops by.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a burgundy chair! You must have a green chair to match your office.”
Out goes my nice chair and back comes my broken one. Foiled again.!
Once again, I wait. I plot.
Darkness of night. I steal through the building with my broken chair seeking one of identical color. Find it. Make the switch. Life is good.
Until Miss Committee stops by again.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a manager’s chair. You are only allowed a peon’s chair.” Back comes my broken chair. Foiled yet again!
I’m bemoaning my fate to sit on the floor for the rest of eternity when the maintenance dude happens by. He tells me he has a fix for chairs like mine. He takes it away and comes back in a few with a fixed chair. He’d put a pipe in the stem. The chair can never be lowered again, but what do I care?
I’m finally happy. Miss Committee is finally happy.
I tell this to some folks in the plant. One day, mysteriously, a Dilbert cartoon appears on my desk. Poor Dilbert’s chair is broken and he tries to steal one, only the accounting troll catches him and sentences him to prison at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my (fixed) chair.
I dare anyone to come up with something stupider than this tale.
I had this experience. My boss had already let me know they were eliminating my position due to budget constraints. I wasn’t upset; I had seen the writing on the wall, and I had included a 90 day severance notice in my contract, since the company was known for poor budgeting and finances. In addition to my being let go, I was going to have to let go of several members of the office staff as well. That was fine, but I asked for some time to put everything in order for doing so, at least a week. We didn’t have an HR dept, and being in California, there are certain steps that need to be taken when letting someone go.
The owners didn’t want to wait and insisted I inform people immediately, giving them a two week notice of their termination. Obviously, there were a lot of questions from the employees being let go about benefits and unemployment, which the owners were unprepared to answer. One of the employees complained to me in an email about how vague the owners were being in their answers.
Well, a couple of hours later, I received an angry phone call from the owner’s wife, because this employee had spoken ill of her, and I hadn’t defended her. She and her husband were reading everyone’s emails and were unhappy to learn the people they were firing had little good to say about them. The next call I got was from the owner, demanding I resign immediately in writing for not defending his wife. Of course, I laughed and refused.
His next tactic was to demand I leave home for an unspecified amount of time to work with him on the east coast on new projects. This was the week of Thanksgiving. I had one more card to play: the owner of the company thought it was hilarious to send explicit photos to upper management. I had asked him in front of witnesses to stop; it was a whole other level of weird. I refused to go to the East Coast or resign on advice of attorney based on the hostile sexua environment at the company.
The moment I mentioned sexual harassment and attorneys, the owners went on radio silence. They wouldn’t fire me, and I received zero emails from them for the rest of my 90 day term. I still had to come in to work, but I just sat in my office. I did start taking my private laptop and a hotspot, though, and completed my masters thesis on their dime. I think they thought they were punishing me by making me come in to work for the remainder of my time, but in reality, they gave me an air conditioned, private office to complete a major project. So, thank you?
US Forever War vs Russia and China
In 2014 there was a coup. Soon after, there was a massacre in Odessa (dozens of people were burned alive). Ethnic Russians living in Ukraine were treated as subhuman. Their language and culture was being oppressed. A civil war broke out due to the rise in ethnic tensions.
For 8 years the Ukrainian military was indiscriminately shelling civilians living in Donbas.
If Zelensky honored the Minsk agreement and pledged neutrality, none of this would have happened. The 8 year civil war would have ended and Donbas would have remained part of Ukraine. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy.
I travel full-time via my FJ Cruiser and my RV. A year or two ago, I met a guy who turned out to be a federal agent. No, I was not being investigated, at least not for business/national security reasons.
Before finalizing our first date, he casually mentioned that he had run the front plate on my FJ Cruiser, which absolutely horrified me. This isn’t some random guy using Google. This is a federal agent!
It was also the way he said it. As if it was the most normal thing in the world to invade someone’s (especially a woman traveling solo!) privacy in that way.
After he told me he ran my plates, I just stopped responding. I mean, next thing I know, he could be checking my IP address or something and figuring out where I was camping alone that night.
It was creepy.
So a week goes by and he blasts me for ghosting him. I respond, “Are you seriously asking me why? Dude, you RAN MY PLATES!”
Instead of apologizing or acknowledging that that was kinda creepy, he proceeded to tell me that I was “asking for it” by sharing a picture of my rig. He told me the fact that I had a custom plate intrigued him, so it was 100% my fault for dangling the carrot (a custom plate) in front of his face.
I blocked him after that. As far as I know, I’m not currently being stalked by any federal agents. But who really knows? The feds are pretty crafty.
Swiss Bliss
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 (2 pound) chuck roast, cut 1 inch thick
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
1/2 medium green bell pepper, sliced
1 (20 ounce) can tomatoes, drained and chopped, reserving juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon A-1 steak sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
Instructions
Coat center of large sheet of heavy foil with butter and place into a 13 x 9 inch dish.
Place meat across foil, overlapping each piece slightly.
Sprinkle with soup mix, mushrooms, green pepper slices and tomatoes.
Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
Mix tomato juice, steak sauce and cornstarch.
Add enough water to make 2 cups liquid.
Pour over meat mixture and sprinkle with parsley flakes.
Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees F for 2 hours.
I had a black client who had been arrested in his house and white cops slammed his head into a dresser drawer just for fun, as witnessed by several officers in the house. As the dresser was pushed against a casement window on the front of the house, slamming his head into the dresser “blew” the window into the front yard with a shotgun-like explosion, witnessed by all the neighbors watching the police action from across the street. The black jailer saw the bruise on the client’s forehead when taking the mugshot.
On the motion to dismiss for unreasonable police violence, all the cops lied and denied slamming the client’s head against the dresser. The judge and prosecutor acted as if the cops were not lying and the window blew itself into the yard.
It was late afternoon and the only civilians in the courtroom was a fifth-grade civics class of 20 kids aged 10–11 years and their teacher. The judge had a reputation as a racist and a hard-ass.
I turned during argument on the (hopeless) motion to the kids and asked the courtroom rhetorically: “Why in the world would police officers take the witness stand, swear on the Bible to tell the truth, and then lie?” Then I said, “Well, it makes winning their case a lot easier, and no one in authority stops them, and the officers know this.”
So I was accusing the judge of “letting” the officers lie to win the motion. That is, the judge OFTEN knows officers are lying and so does the prosecutor, but they don’t stop it. The officers know this, so they lie. Not all and not always, but in cases like this, they all lied together.
The judge got really pissed and started haranguing me, so I stoked his anger higher. The prosecutor could see how bad all this was starting to look to the appellate judges in any appeal and hung his head in defeat. My client walked out of the courtroom with a very sweet deal from the prosecutor to cut his losses.
TikTok on the cost of living | RANT ON INFLATION | EVERYONE IS BROKE AND TIRED
Hi guys, just to clarify I do not own any of these videos I just thought it would be interesting to see how people are dealing with the cost of living, sending prayers and well wishes to you.
When I was a kid, hot dogs were lame flavorless picnic fodder that got a squirt of mustard and ketchup and onions if you were daring, nothing more.
One summer a diner opened near me that specialized in char broiled burgers and Chicago dogs. I’d never heard of a Chicago dog before, so naturally I had to try one. Man, what a life changing experience.
It was a snappy Sabrett dog topped with mustard, sweet neon green pickle relish, diced onions, spicy sport peppers, tomato slices and a wedge of dill pickle. Every bite was overflowing with crunchy, spicy, sweet, sour, salty and savory goodness. In my 15 years of life it was literally one of the best things I had ever eaten. I still love them today.
More than just a poem, the Chicago dog contains a lesson: ketchup doesn’t belong on a hot dog.
It was brought to my attention that a true Chicago dog is made from Vienna Beef brand hot dogs and always includes celery salt. I’m down with both of those, so that’s what a true Chicago dog should be made with.
There are many American assets in China, estimated to be worth 2.2 trillion.
The US companies that own these assets are not going to be happy with the US government if China were to freeze these assets.
Do you think that the US companies owners and employees will vote for Biden next year if China freezes their assets in response to the US freezing Chinese assets?
The old trick is repeated! Biden attempts to arrest Huawei executives with criminal charges!
The US foreign policy from 1948 to 1991 was centred around INTERNATIONAL LAW
Diplomats, Army, Businessmen, Politicians worked as per INTERNATIONAL LAW and relied on their entire foreign policy from a derived paper from 1955 called ‘Peace during the Cold War’, penned right after the Korean War
It taught a formula for maintaining peace and coexistence of different nations with different ideologies
The core objectives of this ideology was :-
Strive for Peace always
No War Or conflict with Nuclear Nations
Preserving Human Spirits & Freedom
Ensuring Capitalism and Free Trade flow between allies
Economic Cooperation
Preserve and not endanger the Security of the United States and it’s allies
Diplomats like McNamara, Kissinger, Baker etc were steeped in this doctrine and founded this doctrine
Kennedy, Nixon, Bush Sr and Reagan followed this core ideology
It was a healthy doctrine
Barring a 7 year aberration with the Vietnam War (1968–1975).
Thus James Baker easily promised not to expand eastwards
He wanted a peaceful handshake with the Russians
Post 1991, a new paper was published which reflected a NEW IDEOLOGY infecting the Americans
A POST COLD WAR ORDER
That was it’s early name
INTERNATIONAL LAW quickly changed into what we know today as the INTERNATIONAL RULES BASED ORDER
The core of objectives of this ideology were :-
The US has to lead the world into a permanent peace after the Cold War
The US must stop the rise of any nation that could lead the world into another cold war
The US must bring peace to Europe, the Middle East and Asia even at the cost of strategies that could heavily curtail freedom of thought and independence in those nations
The US must always maintain a lead in arms and troops and military power for the betterment of the whole world
Russia for its own people’s sake needed to be broken down further and controlled by the Rules based order to prevent it slipping back into anarchy and chaos
The Middle East and Europe had to be controlled by the USA for their own security and security of energy in the world
This slowly became the leading ideology in USA with all diplomats born in 1966 or later (who are 57 years old or younger today) being steeped in this ideology and thought
This was also called
WDC as coined by Madeleine Albright – WEAKEN, DEMOCRATIZE, CONTROL
Many Politicians, then in their 40s and early 50s endorsed this philosophy openly including Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Al Gore etc
The US Ideology back then never considered Africa or China as serious
This was the birth of the NEOCON ideology
Bush Sr, Rice, Albright, Kagan, Nuland, Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Ned Price, John Kirby, John Kerry, Mitt Romney, Joe Biden have all been steeped with this Neocon Ideology or International Rules Based Order Ideology
A Core part of this ideology is to bring peace to Europe by controlling Europe & to break down and weaken Russia
To do this NATO had to keep expanding
A Dramatic turnaround from the Old Ideology of INTERNATIONAL LAW
Today this is the leading ideology but since this ideology doesn’t mention China or Africa or India or how to handle a tougher Putin, the Americans are clueless on how to continue
Unless a new ideology for peaceful coexistence again develops , endorsed by 40–45 year old politicians and diplomats born on or after 1998 or Political Science Students born on or after 2006
The US will slowly sink due to this Neocon policy
Note most of the political ideologues of these thoughts are 65–70 years old at the very least
The Ideology changed, thus NATO kept expanding
That’s the Ideology that drives the US today
Others who are steeped in this Ideology include :- Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer, Kishida and our favorite JUSTIN TRUDEAU
In 2009 I was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a grade 4 brain cancer, after surgery the oncologist came back with the sad news that the statistics look quite ugly, he gave me treatments for 9 months, and 6 months to one year to live.
I was engaged preparing to marry in few months. We broke up, I didn’t see why I would leave a widow behind and break her heart.
I had no desire to pursue anything further in life…
It was a time of complete shutdown.
I wanted to quit my job, however my managers managed to convince me to stay with a relaxed schedule…
They started to teach me statistics again.
An average of 1 year, means some people die in 3 years, while others die in 6 months, and that I should have the positivity to assume I’m on the long term survival side.
By continuing to go to work, I kept myself busy, not thinking too much about my cancer.. I travelled , did some of the stuff I always wanted to do, visited places I always wanted to go.
I started to revisit my friends, hang out with those I really liked, got rid of those who made me feel sad, or felt pity. There are those who just don’t know what to tell you, then it gets awkward…
It is not something you want to talk about with everyone. You want to feel good, and not be down all the time.
I started to be more of a minimalist.. I had no desire in all the nice stuff I had always dreamt of, as My life seemed to come to a stop
However over time.. I started to realize that I’m happier .. I had special concerns for my parents, I started spending more time with my parents. With my family They are the joy of my life.. Too sad I never realized that earlier
8 years later I’m still around, although the cancer hit back several times, and my left side is now paralyzed, I’m still active going to work, participating in charities, trying to keep myself busy and active.
I was 32 when I was diagnosed, now hitting the 40’s I feel more mature, I’m guessing age is an important factor in how we take such news.
After all life goes on, and it is how you take the news that makes all the difference..
Keep busy, don’t let your mind wander too much.. No one knows when you are going to die..
There’s a shock at the beginning, try to pass it, embrace the news and you will feel the tranquility after a while..
My key messages would be:
no one knows when you are going to die, all doctors have are statistics.
Happiness is in the small and little things.. Time with family, reading a good book, listening to nice music, enjoying a movie.. Spending time on the beach, watching a sunset, nature, forest , a bird…
Through charity work I started to appreciate what I have, there are sooo many underprivileged people who would dream of what we take as granted, running water, electricity, food,medicine, family.
Each night I count at least 10 things I’m grateful for in my life.
I also started to keep a journal of the things that make me really happy and doing more of that.
Lavrov: “If the West want war, they can have it. If you insist, let’s decide it on the battlefield.”
God bless Russia and Mr Putin and mr lavrov… The Russians have the balls to tell the truth.. unlike the English and the yanks.
Originally Answered: What exactly is a midlife crisis? And how common are they ?
I can only speak from my experience, but here’s a personal account of my own midlife crisis. I was about 34 and I had a strong and relentless urge to pursue an unrealized goal that had been bothering me for quite a while, in fact, over 10 years.
Long ago, I had wanted to pursue nursing school, and due to circumstances such as an abusive ex-husband who prevented me from studies, I was not able to do so. When I finally escaped that decade-long relationship, it took a while for me to get back on my feet as I had to start from scratch to build my finances, portfolio, and confidence up. Time passes, I remarry and have a child and although things are great with my career and family, the thought of nursing kept nagging me at the back of my mind. I got increasingly upset at myself that I had let so many years pass and wondered when would be the time for me to do what I originally wanted to do.
So in my mid-thirties I made the decision to apply to nursing school, quickly took all the prerequisites and I got in a few months later, even though it was extremely competitive. I had to scale back on my other jobs and my schedule became MUCH more complicated. My social life definitely dwindled to nothing! Most people would ask, why are you going back to school? Don’t you like being a photographer and music teacher? Yes, yes I completely love my jobs. But I also want to be a nurse, and I will forever think “what if” if I do not pursue this.
Nursing school is demanding, and there is so much material to know that is compressed in such a short time frame. A typical day would be: wake up at 530am for hospital shift from 7am–3pm, study/edit until family arrives home, feed/play/bathe toddler and put toddler to bed, study/edit until midnight. Rinse and repeat. There were times I felt overwhelmed and perhaps I bit off more than I could chew. The amount of textbooks and notes I have from my studies, stacked on top of each other towers over me! However, I feel the most alive when I am caring for patients, and when they thank me heartily for the care I’ve given to them, my heart swells and that is the best feeling in the world. Therefore, my midlife crisis was a catalyst for me to take a leap and reach for my goal of becoming a nurse.
I can tell the experience of a friend. who married a woman who was multi-millionaire since birth. Saying that they were rich is an understatement. They only flew first or business class, he got a new Porsche or Mercedes every single year and they always lived in the best areas in Manhattan,
I remember when he and his wife moved to New York they hired an interior designer from Milan to do the decoration. They spent around a million dollars only with the renovation and furniture for the apartment.
They had it all, and not even in my dreams I would imagine that one day they would lose it all.
However, like many other stories, they didn’t lose it overnight, but little by little.
I never imagined they would lose all their money because apart of being filthy rich, they were really lucky.
My friend’s wife grew up being a millionaire. Annual trips to Aspen with her family, then summer in Europe and everything we imagine rich people do. I was lucky to enjoy some of these perks when I was invited to one of their vacation homes.
They had a lot of money but they didn’t work. After all, they never needed to do it. She received a monthly allowance from her family that I believe was around 700K to 1M per year so they would probably not bother to work 9 to 6 to make $100K more.
They lived this life for around 10 years. Then, they had some disagreement with their family and they stopped receiving the allowance. They lived by their savings for around 3 years. During those years they lived a very good life, but not so lavish as before. After 3 years, when they were about to start selling everything so they could have some money, her uncle died. He didn’t have any kids so she received a good sum of money that was sufficient for around 3 more years.
When their bank accounts were about to run dry again her mother passed away and she inherited, along with her brothers, around 4M each.
For most people, it would be sufficient for a lifetime, but they made very bad investments along with some poor decisions and I don’t know how, but they ended up losing everything in around 3 more years.
After losing all their money they started living with the money of a trust her parents left to her, Something around 5K per month. But they are on their 50s, they never worked and have no professional skills and they have to pay rent (as they don’t have a home), pay all their bills and above all, health insurance with that amount.
I saw them around 6 months ago and they were miserable. My friend developed a neurological disease due to the stress he endured in the last years. His wife was making all decisions as he wasn’t able to do it anymore. Unfortunately, he is so sick that he couldn’t work even if he wanted to.
I was really sad it happened to them because they were really nice people, It’s easy to judge them for never bothered to have a job or be wiser with their money, however, she was born in a different universe for most of us. What we see as a lavish lifestyle she sees as a regular day since birth.
I asked them if they needed anything and obviously what they need is their old lifestyle back. They moved to a modest apartment in a different state.
She told me that the biggest issue is that they don’t know how to live like that. She can’t imagine what’s like to do their own grocery shopping, and worst than that, go to Walmart with a shopping list. She said that if she spent a little more on things she like she might not have money for the supermarket next week.
I would not dare to say that this experience was humbling to them because they were always nice people, the difference is that they were nice people with lots of money. The only positive thing I believe this experience brought to them is that they are no longer superficial. They used to see everything like poverty, sorrow, and problems from a different perspective, and I used to see them through a mask that looked like they were using all the time
Now, for the first time, I was able to see who they really are. What are their emotions, their fears, their desires, and their regrets… For the first time in their lives they desire things, they no longer pull their credit card and immediately satisfy their desires and in that sense, they look like real people for me.
Every time I visited them over the years I always invited them for lunch, breakfast or coffee and even though I’m not wealthy I always offered to pay, and 6 months ago, when I saw them for the last time, I invited them to have a coffee at Starbucks and that was the first time in more than 15 years that they said thank you after I offered to pay for our breakfast.
It felt different. They don’t need to thank me for anything because during their life, just by inviting me to stay with them, they offered me much more than anything I’ve ever offered to them, but for the first time in their lives, they are learning to value every small good thing that life gives to them.
Thank you all for the upvotes and feedbacks to this story. In fact, I had two stories about the theme but Quora doesn’t allow to publish two answers for the same question, so, for those who are interested I’ll post the second story here.
In 2007 I was hired by a medium size tech company. The company had around 150 employees and they were growing fast. When I was hired they told me they would be moving to better offices in two months and they really did it. The new office was really impressive. Huge, very modern to the point it made the cover of a magazine.
My boss and her husband were the owners of the company. They were simply amazing. She was sweet, very polite and it was a pleasure to work for them. They were also very rich. In fact, she was so down to earth that it took me two months to realize that she was one of the owners of the company. It happened one day that we had a meeting with a client and she told me if I was OK to be squeezed on the back seat of her car, as another person was coming with us. I Imagined that she had one of those very small cars, but she showed up on a brand new convertible Porsche .
Little by little, we became acquainted. They invited me to have dinner one night and I was impressed by how rich they really were, They lived on a mansion, the land was so big that they had a tennis court, swimming pool and a stable with 5 horses on their land. He also was a motor enthusiast and had 9 cars. They owned a farm and a beach house in another city, even though we lived in one of the most beautiful beach cities in the world.
They made money fast because I was hired in 2007 and the company was founded in 2002 and it looked like they had a good lifestyle for some years.
They were amazing people, very humble, very calm and you would never say they had so much money just by talking to them.
I left the company by the end of 2007 because I received an offer to work in another place. I talked to them before accepting the offer, I explained my reasons and they were really supportive and told me that if I changed my mind the doors would be open.
By the end of 2008, a former colleague contacted me asking for a reference as he was leaving the company. I asked why he was leaving the company and the told me that the company had gone into receivership. Basically, they were impacted by the GFC.
They were so rich that I imagined that although the company had bankrupted they probably had a lot of savings.
I never heard from them again until 2017.
I had a health issue and I needed to see a specialist. When I got to the doctor, I was talking to the receptionist when I saw a sign with her name over her desk. (Let’s say Jennifer Parker – I’ll omit her real name). So I said to her. Hey Jennifer, what a coincidence, I had a boss with exactly the same name.
Then she told me that she was not Jennifer, that Jennifer was the other receptionist, that she worked Monday and Tuesday and Jenniffer Wednesday to Friday. I saw the doctor and two weeks later I came back for my return and when I arrived who I see working as a receptionist there? My former boss.
When she saw me she recognized me and told me that the other receptionist told what happened and when she saw my name she connected the dots.
She told me what happened to the company, basically was a problem with the contracts they made and as they weren’t able to get a new loan from the bank they could no longer keep the company and pay their debts. With that, they lost everything, not only the company but literally everything.
Their kids moved from private to public schools, they had all their cars, properties and assets confiscated and ended moving to a small apartment near the city. Her husband was able to get a new job (at nearly 60 years of age) and she had to go back to work to complement their income.
It was a huge surprise for me because you always expect that these things will happen to bad people, but never to nice people like them. They were honest, decent, hardworking, family oriented, and everybody in the office liked them.
Coincidentally I bumped into them again 3 months later in the mall. What surprised me the most is that they were able to go from a very rich to a very modest lifestyle without changing who they were. We sit together to have lunch in the food court and they were living like that was the life they always had. They were exactly the same people I met 10 years before, they were happy, making jokes with their kids (that were teenagers by then) and even when she told me what happened she didn’t do it with sadness.
I don’t know how they managed everything so well. Going through an experience like that could be very damaging, but it looks like they had a way to cope with everything.
It taught me a lesson that money can’t be trusted, life can be full of unexpected events with many things out of our control.
Starlink, a satellite constellation operated by aerospace company SpaceX, lost 212 satellites in the period spanning July 18th and September 18th, data compiled by satellitemap.space shows.
Data shows the number of burned-up satellites steadily increasing over the past three years, but a significant spike can be observed starting the month of July.
It’s unclear whether these satellites were scheduled to de-orbit or whether the burn-ups were a result of a failure. Cybernewshas reached out to SpaceX for comment but has not received a response.
Some experts questioned the accuracy of numbers posted on the tracker website, saying they appeared to be unusually high. According to satellitemap.space, its data is based on public tracking information published on space-track and elsewhere.
Starlink satellites are designed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of their life cycle, which is approximately five years.
SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. Over 5,000 have been sent into Earth’s lower orbit since then. Of those, about 4,500 are believed to be active.
Satellites can also be vulnerable to electromagnetic storms, with strong solar flares recorded this summer as the sun enters a period of heightened activity.
Destructive solar events have affected Starlink before. In February last year, SpaceX said it lost 40 new satellites shortly after launch because of an electromagnetic storm. When accounting for the rocket launch, it potentially cost the company about $100 million in damages.
Steak with Gorgonzola Thyme Crust
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 (6 ounce) beef tenderloin or small rib eye steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled Wisconsin Gorgonzola cheese
Instructions
Heat broiler.
Spoon Worcestershire sauce over both sides of steaks; let stand for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle garlic and pepper over steaks. Place steaks on rack of broiler pan.
Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat source for 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium rare steak.
Remove pan from broiler. Sprinkle thyme, then cheese over steaks.
Return to oven and broil for 2 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.
China is Sending Armored Vehicles To Mali Africa ! U.S PANIC
Nations like Mali have been overlooked in international forums, but as China’s prominence rises, Mali has found a key ally. This video explores China’s involvement in Mali’s development and security, delving into the intricate dynamics of China’s relationship with Africa and its potential implications for the global stage.
Back in 1983, I needed an upscale cocktail dress for a cosmetic industry function. I found a delightful $1200 silk dress marked down 50% to $600. It has a tiny rip by the zipper that I could repair but it was still way over my budget. (I was a very junior marketing person at the time, so not earning great.)
I asked the sales clerk if they do better on the price due to the rip and she agreed to take another 50% off bringing it to $300. She retickets it over the original ticket and the 1st sale ticket. Still more than I could truly afford but I decided to buy it anyway.
I go to the cashier to pay and she asked me if it came off the 50% sale rack. When I said it was, she says it is 50% off and rings $150 into the register, instead of the $300, even though it had multiple sales tickets on it. Lucky me, I’m thinking.
But before I can pay, she notices the small rip and says she will deduct an extra $50 which now brings it to $100. I happily paid and left the store ASAP, just in case. Lol
And I received many compliments for my dress at the event.
Walking into a McDonald’s one morning a young couple pretty dirty living rough approached me. The young man probably mid twenties asked if I could buy his girlfriend a egg McMuffin because they only had a handful of change not enough for the sandwich. So I asked them to come to the counter with me and asked them what on the board they would eat. The young man’s eyes went wide. Told me they had not eaten in three days. I said you can have whatever you like. The both asked for the big breakfast and a juice and a milk. I told them maybe they should order the sandwich she wanted as well. they were extremely happy they thanked me. They went and sat outside ate their meals cleaned up and moved on. Maybe they don’t even remember the event in their lives. But I was satisfied that I and spent my money wisely and am still left with a good memory of a McDonald’s breakfast when I was heading to get a seniors coffee.
PLOT: Desperate to gain the affection of a beautiful co-worker, Elliot (Brendan Fraser) strikes a deal with the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) — a drop dead gorgeous woman with a wicked sense of humor. In exchange for Elliot’s soul, she will grant him 7 wishes. But with each wish, he gets more than he asked for.
In 2019 exactly ONE MONTH before CNY and the launch of the COVID-19 bioweapon I received a call.
A Irish “company” wanted to interview me for a COO position.
They would pay me 500,000 yuan per month!
They were “supposedly” a billion dollar company and were interested in me.
So, of course, I had a zoom meeting with the HR manager.
…
But, there wasn’t an HR.
Instead it was a contractor who interviewed me for the CEO directly.
The CEO was “too busy” to chat with me himself.
Don’t you know…
…
As it was explained to me, the company was located in Shenzhen, made consumer products, billions of dollars in revenue, and wanted some basic questions about me, how I worked, and what I was doing.
They wanted to know my background…
RED FLAGS GALORE
There are no consumer appliance companies with billions of dollar revenue in my particular specialty area. I worked at the largest int he world. Multi-million dollar companies, sure. Billions. Nope.
I did a check on the company. Doesn’t exist in Ireland, and nothing inside of SZ or China.
They had a slick webpage. Lots of computer renderings of a office building… that did not exist. A leader profile of a bunch of guys in their 30’s. No one over 40.
No one could tell me what specific type of product that they dealt with.
No return or follow up calls. E-mail address were dead ends.
After the interview…. nothing.
No follow back, no rejection, no next steps. Etc.
I had three interns try to dig up information on the company. All failed. The company simply did not exist in any form, not even under a trade name.
…
The “Five Eyes” conducted an interview of myself prior to the release of the Covid-19 bioweapon. They must have done it exactly one week prior to the release.
They just wanted to know where I was, and what I was doing…
…figured that I was inert, and nothing of concern…
…and ignored me and let me be.
…
Life is funny, don’t you know. Especially if you are ME.
The U.S. don’t need any bad mouthing at all. It stands out clearly and vividly as a very barbaric nation that bullies most nations in planet earth. Everyone on earth knows there are only 3 types of allies the U.S. has. The US slave vassal states that has no choice of their own, their fellow despicable former colonial masters that needs to keep its loot sand plunder and perpetuate their crimes and small and weak nations that like to poke Russia in the eyes and then hide under the U.S. skirt.
These facts are so obviously clear to the entire world even though the U.S. has the best propaganda machine that has a full time job of demonising nations the refused to be submissive and subservient to them. This the U.S. has carried out for a full century. Hence there are some portion of west that buys into these like gospel truths.
China don’t need to do a thing to influence their people. Firstly the Chinese are highly influenced by Confucianism whose ethics and mantra include thinking for itself and seeking out the ultimate truths. The Chinese media has very few opinions. It doesn’t make judgements. They News are short precise to the point on facts, truth, accuracy and with proofs and evidence. Sort of it Chinese people refused to believed.
Western media ignores facts and propel set narratives that demonise China. As a default mode. It is opinionated and opinion filled. Chinese people don’t buy any of these shit. In fact almost no one buys any of these shit apart from some portion of the U.S. cronies. These represent no more than 5% of the world’s population and a mere dozen nations or so mainly Caucasians and Anglo Saxons.
I sincerely feels it don’t helped the U.S. and in fact hurt the U.S. image as most societies in the world don’t take kindly to lies innuendos and misinformation. It showed the weakness of the U.S. At best some nations fear the U.S. but almost no nation respects the U.S. I am here in QUORA to provide as much obvious truths mainly to them for their own good.
You Won’t Believe what Anthony Blinken Said !!
Anthony Blinken recently delivered a speech at John Hopkins University on the emerging new world order. I was astounded at some of the things he said. Here i give my thoughts and opinions
You know what’s a really big question that a lot of people are asking these days? It’s whether China’s economy has reached its peak or not. Whether China has run out of steam or still has some gas left in the tank. Whether China is facing a hard landing or a soft landing. Whether China is doomed to stagnate or destined to thrive.
Well, let me tell you something. That question is based on a false premise. A false premise that assumes that China’s economy is somehow close to its limit or its ceiling. A false premise that ignores the facts and the evidence that show otherwise. A false premise that overlooks the potential and the opportunities that lie ahead for China.
Because the truth is, China’s economy still has a lot of room to grow. A lot of room to grow and a lot of potential to unleash. And there are three main reasons why.
The first reason is that China has a massive and dynamic domestic market. A domestic market that consists of 1.4 billion people, which is the largest population in the world. A domestic market that boasts a fast-growing middle class, which is projected to reach 780 million by 2025. A domestic market that is becoming more diverse and sophisticated, as consumers demand higher quality products and services, and more personalized and customized experiences.
This means that China has a huge consumer base that can drive domestic demand and consumption, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship. This means that China has a huge market for new business models and sectors to emerge and flourish, such as e-commerce, digital entertainment, health care, education, green technology, and so on.
The second reason is that China has a strong investment in infrastructure, technology, and human capital. An investment that builds and upgrades its physical infrastructure, such as roads, railways, airports, ports, power grids, and so on. An investment that develops and enhances its technological capabilities, especially in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, 5G, and so on. An investment that improves and expands its human capital, by providing access to education, health care, social security, and so on.
This means that China improves the connectivity and efficiency of its economy, as well as the living standards of its people. This means that China increases the productivity and competitiveness of its economy, as well as the innovation potential of its society. This means that China boosts the skills and well-being of its workforce, as well as the social stability and cohesion of its nation.
The third reason is that China has an active participation in global trade and cooperation. A participation that makes it the world’s largest trader of goods and services, accounting for about 13% of global trade in 2020. A participation that makes it a major source and destination of foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $163 billion of FDI inflows in 2020, and investing $133 billion of FDI outflows in 2020. A participation that makes it a key player in regional and multilateral economic initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), and so on.
This means that China can access new markets and resources, share its development experience and best practices, and contribute to global economic growth and stability. This means that China can benefit from trade liberalization, infrastructure connectivity, policy coordination, and mutual benefit among participating countries and regions. This means that China can pursue win-win cooperation and multilateralism with its partners around the world.
Now, this is not to say that China’s economy does not face any challenges or risks. It does. It faces challenges such as slowing down of population growth and aging of society; rising environmental costs and pressures; increasing income inequality and social discontent; intensifying trade frictions and geopolitical tensions; and so on.
But these challenges are not insurmountable. They are not impossible to overcome. They require China to adopt appropriate policies and strategies to address them effectively and proactively. Policies and strategies such as accelerating economic restructuring and transformation; promoting green development and ecological civilization; enhancing social justice and welfare; pursuing win-win cooperation and multilateralism; and so on.
These policies and strategies can help China overcome its difficulties and achieve high-quality development. Development that is balanced and comprehensive. Development that can benefit itself and the world.
So, to answer your question: No, China’s economy has not peaked or is close to peaking. Yes, China’s economy still has room to grow or potential to unleash.
And if you want to learn more about this topic or ask me any follow-up questions or comments, please feel free to do so on Quora.
My sister’s friend interned for a company over the summer.
Being a poor college student, she could not afford to rent furniture for the three months she spent living in the town of her internship.
She had just a blanket, a pillow, and a suitcase of clothes in her flat. She also had a plate, a glass, a mug, a pan, and a cookie sheet.
It was shocking to walk into her apartment, as a well-paid engineering intern, to see absolutely nothing but a blanket and a pillow in her apartment. It was empty.
One day, she invited the neighbor kid over to make some cookies. He was about ten years old.
He came into her apartment and made cookies with her and left back home after their stomachs were full.
The very next day, my sister’s friend heard a knock on the door. She opened to see her neighbor kid and his dad standing in front of her with an armchair. The kid had told his dad that her apartment did not have single thing in it.
They said, embarrassedly, “We’d like to donate this armchair to you.”
They carried it in, and set it down in her room as the sole piece of furniture in her entire apartment, and never spoke of it again.
She said she never appreciated an armchair more than that summer.
Spam came out in 1937, a product of Hormel Foods .The name Spam is said to have derived from Spiced Ham but that is not proven yet. It is made mostly with with pork shoulder, a cut not so much used at the time; a cheap cut of meat. Made of pork and ham, salt, sugar, potato starch water and good old sodium nitrate which I’m sure will be banned from foods in the future. The meat is ground up and the mixture is put into cans, vacuum sealed and cooked inside the can. After cooling, the cans are ready for sale. It is claimed by Hormel that 13 cans of SPAM are sold every second. I am one of those buyers.
It was invented because they were looking for a way that meat could be preserved not having to be refrigerated but kept on a shelf in the home. It could be eaten right from the can, baked or fried and was an inexpensive meal especially toward the end of the depression.
Later 100 million pounds of the stuff was consumed by Allied soldiers during WWII. Nikita Khrushchev stated that SPAM saved the Russian Army during the war. SPAM was sent to Great Britain from the US through the Land Lease plan and was used by many house wives the same as every where else. With the British and Canadian Armies it was tins of corn beef that they survived on. Spam was also eagerly devoured by the US military during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Along with C rations of course.
I love both canned corned beef (from Brazil) and Spam and have tins of the stuff in the pantry. When I feel like some Spam, I will place one in the fridge for awhile, take it out then open the tin. I will either make a sandwich out of it or cut chunks and put them on a plate then slather relish and mustard over the Spam and gulp it down.
Same with the corned beef. I either make a sandwich or again, cut chunks and put them on a plate and with a fork, dip the meat pieces in mustard and again, gulp them down along with a pickle and slice of bread. Delicious.
The ten-year-old Belt and Road Initiative is not a concrete-pouring binge, at least not anymore. China is encouraging private enterprises to take a more active role and participate in projects labeled as “small and beautiful.” Some attribute the shift to China’s economic headwind and take it as a sign that the BRI is losing steam. This argument lacks a basic understanding of the rationale behind the China-proposed development initiative. The shift indicates the BRI has run its natural course and entered a new phase.
To expound it, one must go back to the central question: why did China put forward the BRI in the first place? Some clichés include: it is a geopolitical strategy designed to expand China’s sphere of influence; it is an ambition to counter the U.S-led global order; it is a series of investment projects to transfer domestic overcapacity and import raw materials; it is a charity program attached with political strings.
None of these arguments is close to the real picture. In essence, the BRI aims to bring the global value chains to the digital era. It is a globalization proposal that seems ahead of its time. Consider the following scenarios: a New York City resident and a villager from a remote town on the African continent browse the same TikTok videos on their cellphones (yes, both of them own more than one cellphone). A Chinese car buyer can purchase the latest Tesla model entirely built in China and cheaper than American consumers. A young person can get a postgraduate diploma from a UK university via remote study and be employed by the local branch of a UK-headquartered multinational without the necessity to set foot on British soil. Globalization in the digital era is disrupting the hierarchy of traditional value chains and blurring the boundaries of producers and consumers. In a word, this round of globalization is reshaping how factors of production are being distributed and utilized.
All this means the efforts to vitalize the newfound or hidden factors of production will be generously rewarded. It is common sense that most of these factors can only be found in developing economies. The promoters of the BRI are aware that the approach toward shared prosperity is to vitalize these factors of production and put them in the right places with a set of catalysts, such as transport and information connectivity, better education, poverty reduction, and empowerment of digital literacy.
From the perspective of China, the sustainability of its economic prosperity lies in how long and to what extent its economy will intertwine with the global value chains. As an economy at the middle end of these chains, it will take long and arduous efforts to climb up the established ladder. At the same time, it is inevitable to move away from merely being the world factory. All this has left China with little choice but to explore new foreign partners through new non-disruptive arrangements to the existing system, from which it has benefited a lot since reform and opening up, particularly since its accession into the World Trade Organization in 2001. More importantly, these new arrangements must also bear enough potential to create new opportunities for the new partners. It does not work if these projects only benefit China. This is the primary rationale of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Research shows that the private sector has proved to be more effective in creating and fine-tuning value chains compared with their government-led counterparts. Private companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, are the eventual driving force in this cause. In the beginning phase of the BRI, large and state-owned contractors took the lead in building basic infrastructure. Those projects helped to nurture political goodwill and energize local business partners. Thanks to them, private Chinese companies now feel more comfortable doing business in BRI countries.
Now, a paradigm shift is taking place. The private sector is catching up quickly and encouraged to play a more prominent role. An increasing number of big projects have adopted the Build-Operate-Transfer models, which emphasize the participation of local partners and the sustainability of the projects. More market players now prefer indirect investment, which has also proved more efficient and sustainable in maintaining the value chains. Besides, the Chinese government encourages projects labeled as “small and beautiful,” which refers to the smaller projects directly connected with improving local livelihoods. New investment favorites include businesses in sectors such as new energy, healthcare, mobile communication, and e-commerce.
The Belt and Road Initiative is entering a new phase, an intentional adjustment in line with its original missions, and it will provide more benefits to the private sector and local participants.
China SHOCKED US Yet Again With $3 Billion 6th Generation Fighter Jet
In the ever-evolving realm of aerial warfare, the stage is currently commanded by the formidable 5th gen stealth fighters like the mighty dragon Chengdu-J20 or the famed F-35 raptor. Eyes now remain fixed upon the emergence of 6th generation stealth fighters. Today’s episode will uncover China’s upcoming 6th generation stealth fighter jet that has shocked the entire world.
When the recession hit in 2007–2009, the owner of the company I worked for made a grand speech about how tight things were and how he was doing his best to keep from laying anyone off, so everyone needed to work really hard and go the extra mile. This was one of those “be happy you have a job” speeches that meant raises and bonuses were going to be absolute shit, which might be justifiable if the company were in dire straits, but we weren’t. The recession went on and we kept growing, but management was all doom and gloom. At some point after the recession was over, somebody that had access to the CFO’s bonus spreadsheet printed it out and accidentally left it on the printer. Another employee found it and brought me a copy. The owner gave himself a $22M bonus that first year of the recession and the next few years were similar. I knew at that point they couldn’t be trusted.
. Industry observers cited by the publication believe that the contract maker of chips anticipates stricter sanctions from the U.S. and is stockpiling the materials it needs. There could be other reasons, too.
The buzz in the industry suggests that SMIC has recently approached its partners in Taiwan, placing substantial orders equivalent to around two years’ worth of materials supply. Some believe that this move is to ensure a steady supply for its 7nm chip production, hinting at the company’s forward-thinking approach.
The larger question revolves around SMIC’s motivations for such significant stockpiling. Some think it could be a proactive measure against potential new restrictions from the U.S. Others feel it could be an effort to raise their inventory, anticipating a surge in client requirements.
Huawei has high hopes for its Mate 60-series smartphones and expects to ship as many as 20 million units this year if supply remains intact. But these smartphones will keep shipping next year, and their sales will only increase. Furthermore, the company will likely introduce other smartphones based on its chips, significantly increasing its requirements for SoCs. As a result, it makes sense for SMIC to increase procurement of raw materials pure enough for its 7nm production.
SMIC and other Chinese chipmakers are not novices when it comes to stockpiling. In anticipation of U.S. sanctions and restrictions, they have imported virtually all chip-making equipment from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. they could lay their hands on in recent months.
The BEST Retirement Advice EVER From Retirees + MORE FUN!
Things to know before retirement, top tips to plan your time to retire, things you must know before retirement. These ideas come from people who have actually done it. It’s what they recommend along with the ideas you need to know in your early retirement years. If you’re thinking about retiring soon, then you’re in for a real treat! In this video, we’ve gathered some of the best advice from retirees about their personal retirement. Aside from giving you some great advice, this video is also packed with helpful retirement stories and tips. If you’re ready to retire soon, then this is the video for you!
People on the internet think I am a blind supporter of China. Some even think I am paid by Chinese propaganda department to write pro-China answers! (Hell! It would be great to get paid for narrating facts, but sigh … so far, no payment. Not even a job offer :p).
For reasons unknown (and probably very biased) stating plain and simple historical and current facts offends a lot of people. Comparing the actions of countries offends people.
Here are a few examples.
Example 1. Hong Kong Riots
Last year (in 2020) Quora was overflowing with certain people expressing their support for Hong Kong rioters, claiming they are fighting for “freedom” and that secession is a right of people.
I wrote a couple of answers stating the plain fact that at least Indians should stop expressing their “deep concerns” for Hong Kong rioters, considering how India is handling the freedom movement in Jammu and Kashmir: no internet connectivity (since more than 8 months now) for the region, curfew almost daily, and lots of reports of rapes committed by the military. A lot of people were “offended” because of my comparison.
I also compared Hong Kong rioters with American civil war. The northern states of USA refused to let the southern states break free of the union. If “freedom” is the right of people, northern states should have allowed the southern states to break free.
Similarly, UK should have allowed Ireland to be free.
Somehow, when India, USA and UK does it, it’s all justified and acceptable. But when China does it (and on top of that, China didn’t even use lethal force against those rioters), suddenly China is at fault! I don’t understand the logic here.
Example 2. China’s Island Building In SCS
I wrote that every nation has a right to defend itself and no nation has a (moral) right to display aggression and policing at other nation’s borders. This too, offended a lot of people. People mentioned “freedom of navigation” and whatnot. I pointed out that USA has not ratified UNCLOS and therefore has no right to implement it on others.
There was a long debate about how USA and western powers have “freedom” to roam in their warships close to Chinese shores, but China has no right to install weapon systems on islands in South China Sea.
Some US guy went on a long argument with me in that answer, claiming that although USA has not signed UNCLOS, it still has the right to implement it on others. The most remarkable thing is that he claimed he was not even being biased and was completely transparent and morally fair in his claim!
Example 3. China – Australia Trade Dispute
I wrote that a customer is not and should not be forced to purchase from any seller, therefore China is not forced to purchase ore and food products from Australia, considering that Australian government went on a smear campaign against China (proposing to find Covid-19 origin only in China) and banning Huwawei.
Some people got offended, and claimed that China should be forced to buy from Australia, but Australia is “free” to not buy from China. Some people also claimed that China is “weaponizing trade” and that they must be “put to their place”.
All I can say about it is that their logic is incomprehensible for me.
Example 4. China – US Trade War
I wrote in an answer that if US is so concerned about trade deficit, they have all the right to stop buying from China and shift their imports to some other country. Similarly, China has the right to stop buying from USA and start buying food products from South America.
Similarly, I wrote that both countries have the right to place as many tariffs as they want, on their imports. Both are free in what they do within their borders.
This offended a lot of people. They claimed that it is China’s “legal responsibility” to avoid placing tariffs on US goods but USA is “free” to place as many tariffs as they want on Chinese goods.
Example 5. Chinese Loans And Investments In Africa
Someone asked if Chinese loans and investments in Africa were attempts by China to colonize Africa. I posted some pictures of African colonialism and showed what colonialism really looks like.
Some guys started arguing in the comments that China is “exploiting” Africa with their loans and whatnot. I simply stated that nobody is forcing African countries to get loans from China. They are free to get loans from IMF and World Bank if they want. If they are getting loans from China, they know the conditions. They are written clearly in front of them. If African countries and China, both agree on the terms and conditions, why is someone else trying to run around amok with arms flailing and crying foul?
They claimed that Africans are “simple minded” (yes, they were indeed simple minded, or else they would not have been enslaved by the western powers for centuries) and do not “see through” the traps. I asked if their countries have better loan offers for African countries, they should present the offers. Somehow that further offended them and they quit in rage, claiming I work for China’s propaganda department.
In 2017, China created a new instrument called Debt backed Govt Guarantee to their Private Players and Corporates and SOEs to allow them to borrow money from US Banks and EU Banks
I wondered back then why would they need to do that? Why would they gurantee the debt of their companies and what were they using to guarantee this debt?
Turns out they are guaranteeing these Debts using US Treasury Bonds and US Corporate Bonds.
Long story short, a huge chunk of US Treasuries are pledged by China against massive borrowings from European or American Banks
So if US defaults on its Debt to China
China laughs and defaults on its huge bank debts from US and Europe guaranteed against US Treasuries and Corporate Bonds
So either US redeems these bonds fully or Banks in US and EU collapse and a bailout could cost 3.5 times more or around 2.1 Trillion Dollars
More printing money, more debt, more. Inflation and a certain guarantee that nobody will buy US bonds anymore
China maybe loses 15% or around $ 120–130 Billion
So China would not be too unhappy if US tried such a move. It would be another nail in the US coffin
FIRST TIME REACTION TO AC/DC – WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE | SPEECHLESS…
Huawei’s mobile devices consumer division was kneecapped and decapitated through sanction, suffering a 90% drop in shipped volume in the last 4 years.
That’s a 100–200b dollar swing in revenue, just for handsets. To put that in perspective, that’s equal to 1–2 Boeings at its 2018 peak.
The US was trying to kill Huawei, and bury the telecoms business by bleeding revenue off its high margin consumer division.
That’s way grander than “stop Huawei from doing research innovation”.
Huawei is still under sanction, and Bloomberg’s recent name and shame of Taiwanese companies helping Huawei/SMIC with foundry infrastructure is a thinly veiled attempt at threatening companies not to deal with Huawei, even though the contracts they have entered into do not fall under current sanction.
Gina is free to suggest sanction escalation and fix Huawei like America did to Russia and Russian oligarchs, but Beijing will retaliate this time. And there is ~1 trillion in annual S&P 500 revenue generated from the mainland to aim for. The Chinese don’t have a significant presence stateside.
Personally, I think the ship on Huawei has already sailed. I won’t be surprised if Huawei breaks 100m phones shipped annually in the next 18–24 months. I also won’t be surprised if Huawei introduces new WIFI and telecoms standards in the next 5 years that end up being adopted in Apple phones. Neither Apple nor Google are capable of driving hardware standards revolution.
I can’t think of any easy-to-implement/low cost cards that the Department of Commerce can still deal when it comes to Huawei.
Do you even know that there is no such thing as “50 cents”party? This is a western media concoction and western media made up slur.
You are right China do not care about polishing their opinion for few reasons. One, if you understand the Chinese people, the Confucianism characteristics in them do not wish to listen to or read chest beating about themselves. In fact the Chinese psyche prefers people to underestimating them. Hence they prefer to hide their strength.
Two, Chinese government do not need to be popular at all. There political system is not a popularity contest like the west. They last thing they would do it’s to pay for compliments. They don’t need it. They don’t want to. And Chinese people are highly intelligent. They know the Chinese people cannot be easily fool.
Chinese people are highly pragmatic and very honest about themselves about where they really are. Hence China calls 1850–1950 as the “century of humiliation” because that is what it is. They don’t sugar coat.
Now let me explain the many positive writings in the social media about China and the Chinese people. I am very qualified to explain this not only because I am of Chinese origin but because I am guilty of writing positively about China.
So why do I do it?
I do it to counter the barrage of Anti China and Chinese haters writings by the westerners in the social media. Worst many who wrote these garbage are naively and ignorantly made to hate the Chinese people due primarily to the U.S. and western media and their government. I actually and honestly feel very sorry for them.
I am a 66 years old Singaporean living in Malaysia who is sadly fully English educated. At my ripe old age, I thought I want to do my part to balance the view about China and the Chinese people. And since I write in English. It can reach to the westerners particularly the Anglo Saxon group. My target is to talk to those who hate China and or the Chinese people. You can call this voluntary global social service.
I have never received a cent from China and Chinese authorities or from anyone ever! But there must be at least 10 thousands disgruntled western Caucasians who accuse me of being paid by CCP or that I am working for China. How I wish these 10 thousand haters give me a million each to shut up! Hahaha. I guarantee you I will. And I will glorify the West everyday for the rest of my life!
I am joking. My mind is not for sale!
Why are there many people like me? My guess is that we are here because we are forced into this by the lies, innuendos, fabrications, half truths, the lies, the misinformation, the demonisations about China and the Chinese people. Yes we stood up. And I am here in QUORA to call out racist, xenophobic, white supremacist, China and Chinese haters. I don’t hate them, nor do I want them hurt. I guaranteed you I don’t have a single hate bone inside me. But I want the truth out to you.
Yes particularly you!
I think there are many who speak well about Chinese because there are at least 7.5 billion who thinks well about China and the Chinese out of the world’s 8 billion population! If you think otherwise it is due to your western media reporting as though the world is thinking lie the very small proportion of mainly white, conservative, less read and less travelled older westerners is the world! It is not.
These 7.5 billion have been quiet until your media and you went over board. Hence this nonsense about 50 cents army! It a figment of your imagination.
China Did This After US Blacklisted Three Chinese Companies
The United States is a country defined by extreme violence, where people are threatened by both violent crime and violent law enforcement, and their safety is far from being guaranteed. Prisons are overcrowded and have become a modern slavery establishment where forced labor and sexual exploitation are commonplace
In the middle 1970’s I visited my fathers’ second cousin in Youngstown, Ohio. He had two daughters my age. And we stayed with them. Those girls were tall, blonde and nice. I’ll bet that they became amazing when they filled out and became grown women. I’ll tell you what.
They lived in a nice suburb, and it was decked out in mod 1970’s style. Silver and velvet wall paper, lots and lots of shag carpeting. A nice avocado green kitchen with wood trim, and they even had a downstairs cellar pool table. I was stunned. They were so groovy!
Times change. I know. Today, I want to dedicate some photos to the 1970’s era. Those of you that know… KNOW.
A little boy was beating on a little girl at a private school where I was working as a regular substitute teacher. None of the regular teachers were doing anything, so I went over and separated them. I was called into the office and told that touching children at their school was forbidden. I explained the situation, and they said it didn’t matter why, we were not to do it. Their ATTORNEYS had made it clear to them that no adult was to touch a child for any reason in their school building or on their property. Period. I went home and searched news services for anything that might have caused attorneys to insist that little boys be allowed to beat on little girls while teachers looked on. Yeh, there was quite a scandal, I couldn’t believe I’d never heard about it. I went into the office the next day first thing, and explained to the principal why standing by and letting that small child be physically terrorized was just as bad as what the attorneys were trying to prevent. He wouldn’t hear it. I walked out and never went back.
Peppered Beef Puffs
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Steak
2 pounds minced steak
3 eggs
1/2 cup packaged dry breadcrumbs
6 shallots
Salt, pepper
(2 ounces butter
1 pound packet puff pastry
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
Mushroom Sauce
3 ounces butter
8 ounces button mushrooms
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups water
2 beef stock cubes
1/2 teaspoon basil
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt, pepper
Instructions
Steak
Put meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, finely chopped shallots, salt and pepper into bowl; mix well.
Divide meat into 6 equal portions. Shape into small loaves, pressing in lightly.
Heat butter in frying pan, cook loaves on all sides until golden brown, remove from pan, cool.
Cut pastry into 6 equal portions, roll out each portion to 9 x 5 inches rectangle.
Put cold meatloaf into center of each pastry strip, brush edges of pastry with egg yolk mixture.
Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes or until golden, reduce heat to moderate, cook further 15 minutes.
Serve sauce separately.
Mushroom Sauce
Heat butter in pan.
Add finely sliced mushrooms, sauté until mushrooms are tender.
Add flour, stir until combined; cook for 1 minute.
Remove pan from heat, add wine, water and crumbled stock cubes.
Return pan to heat, stir until sauce boils and thickens; season with salt and pepper.
The culture of the Han people is the biggest culture in China.
Han Chinese constitute approximately 92% of the population of China and 95% of Taiwan; 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, and about 17% of the global population – making them the world’s largest ethnic group, numbering over 1.3 billion people.
Malaysian Chinese children wearing Hanfu, to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Kuala Lumpur; Sept. 24, 2023
Mandarin is the primary language of the Han people, and hence the official language of China, and with such a vast majority of the population identifying themselves as Han, you can find their influence at nearly every corner of China.
The written history of the Han people dates back to 1,000 B.C., which is one of the longest unbroken written histories in the world aside from Jewish people. The ancestral homelands of the Han, where they live in the highest concentration, are along the middle and lower parts of the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River basin, and the Pearl River.
With an agricultural and urban culture, it is not until recent years that you would find the Han people in mountainous or desert regions. Despite being such a large group, the Han people still share a common culture of celebrating traditional cuisine, clothing, and customs, which have been passed down from its ancient history.
All other ethnic groups – 56 officially recognized – in China outside of the Han’s are considered to be minority groups, and the largest minority in China is the Zhuang people, whose population today is around 18 million. They are mostly located in Southern China, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Young girls from the Zhuang ethnic group
Han Chinese commemorating the 2,574th anniversary at the birthplace of Confucius in Qufu, eastern Shandong Province, China.
Chinese people tend to honour tradition, but they also embrace many parts of Western popular culture. Thanks in part to the enduring influence of Confucianism, Chinese customs include a strong sense of family, a deep respect for hierarchy, a reverence for education and an appreciation for harmony over conflict.
You used to be able to work 40 hours and rent a HOUSE.
When I first started going to college a huge 4 bedroom house that allowed pets was 1250 a month. Now its 1400 for a decent 1 bedroom apartment. A really shitty two bedroom is available for 1400 but no pets.
Just 8 years ago when I first turned 18 and moved out — you paid first and last or first and deposit to move in.
Now you have to pay first, last, full month as deposit, plus extra for the pets. If I had 5000 to move somewhere I’d be buying a house.
Two people working 45 hours plus weekend side gigs dont even make enough to clear the 1600 monthly rent necessary for our barely adequate housing for myself and our daughter. I have a Masters in administration. I didnt pick something shitty, I chose to ignore passions and get a useful degree. Every year that goes by — the decent jobs now only schedule you 31 hours, because at 32 they’re required to pay benefits. Now, if you’ve been there 5 years but you’re sick for a week, they still fire you. Because now companies dont care. They don’t know your name. They have 15 people lined up for your job.
Rent should be 30% of your income. Now? Its 85%. We pay for our food with our side gig money. We need a car for work but we share one. We have never had credit cards, because we could never even fathom spending money we dont have? So our credit, while not horrible, isnt good. We dont have enough credit nor enough savings to even consider buying a house, which are all absolutely overwhelmingly expensive even out an hour out of town. I got up to working 80+ hours a week before finally I couldn’t anymore and it was costing me raising my daughter. We never took vacations, only my daughter and dogs have insurance because it was too expensive for us adults. We cooked our own meals, we used our left overs, I meal planned for a month at a time. We had very few special occasions for treats, and I sought out all free and cheap kids fun stuff. Crafts and socializing. But then rent got higher. And higher. And I couldn’t work any more. My partner already worked an 8-6 5 days a week. I worked two jobs, 31 hours at my degreed office job. Another 45 at any restaurant that needed help.
There is NO reason two people working for above minimum wage 40+ hours a week shouldn’t be capable of buying a home. Renting shouldn’t cost all of our money. We should be allowed to have pets.
Like what the fuck.
It didnt become “suddenly acceptable “ it became UNFORTUNATELY NECESSARY.
Bedazzled Elliot has a TINY problem
Scene from the movie Bedazzled where a huge basketball star discovers he has a small penis.
Back in the late ’60s, my father, a self-employed plumber, was working in a house in a Brooklyn neighborhood that wasn’t a very good one.
My dad had no problems working in the poorer neighborhoods. He was especially compassionate about larger families in smaller homes with one bathroom.
One day, while working in a house, he found he needed some tools from his car. Some guy came up from behind him and held a knife to his neck.
“Gimme the money,” he told dad.
He rummaged through dad’s pockets.
“That’s not the money,” dad said calmly, “those are parts for my plumbing clients. My money is in my other pocket.”
As dad went to get his money, the lady of the house came running out.
“Please, mister, don’t hurt the plumber! He has to fix our toilet!” she pleaded.
“You a plumber?” The mugger asked.
”Yes,” my father answered.
“My toilet’s been broken in my apartment for weeks,” the mugger added. “The landlord won’t fix it. My kids all gotta use the neighbor’s.”
My dad said quietly, “Let me finish here and I’ll come to your house and see if I can fix yours.”
The mugger removed the knife and stepped back.
“You’d do that—for me?”
“For you and your family,” my dad said.
Dad wrote down the address and promised he’d be there soon. The mugger walked away.
The lady of the house wanted to call the police. Dad said no, not to worry. He fixed their single toilet, and, sure enough, drove to the mugger’s apartment. Dad saw a bunch of children and no working toilet. Dad fixed the problem.
The mugger shook dad’s hand and started to cry. He hugged dad and apologized over and over for trying to rob him. My dad hugged him back.
He told the mugger, “Son, if you want to really help your family, don’t keep robbing people. If you go to jail, who will help them? Try to get a job. I know it’s hard.”
My dad came home that night and told us this story over dinner. My brother and I thought our dad was losing his mind. I started to cry thinking my father was in danger.
“He could have hurt you, Daddy!”
My dad pulled me to his side. “No baby, that man wasn’t looking to hurt people. He just wanted money for his family.”
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“When he put the knife to my neck, the blade wasn’t sharp. It didn’t leave a cut. He couldn’t have cut butter with it. He was looking for help.”
My father was just like that. He was the sort who would pick up hitch hikers and swear he was going their way—even if it was really out of his way. I saw him stop a few times in the pouring rain to help people—someone changing a tire or needed a jump start for their battery. One man wanted to give dad money for helping, and dad, always with a smile, would say no.
BEIJING: The infrastructure bill touted by the Biden administration is not as wonderful as the Democrat Party claims it to be.
The US$1 trillion bill will lead the US federal government into deeper sovereign debt while creating new infrastructure projects that will take decades to complete if approved.
The government boondoggle will not free up funding immediately for the construction of new highways, bridges and railroad lines, since that requires contractors winning approvals from local, state and federal governments while they must obtain
hundreds of inspectors’ permits and support from local community activists.
Building a bridge in the United States is not a simple process even if Washington provides ample funding for it.
I had witnessed the complexities of government-back infrastructure when I lived in Dallas from 2007 to 2010 and I was assigned to cover the Dallas County Commissioners’ Court public hearing every Tuesday morning for the Dallas Blog.
You would often hear amazing ideas to construct major projects in Dallas County but then they got political. Even extending the highway a few extra miles required much public debates, while the landowners directly impacted sought big payouts from government agencies.
But that was just the beginning. Contractors made bids to compete for the project and if they lost out they hired protestors to attend the Dallas County Commissioners’ Court to give speeches claiming the new project would become an environmental hazard or harm local communities.
If Dallas County Commissioners voted in favor of the highway extension, they required an environmental impact report that took years to complete.
Most construction projects from the moment they are approved to the time contractors start building took seven to nine years.
I recall one time after two decades of waiting for approvals; contractors for a toll road extension in North Dallas were blocked from construction when an elected official at the Dallas County Commissioners’ Court announced he would block it since the leading construction firm failed to meet racial hiring quotas on the management side.
But upon closer review, I learned from County officials that the elected official allegedly was upset the contractor never gave him a donation for his re-election campaign.
I mention this tale to explain why the US will continue to struggle in playing catch up with China in regards to infrastructure. Beijing is way ahead and Washington will not be able to start construction on new projects for another few years at the earliest.
You can review the Politico article with the link HERE.
As reported by Politico:
“But a review of proposed spending in Beijing’s latest annual budget and five-year plan indicate that the U.S. faces an enormous challenge merely in keeping up. Here’s a number that is illustrative of the gap:
China poured more cement from 2011-2013 than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century.
Numbers from the National Bureau of Statistics show that China spent about $8 trillion on infrastructure investment in 2020.
The U.S. spent $146 billion in federal money over the same period.
A comparison of 2018 infrastructure spending as a percentage of GDP by 48 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries ranked China first at 5.57 percent compared to 0.52 percent for the U.S.”
In recent years, China has constructed some of the world’s finest infrastructure projects. They had built very long sea bridges, road tunnels and highways reaching to many parts of the country.
The building in China will keep going and the US will fall further and further behind.
It is impossible for Biden to have made such a statement
Impossible!!!
That’s because the US officially follows the ONE CHINA POLICY
This means China can never invade Taiwan because they are the same country
It’s like India invading Punjab tomorrow
So all US can do is to provide weapons to Taiwan and claim to help them defend themselves citing human rights and aggression
It will be like a Civil War & extension of the 1931–1949 Chinese Civil War
US in fact not fight against China at all
They will give an excuse of Chinese aggression and get ASEAN to turn against Taiwan and get the entire South China Sea nations to join a Military Alliance with the United States by SACRIFICING TAIWAN
That is the game plan of the US termed Operation Majullah coined by Pompeo in 2018
To provoke China into an invasion of Taiwan by 2023 (Assuming Trump won the election in 2020, so now 2025–2027)
To convince a terrified Philippines & Vietnam into joining US in a Military alliance and allowing NATO to expand to South East Asia
Persuading ASEAN to join NATO and finish the encircled shield against China and recommence a trade war with full cooperation of the ASEAN to hopefully break the CPC and it’s hold on China
Of course Trumps defeat has set back Operation Majullah badly because this operation assumed Russia would be close to the US under Trump (Assuming he won 2020)
Yet now Russia is firmly with China so that opens up a long trade route
Plus the world had COVID so US is economically much weaker
Plus the Ukraine war has draines the West of it’s influence and strengthened China and Russia and the BRICS
So it’s a different world now and Operation Majullah would be redundant now
“THIS IS IT! Most people have No idea what is Happening in Maui, Oprah & the Rock
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Oprah Winfrey face backlash for asking fans to donate to Maui fund instead of contributing more themselves The family of a woman who died trying to flee a wildfire on Maui is suing the county, the state and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, alleging they neglected to maintain their fire-prone property.
In the early 80’s I was Operations Officer (in charge of all non-lending, non-trust functions) of the headquarters branch of a large, state-wide bank. 80 odd branch employees on the first three floors, senior management of the region and holding company on floors 7–11.
This bank had grown and evolved from a family owned institution, and a solid chunk of the shares were still held by family members, and a number of the Directors and senior managers were related. A former President and Chairman had recently died, and his son, a Senior Vice President in charge of Commercial Lending, was his estate’s Personal Representative, but had not yet filed and received Letters of Administration. In addition, the owner keys could not be located, so it would need to be drilled.
Under our state’s laws, a safe deposit box can be opened, an inventory of contents made, and certain time-sensitive items can be removed, such as a will or life insurance policy. As a large office with a disproportionate ratio of older customers, this was something we saw with some frequency. It required the bank’s Safe Deposit Custodian (a non-officer employee), an officer, and a locksmith. Unlike normal box access, the bank representatives had to be present, go to a private room in the Safe Deposit area with the estate representative, make the inventory and insure only authorized items were removed, and then re-secure the box contents pending further legal proceedings.
Not this time. Me, the Custodian, the Senior Vice President son, the Corporate General Counsel, and a stenographer from the holding company cluster around the locksmith, who had the door open in about 30 seconds. We took the rather large size box upstairs to a Corporate conference room and opened it.
It contained this somewhat crusty old gentleman’s most precious and important documents – 40 years or so of birthday cards, Christmas cards, letters and notes to and from his wife, children and grandchildren, school papers and projects, refrigerator drawings, and family pictures. Not a single will, stock certificate, or business paper.
China can destroy any fleet anywhere in the world. Not only an American one. Not only near and around China, but anywhere.
The idea that China has the ability, technology, capability and wherewithal to destroy a complete fleet of military grade vessels is well known, well established and incorporated in contemporaneous Pentagon planning scenarios.
…
Just because China CAN, does not mean that it WILL.
After all, the United States can eliminate hunger, and homelessness overnight simply by funneling a fraction of the USA budget dedicated to Ukraine towards the needs of American citizens. But, of course that’s NEVER going to happen.
…
Questions like these used to raise my ire; get me infuriated by the ignorance of those questioning the obvious, and a general fury at that the troll and ‘bot attacks that invariably follow. But now, given the utter hopelessness of the Untied States on the global stage, I just shrug my shoulders and feel pity.
It’s like this question:
Can the United States drop a nuclear weapon on Beijing?
Well. Yes it can.
But it won’t.
…
Or this question:
Can the United States assassinate Alexander Putin?
Well, it can.
But it won’t.
…
Or this question:
Can I force my spouse to eat dog shit?
Well, you can.
But you won’t.
…
In all the cases above, a hypothetical fantasy is generated. But the scenario will never occur where the test of validity were to be realized.
Why?
Because other factors come into play.
…
So, let’s go back to the question at hand.
Can China wipe out any American fleet that sails near China?
Well, it is obvious. Of course it can.
Will it do so.
No. Other factors come into play.
…
I know that there are ‘bots, teenagers, drunken misfits, and trolls that want to argue this point, but China is not stupid. It will maximize the damage through retaliatory measures it deems suitable, given the situation and scenarios that manifested.
My PERSONAL opinion is that if China sinks one fleet, it will sink them all.
The reason is simple; economies of scale.
…
And that’s not all, folks.
Not by a long shot.
Sorry to say.
…
So, let’s just keep our personal fantasies, and delusions to ourselves. Just because you own a shotgun, doesn’t mean that you intend to go Postal, perform a “suicide by cop” or have a Columbine mass shooting with it. Seriously. Those are just fantasies. Nothing more.
China is currently working with the United States on a wide range of issues, and as the provocations by the neocon arm of the American government subsides, so with the over all prosperity of the (remaining) American middle class increase.
Here’s “School-Smart” vs “Street-Smart” in a LEGO analogy:
School is like getting a very complex LEGO set:
The goal: “We expect you to put this Lego together,. We will show you how to do it! Follow the instructions and you will succeed!”
So, we go from first grade through to sixth grade.
In each grade, we get a set of instructions to follow:
For example, this is first grade:
Attention!
If we fail to meet the required standards, we WON’T be able to move forward. If we DO meet the standards, we will be allowed to move to the next level — each level stacks upon the other, growing in complexity.
If we complete elementary, we move on to middle school, and then to high school:
Once we successfully finish high school, we move on to college. We continue “stacking” up ALL the sets of instructions, meeting the standards.
If we don’t do it EXACTLY as expected, we will fail!
Finally, the day comes …
We celebrate …
CONGRATULATIONS! We all get a “certificate” that proves we are capable of following very complex instructions.
Then, we face the real world …
The real world is also like Lego, but with NO INSTRUCTIONS!
We feel confused and overwhelmed. “What should I do?” we ask ourselves.
We urgently need someone to tell us what to do (boss). After all, we were all trained to FOLLOW instructions, indoctrinated, not really educated.
What’s the difference?
Indoctrination teaches us WHAT to think, not HOW to think!
So, to answer your question, why are so many smart and diligent people successful in school but fail in real life?
Being “school-smart” is radically different than being “street-smart.”
Do you want to be “street-smart?”
Consider this: We are now in an age where computers, algorithms and robots, are unbeatable at FOLLOWING instructions. If our value to the world is being good at following instructions, we then do NOT stand a chance at succeeding in today’s new economic environment.
Who will win?
“Street-Smart” in the new economy means we have extraordinary creative skills, meaning that we can innovate and think “outside the box.”
Creativity CANNOT be automated!
Computers, robots and algorithms CANNOT compete with us in creativity. Well, at least not yet …
Schools MUST stop “standardizing” us. We are all different and that’s where success comes from, from our unique abilities and strengths that make us stand out in this competitive world.
We now live in a very different world. Our educational system was built and perfected to serve the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age was all about competing with efficiencies. Following instructions with excellence increased productivity. Today that work belongs to machines, not to us.
Today the world belongs to CREATORS!
There are NO instructions ahead of us! The way we solved things yesterday is now outdated. Change is only accelerating.
The sooner we understand this, the better chance we all have at succeeding in this world of exponential change.
THE REAL REASONS WE LEFT THE UNITED STATES (and why we can’t move back)
We left the United States for several reasons, but only one prevents us from ever moving back. Are we upset about it? NO! Our only regret is not leaving SOONER!
Absolutely not the best to live in, I would say it’s the worst developed country to live in.
Life for most people is about work, just running a hamster wheel hoping not to slip or you will be climbing out a hole. I remember life being a rat race just staying afloat and never catching a break. I imagine wealthy people don’t experience this but when 80% of the country are living paycheck to paycheck, obviously that’s not a good sign.
Food prices are triple sometimes four times more expensive than what I have paid in Western Europe for the same goods. Yet our minimum wage is significantly lower, so when 1 hours minimum wage barely covers a couple items of groceries, imagine how those families are feeling the sting for housing, water, utilities. Many 1 bedroom apartments cost more than an entire 1 month minimum wage.
You will prioritize work over family, because there is little choice in the matter.
So little choice because a social safety net is not available to help you, I’ve exhausted this option to death on hard times and it just wasn’t there. All I got was a lot of wasted time and disappointment.
Healthcare, higher education, child care is exhorbitant, they will drain your disposable income, along with the high costs of basic things that Americans believe they are getting a great deal for, for example in UK you get higher speed internet for a fraction of the price an American pays, I have cable with lots of channels, WiFi, and landline for £40 a month, my mom has the same with less channels for over $169 a month (that was 2014 prices).
The worst part of living in the US is the limited choices for people at the bottom, social mobility is low. There is this illusion you can make your life anything you want, this is available to the well connected and rich but it’s sold off as something all Americans can achieve through hard work and it’s not obtainable.
Another issue is just existing in the US is a price. If I don’t want to be homeless and totally ostracized by society, I have to pay a price…just the act of existing means I must pay for health care at the very least. If you happen to fall on difficult times, the fines, fees, interest, just pile up and it consumes you. I compare it to someone piling rocks on your chest and sternum to your lungs collapse. The thought of trying to maintain a bare minimum life style while problems are karate chopping you from all angles is exhausting.
In the 2.5 years I lived in the UK, at my very worst I have never felt this level of despair and hopelessness. If I allow myself to slightly remember my past in the US, the whole thought conjures up loads of anxiety, and resentment.
The USA is NOT Letting Citizens Renounce
What you didn’t mention and should have mentioned is that the US is one of only 4 countries in the world who taxes their citizens no matter where they live or where they make their income. So the obvious reason the US is rejecting renunciation of US citizenship is to keep wealthy international businessman from escaping this always/everywhere tax system.
My father and I were just chatting and he offhandedly said he wasn’t an educated man. I said “Not formally but you’ve had a great practical education.” He said “What do you mean?” Dad had left school after the 8th grade but had worked for a company that provided the equipment to move water, pumps and pipelines and such for many years. I asked “If you have a pipe 18” in diameter under a pressure of 15 pounds per square inch, how many gallons of water a minute are you moving?” He looked at me a moment, stared off into space for another moment and then gave me a number. I smiled and said “See? I’d have to dig out my textbooks and calculator to get an answer and you just did that in your head! Serious practical education!” I think he was pleased at my expression of respect.
G7 is in denial. According to them BRICS is a “gang that can’t shoot straight” due to the fact that “all members have their own individual interests”.
They even fail to realize what this sort of criticism says about their “rules based order” where everybody is supposed to jump or run on command, regardless of own interests, and they have a nerve to call it freedom and democracy.
Giant lights flame: and check out Taiwan team’s arrival
When my wife was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, I found out the worth of money.
It allowed me to buy time with my wife. She was given an 18 month prognosis by her Gynocological Oncologist. (Don’t be ashamed if you didn’t know that was a medical specialty, I didn’t either in April of 2016 when we met Dr. Steven Andrews. Now, his name goes to any woman who might need it.) She and I resolved to fight her cancer for two reasons:
To have as much quality time as possible.
For whatever her fight could teach her team for the NEXT woman.
We knew there were limits to what insurance would pay. I accepted them, she wasn’t so sanguine. There were a couple of times she begged me not to go on because of what we were spending. I firmly said NO.
In the end, due to the medical miracles Dr. Andrews and his team pulled out of their collective asses on a regular basis, Andrea’s 18 months became over 4 years. I held her hand when she took her last breath, kissed her cooling forehead, and called the home Hospice nurse to pronounce her death officially.
The cost? 85% of our retirement savings. I will be living most of the rest of my life on Social Security. The worth? As the MasterCard commercials say: PRICELESS. She and I made memories together in many different ways, many of them during the time we weren’t supposed to get. Yes, hers are gone, but mine remain, and that is worth everything to me. I knowingly spent the money to keep her beside me as long as she was willing to fight.
And Dr. Andrews may be a step closer to saving another lady later. I know he’ll give many more extra time with their loved ones.
I bought time, and it was worth incalculablely more than the money I spent.
I’m sure you are aware, but I don’t live in Malaysia. I’ve only had the privilege of visiting thus far. While in Kuala Lumpur, which I assume qualifies as a large city, I was very taken with the architecture. In my opinion, it was like a mosaic of old and new. Colonial and modern. Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Some bright and colorful like the Chinese temples, others somber and stately like the buildings from colonial days, others bright and shiny like the Merdeka building and the Petronas towers.
I can’t deny that some streets could do with some cleaning and anti-littering campaigns. But I also don’t expect perfection from a developing country and I certainly shouldn’t complain when I am a guest in the country and treated with such kindness from hotel staff and Grab drivers, to dear friends I cherish. Without fail I was made to feel welcome. Who am I to judge?
If you are bothered by messy streets then I have a few suggestions. First, you could organize meetings to mobilize people in the area to have a community beautification day where any able bodies who are willing could pick up trash, sweep the streets, and make minor repairs to building fronts. Secondly, you could print and pass out pamphlets highlighting the importance of a clean community environment for the sake of disease prevention. Third, petition the government for funds to revitalize and gentrify the area and to pay more people for trash collection. In my state the cities employ people for the purpose of landscaping and garbage disposal. I’m not sure how that works in Malaysia though.
If none of that helps then move. Seriously. If you are unhappy and uncomfortable there’s no reason to stay. And the people around you likely don’t appreciate the complaints without action.
Well, that means the virtual party cost about $66,667 per attendee.
Does this inspire you with confidence about how skilfully the EU will manage its budget around the Global Gateway? Do you even feel sure that the EU will actually build any infrastructure in the real world – as opposed to imaginary party venues in the Metaverse?
At the moment, it is meaningless to speak of the EU Global Gateway competing with China’s BRI. They are just not doing the same sorts of things. China is building mega-sized ports, bridges, highways and railways. The EU is holding online parties for six pax.
I didn’t actually witness it, but, saw the aftermath. My youngest daughter was a bit reserved and quiet. She had a lot of friends, though and they nicknamed her “Chipper”.
One day I got a call from the Dean of Girls at her junior high school asking if I could come in. When I got there the first thing I saw was two hall lockers (the tall upright ones) with the doors caved in.
The Dean told me that some of the boys had been getting grabby.
“Chipper” was talking with some friends in the hall when a passing boy grabbed her breast. She never said a word, she grabbed him by the throat and proceeded to try to throw him through a locker twice.
The Dean said, when she got there, the boy was crumpled on the floor with my daughter standing over him daring him to get up.
I said: “I’m proud of her. But, I’m willing to pay for the damages.”
The Dean smiled and told me the boy’s parents were on the way and they were going to pay for the damages.
When I picked my daughter up to ride home. I said: “You made a bit of a mess”. She said: “He had it coming.”
I said: “You’re right. How about we stop for ice cream?”
As a Christian man, back in my Asian church, I never struggled with lust for women because I’m not really attracted to Asian women but at my new church with a lot of different ethnicities, I’m really struggling with lust for women. What should I do?
Become a Muslim and marry four of them and have children with each of them.
When China had no navy or air force, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps would dare to cross Yalu River in North Korea. After China has an air force, the United States only dares to sit across the 17 degrees north latitude. After China’s naval and air rocket forces are formed, we don’t have any more problems dealing with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is currently developing a hypersonic missile to increase its presence in Japan and South Korea. The question is, aren’t fixedly deployed missile bases vulnerable to missile bombings? When the island and the mainland China fire missiles at each other, which one suffers more? As a result, the Air Force basically has no chance in the Western Pacific. Warships can still run away, but aircraft are really useless. Guam was immediately taken care of by first wave of Dongfeng 26.
local wars require detailed analysis. If it is a protracted all-out war, the United States will be exhausted. No matter how profitable the financial industry is, a real fight still depends on how many tons of steel are produced.The Chinese and American militaries are the only militaries in the world that have completed information transformation and have begun to move towards intelligent and unmanned armies. The problem with the U.S. military is that it wants to integrate the entire U.S. military into a digital command system. As a result, various practical factors and historical problems have made it bloated and complicated. The Chinese military is relatively late due to its military reform, confidentiality system and informatization changes. The outside world has always been blind to the internal situation of the military and has only a partial understanding. Although more and more new equipment and new technologies are being exposed, the People’s Liberation Army itself is becoming more and more mysterious.
Taking the 1998 flood fight and the 1998 earthquake fight as examples, we can intuitively understand the PLA’s combat readiness and mobilization status and shortcomings. With the improvement of the country’s comprehensive strength, the military no longer needs to be on the front line all the time. After all, the COVID-19 epidemic is just a glimpse, and it is more of a big test for politics and society. China is the only industrialized country in the world with all industrial categories, and it continues to invest in upgrading industrial capabilities. The marginal costs brought about by large-scale production are reduced, and a large number of engineering talents continue to promote technological progress and efficiency innovation while solving one problem after another. We can regard the COVID-19 epidemic as a global biological and chemical war waged by USA. China has not only demonstrated unparalleled industrial advantages and political mobilization advantages, but also exposed some problems. As the “lighthouse of the world”, the United States wanted to show off, but its butt was exposed. The war has extended from a battle of blood and fire to a comprehensive contest of technology, political system, population quality, industrial system, culture and public opinion. The boundaries between the military and civilians are gradually blurring. War is no longer the exclusive preserve of military personnel. Everyone is colliding in the whirlpool of the emergency times. We firmly believe that in the end, it is people who determine the victory of a war .
(1) Army confrontation in local wars
Assuming that armies of US and China engage in one on one decisive battle. When we read the report of US patriot performance is really rubbish. On our hand we have these weapon.
PHL-191, a long-range guided rocket, can be equipped with 370mm guided rockets and 760mm tactical missiles.
The Huolong 280A tactical missile has a double-cone warhead, commonly known as a water-floating bomb. The existing air defense system cannot effectively intercept it. You think rockets are fired at each other, but they are actually derailed missiles bullying the “patriots”
Strategic Bureau Chief created top ten ranking of weapon each country, US weapon rank first in all category except rocket launcher, no matter how the US try to deceive US, we know truth.
In other words, if it is an army duel alone, it will be on a battlefield of 100-500 kilometers. The U.S. Army can only be bombed unilaterally.
(2) Air Force comparison
In terms of overall combat strength, air power has always been the core of the US offensive. Even as the navy most favored by Congress, the core of offense is still aircraft carrier-based aircraft.After equipping the complete J-20 and J-16 series with WS15, the Chinese Air Force is the only one capable of fighting against the U.S. Air Force. At this stage, the Chinese Air Force is only transforming from homeland defense to peripheral offense. Relying on military bases deployed around the world, the U.S. Air Force can achieve global strikes. The United States dismantled the F22 production line and concentrated on producing the F35. Today, after the J-20 was put into service in batches, it is a stupid move. But there were no problems at the time. The original design intention of the F22 was to hunt the Su-27 on the battlefield in Eastern Europe. However, as an air superiority fighter, the F22 does not have ground bombing capabilities. The mission of the U.S. Air Force is to seize air superiority and then blow up all obstacles in front of it. The Army is responsible for cleaning up the battlefield. Just like the Gulf War. This is will need an in depth analysis after this article, i will write about air battle between J-20 and F-35. I will also write a comprehensive J-20 reception anything related to J-20 after this article.
(3) Navy comparison
To be honest before 055 destroyed entered service, the chinese navy has no chance of winning a navy combat.
The 055 changed everything, or to be more precise, it was the YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile carried by the 055.
With a range of thousands of kilometers, the 055 destroyer is no longer the escort of the aircraft carrier, but the firepower center of the fleet. Instead, carrier-based aircraft only need to focus on driving away enemy fighters and cruise missiles. The 112-unit vertical launch system of the 055 itself was originally designed for air defense and anti-submarine warfare. When the electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier and the J-35 enter service and become combat effective, the PLA naval fleet will form a dual-core attack queue. At that time, nuclear power was no longer enough. conventional ballistic missile The United States has been researching stealth anti-ship missiles over the years, but the cost of developing them is too high, and the U.S. Navy has never been equipped with them. Ten years ago, there were no surface ships that could threaten the Navy. As a result, they have been making do with subsonic anti-ship missile. To put it bluntly, except for strategic nuclear submarines that launch nuclear warheads. Submarines have always been a hobby of second-rate navies. Only in a silent ambush in a fixed water area is there a chance of winning. Once targeted by a destroyer or anti-submarine aircraft, it can only be passively beaten. Therefore, the role of German submarines in World War II was not to confront the British and American navies head-on, but to intercept merchant ships.
Now the Fujian ship is about to undergo sea trials. If the Ford aircraft carrier has not solved the reliability problem of the electromagnetic ejection and arresting device after the Fujian ship is put into service and has achieved combat effectiveness, it will be really a reverse event, we will have the upperhand.
Academician Ma Weiming. Academician Ma recently issued a document that our country needs to build a new type of warship, a nuclear-powered all-purpose ship that integrates electromagnetic guns, laser weapons, microwave weapons, all-electric propulsion systems, and comprehensive management systems, and is also equipped with two electromagnetic ejection tracks to launch unmanned ships. Man-machine. Of course, this kind of warship is indispensable for its electronic warfare system.
(4) Mainland coastline versus islands and aircraft carrier battle groups
Put aside the Grand Theater Chess. The most likely local war between China and the United States is in the Western Pacific, that is, around taiwan island. In the ten years from 2010 to 2020, the equipment of China’s navy and air force has made a complete leap forward. And many people who don’t care about current affairs still have their mindset of the last century.
With the Rocket Force’s hypersonic missiles, the Air Force’s fifth-generation electronic warfare aircraft and long-range supersonic anti-ship missiles, the Navy’s aircraft carriers and 055 large-scale drive and the sea-based hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile Eagle 21, and combat support long-range early warning radar space-based reconnaissance With the launch of satellites, the area within 1,000 kilometers of China’s coastline has become an absolute military restricted area. 1,000 to 4,000 kilometers is China’s advantageous area for firepower projection. The decisive factor is the range of the ballistic missile.
Dongfeng 17 not only glides in the atmosphere to avoid all existing anti-missile systems, but more importantly, it is low cost.
Dongfeng 17 uses the propeller of Dongfeng 16 to glide through the atmosphere to reach a range close to that of Dongfeng 21 , so the manufacturing cost is low. In recent years, China has made breakthroughs in the integrated molding technology of solid rocket motor fuel, which no longer requires manual carving and decoration of gunpowder pillars. Production costs have been significantly reduced, and the result is that ballistic missiles have become the price of cabbage, and Dongfeng 17 has begun to serve in large quantities. Unfortunately, Dongfeng 31 and Dongfeng 41 are too big, so they can only rely on manual modification of the gunpowder pillars.If the production cost of intercontinental ballistic missiles is reduced much in the future and waverider warheads and scramjet engines can be used, the picture will be so beautiful.When the Dongfeng missiles of the Rocket Force and the YJ-21 of the Navy and Air Force can effectively destroy the aircraft carrier fleet, the only one problem left is positioning.The simplest way to locate an aircraft carrier is to send a ship to follow it. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s strategy to deal with the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet was to use destroyer tracking and anti-ship missile saturation attacks.
Of course, during wartime, the aircraft carrier fleet spreads out and starts attacking hundreds of kilometers away, so tracking is only a last resort.Therefore, there are shore-based long-range early warning radars , space-based reconnaissance satellite patrols, underwater submarine patrols with unmanned underwater vehicles, large-scale early warning aircraft in the air, stealth unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and even electromagnetic signal reconnaissance. Ballistic missiles themselves can also serve as reconnaissance vehicles. In short, use all means to locate the enemy’s coordinates. Similarly, the farther away from the coastline, the fewer means of reconnaissance, and the more difficult it is for the aircraft carrier to accurately locate it. It’s just that the aircraft carrier loses its threat to land when it is far away from the coastline. And China’s aircraft carrier fleet has broken away from the barriers of the land air force and rocket force, and the danger has also greatly increased.Aircraft carriers at sea can still operate, but air force bases, naval ports and missile launch sites on land can only be named one by one as long as they are within the missile range.
(5) Hypersonic ballistic missiles
In the 1990s, China is fully engaged in research on ballistic missiles under tremendous pressure of the superiority of US airforce and US navy. At last, the double-cone Dongfeng 21D with air rudder was built, making it a reality for ballistic missiles to maneuver against surface ships at the end. Then the Dongfeng 26 was further developed to cover Guam. Then the epoch-making Eagle Strike 21 was developed, which allowed surface ships and aircraft to carry ballistic anti-ship missiles, completely changing the rules of war.
There are currently three technical paths for hypersonic ballistic missiles. Biconical warheads, waverider warheads and scramjets. The double-cone warhead can significantly increase the range and terminal maneuverability of the missile when it re-enters the atmosphere. In the 1980s, the United States used biconical warheads in Pershing medium-range ballistic missiles, but they were not water-floating warheads. They were retired after the United States and the Soviet Union signed a treaty limiting intermediate-range ballistic missiles. North Korea and the Houthis have also tested biconical warheads.
Although it is not a hypersonic ballistic missile, it can achieve terminal limited orbit changes, which greatly increases the difficulty of interception by anti-missile systems. Currently, only China and Russia have biconical hypersonic ballistic missiles in active service. Russia currently only has one “Dagger”. On the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, russia conducted targeted clearing and attacks on the “Patriot” air defense system.
It is obvious that Russia does not have much equipment and can only use it sparingly. The hypersonic ballistic missile that the United States is closest to successfully testing is also a biconical warhead. Yes, the United States has no active hypersonic ballistic missiles. That’s why he is so passive. Asfor the waverider warhead in active service, only China’s Dongfeng 17 is publicly available. According to public information, Dongfeng 17 does not fly out of the atmosphere after launch, but begins to glide laterally at the edge of the atmosphere, with a maximum speed of Mach 10 and an attack speed of Mach 5 at the end. The special thing about Dongfeng 17 is that it avoids the detection and attack range of the current mid-course anti-missile system, and its ultra-high mobility makes the terminal anti-missile system completely unable to intercept.
What is inconsistent with Qian Xuesen’s trajectory is that the Dongfeng 17 does not fly out of the atmosphere. It also has a vector nozzle that can maneuver laterally. Even if a missile launch is detected during the boost phase, the impact point cannot be predicted and it is even more difficult to track when maneuvering without thrust. As for rocket scramjet engines, China, the United States and Russia are all in the research stage. Traditional rocket engines come with their own fuel and oxidizer. The ramjet engine introduces compressed air into the rocket engine combustion chamber to save fuel. The problem is that the engine first requires rocket combustion to accelerate to supersonic speed and then start the sub-burn or super-burn engine. The best performance range of sub-fuel engines is around Mach 3, and the best performance range of scram engines is around Mach 5. Therefore, the best combination is the engine composite design rocket plus sub-burning and super-burning, three forms. Or accelerate the aircraft to supersonic speed and release the sub-fuel and super-fuel engine. July last year, China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University completed a multi-modal test of a ramjet engine.
Now you know why USA sanction NPU and hack NPU website.
(6) industrial competition under total war.
If we reach the stage of total war, the logic of war will shift industrial potential into industrial military. United states has completely failed on this.
The U.S. Congress has been requiring the U.S. Navy to speed up the manufacture of new surface ships and purchase at least three of the latest model “Arleigh Burke” class destroyers every year. However, the U.S. Navy still submitted the purchase of two ships in the budget list for fiscal year 2024. Planning Check.
McCord, the U.S. military’s top budget official, said that’s because U.S. shipyards are barely able to build two destroyers a year, let alone three. In 2022, the United States will actually have only one Burke-class destroyer in service. China has 3 055 destroyers and 4 052D destroyers in service. The reason behind it is actually very simple.
In 2022, the total tonnage of U.S. shipbuilding will be 600,000 tons, including approximately 100,000 tons of new warship tonnage. 2022, China’s total shipbuilding tonnage will be 40 million tons, accounting for 55% of the world’s total tonnage. In 2022, nine large warships with a capacity of 150,000 tons will be commissioned. The world’s total crude steel output in 2022 will be 1.8785 billion tons, of which China’s output will be 1.013 billion tons, accounting for nearly 54%. The United States is the fourth largest steel producer in the world, with a crude steel output of slightly more than 80 million tons, and the EU alone is less than 220 million tons. In 2022, India’s crude steel output will be 125.1 million tons. in 2022, China’s power generation capacity will be 8,534.25 billion kilowatt hours (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), a year-on-year increase of 9.7%; the United States’ power generation capacity will be 4,115.54 billion kilowatt hours, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%.China’s railway mileage will be 155,000 kilometers in 2022, including 42,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. In 1916, the operating mileage of railways in the United States reached its peak, reaching 410,000 kilometers. Now, there are only more than 220,000 kilometers of railway mileage left in the United States. In 2021, the total railway freight volume in China was 4,773.72 million tons, and the total railway freight volume in the United States was 12.026 million tons. It is clear that the total mileage of American railways is longer, but the freight capacity is hundreds of times different. On the one hand, there is a gap in demand for industrial raw materials such as coal, iron ore. On the one hand, American railways are in disrepair, and their transportation efficiency cannot be improved. There were 868 rail freight derailments in the United States in 2021.
The weakening of basic industrial strength has hindered the progress of military industry. In the field of hypersonic ballistic missiles, which the United States is eager to catch up with, test launches of biconical missiles often fail. It is normal for weapons tests to fail. What is abnormal is the reason for the failure, such as launcher failure or rocket engine starting failure. Just like the Ford aircraft carrier, the electromagnetic ejection failure is understandable, after all, it is a new technology. It makes no sense that the weapon lifts frequently malfunction. After the Russo-Ukrainian War, it is not surprising that the United States turned to South Korea to produce 155mm artillery shells. In a total war, the first wave consumes active weapons, equipment and personnel. The rest depends on the reproduction capacity of weapons and the ability to mobilize personnel. Today, only the aviation industry can retain the face of American industry. The reason why we skipped the air force earlier is that in the Western Pacific, the air force must rely on the flight runways of air force bases on islands. As soon as the war started, the Rocket Force focused on taking care of them. they have room to take off. The only place that can allow the U.S. Air Force to exert its full strength is the United States itself.
F35 Production Line
Although the Boeing 737 max has brought shame to the United States, Boeing factories have repeatedly reported that workers’ quality has deteriorated due to marijuana use. Before the epidemic, Boeing produced more than 800 passenger planes per year. Lockheed Martin’s F35 production is also above 150 aircraft per year.
For comparison, China delivered its first passenger aircraft C919 last year, and plans to have a production capacity of 150 aircraft in five years. The J-20 production capacity is estimated to be 30-50 aircraft. Where are the limitations? Training of production line and industrial workers. Taken together, in local wars, China has an absolute advantage in East Asia. China’s ocean-going offensive capabilities are improving, but the United States still has the advantage on blue ocean war. It is only a matter of time before China’s industrial strength is finally transformed into military strength in a full-scale war.
Therefore, the United States has been fanning the flames around China and constantly provoking, but it does not want to enter the war by itself. It is best to replicate the situation in Ukraine, with South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia resisting harm from the front, and the United States standing behind and selling arms. Once China puts on a desperate posture, the US military will retreat on its own. In a total war, China will win the final victory, but it will only be a miserable victory. The United States has been standing still for 20 years. Even if China’s military technology keeps up, there is still a huge gap in weapons inventory.
The United States wants China to enter the conflict in 2025, stimulate the return of financial capital to the United States, and take over the supply of U.S. debt. China wants to delay it until 2030, or at least until 2027, and is ready to defeat others without a fight.
China is actually the only country in the world today that is preparing for a world war.
The whole industrial category system manufacturing is not to brag, but to always be prepared to fight against the entire world in an isolated and helpless situation. It is no exaggeration to say that even in the event of a full-scale nuclear war, China can rely on strategic reserves to recover quickly. China’s history is too long and its imprint is too deep.
(7) Informatization
As the pioneer of the Internet revolution, the US military is undoubtedly the leader in military informatization. The Gulf War shocked the whole world. Traditional armies were powerless to fight back against armies empowered by information technology . What is informatization?
Basically, soldiers are networked together and commanded in a unified way. US the only army back then who have this ability because at that time china Without an information-based society, there would be no information-based military. Just like there is no industrialized society without an industrialized army. Because of the core position of the military, although advanced systems and advanced technological weapons will be the first to be used in the military, without a responsive social environment, the military will also be dragged down by social realities and become a castle in the air. For example, the Chinese army has established a modern army by learning from the German-Russian military system and through its own exploration.
However, the confrontation with the world’s largest industrial country on the Korean battlefield completely exposed China’s weakness in industrial strength and lack of professional military logistics support. On the ChangJin Lake battlefield, the volunteer soldiers who were short of ammunition, food, and clothing relied on their tactical proficiency and revolutionary will tempered by blood and fire to cut off the retreat of the US Cavalry Division at all costs.
After blowing up the Watergate Bridge three times, the U.S. military air-dropped steel beam components urgently customized in Japan to the battlefield. After engineers urgently installed them with engineering equipment, the main force of the U.S. military retreated smoothly.
Thirty years later, after arduous industrial construction, China has initially established a basic heavy industry system. In 1979, the People’s Liberation Army, which had been lacking training for a long time, faced the Vietnamese army. The quality and command of its individual soldiers were significantly different from those in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and they were even inferior to the enemy. But the military-industrial system established showed great progress.
That is, the density of artillery fire exceeds that of the US military at that time. our army is not a volunteer army. In the subsequent two-mountain battle, the major military regions will conduct fire mainly with artillery firing. After the reform and opening up, China transformed from a planned economic system to a market economy, and the society transformed from an agricultural society to a modern industrial society. We thought we catch up.
So when the trend of informatization was revealed in front of the Chinese military, how anxious it was at that time. We experienced hundreds of years of suffering when we were left behind in the industrialization era. Will we continue to fall behind in the information age? Back to the basic concept, what is informatization? The definition given by data scientist Shannon: “Information is something used to eliminate random uncertainty.” Definition of information war: It is a full-scale war carried out under the premise of network digitization and the extensive use of information technology and information weapons and equipment. The specific battlefield performance is-destroy upon discovery.
For example, in a war simulation game, our teammates and enemy units can directly communicate with each other and cooperate with each other in real time on the small map without any barriers. It is extremely difficult to achieve on the actual battlefield. Indian air defense systems shot down their own rescue helicopters, and Iranian air defenses shot down civilian airliners. Identification of friend or foe is still a big problem today. Fortunately, China has caught up with the information age. Although we now criticize Lenovo, NetEase, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, etc., at that historical stage, these companies were undoubtedly the promoters of China’s information society. Huawei, BOE, Changxin, SMIC, BYD, DJI, MiHoYo, etc. The only possible Information war happened is when a war between USA and China broke out. Because only China and the United States have complete information industries in the world today. The United States uses Internet social tools to cause destruction around the world, while China builds walls and engages in Internet social governance. Other countries have no choice but to surrender the Internet and let the situation go unchecked. During the war disconnecting the Internet means completely losing the possibility of victory. China has benefited from an unprecedented wave of industrialization in the new century, and computers and mobile phones have begun to spread on a large scale. After 2010, society began to enter the mobile Internet era again. People realize that the so-called informatization is the “Internet of Everything”, the ultimate integration of the Internet and the Internet of Things. The popularization of sensors, mobile terminals and communication technologies has generated massive amounts of data, and big data applications have been born in order to process these data. Big data processing has promoted the progress of artificial intelligence (AI algorithm). In the past, the United States bullied small countries, but it actually did not reflect the power of informatization. The Russia-Ukraine war is also known as the “poor man’s version of information war.” First, the Ukrainian army used the US “Starlink satellite” to access NATO’s reconnaissance system. After the reconnaissance satellite long-range early warning aircraft discovered the Russian target, it sent the message to the frontline commander of the Ukrainian army team. The Ukrainian army team decided on its own to ambush the target. There is also the fact that the Russian military uses mobile phones to access the Ukrainian telecommunications network for communication, which is simply a living target. In the early days of the war, a large part of the casualty rate among Russian officers was related to miscomunication. The reason is not complicated. There is no digital communication equipment between Russian military tanks – this is not a problem due to lack of money but because without any concept of information technology. However, Russia is still good at learning war in war. Immediately carry out targeted electromagnetic interference. “Starlink” communications and electronic reconnaissance are greatly reduced. On the one hand, it reflects Russia’s profound accumulation of electronic technology, and on the other hand, it also illustrates Russia’s lack of war awareness – what has it been doing so long ago. A person who is fond of fighting but not good at preparation will only gain his progress after suffering losses.
“Murmansk-BN” integrated electronic warfare system. As the main combat equipment of the Russian army’s electronic warfare, this system can perform strong electromagnetic suppression on targets within 20 frequencies within 5,000 kilometers.
Russia and Ukraine use a large number of drones for battlefield reconnaissance and calibration, plus a large number of artillery pieces left by the Soviet Union. The cannon has the same barrel, but its power has been increased by several levels. Because of the massive smuggling of a certain civilian four-copter drone from a large Eastern country, Russia densely arranged a large number of frontline observation points in front. How dense is it? The drones on both sides can collide with each other. The battlefield that was originally filled with the fog of war became transparent. On the one hand, the whole world was watching the war live broadcast. On the one hand, any tank concentration and assault on either side will inevitably lead to a salvo of artillery fire from the by opposite side.
Last year, the Russian T72 crossed the river and was set on fire by artillery.
This year, the Leopard 2 tanks and Bradley armored vehicles assisted by NATO were attacked by the Ukrainian army without air defense. They were greeted by Russian mines, artillery, Lancet cruise missiles, and armed helicopters in turn.
The mine-protected vehicles assisted by NATO can only protect against roadside bombs, and can only be penetrated by the Russian army’s large number of mines.
Now the Russian army has even played tricks, using cheap shuttles to attach mines, grenades, and RPG warheads to carry out suicide attacks in VR.
The thousands of FPV quad-rotor drones purchased by the Russian army cost about 1,000 per unit, and it is cheaper to procure parts and assemble them from Shenzhen Huaqiangbei.
Comparing it to the Russian military’s own Lancet cruise missile, which costs US$100,000, it seems like it costs nothing.
The tanks and bayonets that military fans imagine, and the T80 vs. Leopard 2, cannot be realized on a battlefield where they are immediately destroyed upon discovery. The reason why Russia and Ukraine are called the poor people’s information war. For a big country, this kind of random flying of four-axis drones should not occur on the battlefield. Whether it’s electromagnetic suppression, laser irradiation, or anti-aircraft artillery. For China, even if its drones collide, it can still drown the opponent with its terrifying production capacity.
The Land Shield 3000 close-in defense gun is a modification of the 1130 close-in defense gun on a warship to an armored vehicle, with 11 Gatling tubes and 12,000 rounds per minute. Can intercept missiles up to Mach 4.
Although the US military does not pay attention to the army’s air defense system, you cannot say that it does not exist.
Ground-based electronic warfare systems are as dazzling to the Air Force’s electronic warfare aircraft as search lights in the night sky, waiting for them with an anti-radiation missile. Russia and Ukraine have been fighting fiercely for a year, and the air force has completely become a cheerleader. The Russian air force has the advantage but did not destroy the Ukrainian army’s air base and air defense system in the first time. It probably has no money. It has never gained control of the air, and the Russian Ka-52 only launched the “Vortex” anti-tank missile at the ultimate range of 10 kilometers when fighting the Leopard 2. The Russian military’s annual military expenditure of 80 billion US dollars is probably a lot of propaganda. There is also a question mark on where the US$50 billion in US aid to Ukraine was spent. Is it really written off? No way? Why are their firepower are so low?
One thing that can be mentioned is that the United States is the pioneer of the information-based military. A large number of digital combat systems and joint combat systems have been developed. Basically, each military service has one set, and the theater joint command has another set. Later, in order to solve the problem of too many vertical layers, insufficient horizontal interconnection, and poor ability to identify friend or foe, the US Global Command and Control System (GCCS) was developed.
Found the problem? Although it looks very cool, the US military has always wanted to develop a system, which is a center to command thousands of troops. Under the system with American characteristics, the sea, air, and ground forces compete for military spending. Unified command is inherently troublesome. On the battlefield in Iraq, there were situations where the presidential envoy, theater headquarters and military commanders were competing for command. Who would listen at this time? The final result may be that everyone listens to no one, and everyone goes their own way. Anyone who has been exposed to the project code knows that no matter how simple a system is at the beginning, it will be iterated over time, functions will be improved and hardware will be updated. In the end, it will pile up into a “hill of shit”. Imagine that when you sit in the position of the President of the United States and issue instructions to the nuclear base, you may need to broadcast signals. To issue orders to the Seventh Fleet Anti-Submarine Group – the Japanese Navy, a fax machine is required, and to issue orders to the Air Force’s F22 and F35 requires separate arrangements. Because the data links of different production years are incompatible, what about upgrading the F22? It couldn’t be done, because after the suspension of production, Lockheed Martin directly dismantled the production line to save costs. Where is the contradiction? The original design of the American command system is for an order to go directly to the soldiers. The soldiers do not need to think, they can just obey the orders. But an army is made up of individuals. Soldiers, officers, military services, theater commanders, the Department of Defense, and the White House all have their own agendas. A $1,000 coffee pot, tens of thousands of dollars of warship toilets, $6 million of Italian goats, and trillions of dollars of bad debts are expectable.
(8) Intelligent and unmanned – the battlefield heading into the future
While information warfare is still being hotly debated, military changes in the new era of intelligence and unmanned warfare have arrived.
The predator swarm drones in the “Wandering Earth 2” are smarter and more maneuverable than in reality.
Question: In the movie, when the J-20 and Su-57 take off at the same time, why do the drones chase the Su-57?
The two-seat version of the J-20 has begun to be developed, and together with the unmanned wingman, it constitutes the development direction of the new era.
UAV reconnaissance, guiding fire strikes; blasting minefields, EOD robots quickly clear minefields; commandos launch attacks, UAVs cooperate with fixed-point blasting; in addition, robot dogs go out to conduct reconnaissance, and no one Vehicles accompany the support… A combined brigade of the Army’s 80th Group Army conducted an all-element combined battalion real-force confrontation exercise. Multiple types of unmanned equipment were unveiled, and human-vehicle collaborative training was carried out.
Combined with the recent Ukrainian battlefield, the Ukrainian counterattack was tortured by landmines before it reached the Russian defense line. But for Zelensky, mobilizing troops may not be worth as much as unmanned vehicles. However, new smart landmines will be more widely used in the future, including automatic reconnaissance and friend-or-foe identification, automatic leaping overhead attacks, and one landmine can control hundreds of square meters of battlefield. Anti-smart landmines have become a new topic.
At the 2022 Zhuhai Air Show, the VT5U foreign trade light tank on display carries an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and console for unmanned driving, greatly improving battlefield awareness and reducing casualties.
At the Abu Dhabi International Defense Exhibition, “China Military Industry” exhibited the “Sky Shield” anti-drone system. On the basis of the original laser killing method, it adds killing methods such as high-power electromagnetic suppression and combination of projectiles and artillery, making it closer to actual combat.
U.S. Marine Corps – Logistics robot dog, material handling robot dog, robot mule, robot cow. It can carry more than 180 kilograms of weapons or other equipment for about 32 kilometers. Like a well-trained military dog, its structural design is highly flexible and can accompany soldiers in harsh terrains, including woods, rocky beaches, etc.
We found that the United States was the first to apply drones on the battlefield. A superstar on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.
RQ-4 Global Hawk, which was put into service in 2000, is active in military hotspots around the world. The cost is US$4000-120 million. It was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2019 and will retire in 2022. Off-topic: Japan spent 61.3 billion yen to purchase three Global Hawks in 2014, with maintenance costs of 263.7 billion in the next 20 years. As a result, production delivery will only begin in 2020.
The MQ-1 Predator, an integrated surveillance and combat drone, is both famous and infamous. It first flew in 1994 and has participated in all U.S. foreign wars starting from Kosovo. Counter-terrorism and indiscriminate killing of civilians have become its labels.
MQ-9 “Reaper” drone
What is strange is that among the drones that have been active around the world in recent years, there is a lack of U.S.-made drones. Chinese Wing Loong and Rainbow series drones active in the Middle East and Africa. In the Naka conflict , the Turkish TB-2 equipped by Azerbaijan stole the show. The Iranian “Witness-136” suicide drone purchased by the Russian army that bombed Kiev, Ukraine, also made a splash. As the world’s largest arms trafficker, the United States’ absence is really inappropriate. So, whose fault is this? Answer: The enemy is on Capitol Hill. The U.S. Congress has enacted legislation to ban the export of large drones. When the AVIC Wing Loong drones and China Aerospace’s Rainbow drones were dumped in the Middle East, they were not receptive. In order to satisfy the contradiction between the growing needs of gold customers for foreign military intervention and our country’s love of peace, we simply exported the production lines to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Let me tell you a little story. The tall drones were originally flown by retired pilots. Without it, because the airflow in near-earth space is complex and requires manual control by experienced pilots. Nowadays, highly automated civil aviation aircraft require the full participation of two captains during takeoff and landing, just for the sake of safety. The problem is that airplanes in third world countries are all bought on a case-by-case basis, and the pilots are all spoiled. Where do so many retired pilots come from? The customer is the king. Change it. Added autopilot function, one-click takeoff and landing, automatic cruise, simplified operation process, one handle joystick can solve the drone flight control. Just one standard – to satisfy customers with all fool-proof operations. Later the customer made another request. The flight was too short. And firepower was not enough. Changed is made, increased body size and fuel capacity, and added attachment points.
Rainbow 6 UAV
Wing Long 2 UAV
The Nigerian military used Wing Loong 2 drones to conduct air strikes against terrorists. Drones allow some small countries to do an offensive air force.
Later, the customer made another request. Turkey’s TB-2 is too annoying. It’s not satisfying to bump into each other without shooting. It needs to be shot down. To meet the requirements, air-to-air missiles are installed to specifically counter UAVs. Through constant upgrading and improvement, Pterosaur and Rainbow formed a huge family pedigree. Wing Loong UAVs have begun to be sold back to the domestic civilian market. In 2021, communications were interrupted in some areas of Henan due to floods. Wing Loong drones took off from the Guizhou base and arrived in the disaster area to provide 5 hours of mobile communication services, and sent back radar in real time to scan the damage in the disaster area. While waiting for U.S. arms dealers to obtain export licenses, the world has changed. Wing Loong 2 sells for $5 million. Because Turkey’s TB-2 has weak industrial strength and its technology is not as good as that of Chinese companies, and the price is more expensive. India purchased 31 MQ-93s for US$113 million each. Even the domestically purchased MQ-9 is priced at as high as $30 million. If combined with the industrial production capacity mentioned earlier, it is actually not surprising. The cost is too high and the price is too expensive. As a result, there are less and less equipment, and the purchase price cannot go down. Regarding the performance of modern warfare, I recommend the annual update video produced by the owner of Bili bili station up. It should be noted that the tactical arrangements in the video are demonstrations by military fans based on public data and are not real military tactical details. For example, the J-16D’s decoy deception, and the two-seat J-20’s A-shooting and B-guided missiles with unmanned wingmen. In order to arrange for all of our country’s equipment in active service and under development to leave the country, we deliberately strengthened the enemy’s military quality and armament capabilities, and also thoughtfully supported the opponent’s space-based reconnaissance intelligence of Uncle Sam. For example, in order to intercept low-altitude penetrating cruise missiles, the J-8 was allowed to take up its duties as an interceptor aircraft.
(9) Industrialization The United States, which attracts talents from all over the world, still has a strong innovation capability. However, under the influence of decades of deindustrialization in the financial industry, the United States has lost its production capacity. Industrialization is not just about factory workers and engineers, but also a whole social system that revolves around industry. Including unified market, education and training, financial services, government policies, etc. When the relationship is good, American companies design and sell and capture most of the profits, while Chinese companies are responsible for production and make hard money. But after the United States regarded China as an opponent, the world gradually turned into two parallel production systems. However, if there is no technological generation gap in military equipment, only players that can expand production at low cost will have the last laugh. In a sense, quantity is quality. Defeating more with less and relying on technology to make a comeback can certainly win a lot of glory and leave a name in history. But the real masters rely on operations to accumulate strength, and then rely on size to get through. So what’s important? Scale, scale, scale. Han Xin ordered troops, the more the better. Hiding new technologies will only lead to others taking advantage of them. What is industrialization? Machine production machines and standardized assembly line production and improvement processes. When encountering problems, propose solutions, improve and then provide feedback, and continue to optimize. Achieve technological leaps and improve productivity through continuous iterative improvements. What advantages do industrialization, the entire industry chain, and system engineering capabilities bring? Give a few examples. An example, the balancing car was invented by an American company. But it has always been a toy for the rich. The unit price is 8,000 US dollars, and the annual sales volume has been stable at 30,000. After being acquired by a Chinese company, the price of the new generation product dropped to 14,500 yuan. Later, it cooperated with Xiaomi to develop and sell products priced at 1,999. Nowadays, Taobao sells a variety of balancing scooters ranging from 300 to 3,000.
Relying on its low-cost advantage, China’s bulletproof vests occupy 70% of the world’s market share. Because body armor is for civilian use in China, you can buy it casually on Taobao. American and Russian soldiers often privately purchase Chinese-made bulletproof inserts to put into their body armor. You’ll know how good something is after you’ve been shot a few times on the battlefield.
On the Syrian battlefield, heavy mortar shells modified with gas tanks imported from China have an impressive range, their accuracy also impressive. there is no problem in destroying a three-story building with one shot.
Rockets produced by the Palestinian Hamas organization.
Laiyang Steel Pipe Factory: Although this is a seamless steel pipe, what I export is indeed a water pipe.
After China converted the Varyag into the Liaoning ship, a lot of media asserted that the Chinese aircraft carrier would not be able to form combat effectiveness in a short time. Because only the United States and Russia can build the crown jewel of industry , the arresting cable , aircraft carriers that cannot take off and land carrier-based aircraft are just large flat plates. Then the Liaoning ship realized the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft after two months of service. Many years later, people discovered that the arresting cables for China’s aircraft carriers were supplied by Hebei Ju li Rigging Group, a private enterprise. Four months after the military tender, Ju li took out samples and passed the acceptance test.
After the military opened the tender, Ju Li raised his hand cautiously: That. The parameters seem to be similar to a product I exported to the United States.
More famous is DJI’s quadcopter drone. Before DJI, there were some aerial photography drones in the United States. The cheap ones cost more than 300,000 yuan, and the expensive ones cost several million. Only the film industry dares to use this thing. The French company Parrot launched the consumer-grade AR.Drone quadcopter toy in 2010. It has 720P aerial photography function and is compact, lightweight and highly entertaining.
In early 2012, DJI launched the Phantom all-in-one computer. It has certain wind resistance, positioning and carrying capabilities. DJI has always emphasized that its products are flying cameras. The price is several thousand yuan.
in 2015, the American star startup 3D Robotics launched the solo drone to challenge DJI’s status. The solo drone comes with autopilot capabilities and sells for $1,700. However, problems such as unstable flight caused by the GPS system connection affected sales. 100,000 units were produced and only 22,000 units were sold. A few months later DJI launched the Phantom 3, with the professional version priced at US$1,300, and a few months later the price was reduced to US$1,000.
In 2016, 3D Robotics exited hardware production.
Solo drone
Phantom 3 DJI
Although DJI has always emphasized that it is a private company. But in the Middle East, pterosaurs and rainbows are used by governments to eliminate terrorists at targeted locations. Terrorists have also learned to use DJI Phantoms strapped with grenades to “air-strike” government troops. On the Ukrainian battlefield, DJI drones have become “Internet celebrities”. Russia and Ukraine both use it.
Picture above translated as follow
Russian Embassy in China
General Baruyevsky, former Chief of the General Staff of Russia: Ordinary commercial quad-rotor drones made in China are incompatible with traditional drones. The application of artillery and rocket launchers brought about a real revolution in technology, which actually completely solved the old problems in artillery reconnaissance, target designation.
√ When the drone continues to hover over the target area for adjustment, the artillery can use conventional ammunition, with accuracy and efficiency comparable to precision-guided munitions, while the number of ammunition and artillery required to kill is greatly reduced.
√ The Mavic quadcopter drone manufactured by the Chinese company DJI has in principle become a true symbol of modern warfare.
Russia Embassy : 5 stars review from the costumer.
DJI tweet translation :
All DJI products are designed for civilian purposes, serving people’s production and life, and are committed to benefiting society and making life better. DJI’s products are not suitable and do not meet the needs of military applications. We do not have applications technology in the military field.
DJI: I’m not, I don’t have it, don’t talk nonsense
When the Ukrainian counterattack was overwhelmed by landmines, frontline soldiers discovered new uses for DJI drones.
A few hours after sunset, due to the difference in heat dissipation between metal and soil, there will be an obvious color difference under the camera of the drone carrying an infrared sensor, which can identify large-charge mines on the ground.
I don’t know, will Russia and Ukraine be drooling over when they see this model?
DJI T50 agricultural drone, 50kg load capacity | coaxial twin rotors | front and rear phased array radars | two sets of binocular vision | high-definition FPV | integrated aerial survey, flight and defense.
DJI, you still said you don’t know military technology?
Well, drones, phased array radars. Something feels wrong. Why are civilian drones equipped with phased array radars? Because it’s cheap.
(10) Sky Eye – Active Phased Array Radar
The Ministry of Commerce and Customs has recently implemented export controls on gallium and germanium rare metals and compounds. Exports after August 1 need to be declared. Gallium and germanium are both core raw materials for semiconductors. Among them, gallium production accounts for more than 90% of the world’s total production.
Is it because China has abundant reserves or has mastered core technology? neither. Because gallium is a rare metal, there is no abundant mine. It can only be obtained from the companion products of bauxite. The average gallium content in bauxite is 50 parts per million. So the production of gallium requires an entire alumina production line.
The largest downstream demand for alumina is electrolytic aluminum. It is well known that electrolytic aluminum is a large consumer of electricity. Cheap electricity is needed. In 2022, China will produce 40 million tons of aluminum, accounting for 60% of the world’s total production. It is this 40 million tons aluminum industry that produces 400 tons of gallium.
Gallium has an important compound, gallium nitride What we come into contact with most every day is gallium nitride fast charging. It has properties such as wide direct band gap, strong atomic bonds, high thermal conductivity, good chemical stability (almost not corroded by any acid) and strong radiation resistance. The GaN material series has low heat generation rate and high breakdown electric field, and is an important material for the development of high-temperature and high-power electronic devices and high-frequency microwave devices.
Therefore, gallium nitride also has a very wide range of application scenarios in the field of military equipment. The most typical phased array radar. Radar is the clairvoyance and ear of the modern military. In an information-based battlefield where discovery means destruction, the performance of radar directly determines whether the enemy fires first or a sitting duck. We know that radar is a device for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. Early radar can detect the direction, distance and height of obstacles and other information by emitting electromagnetic waves and receiving echoes reflected by obstacles. However, the positioning effect for high-speed moving objects is very poor. Later , pulse Doppler radar was created based on the Doppler effect (the received frequency of waves becomes higher when the wave source moves toward the observer , and the received frequency becomes lower when the wave source moves away from the observer), which can accurately locate moving objects. Later, based on the interference of waves, phased array radar was invented. Phased array radar is a combination of Doppler radars.
The most intuitive way to experience the power of phased arrays is in the science fiction movie “The Wandering Earth 2”, in which nuclear warheads are arranged through phased arrays to concentrate the energy of the nuclear bomb explosion wave at one point.
The difference between passive phased array radar and active phased array radar is that passive phased array radar has only one central receiver/transmitter. In active phased array radar, each radiation component has an independent transmitter and receiver. One is a cyclops and the other is an insect with compound eyes. Because of the huge gap in performance, passive phased array radar is just a transition before the development of active phased array radar. Because of the independent transceiver characteristics of phased array radar subunits, the beam direction can be quickly changed through phase difference, and the mechanical scanning of traditional radar has been changed to electronic scanning. You can also group any unit independently to perform multi-beam scanning. It has strong anti-jamming and multi-target reconnaissance capabilities. Phased array radar also has disadvantages, that is, high power and high heat generation.
The phased array radar is a big house from the beginning, and a considerable part of the equipment is used for heat dissipation. Can only be used as missile and aircraft early warning
After the phased array radar is installed on the destroyer, it will become the famous “Aegis” air defense destroyer. In 2007, when China’s KJ-2000 was put into service, it was said to be a generation ahead of the American early warning aircraft because it installed a huge phased array radar on the aircraft. The powerful attack capabilities of the American F22 “Raptor” fighter jet are also related to the pioneering use of active phased array radar. It turns out that the huge radar can be installed in the radome of a fighter jet because of the use of gallium arsenide. Gallium nitride is an important raw material for the next generation of active phased array radar.
At the 2018 Zhuhai Air Show, Chinese military industrial enterprises launched an air-cooled active phased array radar for fighter jets. Later, it was directly installed on the “Fierce Dragon” Block III fighter jet jointly developed by China and Pakistan. As we know earlier, active phased array radars have high power and heat, so fighter jets are usually equipped with a liquid cooling system in their radome. Some simply use onboard fuel to dissipate heat for electronic components. Therefore, generally heavy fighter aircraft have space to install source phased array radars. But the Xiaolong is a light fighter and a cheap version. Is there something wrong? Remember the properties of gallium nitride mentioned earlier? High thermal conductivity. As long as the power supply and cooling requirements for the replacement of gallium nitride radar can be met, the detection range of active phased array radars on several types of fighter jets has the opportunity to be doubled.
Above picture is phased array radar multi target tracking high speed military radar is sold online casually in china the price 1 million yuan.
So it’s not surprising that DJI drones are equipped with phased array radars.
Hence the monster below.
20 tons AEGIS Unmanned warship. Each ship is equipped with 8 vertical launch missiles and 2 torpedoes.
The Iranian Navy has considered launching suicide attacks on U.S. warships using missile speedboats. If dozens of these small boats, which cost tens of millions of dollars, surrounded warships worth billions of dollars, or were equipped with towed sonar and spread out to hunt submarines in the vast sea area, the picture would be too beautiful.
It means China needed to create 7.585 million new jobs in 2019.
Remember that China is changing rapidly. The people who are retiring from low-end manufacturing or agriculture aren’t doing the same jobs as the 20 year olds in hi-tech and STEM fields.
Competition is fierce.
Ranch Round Steak
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) round steak
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
Cut steak into serving size pieces; trim away excess fat and pound to tenderize.
Combine flour, dry mustard, salt and pepper; use to coat meat. Reserve remaining flour mixture.
In skillet, brown meat, half at a time, on both sides in hot shortening. Push meat to one side; stir in reserved flour mixture.
Combine water and Worcestershire sauce; stir into skillet mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until meat is tender.
Remove meat to platter.
Skim excess fat from gravy. Drizzle gravy over meat and serve.
What Elon Musk just did in Ukraine could change EVERYTHING
Could Elon Musk end the war in Ukraine with this one move? Democrats are calling for an investigation into how Starlink is used in the warzone. Redacted Correspondent Dan Cohen dives deep into the details.
As my life crumbled apart, back in 2005-6, I tried all sorts of measures to stop my “retirement” from MAJ.
But, at that time, I didn’t know the entire picture. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought that I was just “having some problems”.
Nope my entire life was crumbling away before my eyes.
Still I tried to do something about it.
I made arrangements in China, and tried to make various arrangements in the Philippines as well. I was tricked, abused, and basically thwarted at every turn. So many swindles. So many scams. So many selfish pricks. So many liars, tricksters, and generally selfish narcissists.
In hindsight, my Fate Forecasting was Black-on-Black, overlaid with black. It was triple negatives; or to use the parlance of Fate Forecasting and Bazi, it was very inauspicious, on top of very inauspicious.
It was one bad thing after the other, and my life fell apart in complete stages of collapse.
(Which, by the way, you are now starting to watch the entire United States government go through.)
Anyways, I was stuck in the Hong Kong airport,and spent about ten days there after being swindled in a number of places… by numerous people… and left alone to ROT.
While I was waiting there, my resources started to dry up and I was living off airport coffee, and hope. I slept on the hard metal chairs. Used the bathroom, and took sponge baths in the sinks.
And sure as shit, I eventually had to go to the bathroom and pee up a storm, so I put my backpack (with my laptop computer) in it, on my back and stood at a urinal peeing away…
…and some jackass gets really close behind me, but I must have been pissing three liters out, …
…he stood there right behind me, so close. Sheech.
Anyways, soon he left. I still kept a peeing.
I’m not kidding. I must have needed to pee out three liters. It just kept draining.
…
Then I exited the bathroom, and settled down, and low and behold, my laptop was stolen!
That asshole plucked it skillfully and silently from my backpack while I peed. Sheech!
Yeah. It really sucked, and I was flabbergasted. Shocked, and upset. I didn’t know if I were to laugh or cry.
It was profoundly a disaster, on top of a fiasco, surrounded by trouble at every turn.
…
I relate this little story to make a few points of interest.
When things are going to shit; they will go to shit no matter what you do.
The only thing that you can do is to reduce the damage, hedge against it, and be extra cautious.
It was a new computer, but has all my passwords, codes and critical communication methodology. I placed way too much on electronic means of record keeping, and communication.
After this event, I made it back home, computer-less, of course, and then was seized and set into the “system” to endure my “retirement”.
So to keep things simple.
Let’s distill the lessons here.
Friends are valuable. Never dare try to do things alone; and on your own. Work as part of a team with your most trusted friends.
Fates must be endured. These are gravitational / planetary alignments that you cannot modify. The only thing you can do is “nothing” on very inauspicious times.
Hope is critical. No matter how bad and hopeless things are, it is always temporary. Eventually it WILL change. Just hang on.
It will end. Sure it will, and an equal period of greatness will occur. You simply must endure the bad first. Consider the “bad events” to be your entry ticket to the life you desire.
If they know how to do something, they automatically know how to do it at scale.
This is a country that builds entire new cities at one go. They produce 600,000 engineers per year. They make four out of every five solar panels in the world. They can build a 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days, and as we saw during the covid-19 pandemic, a brand new hospital in 10 days. They are the world’s biggest factory.
If they know how to make one Huawei Mate 60, they already know how to make 100 million Huawei Mate 60s.
China does not know how to think SMALL. It is unnatural and weird for them to think on a small scale. China has cities with populations larger than countries such as Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, even Australia. Thinking big is China’s default mentality.
Barbecued London Broil
Ingredients
1 (1 1/2 or 2 pound) flank steak
1 tablespoon sherry or any dry red wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Score meat on all sides.
Mix together remaining ingredients. Put on meat and let stand 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then place meat in broiler pan about 4 inches from heat. Broil for about 10 minutes or a little longer on each side. Ten minutes is for medium rare.
To serve, cut diagonally across the grain into very thin slices.
My wife’s had cancer for the last seven years. It was well-controlled. She was on maintenance chemo to prevent it from coming back.
All was going fine—she always felt sick a few days after chemo—but she was generally doing well. She had good quality of life and wasn’t really limited in any way except she had doctor’s appointments and scans nearly every week.
After a routine PET scan… Well, to make a long story short, they found cancer in her brain. It wasn’t “brain cancer”, it was the same cancer (inflammatory breast cancer) that had made its way to her brain. It was already fairly extensive by the time they found it, but they were confident they could take care of the lesions through radiation.
The day after her penultimate treatment, she complained that it hurt to breathe. I took her to the hospital and after giving her some pain meds, they admitted her. She was still having pain breathing, so the doctor thought they’d give her something to help her sleep so she could get some rest. And maybe in the meantime, they could figure out why she was experiencing painful breathing; it hurt to breath in and out.
While they were checking her out to prep her for some sleep, she flatlined. About a dozen people sprang into action. Some were specialists, some were support, but all were fighting to bring her back. I stood in the corner out of the way watching in horror as the hoard of medical professionals tried to bring my wife back.
About a million thoughts flooded my mind. Was I really watching my wife die? Was she really gone for good? I just hoped they could get her back.
The doctor pulled me out into the hallway. She asked what I wanted them to do.
I said, “I’m not a doctor, but I want you to do whatever’s reasonable!” She said okay, and they tried shocking her back. Every time, they got no pulse in response. They tried at least three or four times when it was clear she was gone. I gave the signal they could stop.
That was two weeks ago. I’m still trying to process it. It wasn’t like she was on a slow or steep decline. Everything pointed to her recovering.
But she’s gone. My kids are doing a good job helping keep my spirits up, but they’re devastated too. They’re all adults now, but they very nearly worshipped her, as did I.
Girls Standing In The Middle of Tokyo to Sell Themselves.. Japan Has A Serious Developing Problem.
Thank you for posting this. Japan is a complex society, with many ancient traditions, some of which are clashing with modernity even today after 150 years of intense exposure to (and copying of) the West. As with many things, prostitution there has uniquely Japanese characteristics and doesn’t necessarily involve physical intimacy, though such certainly exists. Anyway, these sad stories of girls from the countryside being exploited in the big city are all too common not just in Asia but in the West as well.
Every few weeks, bake 100 chocolate chip cookies, wrap them in wax paper, put them in a large Tupperware container, and mail them to her in Boot Camp.
Whatever you do, NEVER send packaged cookies from the supermarket! If you do this, her Drill Sergeants will hold them up for everyone to see at Mail Call and mock her mercilessly, saying, “This means yer parents do not love you!” Seen that happen in Army Basic Training a few times.
Homemade cookies the sergeants hand out to everyone and she will be the most popular and well liked Boot for the next half hour.
Japan has historically been a very xenophobic and racist culture. Once you’ve convinced yourself your enemy are subhumans not even worthy to live, and you’re a dick, you go nuts.
The interesting contrast between the German and Japanese atrocities is that the German stuff was much more hidden. People have the impression that the holocaust was openly known to everyone, but the Germans took great pains to tell the population that they were shipping undesirables off to newly conquered territory to the east, to live seperately from Germans.
Whereas the the Japanese, their atrocities were rarely hidden. Entire military units would make a contest out of beheading prisoners. They’d round up women and children into a tall building and set it on fire and watch them jump from the roof in desperation. Their newspapers would cover these incidents and it would be celebrated back home.
Not to downplay the evil of the Germans at all, but the Japanese never get their due – I consider them to be as evil or more than the Germans, but you almost never hear about it, whereas you’ve heard about the holocaust at least 100,000 times in your life.
In addition to that, the official policy in Japan is dangerously close to the equivelant of holocaust denialism, whereas at least the Germans are thoroughly ashamed and sorry for what they did.
The American Dream is a Scam
Long comment. -MM
I think this subject matter is 100% correct and I agree with you on it and I also think that its a major part of the reason why America steadily has been becoming more toxic of a place over time.
I think its the perfect storm of capitalisms worst traits being compiled on and exacerbated by the people that are winning at capitalism.
What I’m saying is, in the course of the last 80 years at least our capitalist society has become more and more structurally corrupt.
Because the only people with any real power over how these systems are built and the people that they screw over vise versa, the people that it benefits.
Are the people who have the power and the success to influence it.
This is done with lobbying and both political parties USE lobbyists to this day which is essentially legal corruption for the political system to thrive on.
How it works is this, If im the owner of Apple or something like that and I value things like gun control or mandator vaccines and a community based culture , Im gonna give the politician that most closely values what I value and ima give him multi millions of dollars to run his campaign for election.
THEN I ask this person for political favors and to represent ME a little more than anyone else BECAUSE im handing them a multi million dollar check to run for whatever.
America has done this for a very long time and its one of the reasons way our election cycles are meaningless.
The elite class literally have more valuable voters than you do lol. Its NOT an even playing field. I think red or blue doesnt matter because the problem is both parites are dog shit.
Both parties got some good they wanna do and the bad shit they do is there too.
With republicans its the positive of them understanding personal freedom and things like guns remaining protected rights. but negatively speaking the republican party Is just as tone deaf and stupid about stuff like corporate greed and how bad that is, as the democrats are tone deaf to the importance of gun rights and being able to have the scary shit they wanna be able to dictate HOWEVER democrats do understand corporate greed and greedy elite cocksuckers who are siphoning the people of this country of their time and labor value. It sickens me that republicans will support selfish people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who are prime examples of people who do ALL THE SHIT that’s killing society over time.
This idea that they “earned” this when the money the get is being farmed off the backs of 20k employees.
We live in a country where we got the worlds largest GDP and the most ready to fight population of people ready to defend our country if someone wants to try us. and we got people like Jeff Bezos living in massive excessiveness while FAMILIES of people cant afford insulin or food or housing without government assistance programs and hand outs.
I mean its really no wonder why drugs are such an issue in the modern world, and people are doing shit all the time like walking into a place and killing your fucking children because theyre fucking sick.
This country BREEDS sickness. The hormone changing foods we eat. The garbage media we consume way to much of.
The sheltered life we have in dependency to the system being the norm and self sufficiency being a less sought after thing. People need to understand what freedom is. Sometimes it sucks.
But its way more liberating than this shallow illusionary world we created for ourselves. It dont even make sense to go out here and farm money like we do with our jobs, killing our bodies and our backs to MAINTAIN a life style when that money your working for is being PRINTED off a press by the trillions in our government. Its MAKE BELIEVE.
There is no backing to the value of our currency other than what we say its worth. Its just a catalyst to make way for modern slavery.
The type of slavery where the average slave doesn’t even see the shackles attached to them or they see it as a necessary inconvenience rather than what it is. Its a scam. Its a rigged game built to siphon the actual value of your life way from you. Money is nothing.
The value comes from skill and time.
The reason they created curency like money is because with this extra step in between, you can figure out ways to siphon it down without people knowing. I These companies use every dirty trick in the book to maximize profits.
Oh our employees want better pay, well just make everything we sell twice as expensive as to not take any cut to our current lifestyle.
This is why I was pushing back against minimum wage being increased to 15 an hour. Because this DOES NOTHING. People could do more with their money back when they made 1.35 an hour at minimum wage. The wage isn’t the problem its the scope of how much these companies WANT out of what they put in to a product or service. Its the fact that per hour of your time, you make less than half of what the same money could afford back when the world had a better capitalist balance going on before every motherfucker was exploiting every facet of every thing for maximum profits.
The average American doesn’t understand this concept of how they are stealing from you, while making it look like their giving you more when they aren’t.
The ONLY way to fix the issues is if these rich greedy cocksuckers decide one day that they are tired of being super duper rich and excessive, which has no chance of happening.
The people who hold the heys to the cookie jar are gonna dip into the most for themselves when nobody is looking.
That’s just human nature.
I do think that if people don’t mentally evolve enough to realize this entire system wand cultre we have is bogus and we dont need it at all to have everything we got, and keep working just like we have.
The only difference is, instead of working for selfish reason and necessity, people would work for others and out of wanting to serve the human race. Like if EVERYTHING was free..
I think people would still work. The only difference would be people wouldn’t settle for a job because they NEED money to eat, they’ll do shit they find more meaningful to them to do. It would actually probably IMPROVE the quality of work being done IF we just made it to where we operated as a community.
You like building houses ok, go build some hosues for people.
You know tech?
Okay go build tech or set it up for people. You know farming and food? Okay teach people how to be self sufficient and help them get set up. Society CAN function perfectly WITHOUT this idea of being in competition with each other and having more than the next guy.
That’s all that capitalism really is, its the idea of fuck the community I live in so I can get ahead of all of them and earn my status in society. And I don’t think capitalism is even the problem.
I think its just people. People are the ones who infest something and start corrupting it to be beneficial to themselves.
It doesn’t matter what system we call ourselves because people will always find a way to reach the top rungs of society in any society and they will begin to manipulate how society is from then on built, and they will most likely create it in a way where its unfairly exploiting one class of people sop another class can have more than they honestly need or deserve.
Communism wouldn’t fix it because that system is just as exploitable and manipulatable as capitalism and any other system controlled by human beings. I hope this all makes some sort of sense. people really need to fully wake up and we do need to throw this system overboard as a whole and we need to start restructuring society in a way where its beneficial to the human race equally.
I was representing the USA in an international table tennis (ping pong) tournament in Osaka, Japan. The night before, I wandered over to the tournament site to check it out. When there, I noticed a guy wearing a Chinese team jacket. They were and still are the best in the world. Being somewhat cocky, I went over and asked him if he would like to hit some. He did and we eventually played a best-of-three match. I was playing well and managed to eke out a win.
Back with my teammates I modestly mentioned that I had beaten a Chinese player. To my astonishment some skepticism was expressed. Being fed up, the next day I suggested to the most skeptical teammate that we stroll over to where the Chinese team was camped out. I didn’t see the player from last night, so I started talking to one of the other Chinese players. Finally I casually mentioned that I had won a match with one of his teammates. “Which one?” he asked.
“Well I… Oh there he is, walking over now.”
“Ah yes”, he said, “That’s Mr. Chen. He’s our cook.”
I had worked at the car dealership for a year when they decided to shift me from sales to service. It wasn’t what I wanted, but at least I still had a job.
The Saturday before my job changed, the service manager grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into his office. He then filled me in on his philosophy…
“I can’t stand having women working for me”, he said. “They have menstrual periods. They’re nothing but bitches for 3 weeks out of the month. They can’t make rational decisions. You can’t trust them.”
I just sat there, silently. He’d apparently decided that I would be replacing a woman who I had great respect for. She’d helped dozens of my customers, and they loved her. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about her.
I was floored at his attitude. He could think what he wanted, but by opening his mouth, he became a liability to the company. I have no idea why he felt the need to ”share” that with me.
Months later, I had to testify against him in an unlawful termination lawsuit brought about by that female employee. I don’t know what it cost the company, but I hope it was worth it to them.
My mother raised me by herself until I was about 5 years old, and I have nothing but respect for hard working women in the workplace.
With his unsolicited diatribe against women, he instantly lost my respect.
How to Leave the USA in Five Steps
I think this guy is a puke. However, his information is pretty good. Hold your nose and watch. -MM
The Western MSM have been forced to acknowledge that Russia has had a massive win against Ukraine and NATO by ensuring the 115 day long counter offensive with :-
14 Fresh Brigades – 56,000 NATO Trained troops
4 Fresh Divisions – 120,000 Ukrainian Reservists trained over 6 months in Ukraine from June to December 2022
116 NATO Tanks
440 Armored Vehicles
540 Soviet Era Tanks (T 62, T 72)
1.7 Million Artillery Shells 155 mm
Has been ground to dust
Literally
Only ONE BRIGADE the 71 UK Yeger is still left untouched
The Ukrainians have 258 out of 656 Tanks left
They have 190 out of 440 Armored Vehicles left
They have barely 200,000 Artillery shells left
They have lost in the last 115 days, around 44000 Men and another 27000 men have been seriously wounded and disabled for minimum one year from fighting
And what have they gained?
Exactly 152 Square Kilometers that too, territory still under Russian Offensive
That’s why the West are worried
That Russia of their imagination is a different Russia from this Vigorous fighting force
Apple corporate has decided that the newest Apple products would be supplied to China before the US market;
Price war to keep China users from switching (back) to Huawei mobile phones.
Obviously Apple sees a major Huawei challenge with the Mate 60 Pro and upcoming products, and sees that this market is key to Apple’s future, even if it has to sacrifice profits.
In many African countries, money changers effortlessly swap bundles of cash by the roadside, operating under the implicit but rock-solid assumption that they won’t be robbed. And we walk out of banks with wads of cash, sometimes on a tiny nylon or envelope. Such security measures are largely unnecessary.
Lawyers and signed agreements may be the norm elsewhere, but in many parts of Africa, your word is more valuable than gold. Break it, and you’ve essentially declared social bankruptcy. A broken promise doesn’t just tarnish your immediate reputation; it haunts you for life, impacting your relationships and prospects. I, for one, have family members I wouldn’t lend a penny to, much less enter a business deal with. All because they failed to uphold their word when it mattered.
In most Western cities, shoplifting is a perennial problem, and law enforcement often turns a blind eye. Not here. Young people aren’t emboldened by societal indifference. On the contrary, the idea of swiping even a candy bar sends shivers down their spines. In our world, retribution is swift and comes from the community itself. Misbehavior is universally scorned.
Kids don’t engage in senseless acts like random street attacks, burning of shops, or joyriding in someone else’s car. It’s not just the fear of punishment that deters them. Rather, it’s a collective societal understanding that these actions are fundamentally wrong. Our young people may admire your shiny sports car, but they’d rather beg you for money than dream of damaging or stealing it.
Respect is in our DNA. Children back-talking their parents happens rarely and is frowned upon. We quickly give up our seats to older people and pregnant women without being asked. Titles like Sir, Ma’am, Daddy, and Aunty aren’t just terms of address; they’re badges of honor for the wisdom that comes with age. We greet older people by bowing or semi-kneeling. Communities act as a self-regulating mechanism, making certain transgressions practically unthinkable.
Violent acts like public shootings of innocent people remain alien to us, not because we’re oblivious to the global mental health crisis, but because the fabric of our communities simply doesn’t allow such chaos to unfold.
While discussions around the treatment of women in Africa often lean toward the negative, there’s another side to the coin. Any man who dared to raise a hand against a woman in the presence of people would swiftly face communal justice even before the police arrived. Spectators don’t stand back to dial emergency numbers, we make the fight ours.
The Magic isn’t necessarily in governmental laws or policing. It’s in the unwritten code of conduct, the communal upbringing that checks our moral compasses and teaches us to respect one another.
U.S Hold Top Secret Talks With China in Malta! U.S Beg China
September 22, 2023
American plans are turning to shit, quickly. Actions must be taken. Can China bend a little to help out the Biden Administration?
“It would be wonderful should the United States regain some measure of sanity again! Then we in the rest of the world may be able to breathe again without the thought of forever war and death intruding in our dreams only to become nightmares.”
So a group of angry Afghans pretended to be PRO US and requested a few marines to help them and abducted them
They proceeded to skin the marines alive literally and chop them into pieces and cook them
They then wanted to feed this to the other marines
However there was a road block and the truck was abandoned and the men saw the huge container that was full of some flesh
They soon DNA tested and found it was human remains , cooked meat of their comrades
The remaining Marines were so frightened that they were relieved immediately to stateside and took treatment for mental shock
This was related to a Congressional Committee in the late Obama era when the issue was declassified to justify keeping Guantanamo
The Taliban and the Islamic fundamentalists are the only mortals who can defeat the USA and bring them to their knees
Russia has missiles, China has missiles
No use
The Fundamentalists have a nice 14 year old boy who befriends a majors son, becomes a close friend and them calmly plunges a dagger into the kids heart and smiles as he waits for deliverance
Invincible!!
Sad but true
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to the USA! (REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK)
“I’m an American ex-pat who has been living overseas for 35 years. I try to fly to the States at least every other year (with the exception of the Corona-lockdown years), and I always get the reverse culture shock. I think what shocks me most is the huge increase in homelessness and drug addiction, as well as the political polarization. Back in the 80s, you could discuss politics with others, even if you didn’t agree, and in the end you stayed friends.”
When I was about fourteen years old I was walking home, at about 8 PM, through a local park in The Bronx when three boys from the gang that came from an adjacent neighborhood appeared. It was about dusk. I knew I was in trouble. As things were getting tense for me, Ronnie appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Ronnie and I attended the same public school from grades K to 6. In 2nd grade the teacher had me sit next to Ronnie. The seats were arranged in three rows of two. Each pair were adjacent. Ronnie was a slow learner. I taught him to read that year. We became friends…only in that class as we didn’t live “near” each other and didn’t have much in common. In those days, near was within 2 city blocks. For seventh grade I was sent to another school and I hadn’t seen Ronnie for two years.
Ronnie was short but he had bulked up a bit and had taken up boxing. I had lost track of him. As he stood next to me facing the three boys, it became clear as what was going to happen as Ronnie took a step closer to the other boys and slightly in front of me. They all took a step back. And then walked away.
Ronnie and I said the mandatory “Good to see yous”, walked a couple of hundred feet together and said. “see ya.”*
*A couple of years later I heard that Ronnie had become a Golden Gloves boxer and had done OK.
Bacon-Wrapped Filet Steaks Topped with Roasted Garlic Butter
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
12 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
Kosher salt
3 1/2 teaspoons chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
4 (6 to 7 ounce) filet steaks, about 1 inch thick
4 very thin slices of lean bacon
6 inch wooden skewers or toothpicks, soaked in water for 10 minutes and patted dry
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place peeled garlic and olive oil in 1-cup, ovenproof ramekin, soufflé dish or custard cup. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. Roast on center rack until garlic is golden and very tender and soft when pierced with knife, about 30 minutes (start checking cloves after 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes until done).
With slotted spoon, remove garlic from bowl and reserve oil. Place garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the reserved oil, butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor or blender and process, pulsing machine on and off for 30 seconds or less until garlic is coarsely chopped and blended with butter and oil. Transfer garlic butter to small bowl and stir in 2 teaspoons of the chives. (Garlic butter can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before ready to use.)
When ready to cook steaks, oil a grill rack and prepare grill.
In small bowl, stir together 1 teaspoon kosher salt, coarsely ground black pepper and thyme. Rub both sides of each filet with some of this seasoning. Then wrap each steak around its sides with 1 slice of bacon. Skewer bacon in place with wooden skewer or with 2 to 3 wooden picks.
Grill steaks until lightly charred on the outside and until bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare.
When done, remove steaks from fire and place on warm serving plate. Remove toothpicks.
Top each steak with 1 generous pat of roasted garlic butter and sprinkle with some of remaining chives. Butter will start to melt and season the steaks.
When I was a boy, I had a friend named Jeff B. I spoke about him earlier. He was the kid with the great idea of growing “night-crawler” worms in his garage so he could become a millionaire. Anyways, today’s story is about his plate.
You see, in his living room was a glass curio cabinet, and at the top of the cabinet, proudly displayed was a pretty normal ceramic dish. It didn’t look anything special to me. I’ll tell you what. But, they (his entire family) revered that plate.
You see, that plate was used to serve George Washington back in the 1780’s.
It served duck, maybe turkey… maybe chicken to the President.
The telling of the tale seems to be blurred at this moment in time.
Yupper. My local boyhood friend was in possession of a major American historical artifact. And it was there; right there in plain sight. Imagine that!
That’s it.
(crickets)
I wonder how many great historical artifacts lie hidden in everyday homes, long forgotten and their histories lie undusted? Hum.
Like a cache of 1950’s era men’s magazines. Or a box of world war I metals. Or perhaps, an original 1950’s barbie doll in a pristine box.
Or, even more interesting…
A metal fob found in a lump of coal, or the old “Indian tale” of a certain place in the woods with magical histories…
Makes you think.
Don’t you know…
…
Todays….
Southern Pork Loin with Fall Flavor Infusion
This pork loin recipe is easy to make and has been a Southern favorite for generations. Apples and pork have always been a great duo and this crock pot recipe is no exception.
Ingredients
3 pounds pork loin
1 apple, cut in half and sliced
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 Vidalia or other sweet onion, sliced
Instructions
Slice slits into pork loin horizontally about 3/4 through meat.
Fill each slit with an apple slice and drizzle honey over top.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Transfer pork loin to slow cooker. Layer onions over top.
After 30 years of rapid development, China’s society has entered the level of a middle-to-high-income country. In 2022, Chinese people will buy 25 million cars, and per capita GDP will reach US$12,000. In this case, if you want a Chinese to turn a screw on the production line, or sew a shirt, their monthly salary requirements are often more than $1,000. But, it’s only $300 for a Vietnamese or a Bangladeshi to do the same thing. What do you think the Chinese company will do? Yes, as early as a few years ago, Chinese enterprises have already begun to transfer abroad. The first thing to be transferred is clothing, toys, shoes and other industries with a high proportion of labor.
Just because an enterprise or factory has moved to Vietnam does not mean that it has no connection with China. For the production of clothes, toys, shoes, household appliances. They need upstream support. Equipment, computers, software, buttons, batteries, switches, wiring, paint, circuit boards, everything. from where? Can only be imported from China.
Therefore, the transfer of industries is accompanied by a sharp increase in China’s exports to target countries.
2. Decoupling of the United States and the European Union (passive transfer)
Since Trump launched the trade war, the United States and the European Union have begun to “decouple” from China. They said “Hey! Let’s not do business with China, don’t buy Chinese stuff, okay?” In order to force importers and consumers, they imposed too high tariffs and created a sanction list with only one purpose, to prevent the sale of Chinese goods.
However, what will happen to people’s lives without Chinese products?
So they need to find a replacement. Some countries with large populations and low wages are the best choices: Mexico, Vietnam for example. They signed trade deals, lowered tariffs for these countries, and hoped they would replace China. It’s a pretty naive idea: New cheap suppliers replace old ones, with nothing to lose.
However, businessmen in Vietnam and Mexico soon discovered that they simply could not make these items (or it was more expensive to make them than in China). The easier way is to import from China, label it with Mexican or Vietnamese labels, and sell it to Americans or Europeans.
Another strange line appeared: China exported semi-finished or finished products, and Vietnam and Mexico completed the final assembly and outer packaging.
Finally exported to America and Europe.
3. Everyone wins The Chinese found that their exports were not reduced.
From January to July 2023, China’s total exports increased by 3.1%.
Vietnam and Mexico saw a massive increase in their exports and imports, and people made more money.
Politicians in the United States and the European Union are finding that trade decoupling from China is paying off. Imports from China fell.
The Big Lebowski (1998). Jeff Bridges portrays Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a passionate bowler, White Russian drinker, and consummate slacker.
The Big Lebowski received mixed reviews when it first came out. The movie seemed a bit odd for audiences and reviewers to initially appreciate, especially in comparison to the Coen brothers’ previous hit film, Fargo, which received seven Oscar nominations and went on to win two Academy Awards.
Peter Howell from the Toronto Star wrote, “It’s hard to believe that this is the work of a team that won an Oscar last year for the original screenplay of Fargo.” Doesn’t exactly tickle your interest, does it?
Over the years though, The Big Lebowski has developed into a cult classic. Passionate fans of the film call themselves “achievers” (an ironic reference to the Dude’s lack of ambition), and several lines from the movie have become memorable quotes, such as:
• “I’m The Dude. So, that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or, uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”
• “Obviously you’re not a golfer.”
• “Hey, careful, man, there’s a beverage here!”
• “That’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
• “This aggression will not stand, man.”
• “The dude abides.”
As the film evolved into the cult status it has become, it spawned “Dudeism”, a way-of-life that celebrates The Dude’s philosophy and laid-back lifestyle.
In 2002, what began as a Lebowski Fest in a local bowling alley in Louisville, Kentucky, has evolved into 4,000 people now attending the fest. In addition to the original fest, several other Lebowski fests have taken place in cities around the US.
Jeff Bridges has described The Dude as his favorite role, and the only one of his films he feels comfortable watching.
“It’s just a really good movie,” he told Vanity Fair in 2022. “The characters, the way everything is executed from the set design to the wardrobe, everything is just right.”
The Big Lebowski, what began as one of the Coen brothers most misunderstood and underappreciated films, is now regarded as one of their best films. The Dude’s iconic repute is still alive and kicking.
In 1997 I witnessed a pickup truck flip and roll, and saw one person fly out of the truck. I was first on scene. A teenaged boy was sobbing, only a few scratches, asking me where his grandpa is. The boy said he was driving and got distracted.
50-60 yards away I found his deceased grandpa, head totally caved in, blood spot from every pore in what was left of his face. His hands were clutched in an agonizing pose.
I grabbed a blanket from my car to cover his body so that his grandson wouldn’t see him like that, nor bystanders who began to appear.
I comforted the teenaged driver for 30 minutes until police and fire rescue arrived on scene. The boy was devastated, saying “I killed my gradpa” and “I’m so sorry grandpa “ all in the midst of his sobbing. I told the boy his grandpa was gone.
Cops told me it was obvious the old man was thrown from the truck, which then landed on his head, causing instant death. The boy was wearing his seat belt; the grandpa was not.
After that I insisted that everyone in my family buckle up. A year later, my sister in law rolled their family car 3 times, only a mile from where the old man died. Everyone was wearing a seat belt, and only got minor scratches and bruises, but their car was a mangled mess.
My sister in law told me that when they left the house, she told everyone to buckle up because of what Uncle Danny said happened.
That was 36 years ago. Once in awhile I still wake up from a nightmare of that sobbing teenaged driver, and the image of the smashed head of an old man I did not know.
When I first saw the man’s face, I was stunned to realize that I was seeing blood drops from every pore in his mangled face from the impact of the pickup truck.
I remember it like it just happened, all these years later.
Please, wear your seat belt for your family, friends, the EMTs, and innocent people who might see your smashed head when they stop to help.
When I was a kid, they had all kinds of neat things you could send away for in comic books.
I ordered the Big Bang cannon and scared the shit out of my family one night when I fired it off in my room. After that it was an outside cannon only. Worse was when I was 10, I fired off a .22 starter pistol in my room. That gun was confiscated. Then there was the black chewing gum that turned your mouth black when you chewed it. I gave a piece to my older sister Tracy when she went out with her friends. Funny! Younger brothers did things like that. My pal Earl ordered the X Ray Specs, glasses that you were supposed to see through things with, like girls clothing. Didn’t work. Earl was vastly disappointed. He wore them over to my house hoping to see through my sisters clothes.
“Those are pretty stupid looking sun glasses,” Lori said to him. Earl felt stupid.
I ordered the footlocker full of soldiers, tanks, boats and airplanes. A FOOTLOCKER FULL OF THEM! WOW. When I finally got the footlocker, it was about seven inches by two inches full of flat, tiny, half inch crap, not even to scale. Very poorly made. Disappointment was real though. This stuff was all junk but they made it look so great.
I remember when I was ten I asked my mom at the breakfast table if I could get the little monkey advertised in the comic ads. My twelve year old sisters burst out laughing.
“I’ll look after it,” I promised.
“RJ, those things aren’t real. They’re all fake,” Lori said to me. But they actually were real. Live animals shipped to kids for $18.99, a lot of money in those days. Unbelievable.
Mom laid the law down. NO MORE ORDERING FROM COMICS!
But the dream of many boys was the Polaris Submarine. WOW! A real nuclear submarine! For only $6.98! Many boys dreamt of getting their sub and taking it down to the river where they could float around, dive, and shoot nuclear missiles and torpedoes. The ad actually said you could hunt for sunken treasure and explore the ocean floor. To good to be true? Yes it was. When the package arrived, you had to build it, ‘out of cardboard’. It would last two minutes in the water. It wouldn’t last an hour out in the rain in the back yard.
Most of the ads were lies but they got away with it. Many children were disappointed. But still, it was fun to look at those pictures and dream.
The Biden administration has made it very clear that China must operate in the manner in which the USA sees fit
That China must develop in the manner in which the USA sees fit
In short –
Make all the Washing Machines, Laptops, Smartphones, Microwaves and Televisions you wantMake all the Jeans, Toys, Textiles you wantMake all the low and medium grade components you wantHell even make all the Robots you want and High Speed Trains, EVs and Solar Panels and Green Energy
Yet at the same time
You cannot go ahead of us or our allies in the areas of Advanced Computing, Space, Quantum Computing, AI etc. You should always be No 8.You cannot modernize your Military technologicallyYou cannot pursue your own foreign policy and Geopolitics against our foreign policyYou cannot support anyone who doesn’t follow the Rules based orderYou have to buy more Bonds of ours and acknowledge the Dollar as the world’s only reserve currency
This was the BIDEN DOCTRINE TO CHINA
Qin Gang and Blinken apparently discussed this where :- In exchange for China acknowledging the Biden Doctrine & relinquishing support to Russia & Forcing Putin to sue for peace by weaponizing the Yuan The US would remove tariffs on Chinese products, remove export controls on certain equipment, remove 215 Chinese entities from the blacklist and propose Status Quo for Taiwan with no support for Taiwanese Independence The plan was likely for QG to deliver an ultimatum to Lavrov and for Xi Jingping to gather Global South Leaders like KSA & UAE while US could persuade India and together force Putin to call a ceasefire in UkraineThe Old Fox Wang Yi likely told Blinken to f*** himself which is why Biden was so angry that he called XJP a dictator I believe Raimondo tried the same thing, asking China to trade and develop in a direction acceptable to the US I believe China again said GO SCREW That’s why Raimondo was so angry when she returned backBlinken, Yellen, Raimondo all pushed China to follow the Biden Doctrine and China said No each time which was why they all returned back in a state of fury So now Biden will say the same thing if he meets Xi Jingping
Maybe Hu Jintao would have agreed
Not Xi Jingping
So Biden and Xi meeting is a pointless exercise
There is no US Leader who is willing to ask China to do whatever it wants and COMPETE with China directly and win
It’s very unlikely that Ukraine can turn the tide in the next 45–50 days after which the rains descend in all their fury
The West is very angry
They expected a breakthrough by Ukraine and a belief that such a breakthrough would force the Russians to negotiate from a position of weakness
It didn’t happen
Instead Ukraine lost too many men and too much equipment
Bradleys, M113s, M777s, M109s, Leopard Tanks, Strykers all burning on the battlefields
Almost 70% of Ammunition used up. Ukraine had almost 700,000 Shells in June 2023, sufficient to use 8000 Shells a day for 90 days, yet they used up 270,000 Shells in the first 16 days of the offensive and are down to their last 200,000 Shells today
They have sent over 110 Drones into Russia but only 17 caused any damage and now they are short of Drones
Plus the men they lost!!!
See the horror here
The Russians tag every dead Ukrainian now and they accurately estimate 4700 Dead in the past 14 days.
That’s Dead
Not Wounded
The Estimate of the Dead Ukrainians in the last 3 months ranges from 40,000 to 70,000
Almost all of these were NATO TRAINED
They were not conscripts
NATO trained 70,000 men and it’s likely most of them perished in the counter offensive
So the West simply hang in there because they can’t lose face and they can’t appear to have LOST
They spoke too much
The West can’t really keep pursuing aggressive strategy here
They tried begin aggressive, threatening people in 2022 and 2023 but that was because they hoped they would be in a winning position
That’s not happening
Now they need to end the conflict without appearing to look defeated
Bernie Marcus was CEO of the Handy Dan Home Improvement Center chain when the parent company declared bankruptcy. Marcus was fired by a vindictive board even though the Handy Dan division was not in bankruptcy.
“They threw me out of my office and put bars on the door. They searched my files. It was pretty terrible — one of those corporate things. You hear about them, but you don’t know what they are like until you live through one.”
He was convinced to drop his lawsuit against the company by a mentor who encouraged him to get on with his life. Another friend advised him to open the store he had always dreamed of. And that’s how The Home Depot was born. He was fired from a top spot in hardware retailing and went on to redefine the hardware industry.
In Japanese culture, when you reach 20 you are officially considered an adult. Cities across Japan have “Coming of Age
” ceremonies where 20-year olds would dress up in formal attire or traditional Japanese clothing to attend.
This was over six years ago, but being in the U.S. at the time I had no ceremony to go to. Still, my parents and I decided it would be nice for me to dress up anyway for a family photo shoot.
(long-sleeved kimono) or any kimono is a complicated art form impossible for amateurs to do. Fortunately for me, my best friend’s mom happened to be certified, and she offered to dress me free of charge.
As she was tying the stings around my waist, she said:
“Serina, you have the perfect body type for kimonos! You’re going to look so good.”
My genuine smile froze as she continued,
“They’ve always said people with a flat chest and no waist are ideal. It’s such a struggle to dress my daughter….“
-_____________________________-
I died a little inside that day, but I still managed to smile for the camera.
We purchased our first house in Hampton, VA in 1976 for $15,000. It needed painting and we were planning on starting on Saturday hoping we could get it finished in a couple of weeks. Talking to our neighbor who had a crew doing restoration painting. I asked him what the best paints were that was reasonably priced and told him what we were going to do. “When are you going to paint it?” “Starting Saturday.” “I can probably get some folks to help if you are buying the beer.” “Great!” “How much is the paint going to be?” “My price.” A crew of six showed up at 6 am Sat and were finished inside and out by 5 pm and ready to party.
We moved into our new (to us) house in Burleson, TX on the day before Thanksgiving. As I am working on unloading the POD’s our neighbor walked over and waited for me to come back out. “I know that you are busy and don’t need me intruding. I just wanted you to know that you don’t need to worry about a Thanksgiving turkey. I am going to my mom’s tomorrow and deep frying two, I will cook one for you also.” He showed up the next day with Turkey, sides and a fresh baked pie.
While this may not be the most life-ruining experience, it certainly causes you to fantasize about using baseball bats in ways you’ve never imagined after being a victim of such an atrocity.
It still boils my blood thinking about it.
Let me explain:
I live in quite an affluent and liberal area – Montgomery County, MD to be exact. Montgomery County borders directly against Washington D.C., so the government basically fuels the entire economy and causes people to flock to the area. Of course, not everyone is rich, or even well-off. There are a lot of poor people in the area, including immigrants – a lot of whom are ‘undocumented’. These people are hurt the most by this specific brand of towing.
Basically, here’s how it works –
At first, a parking lot may be abused. Let’s say I want to visit a friend, but there’s no parking, so…eh, what the heck? I’ll just park in the grocery store parking lot nearby and walk over. Maybe Safeway gets tired of people taking up their parking spaces, but not doing any shopping. Let’s say it gets really bad after a while and there’s no spaces for paying customers to park, so they start to have cars towed away when people park there and walk “off premises”. Seems pretty logical, right?
That’s the innocent example, but here’s what it snowballed into:
A woman pulls into a McDonald’s parking lot – her son wanted a burger. She parks. He walks into McDonald’s, she walks to the post office 2 doors down. She comes out 7 minutes later to find her car, front wheels hoisted off the ground by a tow truck (one of the short ones with no bed, just a crane on the back). She is confused, scared, angry that someone is ‘stealing’ her car (as far as she understands it). She confronts the Shrek looking man who is operating the tow truck. He tells her (in his most practiced rude attitude) that ‘walk-offs’ are not allowed. He points to a sign in the far corner of the parking lot, under a tree. When examining the 18″x24″ sign (minimum regulation size).
It basically says “2 hours parking only; if you park and leave you will be towed” then a bunch of fine print, but at the bottom it says “Towing charge $440; storage per day ~$40” (can’t quite make out the storage price). So, you get towed, you go pick you car up immediately, and it’s “$480 to get your car out” they say with a smile.
The woman argues, saying she has a receipt for the McDonald’s. Her son is holding the food in the McDonald’s bag.
He ignores her and says “The tow bill is $440 plus $40/day when you pick it up from Rockville (12 miles away), or I can drop it now for $250 cash.”
She tries to argue more, but he continues lifting the car up. As she is yelling she doesn’t have $250 in cash, he walks to the truck, gets in, and leaves with her car.
Scenario 2:
In addition to pretty much all businesses having some sort of deal with towing (the business gets a kickback because the towing is so profitable), all apartment complexes have adopted a similar deal. Remember how I said immigrants are a large part of the population in Montgomery County? Do you know that immigrants usually live crammed in one household? Well…When you’ve got 8 hispanics living in a 2 bedroom apartment, and 6 of them have jobs, they all have cars to get to work. But the apartment complex only gives out 1 parking permit per adult resident allowed to live there – 1 per bedroom. So the hispanic family only has 2 parking permits, but they have 6 cars. What do they do?
Well, the first night they likely make a huge mistake – they park in the lot without a permit. Towing is allowed to start at 10pm, so a “scout” or “spotter” shows up at 9:48pm walking around with a flashlight looking for parking permits in the window. You remember “oh crap! I need to move my car by 10pm!” You walk outside to see your car being towed up the hill at 10:02pm, gone. $480 at the tow lot in Rockville, 12 miles away. An entire week’s pay – gone.
Scenario 3:
You see your car being raised off the ground. You run up to the guy and start arguing. He says the “$250 cash and I drop it”. You pay him, he pockets it, and goes to hook up someone else’s car 10 feet away. Rinse and repeat.
These towing companies quickly realized how profitable it can be to employ these predatory towing practices (a tow company could make $5,000 per tow truck in a night), and it became rampant in Montgomery County throughout the 2000s. There was very little regulation on the books. Around 2013 it really started getting atrociously bad. Even though there were some rules on the books by then, they were nearly unenforceable, or just plain not enforced. The use of “scouts” was made illegal, but hard to prove, so the towing companies kept using scouters because they are so profitable. Additionally, these tow companies will ignore some smaller rules – such as being required to have an ATM on premises. Another problem is them damaging your vehicle. You ever try to get an auto shop to admit they dinged your door while they were working on your car? These guys are 100x worse. I’ve seen all-wheel drive cars being towed (front wheels on the ground) that are jerking and bucking all over the place because the transmission is still in gear and it’s catching. I was once towed and they broke my windshield. In addition to the $300 tow bill, I got a “it was like that when we towed it” in respond to my cracked windshield.
There is nearly zero recourse.
Me, an angry white male who speaks proficient english, tried to file a complaint with the “Office of Consumer Protection (OCP)” in Montgomery County. The investigator (investigator XXY) told me things like ‘the owner is never in the office’ and ‘they haven’t responded yet’.
BRO! You are literally THE government. It’s your job to police these guys.
About 6 months later, my dad’s truck had been towed so we went to pick it up from one of these scumdumsters. As we were paying, an official looking guy comes in and starts talking all buddy-buddy with these chumbuckets. Stuff like “oh how’s Linda? And the kids?” I realize that he’s supposed to be some sort of inspector. I talk to him and find out he works for the OCP. “Oh, wow. Do you know investigator XXY by chance?” ‘I am investigator XXY!’ oh well fuck you then
It’s starting to be cracked down on. Here are some articles that make my heart sing
This clip is from season 4 episode 3. I fucking love gale. His death was genuinely the hardest to watch for me, he was such an endearing dork.
A first comment on B’s site
I write here just to address Pacifica’s point at @7, which is dead-on accurate I think. First comment ever here, but love this site B. So good.
This is kind of a general plea, but we get so lost in the politics, and this team or that team, it’s as if we’ve failed to figure out that the whole damn system is rotten, both teams. As the Founding Fathers realized, this is what poisoned so many governments in Greece and Rome and throughout history.
In any event, Trump was basically a 1980s Democrat who loves the country, hates wars, and just likes doing deals. Remember that MSNBC interview, where they listed out a bunch of positions and Trump is like, hey, you’re describing me, and they said no, that’s Bernie Sanders’ platform. LOL. He is very close to the Kennedy family, which is why he and RFK do not attack each other. I would love to see that combined ticket. I truly believe that 2016 was the last free election, and the deep state was so sure he was going to get beaten in a landslide they did not activate all their plans/contingencies.
In any event, look at what Trump said on the campaign trail with regard to Russia. Why can’t we get along?? What idiot wants to start WWIII??
Indeed. And then look how Trump dealt with China. Yes, he had very serious hawks on China on his team, but it really dealt with trade and business. Repeatedly, he made the comment that he doesn’t blame China for these crappy trade deals and eating our lunch, they are just doing what’s right for them, he blames our stupid leaders for allowing this to take place and completely hollowing out our industrial capacity. It is the fault of OUR politicians. That was completely respectful to the Chinese. (And of course, he would scapegoat this or that, such as Corona stuff, but that is just politics, even the Chinese get that)
As Pacifica said, Trump can be manipulated by the oligarchs, but it’s even deeper than that. Understand how our entire system has been hijacked to work against the PEOPLE and for the benefit of the few at the top. Trump wanted no wars. Trump wanted to pardon Assange and Snowden any many others (he was threatened with immediate impeachment conviction if he did so). He wanted better labor deals and to secure the country.
The guy was impeached twice for essentially nothing. The Democrats were firing at will. And HIS OWN PARTY hated him. Opened up all these idiotic investigations like Russiagate. FFS, that scumbag Paul Ryan wouldn’t even give him money to build the wall, which is the issue he won on. The deep state of McConnell, et al., had at their fingertips the ability to convict him with 20 GOP Senators standing at the ready if Trump went too far off the reservation. I think everyone has to remember that.
If one studies his errors, just consider what was arrayed against him. The Soleimani attack. True, I did not like that, but Trump was the only thing standing in the way of a full blown war against Iran. The MIC had those plans ready and literally said let’s do it and put it before him. Trump said no.
Sending weaponry to Ukraine. Again, the WHOLE system was saying he was a puppet of Russia, so of course he was boxed into that corner. If he said no, can you imagine the fury of the system saying, see, we told you so!!
Pacifica, I’m not sure about MacGregor, and I’m willing to give some benefit of the doubt here b/c I really like his thoughts on Ukraine and military matters generally, but I do worry about any saber rattling with China. It makes no sense and is idiotic. They had nothing to do with the opiod plague. All one needs to do is look at the Sackler family and that whole rotten cabal and so many towers of power would come down if the people knew and the fury was put in the right direction. But certain ethnic clans and regulatory agencies would get nervous. There was a 25 page or so New Yorker article on that that was just brilliant.
It’s amazing how much the system is against the people. You had Walgreens pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for ivermectin, which is essentially aspirin, but if you need some opiods, just come on up, no problem!!
Sorry for the very long winded message. The American system is rotten to the core. The only people in the ring that actually care about the American PEOPLE and peace and lives throughout the world imho are Trump, RFK, and Sanders to some extent. I don’t trust anyone else quite frankly.
And finally, with the weaponization of the court system and these ridiculous indictments, which themselves are an indictment on the American populace as to the stupidity to which they have devolved and the darkness or partisanship that should have had these grand juries laughing this stuff out of the room, we are in sad and dark times now. Even though Hillary clearly was rotten to the core and an absolute criminal, I never supported anything criminal against her, you open that pandora’s box and you don’t know where it leads.
It’s why there’s a famous saying, grand juries are so retarded you can indict a ham sandwich. Very dark times ahead I think. The system is pulling out all the stops. I have no idea where this leads.
My Chinese friend asked me a question: As we all know, there are 7 days in a week, when you need to express the eighth day, how do you say it in English?
This stumps me. There is no such word in English. I can only say “Monday next week”, or “the day after Sunday”.
But the Chinese can create a new word “星期八” at will, and other Chinese people don’t need to learn anything. The Chinese people can immediately understand what he means.
Another Chinese teacher asked me a question: If you went back to England hundreds of years ago and asked Queen Anne: “What are trains, wires, televisions, refrigerators, telegraphs?” Queen Anne will know nothing.
But if you go back 2000 years ago and ask Qin Shihuang the same question. Qin Shihuang will tell you: Yes, I know the general meaning. train: a vehicle powered by fire Wire: A rope that can spread lightning Television: A machine that displays shadows by means of lightning Freezer: a box full of ice Telegram: Reports sent by lightning
Since it was finalized 2000 years ago, the number of commonly used Chinese characters has dropped from 50,000 to 7,000, but its meaning has expanded countless times with the development of human science and technology.All professional words, including words that have not yet appeared in the future, can be expressed using these 7,000 Chinese characters.People can understand the meaning of these future words without detailed study.
But the number of English words has expanded to 1 million in the past 300 years, 98% of which are professional words that ordinary people cannot master. Basically, every time humans discover new knowledge and items, English needs to create a new word. Moreover, people who have not studied cannot understand it.
Chinese characters:This is a magical text whose underlying architecture can be infinitely expanded without incurring too much learning cost.
FACES OF KENSINGTON (Zombies in the real life of the United States) Streets of Philadelphia – Part 2
Whose law? US laws are for US people in the U.S. International must be written by all nations! Not one? Or a few Chinese or China hating ones!
US don’t rule the world.
Even though some in the U.S. thinks so.
It may be a strong nation and likes to talk and behaves like it does.
It is just a single nation amongst other nations.
The U.S. has every right (though hurting itself) to stop buying any products from any nation. But to tell others not to is not the U.S. right. Some dog nations, slaves nations and cronies wants to do so is up to their cowardice and lack of courage but it don’t matter. It is their right to destroy their own nation.
Take the UK for example. Today they don’t even have half the Chinese 5G capability spending more than twice to set up unworkable and inefficient 5G non Chinese systems and today it is the worst performing Europe nation. But it is theirright to destroy itself.
Australia under Scott Morrison nearly self destructed Australia but the Aussies send him packing.
Good bye!
We the rest of the world must understand this and see to it that the U.S. cannot and won’t ever control the world.
This is good for the world and it’s good for Americans too.
US excesses are killing and collapsing the United States.
SO, The Rumours are True! Oprah Shady Maui Deal with The Rock Exposed
An AI Model Tested In The Ukraine war Is Helping Assess Damage From The Hawaii Wildfires Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Oprah Winfrey face backlash for asking fans to donate to Maui fund instead of contributing more themselves The family of a woman who died trying to flee a wildfire on Maui is suing the county, the state and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, alleging they neglected to maintain their fire-prone property.
Because China isn’t artificially modifying it’s currency and a low yuan helps the Chinese stay competitive
As I have reminded you Japan was strongest when it’s yen was 291 to the Dollar
It became stagnant and a zombie economy when it’s rate went to 115 a Dollar
It was FORCED to do so by the US in 1985 as part of the Plaza Accords
China won’t do that. EVER.
The US hopes to weaken the Yuan and use that to pull out investments and force China to appreciate the Yuan by other means including purchasing US Debt
China is already busy with establishing it’s own BLOC
Tomorrow instead of wasting time with G20, Xi meets President Maduro of Venezuela and inks a Oil Contract paid fully in Yuan and Priced in Yuan
If this works out then in 2024 – China will be purchasing 41% of Oil in Yuan or Ruble or Infrastructure Projects
US hope for China to print money, bail out their real estate companies and buy long term debt in Dollars and Euros to keep the Yuan floating
Like India has done, purchasing more US Debt than selling in the first eight months of the year
China knows how dangerous that can be and prefers ECONOMIC FORCES to handle the same while taking care of it’s energy supply
Family Guy British Radio
INDY speaks
Given matters in China have a bearing upon the SMO, a few items to consider…. LINK HERE Tech war: China’s top memory chip maker YMTC making progress in producing advanced 3D NAND products with locally sourced equipment: sources YMTC’s top secret project, which aims to use Chinese-only equipment, has placed big orders with domestic tool suppliers, including Beijing-based Naura Technology The ramped up sourcing of local equipment comes after YMTC received fresh funding to the tune of US$7 billion from its state-backed investors, including the ‘Big Fund’
Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is planning to use domestically sourced equipment to make advanced flash memory products after it was put on a US trade blacklist last year, according to industry sources.
If successful, the strategy would represent a breakthrough in China’s efforts to become self-sufficient in semiconductor production after the country was denied access to advanced chip making tools over Washington’s concerns that the technology would end up in the hands of the Chinese military.
LINK HERE Huawei Teardown Shows Chip Breakthrough in Blow to US Sanctions The company’s Mate 60 Pro is powered by SMIC’s 7nm chips, according to analysis that TechInsights conducted for Bloomberg News
LINK HERE China is the breakaway global leader in new nuclear construction.
China has 21 nuclear reactors under construction which will have a capacity for generating more than 21 gigawatts of electricity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That is two and a half times more nuclear reactors under construction than any other country.
India has the second largest nuclear buildout right now, with eight reactors under construction that will be able to generate more than six gigawatts of electricity. Third place Turkey has four nuclear reactors under construction with a presumed capacity of 4.5 gigawatts.
The United States currently has one nuclear reactor under construction, the fourth reactor at the Vogtle power plant in Georgia, which will be able to generate just over 1 gigawatt.
“China is the de facto world leader in nuclear technology at the moment,” Jacopo Buongiorno, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told CNBC.
China is “the determined and pacing leader in global nuclear ambition at the moment,” agrees Kenneth Luongo, president and founder of the Partnership for Global Security, a nuclear and transnational security and energy policy non-profit. China is “leading, even racing ahead,” Luongo said.
CHINA / SOCIETY China to employ multiple methods to enhance monitoring of marine environmental pollution: MEE By Shan Jie Published: Aug 28, 2023 10:47 PM
In this aerial image, nuclear-contaminated water is released from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean on August 24, 2023 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. Photo: VCG In this aerial image, nuclear-contaminated water is released from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean on August 24, 2023 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. Photo: VCG
The dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns among Chinese citizens about the state of the marine environment. Chinese environmental authorities on Monday vowed to strengthen the monitoring of marine environmental pollution through multiple means, including conducting baseline surveys of marine pollution and utilizing satellites for monitoring.
China has launched its third marine pollution baseline survey, with the goal of completing a thorough investigation and assessment by 2025, said Wang Juying, the director of the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, at the ministry’s monthly press conference on Monday.
LINK HERE Thailand’s confusing election was a win for China Thailand’s election saw winner Move Forward pushed to the opposition. It vowed to reset foreign relations including that with China. The current Pheu Thai-led government won’t likely deliver that.
Chinese scientists look to 6G to hunt submarines, testing device small enough to fit on drone Defence researchers say sensors can identify extremely small surface vibrations produced by a low-frequency sound source in the open sea UAV-mounted platform could work in concert with other submarine detection methods such as a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD), microwave radar or laser
China’s most advanced Fujian aircraft carrier on track for 2025 PLA handover, latest Weibo photos suggest Covers taken off all three electromagnetic catapults on the deck of the Fujian, social media photos posted by military buffs show Images indicate readiness for sea trials and systems testing, with warship likely to join the PLA within two years as scheduled, observers say
Not included above…. Passenger traffic on the Laos High Speed Rail Network has more than doubled since the beginning of the year..
Neither the markets nor consumers are easily surprised any longer by tech developments. Huawei’s deceptively low-key launch of its new “breakthrough” smartphone has turned out to be an exception, sparking patriotic jubilation on the mainland about a victory over American efforts to block China’s rise. At the same time it has caused consternation in the US over the apparent failure of a tech containment policy towards China, which has been progressively tightened under the Biden administration.
Analysts and market observers believed that even if the US could not head off China’s tech rise in the long run, its policies would significantly slow it down – that it would take Huawei, for example, longer to reach the stage it now has. Most people are taken aback by its progress.
The question for Western technology experts – and US security officials – is how Huawei developed the advanced semiconductors that drive its Mate 60 Pro. The device is powered by the new Kirin 9000s chip whose processor runs on the 7 nanometre technology, the kind of advanced chip the US seeks to deny China.
Sales of the new phone may be largely confined to the mainland and China may remain five years behind but, in simple terms, it is within one technology generation of the West. Beijing has spared no expense to build a domestic semiconductor industry, including billions in reported subsidies for Huawei to develop a network of fabrication plants. The aim is to boost the domestic supply of high-end products such as 5G smartphones, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance last month.
Huawei’s apparent breakthrough is in some senses symbolic. It is just one battle in a long war in which it will remain the weaker player. This is nonetheless a morale booster for China, a reminder of resilience and huge potential. That said, it still makes more sense, whenever the situation allows, for China to seek cooperation rather than fall back on total self reliance. Economically that does not make sense for any country.
That is not to discount China’s achievement. It is a reminder, as many have said, that US containment policy may backfire. A major concern is possible fragmentation of the global tech development and supply chain, creating problems such as oversupply and incompatibility, or so-called Balkanisation of the tech sector.
Technological development is going to be extremely expensive. Division of effort can help bring down costs and speed development. If Washington cites security concerns, unsupported by evidence, for trying to contain China’s tech rise it can only raise costs for everyone. In the light of Huawei’s new smartphone launch the US should come to terms with the need to revise its policy for everyone’s sake.
Not me, but my daughter who was 17 at the time, was working at a McDonalds in a bad neighborhood. They had to constantly check the bathrooms for needles and passed out junkies (she actually found a nice Bowie knife in it one day and the manager let her keep it). So one day she steps outside for a break and finds a man laying on the sidewalk, bleeding from a stab wound (not from a Bowie knife), so she does what they were taught to do and calls for a manager, grabs some gloves and a towel and comes back outside.
The manager (30 something male) is standing outside, wringing his hands, along with several older staff members and none of them will take the gloves. The manager is trained in first aid as part of his job, but he won’t calm down. So my daughter tells one of them to go back inside and call 911, and she puts on the gloves, takes the towels and applies pressure to the wound. She talks to the guy while they wait for the ambulance and keeps him calm, while her manager is trying not to pass out from hyperventilating.
When the ambulance arrives, the paramedics assess the man and while one is getting the guy’s wound stabilized, the other one starts asking questions. When he finds out my daughter is only 17, he lost his crap on the manager and then commended my daughter for doing such a good job. He told her that she should be a paramedic because she was so cool under pressure. She laughed and told him she hates the sight of blood, but didn’t want the guy to die. She then went on break and had a little cry, then returned to work.
I was a 20 year old newly licensed pilot flying solo from picking up my wedding dress one state over. There were thunderstorms in the area that my small plane should never fly in, not to mention i was a VFR pilot not qualified to fly in instrument conditions…so I landed at a small airport about halfway home. About an hour or so later the storms passed, and I called my fiance to see if the weather was clear at my destination (he worked as a fuel guy at the airport I was flying to). Earlier we had been in an immature fight where I thought he told me a lie, so there was some tension between us but we had put that aside for the moment. When I called him about the weather he said “yep it’s clear as a bell. Sunshine and rainbows.” So I took off and had about 45 mins in the air before getting there. The sky got darker and darker and by the time I landed it began pouring rain and lightning/thunder. I got there in the knick of time. When my fiance met me at my plane I said “omg! That was a close one! I was expecting rainbows and sunshine.” And he said “oh you believed me? I thought you thought I was a liar so why would I tell you the truth about the weather?” So he played with my life and safety in order to play a game and prove his point. My mother begged me to call off the wedding but foolishly I did not. It was a rough 9-month marriage before I got the hell away from him.
Well, Mcmahon is long dead, and he is neither Chinese nor Indian.
The problem with the Indian side is the rather inconvenient history of the Raj, which unilaterally drew the “border” that is at the heart of the dispute.
Nehru singlehandedly upset the gameboard, when he overreached and concluded China was too weak to fight his well-equipped elite frontline troops, distracted by the Taiwan crisis, embargo by the US-led west, and rapidly cooling relations with the Soviets. He also judged that China would find resupply over the roof of the world challenging, unlike India which held the lowlands.
Nehru’s forward policy reached its crescendo in 1961/62, with unbelievable rhetoric from New Delhi fueling provocative orders to establish guard posts NORTH of the Mcmahon line (in other words, the occupation of Chinese territory, even by Indian standards). Delhi granting asylum to the Dalai Lama in 1959 raised suspicion that India was complicit in the 1960 Tibetan armed rebellion and had evil designs on Tibet.
By then, Nehru had rejected Zhou’s proposal for a East-West swap, despite China being prepared to accept the Mcmahon line as the basis of settlement. Instead, Nehru demanded China withdraw from Aksai Chin while retaining control of NEFA, today’s Arunachal Pradesh, as the essential condition for border negotiation.
Nehru wanted the cake cut India’s way as precondition, before negotiations had even begun!
The Chinese responded to Dhola Post after losing almost 80 men in early October to a skirmish with Indian troops. A massive attack was launched that decimated an Indian brigade. In the three-week lull that followed the battle of Namka Chu, India refused to negotiate, despite Nehru’s illusion of the Chinese unwillingness to attack being shattered. Mid-November exploded into full-blown war, with Chinese troops punching a hole through Indian lines that led straight to Delhi. The military loss was strategic and conclusive, despite China’s voluntary withdrawal.
India, in particular, Delhi, has never forgotten the humiliation, and fear of the capital being overrun by China. No leader since has criticized Nehru for his strategic blunder and overreach. That is why the border remains frozen in time. India, for the foreseeable future, will not come to the table unless China gives up claims (and actual control) to east and west.
Having shed blood to obtain the status quo, China will not agree to such terms as precondition for negotiation.
India needs a superman to courageously forge a new path distinct from the father of modern India, and come to the table as an equal, if slightly disadvantaged, party.
Absolutely Gina Raimondo and the state department believe that the rise of Huawei is a security threat to America and the world.
Let me give you an example of why Americans think like this. In 2012 I was in America and found a group of professionals who cycle twice a week. Everything was terrific. I purchased a second-hand mountain bike for $150 because I didn’t know how long I would stay. This is the bike I owned at the time:
Everyone in the group had nice road/racing bikes that looked something like this:
The first two months were incredible. All the males were very nice to me, the females wanted to introduce me to other females … it was love and humanity everywhere in the group.
Keeping up with fast road bikes on a heavy aluminium mountain bike was too much for me. So, one stupid day I decided to buy the below bike so I can keep up with my cycling group:
From that day forward people in the group started to distance themselves from me. People started to find me ‘rude’ and ‘arrogant’ all of a sudden. Females started to feel ‘intimidated’ in my presence. The males in the group started suggesting that maybe I was homophobic? maybe I’m misogynist?
Then they started to worry about the ‘safety’ of members of the group because of my presence.
Whenever I spoke people would become irritated, their faces would become red with anger.
When I stopped attending the group cycle meetings they became even angrier and more contemptuous of me. When I returned to cycle with them the anger and hate increased even more.
They didn’t want me in the group, and they didn’t want me to leave the group either. What I’m describing is the process of ‘ni*gerization’ that Western people put others through.
Raimondo, with most of America’s institutes, are desperately trying to ‘ni*gerize’ China.
I hate to say this, but the talent pool of American actors has been shrinking for years.
Most American actors came into movies through stage (like Brando) or adult television (like Burt Reynolds). They trained with good acting coaches using innovative techniques.
But now, most American actors come into movies from juvenile television. It’s a massive logistical problem, but it’s much easier to hire actors who have already had membership in the Screen Actors Guild than to try to get an actor who has trained on Broadway or at a university theatre program into the Screen Actors Guild.
And teenage American actors get virtually no training. They come into adult acting with no real background in how to act, so, when you need someone really good, it’s a really small pool of talent.
However, in Great Britain, where America draws most of its “Screen Americans”, teenagers who are on juvenile television are still in some sort of serious theatre program learning stuff like Shakespeare. They likely have theatre experience before they get into movies. They learn how to act.
Take one of my favourites, Maisie Williams.
Although she got her job as Arya Stark at the age of 14, she already had three years of experience at a performing arts academy. Prior to that, she already had dance and drama training. Americans of the same age would probably be more interested in polishing their resumes than their acting skills.
Spike Lee noted that the film Selma featured British actors in all the lead roles, including playing Martin Luther King, Jr. He was somewhat upset that a black American didn’t get the role, but had to admit that he would be hard-pressed to name a young American actor who could carry the role.
And it’s that way for many serious productions. The big American actors aren’t bad, but they don’t have the same sort of training on the whole. There are exceptions, like Robert Downey, Jr., who have outstanding acting chops, but they’re few and far between, and their number keeps shrinking.
What exactly are all those fees and charges? You’ll notice my tuition (the last one on the list) is only about $7,000.
What’s the rest?
Rent—$3,345: I need a place to live, and the only way to get student loans/scholarships to cover my housing is to live on campus.Dining plan—$2,355: No kitchen means I need an on-campus dining plan. My plan is the cheapest they offer, giving me ten meals per week.STEP 161 supervision fee—$11: Presumably a fee to compensate my host teacher (or to pay for some aspect of that supervision) during my in-classroom observations.Student Capital Fee—$400: “The Student Capital Fee supports bonded facility debt service and facility operations as well as capital repair and replacement.”
I have no idea what this means.LEAF Fee—$10: “The Student Leadership for Environmental Action Fund (Student LEAF) is intended to move the campus community toward a sustainability-minded culture. This fund finances environmental improvements in campus infrastructure and educational initiatives.”Student Services Fee—$444: “Student services and support are funded by this portion of the Student Fees.”Health Insurance—$1,290: You have to have health insurance on campus. You can fill out a waiver proving you have your own health insurance and have this fee removed (which I’ll be doing).Library Fee—$70.80: “Covers print and online library materials.”Online course fee—$45: An extra fee due to the fact that I’m taking one online course. “On-Line Course Fee-online fees pay for adjunct costs resulting from increased course sections and smaller class sizes; it also funds instructional designers, development and training to enhance online course offerings.”THEA 100 and THEA 275 course fees—$40 each: Supposedly to cover the cost of materials and anything consumable used in-course (which really doesn’t exist in these courses).Theatre program fee—$128: No clue. I’m guessing it’s to fund the theatre program, which is bizarre.Technology fee—$160.80: “Used for equipping new smart classrooms, staffing and maintaining computer labs, and providing students access to academic software.”Differential tuition for theatre—$144: Theatre classes are more expensive, so we pay more in tuition to allow the university to keep having them.Tuition WUE—$6,966: My actual tuition. “Covers classroom instruction, student services, administration and facilities. Based on cost and demand, differential tuition may be charged for certain classes (Sciences/SES/Art, Business, Nursing, Theatre).”
So that’s how we get to that beautiful number of $15,449.
I’m only taking six classes—note that three (THEA 100, THEA 275, STEP 161) had extra fees attached in addition to the over $1,000 they already cost.
And on top of that, I pay an extra $250+ dollars in a program fee and differential tuition to cover the mere act of being in my major.
And, I already receive reduced tuition as a Wyoming resident. My tuition is, by default, 150% of in-state tuition, which is significantly less than out-of-state. Imagine what this bill would look like if I was from New York and not Wyoming.
“Get a job!” you say. “Stop being a lousy freeloader! Work, save up some money, and pay for it yourself!”
Let’s take a look at that— “pay for it yourself”. How possible is it for one to pay for their own college?
I did some math. The minimum wage in Colorado is $9.30/hour. If you worked 40 hours a week making $9.30 an hour, you’d have $19,344 in one year. That’s assuming you work 40 hours every single week, with no time off.
My student bill for one semester (four months of education time) is $15,500.
I could take a whole year off from college, work at the minimum wage, and if I didn’t spend a cent of it I could pay for a little more than a semester of college.
“Don’t get a minimum wage job, then!” you say. “That’s on you!”
Right. The good ol’ “Just make some more money, then” argument. See, I’ve tried that. I currently have a few jobs that pay $20 an hour. If I worked 40 hours a week at $20 an hour, I could make around $41k a year.
That’d be fine and dandy, except for the fact that I still have to go to school. At most, I can work 20 hours a week (and even that’s being optimistic).*
If I work 20 hours a week at $20/hr (which is well over both the Colorado and federal minimum wages), I could make about $20K a year.
Once again, that assumes I never have to get gas. Never go to the doctor. Never buy groceries (remember, my meal plan covers 10 meals a week. The average person eats 21). Never buy clothes. Never fix my car. Never buy shampoo.
Even then, I could afford just over a semester of college.
The days of “save your pennies from your summer job to pay for college” are long gone.
“Well, you should’ve gone somewhere cheaper. That’s on you.”
Right. Because it’s on me that the cost of going to a mid-range school three hours from home is so exorbitant.
Sure, I could’ve gone to another school. Let’s consider my less expensive options:
University of Wyoming—AKA, the only 4-year school I can get in-state tuition at.Casper College—2-year community college.
Problem with both?
I couldn’t get my degree.
As in, neither school offers an equivalent degree program. I couldn’t study to be a theatre educator at either of these schools.
So sure, I could go somewhere cheaper, but then why bother spending the money at all if I’m coming out with a degree I don’t even want?
There are lots of others, too— “Your parents should’ve been saving up” (their savings went down with the economy, yo). “You should take out loans/apply for scholarships” (done and done. Still not enough). “Not everything in life is fair” (that’s not an argument. It’s just, like, philosophical bullshit). “You need to talk to your school’s financial aid department. There are resources to help you” (Oh, if only you knew…).
I’m not saying college should be free. I’m happy to pay for it.
I’m saying that it’s insane that college prices keep rising, and there’s no clear way for young people to pay for it. I’ve already taken on $10,000 in student loans from the past year. I’ve applied for every scholarship I can find.
It’s still not enough.
Jobs are requiring college degrees, but to get a college degree, you need a damn amazing job to pay for it (or parents who can afford it).
It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t know what the solution is.
I just know that it’s one of my top complaints about the US.
I don’t need free college—I need affordable college. Please.
*Ignoring the fact that few jobs will hire you for that much without a college degree, and that my current $20/hr gigs are really limited as to how many hours I’m allowed to work (one is max 5 hours a week).Footnotes[1]
A country ham (such as a “Smithfield” ham) is salt-cured, smoked and aged well. Whole country hams are expensive; it is possible, however, to buy country ham steaks. But you may also substitute thick-cut, smoked, streaky bacon for the ham in this recipe.
Ingredients
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt (regular table salt will make the brine too salty)
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 quart buttermilk
1 pound lard
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup country ham pieces, or 1 thick slice country ham, cut into 1/2-inch strips (see note)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Combine the water and the salt, stirring until salt is dissolved.
Place the chicken pieces in a bowl and pour the salt water over.
Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken and rinse out the bowl it was brined in.
Return the chicken to the bowl, pour the buttermilk over and cover and refrigerate 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken on a wire rack, discarding the buttermilk.
Meanwhile, prepare the fat for frying: put the lard, butter and country ham into a heavy skillet or frying pan. Cook over low heat for 30-45 minutes, skimming as needed, until the butter ceases to throw off foam and the ham is browned.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the ham carefully from the fat. (Reserve the fried ham for another use, such as snacking.)
Just before frying, increase the temperature to medium-high and heat the fat to 335 degrees F.
Blend together the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl or on wax paper.
Dredge the drained chicken pieces thoroughly in the flour mixture, then pat well to remove any excess flour.
Slip some of the chicken pieces, skin-side-down, into the heated fat. Do not overcrowd the pan; fry in batches, if necessary. Cook for 8-10 minutes on each side, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
Drain thoroughly on a wire rack or on crumpled (not flat) paper towels. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
As an ED nurse years ago, middle of the night – MVA. We got the 6- or 7-year-old boy who had 2 broken femurs. Dad was dying in surgery at a huge trauma hospital in Portland. He had been driving drunk and went through the windshield. Mom didn’t have custody as she was an addict and lived who knows where. The room was flooded with people – two surgeons, police, nurses, etc. while I spoke on the wall phone to the surgical team at the trauma hospital. Went into my little guy’s room and I wrapped my arm around his head to shield him from the chaos and bright lights and leaned in to ask him how he was doing. He asked me if his dad was dead.
I asked him what made him ask that. He said that he saw his dad and thought he might be dead. I told him, “Yes, I think he did die.” (I knew by then he had.) He said (without tears) “He can’t be dead.” “If he’s dead that means I have nowhere to live.”
I got the very real feeling that this little man had been through too much in his short life already. We did a brief meeting before he went to surgery and I shared with everyone what he said. He did well in surgery and I found out that within 2 days he had 5 offers for actual adoption. One was one of the surgeons, one a firefighter, and one a paramedic, and two nurses. He ended up living three hours away with his maternal grandmother. I never forgot that little boy. Rough.
You see, my wife and I went to a bar, and we “won” two bottled of “Red Label” whiskey, and we promptly started to drink them both. Ugh! (I do not advise that.) And anyways, eventually, I had to go vomit.
Too much hard alcohol will cause your body to react and demand that the toxins be thrown out.
And so, I tried to find the bathroom, got lost, and stumbled outside.
Then, I promptly threw up in the grass, and just sat there afterwards trying to get my bearings.
When a nice cute girl came out of the bar / club and came up to me, and grabbed my arm and led me back in. Was I lucky? She was cute. Wearing a baby-doll frilly dress and stockings.
For a moment, I thought that my wife sent her.
But no.
She led me though a door leading to the back unfinished cement of the rest of the building, and up some cement stairs. Then, she reached in my jacket looking for wallet, cell phone and whatever.
Found my cell phone, and then took it, and left.
After a few moments, I in a daze, stumbled out and found my wife who was frantically looking everywhere for me.
And it wasn’t until the next day that I realized that my phone was gone, and it was stolen.
I was “rolled”.
…
This is my little story, and a treasured, if embarrassing, memory. Learn from my mistakes.
When I was in college, I was a live-on-site apartment manager for an apartment complex with 80 units. When I was hired, not one person lived in the buildings. I was to fill the apartments with renters, as well as work on renovations to the apartments. I did all of this and managed to rent every apartment within a couple months, as well as do the renovations. I thought nothing of it — I was young and inexperienced and thought this was normal.
The owner, Ed, and I got along well and treated each other with respect, even though we were very different people. The owner’s ultimate goal was to sell the apartment complex. Within a couple more months, Ed sold the apartment complex to a new owner, who I shall call Arsehole.
After the property officially changed ownership, Arsehole came to visit the property, and me. When we met, I reached out my hand to shake his, but he refused my hand, saying, “I don’t shake hands with the help.”
I admit, I was shocked. Being young and inexperienced in such things, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “And I don’t work for assholes.” The look on his face was priceless.
I turned and walked away to go to my car and go rent a moving truck. He (and his assistant) followed me as I walked, yelling that I couldn’t do this as they depended on me to run everything. I ignored them, got in my car, drove away, rented a truck and was gone from that job within a few hours.
Later that week I called the former owner, Ed, and attempted an apology of sorts. Ed just laughed and agreed that the new owner was an asshole and that he didn’t blame me at all.
Southern Fried Quail
Ingredients
10 to 12 quail
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup flour
Instructions
Dry and pick quail. Clean and wipe thoroughly.
Salt, pepper and dredge with flour.
Have ready a deep heavy frying pan with close-fitting lid half full of hot fat.
Put in quail. Cook for a few minutes over a high heat, then cover skillet and reduce heat. Cook slowly until tender, turning the quail when golden brown.
Serve on hot platter garnished with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley.
[HD] Twin Peaks – Jimmy Scott sings “Sycamore Trees” in the red room
That moment you realize you have lost the battle and you are never going to escape the red room.
Thanks for the A2A. Oh boy, this is a bit relevant I suppose. I’ll talk to moving to these places, as opposed to being born and raised there.
First off, I must stress this as deeply as possible:
Most people do not make for good immigrants. Being an immigrant in itself is a skill set.
It doesn’t matter what the target country is like, when a person goes about expecting to be treated normally or equitably. There is no such thing in the experience of being an immigrant. The very act of migrating means that one becomes an outsider trying to make their way in, and that will always be a special process. The fantasy of being “finally accepted” somewhere that better fits one’s personality is a road fraught with hurdles — achievable, but you will come out the other end a very different person. It is for this reason that most people migrate out of necessity or urgency, not out of adventure or comfort.
As such, it should be obvious but it bears mentioning:
There is a world of difference between visiting a place and living in it.
I am going to presume that “living in a country” means more than being a visitor, but rather a full resident/citizen of a given place. To be more specific, it should refer to a person planning on retiring and dying in said place, and special attention will be placed to all of the personal needs that entails.
With that said, I’m going to take this as a stream of thought. Categorization of the two countries is what rankings do. I am more interested in giving a personal take on both countries, because I think people are more interested in gathering advice rather than holistic approaches. So please keep in mind, I will be switching between the two countries in an erratic fashion here.
First thing first, the USA is an immigrant country. This means that ideologically it establishes equal expectations for people who wish to become American, and to some degree the US holds itself accountable to this premise. This is often what immigrants are looking at when they try to imagine the American dream — here is a place in which one can work hard and succeed in life, regardless of origin or background.
Sadly, America has long since diverged from its ideological foundations. Some may argue that it never diverged because it never met those foundations in the first place (usually these arguments are along the lines of Black history or American Indian history). Regardless, the reality is that the US is primarily driven by race-based tribes, and there is a long litany of racial suppression policies that continue to this day.
This is the first hurdle that any prospective migrant to the US needs to realize — the dream is a dream, and it doesn’t just take effort to realize it (but really a lot of luck). For those who arrive with starry-eyed glasses, it can take decades for such individuals to accept the reality around them; some don’t even get to that point. To illustrate with examples, I like to cite this video because it perfectly highlights the dreamers versus the realists.
Dreamers come in all colors. White dreamers are more prone to saying that they “don’t see color” or that “they don’t have a culture.” In Black spaces, dreamers are often the ones that code switch and perform socially as if they’re white.
In all the stripes of America, dreamers are perhaps the ones most sold by Obama’s 2008 campaign. Back then there was a lot of commentary on how America had finally become a post-racial country.
[1]It’s a very comforting ideal and one that is quite noble. I must profess, I was part of that too.
For realists, they were (sadly) vindicated when the backlash against Obama culminated in the election of Trump in 2016. And that’s the difference — realists are just pessimists and see the US as what it is, not what people want it to be. Politically and socially, this is perhaps the strongest divide, the primordial reason why the culture wars exist.
Many immigrants look at the US and eventually go “I don’t get why everyone is obsessed with race.” They just haven’t gotten the memo yet, which usually comes in the form of a rude awakening when someone treats them unfairly because of race. Much of an immigrant’s challenge in life is in trying to “see past the slight” and think of that as just human nature, or to cast it in light of how “things are back home” to justify their move to the US. At some point they either contend with reality (especially when seeing the reality of other people) or they seal themselves in a bubble to make reality go away. The latter strategy often comes to blows when they have kids, who may not end up thinking the same as their parents.
A dour look, but it is not too bad. All countries have negative sides, and the reality is that most Americans see the mess that is American politics and instead do their best to not make it part of their lives. Easier said than done, but this is how most people swim, so it is easy to parlay on a day-to-day basis. Just be prepared to see race pop up pretty much constantly — the black guy pulled over by the cop, the weird clustering of Asian stores, the abundance of Latino gardeners…
This isn’t to say everything is sunshine and roses for China. Now, neither is China some dystopian 1984 render fed by the press. But, it must be said, moving to China is not an easy process, and the primary reason why is that China is not an immigrant nation. All policies have a priority for Chinese people first and foremost, meaning the interests of immigrants are secondary, often optional to bureaucrats. The way this manifests is that immigrants are an afterthought in China’s systems, and while there might exist pathways for foreigners on paper, in practice people might not realize they exist. America might play pretend, but it has a far more mature system of handling foreigners. China doesn’t pretend and doesn’t have those systems, and any prospective migrant is going to do a lot of legwork to achieve parity with any Chinese citizen.
For most immigrants into China, the most common reflex is to stick to the role of being an outsider. This means not commenting on the local politics, or otherwise not making spicy takes. There is an expectation for outsiders to abide by that saying — “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This is mediated by the degree to which migrants are seen as Chinese, with increasing adherence to Chinese cultural values a good (but not always perfect) rubric to one’s “Chinese-ness.” With sufficient exposure, it should become obvious that there is some tolerance, though it should also become obvious that Chinese people themselves usually take limited positions on politics, and usually within the scope of their own professions. It is usually fine to talk about how one’s own field is shaping up. It is less fine to talk about how someone else should work, despite being in a field one has little experience in. The reason is simple: You can’t be expected to know, so why are you shooting off your mouth?
The inverse of this fortunately holds true though. Because outsiders are expected to not know, they are freely given a neutrality pass and accommodated for. Don’t know the standards of a banquet dinner? It’s okay, outsiders aren’t expected to know. Have no comment on the latest nationalist rage? It’s okay, outsiders aren’t involved. This neutrality/obliviousness pass is very powerful, though it doesn’t last forever (there is an expectation that people eventually figure out the rules). Regardless, I recommend everyone use it, especially in their first 5 years in China. This holds true for visitors as well, and in fact is probably more pronounced.
The very rude awakening of living in China is that after that “probationary period,” that expectation to figure out the rules and culture starts hitting in full force. This is why the question “how long have you been in China for” is kind of a trap question to be treated with great caution — answer truthfully, but give yourself as much space as you can. I for one usually answered “since 2017” whenever I sensed that the other person wanted to know how to treat me (or rather, how much they were on the hook for guiding me). In cases where I needed to show that I wasn’t going to be a bother, I answered “on and off since 1996.” Both are true and you can always explain that away later (most don’t care), but always give yourself space in accordance to the situation. This is generally seen as prudence and/or social awareness, and this is generally a good thing (because it means you are aware enough to not be a liability in a guanxi network).
As for what those expectations are actually headed towards, there is a bit of a social conversation in China on what space foreigners should exist in. The most commonly accepted, uncontroversial take is that any foreigner acting as a Chinese does, competing on equal footing with a Chinese person, doing jobs that other Chinese would take, in accordance with Chinese social norms, is most certainly a fine addition to China. This is because all foreigners bring something special (they are not locals, after all), and if such a foreigner otherwise removes all the friction of being a foreigner, then such an addition to a guanxi network is seen as a strict positive. There are very few people who would turn down such a foreigner, and this is also the pathway in which a foreigner has the best chance of being treated as any Chinese person., or Mark Rowswell. He is a big reason why Canada had one of the biggest cheers from the audience back in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The rest of the debate splits into different camps. There is generally agreement that no one wants foreigners who otherwise hate China but stick around and exploit the “probationary period.” As for foreigners who can find gainful work as foreigners, most people are fine with that, but it will lead people to worry that changing government priorities might cause them to be out of a job. It is for this matter that not everyone is willing to engage such a foreigner as part of their guanxi network, though in most cases the allure of a foreigner’s own network or status is enough to bypass that risk.
For the most part, Chinese still take it as flattery that others would want to adopt Chinese cultural trappings, if not the actual culture itself.
The problem is, foreigners who do so stand out like a sore thumb. Anyone who wants to “blend in” is stuck in a conundrum, because on one hand that insists on adopting local behavior. On the other hand, doing that is contradictory to one’s own goals. Hence, China is currently incompatible with migrants who want the experience of being one of the masses.
…unless if you look Chinese. Then, everything changes:
There is no “probationary period” unless if people are notified ahead of time. They will assume you are Chinese first.
Because there is no “probationary period,” there is no leniency normally afforded to foreigners. This will feel unfair.
Likewise, because no one expects to treat you like a foreigner, it becomes possible to blend in. Stealth is the superpower of those who present Chinese, making it possible to see how Chinese people engage the system. This is the only way for a foreigner to have a truthful, firsthand picture of what it means to be Chinese.
And, because people don’t expect you to be a foreigner, if you suddenly start speaking with not-native Chinese, people will stop, stare at you, and try and “figure you out.” This will feel invasive.
Regardless, the attention that foreigners get in China is somewhat like being put under a microscope. It is deeply uncomfortable to a lot of people, and so this is a buyer beware situation — China is extra not for everyone. This problem doesn’t exist anywhere as much in the US, because once again, the USA is an immigrant country.
One of the other perks of the US as an immigrant country is that it makes it easy to be involved in politics. The first and foremost point of concern is probably going to relate to how one can become a citizen and gain the vote. Fortunately there is a clear process to do so (albeit fraught with delays, as it may take years or even decades to become one); likewise for any kids born in the US, they are automatically US citizens by means of jus solis. Lately there has been backlash against these policies, and this is best expressed by the current fight that affects largely the Latinos (see What is DACA and Who Are the DREAMers?), but overall this remains true for people looking to join the US and become US citizens.
While it is true that the vote in the US is actually not all that impactful, US political participation extends far beyond a simple vote. One can (and should) be involved in political campaigns, donate to causes and campaigns that are worth something on a personal level, and participate in political discussions in general. The US, by means of being a democratic republic, asserts much of its political foundation on the necessity of a rational, informed public, and other instruments of governance (particularly one’s guaranteed rights) are designed to protect citizens and promote the free spread of information. The ideological foundation of the US is quite solid.
By contrast, participation in politics in China is first and foremost a question of if someone has joined the Communist Party of China. To do so is by itself a competitive process for Chinese people and is where the Imperial examinationof old continues its legacy. For foreigners, this is nearly impossible to access as one has to first become a Chinese national to do so, and the process for doing that is specific to each candidate (there is no established, regular process). So while in the US there is a designated space for foreigners to participate, in China there effectively isn’t. In terms of ideological foundation, clearly it is superior to be an American as a foreigner.
…however, ideology is different from reality. For any human being on Earth, we must be cognizant of society. When we become employed, we must beware of office conduct and the opinions of our bosses. HR will always wield unfair powers over us. This holds true for China and for the US, and this is where it becomes untenable to access those guarantees in the US. How? In the US, most high skill workers enter the US on a H1B visa, which requires that the foreigner be recommended by an employer and gainfully employed there. If the foreigner stops being employed, they have about two months before they are deported. Due to the practicalities of being sponsored for H1B and the difficulties of this process, those two months basically don’t exist, and the H1B visa effectively makes the foreigner’s stay entirely dependent on the whims of the employer. And while an employer cannot fire an employee over any expressed political opinions, they can fire an employee on pretty much any cause (and they will find one). The end result is that almost all foreigners self-censor themselves. This self-censorship regime is further emphasized by US law, which bans expression of certain types of anti-government opinions.
[2]It is usually beyond the capacity of most migrants to realize that these laws exist, though they are reminded of what is banned when they first apply for citizenship.
Not all foreigners are censored though. Many who come to the US do so under political asylum, under strategic interests of the US, and they are usually free to speak loudly and proudly about their freedom to express political opinions. These opinions happen to always be extremely pro-US, which in turn sets the tone for all other foreigners who might not be so giddy about the state; those who abide by the state are welcome to all of the freedoms, while those who are not are to be monitored for suspected disloyalty.
This is pretty much the same situation as in China. The methods are different in China, and I’d argue they are more blatant and upfront about it, but regardless it is hard to express an anti-China opinion in China as a foreigner, much like it is hard to express an anti-US opinion in the US. The difference is that the US pretends it doesn’t do this, while China just doesn’t pretend. Kind of a potato, potahto situation. My only political recommendation to foreigners is to not shake the boat. As an outsider, foreigners are always on probation, and this holds true pretty much in all corners of this Earth. There are always unacceptable opinions to any society, and one way or another a society will find a way to “deal with you” if you happen to cross those lines.
In both cases I do not recommend a foreigner to participate politically. If you are one of the exceptions, you will know from all the social cues that you are excepted. Even then, don’t be stupid, don’t burn bridges, don’t make life hard for yourself.
I think we’ve gone over a lot of the dour parts. So what are the good parts? Here I am going to break it down into simple lists, pointing out the good parts unique to each side first.
For the US:
American food is fantastic. You may have heard the memes about American food being just hamburgers, hot dogs, and whatever frozen nonsense. That is true, yes, but only on a superficial level. Food in America goes far deeper; local cuisines are almost never talked about abroad but feature the same kind of depth one would expect in most cultures. And of course, America does have a diverse population from all across the world, and it is imminently possible to eat authentic food from all regions of the world if one is located in a major city. China can’t do this except in a couple places, and even then the foreign food is inauthentic and terrible more often than not.
American land is pristine. Now, both countries have a lot of wilderness to see, yes. But the US is obviously far less polluted now than China is today (different parts of the development-pollution Kuznets curve), and any foreigner should take full advantage of not only US parks, but the great expanse. Here I will wholeheartedly recommend Tēnn Khong Lîm’s Travel Stories. He has done a great job cataloguing the many sights to see in the US — albeit a point of criticism, he has a lot more work to do! As a personal recommendation, for those who are otherwise jaded by the usual scenes of nature, Alaska is a great place to change it up. Nothing quite like it.
American salaries are enormous. Yes, the job market sucks. Yes, there is underemployment. Yes, living costs suck. But, in the end the US is a developed nation with the world’s largest economy (probably), and the pay is definitely there for skilled foreigners. Life at the top 10% of America is truly easy and great. (I do not recommend migrating to the US if you will end up in the bottom 50% though.) All in all, let’s not forget the power of the USD either — currency conversions are usually very nice when one earns USD.
American internet is much more liberal. It’s not entirely uncensored (see culture wars, private moderation), but it hails from the Wild West days of the formative internet and that legacy persists to this day. This is especially true in comparison to Chinese internet, which obviously has the Great Firewall among other censorship effects. Now, there are some downsides to all this freedom (trolling in particular is bad), but the upsides are more numerous. Gamers especially should take note, as the GFW often shits on pings, whereas US internet is more of an uninterrupted experience.
American safety is better barring violence. What I mean here is that it is safe to drink the water, easy to trust food safety, easier to find top-tier healthcare, and easier to access more complete safety nets provided by the government. In China, these things are more of a work in progress.
And for China:
Chinese food is deep. It doesn’t have the international breadth of the US, but China is such a huge place that internally it is like the entire Schengen area in diversity. Many of the subcuisines of China are top-tier cuisines in their own right, sporting wildly different techniques from their neighbors. It is said that it takes more than a lifetime to eat all the dishes in China. For this, I recommend Blondie in China, who goes in such depth that she can actually educate Chinese people on Chinese cuisine. Intuitively, let me put it this way: when an entire country sports foodie culture, many things suddenly become possible, and many more niches suddenly become viable. That will always lead to more diversity.
Chinese landscapes are curated. This is kind of a complex subject, but the long and short of it is that Chinese park architecture is more of a blend of the constructed and the wild, rather than the European picturesque (which is a constructed frame to which the wild can be viewed/owned). So while you might go to the US to experience more untamed wilderness, China delivers unparalleled curated wilderness, where instead of feeling like you are “away from all of it,” you will feel that you are “one with nature.”
Chinese cost of living is very low. What this means is that while you won’t earn as much money, your wealth will go a much longer way. For people who are say, lower-middle class in the US, moving to China vaults them straight to upper-middle class status. It is night and day, and especially for underserved minorities this can feel particularly liberating. There are tons of videos of people living in the most expensive areas in China, but go outside of the Tier 1 and 2 cities and it becomes obvious just how cheaply one can thrive on in China.
Chinese amenities are just better. In particular they are better planned, and this really is more of a black mark on the US. Lately it’s become quite common to see urbanist videos on Youtube about how US infrastructure sucks. But I want to also point out that in China, with ubiquitous metro, rail, bus, and bike services, it is exceedingly easy to get around as a pedestrian. More importantly, cities are often laid out with Communist principles (sometimes Soviet, sometimes Chinese), and so neighborhoods will all have corner shops and the like. 15 minute cities are honestly the norm in China, which makes it easy to handle just about everything with an electric scooter, further driving down living costs… hopefully the point has been made.
And finally, China has less violence. This is particularly important for women, particularly for American women, who usually have to worry about going alone at night. In China, these are not concerns; it doesn’t mean crime doesn’t happen (particularly assaults on women), it just means that it is such a low occurrence that most people do not plan their lives around it. Chinese people might say that “China is more dangerous than the US,” but they mean all the other things I mentioned before. They just do not have a concept that a place can be so violent as the US (which in itself is overblown by Chinese who have visited the US, as well as Americans — especially white and Asian ones).
But in the end, I want to note that the two places are honestly quite similar:
Both are huge countries. Yes, 1.4 billion people is far larger than 330 million. But 330 million is also an amazingly high number. The real difference to me is that China feels more crowded than the US. Still, they are both huge and therefore people behave like they are in a huge country.
Both are powerful and influential. Moving to such a place is not going to be a case of “throwing your life away” in the rat race of competition. While China was certainly easily ignored some 30 years ago, at this point it has certainly become impossible to ignore. And of course, the US continues to be top dog.
Both are extroverted countries. I know a lot of people in the US think of China “as an Asian country” which causes them to reach to Japanese politeness as their mental model. This couldn’t be further from the truth. China is a place that rewards extroversion just like the US, and it punishes introversion as well (many in China will wonder if you are a 宅男/宅女 if you are a homebody, while in the US people will think you are antisocial).
Both are welcoming countries to outsiders. Yes, cities can be a bit lonely. But both places are warm and welcoming and quite outspoken about it, and while there may be some political hostilities towards outsiders, these are political backlashes, and they work against the common grain. Do not confuse that for the general hospitality of either nation. You will miss out on a lot otherwise.
Both countries have awful housing prices, but also huge houses. The awful housing prices are more of a global phenomenon — all big cities are being hit hard. But the huge houses are true for both places where there aren’t awful housing prices. This doesn’t quite make sense for China if approached with that Japanese lens, but again that’s a fallacy; in the Chinese countryside, the party has been providing much larger accommodation and so it is common to see rural people with new housing that has ceilings some 2.5+ meters high. (Honestly speaking, they are a bit too big.) In the US, most people underestimate how cheap it is to live in the “less desirable cities/states/areas.”
Both countries are deeply misunderstood. Hollywood paints a very strange picture of the US, but this is unfortunately the prime cultural export that seems to inform people abroad. Meanwhile China itself is painted usually in the colors of totalitarianism, and the people are almost exclusively talked about in terms of political repression, often not existing outside of it. In general, both places are talked about from geostrategic concerns first, and the daily lives of these people become buried underneath politically motivated statements.
The nice thing is that really, both countries have a lot to offer for anyone; they are both very large nations with all sorts of experiences one can lose themselves in. The question at the end of the day is, are you willing to give up a lot to have a new life? That should be the first question any prospective migrant should consider, because more often than not, people are not willing to give up so much of themselves. It is always tragic to see a migrant who has moved and now regrets moving.
“Get OUT now!” Syria tells U.S. to leave now and stop stealing its oil | Redacted w Clayton Morris
Syria would like to remind the world that the United States is illegally occupying its country and stealing its oil. The nation has appealed to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Security Council President Ferit Hoxha for help. So what will the U.N. do? We ask journalist Syrian Kevork Almassian for his guess on what will happen and how this came about to begin with.
In a certain social class in Egypt, people deal with buffets as if they’ve been starved to death their whole lives. And surprisingly they aren’t really poor to begin with.
Anyhow, in my cousin’s wedding, they went really big with the party, inviting every single person we know in Kuwait, and keeping the invitations open so that anyone can bring whoever they want with them.
Let me just say that the moment we announced that the buffet is now open, people turned their heads and rushed to the buffet like there was no tomorrow:
Being my cousin’s direct family, we stayed with him, taking care of things. When we entered the hall to finally eat, the scene was truly shameful.
The floor was covered with food stains, the platters were almost empty, the tables were tilted. It was like a tornado had passed through the area.
And while I haven’t seen this in this particular wedding, I know for a fact that some Egyptian mothers take with them these big, black garbage bags to stuff them with food and take it home.
It’s like buffets are some sort of an eating contest!
That wedding was a good lesson for us. Keep weddings limited to people you actually know and ones who care about you. And perhaps… don’t go with a buffet?
That being said, that was the only wedding I’ve seen that was this disastrous; usually weddings around me are more organized and classy.
It will take time for the Vision Pro to gain followers because right now it is relying on developers to port their apps to Vision Pro.
Right now, Apple is in a weak marketing position because there are no new features for the iPhone 15 series except for the change to USB-C connectors. It looks like Apple is putting more marketing weight behind Apple Watch than the iPhone.
This has left Apple severely exposed in its single largest market, China. Huawei has introduced the Mate 60 Pro, which enables satellite voice communications, and has much higher network connection speeds than Apple, Samsung and Google, who all rely on Qualcomm for their 5G transceivers.
The current version of the Vision Pro is priced at $3500, which means that only early adapters will buy it. A cheaper version will likely not come out until 2024/25.
I expect a lot of buzz about Huawei products even though they will not be readily available in the US due to sanctions.
Tough times for Apple and Samsung.
China’s economy is collapsing, isn’t it? Here’s Chinas real economic situation
I always take the opposite to what the US and other Western countries said about the economy, technologies and Geopolitics concerning China. If China is doing so bad economically, it’s common sense that they let the enemy keep doing all the wrong things. When the US bark and scream about China, then the truths is that China is doing well economically.
Look into the sky. You will see seven objects in it that move relative to the other objects
The Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. They’re all visible to the naked eye and have been known since ancient times in all civilizations.
So in English we have
SUN-day, MOON-day, and SATURN-day
And in French, they have MARS-day (mardi), MERCURY-day (mercredi), JUPITER-day (jeudi), and VENUS-day (vendredi). In English we actually name those after Gemanic gods – Tiw, Odin, Thor and Freya. In French, you also have lundi (MOON-day) an samedi (SATURN-day). “Dimanche”, the French for “Sunday” means “God’s day”, i.e. the sabbath.
The word “Month” is also based on “moon” because it’s roughly the time between full moons.
I grew up in a small town and joined the Army when I turned 18 on a 2-year enlistment. I had many personal reasons, but perhaps the one that might resonate the most with you was the Army College Fund. I thought going to college would help me succeed in life, and it might also be nice to see a bit of the world first. At the time, the Army recruiting slogan was “be all you can be” and that seemed to fit.
As a private (E-1) in basic training I was singled out and given more tests. Less than a year later, I finished jump school and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg. Then those test scores came through and I received orders to West Point.
As a lieutenant (after ranger school) I was assigned to the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division at Fort Carson. The entire Army (regular, reserves, national guard) deployed to the Gulf for Desert Shield/Storm, except for our division. As a combat arms officer, with no combat experience, I figured my career was over. A JAG I knew recommended I apply for the Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP) and go to law school, so I did.
As a captain I tried my first court-martial while assigned at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia supporting 1/75 rangers and part of the 160th SOAR, among other units. This became the foundation for much of my later career, both in the Army and after.
As a major in the JAG Corps, I went on over 30 deployments while assigned to SOCEUR (during the Bosnia and Kosovo campaigns) then later back at Fort Bragg, I deployed again after 9/11 in support of 5th Group. It’s ironic, but I collected more hostile fire and hazardous duty pay as a JAG than I ever did while in combat arms.
My last assignment was in Washington, DC, where I retired with 20 years of active duty. I then spent a few years as a trial lawyer and partner in a large law firm doing corporate work. The G.I. Bill allowed me to first get an MBA and then another degree at Georgetown. Altogether, four masters degrees and two doctorates (all paid for by the Army), healthcare and a lifetime pension. Not a bad result for a kid who started out just trying to learn something about the world and earn money for college.
The Sopranos – Tiny Tears – Tindersticks
I can never listen to Tiny Tears without thinking of the Sopranos.
There are actually two pieces of hardware that were ubiquitous in the 90s, but mostly gone now.
The key reason for the demise of these devices is the flash memory in combination with USB. Diskettes were a way to transport small volumes of information (1.4 MB for most of the 90s) around cheaply and unreliably. The information could be overwritten and 1.4 MB is actually plenty of data, as long as you aren’t including images or music. Forget about video, but they were fine for text, power point presentations and the like. All in all they filled a useful niche of portable, short term data storage. You didn’t want to keep anything important exclusively on diskettes, because they had a high failure rate.
CD was for larger amounts of data, a CD could contain 650 MB or hundreds of diskettes. It was also more reliable, you just couldn’t trust diskettes for more than a few months, but CDs last for 100 years (manufactured ones) or at least 20 years (home burned ones). The problem with CDs was the writing process was curbesome and they couldn’t be rewritten. If you wanted to put data on a CD more than once you lost about 20 MB for each session too. Rewritable CDs existed, but they failed rather often as well.
So you had two technologies to transport data around. One was suitable for small amounts of data, but cheap, ubiquitous and easy to write on. The other was suitable for large amounts of data, but curbesome. The two systems worked well in unision and there was nothing wrong with the setup as such. They weren’t replaced because they sucked, but because the alternative was so vastly better.
Enter the stick drive, which is faster than the diskette and just as easy to rewrite, but can easily hold as much or more data as the CD. In early 2000s they became cheap as well and diskettes and CDs no longer had a niche to fill. There is almost nothing you need a CD for and there is no use for a diskette either. Nowadays we usually move data around either on an USB stick or through the internet connection, ubiquitous fast internet came about slightly later than the stick drive and helped kill off other physical data carriers. External magnetic drives helped too of course, for reliable long-term storage.
On top of that the humble USB connection also enabled inexpensive external CD/DVD burners, so there’s no point in having an internal drive any more. They’re all burners now, because the technology is so cheap it doesn’t make sense to make slightly cheaper read only devices.
Losing weight was the best decision I made in life, it was a few years ago now and the only regret I have was not doing it sooner.
I was obese from a very young age up until I was 28 years old, which affected me in a lot of ways. I was subjected to daily bullying and felt terrible about myself most of the time. In general, I was and still am (to a degree) avoidant of people because of what I went through in my childhood leading into my twenties.
I never had close friends or dated women at all, I would not even approach because of the fear of rejection, which is what I was use to most of the time. The only thing that made me happy was food but at the same time it was making my life absolutely miserable because I was getting bigger and bigger trying to fill the void I constantly felt inside.
It got so bad that I was planning on ending things and thought about it a lot. One day I made a promise to myself, that I would give losing weight my best shot before I would go ahead with doing something drastic so that is what I did.
I went ahead and started small, building day by day and eventually after about 8 months of extremely hard work and dedication I lost 51kg!
I truly believe one of the best things you can do for yourself in the short and long term is to take care of your body and to live a fit and healthy lifestyle, it changed my life in so many ways but most importantly it gave me the confidence I never thought I had, to stand up for myself and to prove all the people that put me down wrong in the best of ways.
Holy SH*t,Something is Happening in Maui! Oprah & The Rock
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Oprah Winfrey face backlash for asking fans to donate to Maui fund instead of contributing more themselves The family of a woman who died trying to flee a wildfire on Maui is suing the county, the state and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, alleging they neglected to maintain their fire-prone property.
It looks like the very start of an American civil war.
Tsinghua University has experimented with a large-scale EUV-SSMB photolithography plant in the Xiong’An new district are emerging.
This is much larger than the EUV machines made by ASML, and can handle different light wavelengths simultaneously, unlike ASML products. It is also permanent, and will be able to handle much larger chip production than TSMC currently can.
Right now the minimum light wavelength it can handle is 7nm, but it will move on to lower wavelengths in the future. The aim is to bring chip prices down to commodity prices.
This has been made with Chinese IP and know-how; there are no plans to export the device.
I’ve never done it myself, but the coolest way to travel by sea is on cargo (usually container) ships. By Maritime Law, they are allowed to carry up to twelve passengers. If they have any more, they must provide a ship’s doctor.
It works. Container ships are fast. Some thirty years ago, the head of public relations at French Line CGT – she happened to be the Chairman’s daughter – insisted that all their new-build container ships should include the maximum number of passenger cabins.
The real reason? It was a very effective way to keep the crew on best behaviour – and sober.
Europe to USA by container ship is very popular among those-in-the-know and bookings are much sought-after. To other destinations such as West Africa they are easier to obtain. Voyages to the Far East can be long, even via Suez or Panama, but I have little doubt they are possible too.
London has a specialist travel agency which has been dealing in such unusual sea travel for at least 25 years. And there are no doubt equivalents in other major cities.
Nancy Pelosi Ambushed By Illegal Immigrants | Ends Event In Pure PANIC
During a public event, Nancy Pelosi found herself in a tense situation when she was unexpectedly confronted by a group of undocumented immigrants. The encounter quickly escalated, causing Pelosi to end the event abruptly due to the heightened emotions and concerns for her safety. The incident highlights the ongoing debate surrounding immigration policy.
In most states, students are required to spend more time in English classes than in classes for any other subject. Thus, there are more English teachers than any other kind of teacher, and there always will be. Job security is very good for experienced English teachers like me. I needn’t worry about ever being unemployed for very long.
I get paid to read and write. What better way to demonstrate to the students the importance of reading and writing than by demonstrating it yourself? Silent reading time for my students is also silent reading time for me.
The reading lessons are very repetitive. If I read a new novel with my students, it’s because I wanted to “mix it up a bit” for myself. But all of the short stories and novels I teach are new to my students, even if I’ve already taught them a dozen times. It makes teaching them that much easier. I am currently teaching three novels at the same time, with students reading novels that correspond with their reading levels. I’ve taught all three novels a minimum of ten times at this point. I don’t need to re-read them to teach them. I have all of the materials for them already. At this point in my career, it’s really easy for me to teach multiple novels at the same time.
The grammar and writing lessons are very repetitive. I teach seventh and eighth grades. I usually teach the same concepts to both grades on the same day. The worksheets and other materials are different, but the lessons are the same. And, unlike in a subject like math, if a student doesn’t understand a grammar concept, they may still understand the next one. Failure to grasp something simple (like division in math) won’t completely derail every lesson afterwards. Didn’t figure out how to use a comma in seventh grade? Not to worry. We’ll cover it again in eighth. And in ninth. And in tenth. And literally every year from grades 1–12.
I have a sweet, sweet classroom library now. I built it myself over the summer. It takes up one entire wall of my classroom, plus a little of another wall, and has just under 1,500 books in it so far. Once word got around that I was making a classroom library, a lot of parents donated books to it. I also have a Keurig and a record player and some really comfortable reading chairs in my classroom. It’s a space I enjoy being in, which is good, since I’m in it most of the day, 180 days per year. I suppose teachers who teach other subjects could also have classroom libraries, but it seems like a natural fit for English teachers in particular.
When I first considered teaching as a career, in my mid-20s, I wanted to pursue teaching science as a subject. But that would have required almost one full year of additional college courses, which I couldn’t do at that time. English teaching was the shortest pathway into the classroom for me, since I majored in Communication and minored in English during my undergrad. So it wasn’t my first choice, but, as with pretty much everything else in my life, it all worked out for the best. I’m happy with where I ended up.
Honduras’ GDP per capita is only US$2800, ranking 128th in the world.
Honduras lacks an industrial system and most industrial goods must be imported.
As a poor country, Honduras could not afford to buy expensive Western industrial goods, and Chinese goods were the only option.
China is the world’s factory, making everything in the world. The only thing China does not make – that is war!
Honduras does not have diplomatic relations with China because of the Taiwan factor, and they must go through a third country to buy Chinese goods, and are charged transit fees by the third country. But after establishing diplomatic relations with China, Honduras can trade directly with China, eliminating the transit fees earned by third countries. Why no?
In recent years, Panama, El Salvador, Dominica, Nicaragua and other countries have established or restored diplomatic relations with China, promoting the economic and social development of their countries and bringing tangible benefits to their people.
98% of the goods offered to the public in Honduran stores are Chinese goods re-exported from third countries, and only 2% are produced locally.
Most of Honduras’ groceries, cosmetics, clothing, plastic products, personal hygiene products, Christmas items and auto parts are Chinese goods re-exported from third countries.
“Send Them Back!” – AOC migrant press conference DISRUPTED outside NYC Roosevelt hotel
Disruption on all sides politically. The USA is a “powder keg”.
I was sued by my landlord for late rent. The payment arrived to him on the 3rd of the month instead of the 1st, and despite the money order being dated from the last day of the previous month, he asked for payment of a 100 dollar late payment. I refusd to pay and he took me to court.
I dressed in a dress shirt, black slacks, and a tie. I showed up 20 minutes early to court, registered with the bailiff, and waited for court to convene. My landlord didn’t show up until the last minute, and when he did he was dressed in shorts, sandals, and a Bahama Mama T-shirt.
Court was called to session and my case was called first. I approached the well and was asked if I was prepared to present my case. I informed the judge that I was the defendant, and that I would have to wait to proceed until the plaintiff presented his case.
My landlord, the plaintiff, dropped his papers on the way to the well. (I was not his only case that day.) When the judge noticed him, he guffawed and asked if my landlord was aware of court decorum standards.
Long story short, my landlord was disrespectful to the judge, and the judge was not inclined to be overly sympathetic to him. I won the case, including court costs, and was told that I had dressed respectfully for court and that it helped my case.
The landlord lost all his cases that day and had to make payment arrangements for late rent, and the judge split all court costs.
A young man was brought into office by my colleagues and they left him with me. Usually a traffic violator is fined on the spot and thats it. But if they resist or make a scene… then they are detained in this office until the cops from police station arrive to collect them.
I was told that “This fruit cart guy made the whole intersection jammed and refused to remove his cart away from fast lane and resisted”.
He just sat there silent, while I called the police station to send somebody to take him… and got back to watching a gaming live stream on my laptop.
But then I noticed him turning his head to the other side with his hand covering his eyes.
He was wiping his tears.
Something startled him, I assume. Maybe the behavior of cops or the thought of getting behind bars or maybe his cart that stood there in our compound. I don’t know.
I felt so much for him that moment.
What did you do exactly to land here and don’t lie? I asked.
I was crossing a busy intersection when a traffic cop shouted at me and told me to get off the lane towards footpath. I refused as I wished to cross the road and I yelled back. Nothing else happened, I am telling you the truth.
Okay… so you refused to obey and intentionally caused a traffic problem.
Yes, I guess.
….
Then why crying now?
I want to go home, I need to buy groceries and wheat as well for my mother, for she must be hungry and eagerly waiting for me. That’s why I crossed the road hurriedly and got caught into this mess. I sell watermelons and barely earn enough to feed both of us.
I checked his ID and asked a few more questions. This guy was anything but manipulative.
By now, I had decided to get into this matter, though that’s above my pay scale as I’m just a constable but what the hell. I can do wonders when I want to. 🙂
You want to go home? I smiled.
Yes, I was hesitant to ask you out of fear when you called the police for me. Please don’t do that. Please let me go home. I want to go home to my mother, she’s alone.
I stood up and went to the other room, few traffic officers were there including the one who brought him. I asked him nicely and requested to cut this kid some slack. He can be let go with a warning.
I told my senior that the fruit cart guy regrets his actions and is apologetic.
The senior looked at me.
He is a good man, I know. But he also knows that I’m a good guy too and I don’t ask for such favors with some ulterior motives. And that… even being just a constable, I can make traffic warden’s life quite miserable if I wish to.
So couple of minutes later…
I told that young man to get up, take his cart and leave. He couldn’t believe it. Those expressions of gratification were soothing and awesome. He thanked all of us and left but not before hearing my advice.
Remember this, you cannot disobey an order given by cops and you cannot resist. Just earn your living and go home. Stay out of trouble for you’d regret it in great deal. Your mother needs you, know that and act wisely from now on.
I stood there outside for some time… thinking of him.
Yes, a thought of his mother made me feel for him. But what primarily motivated me to help him get off the hook was…. that he shouldn’t be going to police station or spend a night there or even worse… Jail. He should not experience the company of bad guys there and learn the existence of a new and evil realm.
He shouldn’t hate himself, cops and the society in general.
He should remain what he is.
Positive, innocent and hardworking.
Warnings! Invasion of U.S. is about to get worse coming from Panama
This is the story that the US citizenry needs to see. The migration to the US is funded and orchestrated. Wonder by who?
China never say things that are not true. 100% of what they say is absolutely the truth. While the U.S. and the west remedy for Muslim extremism is carpet bombings Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and others killing millions of mostly innocent men, women and children China used a more humane approach saving lives and using a more successful and sustainable method.
Chinese too faced a spate of Muslim extremist violence post 9–11 years. China use re-education to help the highly influenced Muslims who have the tendency to is likely to resort to violence for what they think is a just cause. This approach works better and compared with the U.S. approach almost no deaths occurred. And it made China safer yet addresses the Muslim issue and problem.
The U.S. and the west instead of learning from this far better resolution felt compel to fabricate lies on China but China’s fairer and more effective solution is very well accepted and appreciate by the Muslim nations world wide.
In my opinion almost no body believes in the genocide narratives and it exposed the lying and obnoxious behaviour of the US instead of dirt sticking on China it sticks on the U.S. as an untrustworthy nation. China never deny re-education. The did it and it was effective. Were some Chinese Muslims unhappy? I am sure there are but 99% of them appreciated how China handle it compared to the sadistic murder by the U.S. and the west.
CAN’T BELIEVE IT: Gen Z Americans can’t answer these basic questions
It’s really hard to watch this kind of video without shaking your head in disbelief.
Visiting New York and decided to walk from the station to the hotel. Promptly got lost. Saw a police man standing by his car. So thought I’d ask. He looked shocked and even nervous when I approached to say hello. And was very abrupt. He then didn’t understand my question asking for directions. If he wasn’t in a uniform I would of honestly assumed he was mentally challenged.
Few years back was in London, again at a station with my 3 y/o daughter. 2 big police men all kitted up standing outside. My daughter saw the officers and got a little scared. I think partly as her 1st visit to London. One of the officers spotted her, smiled and walked over. Asked her a few questions about her visit and offered if she would like to try his helmet on.
Although the Met has at the moment a terrible reputation. Genuinely feel the British police are far more approachable and helpful.
You might very well think that. And certainly, if it was broadcasting on full power while right on top of the enemy, then yes, it will be giving out its own location. But there’s an interesting ability that modern radars, such as the AN/APG-81 (below) as fitted to the F-35, have which means that this will not usually be the case.
Until recently, radars were like single element searchlights sweeping out in the darkness, and were therefore clearly visible to the opposition, who were on the lookout for radars operating on specific wavelengths. The larger and more powerful the radar, the further away it could be detected, often well outside the range where it could detect an opposition aircraft. Frequency swapping helps, but the windows of opportunity it presents are often too short to have any meaningful effect.
AESA radars, on the other hand, are basically a group of multiple individual radar emitters collected together in one unit. One individual emitter on its own doesn’t have a great deal of power and therefore does not have a great range, but when used in conjunction with the other emitters surrounding it, the range and detecting power of the whole is every bit as good, if not better, than a powerful single element radar.
Now, here’s the clever bit. Each individual element on an AESA radar can be set to emit a different frequency from its neighbour (and to frequency shift at random times). This way, even when scanning on full power, the emission from an F-35 can appear almost indistinguishable from background radio noise, as no one frequency is being broadcast at any great strength. But the F-35 knows the frequency signature of its own radar, and can detect returns across this frequency range, while to an enemy scanner it will simply appear as noise. Of course, the closer the F-35 gets to the enemy, the greater the chances of its radar being detected, but that’s the same with any stealth adaptation. The hope would be that the F-35 would be able to engage the enemy (or otherwise complete its mission if it was simply intelligence-gathering) long before being detected.
The other thing about the AN/APG-81 (and to an extent other AESA radars) is that they are also excellent passive detectors, with the interesting ability to pick up returns from other radars. So (for example) a Boeing E-3 Sentry flying well away from the front lines will be using its radar to search a wide area. The opposition will clearly be able to see this, as will the F-35, but the F-35, flying much closer to the front, possibly even over enemy airspace, will also be able to pick up the radar returns of the E-3’s radar reflecting off opposition aircraft, and being much closer these returns will actually be stronger than the return that makes it back to the E-3. The upshot of this being that the F-35 might actually be able to see the returns of enemy aircraft in the E-3’s radar that are too far away for the E-3 itself to see.
Which means that in a hypothetical future war, as the enemy is setting up a long-range intercept of the E-3, an F-35 is setting up a much shorter range (though still many tens of kilometres away) interception of the enemy aircraft, all without emitting as much as a milliwatt from its own radar or receiving any other information from any source.
Of course, quite how powerful this ability is in the AN/APG-81 is confidential, and at this point we simply do not know how well (if at all) AESA radars fitted to Russian or Chinese aircraft can mimic it. But it is an ability that just a few short years ago would have been considered firmly in the realms of Science Fiction.
OMG First Time Hearing Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond | THE WOLF HUNTERZ REACTIONS
The positive reaction to this by so many is telling. The criticism Mr. Anthony gets from certain celebrities is also just as telling. He is doing something right.
A window to the murmurings of discontent inside of America. This is the moment in time that comes right before the beheadings.
Question : When will China have its own euv lithography machine?
Short answer: 2023 AD China already have own EUV machine (lab quality) and this is No red herring.
.
China Uni have conquered EUV light source few years back.
And current China EUV machine although large as a building, crude (compare to ASML), use enormous amount of electricity but the end result is it is here :
It is extremely likely soon within 3 to 5 yrs (2026 to 2028 AD) China will equalize world’s chip manufacturing with her in house China EUV, while using a big cruder EUV machine, yet China can still manufacture 3 to 5nm size, even smaller size
.
The refinement of the production machine will take more time and likely very few EUV machine of a building size will ever be build, since it is such awfully big size.
Before the newer EUV models, commercial one gradually will shrink in size eventually. Nonetheless China will be making Chips of equal nm abet at cost of much higher expense.
So likely initial phase, ~2027 the product will likelyonly be for internal consumption. Until mass production & efficiency is achieved.
I sincerely believe that this is an intelligent demonstration by China that jailing Huawei’s CFO was simply totally ineffective.
But this Chinese demonstration is a little naive, because it assumes that Raimondo understands the difference between a Chinese phone and an iPhone: I highly doubt it.
What’s more, I highly doubt that Raimondo knows that the Mate 60’s chips are mainly Chinese, but especially the SoC and modem.
Raimondo doesn’t understand this, and she doesn’t care: she has a single message to get across, and nothing else.
She’s come with the mindset that China is a technologically inferior country, and there’s no room in her mind for thinking differently.
She’s not arrogant, she’s just ignorant of Chinese culture and doesn’t want to learn it.
In my 46 years living in the U.S., I have experienced 4 severe real estate crashes, last one was 2007–2012, when prices dropped 50%-80%, 7 million Americans went into foreclosure and bankruptcies.
Nobody wanted to buy any property at 80% discount, yet everybody rush to overbid to buy properties when home prices go up crazy.
Be very careful when you ridicule other market’s real estate crash, because next is your own real estate, guaranteed.
Real estate rises and crashes are normal healthy economic cycles, it is God giving you another chance to make $ millions, if you are smart enough and have the financial resources.
LIVE: Report—Largest Poverty Increase On Record!
Lee, don’t know how you muster the mental energy and resilience to continuously report on so much moral depravity, mendacity and governmental malfeasance, but I applaud you for doing so. I’m an atheist but nevertheless I like to believe there is a special place in the afterlife for the few honest Western journalists such as yourself.
It’s real bad here in the USA now. Especially because of the western propaganda. First they were saying they purposely created the virus and then released it. Then they changed the story to. They created the virus but somehow it accidentally got loose.
There’s actually been a few reports. About these dangerous untrustworthy people in this country deciding to play vigilante. And apparently some minority groups. Have you been developed the paranoia that they’re coming after them next.
The people in this country deliberately expose their children to the virus and let them die. And the reason why was because both political parties wanted to see the other president go to jail. Whether that was Trump or Obama. That is the real reason why the virus spread so successfully here. Not the first time the people in this country treated their own children as expendable pawns for their own shady gine. And probably won’t be the last time.
I strongly don’t suggest coming to this country. Especially when they’re falsely accusing your people of trying to kill everybody with a virus now. And if you come here try to stay together as much as possible. Try not to be anywhere by yourself.
Easy– I had just picked my wife up from the hospital after a 3 vertebrae spinal fusion. I was driving very slowly and carefully (picture an old lady driving a T-model Ford filled with nitroglycerin). As I was easing across some train tracks in my small hometown, moving at about the speed of smell, a plumbing work truck came up behind me. He was in a hurry, and gave me multiple exotic versions of ‘the finger”. He honked his horn, leaned out the window, screaming obscenities and suggesting anatomical impossibilities because of my slow speed. As a previous professional driver, I understood his hurry, but had a much more important personal reason to maintain slow-n-steady.
As we cleared the tracks, he screeched around us, cut me off, and sped into the distance still “saluting”.
Rather than be angry, it suddenly occurred to me that I’d done very similar things as a professional driver. You get in a hurry, and the job becomes more important than attempting to understand the potential plight of the other driver. I swore that I would never be intolerant of other drivers again, when it was my turn to be in a hurry. To this day, I still practice understanding that everyone has reasons for the way they drive, and every driver is a human being. It’s simple enough to conceive, but can be difficult to practice. Curiously, this event started a torrent or cascade effect for me. I now drive much more courteously, and it’s so much calmer of an experience. I don’t yell or “talk” to the other drivers when I witness a mistake, or am caused an inconvenience. I try to remember my needs that day, and assume that everyone else has similar needs. I recommend it.
People Drove Past a Kitten Shivering from the Cold On the Side of the Road
She squinted through the windshield of her car, trying to discern what it was. As she got closer, her heart sank.
China is NOT banning Apple nor will it do so. In fact, all the leading companies are allowed to operate in China without the hinderance of the Chinese government – companies like Tesla, Samsung, Intel, Walmart, Costco, Starbucks, etc. In fact, the Chinese government deliberately encouraged the participation of those companies in the Chinese market place. The only requirement is that they follow Chinese laws.
AND there is a good reason why.
The Chinese government want those companies because they wanted foreign companies to force Chinese companies to innovate and be cost efficient to compete with those foreign companies. This will not only benefit Chinese consumers but will allow for the development of world class Chinese companies.
Otherwise China will be like India – a poor country with businesses that produce second rate products protected by tariffs despite the country’s tremendous potential.
That STRATEGY is paying off handsomely and China now have MANY leading edge companies.
On a side note, Apple’s share price is falling because Huawei’s phone is expected to take away much market share of Apple not only in China but also overseas. This will affect Apple’s profitability.
Southern Hamburger Pie
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pound ground chuck
Salt and pepper to taste
1 small can corn or green beans, drained (optional)
1 (9-inch) frozen pie shell
5 slices Velveeta cheese, about 4 to 5 ounces
1 can flaky biscuits
Instructions
Begin thawing pie crust. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cook ground beef and onion in a large skillet on medium heat, breaking up the beef with the back of a spoon, and cook until onions are soft.
Drain excess fat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add corn or green beans if using.
Put meat mixture into the pie shell and evenly distribute the cheese over the top.
Separate biscuits and layer in a circular pattern over the pie, covering it completely (you may not need all the biscuits).
Cut a few small “steam slits” in the top and bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.
In the 2000s China took down semiconductors from its university courses, because the Chinese ministry of Education thought that such majors are useless and China can just buy chips from other countries since China had joined WTO.
Big mistake.
China has now reopened the major in Chinese universities and the graduates are being hired before they leave campus, because of Chinese companies’ sudden urge to innovate and build domestic chips due to US sanctions.
Other industries are also on a similar quest for tech independence because they fear the US would do to them what they did on chips against Huawei.
American products are just not reliable anymore.
So innovation is on fire across the board.
China is now ahead of the US in new patents filed and scientific paper quotations.
When I left my retirement in Arkansas and flew to China, the airlines lost my baggage. So when I arrived in China, all that I had was a backpack, some of my most important papers, my laptop computer, and what I was wearing.
At that time, and to this day, I wear very comfortable clothes on planes during air travel. And given TSA back in the State’s, my clothes were simple;
Black hospital scrubs, and black slippers with black socks.
So, here I am arrived in China, with literally only the clothes on my back.
And for the first month or so, I had to live and wear in them until I got settled in, reestablished, and start earning money again.
In hindsight, it’s kind of funny.
Everyone, including my wife, wanted me to toss those things and never wanted to see me in them ever again. As a result, she went on a spending spree and outfitted me right and proper.
…
I don’t know what the fuck I was doing when I planned this cluster-fuck of a life, but I’ve got to tell you all, it’s almost a parody. Seriously.
Did I have a sense of humor, or was my “crew” trying to make a point when they planned my pre-birth world-line template?
I wonder…
…how many meme’s have I personally experienced in this life? Hum….
Enterprise Under Attack from the Suliban Part II
Stra Trek Enterprise Season 2 Episode 16 Future Tense
Carolina Hot Dog Chili
Ingredients
1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 large onion (about 1 cup chopped)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon cider or white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (optional)
Instructions
Place the beef, onion and 2 cups of water in a Dutch oven or soup pot over high heat. Bring to the water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir to begin breaking up the meat.
Add the tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper, if using. Stir well until the tomato paste and ketchup are dissolved and the meat is mostly broken up.
Continue to cook at a simmer, stirring about every 5 minutes, about 15 minutes. As the chili thickens, you may need to reduce the heat to medium-low or low so it doesn’t stick. Refrigerate, covered, up to 2 days, or freeze in small freezer bags for up to 6 months.
Thaw or reheat in a microwave, stirring often.
If you want a finer texture, you can cool the chili at least 20 minutes and process in a blender or food processor for 30 to 45 seconds.
Say tomorrow we are at $ 4.981 trillion, then it’s possible we may fudge to somehow make it appear that we have reached $ 5 Trillion
There is no conceivable way that any GDP number is off beyond say 2% at the most
The Point is Economic Development can be seen with your own eyes and not on paper
Take UP
I visited UP and traveled to quite a few places
I saw nothing to indicate bountiful prosperity
There was nothing to indicate the hum of a busy growing economy
Sure they had nice roads and a lot of nice commercial and techno parks but frankly it looked like more like
If you build it they will come
That’s what happens when you don’t develop your own populace with good secondary and tertiary education and instead rely on only investments under gun point or unrealistic concessions by the state
Now Take Bangalore or Hyderabad or Chennai
They are buzzing with activity and you can see that the economies are doing well
The Problem in India is that a few cities and few hubs are carrying the weight of the entire nation
There are 3 Key points in a booming economy
Unemployment is pretty low
Savings are pretty high (>= 36%)
Inflation is typically 50% of RORR
India has neither of the three
Unemployment is way above the target 5%
Gross Savings are 30.20%
RORR is 7% and Inflation is 5.05% which is way above the 3.50% target
That alone tells me there are pending issues that need looking into
I taught a shop class in an inner city high school…One day as the students were changing into work clothes I noticed some relatively new wounds on Jerome’s back…I politely and discreetly took him into my office and asked him what happened…He told me his step father had tied him to a metal bed spring and beat him with a coathanger…I knew where he lived so when school was out for the day I went to his apt and his stepdad was there…I proceeded to beat the living shit out of that evil man…And told him if he wasn’t gone before Jeromes bus got there I’d finish the job…AND call the cops…I drug his worthless carcass down to his pos car and he drove off…never to be seen again. Jerome stayed in my class for the full 3 years and graduated high school…Neither of us ever mentioned it…30 years later Jerome still calls me to visit ever so often…
The US Bankrupting Itself on Wars -w/ Ron Paul, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
Oh HELL yeah! The dignified and stately Dr. Ron Paul is one of the very best Americans living. Thanks very much for this, you guys.
Laughable because you are ignorant and naive like a 5 years old kid. If you know the truth you will be the one of the 89% too.
While the U.S. real standard of living deteriorated back to the 1960’s Chinese real standard of living grew 30 times in 40 years! While 35% in the U.S. has no health insurance, every single Chinese gets free health care. While the U.S. kids get into debts for just getting into college Chinese are provided totally free college tuition.
Chinese average life expectancy overtook the U.S. in the last 2 years straight. While your infrastructure is crumbling China has the latest state of the art ports, airports, highways, high speed railways. While your trains travel at snail speed China’s high speed trains travel at 400 KM per hour.
Do you still laugh now? To be honest everyone in the world is laughing at you. You want to know about the 11% so that you can orchestrate a coup? Organised a protest and a demonstration? Do a colour revolution? And you think the Chinese are fools to give you the information? Just because you have a IQ of a snail doesn’t mean others are the same like you!
Tex-Mex Biscuits
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup enriched hominy grits or quick grits
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese (with or without jalapeno peppers), shredded
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup milk
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Combine dry ingredients; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in cheese.
Combine sour cream and milk; add to dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened. Shape dough to form a ball; knead gently on lightly floured surface 10 to 12 times. Roll dough to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with floured 2-inch biscuit cutter. Place 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.
This is Kalinka Bamberski, who used to be a 14-year-old from France.
During the summer of 1982, she briefly stayed in Lindau, Germany, with her mother and her stepfather, Dr. Dieter Krombach.
On July 9th of that summer, Krombach killed Kalinka. The next day, Krombach told the authorities that he simply found Kalinka dead in the morning.
Autopsies could not determine the exact cause of her death, and Krombach got away with the murder. This led Kalinka’s biological father, Andre, to grow suspicious and to investigate further.
Despite the authorities’ failure to discern the exact cause of Kalinka’s death, there were multiple red flags in the original autopsy: Kalinka’s corpse had multiple injection marks, fresh blood stains and a “whitish substance” around the genitals, and indigested food near the throat suggesting that she died soon after a meal.
Andre, rightfully suspecting that his daugher was raped, called for an additional investigation. This time, the authorities discovered clear evidence that, right before her death, Kalinka was injected with a drug named “Kobalt-Ferrlecit,” a substance capable of causing immediate discomfort and nausea in a victim. Andre pressed a case against Krombach, but the German courts judged that there was insufficient evidence for an indictment. Despite multiple red flags, Krombach was not indicted.
In 1995, however, the French courts officially sentenced Krombach in absentia to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.
Furthermore, later in 1997, Krombach admitted in a German trial that he had drugged and raped another girl using Kobalt-Ferrlecit, the same substance found in Kalinka’s corpse. Numerous other girls came forth, saying that Krombach had also raped them using the same drug. For this, the German courts took away his medical license, but did not sentence him to prison.
Unfortunately, in 2001, Krombach’s French manslaughter conviction of 1995 was annulled by the European Court of Human Rights, the reason being that Krombach was not capable of defending his case in that French trial. Not only was the 1995 French verdict annulled, but all attempts to extradite him for retrial were rejected.
But for Andre, the case was not over. Andre was deeply frustrated at the international legal system’s failure to bring justice; he decided he was going to take justice into his own hands.
In 2009, Andre and three other men secretly kidnapped Krombach from Germany, beat him up, and left him tied up near a French police station, allowing the French authorities to detain him and honor their 1995 decision.
Despite Germany’s requests to bring him back, French officials and courts ignored these complaints and officially re-tried Krombach.
With other victims testifying that Krombach had injected them with the same drug to rape them, on October 22, 2011, Krombach was finally sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.
Kalinka’s father, Andre, was convicted and given a suspended sentence for abducting Krombach.
But in my opinion? Andre Bamberski was a heroic father who spent 30 years of his life to bring justice for his daughter’s death. Yes, he broke the law — but refusing to convict Krombach earlier and ignoring the mountatin of evidence against him was a clear failure in the international justice system.
For Andre’s determination and commitment, I applaud him.
Prof. Richard Wolff on American Labor: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
There is very little value enhancement due to market pricing or Brand pricing or Technology Pricing
Even a Boeing makes at the most a couple of million dollars commission to a Chinese Importer while earning nearly 100 Million Dollars to the US Economy
You see right?
No Nation on earth can export $ 564 Billion worth of goods to the USA
It’s estimated that at thrice the manufacturing potential today – India, Vietnam and Mexico combined can export $ 338 Billion worth of Goods by 2030
This that’s around $ 226 Billion of Exports but also around $ 700 Billion of final retail goods
That’s the amount that US players and entities will be deprived off if US entirely decouples from China EVEN IN 2030 with India, Vietnam and Mexico tripling their Industrial Output
Even then US Economy and it’s players will be deprived of $ 700 Billion Dollars which by 2030 could be around $ 1 Trillion with inflation
That’s a lot of jobs, lots of payments GONE
Meanwhile China?
China may lose around $ 564 Billion of Exports in decoupling
At 0.4% inflation
That’s $ 580 Billion vs $ 1 Trillion
So even in the worst case scenario of US entirely decoupling from China and India, Mexico and Vietnam tripling their Industrial output today – China would lose $ 580 Billion while US would lose a whopping $ 1 Trillion
At normal Industrial output for these three nations, US would lose $ 2.4 Trillion or nearly 4.5 times as much as China stands to lose as an economy
Same for EU
Same for ASEAN
Same for India
Its why Raimondo visits China
It’s why 27 Chinese entities were removed from a Blacklist recently
The Media has been spinning fiction and propaganda so far and China hasn’t cared
Now if China decides to take their revenge by drastically cutting off key exports of say $ 100 Billion, then US cannot source more than $ 30 Billion from other countries
China loses $ 100 Billion but US loses around $ 210 Billion of value to it’s economy
That’s 44% of the projected $ 470 Billion that the US Economy hopes to enhance itself this year at 1.8% growth
So Raimondo says
Please keep trading with us as usual. Ignore what we say in our media. Our contention with you is for the $ 10–15 Billion portion of our Trade, let’s keep the balance $ 685–690 Billion of Trade as normal
That’s why China doesn’t need to visit everybody and reassure anyone much
Everyone loses far far more by decoupling with China
So ultimately it creates a slow down globally where China albeit having very low growth still beats the rest of the world
Solving The Most Mysterious Children in History
THREE STORIES: The Most Mysterious Children in History In 12th century England, two children were found lost in a forest.
They spoke only gibberish, wore strange clothing and had bright green skin.
When the children finally learned to speak English, they described where they were from.
And that’s why, after almost 1,000 years, people still talk about The Green Children of Woolpit.
In 1828, a teenage boy was shuffling through a public square in Nuremburg. He seemed confused and disoriented.
He had trouble walking and speaking. When police finally approached him, he was holding an envelope containing two letters.
And those letters sparked the mystery of Kaspar Hauser.
In April 1922, in Brittany, France, 2-year-old Pauline Picard went missing. A massive search turned up nothing.
The family was losing hope. A month later, Pauline was found wandering around a village over 200 miles away.
Though her parents were overjoyed to have her back, they soon realized something wasn’t quite right with their daughter. These are three unsolved cases of the most mysterious children in history.
POMPEO said ‘Covert operations, ousting democratically elected governments, inciting revolts and supporting transnational companies are run of the mill operations for the CIA.’ WHO GAVE THEM THOSE RIGHTS?
We did, all us minions. America was once set up having a government described as ‘a government of the people, for the people, by the people’, but the people couldn’t be bothered and went home, leaving ‘those who shouldn’t be’ in charge. Industry filled the vacuum created by our conspicuous absence, which over time gave way to the American Industrial Military Complex which runs the country today.
Now industry owns the puppet show called ‘Democracy’, which in no way should be confused with actual democracy, and yet we continually pretend they are one and the same, and that our vote counts, even though voting either left or right basically changes nothing of significance. Results may vary but the rich are always always always the primary beneficiary, either way they lean.
We demand and receive empty platitudes, and are duly amused by military antics across the globe, ignoring the fact that such behavior merely mirrors us here at home, and that the same shit is pulled on our own, until folks like Snowden and Assange et al dare to shatter our deliberately cultivated ignorance. No matter, we have ways to deal with such moral assholes, as throwing them under the bus in various ways has become a time honored national pastime.
So, when you want to look at who’s at fault, go look in the mirror. When you wish to look deeper, check out your family albums. We are the bloody problem, and as we are paying the price, with record numbers driven from their homes in this rich nation, and yet, still we refuse to accept responsibility for our democracy, knowingly leaving it in the manipulative hands of industry, which is exactly how to kill actual democracy, regardless of the puppet show which operates by the same name.
Whether you love Trump or hate him, he reflects us, and had he actually run the country as we pretend to believe, he would have surely killed it, as would Biden. We need to wake the fuck up to the reality we have created, and make the necessary changes within ourselves which can then be reflected through our leadership, before it’s too late, if it’s not already.
But who among us want to actually be the change we want to see?
Many years ago, when I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I had a work commute on a typical Monday through Friday schedule.
One evening on my way home from work, I turned off a main street into the side streets that would lead me the rest of the way home. It was a very familiar drive and I knew each block well – which ones had a stop sign for me, which ones had stop signs for the cross traffic, and which ones had four-way stops. I was cruising the last few blocks toward home and had no more stop signs, so I was probably going about 35 mph when suddenly it was as if someone inside my head said, “Slow down!” It was so forceful and unexpected, I did just that. “Slower!” was the next command, and then again, “Slower!”
I was just about to chalk it all up to being a little kookie after a long day, when suddenly someone driving a vehicle on the cross street blew through their stop sign at an alarming rate of speed. I am 100% certain if I had not slowed down, I would have been T-boned by someone doing a good 60–70 mph. The close call freaked me out. I’m not a religious person, but it sure felt like I had a guardian angel that day.
Dead For 7 Minutes; Man Is Shown Past Lives During Incredible NDE
Yes. My dad’s best friend growing up has a son my age. We were really close as kids but they moved away and I didn’t talk to him for years. When we were teens, my dad’s friend came to visit. Something about his son literally made my skin crawl. I was left alone at home with him and my three young siblings while the parents went out for the night and I was nearly frantic trying to ensure he did not have a moment alone with my siblings. When our parents returned I told them something was wrong with the son, and to please not leave me alone with him again. My dad was upset and demanded to know why I would say that, did the son do something? He honestly hadn’t actually done or said anything that I could pin this feeling on. So I told them, I think my animal brain just knows a predator when I see one. My dad thought I was being dramatic but my mom believed me and made sure we weren’t alone with the son for the rest of their visit. About a year later it turned out the son got caught in the act of raping his niece. He told the police he was glad he was caught because he couldn’t stop himself. My dad has never doubted my intuition since.
Tony Confronts Tony Blundetto – The Sopranos HD
When Tony B looks up after Tony S said someone got a look at the guy. That’s the reaction of someone who did it. Split second panic and then cool as a breeze. Steve Buscemi nailed it.
I worked for a major retail company, in a team running the mainframe.
One task was keeping the (huge, size of a car trailer) printers running.
Some printouts were for the board, and these we were told to check for misprints and missing pages.
We’d just been told that we couldn’t have any pay rises since there wasn’t any money in the budget. Inflation was running high, so not getting a pay rise really meant a pay cut.
The company annual account report was printed and I was checking it before putting it in internal mail.
I noticed that the IT department budget was underspent by half a million!
No money for pay rises!
Showed printout to my manager. He ran off with it to the copier. Multiple copies of the page showing the surplus in the IT department were placed around the department.
We got pay rises.
Ralph Cifaretto Refuses Tony’s Drink – The Sopranos HD
SMIC has been making 7nm custom GPUs for the past 2–3 years, mostly for crypto customers who couldn’t get in the TSMC queue.
This filled real market demand that other players didn’t, or couldn’t.
SMIC used this opportunity to refine its process, on the quiet.
Huawei, in the meantime, found willing partners to share talent and resources, in a concerted effort to save the high-tech industry on the mainland from American destruction through the threat of sanction.
How did Huawei et. al. find the tools necessary for chip design, especially the GPU? What black magic did Huawei use to improve the transistor geometry? How did they penetrate the Qualcomm 5g patent wall? I don’t know. Neither does my friend in TSMC. It’s a separate ecosystem now, and quite independent.
The fog of war has descended, but the outcome point to solidarity across the ranks, with competitors working together like they are part of a conglomerate.
The Chinese are capable of cooperation on unheard of scale, because of long history.
The Mate 60 Pro is merely a first step, lacking polish and maturity. What’s coming though, will be a deluge.
Alien Artifacts on Mars: What NASA doesn’t want you to know
Of course. The Chinese government really wants to know how many times you call your girlfriend every week, and which are your favourite games, and which pop stars you follow on Instagram, and most of all they are interested in the photos of your meals that you regularly post on Facebook.
These are vital secrets so critical for the national security of the USA, so the evil communist spies from China will be watching intently. Remember that well, and be careful! The everyday events of your online life have the devastating potential to alter the direction of global geopolitics and the history of the world, basically.
How Huawei Mate60 5G Overcome US Sanctions? | Time to invest in Chinese tech stocks
100 sanctions. Imprisonment of it’s CEO. Mandatory shutdown of partner factories in the West.
Why worry US. Remember most Yanks still think Chinese live in caves and eat bats! To these hubris Yanks China can only make T-shirts and toys. And U.S. can deprived them technologies and send them back to the Stone Age.
Well, what happened? While the U.S. is still in the midst of ordering and coercing Taiwan to build its chip plant to manufacture 7nm chips that it thinks China is unable to do. To the horrors of U.S. officials. It took a mere 3 years for China to. Make it and now inside the Huawei Mate 60!
Where are the neocons who convince Biden to spend a trillion in losses, in subsidies, in coercions, in tax breaks, in new shining plants, in luring specialist to the U.S. only to see that China get it done in no time and made products that are not only comparable but better, faster and cheaper!
Huawei, under tight US sanctions since 2019, started selling its latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone this week, raising speculation about its 5G capabilities. Some online reviews claim the device comes with the Kirin 9000s chip to support 5G and satellite calls.
The US and some European governments have labelled the Chinese giant a threat to national security, despite the company’s denial. Huawei had restricted access to US components and software, including from foreign chipmakers.
Early this year, Japan and the Netherlands joined the US effort to curb the export of advanced semiconductors. However, Huawei has been rumoured to be actively trying to overcome these sanctions to return to the 5G smartphone market, even resuming production on advanced chips with China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).
Why does it matter?
Huawei’s development of its 5G chip may have implications for the tech industry, the global economy, and national security.
The smartphone launch coincides with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to Beijing, reiterating the Biden administration’s stance on export controls to China.
If the new Mate 60 Pro is confirmed to have a 5G chip, that would mark a significant achievement for the Chinese tech champion.
China’s ability to produce its own advanced chips would also announce a considerable advancement in technological capabilities and would mean a serious blow to current US measures aimed at slowing its progress.
It could inspire the country’s largest tech firms to get around US sanctions, fueling the ‘whole nation‘ endeavor to produce Chinese innovation to beat the US.
In the United States, I was a conservative Republican working at a wage earning job. Then, while driving for my employer, on a delivery, on the clock, at a red light I was stopped. A person who was not paying attention smashed into my stationary vehicle and totaled it, and sent me to the hospital.
The hospital bill was thousands upon thousands of dollars. My employer didn’t cover any of it. My automobile insurance replaced my new vehicle with an old one that barely ran. I ran up many thousands of dollars of medical debt that I couldn’t afford.
Note: I spent one hour at the hospital, getting one scan. I received zero actual treatment, before or after that scan. It still cost me more than I made in a year. And no, the insurance didn’t cover it. Insurance that would have covered it, would have taken up half of my wages in a given month.
Cut to a few years later. I am now happily married, living in Norway. Still an American citizen. My wife is Norwegian and the pay is much, much better here, because they have things called unions. I literally earn three times as much as I did in Florida, working the same type of job. Scratch that, I was in management in the USA. Here, it’s an entry level job, no promotion. I still make far more money than I did in the states.
But the point is, whenever I need to see a doctor now, I just go. Whenever I need an operation, I can afford it. Whenever I am sick, I take time off. Because over here, in Norway, they have single payer universal healthcare.
I’ve never seen a doctor more often than I have since moving to Norway. I’ve gotten medical conditions diagnosed that I never would have found the money for before. I’ve gotten sick leave from work when I have been ill. Seeing a doctor tends to cost less than I make in a day, and if I go over a certain amount in a year, I can pay nothing.
Instead of getting bills from a doctor for thousands of dollars, I end up paying around 30 bucks out of pocket each time.
The doctor earns plenty. They make slightly less money here, but are still among the highest paid people in society. The citizens are healthier, they live longer. They take their health more seriously. Norway spends more per patient than almost any other country in the world, and they cover every citizen, every resident, completely.
Norway still spends only about half as much as US citizens are forced to spend on their healthcare.
The reason is because healthcare is considered a right here, like getting a public school education. People don’t go without simply because they’re poor.
And as a result, lifespans and healthcare outcomes and healthcare expenses are all a better outcome or a cheaper deal here in Norway.
Bernie Sanders is one of the few politicians in my native United States who understands that progressive ideas like universal healthcare would greatly enhance the lives of my fellow citizens.
I care about my fellow citizens, and I’d like for my son to be able to live in the USA someday, as he is born to a US citizen and he can certainly go far there.
The problem is, if he decides to come to the USA; there won’t be a union fighting for him against corporate greed. There will be greatly reduced wages. And if he gets hurt, sick, or otherwise needs medical care, he will likely need to have far more money than he earns in order to get that care.
That’s ridiculous.
Of course, he could just get a college education (something that is free in Norway) and then he could afford the outrageous healthcare prices in the USA.
But if he wanted to get such an education in the USA, he could find himself a hundred thousand dollars in debt just for college alone, in a shitty economic downturn, without even the benefit of having a place to live. Throw on a mortgage payment on top of that, and he would be downright stupid to deliberately choose the USA over Norway.
The difference is that Norway governs for its citizens and certain things are prioritized here, like education and healthcare.
Whereas in the USA most of the money you spend in taxes goes towards prepping for world war 3 and giving subsidies to already profitable corporations, and then giving them loopholes where they don’t have to pay any corporate taxes at all. And then billionaires pay for senators to give them even more tax breaks personally, and then they use that money that should be funding your government services to bankroll candidates for the Republican ticket that will never, ever do anything to help a working class person.
I support Bernie Sanders because he’s spent decades representing working class people, without ever selling out. It’s a shame people keep rejecting him in favor of billionaires who bail themselves out on the taxpayer’s dime like Donald Trump.
Norway isn’t alone. Basically any other modern, western nation has a universal healthcare system of some kind, and doesn’t shit on the poor like the USA does under Republican rule. Needless to say, I don’t think much of my former political party. They haven’t done anything for any working person in at least 4 decades. I was a fool to support them at all when I was younger. I believed their lies, basically.
The Mate 60 is superior to the performance of the Iphone 13 and is on par with the performance of Iphone 14
Yet the Mate 60 is expected to be half a generation below the Iphone 15
The Price of the Mate 60 however is at least 3000 Yuan lesser than the Iphone 15 and given the mild differences in performance between the two, the market for the mate 60 is likely to zoom and surge and definitely affect the market for the Iphone 15
I believe Iphone will lose around 15% of it’s present market share in China to Huawei due to the Mate 60 and the Mate 60 Pro Plus to be released in 2024 April
As a child, I was an incorrigible thief. Absolutely nothing could stop me.
I stole books. We had no local library, no school library, and no money to buy books. And I WANTED TO READ! (That may have been why I developed the habit of re-reading books.) I also stole art supplies, but that wasn’t quite the same problem, because you didn’t need a new set of pastels every week. When I was caught, I was punished — usually beat, because that was punishment in Little Italy in the 1960s.
My brother also stole. He tended towards candy and comic books. He also got beat when he got caught.
When I turned 16 I got a job, and I never had to steal a book again. Within three months I had enough books (and money) to build my first bookshelf. My current bookshelf, which is about half the size of its maximum ever, is 13′ long and 7′ high. I built that one, too.
I don’t steal art supplies, either. I order them online.
My brother decided stealing was fun, and meant he didn’t have to work. He made a living illegally hooking up electric lines after the power was shut off; later, he added cable TV installations. And he didn’t need a full-time job, ever.
Same parents, same beatings, same reason — poverty. When I had a choice, I stopped stealing. When he had a choice, he became a better thief. Good parenting helps, but nothing will tell you why a child turned out the way they did.
Clear interference shown in docs leaked to Mintpress
Theoretically, any cell phone that makes calls through a terrestrial carrier could be monitored by the CIA. It doesn’t matter whether the phone is made in the United States, South Korea or China.
After all, their signals and data must eventually be aggregated into the operator’s computer room and lines.
However, Mate60 is so unique that it is the first mobile phone in the world that can send short messages and make calls directly through artificial satellites. Previous similar products required the help of ground operators for transit.
Some people may say: CIA will also monitor satellites! Of course.
But what if these satellites are not operated by Americans?
Yes, if two people hold Mate60 at the same time, they can rely on a series of artificial satellites in space for global communication that do not rely on the United States. Perfectly avoiding every link that the CIA may touch.
While many Chinese scientists and engineers have returned to China after working years in the US, there is a newer trend which just came to my attention: Young Chinese star physicists and engineers are refusing to go to US universities and companies for study and then work, and are choosing to do their post-graduate study and work in China.
Why?
They have seen how research and product patents are owned by US universities and companies, and are used against Chinese companies and interests if a tech war breaks out.
They do not want their inventions used against Chinese companies and interests, so they choose to stay in China.
Huang Qianqian 黄芊芊 is a leading student and researcher on electricity consumption in chips, who went to Beijing University for undergraduate work, and is now doing graduate work there. In spite of being offered full scholarships to US universities, she decided to stay in China to do her work. She already has several patents under her name.
The US wanted decoupling; it is getting decoupling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for plans to immediately deport Blacks out of Israel and back to Africa.
Plans should be drawn up to remove all African migrants from Israel after groups of Eritreans were involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.
He also wants the migrants involved in the demonstration to be deported immediately.
His remarks came a day after rival groups of Eritreans clashed in bloody protests that left dozens of people injured.
The groups, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars.
Israeli police in riot gear shot tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters.
The violence broke out near the Eritrean embassy when protesters were stopped from reaching the building ahead of a cultural event set to take place there.
The issue of migrants has long divided Israel and the latest violence has brought it back to the fore.
“We want harsh measures against the rioters, including the immediate deportation of those who took part,” Mr Netanyahu said.
He requested that ministers present him with plans “for the removal of all the other illegal infiltrators,” and noted in his remarks that the Supreme Court struck down some measures meant to coerce the migrants to leave.
Under international law, Israel cannot forcibly send people back to a country where their life or liberty may be at risk.
About 25,000 African migrants live in Israel, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, who say they fled conflict or repression.
Israel recognizes very few as asylum seekers, seeing them overwhelmingly as economic migrants, and says it has no legal obligation to keep them.
Stray Cat Follows Every Stranger and Asking to Take her Home Until This Happened
Heartwarming.
Media Say … Gloom And Doom In China
The New York Times, and other western media, are running a ‘doom and gloom in Xi’s economy’ campaign.
Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with major centers and public buildings in New York, Hong Kong, and Houston, and additional locations in Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Zurich.
In 2016, he was found guilty and imprisoned after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice by asking Leung, in letters and emails, to stop the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) from investigating him.
Why is he quoting the Vice-something professor of this or that Liu Shijin?
Former Vice-President (Vice-Minister), Development Research Center. Currently, Vice-Chairman, China Development Research Foundation.
Natixis is a French corporate and investment bank created in November 2006 from the merger of the asset management and investment banking operations of Natexis Banques Populaires (Banque Populaire group) and IXIS (Groupe Caisse d’Epargne).
Natixis provides financial data for the ‘Markets’ section on the news channel, Euronews. On October 26, 2010, Natixis Investment Managers (NIM) has acquired a majority stake in asset management start-up ‘Ossiam’.
Why use some other outlets interview with the retired Lou Jiwei without giving this (2019) context?:
Lou Jiwei, who has long been seen as a liberalizing force in China, an advocate of market reform and international openness. He served as finance minister, ran the country’s massive sovereign wealth fund, and has palled around with western economists since the 1980s. But recently he made a prediction that contained a startling phrase: At a forum in Beijing, according to reporting in the South China Morning Post, he said: “The next step in the frictions between China and the United States is a financial war (jinrong zhan). The U.S. has been hijacked by nationalism and populism, so will do everything in its power to use bullying measures [and] long-arm jurisdiction.”
In this financial war, he continued, the U.S. will exploit its dominance of the international financial system to hurt China—and China will fight back.
REALITY: Only four economies have ever grown by $1.5 trillion in a year, and 2023 will see the fifth. All five boom years are Chinese, of course. Its economy is booming and so are wages: 4.7% nominal rise last year, 4.2% after inflation. Bwahahah.
But it’s all gloom and doom in China. The NYT says so.
Posted by b on September 6, 2023 at 8:23 UTC | Permalink
Tex-Mex Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
4 baking potatoes
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (12 ounce) jar mild or hot salsa
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped stuffed green olives
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
Sliced tomatoes
Instructions
Scrub potatoes; pierce skin with fork. Bake at 400 degrees F until tender, about 1 hour.
Fifteen minutes before potatoes are done, sauté meat in hot skillet until all pink disappears.
Add salsa and chili powder to meat. Cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add green pepper and olives to meat mixture. Heat through.
Cut baked potatoes open. Spoon hot meat mixture into potatoes. Top at once with cheese so that it melts slightly.
Serve with lettuce sprinkled on top and with sliced tomatoes alongside.
Apple In Tears: China Ban Iphone In Response to U.S Sanction
In today’s video, we dive deep into the recent ban imposed by China on the use of iPhones for its government officials and its potential impact on the U.S economy. From Apple’s position in the global market to the ripple effects on allied industries, join us as we uncover the implications of this significant move.
Some years ago I was living in rural Texas. My housemates decided to raise chickens. They thought it would be “fun.” As someone who had to raise chickens in the past, I did not agree with them, but compromised because chickens were probably the least expensive and bothersome livestock they could mess with. Eventually, they got bored of the chickens, so I processed the chickens for future consumption in the front yard where the light was good. My neighbors called the local police and claimed I was conducting Satanic Rituals. Once again, this was rural Texas (no HOAs, large tracts of land with the Piney Woods for our backyards). All of these neighbors claimed to be descended from farmers and country people. They should have damn well recognized what cleaning a bunch of chickens looked like versus “Satanic Rituals.”
About 15 years ago I was driving through a part of Miami, Florida in my work van, which contained lots of specialized tools. My company was based out of South Georgia, and we usually didn’t work this far South, but there I was, driving through unknown territory.
I was on a very long street with stop signs every block, and I dutifully stopped at each one before proceeding. Of a sudden, as I stopped at one of the stop signs, a police car pulled up on the left side of me, lights flashing. An officer jumped out of the passenger seat and stood at my window, asking me where I was headed. I told him that I was heading to the interstate so I could make my way back North to Georgia.
The officer asked what I had in the van, and I told him a bunch of tools. Wearing a pained expression, the officer told me that he and his partner had observed me stopping at every stop sign and then he said that it was several miles to the Interstate and that I was in a very rough part of town. In fact, the officer believed that my life would be in danger if I were to stop at every stop sign, as someone may jump on / in the van, shoot me, or whatever, and take the van.
The officer ordered me not to stop at any of the stop signs between where we were and the interstate. He said I could slow down and make sure it was safe to proceed, but under no circumstances was I to stop and that if anyone tried to stop me or signal me to stop, that I should ‘floor it’ and get the hell out of there.
The officer assured me that they were radioing my vehicle description / license plate # to other officers in the area to let them know what I would be doing.
I thanked the officer and proceeded toward the Interstate, running every stop sign on the way.
PASSPORT SIS Thought She Could Talk Down To Men In Africa Like In USA
“The arrogance of US women is astounding. I live in a poor country, but that does not mean that their education is bad. Very smart people here.”
Yes you are 100% correct. The U.S. is totally dependent on the Chinese in 3 main ways.
Without the Chinese products the U.S. will suffer a 50% inflation at the very least.
Without China producing stuffs productively and efficiently for them they cannot sell a thing in the world.
Without access to the humongous Chinese market most U.S. companies will go bankrupt and out of business within a year.
Just take Apple and Tesla as an example. Without the Chinese market it will suffer a good 30% less sales. Without China making their products they will be totally uncompetitive and lose the entire world market.
What can be done about this? You can do something to avoid dependence on China but you won’t. And you can’t. You wanted the cake and eat it too. You see US wants to be the world’s baddest nation and fight wars upon wars upon wars. It needs to outspent the top 20 nations put together! If you do that much shit you need to watch your back, your side and your front, your top and your bottom too!
There lies your problem. You need to spent all your money on wars you have no more money to produce anything. You thought that your CEO can earn 100 times China’s CEO, your workers must be paid 5 times more than Chinese workers and get 10 times the Chinese benefits and the customer will pay for your excesses! But the customer won’t! Not even American customers!
It is that simple. The U.S. cannot have the cake and eat it too! The U.S. needs to choose being competitive or being hegemonic! It cannot have both. American need to decide!
You want to compete with China, do the following. Close your 800 foreign military base, turn your dozen aircraft carriers into holiday cruise! Divert your trillion dollar military budget to building U.S. infrastructure, stop spending money talking shit and doing shit spend it on building relationship with your customers. Disband NATO, CIA and NED! Ban Industrial Actions and Trade Unions!
Can you do this? I doubt so. So the U.S. will rather be dependent on China!
The Sopranos || Feelin’ Good
I am really starting to like these Sopranos themed fan videos.
The growing US’ geopolitical competition with Russia and China marks the end of the post-Cold War world order, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, speaking at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies on Wednesday. “What we are experiencing now is more than a test of the post-Cold War order. It’s the end of it,” he noted. “Decades of relative geopolitical stability have given way to an intensifying competition with authoritarian powers, revisionist powers.” This statement appears to be a rallying cry for a “new cold war.”
Since the post-Cold War order is coming to an end, what kind of new world order does the US want? Various signs indicate that the US wants major power competition and camp confrontation in order to maintain its global hegemony, even at the expense of the interests of other countries, including allies, and partner nations. However, the reality is that major power competition goes against the trend of the times and cannot solve the US’ own problems and the challenges facing the world. It will only further divide the world, leading the world to slide toward a more dangerous cliff edge.
Regarding Blinken’s remarks, there are two main points to consider. Firstly, Blinken was creating a sense of crisis in the world. The underlying message to US allies and other countries is that there are challengers, particularly China and Russia, who want to change the existing order. Secondly, Blinken’s remarks also reflect a sense of anxiety in the US. The US is attempting to slow down China’s rise through strategic competition, while hoping to sustain its hegemony without jeopardizing its own interests. However, it seems that the US has no clear solution to this dilemma.
China is one of the beneficiaries of the existing system and does not seek to challenge or subvert this order. However, the US has viewed any legitimate demand made by China, even those that reflect the reasonable demands of the majority of developing countries, as a challenge and ill-intentioned sabotage….
As for China, the US is attempting to stifle its development by imposing unlimited technological restrictions, but it is unable to completely decouple from China economically. For the US and its main allies, China is either their largest single trading partner or one of the largest. Today, the US is a reckless strategic aggressor, attempting to unite its relatively weaker strength with its allies to wage a new cold war. It should be noted that the power of US allies has declined significantly, and the unity of the “West” is crippled due to the US transitioning from a “blood donor” to a “vampire”.
There’s no way the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals can contain China or the rest of the Global South. The degree of geoeconomic dependency noted in the final paragraph above is far too much for that Bloc to overcome. The attempts made so far beginning with Trump have illustrated the damage the Empire can inflict on itself in its ill-considered policy toward China and the world. The Outlaw US Empire’s illusion of “primacy” has faded into the mists of time and is irretrievable so matter what it tries.
When I was living with my father (for a spell) we would go to “garage sales” on Sundays. These events were listed in the newspaper, and was a great excuse to go out, take a drive around town and look at other people’s junk.
It was often fun to haggle over an old nick-nack or curiosity.
Some interesting things were often found, at dirt cheap prices. Many unique things and items. Nothing really valuable, though. But it was darn fun to do.
Today’s story involves one such adventure on a lazy Sunday.
We once went to an estate sale. Nice big old house. Lots of rooms with all sorts of stuff. The old man died, and his son was selling off everything.
Lots of clutter. Mountains of puzzles in their original boxes. Piles of old pots and pans. The usual run of odd ball things. Some new televisions and some very old radios and cameras.
I well remember the fancy antique dining table with boxes of office supplies. There were boxes of ink pens. Never used. All dried up and useless. Some electronic calculators from the early 1970s or so. A slide rule. A few magnifying glasses, and lots and lots of rusty paperclips and tacks.
Clutter and junk was everywhere. Apparently this older man lived alone for the bulk of his final days. No wife. Maybe she died or he had a divorce. I didn’t ask.
In the kitchen was a wall calendar dating to six years earlier. There was a dead plant in a small flowerpot on the window. And the sink faucet has rust stains near the drain.
There was an ungodly amount of glassware in a antique glass display case. Some were real crystal. Some looked like wedding presents of glass from the 1950’s, while others were short drinking glasses with Flintstone’s characters on them.
There were a number of ash trays at various locations in the house, and one large glass ashtray that stood alone on it’s own pedestal. The rooms had the aura of a grand-parent’s residence.
One of the bedrooms was nearly impassable with boxes and boxes of books. But most of the titles did not interest me at all.
The stairs had full boxes at every step, and junk of all sorts and sizes everywhere. I saw a half-completed model of a wooden boat, a guitar missing a string, a bunch of rusty old steel tools, and lots of baby jars filled with metal screws, washers and pennies.
An old Honda motorcycle sat in the clutter filled garage / basement. It must have dated from the late 1960s. Long forgotten. An old red-plaid shit draped over the tank and seat. It’s wheels were all flat, and the rubber useless.
The laundry room consisted of piles of dirty clothes and a few boxes of detergent and cleaning supplies with the box marked “$1”.
When I went to the bedroom of the old man, where he actually died, I saw his bed, and a nice cozy chair by the window. You can tell from the chair that his beloved cat slept on it. It was worn down into the shape of a cat and covered with cat fur. It must have been doing so for many years.
In the corner of the best room was a plastic litter box with some fossilized feces, and a cat mat with a dry water bowl, and a long stale half-eaten bowl of kitty krunchies.
So we asked about the cat, and the son told us that the cat was fine. He was old, though. 16 year old kitty. (Is it even possible?) And was put up for adoption at the local shelter.
Really?
REALLY!
Sad story. Chances of adoption were very small. Sigh.
If you are getting old, make SOLID arrangements for your loved ones, and do not trust promises from family. “I’ll take care of him…don’t worry.”
I have experienced the let-downs as an estate executor. Make the requests in writing AND set in place a guardian (paid) that will guarantee that the wishes are performed as you request. Put in place clear “guardrails” so that others will not cause discord and trouble.
Do not underestimate the greed, and sloth of relatives.
Yes I did. My husband was transferred many times before he retired. I was an accountant, so I would usually go to a temp agency and work a couple of jobs until one came along I liked.
I went for a short interview for temp to perm in the Milwaukee area. The manager interviewed me in the conference room and asked me if I would object to straightening up the conference room on Friday afternoons. I thought it was a bit odd since they had lower level positions, but it wasn’t far from my house so I said sure.
Friday comes along and people start leaving around 3:00 p.m. The girl who was training me comes by and says she is going to show me what I needed to clean on Friday’s. I was a bit puzzled, thinking I didn’t need to be shown how to pick up a conference room. She then takes me to a janitor closet, pulls out a vacuum, mops, bathroom cleaners, etc. She tells me I’m to clean all the bathrooms, empty the trash, vacuum all the offices, including mine and the conference room. I told her I thought there was a mistake and she said, no all the new woman employees did this job until a new one came along. Then she left. I tried to call the man who hired me, but he didn’t answer. I actually started to vacuum a couple of offices, but I was getting madder and madder.
I looked in the bathrooms and said to myself “oh hell no” . Apparently they were only cleaned on Fridays. Mind you I have on a suit, nylons and high heels. I tried calling the manager again and when there was no answer, I picked up my things and walked out. I went straight to the temporary agency. She was on the phone with him, because one of the employees called her and said I left all the cleaning material out and walked out the door. This was an agency for professional people. I told her my story. Had we had cell phones then I would have taken lots of pictures. She called him back with me sitting there and asked him if they had indeed asked me to spend the last two hours of the day cleaning bathrooms, etc. He said all the other WOMAN had done it, it was like an initiation thing. She asked him if men had to do this. He said no. She said so you expect my highly qualified client to do janitorial work in a suit? He said, well I don’t want that woman to come back, she just walked off leaving the office uncleaned and the supplies out, send me someone new. The agency lady told him, I didn’t plan on coming back and to please lose her number, she was not sending qualified accountants out there to clean his office.
This was in the early 90’s. In retrospect, I should have gone after them for discrimination, but just let it go. That was the one time I walked off a job!
I was Marketing Director for a major, easily recognized company that manufactured female oriented products. Our President was in over his head, as evidenced by our declining market share and revenue. I was hired to help turn things around given my successful track record at other companies. However, the President couldn’t handle any outside suggestion or strategy unless it was his so I was constantly reprimanded for doing my job.
One day, my timid, suck-up boss sends me an email about a report she needs me to do ASAP. I scoll thru the entire email and at the end, I see it originated with a request from the President. Basically he wanted my boss to assign the report to me and once she had it to fire me. The email also contained some very derogatory & crude & inappropriate comments about my appearance.
I forwarded the entire email to my personal email account, HR and members of the Board. In exchange for me not pursuing legal action or sharing the incident with my press contacts (would have killed any credibility in the female marketplace), I received my bonus, 6 months severance including paying my health insurance, & a strong positive reference letter. I had a new position in 6 weeks.
The President was let go after about 2 months and it took him over 1 year to find a new position at a less prestigious company and lessor salary.
Paid vacations are compulsory because French trade unions are not stupid. They know that if they leave in up to the individual to choose whether to take vacations or not, the employers will use that to subtlely, or not so subtlely, force workers to work and not take vacations.
Paid vacations being compulsory is a line in the sand and a right that has been won. Talk of the “right” to be a workoholic sounds like insanity. The only people wanting such a “right” would be exploitative employers who would use the workoholic as leverage against everyone else.
Rights do not exist in a vacuum, they are created and exercised in real-world social context. İn the real world, which is not the world of liberal individualist fantasy, the defence of rights must almost always be a collective effort.
*TEARS* Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home| REACTION
Reaction video. If you tire of the American angst, then don’t watch it. But I will continue to put up visions of what it was like in France before the powdered wig wealthy got beheaded.
Once upon a time, my department was merged into another. My old manager was a great boss. The new one was a horrible boss. I knew he was sexually harassing the women in the company, but had no direct proof until I was working for him. I gathered evidence over a few months, then one day I emailed all of it to his boss, claiming my rights under their confidential reporting policy and stating my fear of retribution. His boss thanked me and told me that he’d get back with me. Nothing happened…yet.
About 3 weeks later, it was time for my quarterly review. We were IT pros who normally worked out of the office at client sites. My client reviews were like “walks on water, talks with God”. My first review with the new manager was the first I ever had in my life where I “did not meet expectations”. I knew he was lying and I had proof, but I didn’t do anything yet.
The next quarter, the client was still totally satisfied with me. I guess saving them roughly $10 million in the first 9 months of my contract was considered a good thing. But, my manager’s review was “Needs improvement to meet expectations” – one grade level down from “Did not meet expectations”. Another lie, and more proof.
The next quarter, I was put on a 90 day “Improvement plan” with termination at the end if I did not fully meet expectations, and I had still more proof because I had copies of every single client review that they had ever turned in. By that time I had another job lined up, so I printed off everything I had, not only on his sexual misconduct, but his falsified performance reports, and his boss’s failure to do anything about the sexual harassment report. I not only had proof of my boss’s gross misconduct and lies, but also his boss had violated the “confidential reporting policy” by telling my boss about my report of his wrongdoing.
I took all of it to HR, along with my resignation letter, effective immediately. The next day I started at my new job. Two weeks later, after much investigation and interviews of the women who had been harassed, my boss and his boss were terminated with cause. Neither got severance and neither was eligible for unemployment insurance.
Karma is a bitch.
Edit: I should have said how I document the sexual harassment. I kept a journal with me. People were used to seeing me pull it out at random times and write in it for a minute or two when I had an idea on how to automate something or improve a process.
Every time I overheard or saw harassment going on, out came my journal. Date, time, place, woman’s name, what she was doing at the time he approached her, what he did, and the conversation on both sides as accurately as I could. Later one of the women told me that it was the detail in the copied journal pages that sunk him because all of the women verified each instance was accurate, and my record was less than 25% of what had gone on.
So, ladies, if you are in this situation, start recording the events. Do it on paper. There’s a reason attorneys use paper. It’s harder to fake evidence when it’s written with different pens and the handwriting is subtly different at different times.
A story of discovery
In 1836, the directors of the Bank of England received an anonymous letter, in which the author claimed to have direct access to the gold in the bank.
The directors assumed this to be a joke and simply ignored it.
However, sometime later, they received another letter, in which the enigmatic author offered to meet them at an hour of their choosing inside the main gold vault.
According to the bank’s website, the directors were intrigued but considered it impossible for someone to break into the vault without their knowledge.
Nevertheless, they agreed to the meeting and gathered together one evening, inside the vault as agreed.
To their great surprise, at the appointed time, a noise was heard beneath the floorboards, and a man popped up underneath their feet.
He was a sewer worker who had been working on repairs close to the Bank of England site at Threadneedle Street.
During his routine inspection, he had discovered an old drain that led directly underneath the gold vault inside the bank itself.
After a quick stock take, they realized that the sewer worker had not taken anything from the vault, despite having multiple opportunities to do so.
As a reward for his honesty, the directors gifted him £800, a sum that equates to £80,000 in today’s money.
African Coup: Soldiers Seize Power in OPEC Member Gabon
I have another story that will stop you dead on your tracks.
Here it is.
Deep in the beautiful wooded distant enclave of a famous city in America, there are estates of rich people that boast priceless trees. One day, one of these rich barons of this serene nature paradise, got bored and toyed with the idea it would be nice to have a distant view of the beautiful city skyline. Problem was his neighbor’s priceless mature trees were in the way of where he wanted this view to be.
As the desire grew in his heart, he decided to act on it. He hired a wood cutting service and pointed them in the direction of the trees he wanted taken out.
On the 3rd day, (as is usually the case) his actions came to light because he had cleared quite a sizable chunk of the woods and the neighbor noticed the gap. The neighbor raced over there in his off-road truck and what he discovered nearly gave him a heart attack. About 15 of his precious priceless trees littered the ground.
Long story short, the city and the courts served the tree murderer with all kinds of injunctions and the city went to town fining him for every tree he had taken out. He had to pay daily fines as long as the trees were not replaced, fully rehabilitated and the old ones not removed.
Meanwhile, the victim baron’s lawyers were preparing for a civil suit and things were not looking so good for the “tk” who by now was in dire straights and visions of the city skyline were being replaced by a windowless basement in a friend’s farmhouse way back in the Midwest.
The last time I heard it looked like it was going to be a long 3 years with the city doing the tree replacement because they had to locate the right kind of trees, clear the ground, dig up stumps and finally plant the trees, truss them up and after two or three years decide whether the process was a success for all trees concerned. If not the fines would continue daily, eish!!!
Tree killer, I mean “tk”, had to mortgage his property and get into debt to meet the costs of his impulsive ill informed act of messing with someone else’s trees. Trees have more value than you can imagine. And I say that as a supporter of the Arbor Foundation. We love trees and we will come after you if you remove them without permit.
Stay away from trees, they will fall on your wallet.
Whitney Webb Part 1: How Government Steals From Us, Bombshell Epstein Book & Bitcoin For Sovereignty
In the US Navy at sea, you will never get accustomed to the General Quarters (GQ) alarm going off when you least expect it in the middle of the night, calling the entire crew to man their battle stations. You go from exhausted and dead asleep in your bunk after working a typical 14 hour day while underway, to immediately energized and moving at full speed. The loud, insistent clanging could wake a graveyard. You have to jump out of your rack, throw on a uniform (you can fasten buttons and laces later), and run through passageways and up/down ladders with minimal night time red lighting to get to your designated station. If the ship happens to be rolling and pitching in heavy seas, the difficulty level is magnified, as are the chances of getting bumps, cuts, bruises, or even (rarely) more serious injuries.
Once at your station, you must complete dressing, don any required protective gear, and get your equipment ready to respond to any possible attack (e.g., guns, torpedoes, missiles, radars, sonar, comm gear, electronic jammers, damage control equipment, engine rooms, auxiliary spaces, aft steering, magazine hoists, signal bridge, lookout posts, medical stations, galley, etc.). The ship is then buttoned up (hatches, scuttles, watertight doors, and ventilation are secured shut to prevent the spread of fires or flooding from areas that may suffer battle damage), and all stations report to the bridge when they are manned and ready. The whole evolution is timed, as seconds can count when responding to an incoming threat. If the CO is not pleased with how quickly his/her ship was made ready for action, you can expect more frequent GQ drills, which can happen at any hour of the day or night, and are almost always performed with no prior warning.
This man was an alcoholic, he was homeless, he lived on the streets, he had lost everything, he had been homeless for more than 7 years.
Laszlo Andraschek, made a decision that many would say was foolish, spending the last of the money he had to eat on a gas station lottery ticket.
He chose 6 numbers, the cashier reminded him that there were 7, so he randomly chose the last number.
Surprisingly, he ended up winning 2.5 million dollars, something that changed his life forever. The surprising thing about this is that Laszlo donated a good sum of money to a shelter that he and his wife were surviving for a long time.
They also invested part of their newly acquired fortune in two foundations that look after addicted people.
I think he was lucky not only to win the lottery, but also to be mature enough to be able to be generous after suffering for so long.
Oliver Anthony Does It AGAIN! His New Song ‘I Want To Go Home’ Is Climbing The Charts – Here’s Why
This is a Republican vs. Democrat video on this song. Sigh.
However, what she does bring up is the “hit piece” Oliver Anthony, and seriously… someone was PAID to write the piece. No one in their right mind would say (seriously) what the UK Independent wrote…
Reaction video. If you tire of the American angst, then don’t watch it. But I will continue to put up visions of what it was like in France before the powdered wig wealthy got beheaded.
No, they don’t. Most don’t realize there are three milestones with exotic car ownership that require maintenance; on condition, based on miles driven, and calendar based maintenance. They always forget about the last and think if they didn’t drive their car all that much, what could it possibly need?
This is how exotic brands deny warranty claims, especially when you want to extend the warranty and a service interval is missed. If you own an exotic, carefully check the maintenance requirements and follow it to the letter. On a Lamborghini, the engine comes out for a lot of things. Ask me how I know.
As for how to drive them properly, the answer is no. The overwhelming majority of accidents with exotics are new owners and borrowed cars. I can only guess but they make up about 90% of all exotic accidents. The “Let’s see what this baby can do!” mentality is what does it, especially when they don’t know the subtleties of the car. A Lamborghini gives you little warning when it decides it wants to kill you. It’s your job to keep it from happening. Think of it like a domesticated wild animal that you have to constantly watch.
Tucker Carlson: HOT WAR With Russia Is Coming, Gabon COUP OUSTS French Puppet President
This is pretty good. Long. But good.
I mean REALLY GOOD.
“It’s difficult for me and my family to see this happening, I am married to a Russian I have two Russian born step kids now grown up, with friends in Russia as well. The people in Russia are good people and most Americans just don’t understand they are ignorant of that country and it’s culture and history.”
During the Vietnam war why did you join the US Navy instead of the Army
During my junior year at UC Irvine, I was a participant in the first drawing. My number turned out to be “16”.
I said to a buddy, “Well, I’ve got one more year on my student deferment. Hopefully I’ll get a better number in next year’slottery.”
The buddy gazed at me in pity and said: “You’re an idiot. 16 is the number you’ve got FOREVER.”
He was right, of course. And I started searching for alternatives to the Army.
…
For me, the choice was simple.
I figured out in 1968 that the Vietnam conflict was headed in a slow slog to nowhere. (It wasn’t particularly difficult to figure. The optimistic military press releases coming out of Saigon never matched the body counts or nightly battle footage shown on television. So I stopped believing the announcements about the light gleaming at the end of the ever-lengthening tunnel.)
I was a university student, hunkered down behind my student deferment like a jillion other privileged young males, but that deferment would soon be ending. And I knew I wasn’t a conscientious objector, and wasn’t going to lie about it. But I was also disinclined to wait to get drafted and spend twelve months in the Mekong Delta.
So one bright June day in 1970, I drove to a nearby Naval Reserve Center where a grizzled, gray-haired CPO with about twenty hash-marks on his sleeve signed me up for a six-year hitch (four years in the active reserves and two years on active duty.)
I spent my active duty doing paperwork on big gray ships and in a large, yellow building in San Diego. The reserve duty was done on a World War II destroyer based in Long Beach, California. I was never in or near Vietnam (orders to the Gulf of Tonkin got cancelled), so my original mission of steering clear of Southeast Asia was accomplished.
U.S Beg China As Chinese Economy Can Make or Break Global Economy!
The Navy has several reserve fleets, also known as ghost fleets, where mothballed ships are kept. Some of the largest and most well-known reserve fleets are:
The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in California, near San Francisco. This fleet holds dozens of ships, mostly from the Cold War era, such as cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and auxiliary vessels. Some of these ships are slated for disposal, while others are on donation hold for possible use as museum ships or artificial reefs.
The James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia, near Newport News. This fleet holds over 100 ships, mostly from World War II and the Korean War, such as battleships, aircraft carriers, landing ships, and cargo ships. Some of these ships are also on donation hold or awaiting disposal.
The Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas, near Port Arthur. This fleet holds over 50 ships, mostly amphibious assault and support vessels, such as landing craft, tank landing ships, dock landing ships, and transport dock ships. Some of these ships are still in active service or ready reserve status.
Other smaller reserve fleets are located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Bremerton, Washington; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Mobile, Alabama. The Navy also has a separate reserve fleet for nuclear-powered ships and related support vessels, which are stored at designated locations such as Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington and Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia.
Gabon Coup Latest: Billions In Raw Cash Found In Ali Bongo Son Apartment!
Quick recap. Niger has said no to a pro-West puppet government and had a coup. The puppet government was thrown out and the USA and France had a fit! So they organized a block of neighboring African states all run by their puppets to invade Niger.
It didn’t happen.
Instead Wagner troops from Russia, and other pro-African nations fortified and protected Niger from invasion.
So then Gabon started to be reinforced by French and American troops to better support an invasion. And then the Gabon military staged a coup and ousted their puppet “leader”.
I know of my great-uncle’s deathbed confession only second-hand, through my grandmother. There is some background here, so bear with me as I lay all the pieces into place.
My grandmother and her brother were born in pre-revolutionary Odessa and grew up in a poor and crime-ridden Jewish neighborhood immortalized later in the works of Isaac Babel. Like most boys coming of age in that time and place, my great-uncle began running with a gang around the age of ten. Although he had not been involved in anything major prior to the outbreak of World War II, like most of his friends, was growing up very tough, both physically and psychologically, as you would expect of children reared in a ghetto controlled by gangsters.
The Revolution had removed the legal restrictions that had been imposed on Jews under the old regime, and my great-uncle and his peers were able to leave the ghetto and their rough-and-tumble past behind them, received good educations and got respectable jobs. In the late 1940’s, he and my grandmother, along with a bunch of other young people they had known back in Odessa, moved to a the Moscow area, where they settled down into unremarkable middle-class Soviet lives.
The incident that was the subject of my great-uncle’s deathbed confession took place in the early 1970’s, when he was in his early sixties. He and a number of acquaintances he knew from his youth in Odessa were then living in a suburb of Moscow, which could be reached by an elektrichka, a rickety suburban commuter train.
Like a lot of Russian cities, Moscow and its surrounding areas were arranged in roughly concentric circles, with suburban districts separated by “green belts” — heavily wooded areas interspersed with bogs. These green belts were not parks; there were no hiking or biking trails, no camping areas. These were strips of true, impenetrable wilderness, a setup unimaginable in the capitalist West, where the pressures of the real estate market at the very least put nature on a leash, if not obliterate it altogether. If you were to ride a Moscow commuter train of an evening in that era, you’d see the lights and bustle of the city flash briefly by the window, and then the train would plunge into darkness, flying through a forbidding primordial forest. Then suddenly another town would appear, with a brightly lit platform, where the train would pause briefly — then it would start moving again and plunge into uninhabited wilderness once more. And so forth and so on, until it reached its terminus.
One evening, my great-uncle and two of his friends attended some sort of event in center Moscow and ended up taking a late commuter train back home — probably the last train of the evening, which departed the Leningrad Station close to midnight. This was never an advisable thing to do: late-night elektrichkas were empty and eerie, and bad things were known to happen to hapless tipsy passengers who rode one that late into the evening.
This was one of those times.
The three friends stepped into a virtually empty car and settled in — three pudgy, soft-spoken middle-aged men in bulky felt coats, flat caps and glasses. An engineer, a doctor and an accountant. One of them spoke with a heavy lisp. If you saw them then, these guys looked like your stereotypical, timid, limp-wristed, well-nourished middle-aged college dads, and you never would have guessed they had grown up as skull-cracking hooligans in one of the toughest urban areas in pre-War Soviet Union.
There was one other passenger in the car — a mean-looking drunk who began glowering at them and flicking a pen knife in his hand as soon as the train left the station. A couple of suburban stops in, he began to harangue my great-uncle and his two friends.
“Jews!” he hissed, “Fucking Jews! I know you’re Jews! Hitler didn’t finish the job! Stalin didn’t finish the job! You’re like cockroaches, impossible to kill! Your hooked noses! Greedy Jews! Filthy Jews! I’ll kill you and your Jew broads too! I’ll rape your children! Burn all the Jews!”
And so forth and so on.
As the train departed another station and entered one of the “green belts”, the three pudgy middle aged men exchanged knowing looks. Then the one with the lisp said loudly:
“Guyth? I am going into the vethtibule to thmoke a thigarette, okay?”
He then rose and walked over to the vestibule. The drunk with the pen knife followed him. As he opened the door to the vestibule, the other two men also rose and followed in. Once the three friends cornered the drunk in the tiny vestibule, they set upon him, disarmed him and kicked him to death, stomping on his head to disfigure him as much as possible. Then they opened the window and forced his body out of the train. It rolled down the embankment and disappeared in the nightly wilderness. The man’s ID was disposed of separately. One of the three friends, though not my great-uncle, kept the pen knife as a souvenir.
And then there was nothing. No cop ever came to question any of them. And because this was the Soviet Union, there was nothing on the news. None of the three ever mentioned the incident.
This my great-uncle told his sister as he lay dying in a hospital about fifteen years later. Having confessed, he looked away from her and began to mumble to himself. Those green belts are perfect places to dump bodies, you know (he said). Very convenient. Folks are doing it, it’s an open secret. No one ever goes there. You don’t even need to dig a hole, the animals will get to the corpse long before the “garbages” ever do. You can even roll a body into a bog. There are lots of bogs. Maybe that jackass we murdered also rolled into a bog, we gave him a good momentum. And once they sink into bogs, those bodies will stay there for thousands of years. Perhaps some day, future archeologists will dig them up. Lots of material for those turgid doctoral dissertations, hehehe! Were these bog men priests? War captives? Slaves? Chieftains? Why were they put in those bogs? Was it part of some religious ritual? Did ancient Muscovites practice a religion that called for human sacrifices? No professor, no, no. The ancients were just as cynical and practical are you modern people are.
Those men in those bogs aren’t ritual sacrifices, they’re just some assholes who had it coming. No man is there that did not deserve it. And the bogs are good places to dump the trash you never want to see again.
OLIVER ANTHONY- RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND REACTION
You all getting tired of these reactions?
This is HISTORIC.
Big changes coming together, and there WILL be Government / Oligarchic backlash. Wait for it.
Reaction video. If you tire of the American angst, then don’t watch it. But I will continue to put up visions of what it was like in France before the powdered wig wealthy got beheaded.
An incredible story happened in the USA in the 2000s.
A man has been arrested in Los Angeles for murder. However, he swore that he was innocent (well known) and that he could not have committed this crime because he was attending a baseball game at the time.
Unfortunately, he had no proof of what he was saying. On the other hand, eyewitnesses claimed to have seen him at the scene of the crime. The case seemed heard and the suspect promised to life in prison.
However, from the depths of his cell, while awaiting trial, the defendant recalled that he had seen a camera crew filming something in the stadium on the day of the baseball game. He then asked his lawyer to try to find this team and try to see if there were any images in which we could see him.
It was a desperate attempt.
The lawyer did some research and quickly discovered that the crew from the series “Curb your enthusiasm” had actually filmed in the stadium that day. A request was made to the producer and star of the series, the comic Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld) to be able to access the rushes filmed that day.
Larry David immediately agreed and made available to the lawyer the hours of video they had shot in the stadium.
And after a long and careful examination of these tapes… he found a plan on which the accused could be seen and recognized indisputably!
The latter was released on the spot, thus escaping life imprisonment…
AMERICA TERRIFIED of CHINA!
While the United States and it’s allies circle China with military bases to contain China, Russia is building military bases in Nicaragua and Niger is stopping an American LNG pipeline to Europe. North Korea is testing ICBM’s and Japan, South Korea and America are in talks to strengthen their security ties in the region. Could it be that the United States knows it is out manned, out gunned and losing it’s grasp on it’s world domination goals. Watch the video for the whole story.
My grandparents lived in a dugout in Oklahoma. That is where you dig a hole in the ground, and it becomes your home.
They attended church and taught Sunday School each week.
During their 61-year marriage, they produced a huge extended family.
My grandfather’s ancestors came from Buckinghamshire, England. My grandmother’s kin came from Cornwall. As America expanded westward, their families expanded westward.
My ancestors (on both sides) lived on the frontier. They were constantly trying to grow more food. The goal was not to get rich — the goal was to survive another winter.
In constant dollars, Americans are 3,000% richer today than in 1800.
In the 1930s, my grandparents paid for magazine subscriptions (Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Saturday Evening Post) by giving the traveling salesman a chicken. He carried a burlap sack.
My grandmother sewed dresses from feed sacks and flour sacks. Potato sack dresses were less popular. That’s because the word “Potato” was printed on them.
The dress below would have been too cheeky for my straightlaced grandparents.
There was no stigma attached to sack dresses. No one had any money.
Farm income in Oklahoma declined -35% during the 1920s. There were two reasons:
End of World War I reduced agricultural demand
Argentina and Australia became major crop exporters
The Great Depression of the 1930s was just a continuation of those same hard conditions. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Okie farmers barely noticed.
For Christmas presents, my aunts and uncles received one piece of fruit and one piece of hard candy.
My mother rode a horse named Shorty. That horse took herto and from school beginning age 6.
When the creek was up, Shorty would plunge ahead whether she was ready or not. Shorty knew the route and wanted to reach his destination.
One day after school, she got on Shorty and they started for home. A boy who attended the same school threw a rock and hit the horse on his haunches.
Shorty took off like a rocket. As a first-grader, she barely hung on — clinging to his mane. The teacher saw the whole episode through the window.
Mr. Rock Thrower could still recall his spanking at the 50-year reunion.
There were only two “dating services” back then: church and the pie auction.
Girls looking for a husband would bake their best pie. On a designated Saturday night, everyone in the county would converge at the auction. It was a big social event for all ages.
Young men would bid on pies. Bidding was fast and furious for every pie. In effect, bidders were buying a first date. Sometimes a last date.
Shy men and women were especially fond of the auction. Each year, marriages and new families could be traced back to pie.
The U.S. government offered money to my grandparents to stop growing row crops. My grandfather rejected the idea outright. He told his neighbors:
“No one should accept free money from the government, and that includes a poor man like me.
Politicians can call it whatever they like. But it is Socialism. Socialism is wrong.”
My mother worked as a cook to pay her way through the University of Oklahoma. She studied mathematics. Mom received no money from home. My grandparents simply had no money to send.
When she graduated, she was hired by the OSS. They did intelligence work. She said their nickname was Oh So Social.
She worked in temporary buildings on the Washington mall. As soon as the war was over, she returned to Oklahoma.
It was exciting working with spies. But she wanted to be a wife and mother.
Audie Murphy wrote In his autobiography:
“We were poor cotton sharecroppers. My family always lived hand to mouth. When I joined the Army, I was amazed they let me eat as much as I wanted.”
All my uncles served in the military. So did I.
In the 1960s, my Uncle Ken completed his tour. When he left the Service, he was invited to New York City to interview. The job was flying helicopters between Manhattan and the Hamptons.
My grandfather told him: You do what you want, son. I truly want you to be happy.
But Yankees live differently than we do.
If you go to New York City, there is a good chance you will be back in 6 months.
My uncle lasted one night.
There are more people in one high-rise building than all of Cimarron County, Oklahoma. You can look from horizon to horizon and not see another human being.
That feeling of vastness — unlimited space — never leaves you.
On the other hand, city folks like the “energy” of a metropolis. To each his own.
My grandfather said:
Each person is uniquely created by God. Each person has a unique purpose.
Some coastal Americans would not visit the Great Plains if you paid them in gold.
Woody Allen directed The Front. In that movie, a character from New York says:
He moved to Kansas. Or maybe it was Oklahoma. Doesn’t matter.
Any normal person would go nuts in a place like that.
In the 1960s, I helped my grandfather milk at 5 AM and 5 PM. Cats lined up early.
One time, all my cousins and I were swimming in the creek.
My grandfather suddenly raced into the water. He pinned a water moccasin with a branch, then killed it with his bare hands. We were shocked. He was always such a gentle man.
Around my grandparents’ farm house and hay barn, there were chickens everywhere. This gave my grandmother “egg money” for incidentals.
On Saturday afternoons, we hauled water from town back to the farm. It cost 50 cents for 1,000 gallons.
On Saturday nights, my cousins and I would attend stock car races, a baseball game, or the rodeo. There was no television unless the wind was blowing due west from Oklahoma City.
In some Oklahoma counties, people drove an hour each way to reach a movie theater.
Funerals in Oklahoma can be very practical. The funeral director will find strapping young men and say:
You, you, and you … please give us a hand with the casket.
In winter, my grandfather and I would break ice in numerous locations. Cattle and hogs need water each day. With livestock, there are no days off.
Our reward was a huge farm breakfast including homemade biscuits and gravy.
After breakfast, we listened to a radio program called Tradio. People would call in to buy or sell various items. These ranged from knick-knacks to wheat combines. My grandfather never bought or sold anything. But he could recognize the voices of his neighbors on the radio.
I helped Grandpa change a tractor tire when I was 15 and he was 73. It was 102 degrees that day.
I spilled icy lemonade all over my work shirt. He kidded me and could not stop laughing.
My grandfather told us: Do not stick your nose in other people’s business.
That was wise advice. But in the early 1970s, western Oklahoma had party line telephones. There were 8 households on each line.
When someone made a call, 7 other people could potentially listen in. That was great fun for teenaged girls — but less fun for other people.
One time, I called my cousin: “I need to buy a load of 32% feed.”
He said: “Pick me up. I’ll give you a hand.”
An unknown voice chimed in: “Atwoods is having a clearance sale on 28% feed.” <click>
When my oldest uncle returned from the military, he used the GI Bill to attend Oklahoma State University. Then, he went to medical school at OU.
After graduation, he headed back to western Oklahoma. He was the only country doctor for miles around.
He used his “doctor money” to build a huge cattle operation. He often treated patients while wearing ranch clothes and dusty cowboy boots. No patient ever objected. After all, he was the only physician in town.
On the other hand, pharmaceutical salesmen stared in disbelief when they first met him. My uncle would say a few words of medical mumbo jumbo. That seemed to relax them.
My uncle built a dirt landing strip on his ranch with his tractor. He used his airplane to find lost cattle.
One day, we were watching him land his plane. He was so low he clipped the barbed wire fence. There was no damage to the plane except scraped paint. My cousin and I were sent to fix the fence.
I said: “Good thing he lands on his own property. If he landed his plane at the airport, the FAA might suspend his license.”
My cousin replied: “What license? He traded some cattle for that plane and just took off.”
In some parts of the USA, energy companies are vilified. That does not happen in Oklahoma and Texas.
Oklahomans follow the oil patch like Bostonians follow the Red Sox.
In 1977, a natural gas driller proposed drilling four wells on my grandparents’ property. Oklahoma (unlike Texas) has pooling of mineral rights. We already knew drilling was getting close.
Those four wells were planned for 11,500 feet. At that time, these were the deepest wells in the Anadarko Basin.
One of their daughters (my aunt) worked for Mosbacher Oil in Houston. She advised them to ask for a bigger override in exchange for no signing bonus.
Negotiations with the driller were always friendly. Discussions took place at the breakfast table over coffee.
My family understood that dry holes would mean zero money and torn up pastures. On the other hand, a gusher would mean lots of money.
As it turned out, all four wells became big producers.
My grandparents became wealthy within 6 months. But they never spent a dime on themselves.
Grandma said: I always wanted to travel, but never had the money. Now I have the money, but I am too tired to go.
My parents and grandparents lived through the Dust Bowl. Their mindset was:
Never whine. Never complain.
Put a smile on your face and get to work.
My grandparents married in 1920 and always felt blessed.
They thanked God each day.
This hits HOME | Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home – REACTION
Reaction video. If you tire of the American angst, then don’t watch it. But I will continue to put up visions of what it was like in France before the powdered wig wealthy got beheaded.
China makes breakthrough in controllable nuclear fusion technology for new-generation ‘artificial sun’
China made a breakthrough in controllable nuclear fusion technology on Saturday.
Huanliu-3 (HL-3), the country’s new-generation “artificial sun,” realized high-confinement mode operation with a plasma current of one million amperes for the first time, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
The breakthrough puts the operational level of China’s magnetic confinement nuclear fusion device at the forefront of the world, marking an important milestone in the country’s development of nuclear fusion energy.
The Huanliu-3 (HL-3), independently developed by China, is a large-scale research facility for controllable nuclear fusion.
The high-confinement mode, or H-mode, is an advanced mode of operation in magnetic confinement fusion devices, which can improve the economical efficiency of a fusion reactor.
Thus, the H-mode has been chosen as the standard operation mode for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is under construction.
The ITER is a nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject funded and run by seven member parties: China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
A computer-generated image of China’s self-developed Huanliu-3 (HL-3) nuclear fusion reactor, the country’s new-generation “artificial sun.” /CMG
The conditions for realizing nuclear fusion reactions are extremely harsh. In a vacuum environment, the plasma temperature must reach more than 100 million degrees Celsius. As long as the conditions are not met, the reactions will not occur. Therefore, the nuclear fusion reactor is safe and controllable.
As a cutting-edge technology, controllable nuclear fusion is considered one of the most important methods to ultimately address energy-related issues.
It serves as a significant part in China’s “three-step” technological roadmap of “thermal neutron reactor, fast reactor, controllable nuclear fusion reactor” for nuclear energy development.
According to China’s long-term development goals set for the nuclear energy industry, the application of nuclear fusion energy is hoped to be realized by the middle of this century.
This Is So Bad – San Francisco’s Largest Mall Will Be Replaced By a Stadium
What idiots are running SF today?
Big Serge On The Summer Campaign In Ukraine
Big Serge has a long read about the state of the war in Ukraine which I recommend to read. It is a nice recap of the whole war and the ballyhooed counter-offensive:
After concluding that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has evidently failed, he dares a look into the future:
So, whence goes the war from here? Well, the obvious question to ask is whether we believe Ukraine will ever have a more potent assault package than the one they started the summer with. The answer clearly seems to be no. It was like pulling teeth to scrape together these understrength brigades – the idea that, following on a defeat in the Battle of Zaporizhia, NATO will somehow put together a more powerful package seems like a stretch. More to the point, we have American officials saying fairly explicitly that this was the best mechanized package Ukraine was going to get.
It does not seem controversial to say that this was Ukraine’s best shot at some sort of genuine operational victory, which at this point seems to be slowly trickling away into modest but materially costly tactical advances. The ultimate implication of this is that Ukraine is unable to escape a war of industrial attrition, which is precisely the sort of war that it cannot win, due to all the asymmetries that we mentioned earlier.
In particular, however, Ukraine cannot win a positional-attritional war because of its own maximalist definition of “winning.” Since Kiev has insisted that it will not give up until it returns its 1991 borders, an inability to dislodge Russian forces poses a particularly nasty problem – Kiev will either need to admit defeat and acknowledge Russian control over the annexed areas, or it will continue to fight obstinately until it is a failed state with nothing left in the tank.
Trapped in a bat fight, with attempts to unlock the front with maneuver coming to naught, what Ukraine needs most is a much bigger bat. The alternative is a totalizing strategic disaster.
Pushed by the U.S. the Ukrainian leadership seems to have decided to go for the alternative.
Episode 66 — Singin’ the truth about America (Oliver Anthony)
In his phenomenal and poignant song about the working man in America and the slide of a once great country into semi-tyranny by the rich rats “North of Richmond,” Oliver Anthony hits a patriotic nerve among tens of millions of Americans, who are just f**king FED UP with the Swamp’s politicians and their Leftist voters, and the outright theft of our paychecks and freedoms!
Reaction video. If you tire of the American angst, then don’t watch it. But I will continue to put up visions of what it was like in France before the powdered wig wealthy got beheaded.
Huawei had scheduled a launch event in September, 12th, if my memory serves me correctly. People were expecting the Mate 60 Pro in two weeks, with the usual media blitz typical of a flagship launch. Curiously, Apple’s iPhone 15 launch is scheduled for the 13th, Beijing Time.
This prelaunch sale landed in vmall, Huawei’s webstore as an announcement celebrating the sale of the Mate series exceeding 100 million.
image
No graphics, no specs, just short descriptions of the colors available, the satellite calling feature, the improved durability of the case and glass, the upgrade to the camera’s action, portrait and macro shot capability, the return of Ai-powered hands free gestures and mobile payment, as well as the Pangu large language AI model.
With that, several million sets of the 12/512 GB model sold out within the hour. At 7k per pop, that’s revenue in multiples of 7 billion RMB, in just 1 hour.
Reviews are aplenty, with customers receiving their purchases on the day or the next. There are drop tests, screen tests, satellite calling demos, smart mobile payment demos, gesture demos, pangu demos, camera tests, charging tests, teardowns… all within the first 24–48 hours.
All for a phone that hasn’t been officially launched, and caught everyone, even the influencers who review tech for a living, by surprise.
I won’t engage in conspiracy and say this was Huawei’s attempt at black humor, but beyond the impressive phone, the logistic efficiency demonstrated in getting the goods to consumers is shocking, and Huawei’s guerilla marketing success is testament to the groundswell of support and goodwill in the domestic market. Huawei (华为), after all, means “Created by the Chinese”, a symbol of pride for the Chinese nation.
Discounting Huawei’s motivation for jumping the gun, the Mate 60 Pro’s prelaunch injected tremendous chatter into the news cycle surrounding Gina’s visit. Its success is the perfect response to the Commerce department’s attempt at targeting a corporation for take down.
As for Gina, she is one confused girl. She says in Beijing she is ready to collaborate with China on AI, but turns around and insists matters of national security are non-negotiable.
“I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
We are better off ignoring the rhetoric and focusing on her department’s policies.
Gina no longer has a bird’s eye view of Huawei’s activities, because it has been forced to create a sandboxed and independent supply chain free from American sanction through the abuse of IP privileges. Whoever inherits the hot seat will have to deal with the fog of war invited by America, for America.
GloFo had no choice but to abandon its $70 billion factory in China because of the US decision!
In this video, we dissect the dramatic withdrawal of a major U.S. chip powerhouse from the Chinese market, the stunning shutdown of a colossal $70 billion factory, and its subsequent acquisition by a Chinese tech giant.
🇺🇸 The U.S. chip bill, a game-changing move signed into law by President Biden, has ignited what experts now call the “chip war.” This showdown is reshaping the Sino-U.S. technological landscape, marking the second round of high-stakes rivalry between these global titans.
💥 The ripple effects of the Biden administration’s restrictions on American corporate investments in China have sent shockwaves through the industry. American chip companies are grappling with the potential loss of substantial financial support from the Chinese market. China, holding a commanding 65% share of nearly $600 billion in global semiconductor purchases, wields tremendous influence over the industry’s future.
After the liberation of Taiwan, there will be no more millions of mainland Chinese going to Taiwan.
Taiwan’s per capita income is not as good as that of Hong Kong, Macau, or even Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hongkong
There are few business opportunities and few employment opportunities. As Taiwan’s industries are dominated by OEMs with low wages, young Taiwanese are reluctant to take up these jobs. Most of these jobs are done by foreign labourers from Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia who come to Taiwan.
Young Taiwanese are travelling out of Taiwan in search of job opportunities, mostly to Japan, Australia and mainland China.
And, they’re both China’s islands, but Taiwan’s scenery isn’t even as good as Hainan’s, let alone the other islands in Southeast Asia. There are not even decent tropical beaches. The west coast of Taiwan is mudflats, and the east coast is gravel. Therefore, few tourists go to Taiwan for vacation.
Hainan Province, China
The scenery of Alishan and Sun Moon Lake is just average. In terms of scenic beauty, it is not as beautiful as Huangshan, Lijiang, Jiuzhaigou, Zhangjiajie and other world natural heritage sites.
Zhangjiajie, Hunan, the setting for the film “Avatar”.
This is Sun Moon Lake, Alishan. To be honest, the scenery is pretty average! Many of the reservoirs in mainland China are no less scenic than Sun Moon Lake in Alishan.
In mainland China, there are plateau lakes, alpine lakes, forest lakes, basin lakes, frigid ice lakes, steppe lakes, underground lakes in caves, desert oasis lakes, Gobi lakes, park lakes, reservoir lakes, Tianshan lakes, Kunlun lakes, Qinling lakes, Shangri-La lakes, southwestern lakes, southern lakes, northwestern lakes, and so on. Tibetan Plateau lakes are densely packed how to describe? Even the seven deserts have starry lakes …… mainly because Taiwan is too small.
The infrastructure is outdated, and there are metal houses next to the 101 building.
Many mainland Chinese who have travelled to Taiwan Province feel that they have been deceived by the advertisements of travel agents. When you hear people bragging about how beautiful Taiwan is, you will be deeply disappointed when you are actually on the ground.
Of course, it is not that Taiwan is not beautiful, but Taiwan is too small, too common, not as vast as the mainland, for mainland Chinese who have seen too many beautiful scenery, Taiwan lacks the scenery that “shocked” them.
Because Taiwan is not attractive as a place to live, few mainland Chinese will voluntarily move to Taiwan.
In December 1949, the KMT fled to Taiwan with millions of mainland soldiers, Officials and wealthy businessmen. Except for the KMT officials and wealthy businessmen who are greedy for life and fear of death, most of the soldiers came to Taiwan from their hometowns out of necessity. They are coerced, not self-selected.
But the CPC is not the KMT. the CPC is the victor of the Chinese civil war and does not need to lead the Chinese people to flee to Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek brought millions of soldiers to flee to Taiwan, photo credit: New Taiwan Peace Foundation
However, the PLA will undoubtedly station troops in Taiwan Province. Taiwan Province falls under the jurisdiction of the PLA’s Eastern Theatre, and potentially 100,000 PLA soldiers will be stationed in Taiwan.
PLA soldiers come from all over China and rotate regularly, just like the PLA garrison in Hong Kong.
The PLA Hong Kong Garrison has 6,000-12,000 PLA soldiers. Taiwan is larger in area and has a larger population than Hong Kong. Moreover, Taiwan is very strategically located. the PLA will definitely have more troops stationed in Taiwan than in Hong Kong.
Filipina Give Hot Comments About Western Women Demands in a Relationship.
Tired of the reaction videos? Then this is for you.
On the 3rd of July, a few years back, I visited an animal shelter. And there in the back room was a little Maine coon kitten that was trying to get my attention. So I went up to it and we bonded strongly. I wanted it right then and there.
But the chick at the front desk was busy with a customer and closing up and told us to come back on the 5th of July (as tomorrow was a holiday). So I said “good bye” to the kitty and promised that I would come back for it.
I kept looking back over my shoulder and the kitty was imploring me “don’t leave. You are my last hope”.
And then on the 5th of July I came early, ready to get the kitty. I waited in the parking lost one hour early and just sat there listening to music.
Eventually they “opened up”.
And it was too late. They put the kitty down the day before.
…
I was too late.
When an opportunity occurs DO NOT TRUST IN SOMEONE ELSE, stand your ground and take action.
I should have just got the kitty then and there, and told them that I would come back in a day or two to do the paperwork.
“When I asked my 11-year-old son to help me unload dirt from our small pickup into his mother’s new garden boxes, his reaction was typical.
“Ummmm… I’m busy right now,” He said.
He was playing Roblock on the family laptop, wearing sweat pants and an old T-shirt, lounging on the sofa, feet on the coffee table.
“No you’re not,” I said.
There was a fight, moaning, excuses… the usual.
Moments later, we were next to a wheelbarrow shoveling dirt. He looked at me with flat eyes, his hood up, shoulders slumped, and said, “Why do we have to do this?”
I thought for a moment, because I’ll admit, it was a valid question. Neither of us were all that into flowers or vegetables, or any of the things that would be grown in those garden boxes. But my wife, Mel, loves gardening.
I thought, and he waited, and finally I said, “When you love someone, you serve them.”
I went on, telling him that I want him to grow up to be the kind of man who serves his family, friends, and community.
“This” I said while gesturing to the dirt, and the garden boxes I built the weekend before, and the wheelbarrow and shovel, and the first of many truckloads of dirt we would unload over the next few weeks, “Is what love looks like.”
He didn’t like my answer. I could see it in the way he reluctantly picked his shovel back up.
We finished unloading the dirt. The next day, while I was at work, and the kids and Mel had the day off because it was between terms, Mel sent me this picture. Mel picked up another load of dirt and before she had a chance to unload it, Tristan voluntarily started working. When she asked him “why,” he shrugged and said, “Because I love you.”
I’d never been prouder of my son.”
TEES
After the accident, she was left on the side of the road, no one stopped the car to help her!
An Englishman, taking a road trip through the US, notices he’s low on fuel, pulls into the first gas station he sees. The attendant walks out and approaches the car.
“How can I help you, sir?”
And in a posh voice, the man says, “I’m low on petrol; please top off the tank.”
With an odd look, the guy begins to fill ’er up.
The Englishman then says, “Also, while I’m here could you open the bonnet and check the oil?”
Now looking slightly peeved but still saying nothing, the serviceman does as requested.
“Oh, yes,” says the Brit, “It appears my windscreen needs a good cleaning. Would you mind terribly-”
Unable to hold his tongue any more the attendant angrily snaps, “Alright, that’s enough! It’s not Petrol, it’s gasoline! It’s not a bonnet, it’s a hood! And it’s not a windscreen, it’s a windshield! We invented cars, so you call them by their American names!”
And with that wonderful, charming, stiff-upper-lip UK wit, the Englishman calmly replies, “Well yes, my friend, you may have invented the automobile, but we invented the language!”
How Elites Will Create a New Class of Slaves | Whitney Webb | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Journalist Whitney Webb has worked to uncover some of the most dangerous stories of our lifetime, and she joins Glenn to reveal just how eye-opening it’s been. Her new two-volume book, “One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein,” examines Epstein’s elaborate network of corruption and power, from Bill Clinton to Ghislaine Maxwell and many more. Her research into transhumanism has given her a terrifying perspective on the World Economic Forum and tech elites, including Elon Musk. And she tells Glenn the dark truth about Biden’s push for electric vehicles that she noticed while living in Chile.
Few days ago, a very significant incident made headlines. Jacinda Ardern resigned as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She strongly performed the role of PM for 5 years. Her reason for the resignation was simple – “I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”
Jacinda Ardern:
“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I am human, politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”
However, amidst all this, BBC came up with a very se*ist headline and an article to share the news with the world. It read, “Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?”
Saddened to see such a reductive, se*ist and inaccurate headline from the BBC World. This is so regressive and misogynist…The 1950s came by and picked up their headline.
This is absurd misogyny from BBC. Boris Johnson was ousted in a whirlwind of scandal & failure but BBC humanized him for the pain he felt. 🤔.
Jacinda Ardern gracefully led New Zealand through historic upheavals & leaves on her terms but BBC repeatedly dismisses her as a failure & quitter. 🤦♂️
An embarrassing day for the media. What a disrespectful way to celebrate a refreshingly phenomenal leader like Jacinda Arden.
I’m not sure if I would say it failed. But it was a very awesome piece of gear that for various reasons (namely budget, and politics) was cancelled. Full disclaimer: at one point I worked with the company that made this, and have seen and held parts of this system.
main qimg 1d8f532a0336e98fa0d47c42807825bf lq 1
The Xm-25 CDTE. It shoots programmable 25mm grenades.
Imagine a typical firefight scenario. Both sides end up behind cover, trying to deal with each other. Perhaps a heavy machine gun is mounted up in a window behind sandbags, etc. Maneuvering around and neutralizing the threat is dangerous and time consuming. But what if you had a grenade rifle that could precisely detonate a round just over their heads? Then you could aim just above the MG nest, pop of a shot, and those unlucky bastards would be no more. Firefight over in a minute. No need to call in artillery or air support!
The way this works is that scope has a rangefinder and a computer, and it can program the round to explode at the lazed distance, or before or after that distance in (I think) 1–3m increments. So, in the above example, you laze the sandbags or the side of the building, set the burst just after that distance, and fire. It’s very clever engineering to fit all that capability onto an electronics coin inside a 25mm casing. Unlike traditional grenade launchers, this one shoots a much flatter trajectory; and the range is 600–700m instead of 300ish. The Army was always pushing for more and more range.
When field tested, it apparently developed quite a reputation amongst insurgents, who would sometimes flee when they realized the US squad had one with them. I only heard glowing praise about the 2010 field tests. Being able to neutralize cover with a weapon like this is literally game-changing.
However, the project was ultimately cancelled in 2018. The ‘official’ reason always cites a particular misfire in 2013, although internal sources indicated it was more of a political fight over competing budget priorities. The misfire was only the propellant and not the charge itself. resulting in minimal injury; and, try as ATK did, they could not figure out what this particular soldier did to cause it. (Read: he almost certainly fucked up and did something he wasn’t supposed to, like a double feed.) This is the only incident of a misfire.
I think the other headwind is that current US squad tactics and organization don’t really have a good way to incorporate a system like this. Who wants to carry around a 14lb weapon and give up his rifle? They were patrolling around afghanistan, not taking Berlin. It is, however, a very outstanding little system. If I recall one particular conversation correctly, I believe the round can even punch through some wooden doors and explode on the other side. How’s that for breaching?
There were also problems with HK, who made the frame of the rifle itself, being a poor partner and failing to deliver on time. (This also angered program managers.)
The good news is that fitting this tech onto a 25mm grenade is the hard part. I can promise you that the same technology will find its way into a 40mm grenade system at some point. Imagine being able to lay precision, long range airbursts across a battlefield with one of these:
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Automatic grenade sniper rifle, anyone?
Men Are Refusing To Help Women and They are Panicking They don’t Know Why
https://youtu.be/qXWc6IxxfUs
Greek Style Skillet Supper
For a taste of Greece, this one-dish complete meal is sure to be a hit. Feta cheese accents the authentic flavor.
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Prep: 5 min | Cook: 25 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons McCormick® Oregano Leaves
1 teaspoon McCormick® Cinnamon, Ground
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can reduced sodium beef broth
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen leaf spinach, thawed
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, divided
Instructions
Cook ground beef and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat until beef is no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Drain fat. Add oregano, cinnamon and garlic powder; mix well.
Stir in broth, tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring to boil. Stir in pasta. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 10 minutes or until pasta is nearly tender.
Stir in spinach and 1/2 cup of the feta cheese. Cover. Cook 5 minutes longer or until pasta is tender.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup feta cheese. Cover. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Western Nations BANNED from Joining BRICS if they Apply “Sanctions”
Western countries do not have a chance of joining the BRICS group of emerging economies as long as they pursue hostile policies against Moscow, says the Russian deputy foreign minister.
Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that the “most important criterion” for membership was the “non-application by a potential BRICS participant of illegal sanctions against any member of the association.”
“All the countries who have been invited to join BRICS undoubtedly meet this requirement.
As for Westerners, all of them as a group and each individual [Western] member pursue exactly the opposite line and thus inviting anyone from that group to join BRICS or even attend its events is out of the question. This is absolutely ruled out. And we will continue pursuing this course.”
If any Western state finds BRICS membership an attractive idea, and refrains from the sanctions policy against any BRICS member and applies to join, such an application will be considered.
“There is no other way.”
TSMC Engages in Another Showdown with the US,Tensions Escalate.
According to Taiwanese media reports on August 2nd, TSMC stated that the production delay at its Arizona factory was due to a lack of skilled American labor, and they have dispatched personnel from Taiwan to support the construction of the factory. However, labor union leaders in Arizona criticized TSMC, stating that it was using this as an excuse to introduce “low-wage foreign labor.”
Jerome (not real name) was a new worker with a big mouth. He was 28 years old at the time, quite older than most of the guys he worked with like myself yet he acted, at best, like a spoilt 15 year old.
He was always talking. He always had an opinion about something. He always had to question even the most simple orders and instructions. He believed himself to be the most intelligent person to ever walk the floor of the warehouse and always spoke at length of all the flaws he saw in our system and what he would do to fix the business if he were in charge.
Our job was simple: a retail store wants products that we have, we go out with our grocery carts, pallet jacks, forklifts etc, get the products and have them packaged and ready for delivery in the morning.
Not Jerome.
Jerome’s job was to distact you from what you were doing to talk shit about the company and how the money wasn’t worth it. He would quote some nonexisting OSHA law that the company wasn’t complying with and how he could sue the company if he wanted to. He would discuss his harebrained, get rich quick schemes that he never had to guts to actually attempt. He bragged about his family in the US waiting for him and how he didn’t need to work himself like a slave for chump change like we did.
At any given day he probably put out 20% of the output of the average worker. He was on a six month probationary period of which it would be decided whether he would be contracted as a permanent worker, given extended probation or let go. No one expected him to be permanently hired. Everyone basically tried to tolerate him for the six month probationary period as best as they could.
However he started taking his shenanigans to the next level.
He started making the (typically secluded) shampoos lane in the back warehouse his secret hideout. The lane was quiet, had no cameras and far away from our superiors’ field of vision. He decided to set up a makeshift man-cave behind a pallet of Tresemmé 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner. There he would smoke, talk shit with the rare, harmless worker who came by for shampoos and he would watch rap music videos on his cell phone.
At the month’s end all warehouse workers were allowed to take from the damaged products. We had our own system of fairness whereby we rotated each worker to get a chance to get first pick among the damages.
Jerome couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the system. During the third month of his employ it was observed that practically all of the best damaged goods had gone missing. A co-worker and myself smelt a rat in Jerome and we went to his man cave while he was on lunch and saw the damages were there hidden in boxes.
We reported it to the supervisor who came and saw it. He held an emergency meeting and asked for the person who put those damaged goods in the back to come forward. Everyone eyed Jerome angrily but he remained silent. The supervisor reported the matter to the manager who reported it to the company owner and she immediately put a stop to the free damages giveaway.
Now the anger towards Jerome had turned into a bloodlust. However the more angry everyone got the more lazy and defiant Jerome became. He was smart enough to abandon his man-cave after his attempted theft but he still spent more than half his working day loitering and talking shit.
Every year the company paid for the company staff to have a party, usually at a classy sports bar or a nightclub. We all looked forward to it including Jerome who discussed at length his intention to get drunk off of free premium drinks and score with one of the pretty head office girls. However, one fateful afternoon the owner of the store had an impromptu meeting with everyone in the warehouse.
She explained that the company decided to change the format of the staff party. She explained that it was expensive and inefficient having this party every year when too many employees ran up a bill drinking premium drinks all night and then not being able to come to work the following day. She gave the disappointing news that this time the party would be held at 12pm — 7pm the upcoming Sunday.
Jerome released a snorting laugh while she spoke. Everyone in the warehouse went dead silent. No one had ever dared interrupt the owner, far less mock her.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘Is there something amusing?’
‘Nobody ever heard of a party 12 o clock in the afternoon,’ Jerome said in his spoilt 15 year old voice.
‘I’ve been to many parties 12 o clock in the afternoon’ she replied.
‘Yeah, birthday parties for kids’ Jerome said smugly and looked about for someone to laugh but found only silence.
The owner asked Jerome his name and how long he worked in the warehouse. Afterwards she continued her talk uninterrupted but after the meeting was dismissed she, the manager and Jerome went into an office for a talk. Some minutes later Jerome was seen leaving the compound, he was terminated from the job.
Sad thing for Jerome was the owner apparently thought over what he said about the party and changed her mind about it. We were allowed to have our traditional, late into the night, party albeit minus the free premium drinks.
We had a great time dancing the night away and toasting Jerome whose big mouth finally done some good for a change.
MY SOUL!!! | Oliver Anthony – “I WANT TO GO HOME” | Reaction
Nissan. I bought a brand new Nissan Truck with a supercharger. The supercharger crapped out at 12,000 miles. They had to fix it because it was under warranty. The mechanic at the dealer told me they were all failing due to a manufacturer’s defect which was widely known in the company. I drove the truck a couple more years and the supercharger crapped out again, this time just about 200 miles beyond the end of the warranty. At about the same time, my son’s identical Nissan truck also lost its supercharger at 18,000 miles. I wound up talking to a factory representative. I asked him if they would split the $1,800 bill since it was a factory defect. He said no because Nissan just couldn’t afford to pay for all those repairs.
I later bought a Toyota truck which lost a head gasket. Toyota fixed it for free outside of the warranty period. They said that their engineering and design philosophy was that a head gasket should last at least 200,000 miles.
I have made a point to tell this story at least 100 times over the years. I know I have talked at least 20 people out of buying a Nissan.
In terms of uniqueness, it’s hard to find a canine species that rivals the short-eared dog. Genetically, it is very distinct from other living members of the canid family, and indeed in many ways it is more like a cat than a dog!
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It is found only within the dense and dark jungles of the Amazon Basin in South America. Such densely forested habitats are unusual for canines, other than the bush dog, which I’ll mention later. What’s more, it is an extremely shy and reclusive creature, leading a solitary nocturnal lifestyle. All of the characteristics above are more typical of felines, interestingly.
Where the short-eared dog differs from your average cat is its affinity for water. As vast swathes of its Amazonian habitat are swampy or regularly flooded, it is well-adapted for a semi-aquatic world. Its feet are webbed, with membranes of skin stretching between the toes, which makes it an excellent swimmer. Much of its diet is actually represented by fish, crabs, frogs and the like. The dog makes short work of these slippery customers with its impressive set of cuspid teeth (another rather cat-like feature).
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As canid species go, the short-eared dog takes an exceptionally long time to reach sexual maturity. They cannot reproduce until the age of three, something we discovered relatively recently. Before it was known that it’s a bit of a late bloomer, one expert jokingly suggested it should be renamed the “small-balled dog”!
When they eventually do achieve sexual maturity, males get to work in the hopes of attracting a female (uniquely, the females are much bigger than the males!). They spray a strong-smelling musk secreted by the tail glands, and produce mating calls all through the night. These vocalisations are bizarre and haunting, sounding like those of owls!
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During the day, they take shelter, usually dwelling inside burrows and tunnels dug by giant armadillos, after they’ve been vacated by the original owner. Short-eared dogs’ nocturnal lifestyle, in addition to their impenetrable habitat and shy evasive nature, means that they are still shrouded in mystery. They are rarely photographed in the wild – indeed, all the pictures above are of an individual called Oso, who was raised by humans since puppyhood (hence the collar). He’s taught us much of what we know about the species.
As such, we still have much more to learn about short-eared dogs. I, for one, am very curious to know more about how they interact with the only other wild canine species found in the Amazon Rainforest – the bush dog. This comically short and stubby little pupper lives in packs of up to twelve individuals, which specialise in hunting giant rodents such as capybaras and pacas. I’m sure the two species cross paths at times – what a fascinating interaction that would be.
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I eagerly await all the new short-eared dog discoveries that are sure to be ahead! In the meantime, this has been everything you need to know about this underappreciated and handsome creature. I hope you liked the answer, thank you for reading! And have an amazing day.
I failed out of college.
Not MM, mind you. -MM
I ended the 2nd semester of my freshman year with a 0.9 GPA.
You read that right: a 0.9 GPA
When the school year ended, my parents drove four hours to campus to help clean out my dorm room and take me home.
During the ride home I remember staring out the car window in complete silence the entire four hours.
I was devastated. I had no idea what I was going to do.
My parents were upset.
They were disappointed.
They didn’t have anything to say.
Neither did I.
Their disappointment was nothing compared to the numbness I felt. I was far more disappointed in myself than they ever could be. It was completely my fault and I knew it.
I struggled all through high school, so it was no surprise I struggled the way I did when I started college.
I was terrible at taking tests. I had such a difficult time studying. I have no idea why. It was something I lived with that I cannot explain.
In grade school I had special tutors to help with my test-taking anxiety. I can’t say it helped much.
As I finished my final year of high school, I did not know if I would get in to college. I only applied to one college.
I was accepted to attend the only college I applied to.
And now I failed out of the only college I applied to.
I struggled all through Freshman year of college until it got to a point where I felt I had no chance of success. My grades were terrible. So, I did not show up for any of my final exams. There was no way I could study well enough to get passing grades on my finals.
I gave up.
During the four hour drive home, I became painfully aware that I could have done better. I didn’t bother searching for an excuse to justify the horrible mistake I made.
I had to figure out a Plan B.
Not even a week passed after moving back home with my parents before I started piecing together a plan.
Even though I ‘failed’ as far as the university was concerned, I knew I was not a failure. I certainly did not feel like one.
I dug myself into a very deep hole and I knew it was up to me to pull myself out.
I had to figure out how to approach life differently. I wasn’t doing it right. And it felt horrible.
I knew I had to try again.
The problem was, since my GPA was so poor, I got suspended from attending that college.
I called the admissions office and asked how I could come back to earn my degree. They told me I needed to go to a community college for a year and earn a 3.0 GPA, then I could reapply to be accepted back.
My entire experience of life changed from that point on. I was never the same again.
All of a sudden I had a goal to accomplish. I never set ambitious goals for myself prior to that moment. I was social and active and participated in sports, but I was mostly just showing up. I never associated much of a purpose or goal with anything I was doing.
I now had a goal, fueled by an intense desire to accomplish that goal.
I did what the admissions office told me to do. I got a job. I took courses at the community college. I accomplished the GPA they required.
A year after failing, I reapplied and was admitted back in to the same college so I could finish my degree.
By the time I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, I was getting grades that earned me a spot on the Dean’s List several semesters in a row.
Why was failing out of college the best mistake I ever made?
This mistake was a wake-up call that helped me discover what I am capable of.
I experienced what it feels like to recover from a major failure.
I shifted my mindset to one that is fueled with purpose.
I discovered the power of setting ambitious goals that are created from my own desire to accomplish those goals.
And most importantly: I remember feeling as though my entire life was over during that silent four hour drive home with my parents. The reality was, this failure ended up being a mere bump in the road. It was quite a rough bump at the time but it did not ruin me. I learned that our failures do not define who we are.
I Want To Go Home ( REACTION ) Something SPECIAL is Happening Here…
Originally Answered: What does it feel like to be secretly rich?
Around strangers, it’s easy. Around friends and neighbors, its work.
Most people in the United States have at least one of my products in their home, and would instantly recognize the company, but they wouldn’t know me. There’s never a random “hey, aren’t you the CEO of…” on the street, or checking into a hotel, so that part is fairly easy.
On the flip side, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping things on the down low among friends. I personally bring home about $4 million a year, but I’m not really into displays of wealth – not because I’m actively hiding anything, I just think most of that stuff is kind of tacky and isn’t interesting.
Our house isn’t over the top. It’s larger than average, but we also have three kids so that’s expected. It does sit on 60 acres, but we tell people only five of those acres are ours. We have a couple of cars (her primary, my primary, a truck, and a couple of classics in the garage) but all are American made and none newer than five years old. Both of the classics are actually pretty rare cars which would fetch over $100k a piece if I ever sold them, but since I’m also known for being kind of a gear head and did a lot of work on it myself, everyone just assumes they were once junkers I brought back from the dead or aren’t all original parts.
This part is pretty easy since there visibly aren’t too many cues that would tip someone off. Everything was paid for with cash, including the house, but realistically outside of the land value, someone making $150k-200k could afford all of the same stuff if they financed/mortgaged it.
The main difficulty is trying to relate and being careful what I say. Most of our friends are in that $150–200k range, but they’re in debt up to their eyeballs to maintain their lifestyles. They’re driving new leased Mercedes and BMW’s and probably think they’re doing better than I am financially – which is fine by me.
Its just little things I have to watch out for. A buddy invited me to bring one of the classics to a car show he was going to once, but I declined and said it acting up and I needed to work on it. I left the hood up for a week in case he came over. Really I just didn’t want the attention – someone there would have recognized it for what it was. Occasionally when someone notices how much land surrounds my house, I’ll say something like I hope the owner never decides to build on it. Before we take a family trip, I will mention that I’m saving up for it a couple months prior, when really we could just go. I also own property in other states that no one knows about – one of them is a place along a river in Tennessee and a few of us are going down there next month to witness the eclipse. They think it’s just a place I rented for the weekend.
Honestly, I don’t like the deception – these are good friends, but seeing how they all are with their money and how they regard it, I don’t want them to know the truth. I hear about all of their money problems and how they talk about other people who are better off than they are, and there’s a lot of disdain and jealously there. it’s just not worth the hassle. The problem is I think most of the people I’ve met in my own income bracket and higher are pretentious douchebags, so I don’t really want to hang out with them either.
My life doesn’t revolve around money, and that isn’t the case for most of the people I’ve met with an income over $1 million, so I don’t really relate to them. I would rather vacation to a rustic cabin in the woods than some flashy five star resort.
Chili-Stuffed Potato Skins
OzzzIP
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
4 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced jarred jalapeno peppers
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 (14 ounce) can refried beans
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Wash and dry the potatoes, then pierce each several times with a fork. Microwave on HIGH for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Timing varies by microwave.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil, garlic, onion and jalapenos. Sauté until the onion just begins to get tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef and sauté until browned, about another 5 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes and refried beans, then mix well and reduce heat to low. Bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, then cover and reduce heat to just keep warm.
Carefully cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then use a spoon to scoop out the insides and place them in a large bowl. Leave about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of potato all around the skin. Arrange the potato skins on a baking sheet. Set aside.
To the bowl of potatoes, add 1 cup of the Cheddar cheese, the ricotta and milk. Mix well, then season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Fill the potato skins almost to overflowing with the meat-and-bean mixture. Carefully spoon a bit of the potato-and-cheese mixture over the meat. Sprinkle each with some of the remaining Cheddar.
Bake until the cheese melts and the mashed-potato topping just begins to brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Jordan Peterson Tells the TRUTH about ALIENATED Young Men – (Better Audio Quality)
This is STUNNINGLY great!
2023 08 26 11 58
It’s Official: “BRICS” Adds Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and UAE; Will Control 80% of Global Oil
It’s Official: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will become full members of BRICS on January 1st 2024. All totaled, BRICS nations will control eighty percent (80%) of Global Oil and Gas production.The map below lays out what the newly enlarged BRICS will look like:
BRICS 2024 Control 80 Percent Worlds Oil
Cutting right to the chase, it should be stated that “The-Powers-That-Be (TPTB) cannot survive this without World War 3.”
If the current globalist cabal stands back and does nothing as this new Commerce Alliance comes to life, then on January 1, 2024, they may wake up to find that no one in any of the countries shown above, will accept the U.S. Dollar or the EURO as payment for trade in goods and services anymore, because both the Dollar and the EURO are backed by nothing.
They may find that no one around the world is willing to sell oil in US Dollars anymore, and could demand that we convert OUR currency to some other currency to buy oil.
The way the Biden Regime has curtailed our own oil and gas production, we would see shortages and price increases the likes of which has never been seen before.
Since we in the United States do not manufacture much of anything here anymore – because CORPORATE IMBECILES shipped all our manufacturing jobs overseas– we could see our ability to buy things for import-severely curtailed as well.
Let’s not forget Economic Sanctions. It was the excessive and arbitrary use of economic sanctions by the US, which spurred countries around the world to seek out – and now CREATE — some other means for settling international trade because they got tired of the US imposing Sanctions and forbidding the use of the US Dollar by countries under sanction.
Now that BRICS is creating its own Gold-Backed currency for settlement of international trade debts, the US won’t have any clout anymore because it won’t be able to sanction pretty much anybody. The US Government will be toothless on economic sanctions . . . but the rest of the world will not.
What if the rest of the world decides it is “Pay Back Time” for the US? What if THEY impose economic Sanctions upon us?????? The new BRICS organization and its coming currency could make that a reality.
All these facts make clear that the Powers-That-Be simply cannot allow this BRICS to go any further or TPTB will lose their grip on controlling the world. Some of TPTB are such ego-maniacs, they would rather burn the entire world to the ground rather than lose control over it.
Thus, it seems logical to me, that World War 3 is coming before the end of this year. Perhaps a lot sooner than that.
Too many things to name here, certainly. But I’ll narrow it down just to 2.
In Middle school, I got sick. Started falling all the time, couldn’t smile, could barely keep my eyes open and double-vision exhausted me trying to see the board and read, hands couldn’t write long, got brain fog and couldn’t remember anything etc. I was in and out of the hospital… diagnosed with anything from ‘imminent death’ to ‘attention seeking’. I missed A LOT of school.
After I was finally diagnosed a couple of years later, I was definitely in danger of failing. Had a thymectomy, which at that time required cracking open my sternum, and definitely couldn’t go back to school for awhile, but was feeling mentally better on my new meds.
Mrs. Howard, who had been my homeroom teacher the prior year, came to my house to bring me school work and tutor me, and administer me quizzes, so I wouldn’t get too far behind. I ended up passing my classes and was able to proceed to high school with the rest of my classmates.
We were poor. Like wringer washer and rotary dial phone (in the 90s) poor.
I wanted to take Home Ec and Shop, but we couldn’t afford the class fees. I ended up taking a couple of design courses. Web Design and Drafting. My hands still got weak pretty easily, and I was left handed (the drafting machines on the desks were only for right-handed people), so I got to use AutoCAD most of the time.
I ended up in Drafting classes for 3 1/2 years, and competed in regional and state for VICA (vocational industrial clubs of America) and the IDEA (Illinois Drafting Educators Association).
Turns out? Those classes and competitions had fees, too. My instructor, Pete Tucker, paid my fees. He also wrote me a glowing recommendation later for college.
When I was 19, I interviewed for my first drafting internship, and that 3 month internship lasted 13 1/2 years. I became a cad manager, then programmer, then solutions architect for facilities software, and had a side career as a technical editor and author, teaching others how to use AutoCAD and similar programs.
A few years ago, I looked him up on Facebook and thanked him for giving me an entry into a career that lifted me out of poverty, provided me with insurance coverage for my disability (fun fact, if you managed to live 5 years without treatment, you got to lie and say you didn’t have a pre-existing condition) and allowed me to raise my kids with everything I’d never had (both of them can use AutoCAD, too 😉 ).
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COUNTRY GOSPEL! Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home | REACTION Video
Our first child was not toilet trainable. We took her to doctor after doctor from age 3 to 6, eventually carrying an x-ray made by the local radiologist. Everyone agreed that poor parenting skills were the problem, though some added that our lovely daughter, who had a BM only when standing or lying down, really enjoyed tormenting us.
One of the last doctors said, “If she were my kid, I’d lock her in the bathroom until she did it on the toilet!”
A few weeks later, a surgeon hundreds of miles from home held up that x-ray and said, “She has a birth defect.” Her lower intestine was positioned in a way that made a BM impossible unless her body was absolutely straight, NOT sitting on a toilet. Surgery fixed that. Thank you, Dr. Hardy Hendren, and RIP.
Jason Aldean – Try That In A Small Town (Official Music Video)
I would have never even heard of this song if people hadn’t been upset about it.
Some of them are a clever twist based on an underlying Chinese phrase.
For example, on the T-shirt, the Chinese characters read:
已读不回
Literal translation would be “Have Read, Not Replied”.
The context here is that this is a common behavior on instant messaging apps – the receiver (of the instant message) has left the sender (of the instant message) on Read or Seen: they’ve read/seen the instant message, but haven’t replied.
This is a common course of action for some girls who start getting a lot of instant messages from guys trying to woo them but to whom they feel no affection for.
Rather than outright telling her pursuer that his romantic overtures are unwelcome, she leaves him on read/seen and doesn’t reply his messages.
In this way, she hopes that he gets the hint and finally stops sending all those silly little messages.
She’s “seen” all his instant messages but never bothered replying any of them.
So, this girl, she is a “Seenderella”.
It’s a clever twist on Cinderella.
Clever and funny.
Well, to me anyway 😀 I am easily amused 😀
If you only saw “Seenderella” on the T-shirt, you might be going “Huh?”
But with the Chinese characters right there next to it, if you know how to read Chinese, the twist becomes immediately obvious.
Grammy Member Reacts to Oliver Anthony’s I want to go home
Hitting too close to home.
Final Report
In January 1969, the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency released Volume 1 of its “Final Report” on a field test involving the “Demonstrated Destruction of Nuclear Weapons.” The field test’s purpose, the publication’s abstract states, was to “develop and test inspection procedures to monitor the demonstrated destruction of nuclear weapons.” In addition, a goal of the test was to determine the extent to which the “proposed method of demonstrating destruction” would expose classified weapon information. The test included 40 actual nukes and 32 fake weapons.
As a result of the test, it was concluded that the proposed destruction techniques could, indeed, reveal classified information about the weapons’ design. However, by masking some of the weapons’ features and limiting inspectors’ visual examinations of the weapons, such disclosures could be prevented.
The inspectors’ poor ability to distinguish between bona fide and fake nukes might also conceal classified information, as could “evasion schemes,” suggesting that less U-235 was being used than was actually the case. The field tests suggested that, overall, the inspection procedures were reasonably secure but resulted in several recommendations for the conduct of such inspections.
I would definitely recommend you stop consuming any type of seafood imported from Japan, and be cautious towards seafood from Alaska, the Canadian west, South Korea, the Pacific islands, and eastern China.
Two reasons:
The United States has been buying less Japanese seafood “Listen to a man’s words but observe his deeds”, as the Chinese idiom goes. While the US has shown public support at the government level for Japan’s discharge of radioactive wastewater[1] , in the first six months of 2023 alone, they have actually drastically reduced the amount of surimi (fish paste), scallops and sake imported from Japan[2], amounting to up to 8.3 billion Yen. This was before Japan officially admitted they were releasing the wastewater by the way.
It would be interesting to see whether the Americans, post 24 Aug, would put their money where their mouth is, and start importing more Japanese aquacultural and agricultural products than ever before, perhaps as a show of solidarity with fellow neoliberal democracies.
The more likely scenario, however, is that the US would cite concerns with radiation pollution but ban Chinese seafood instead. Feel free to check back in a few months.
Even the Japanese themselves won’t eat their own seafood The release of the tainted radioactive water began only a couple of days ago, but already there are reports all over Japan that local consumers are steering clear of not just Fukushima seafood, but all kinds of local seafood [3]. Even people in Japan know better than to trust their government and Tokyo Electric – a company so ruthless and dishonest [4], it turned an INES level 3 incident into a level 7, same level as Chernobyl, and is now solely in charge of monitoring its own wastewater discharge.
Imagine that, a nuclear power company that caused the disaster to begin with, is now put wholly in charge of the discharge operation, and every statistic the company reports is treated as gospel truth by the local government. We have truly reached peak cyberpunk, ladies and gentlemen.
Moreover, the Japanese fishing industry has been protesting the government’s decision to release the tainted water for years [5]. Such an irresponsible move, as they have rightly predicted, would effectively destroy the prestigious brand and reputation of Japanese seafood, and is likely to affect other Japanese products such as agricultural products in the near future.
Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home Fiddle player REACTS WITH FIDDLE!!
Oskar Groning was what nobody wants to be, a guard at Auschwitz. His primary job was sorting and valuables new arrivals turned over. A big source of income for the Third Reich was the valuables prisoners handed over.
When the war ended Oskar wasn’t brought up on charges. He was captured before the war ended, did some time in a British POW camp, and when the war ended he went home to his wife.
Upon seeing his wife again she asked about his experiences and he said “Girl, do both of us a favour: don’t ask” and she left it there. One day a while later someone made an offhand joke that Oskar could actually be a killer given his time at Auschwitz. He banged on the table and demanded that nobody ever mention Auschwitz again or he would leave.
Oskar wanted to put what he had done behind him. He was a devout Nazi, an Auschwitz camp guard no less, and he wanted this to remain a secret.
Oskar got a job at a glass factory and worked his way up into a management role. He worked there for decades and lived a very normal life. Oskar collected stamps and was even a judge.
In 1985 Oskar met a Holocaust denier and was given a pamphlet on Holocaust denial. Shocked that such a thing exists, Oskar came forward to dispute it. He made multiple statements and gave a full account of what he had seen.
I saw everything. The gas chambers, the cremations, the selection process. One and a half million Jews were murdered in Auschwitz. I was there.
I would like you to believe me. I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria. I saw the open fires. I would like you to believe that these atrocities happened, because I was there
(letters/calls) From people who tried to prove that what I had seen with my own eyes, what I had experienced in Auschwitz was a big, big mistake, a big hallucination on my part because it hadn’t happened.”
Now Oskar was put on trial for this and found guilty. It mattered little as he died a few years later at the age of 93.
But this shows you what Nazis think about Holocaust deniers- they think deniers are idiots.
I’m a school bus driver. I drove students in a VERY nice school district. If you were looking for kids to be the illustration of white privilege, these were the ones. (These were kids who got hoverboards from the tooth fairy.) Every single morning and afternoon, these kids, with much more expensive clothes than I have, would thank me for driving them. When parents would meet the kids at the bus, they would tell the kids “make sure you say thank you.” These people weren’t upper class simply from money, but from having habits and attitudes to make them better people in life. Behavior problems were rare.
PEPE ESCOBAR AND MICHAEL HUDSON JOIN ON BRICS PLUS SIX, UKRAINE, AND THE MULTIPOLAR WORLD ECONOMY!
People! We are at peat transition. I have no idea how long this plateau will last but we are most certainly at peak.
Consider Africa. Niger is kicking the colonial powers out, and they refuse, and so the rest of Africa bands together to throw the bums out. Three nations, under proxy control, plan to invade Niger. What happens? Grass roots military coups though the “puppet masters” out.
Consider Oliver Anthony and how his music resonates.
Consider what is going on in Ukraine right now. Not the narrative. But the actual happenings. Where the EU went to Putin and started to make demands, and he dismissed them. They are P-O-W-E-R-L-E-S-S.
Consider the strange “fire” in Hawaii and the conspiracy theories behind it. And the fact that the entire area is now under wraps and fully blocked off doesn’t help the speculation. WTF is going on?
Japan radiation from the power plant. The cheapest solution, my ass. This water can be purified. But it isn’t. Some one (read USA) wants a conflict and wants a lot of Asians to die.
Look at San Francisco. First the orgy of riots. Then the store closures. Then the tenants move out. Followed by a ghost town. Now the “town counsel” has plans to bulldoze all the historic buildings down town and put up a gigantic football stadium surrounded by parking lots.
The insanity is off the charts!
Meanwhile China plugs on and on. Huawei P90 is coming out. 7nm chips. All Chinese made and manufactured. Full 5G capability, and the West loses out…
Genocidal, Zionist Israhell has expunged all historic Arabic names in Palestine for a reason.
Algeria is removing French from all their street signs.
Russia and China are switching English signage to phonetic and Pinyin, respectively.
Words are powerful things.
Jeff
Police have revealed that devices like the one pictured above, designed to derail trains, have been found — and are being found — on railroad tracks all over the United States.
Police warn that they could lead to train derailments and the death of passengers. The devices have been found all over the country, from the West Coast to the East.
It now seems self-evident that America is literally under attack – from within.
More details as they become available.
UPDATE 7:53 AM EDT —
Additional information has come in regarding the device shown above. What is pictured is a standard railroad siding derailer. It is designed to derail a car with dangerous materials from going on the main line and becoming a run away (bomb).
While it is good to hear this is a known safety device, this explanation does NOT address why police are reporting finding these devices on mainline tracks all over the USA. This would seem to indicate people within the railroad industry, with ready access to such devices, have begun misusing them.
Sitting out side talking to a friend of mine and all of a sudden a loud bang made me jump. Turned to see a van had run straight into this little car. I was able to catch the plate number. I ran inside asked for a pen and paper quickly and jotted it down. Cashier looked so confused. The woman whose car it was was at the counter finishing checking out. She went outside and came back in saying someone hit her car. I was able to give her the plate number and bought her a coke. Waiting with her till her husband and then the cops showed up. Her whole frame was bent couldnt open the driver side door. The cops were able to ID the guy very quickly and this wasn’t his first accident in the year. Not his second either. The husband was so grateful for how I treated his wife during the incident he insisted on giving me twenty bucks. That twenty went to into getting my Mother a Christmas present. Caught up with them a few months later. She thanked me again and his insurance ended up paying for a new car for them. He (the driver) had to pay his insurance back.
I am an American who resides in the United States.
I defend China because of history. The United States, England, France, Japan and Europe colonized much of the planet between 1800 and 1960. China was a victim of this aggression.
China continues to be a victim of American aggression. Since 1949, the United States has provided weapons and military support to the losing side in the Chinese Civil War, i.e. Taiwan. This is a continuation of 200 years of colonialism.
The United States is aided and abetted in its WAR against China by the Western media. Like others posting here, I view the Western media as propaganda, created by persons in the United States who want to sell weapons at the expense of China, Russia and the Middle East.
I believe that it is important to stand up for the truth, and to put an end to America’s endless wars for profit. The United States should not be a nation of endless war.
The present leaders of the United States have tarnished the nation, and caused it to be condemned in the eyes of the world. This is a very dangerous situation, for the United States. America is dependent upon credit and imported goods from the rest of the world.
I recognize that unchecked power in China could be a problem, when the United States is weakened due to its debt. However, the United States brought that problem upon itself, by closing two-thirds of its industrial base. The balance of power will correct itself.
Hopefully, America’s leaders will wake up soon. Power is about to be taken from their hands.
The Origins Of The Neocons And Their Lunatic World View
Linda’s Easy Lasagna
This is my favorite lasagna recipe because you do not cook the lasagna noodles first. I have always disliked cooking the lasagna noodles, so this is a great solution for me. This turns out perfect every time.
2023 08 12 17 52
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey or Italian sausage*
1 jar spaghetti sauce or homemade sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 tomato sauce can water
2 pounds ricotta or cottage cheese, mixed with 4 eggs
12 ounces lasagna noodles, UNCOOKED
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Garlic powder
Salt
Instructions
Brown meat. Drain.
Add sauces and water.
Spoon a small amount of sauce onto the bottom of a lasagna pan or a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
Place a layer of UNCOOKED noodles (overlapping slightly), one-third of the cottage cheese mixture, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and one-third of the shredded cheese.
Pour about one-third of the sauce over the top.
Repeat twice more. Cover with more cheese.
Bake, covered and sealed with foil (DO NOT LET THE FOIL TOUCH THE CHEESE), at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer to brown the top.
Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
Notes
* Remove Italian sausage from casings and crumble as it cooks.
I usually make this with Italian sausage, but I have also used sliced cooked meatballs. It’s yummy whatever you decide to use! Of the two spaghetti sauce options, if you have time, go with the homemade sauce!
You can also bake for 1 hour without the cheese on top, then put the cheese on top and bake 15 minutes longer uncovered.
Friend, who works for a financial broker, calls me, says she needs a break from work. Could I come in and be a receptionist for a week so she can take a break? I would be on the payroll.
OK. So, I do the week.
Then she says that I’m doing great, can I stay the month? Hmmm, OK. The extra money is nice.
At the end of the month. she says, “I am off on vacation for the next three months. Have fun.”
I didn’t know this, but she does NOT tell the broker. It is only a two-person office, and the broker is a sweet guy who does not deserve to be dumped on like this.
She never comes back.
I worked there two years until he sold the company and retired.
China’s cancellation of Germany’s $100 billion car order sends Europe into a panic!
https://youtu.be/tfqgWibM71g
Dear America – You Are Delusional, and Failing at Everything You Undertake
Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia sanctions – “All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly.”
“Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.”
Back in the days when I was still trying to do the corporate thing, I regularly found myself in a bit of a tight spot simply by failing to keep my mouth shut.
I seem to carry some sort of gene that makes me naturally irrepressible. I can keep my mouth shut for only so long before I have to blurt out what I really think, and in a corporate setting, where thinking isn’t really allowed, this causes no end of trouble. It didn’t matter that I often turned out to be right. It didn’t matter what I thought; it only mattered that I thought.
American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
Of all the thoughts you aren’t allowed to think, perhaps the most offensive one is adequately expressed by a single short phrase: “That’s not gonna work.”
Suppose there is a meeting to unveil a great new initiative, with PowerPoint presentations complete with fancy graphics, org charts, timelines, proposed budgets, yadda-yadda, and everything is going great until this curmudgeonly Russian opens his mouth and says “That’s not gonna work.”
And when it is patiently explained to him (doing one’s best to hide one’s extreme irritation) that it absolutely has to work because Senior Management would like it to, that furthermore it is his job to make it work and that failure is not an option, he opens his mouth again and says “That’s not gonna work either.” And then it’s time to avoid acting flustered while ignoring him and to think up some face-saving excuse to adjourn the meeting early and regroup.
I lasted for as long as I did in that world because once in a while I would instead say “Sure, that’ll work, let’s do it.” And then, sure enough, it did work, the company had a banner year or two, with lots of bonuses and atta-boy (and atta-girl) certificates handed out to those not at all responsible for any of it. Flushed with victory, they, in turn, would think up more harebrained schemes for me to rain on, and the cycle would repeat.
It is probably one of the main saving graces of corporations that they do sometimes (mainly by mistake) allow some thought to leak through. The mistake in question is a staffing error in promoting those constitutionally incapable of keeping their mouths shut or shutting off their brains. Such errors create chinks in the monolithic phalanxes of corporate yes-men and yes-women.
Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
The likelihood of such mistakes increases with the agony of defeat, which causes attrition among the ranks of qualified yes-sayers, creating holes that can only be plugged by promoting a few non-yes-sayers. However, this only seems to work in the smaller, hungrier corporations; the larger, better-fed ones seem to be able to avoid experiencing the agony of defeat for a very long time by moving the goal posts, outlawing any discussion of said defeat or other similar tactics. Eventually the entire organization goes over the cliff, but by then it is of no benefit to anyone to attempt to inform them of their folly.
It is much the same with governments, except here the situation is even worse. While the smaller, hungrier governments, and those blessed with a fresh institutional memory of extreme pain, do not have the luxury of lying to themselves, the larger political agglomerations—the USSR, the EU, the USA—have the ability to keep themselves completely immunized against the truth for historically significant periods of time.
The USSR clung to the fiction of great socialist progress even when it was clear to all that the cupboard was bare and there were rats gnawing through the rafters. The EU has been able to ignore the fact that its entire scheme is one of enriching Germany while impoverishing and depopulating eastern and southern Europe, neglecting the interests of the native populations throughout. And the amount of self-delusion that is still currently in effect in the USA makes it a rather large subject.
Regardless of how great the lies are and how forcefully they are defended, a moment always comes when the phalanx of truth-blocking yes-men and yes-women stops marching, turns and runs. This event results in a tremendous loss of face and confidence for all involved.
It is the crisis of confidence, more than anything else, that precipitates the going-off-a-cliff phenomenon that we could so readily observe in the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. I have a very strong hunch that similar cliff-diving exercises are coming up for the EU and the USA.
But for the time being I am just another disembodied voice on the internet, watching from the sidelines and periodically saying the unfashionable thing, which is: “This isn’t gonna work.” However, I’ve said this a number of times over the years, on the record and more or less forcefully, and I feel vindicated most of the time.
Internationally, for example:
• Carving the Ukraine away from Russia, having it join the EU and NATO and building a NATO naval base in Crimea “wasn’t gonna work.” The Ukraine is a part of Russia, the Ukrainians are Russian, and the Ukrainian ethnic identity is a Bolshevik concoction. Look for a reversion to norm in a decade or two.
• Destroying and partitioning Syria with the help of Wahhabi extremists and foreign mercenaries supported by the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel while Russia, Iran, Turkey and China stand idly by “wasn’t gonna work”; and so it hasn’t.
• Giving Afghanistan “freedom and democracy” and turning it into a stable pro-Western regime with the help of invading NATO troops “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. Western involvement in Afghanistan can go on, but the results it can achieve are limited to further enhancing the heroin trade.
• Destroying the Russian economy using sanctions “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. The sanctions have helped Russia regroup internally and achieve a great deal of self-sufficiency in energy production and other forms of technology, in food and in numerous other sectors.
All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly. Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.
In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting for the US to shake itself out of its stupor.
The fulcrum of American influence in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar. In turn, Saudi Arabia rests on three pillars: the Saudi monarchy, Wahhabi Islam and the petrodollar. As I write this, the next king, Mohammed bin Salman, is busy hacking away at all three: robbing, imprisoning and torturing his fellow-princes, working to replace the Wahhabi clerics with moderate ones and embracing the petro-yuan instead of the now very tired petrodollar.
Not that any of these three pillars were in good shape in any case: the defeat of ISIS in Syria was a defeat for the Saudi monarchy which supported it, for the Wahhabi clerics who inspired it and, consequently, for the petrodollar as well, because Saudi Arabia was until now its greatest defender.
The new guarantors of peace in the region are Russia, Iran and Turkey, with China watching carefully in the wings. American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
And so here’s my latest prediction: Trump’s goal of “making America great” “isn’t gonna work” either.
The country is so far gone that just taking the first step—of allowing the truth of its condition to leak through the media filters—will undermine public confidence to such an extent that a subsequent cliff-dive will become unavoidable. It’s a nice slogan as slogans go, but Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
Perhaps he will succeed in making America great… big piles of feces, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.
France, ECOWAS Armoured Vehicles Land In Nigerian Port As They Move To Invade Niger
We’ve all said the wrong thing at times, leaving our kids feeling angry, hurt, or confused. Words can be eternally damaging, especially coming from parents who are supposed to be safe and supportive figures in their child’s lives. “Parents’ support and approval are essential for kids’ well-being,” says Jill Whitney, LMFT, who practices in Old Lyme, Connecticut and blogs about relationships. “The words you use can be constructive or destructive to kids’ developing sense of self. If they’re negative, they can negatively color our self-image for decades.” Find out the worst offenders and what to say instead.
“Hurry up!”
Your child may be slow as molasses getting dressed in the morning when you’re trying to head out the door to school and work. Pushing her to get a move on, though, will only make her more stressed. And while you may be making her feel guilty about running late, your screaming won’t motivate her to move any faster. Instead, look for calm ways to speed things up, like making getting out the door a game by racing to see who can get dressed first. “By making it into a ‘we event,’ you’ll teach your child the importance of collaboration,” says Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, a clinical and consulting psychotherapist and author of the forthcoming Fragile Power: Why Having Everything is Never Enough.
“Leave me alone”
Every parent needs a break at times. Yet, you shouldn’t be telling your kids that, otherwise, they’ll think that you’re brushing them off and that there’s no point in talking to you. “Kids like to be acknowledged and heard; in fact, it can help cut down on meltdowns and tantrums,” says Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, a pediatrician, the creator of Pediatrician in Your Pocket, spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “Answer in a way that is age-appropriate and give them specific tasks to do while they wait for you,” she says. You may instead say, “I have to finish one thing. I need you to play with your cars for just a few minutes. We can play outside as soon as I’m done.” “Just make sure you then follow through with whatever you promised you would do together afterward,” says Dr. Trachtenberg. Some compliments can actually be hurtful to kids, too.
“Why can’t you be more like your brother or sister?”
It’s natural to compare your kids, but you shouldn’t let your kids hear you doing it. When you ask kids why they’re not more like their sibling, it promotes unhealthy competition and kids may not feel like they’re good enough. You’re implying that you wish your child was someone else when you compare him to his sibling. Besides, the comparisons aren’t likely to change the behavior, says Dr. Trachtenberg. You’ll only be pressuring a child to do something he doesn’t want to do or isn’t ready for, undermining his self-esteem. Instead, encourage and inspire your child about what he can do and praise him when he does something good, such as, “Thanks for telling me you had to use the potty” or “Wow, you zipped your coat up all by yourself.” “Each child is an individual with his own strengths and weaknesses,” says Dr. Trachtenberg. “Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool to help shape other wanted behaviors. Remember to encourage and praise the child for the actions they succeed at instead of harping on what they can’t do.” Besides, you’ll want to stop sibling rivalry before it starts.
“Practice makes perfect”
“There is no such thing as perfect; being perfect isn’t a good goal as it doesn’t exist,” says Betsy Brown Braun, child development and behavior specialist, author of two best-selling parenting books, and founder of Parenting Pathways. “You’re sending the message that she didn’t train hard enough if she made a mistake.” Instead, acknowledge how frustrating and hard practicing can be and give some examples of things she practiced and did improve. “I like to give the example of babies learning to walk. They try and try, fall down, and try and practice, over and over,” she says. “Then they become good walkers, just like you did.” Explain that doing something repeatedly teaches you how to do it, says Brown Braun. “Nobody can do something well unless she has done it a lot,” she says. “Some things take a lot of work; some take less.”
“Let me help”
It’s natural to want to give your child a hand as he is finishing a puzzle or building a tower; after all, you don’t want to see your child struggle. But if you jump in too soon, you can undermine his independence. “Allow your child to complete a project to build his self-esteem and core competence,” says Fran Walfish, PsyD (aka Dr. Fran), a child, couple, and family psychotherapist in private practice in Beverly Hills and author of The Self-Aware Parent: Resolving Conflict and Building a Better Bond with Your Child. “Each disappointment is a golden opportunity for your child to develop frustration and build coping skills to deal with life’s inevitable daily ups and downs.” Constantly helping prevents him from getting the satisfaction of learning to do it for himself and teaches him to always look to others for answers. Instead, wait for him to ask for help first. Then, ask him questions to help him solve the problem. “Should the big piece go here? Why? Try it yourself.” Is your child faking illness to stay home? Here are some of the most common reasons why kids hate school.
“I’m on a diet”
If you’re watching your weight, keep it to yourself; talking this way about physical appearance can lead to your child developing an unhealthy body image. If they see you’re struggling with how you look, they may feel that they need to look a certain way, too. “Obsessing about your weight or appearance isn’t delivering a good message,” says Elizabeth Berger, MD, a child psychiatrist and author of Raising Kids with Character. “Children need to feel that their parents are in control of their own lives.” Instead, say “I’m eating healthy because I like how it makes me feel.” Promoting positive body image like this is one of the tiny ways you can encourage your kids every day.
“Don’t cry”
When you tell a child she’s fine as she’s bawling over a scraped knee, you’re invalidating and discounting her feelings. Kids will think they have to brush off their emotions and that can lead to more explosive outbursts. Dr. Walfish suggests you say instead, “You got hurt and scared. It’s okay to say ‘Ouch! That hurts!’ Mommy sees you’re scared and hurt, and I’m right here with you.” Or give her a hug, acknowledging and verbalizing her feelings. “That was a scary fall.” That can help give her the words to express herself. “This is what I call empathic narration,” says Dr. Walfish. “This style of compassionate attunement to your child’s feelings will help her feel seen, acknowledged, validated, and accepted—flaws and all. The attuning narration also teaches your child to be a kind and empathic person to others.”
“I could do that when I was your age”
Kids all develop at different rates. So expecting your son to ride a two-wheeler by age seven as you did will only make him feel like he disappointed you. “Parents are under a lot of pressure to make sure that their children meet a long list of expectations, and some of this anxiety tends to be passed on to children,” says Dr. Berger. Still, you as a parent should appreciate your child’s efforts, regardless of what they are. “A calm attitude towards ‘success’ helps children get over their own sense of shame when they haven’t met their own—and social—expectations,” says Dr. Berger. Dr. Berger says you can say, “Wow, I can see you’re making a lot of progress; keep it up!” or “Don’t worry—you’ll get there.”
“Because I said so”
When you’re in a rush, it can be easy to fall back on this clichéd parenting phrase, but avoid this empty phrase in favor of one that’s more thought out. “As parents, one of our most challenging tasks is to convince our children to do something they don’t want to do,” says Janie Feldman, PsyD, a licensed psychologist in New Jersey. You can say something like, “I know you want to play outside today. But you have to finish your homework first. How about we play outside after?” Dr. Feldman says you can offer an incentive to promote interest in completing the task. “It would be a great help to the family if you raked the leaves. If you rake them for us, you’ll earn ___.” It’s not guaranteed they’ll help, but they may be more interested. “In our society, we do work for incentives such as our salaries, vacation time, and other benefits,” says Dr. Feldman. “Offering an incentive can not only motivate our children but also socialize them to recognize the value of their efforts.” Beyond your children, find out more things you really shouldn’t be saying to the people in your life.
“I do everything for you”
You may feel like you do everything for them—cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring them. But you know this isn’t true. “Do what you do for your kids with an open, generous heart or don’t do it,” says Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, a psychologist based in Princeton, New Jersey and author of Kid Confidence: Help Your Child Make Friends, Build Resilience, and Develop Real Self-Esteem. “Don’t expect that you’ll be repaid with effusive gratitude or even good behavior,” she says. She says you can help teach your child gratitude and good manners by mirroring them yourself with your spouse, family, friends, and others. Say something like “What a delicious dinner! Thank you so much, Daddy!” “Your kids will probably pipe in with their thanks,” she says. Or point out someone’s efforts made on their behalf, along the lines of, “Grandma went to three stores to find the yellow paint you need. Remember to thank her when you see her tonight.”
“It’s not that big of a deal”
It may not be a big deal to you that your daughter wasn’t invited to Mary’s party, but it’s a big deal to her. Telling her you disagree with her invalidates how she’s feeling, making her ashamed or embarrassed. “When our kids are upset, we want to reach for empathy,” says Kennedy-Moore. She says that a useful formula is: “You’re feeling ___ because __.” “It bothers you when___.” “It’s hard for you when ___.” “You wish___.” “Don’t interpret or judge, just describe the feelings you see,” she says. “We adults tend to want to skip the feelings and go straight to the solution. But when kids don’t feel heard, they tend to get louder. Wrapping kids’ feelings up in words makes them seem more understandable and more manageable.” When your child feels heard and understood, it will do wonders. Beware of these other things parents say that ruin kids’ trust, too.
“You’re a liar”
Even if your child did take money from your wallet, that tone will only make him feel like he’s being personally attacked. Find out why he lied instead of being accusatory; then start an open dialogue about why it’s not okay to lie. Edward Kulich, MD, is a pediatrician who provides house calls in the New York area with his practice KidsHousecalls. He says you can say something like “Hey bud, I just wanted to let you know that I’m always here for you if you need anything or if you have a problem. I noticed some money is missing from my wallet. I’m not mad but I think we need to talk about this.”
“Be careful”
These words can have the opposite effect, making your child more likely to fall as she’s attempting the monkey bars. You’re distracting her from what she’s doing, so she’s losing focus. Instead, quietly spot her in case she falls. Dr. Kulich says you can say something like “You got this.” He says if your child is more hesitant, you can say, “I saw you do this yesterday. I know you can do it.” These compliments your kids really need to hear also help to build self-esteem and foster a loving relationship between the two of you.
US Forces Combat in Niger is a Nightmare
Talk WITH People, Not AT Them
Talk WITH not AT Header 2
One of the insidious things about trying to judge our own social skills, is that if an interaction went well for us, then we assume the other person thought it went well too. While you’ve probably never consciously thought about it, if you had a good time talking to someone, you think they felt the same. But this just isn’t the case. It’s very possible for you to walk away from an interaction feeling grand, while the other person walks away feeling annoyed, bored, or burdened.
What usually happens in these lopsided engagements is that you talked a lot about yourself and your interests, an act which is enjoyable and makes humans happy. We like to talk about ourselves! But, the other person didn’t get to talk much about him or herself, and thus left the conversation without a corresponding level of elevation.
While dominating a conversation simply by talking a lot is almost guaranteed to be a charm-killer, the worst kind of one-sided interaction is when you talk at someone, rather than with them.
Talking At Vs. Talking With
Valerie White and (former AoM podcast guest) Ann Demarais, doctors of psychology and authors of First Impressions, define the “talking at” dynamic as “forcing others to react rather than interact.” It manifests itself when one party takes on the role of teller/entertainer, and the other is forced into the role of audience.
While being part of an audience can be enjoyable when that is what one is expecting and desiring (e.g., watching a movie), people do not expect to be an audience member during face-to-face social interactions. Feeling like a spectator in this context is dull and irritating, because the role is so passive. A conversation is a cooperative, almost artistic endeavor — much like symphonic music — in which each person gets satisfaction from engaging, contributing, creating. They don’t want to watch and clap.
Demarais and White describe 4 common forms that “talking at” takes, each of which can be flipped in a way that gets you “talking with” your social partner:
Lecturing
When you’re in lecturing mode, you’re imparting facts in a very one-sided way. You want to tell someone something, but you’re not expecting or eliciting a real response. They’re the passive audience for your knowledge dump. Lecturing feels great for the lecturer — you’re amped up on the status you get from feeling in the know, and sharing information you hold as uniquely yours. But your listener is likely to see you as boring and self-important.
How to share knowledge with your social partner. Talk about subjects in which you and your partner are mutually interested, and watch for signs that they’re engaged — “Uh-huhs,” nodding, saying things like “That’s interesting.” In the absence of such cues, stop your monologue. And even when they are manifested, pause intermittently to see if the other person wants to respond, or add something, or has a question. If they don’t interject anything, you should probably wrap it up and change the subject.
Additionally, how you introduce a subject matters, as Demarias and White explain:
“A hallmark of a lecture is the speaker’s implicit ownership of the information.
When you present something as your own, you may intend to appear smart but actually may appear bombastic and egotistical. On the other hand, when you mention where you learned your information—as in ‘I read an editorial in the paper that said…’—or the genesis of your idea—as in ‘I saw something on TV, and then thought…’—you show an open mind and a more modest assessment of your own intellectual value.”
When you say, “I heard/read X the other day,” people don’t feel like you’ve already fixed your opinion about it, but rather that you’re opening up a dialogue on the subject, making them more likely to offer their own thoughts and engage with you.
Storytelling
The great paradox of stories is that they can be both the most compelling and the most boring form of communication. A good story can entertain, engage, and build connection. But as Demarias and White observe, stories can easily go wrong when they’re “long, detailed, and about people your conversational partner doesn’t know.”
How to share stories with your social partner. Bad storytelling is an easy trap to fall into, because the characters and plots in our anecdotes seem so interesting and salient to us. We know our friends, and children, and boss — they loom large in our own lives, and we can vividly picture their facial expressions and have all the context to understand why their behavior is so adorable/comical/outrageous. It’s subconsciously difficult to realize that other people, who lack this context, won’t find these people and places equally compelling.
But they don’t. The difference can be likened to the way you’re interested in a story about your favorite NBA player, but have no interest in news about a professional Chinese athlete you’ve never heard of. Unless a story connects to universal aspects of the human experience (training for a race; dealing with an incompetent boss; getting in an accident) or intersects in some way with the other person’s life, it’s going to be Dullsville.
Even if a story does include those elements (touches on shared human experience; connects with the other person’s life), you should still keep it short and to the point. Dole out the story in small chunks, watching to see if the other person shows interest and asks things like, “What did you decide to do?” or “How did he respond to that?” before continuing the tale.
When a story of any kind goes on too long, you turn your social partner into an audience member who passively spectates instead of actively engages.
Sermonizing
Sermonizing occurs when you’re trying to persuade someone to your point of view. The subject matter is usually something around morality, religion, or politics, and while this kind of conversational mode can be okay in the company of long-time friends and family who enjoy spirited debate and verbal jousting, it’s a turn-off for new acquaintances who don’t know you well enough to put your opinions into context and to realize there’s more to you than a zeal for some particular issue. They’re likely to get defensive or disgusted or just plain annoyed.
How to have a weighty discussion with your social partner. You don’t have to rigidly follow the old adage about avoiding talk of politics, religion, and money, even with new people, as long as you follow a few guidelines we’ve offered here, the gist of which is to strive to have adiscussion rather than an argument. A wise writer put the distinction this way:
“in discussion you are searching for the truth, and in argument you want to prove that you are right. In discussion, therefore, you are anxious to know your neighbor’s views, and you listen to him. In argument, you don’t care anything about his opinions, you want him to hear yours.”
When you’re aiming a sermon at someone, Demarias and White note, “The implicit message is ‘you’re wrong and I’m right.’” When you’re having a discussion with them, in contrast, you seek to understand how they’ve arrived at their convictions, where your positions differ, and the common ground you share.
Telling Jokes
A great sense of humor is one of the most charming of qualities. But too much humor reaches a tipping point where it stops adding to the collective “music” of the conversation and becomes a one-sided performance, turning the speaker into an entertainer and the listener into an audience. Instead of getting to interact, the latter is forced to simply react to the constant stream of quips and witticisms — a role for which they soon grow bored.
How to share humor with your social partner. Jokes serve better as the seasoning of a conversation, rather than its main dish. Instead of interspersing everything you say with a quip, just pepper them in here and there between sustained stretches of neutral talking and showing sincere interest in the other person.
When it comes to being socially adept, Demarias and White note that “how you talk about topics matters more than what you actually talk about. You can make a fascinating ethical issue boring if you simply lecture someone about it. On the other hand, you can turn your model airplane hobby into a stimulating conversational topic if you talk about it in a fun and engaging manner.”
To avoid your conversations turning into one-sided monologues where you simply talk at people, toss out subjects of reciprocal interest and see what people bite on; like volleyball players, hit the ball back and forth over the net. Show that you’re curious, open-minded, and interested in other people’s experiences and perspectives. Interact rather than making the other person solely react to what you say and do; create a little theater/dialogue/symposium/comedy together, rather than having them watch you from the gallery.
Create something special with the people you meet.
China’s Dumping Dollars For Gold & They Won’t Stop!
China just ramped up their gold purchases, buying for a 9th straight month! As the world gets de-globalized, we are seeing an acceleration of de-dollarization towards alternative stores of value like gold. Even JP Morgan is calling for record gold prices in 18 months. Here’s what you must know about this historic monetary shift.
The More Options You Have, The Happier You Are
Over the years, I’ve experienced a direct correlation between the number of options I have in life and my happiness.
The more options I have for my career, the better work I can do. The more options I have for spending my free time, the less I cling to people and activities.
In short, if I can choose what to do with my time at any given moment, I’m happy. It doesn’t necessarily matter what I do. What matters is that I have a choice.
The importance of this concept is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned about happiness in the modern age.
I recently read Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingston, who was a seasoned psychiatrist. In that book, he talked about why it’s so important to have options:
“Mental health is a function of choice. The more choices we are able to exercise, the happier we are likely to be. Those who are most unwell or discouraged suffer from a sense that their choices have been limited, sometimes by external circumstances or illness, most often by the many ways we restrict ourselves.”
Fewer options restrict us. That gives us a sense of dread. We feel like there’s not much we can do in life. And that makes us unhappy. But you can turn that around by creating options for yourself.
The paradox of risk
The most important thing about career options is that there’s a paradoxical relationship between risk and reward we need to understand first. Before I came to terms with this, I never had many options.
Here’s the issue. As humans, we’re naturally risk-averse. We fear loss more than we desire a potential gain. That force usually keeps us where we are. That’s why most people remain in the same job or industry until they get fired or retire.
The paradox is that most people assume it’s risky to change. But in reality, the reverse is true. The more stagnant you are, the more you’re at risk of loss.
When I pursued a career as a full-time writer, I had to take risks. I left my well-paying corporate job in London, left the city, moved back in with my parents, and took a step back from our family business.
I went from earning about $80K a year to almost nothing. My blog and online courses generated about $5,000 of income in the first year. The risk is wasting your time and the loss of your salary when you make a move like that.
Livingston recognized the importance of getting comfortable with risk as well. He said the following about the relationship between options and risk:
“The primary variable in this regard is tolerance of risk. If we take counsel of our fears, particularly our fear of change, it is hard to choose a life that makes us happy. Is it anxiety or lack of imagination that restricts us?”
This is hard to accept. Unless you get comfortable with your fear of change, you will not have a happy life that consists of many options.
Remember that no matter how dire your circumstances are, you’re never out of options. You can always do something. This is the most important belief in human hope and progress. As long as we’re alive, we have a choice.
How I create career options
Let’s look at how you can create more career options. Since your work takes up the majority of your time, it’s important to get this straight. When you have options and happiness in your career, you automatically become a better person.
How many of your personal problems are related to work? How often do you allow the stress of work to change your mood? And how often does your mood create problems at home?
To say that your career is important is an understatement. Work is not just something you do on set hours. It’s the single biggest factor that determines what your life looks like on a macro level.
So how do you make sure you have a good career? Not by having a great job. This might sound weird to you if you’ve been raised thinking every person needs to have one job.
That’s an old model that no longer works. We don’t need jobs. We need skills that we can apply to multiple jobs and industries.
Here’s how I approach that. I always prioritize learning over short-term goals like money, bonuses, status, or any other benefits that I can get in my career.
The more universal skills I have, the more opportunities I have. For example, if you’re good at persuasion, you can work as a copywriter, account executive, stockbroker, recruiter, or work at a retail store.
If you know how to code, you can work at any company that develops software, in any industry.
Another thing I focus on is building good relationships with experienced people. I’m not a fan of networking with hundreds of people or forming “mastermind” groups with people who are not top-performers. On a social level, it’s wonderful, but professionally, you won’t learn much.
If you do want to network, at least connect with people who are more established in life and don’t have much to prove anymore. Professionals like that can point you in the right direction if you don’t know what to do. They can help you to see options you didn’t see before.
Be willing to pay the price or move on
I was once talking about this concept of career options with someone in their twenties. The person said they also wanted to be in a similar position as I am today.
And I said, “Look, I’ve given up a lot of things when I was your age to be where I am today. I sacrificed relationships and leisure. But I don’t see it as bad because I’ve always been happy to pay that price for happiness. And I still am.”
And the person said, “I don’t think I can do that.”
That’s the end of it. “Then you should accept your life the way it is and that you’re always at the disposal of other people,” I said. If some people are not willing to pay the price, they should just accept whatever is and not complain about being unhappy.
The truth is there are always options. We just can’t expect that they come for free. Everything in life has a price. If you’re willing to pay, you won’t get disappointed.
Every Nation has a certain threshold beyond which it’s rise can’t be contained
The Threshold is Economic and Political and Military based
I believe that China could have easily been contained or throttled in 2010 or even 2012
Luckily the 2008 Crisis helped China and gave it 6 years or so beyond which throttling it became tougher and tougher
Today?
Economically China is a giant not just because of the $ 19 Trillion GDP but because of an Industrial Output that exceeds US,UK and Europe combined
Militarily they can sustain a war for almost 4 years without cracks in their economy. They have enough food and energy independently for that.
Hence attacking China would result in worse weakening of the West especially by US
So all US can do is OPTICS or PR
Make it look like it’s containing China
Use their media to exaggerate every one of Chinas failures by 1000 and suppress all of Chinas achievements by either not publishing it or using the narrative “BUT AT WHAT COST”
Riling up neighbors of China
Essentially acting like a Pimp Bully instead of a Direct Head on Face to Face talk with China
And Why?
Why is the West so alarmed with China’s Rise?
Because they feel China will invade and conquer the US?
Nonsense
Because they feel China will become the numero uno hegemon
Nonsense. The US hegemony is too well entrenched to be removed in a year or two. It will take 30 years minimum. Well after the current leadership has been dead and buried
Because China would become wealthier?
Naah. Luxembourg and Singapore are wealthier than US and US doesn’t give a damn
It’s because China isn’t a democracy and it’s proof that a One Party Meritocracy System can do better than a Democracy if the vision and policies work to that effect
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That breaks the so called “Democracy is God model” that the West has been floating for nearly 100 years
That’s why the West is so terrified of China’s rise
The First and Only Photos From Titan, Saturn’s Largest Moon – What Did We See?
This is the best selling vehicle in the United States
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The Ford F Series. Currently, the F-150 is the production model.
Not the best selling “truck”. The best selling “vehicle”.
In Canuck speak, it uses anywhere from 11–15 liters of fuel per 100km travelled. By contrast, a Honda Civic uses about 7.1–8 liters of fuel to travel the same distance.
Vehicles like this are rarely used to haul cargo or for towing. They’re mostly used the same way other vehicles are used – commuting and errands. If cycling were safe in the United States, which it mostly isn’t, about 50% of trips taken by an F-150 could be done by bike.
It’s not even a good pickup truck. It has a pitiful amount of cargo room.
Vehicles like this make it difficult for people to travel by any other mode of transit that doesn’t use petroleum, like walking and biking. Heck, this behemoth even makes it impossible to get around in vehicles like the Civic which could do 99% of the trips this thing can because in a collision between this and a Civic the Civic owner is probably in for a bad experience.
It it safe? For the occupants, yes. For anyone not in it, no. You can’t see a 5 foot tall child standing directly in front of it for one thing.
America Tells Saudi Arabia To Keep Using Dollars – You Won’t Believe This!
The U.S. is pushing back against BRICS and China with a deal for Saudi Arabia. However, the terms will include the continued usage of the US dollar in oil sales. Will MBS take the bait and is this a win for America? Here’s what you must know!
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Linda’s Pepper Steak
I’ve been making this delicious pepper steak for about 50 years.
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Cook: 25 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound round or flank steak
Kosher or sea salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced large
1 red or orange bell pepper, diced large
3 beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/4 cup water
Instructions
Cut the steak into thin slices (this is easier to do if the meat is semi-frozen).
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
In a large skillet heat the oil.
Add the steak and onion and cook until meat is browned on all sides.
Add the bell peppers and bouillon water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix the cornstarch, soy sauce and water and stir into meat mixture. Cook, stirring, until the mixture has thickened.
We talk about US presidents all the time — Obama did this, Trump did that, blah blah blah. But really it’s never the president doing those things, it’s the empire. The president is just the face of the operation, the name they put on the door that they change every few years to create the illusion that the US government is responsive to the will of the electorate.
Really if you look solely at the raw data of the US power structure around the world (where the weapons are going, where the resources are going, where the money is and isn’t going, where the diplomats are and aren’t going, etc), you can’t tell from year to year when the White House is changing hands. You can’t tell from that raw data what political party the current president belongs to or what platform he campaigned on, and you can’t tell when he’s replaced by someone from the other party with another platform. The raw data of the empire keeps moving in basically the same way without any meaningful interruption.
So it’s not really true to say “Obama did this” or “Trump did that”; really they’re just the face that happened to be on the operation when it was time to kill Gaddafi or begin the Pivot to Asia or sanction Venezuela or start arming Ukraine or whatever. They’re not leaders leading the US government in various directions based on what they think the best policies are, they’re empire managers who are responding to whatever the needs of the empire happen to be each day — using whatever justifications or partisan leverage they can muster in that moment.
And Americans don’t get to vote on any of that stuff. They don’t get to vote on what will have to be done to facilitate the needs of a globe-spanning empire, or if there should be a globe-spanning empire at all. The behavior of the empire is never on the ballot. The only things that are ever on the ballot are issues which stand no possibility of ever interfering in the operation of the empire, like whether the president will appoint Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion or support gun control. And the voting populace is continually kept at a 50/50 split on as many of those issues as possible to keep both sides tugging on the rope with all their might so they don’t look up and notice that the real large-scale behavior of their government is completely unaffected by the small back and forth gains and losses of the tug-o-war game.
Really the only reason to talk about US presidents in terms of “Obama did this” and “Trump did that” is to highlight this point. To highlight the fact that Obama continued and expanded all the most malignant policies of his predecessor, and that Trump continued and expanded all the most malignant policies of his. To disrupt all the dopey partisan narratives about things getting better under Biden or worse under Trump or that Obama was a progressive or Trump was a peacemaker.
By pointing out the horrible things that happened under each administration, regardless of party affiliation or platform, the illusion that Americans are controlling the behavior of their government using their votes can be worn away. You can in this sense use the illusion to fight the illusion — use people’s intense interest in presidents and electoral politics to draw them into the insight that it’s all a performance designed to keep the eyes of the masses away from the inner workings of the machine.
And then the possibility for real change opens up. The longer Americans are convinced that they can vote their way out of problems they never voted their way into in the first place, the longer they can be dissuaded from using the power of their numbers to force real material changes by real material means.
EPIC FAIL: Why Most US Weapons Systems Are Worse than Russia’s
Two reasons: complexity, and too much money
Lately we have seen some good analysis on the limits and vulnerabilities of the American military in light of events in the former Ukraine and especially Russia’s demonstrated competence in Syria.
So we have the “what” of the issue, but how about the “why”?
As a U.S. Army veteran and a longtime resident of the Beltway—including four-and-a-half years living on Crystal Drive in Arlington, Virginia, which has probably the densest concentration of “defense” contractors anywhere in America—I think I understand what is fundamentally wrong with the U.S. military-industrial complex (MIC.)
First and foremost, the MIC has long been incapable of producing durable, efficient, versatile weapons.
We don’t even have to look to the F-35 on this one.
My field experience with this piece of junk is that it runs into problems in the presence of even a small amount of sand. When enough sand gets in to the chamber and mixes with the lube oil on the bolt assembly, the grit thus formed results in up to every second round misloading.
God forbid you should brush an oiled open breach against the side of your foxhole—you are out of commission. In the absence of air or artillery support or sheer overwhelming numbers on your side, you are dead meat against anyone with a gun that functions in a sandy environment. And why? Because, as I was told in boot camp (whether it’s true or not), this thing is perfectly built to have zero fault tolerance.
Supposedly, just about every metal component in the M-16 is cast and/or machined to perfection rather than stamped. Contrast this with Russian or Chinese weapons that are said to be built like can openers to spray lead under any conditions. In other words, the M-16 is so sophisticated that it doesn’t work well.
It is now acknowledged that the M-16 with its 5.56mm rounds is insufficiently lethal beyond a couple of hundred meters, making it unsuited to long-distance firefights over open terrain (again those deserts, or perhaps shootouts between mountain ridges.)
The M-1 Abrams tank
Another great example – this can be a real dog. The engine is a gas turbine, like with an aircraft, except that it is being driven around in deserts and even sandstorms, making it extremely finicky and high-maintenance. (Would you fly your Boeing into a sandstorm?) Of course, the Abrams was designed to fight in Germany where sand is not an issue. But during the Iraq adventure, sand so tore up the turbine fans (or whatever) that over 1000 of these million-dollar “power packs” had to be removed and sent up for depot-level maintenance or refurbishment stateside.
Yes, that’s right—these things cannot even be fixed in the field. All you can do is pull them out with a crane and ship them back to the civilians at enormous expense. At the height of the Iraq adventure, around 2007, the maintenance backlog was so bad that even the national media got wind of it.
Of course, when you have the world’s reserve currency, you can afford all that and more—the entire world is paying for your wars.
But the waste and inefficiency are a fact.
The Basic Problem : Excessive Complexity
I think the problem here is that American war planners and logisticians prefer originality, complexity, and/or expense-for-the-hell-of-it over versatility and ease of use and maintenance. This is no surprise given America’s wealth and the longtime generous funding of its armed forces. After all, every military reflects its own society.
Unfortunately for Uncle Sam, what he gets is equipment that may work very well in one environment but not another.
But so much for American equipment per se. Let’s talk about Crystal Drive (a neighborhood in suburban Washington where many defense contractors have offices – edit.) —or more broadly, the MIC.
The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is failing on a massive scale
It is clear now that the MIC cannot build anything for less than 200 percent of its original planned budget (and that’s being extremely conservative.) Nor can anything it cranks out nowadays meet performance or survivability expectations. Besides the never-ending supersonic train wreck known as the F-35, we have other boondoggle failures such as the Littoral Combat Ship, which by all accounts is less capable and more vulnerable than the 20 to 30 year-old vessels it was supposed to replace.
Or, going back a few years, we see the Army’s “Commanche” helicopter, an intended replacement for the Apache, which blew through $6.9 billion—in 1983-2004 dollars, probably over $10 billion today—before the entire program was scrapped. That’s right, over $10 billion for nothing—not one Commanche was ever delivered for permanent use to an Army operational unit!
Where did that money go, if they didn’t actually manufacture anything besides a few prototypes? Did they spend $10 billion on PowerPoint presentations?
My brain cannot even wrap around this. Can you imagine what Russia or China could do for $10 billion?
However, even that pales before the Army’s cancelled Future Combat Systems program, which burned through an estimated (no one knows exactly) $20 billion from 2003 to somewhere between 2012 and 2014 (depending on what termination milestone you go by), with almost nothing to show beyond a few prototypes, a lot of concept art, and a 29-pound toy robot made by iRobot of “Roomba” vacuum cleaner fame. In fact, I can’t think of one big new U.S. weapons system that has succeeded in the last 25 years, other than perhaps the Stryker armored car (though some have argued that point, and I just don’t know enough about it.)
As pointed out by many other observers, part of the blame lies with our political system, where MIC corporations buy politicians and then receive favors in the form of contracts, whether or not the contracts make any sense. However, I think this is not the only problem, nor even necessarily the biggest.
Fundamentally what I think we have is systemic over-complexity resulting in nothing getting done, or done well anyway.
US intelligence agencies have the same problem
This is akin to the deep systemic crisis in Uncle Sam’s intelligence agencies, where from 9/11 to the Arab Spring to Crimea to the ISIS conquest of Mosul to Russia in Syria, the word is always “we didn’t expect…” In this case, we have numerous agencies—some of them with overlapping functions—that are drowning in paperwork and garbage data (or too much data) and are almost totally useless.
As some readers will remember, it got so bad that in April 2014 the State Department released a photo collage aiming to prove that (among other things) a bearded Chechen battalion commander going by the name Hamza, who appeared in Russian TV footage of the 2008 Olympic War, was none other than the bearded, overweight Slaviansk militiaman going by the call-sign “Babai”—in other words, Russian special forces have invaded the Donbass. (The New York Times ran with this and was then oh-so-vaguely and gently reproached by its own ombudsman.)
Shouldn’t this awful joke have been prevented by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is supposed to promote info-sharing among agencies and centrally vet all claims and conclusions—especially those being trumpeted on the State Department’s website or at its briefings? Apparently not!
Bureaucratic bloat
On the other hand, what the U.S. lack-of-intelligence complex is very good at—besides hiring way too many buxom, flirty young things straight out of college and with no language skills or any experience at all (DIA and NGA, you know your ex-military managers like to beautify their offices)—is providing employment for tens of thousands of its own staff as well as tens of thousands of grotesquely-overpaid contractors, including those who build and run billion-dollar eavesdropping centers that have proven incapable of picking up anything useful, perhaps because when you try to listen to everything, you end up hearing nothing.
The lesson here is that the more offices and agencies, the more managers and political appointees who will seek to justify and expand their turf and budgets by shoveling out as much money on as many contracts as possible, as quickly as possible, in many cases even paying contractors to do little more than just sit around (sometimes at home) waiting for the next contract. (I have seen this many times in Washington.)
Then you get so big that people simply trip over each other and the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
The US MIC worked great 50 years ago because less money and people were involved
So I think this is what’s going on not only in the intelligence apparatus, but in the MIC as a whole. We have hundreds of thousands of staff and contractors as well as military officers assigned to liaise with them, all kinds of project managers and “six-sigma black belts” and other buzzwords, juggling millions of PowerPoints across the river from Washington and throughout the country, and they can’t field a helicopter after spending $10 billion on it.
Really? How did this great country ever defeat the Japanese Empire?
Go to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington; you will see the most amazing things—e.g. generators designed to operate on the surface of the Moon, drawing electricity from the heat of plutonium decay—that were developed when there was no Crystal Drive, no Tysons Corner, etc.
Then go to the museum’s extension near Dulles airport and check out the SR-71 “Blackbird”, the fastest and highest-flying airplane ever built (this was about 50 years ago.)
How did they do it?
Although there were more men in uniform back then, the MIC itself (or should I say the Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Homeland-Insecurity-Complex (MIIHIC)) – had but a fraction of today’s civilian workforce. Luckily, most of those paper-pushing “systems integrators” and PowerPoint rangers did not exist. Blueprints were drafted with pencil and paper.
Today, Uncle Sam can’t even build a heavy rocket engine, not to mention a good helmet or ejection seat for his F-35.
No hope for change going forward
So it seems that as a technical civilization we are degenerating.
Sure, there are constant advancements in microelectronics (a.k.a. integrated circuits) and the programs they allow, but in terms of heavy engineering—of which the MIIHIC and other government initiatives like the space program were at the forefront since WWII—it seems that the U.S. is tapped out.
And you know what? Throwing more money at it is just going to make it worse.
The organizations with their budgets and their perfectly reasonable-sounding arguments for ever-greater budgets will grow, their workforces will grow, the contracting sector will grow, more shiny office buildings will go up, but the result will be an ever-increasingly-negative marginal return.
John McCain and all the other broken records in and out of the Pentagon will say we still don’t have enough funds to counter a pointless Russian invasion of parasitic, inconsequential Lithuania (currently headed by a longtime communist) or any other 1990s-era speculative wargame training scenario that somehow carried over into the public consciousness and morphed into the Greatest Threat to World Peace.
Of course, as long as the U.S. has the money to send gazillion-dollar armies and armadas against illiterate natives armed with sharp sticks and coconuts, this may not visibly threaten its hegemony. Almost any problem or mistake can be papered over with money, for a long time anyway.
But eventually, even if the money spigot does not constrict, we will get to the point where the military really can’t be used as anything more than a façade or a gunboat road-show, hoping no one calls the bluff, because the stuff just doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, or else is too vulnerable (witness the evacuation of the U.S. aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf after Uncle Sam found out that Russia has cruise missiles with a range of at least 1500km, or the ridiculous sail-around of China’s little islands which had the sense to infringe only very slightly and briefly on that country’s imaginary territorial waters), or the natives can devise their own countermeasures.
In fact, I would say we are at that point already. Not to mention, the U.S. Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs are still so tapped-out after Iraq and Afghanistan that another major ground operation is unthinkable. (At this point, Washington is more likely to launch nukes at somebody than risk another ground war.)
So you can anticipate a lot of hand-wringing and a lot more money being thrown into the breach. That’s simply what the machine does; there is no chance to reform it, nor will the Hegemony dissipate willingly (although lately it’s done a good job of dissipating unwillingly.)
But all that money may as well be flushed down the can.
The threshold has been reached and it’s all downhill from here.
Pluto Really Is a Weird Place! These Are the Strangest Things Found on Its Icy Surface
Successful Kids and 10 Habits of the Parents Who Raise Them
We’re always checking out other people’s parenting skills in an effort to raise successful kids. Should we make their bedtime earlier? Should we insist on piano lessons? We rounded up the parenting moves that do seem to spur kids on to greatness.
Give children chores
When children are made to complete chores, they are shaping a work ethic from early on. Not only does this give them a chance to contribute to family life, but it also demonstrates that they play an integral role in the successful day-to-day functioning of their family. Chores for kids also teach them valuable skills that will be necessary when they head off to college and start their adult lives.
Set high expectations
Parents of successful kids set high expectations for their children as well as themselves. More often than not, it encourages children to rise to the occasion. If college is the expectation, students will work toward that goal more readily than if a parent doesn’t bother mentioning it. What’s more, parents help their children succeed by modeling high expectations of themselves and demonstrating how to work hard to meet goals. It’s important to make sure that your expectations of your kids are realistic, however—they shouldn’t be led to believe they have to qualify for the olympics, graduate as valedictorian, or even keep their rooms clean 24/7—as the pressure to meet overly lofty goals can cause anxiety and ultimately backfire.
Get yourself educated
Statistically speaking, parents who have completed high school or college are more likely to have children who do the same. Parents who have not achieved higher levels of education might consider pursuing these educational goals in order to provide a good example for their children. As a bonus, studies show that higher education lowers blood pressure.
Show them the good life
If you want your child to follow in your footsteps—getting a steady job, making a nice home, and having a family—it’s helpful to make it look appealing. That doesn’t mean never ever complaining or hiding the truth about real life from your children, but there’s something to be said for modeling a life that motivates your children to want to achieve success. If they see your hard work is paying off, and that it seems meaningful, they will be more inclined to invest in their own futures. Avoid these things that parents say that ruin their kids’ trust.
Make friends with numbers early
Teaching math at an earlier age is not only an indicator of later success in mathematics but also in reading. Preschool now places a stronger emphasis on math skills in order to prepare students for the rigorous math expectations of elementary school and beyond. Giving your child a leg up on these skills will set them up for later success. We did an algorithm to ensure that these math jokes will make you smile (just kidding).
Make time for bonding
Children who have a secure foundation with their parents are more successful than those who do not, regardless of socio-economic status. That doesn’t mean you have to take them to Disney World or to the movies every week, but you’d do well to read a book together at bedtime, share meals whenever possible, and generally make yourself available when they need you. By nurturing a strong bond with your children from birth, you’ll help them feel grounded and secure—and secure children are more likely to become successful adults.
Teach troubleshooting
Parents of successful children give their kids the tools they need to solve problems, whether it means asking them how they think a word is spelled before dictating the answer, or prompting them to suggest solutions when problems arise. These moves help children develop the habit of trying to solve problems themselves, which leads to feelings of competence and confidence—invaluable skills for navigating adult life. These quotes about parenting are sure to make you laugh.
Accept and recognize their feelings
Emotions are tough for a lot of people, especially kids. So it can be particularly helpful to teach kids how to recognize and verbalize their emotions. When children are young, attach names to their feelings, so they can speak about them intelligently. You might say, “I see that you’re feeling very frustrated,” or “I know it must be disappointing to have to miss your friend’s party.” Giving children the space to explore their emotions and helping them process those emotions will contribute to their becoming successful adults. Don’t miss the signs you’re raising an emotionally intelligent child.
Try to chill out a little
Stressed out parents make for stressed out children. Learn to manage your own stress levels in order to provide a stress-free home for your children. Stress is contagious—don’t pass it on.
The impoverished West African state of Niger is the latest flashpoint in the struggle by the imperialist powers for a redivision of the world. The issues involved in the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine—a fight for territory, strategic resources and regime-change—are erupting all over the globe, in China and Taiwan, and now in the Sahel region of Africa.
Though stalled for the moment, what would be a devastating war led by the most powerful country in the region, Nigeria, to oust the coup leaders in Niger and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum is under active preparation. At a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday, leaders agreed to activate a standby military force and threatened that “no option had been taken off the table.”’
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They agreed a new round of sanctions on Niger, which has been plunged into blackouts by electricity cut-offs and seen food prices rise 60 percent amid a blockade and the freezing of assets and trade.
A conflict would draw in the entire region. Senegal, Benin and the Ivory Coast have already pledged to send troops to aid Nigeria. Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have declared for the military coup leaders in Niger.
Behind the proposed ECOWAS action stand the imperialist powers, who are intent on blocking Russia and China from further penetrating a continent whose strategic significance is growing rapidly. The long-term decline of France’s economic position in its former West African colonies—culminating in the last three years in a dramatic collapse of its military presence in Mali, Burkina Faso and now perhaps Niger—has thrown open the Sahel region to intense geopolitical competition.
Bazoum was considered an important Western ally. The US and the European powers have responded to the coup against him by cutting aid to Niger supposedly provided on “humanitarian” grounds—on which it relies for 40 percent of its annual government budget. They are determined to secure their interests whatever the cost.
Speaking Tuesday after “difficult” talks with the coup leaders, US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland—veteran of the US-backed 2014 coup in Ukraine—threatened, “We’ll be watching the situation, but we understand our legal responsibilities and I explained those very clearly to the guys who were responsible for this and that it is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point.”
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Caution over a proposed military intervention by ECOWAS has centred on concerns that such action has not been properly prepared and would spark mass opposition throughout the region. A misjudged war could explode the social powder keg in Nigeria, where the US and Britain are heavily invested politically and economically.
A great deal is at stake. The United States currently has 1,500 soldiers of its 6,500-strong declared African deployment stationed in Niger across two bases—one of which is the regional hub for drone missions. France has 1,100 troops in the country, Italy 300 and Germany around 100.
Niger is a major uranium producer, providing a quarter of Europe’s supply. It is due to start exporting oil and plays a central role in policing migration out of Africa to Europe. It has become a frontline state in a battle for economic and military pre-eminence in West Africa and across the whole continent.
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Africa is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world’s mineral wealth, including 90 percent of its chromium and platinum—crucial to the green energy transition. Another such mineral is cobalt, of which 70 percent of the world’s supply is produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the end of the century, Africa could also account for a fifth of the world’s lithium supply.
The continent also produces 65 percent of the world’s diamonds and is home to 40 percent of its gold reserves, 12 percent of its oil and 8 percent of its natural gas, while Morocco alone is home to 75 percent of the world’s phosphate rock, crucial for fertiliser.
In terms of markets, Africa’s consumer expenditure is on track to grow from $1.4 trillion in 2015 to $2.5 trillion in 2030.
The US and Europe are concerned not to let Niger be another loss to the claims made by China and Russia on these riches and opportunities.
Russia’s Wagner group (headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin) is operating in Mali, to Niger’s immediate West, Libya, to its North East, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan—providing armed forces for their governments in conflicts with local rebel groups. In the CAR and Sudan, Wagner also runs private gold and diamond mines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a Russia-Africa summit in 2019 promising to help push back against “an array of Western countries [that] are resorting to pressure, intimidation and blackmail of sovereign African governments.” The second, far less well attended, summit held under conditions of anti-Russian sanctions and the war in Ukraine, took place last month, where a special effort was made to court Burkina Faso’s “interim leader” Colonel Ibrahim Traoré.
Russia has sought to leverage its relatively meagre resources to gain allies and the occasional lucrative venture, but China is throwing enormous economic weight behind securing control of Africa’s resources markets. It has controlling stakes in large swathes of the continent’s mining industry—including the bulk of uranium mines in Niger, plus its oil industry—forming part of a total FDI (foreign direct investment) stock of $43.4 billion in 2020, a 100-fold increase in 17 years.
China is Africa’s largest bilateral lender, loaning $153 billion in the two decades to 2019, and its second largest trade partner after the European Union, bigger than any other single country.
Both Russia and China are also major arms suppliers to sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 26 and 18 percent of sales respectively in the last five years, above third-place France at 8 percent, and the US at 5 percent.
In 2019, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) launched a five-year plan to “deter” what it called “Chinese and Russian malign action.” Former head of AFRICOM, Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told Congress that year that both were after “access and influence to our detriment,” and that, within the decade, China could gain the capability to inhibit US military access and operations. The policy has remained unchanged since Trump’s Republicans were replaced by the Democrats under Biden.
Colin P. Clarke, former RAND analyst and current director of research at the global intelligence and security consultancy The Soufan Group, bluntly explained to Newsweek the implications of the Nigerien situation.
“This could take on the dimensions of a regional proxy war, with Western countries supporting ECOWAS and Russia supporting Niger—and Burkina Faso and Mali, if they joined in—with muscle from the Wagner Group.
“What’s happening in the Sahel is not a sideshow to great power competition, it is great power competition. The events unfolding are not doing so in a vacuum. The US, France, China, and Russia each have their own vested interests in Sahelian countries.”
Workers and the rural poor in Niger and West Africa are confronted with the catastrophe warned of by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) at its 1991 Berlin Conference of Workers against Imperialist War and Colonialism, held in response to the Gulf War.
The manifesto announcing that conference explained: “This ongoing and de facto partition of Iraq signals the start of a new division of the world by the imperialists. The colonies of yesterday are again to be subjugated. The conquests and annexations which, according to the opportunist apologists of imperialism, belonged to a bygone era are once again on the order of the day.”
Based on Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, the statement warned that the struggle “against imperialist oppression cannot be waged successfully as long as the working class remains under the political domination of any wing of the national bourgeoisie.” It is inseparable from a fight against national ruling classes which have overseen the continued gruelling exploitation of the African masses, kept in power by militaries trained and funded by the imperialists.
Niger must above all serve as a warning to the working class all over the world of the urgent need to oppose the predatory war aims of the imperialist powers. As the ICFI and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality insisted in calling for the building of a worldwide movement against the NATO-Russia war:
The war in Ukraine is not an episode that will soon be resolved and followed by a return to “normalcy.” It is the beginning of a violent eruption of a global crisis that can be resolved only in one of two ways. The capitalist solution leads to nuclear war, though the word “solution” can hardly be rationally applied to what would amount to planetary suicide. Thus, the only viable response, from the standpoint of securing the future of mankind, is the world socialist revolution.
USA will not allow it to happen. Why do you think all 3 Taiwan candidates needs to appear in US for an interview. They will be questioned on this issue and make their pledges this will not happen.
Scott Ritter will survive. But over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have not survived the carnage that is a direct result of YouTube’s censorship of omission and commission.
In his interviews, Le Tissier comes across as a nice, well-balanced guy, who exudes the abundance of confidence which he himself admits made him such a formidable spot kicker for Southampton FC, which he loyally served for an impressive 16 years, despite getting much better offers from Spurs and other big clubs.
Retiring from football, Le Tissier became a successful pundit before being blackballed over his views, which he continues to express in the most moderate of terms, on censorship and overall state repression. Even more to our point, Le Tissier said that, as a pundit, he described the action from the point of view of a spectator and not as a manager or, in his case, a lethal forward, and that he left the complex strategic analysis and accompanying diagrams to others. In other words, even as a pundit, Le Tissier was a team player, who could see the overall picture and the best role he could play there.
The point here is that, whether we are looking at football or at NATO’s Ukrainian war, we should try eliciting views from many informed quarters, those like Ritter, with a modicum of relevant experience, included.
Although NATO would agree with that, they insist that military pundits must only express the views of Team NATO and no one else, as all else is mis-information, Putin propaganda and so on. Because Ritter not only differs from NATO’s narrative but actually admits to sometimes working in consort with informed Russians, NATO must have him gagged, for what possible benefit could there be for NATO in giving a Russian, any Russian, a fair hearing? As someone who wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to Ritter’s punditry or, for that matter, that of Le Tissier, that is still fundamentally wrong and, in the case of Ritter, dangerous.
It is dangerous because listening to echo chambers on Ukraine or any other war zone is not only dangerous but potentially lethal as well. This can now be seen in the case of Ukraine where, following the collapse of the much-vaunted Ukrainian Army that Ritter, Douglas Macgregor and other informed pundits long ago consistently predicted, MI6 agent Zelensky, a term I borrow from Ritter’s prior excellent work, is now pretending to clean up Ukraine’s rampant corruption, which Ritter repeatedly previously drew attention to.
Not only has NATO lied to us about every aspect of their Ukrainian war, just like they have lied to us about every single other of the countless wars they have waged since their inception but they want to muffle and ban every authoritative voice that might present us with a contrary view.
This is not to say that all views are equally valid and legitimate. They are not. Le Tissier was a pundit because he was an excellent and articulate player and Ritter, as he constantly reminds us, was a senior officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, which I would put on a par with Hitler’s Wehrmacht, many of whose generals, such as Erich von Manstein, provided valuable post-War insights and more of whom, such as Franz Halder, who served as Chief of Staff of Nazi Germany’s High Command from 1938 to 1942, was subsequently showered with medals and awards of appreciation by President John F Kennedy for perpetuating the myth of the “righteous war the clean Wehrmacht” fought against the Red Army’s Soviet Homeland, whose civilians remain NATO’s primary military target to this very day.
NATO has, of course, countless other targets, many of whom are like Gonzalo Lira, where Ritter has singularly missed the mark. Lira is, or rather was, our man on the spot, just as Nazi Party member John Rabe was our much better informed man on the spot during Japan’s Rape of Nanking for which NATO relentlessly pilloried investigative journalist Iris Chang until she suicided.
Scott Ritter, like Matt Le Tissier before him, is strong and resourceful. He will survive. But over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have not survived the carnage that is a direct result of the censorship of omission and commission YouTube and other NATO mis-information portals have spewed out. Though each of those soldiers had a story to tell, many of them, who could not afford to bribe their way to safety, came from the poorest strata of society, from mountainside hovels without even a window, never mind any semblance of what we might regard as the barest comforts of life. Instead of letting them be, Zelensky’s thugs kidnapped them and threw them into the meat grinder where they died unlamented, except by those who loved them and depended on them for their subsistence.
When we take Ukraine’s dead, wounded, orphaned, widowed, trafficked and abandoned into account, Zelensky and his YouTube and other NATO censors must have destroyed the lives of well over 4 million Ukrainians and that is without even looking at the Russian side of the lines.
But, because Lira and even Ritter may be our current men on the spot, historians in future years will probably thank them, just as the more honest amongst them previously thanked Rabe, for giving posterity the first draft of why so many millions of lives had to be blighted so low life porno actor Zelensky could accumulate his portfolio of mansions to house his impressive stable of mistresses.
Ritter and Lira, like Rabe before them, might well be just very minor footnotes to all this carnage. But the main authors of this carnage, criminals like Victoria Nuland and John Bolton, are not. Their self-serving threats against the International Criminal Court notwithstanding, all NATO curs like them have very serious questions to answer, the sort of charges Frank, Frick, Jodl, Kallenbrunner, Keitel, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg and Streicher all swung for in Nuremberg.
These NATO curs have repeatedly said that rough justice is for others, for those like their former Iraqi ally Saddam Hussein whom they lynched in 2006, or Gadaffi, whom they sodomised and murdered in 2011. But then there is also Stepan Bandera, who met his Maker in 1959 to settle, in part, vendettas these NATO gangsters continue to this day. And, though Ritter, Lipp, Lira and Assange are immaterial to settling such scores, until they are settled, there can be no justice and no peace because justice demands that NATO’s war criminals pay with their lives for their crimes and, as even the blind can see, as long as Nuland, Bolton and the rest of NATO’s swamp creatures remain uncaged, there definitely can be no peace.
15 Months On Mars: Ingenuity Finds Eerie Spacecraft Wreckage
WTF? Cool.
Through the Western lens
Through the Western lens means 3 things:
Ideological bigotry — liberal democracy is superior; China’s political system is evil, autocratic, repressive.
Western projection — Western colonialism has dominated the world for the last 500 years; therefore, China will also try to dominate the world similarly, either militarily or economically.
Fear of losing hegemony — China threatens the global hegemony of USA, UK and EU. China must be stopped.
Viewing China through this lens yields:
Anti-China propaganda to smear China’s reputation, turn world opinion against China and hopefully cause the world to decouple from China.
Economic and tech sanctions against China, depriving China of 5G market, semiconductors, FDI.
Military intimidation — naval exercises in Taiwan Strait, adding more military bases, selling arms to Taiwan.
The Western lens is blind to 3 facts:
China has fought no wars in over 40 years, since 1979, making China the most peaceful world power to have ever existed.
Outside of USA, UK and EU, the rest of the world holds a favorable view of China. The University of Cambridge published a study in October 2022 called, “A World Divided: Russia, China and the West.” It surveyed 137 countries representing 97% of the world’s population to uncover the favorability of Russia and China to these countries. It found that 70% of the world, excluding the Western countries, had a favorable view of China. Only 23% of Western countries thought well of China.
Evil, autocratic, repressive China has the most trusted and satisfactory government in the world. According to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, 89% of Chinese trust their government compared to 56% for France, 51% for Canada, 47% for Germany, 46% for Italy, 42% for USA, 37% for UK, 36% for Spain, and 33% for Japan.
A November 2019 Ipsos survey shows that 94 percent of Chinese believe their country is on the right track.
According to the Global Happiness 2023 survey from Ipsos, China is the happiest country in the world at 91% compared to 76% for USA, 74% for Canada and France, and 70% for UK.
According to Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School in 2020, 95.5% of Chinese are satisfied with their government.
A 2019 UC San Diego study shows a high level of satisfaction among the Chinese across a range of aspects up to 95 percent.
According to Latana’s Democracy Perception Index 2023, China is the 6th most democratic nation on earth, well ahead of Germany, Spain, Canada, Italy, UK, USA, France, and Japan.
Use Google search to verify all of the above. Don’t take my word for it.
Western democracy is a failed model. US democracy has degenerated into a plutocracy. UK democracy is a mess. Indian democracy is a mess.
We have bozo leaders like Biden, Trump, Trudeau, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Scholz, Modi, Zelensky, etc.
Western democracy allowed millions of people to die needlessly from the pandemic.
Western democracy allowed UK and EU to f*ck up their economies thanks to Russian sanctions.
USA is in very sad shape because of a totally incompetent government…
$32 trillion national debt
crumbling infrastructure
homelessness
unaffordable health care
rampant gun violence
mass incarceration
fentanyl crisis
increasing poverty
The list is endless.
India can’t get a handle on ethnic strife and human rights issues. It has poor education and poor infrastructure. China’s economy is 5.2 times larger by nominal GDP and 2.5 times larger by purchasing power parity when, by rights, India’s economy should be roughly on par with China’s. Thank India’s democracy for this.
The West is a waking up…
The US obsession with China is 100% a “they hate us cuz they ain’t us” situation.
Forty years ago, the Chinese were living in rice fields. Now, they’re all super rich and living in cities that look like the Mars Base from Total Recall.
Last time I was there, I was so shocked by the affluence of the general population that I literally made this face:
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They had to give me tea to relax.
But seriously, I’m thinking of making a trip to China and making a documentary proving that it is a much better country.
A Chinese friend invited me. He’s not even really rich, and he was like “yeah – you can stay at my place. You can sleep on the couch. It’s not a problem – I have 200 couches.”
A Litany of Lies
by Arch Bungle Lifted from an off-topic comment.
Being a catalogue of the lies I have imbibed through by means of torturous exposure to Anglo-American Newspapers and the rumor mills of Continental Europe.
See the examples below:
The Russian MIC cannot manufacture semiconductors. All their semiconductors are obtained via the black market from western sources. Or Iran. Or China. Or North Korea (all of whom are themselves under sanctions!).
The Russian microchip industry doesn’t exist (But the Russians can build things with black market American chips that even the Japanese can’t build)
The Russian microchip industry has collapsed (How something that doesn’t exist “collapses” I am not sure, but there you are)
Putin is a Dictator. He micromanages every single aspect of Russian Society up to the frontline battles (The Surovikhin Line should actually be renamed the “Putin Line”. But russian military bloggers and even military staff are criticising him on a daily basis without apparent consequence, and outspoken media figures are allowed to hurl an endless stream of criticism against Putin and his conduct of the war).
Putin is Russia and “Russia is Putin” (And that one aging bureaucrat alone is enough to terrify the West )
Russia / Putin is Isolated from the global community (Because everyone knows the “International Community” consists of white folks plus some honorary members like the Japs and South Koreans (whose membership may soon be up anyway))
The Russian economy is insignificant and smaller than Italy/Texas/France/etc. (it’s only the biggest economy in Europe by PPP, and nobody cares about PPP)
The Soviet Union was an Empire and Russia is seeking to restore it’s imperialism
Putin is a “Thug” and a “Murderer” (Because he bombed all those Afghan weddings, blockaded the starving people of Yemen and stated publicly that 500 000 Iraqi children were a worthy sacrifice to Mammon)
Russian military operations are at a disadvantage at night due to inferior night vision (The AFU on the other hand has access to the best NATO night vision technology)
Russia is starving the world by withdrawing from the grain deal
The Oil Price Cap, defying all laws of economic gravity, has been surprisingly effective in strangling Russian oil revenues
Russia is running out of artillery/drones/tanks/men Russia is salvaging microchips from dishwashers
Putin is dying from Alzheimers/Parkinsons/Cancer
Russia is stealing millions of Ukrainian children and abducting them to Russian territory
Putin eats brains cooked by Prigozine
Prigozine was Putin’s Chef (literally)
Russian army is demoralised and bordering on mutiny
Putin’s inner circle is plotting a coup against him (It’s going as slow as the SMO because they also believe in the slow grinding approach)
[Counter-Narrative character assassination] Putin was responsible for the Moscow Apartment Bombings
Russian army is incompetent and poorly trained
Russian satellite coverage of the battlespace is poor, so poor large swathes of Ukraine are completely invisible to them
Russian army has poor targeting precision. So bad that even a large CEP and a salvo won’t help
Russia is deliberately targeting civilians
Ukraine is not targeting civilians (deliberately)
Putin is preparing to colonise Africa (The Africans will be given a choice of Russia, China, The EU or the US for their new colonial masters)
The Wagner group is involved somehow in the coup in Niger
Russia has been making extensive use of cluster munitions since the start of the SMO (Extensive evidence of this to be found in Bucha, Mariupol and Kherson)
Ukraine has an artillery advantage over Russia (July/June 2023)
NATO tactics are superior to Russian battlefield tactics (Specifically the training provided by the Brits, those eternal masters of battlefield tactics going back to the charge of the light brigade)
Putin has a poor grasp of strategy (As compared to Biden, Sunak, Boris Johnson, Olaf Scholtz, Jens Stotenberg, Milley, Von der Leyen and Borell who are strategic geniuses)
The Sanctions Are Working (Just like they worked against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, the Houthi, China, Vietnam …)
The HIMARS Missile system will be a “game changer” (It’s impossible to shoot down a hi mars round, and not a single Himars system has been destroyed)
American drones will be a “game changer” (especially the little spy ones)
The AFU has “semi-encircled” the Russian forces in Bakhmut/Artyomsk
Byraktar will be a game-changer (Because somehow the Turks managed to evolve from kebab makers to advanced drone manufacture. Who do they think they are, Iranians?)
F16s will turn the tide of the battle in Ukraines favour
X wonder weapon will “turn the tide against Russia” (I thought the tide was already in Ukraine’s favour from the start?)
X general/commander has been fired/sacked/discipled
X and Y generals have a personal rivalry that is affecting Russian battlefield performance
The Russian army is dependent on decrepit Soviet-era equipment (e.g old Soviet Hypersonic missiles)
There’s nothing special about Ukraine’s neo-nazi problem since neo-nazism is a worldwide problem.
There are no weapons bio-labs in Ukraine operated by the Pentagon
The weapons labs operated in Ukraine by the pentagon are not a threat to Russia
Russia Attacked Ukraine Unprovoked (The bombing of civilians in donbas was no reason to go in guns blazing. R2P is the divine right of Europeans only)
NATO made no commitment (written or otherwise) to not advance on Russia’s borders (Gorbacheff was drunk and hallucinating at the time)
The SMO has nothing to do with the NATO advancement in Eastern Europe
The SMO has nothing to do with the 8-year killings of ethnic russians in donbas
Cluster munitions are acceptable in Ukraine’s case since they’re in dire straits
The Russians invaded Ukraine in 2014 (“Little Green Men”)
Russian tanks are inferior to American tanks (Even Shermans.)Russian tanks are inferior to German tanks (Even WW2 tiger tanks)
Russian tanks are inferior to French tanks (Especially in reverse)
The Russian army is the second most powerful one in the world (Second most powerful in Ukraine, which means the AFU is the most powerful army in the world)
Putin is a Crypto-Jew (Because there are some photos of a Putin-looking dude wearing a weird cap)
Ukraine cannot be a NAZI state because it’s president is Jewish
[Counter-Narrative Character Assassination] Alexander Mercouris is a convicted criminal
[Counter-Narrative Character Assassination] Scott Ritter is a convicted paedophile
“X” pro-russian commentator has never been right (non of his predictions has come true)
“Y” pro-Russian commentator is a convicted x,y,z (character assassinations)
The sanctions will work if we only apply enough rounds of sanctions!
The Russian economy is in tatters!
Putin is losing the political support of his people: Protests breaking out all over Russia with a possible cooler revolution brewing
The Ukrainian Counteroffensive (June/July/August 2023) is/was/will be successful
Russia is firing S300 missiles into Poland (over Ukrainian airspace)
The Russo Ukraine war started in 2022
The Russian Army is using Human Wave attacks (wagner’s HR department must be the most efficient on planet earth – a revolution in HR affairs for sure)
The Russian Army is targeting civilians (And yet the Russians have poor targeting ability?)
The Russian army is using cluster munitions since the start of the war (with not a single mention in the media until the US decided to suggest using them?)
Putin wants to expand the Russian empire into Europe (including such useless basket cases like the Greeks, Italians, French and Spaniards and those malevolent psychopaths the Germans)
Ukrainian Grain is key to solving world hunger (But the EU frequently rejects the grain due to toxins?)
‘International Law’ says x , y , z about the SMO (the same international law that has no enforcer or single legislative body acknowledged internationally)
NATO is a defensive organisation (Except when it comes to brown people in non-european countries, or yugoslavs, who may be bombed with wild abandon)
NATO is limited to the “North Atlantic” (Libya is a north atlantic country of course, everybody knows THAT)
NATO has greater military power than Russia (An organisation made up mostly of countries who got their asses kicked by the Wehrmacht or paid Russia to do their fighting for them are now suddenly the most powerful military force on earth)
Putin is in league with the Russian Oligarchs and therefore targeting the Oligarchs harms Putin (which explains why they’re fleeing Russia for London)
Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure are justified (but Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure are not. All Ukrainian attacks on civilians are unintentional, including the couple killed on Kerch bridge orphaning their daughter)
The Russian Tank Autoloader is inferior to the manually loaded western tank loader (Because a meat-bag on captagon can outperform automation in any era)
The Ukrainian offensive is stalling because NATO is drip-feeding weapons to the regime’ (But still Ukraine is winning!).
Current hostilities between the AFU and the RF are “stalemated” (Even in Kupyansk)
Current hostilities between the AFU and the RF are “stalled” (but Ukraine is making ‘incremental gains’, but Russia is not making ‘incremental gains’)
The Tochka missile attack on the Kramatorsk train station was perpetrated by Russians using an old Soviet missile from Ukrainian stocks.
The Russian people are collectively responsible for Putin’s war on Ukraine (So they need re-education and De-Russification)
The Ukrainian Industry is continuing as normal despite the war. It’s glorious industrial machine pumps out tanks, shells, missiles, semiconductors, fuel and grain at impressive levels, supplying The World and their own army with important commodities (Motorsich is running fine producing tanks for the AFU, jet engines for the Ukrainian Airforce, the neon/argon production facilities have not been captured by Russia, oil reserve facilities are untouched).
Life in Ukrainian cities is continuing as normal despite the war. All is well. Pool parties and street celebrations are commonplace. (Millions of Ukrainians have not fled for Europe, it was merely the tourist high season, hospitals are not filled with the casualties of war, funeral hearses in their thousands are not seen in the streets, WW2 cemeteries are not seeing a capacity problem …)
If the west only gets rid of Putin Russia will collapse and the West will be victorious. (This short, balding, 70-year old bureaucrat is the only one standing between Victoria Nuland and “World Domination”).
The use of nuclear weapons by Russia will end the war and the world will be at peace thereafter (or some variation thereof).
Ukraine should be grateful to the West for supplying the Ukrainian Army (But the West owes Ukraine nothing for fighting their wars for them?)
General Gerasimov was killed on the battlefield.
Putin is dead and what we’re seeing is one of his many body doubles (The body double is somehow as worthy of hatred as the original and as capable of running Russia as the OG Putin (anybody watched Foundation Series lately?))
Russia is the last bastion of the “white, straight, christian male” and is fighting this war in the name of White Christendom (not the chechen muslim, tengrist buryat, buddhist tuvan, shamanist Yakhut … no they’re all just immigrant labour shipped in for their “white” masters)
The Ukrainians should never have surrendered their USSR nuclear weapons (the ones they never had control of to begin with)
If you were against the invasion of Iraq by the USA you should be equally against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (During which Vasiliy Nebenziya stood up in the UNSC waving a vodka bottle filled with Novichok as evidence the Ukraine was using chemical weapons against “it’s own people”)
The Ukrainian Counteroffensive (June/July/August 2023) is/was/will be successful
The USA is able to fund the Ukraine war on Russia indefinitely (because “infinite money printer capacity” = “infinite manufacturing capacity” and all this manufacturing capacity can be restored to the US in the space of a few months, just like 9 women can birth a single baby in 1 month if working in parallel)
The Ukrainians are winning because they’ve taken back 50% of the territory Russia took from them in a fraction of the time Russia took to take it (at the cost of more than 50% of the Ukrainian army, and just not the part Russia truly cares about. The other 50% of the land will cost another 50% of the AFU probably)
The Wagner Coup’ (Because a 10 minute speech by Putin is enough to stop a coup right in the tracks)
the Wagner Mutiny (Because somewhere there was a ship involved)
The Wagner Protest (Minus the protest placards)
The Wagner Insurrection (Because a couple of clowns barreling down the road with some stolen artillery can take on the entire Red Army)
The Wagner Invasion of Poland (Because “why not”?)
The Russian people would rise up and overthrow the Putin regime if they could only just receive CNN, BBC, MSNBC (Because they’re all nostalgic for a repeat of the 1990s)
The West has unparalleled media freedom (as long as you don’t watch RT, Sputnik, Iranian Opress-TV, Al-Manar because those are obvious propaganda, because we think so)
Putin intends to invade Moldova (skipping on right past Lvov because “Stretch goals: we can do better!”).
Putin is “weaponising” hunger by forcing the West to impose grain sanctions on Russia (“I made you hit me in the face to hurt your hand”).
The Wagner ‘insurrection’ left Putin weakened politically (So weak he had to deliver an entire 10 minute speech including pauses to shut the whole thing down completely).
US Patriot missiles in Kiev shot down Russia’s hypersonic Khinzal missiles without sustaining significant damage.
Ukrainian Air Defences are capable of shooting down Khinzal hypersonic missiles (but by their own admission cannot defend against Onyx, probably because Onyx beats Dagger in trading card games)
…
Posted by b on August 14, 2023 at 17:45 UTC | Permalink
To add a handful more on top of my mind…
108. Journalist Julian Assange raped women and it’s only normal this journalist is locked up in high security prison Belmarch rotting away with psychopaths and murderers 109. The West is not a party to the Ukraine conflict 110. Putin/FSB bombed Nord Streams, Kerch, Kashovka dam in a 5D chess move 111. Putin/FSB murdered Darya Dugina/Vladlen Tatarsky in a 6D chess move 112. Russia would never use nukes against the West so there’s absolutely no risk in ever escalating the war 113. Russia would only use nukes against Ukraine, never the Western war participant so never mind upping the ante 114. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 case was carried out by Russians and directing the flight route over the most active war zone of that time as well as lowering the flight altitude from the usual 10 km to 8 km is just imagination 115. To let the war finally end, more weapons payed for by Western tax payers are necessary… war is peace 116. RT, Sputnik News and so many more information streams need censoring to protect our freedom… ignorance is bliss 117. Europe is now totally free of Russian hydro carbons 118. …
During his tenure as president of (what remains of) the Ukraine, Zelensky has wrecked the Ukraine, but has achieved many great things… for Russia. Here are his main achievements in no particular order:
• By being elected with the promise of ending hostilities, then immediately proceeding to escalate the conflict in the east, he thoroughly compromised what was left of Ukrainian democracy. He further demolished the Ukraine’s civic realm by banning all public media except for one government channel, banning all opposition and all Russian news sources and, in effect, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship.
• By relentlessly shelling the civilians in the now Russian Donetsk and Lugansk regions, then, in the spring of 2022, threatening them with a genocidal assault, he provided Russia with an ironclad reason to start the Special Military Operation: to save civilian lives. By so doing, he helped to expand Russian territory by four very valuable provinces (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson) and set the stage for the eventual addition of, among others, Nikolaev, Odessa, Kharkov, and Kiev regions.
• He squandered $150 billion in foreign aid (much of it by the simple expedient of stealing it), expended a huge amount of military equipment and ammunition with nothing to show for it, and killed off 350 thousand Ukrainian soldiers (many of them Nazi war criminals), with possibly twice as many wounded.
• He shrunk his country’s population by almost half, some of it moving to Russia, becoming Russian citizens and integrating productively into the Russian population while rest went to the European Union, becoming a major burden for the welfare budgets of EU countries.
• By ordering Ukrainian troops to shell schools, kindergartens, hospitals and apartment buildings in universally recognized Russian regions such as Belgorod and by launching drone attacks directly on the Kremlin, he declared his government to be a terrorist organization, foreclosing any possibility of forcing Russia to negotiate a peace that would not be entirely on its own terms.
• He demonstrated the superiority of Russian weapons and military technique over NATO’s, most recently with Russia’s destruction of one of the Patriot missile batteries provided by the US. Almost every bit of equipment the West has been able to provide to the Ukrainians has been shown to be inferior to its Russian counterpart.
• He gave the Russian army ample opportunities to perfect their techniques for defeating NATO forces, venturing into new areas of drone warfare and battlefield surveillance from geostationary satellites. This will no doubt be very useful both in opposing NATO and in boosting future weapons sales to non-Western nations that wish to be free from Western oppression and meddling.
• He sold some of the weapons he received from the US to Mexican drug cartels, leaving US officials with no other choice than closing their eyes and pretending that this did not happen. Perhaps they will also be forced to look the other way as these cartels make use of these weapons to take over more and more of US cities and towns.
• He played host to many high-ranking Western officials, whom, on their to visit to Kiev, he presented with lavish presents such as suitcases of foreign aid money he had laundered, which these officials then brought home in diplomatic baggage, thus collecting blackmail material on all of them.
• He set an example for other Russian Jews whose bad luck had caused them to end up in the Ukraine rather than in Russia by resettling his parents in a posh neighborhood in Israel. But he kept his wife by his side, where she did a good job demoralizing the Ukrainian population by squandering more money on a single European shopping spree than most Ukrainians see in several lifetimes, all paid for by the US taxpayer. She also worked hard to gaslight Western officials by making them accept at face value and repeat ridiculous tales, such as the one about Russian troops being issued viagra, for them to better rape Ukrainian women.
• Zelensky is sometimes incautious; for instance, he got caught appointing operatives from Russia’s Federal Security Service (former KGB) to sensitive posts within the Ukrainian defense establishment, although it is unclear whether what’s left of the Ukrainian judiciary will be capable of prosecuting him.
• One of his greatest achievements was in placing the US and NATO in a zugzwang. This is a chess term for a situation in which a player has a choice of several moves, all of which lead to defeat. The US and NATO can either continue supporting the Ukraine, or they can stop supporting the Ukraine; in either case, they will lose.
• Perhaps his greatest achievement of all was in helping Russia turn away from its hostile neighbors in the West and toward friendly countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, cutting its economic, financial and cultural ties to the West and freeing itself from Western influences. His unwavering support for Ukrainian Nazis, whose emblems, insignia and slogans are styled after Nazi Germany and whose heroes are Nazi collaborators, coupled with the lavish support they received from the West, whose leaders chose to turn a blind eye toward their fascist proclivities, cemented in view of the Russians the view of the West as their existential enemy: a fascist, racist entity determined to destroy Russia but too weak and cowardly to do the job themselves.
All of this begs a question: Whom does Vladimir Zelensky serve?
Only 15% of the world’s population dislikes China; they make up the G7. They dislike China because it is a threat to what they think is their monopoly on global influence.
They call themselves “the world” because western-owned media has global influence.
The other 85% of the world either likes China or doesn’t care.
Hi, SJ-Z . Thanks for your very interesting question!
I guess Italians would be super surprised at just how much the Chinese spoil their pets.
Recently, 网易天成 (NetEase Tian Cheng), a subsidiary of 网易 (NetEase, the Chinese internet technology company) that specializes in medium-to-high-end pet food, partnered with 必胜客(Pizza Hut) to come up with a “Chinese-made dog pizza” that is safe to be consumed by dogs (and cats!).
The dog pizza is the brown disk thingy in the picture below:
This is what the “Chinese-made dog pizza” looks like in promotional material:
In the close up below, you can see that on the top of the pizza box, written in Chinese:
宠物零食 冻干生骨肉珍享比萨
This translates to:
Pet Snack Freeze Dried Raw Bone Meat Premium Pizza
2023 08 15 20 15zzz
To be honest, to me, it doesn’t look at all appetizing.
But then again, it’s made for dogs and cats.
Maybe dogs and cats don’t take visual aesthetics into account when it comes to their choice of nosh:
2023 08 15 20 15x
This pizza is part of 网易天成 & PizzaHut‘s “人宠同吃” (Pets eat together with us) promotional marketing campaign.
Basically, you buy a package deal at Pizza Hut that includes:
– a set meal for the humans – the “Chinese-made dog pizza” – Pet items/plushies
2023 08 15 20 16bv
More marketing collateral from the campaign:
2023 08 15 20 16q2023 08 15 20 17111
So, SJ-Z , at the end of the day, I guess it’s whether the dogs (and the cats) are actually going to eat this “Chinese-made dog pizza”.
I mean… you know how fussy some dogs and cats can be with their food…
I checked out Chinese social media platforms, and it appears that there are dogs (and cats) out there who will consume a “Chinese-made dog pizza”.
I guess, while it may look unappetizing to me, it’s tasty enough for them:
Many, many years ago I received a letter in the post. It was a recorded delivery and I had to sign for it to confirm delivery. I was intrigued and opened it immediately. It was a summons to appear in our local small claims court. I was being sued for £6,000. There were no details about the charges or any explanation of what the case was about other than the name and address of the complainant. I was mystified as I didn’t recognise the name. Lets call him Mr Smith.
In the three weeks before the stated date I convinced myself that one of my sons was playing an involved joke on me. I quizzed them all mercilessly but nobody would admit to knowing anything about it. As the date drew closer I determined to go to court just to find out which of my boys was the perpetrator of this rather involved joke.
Court day arrived and I went into the court building and presented my summons to an attendant, still expecting to be told it was a forgery. I was wrong. I was politely directed to a small waiting room and told my case would be called in 10 minutes. I was stunned.
When I was escorted into the courtroom the Sheriff (a lay judge in Scotland) asked me if I had a legal representative. I explained how I thought that the summons was a joke and I had no lawyer. He said that I could ask for a deferment to get legal advice if I choose but he didn’t think that was necessary. I sat down still stunned and confused but by now rather scared.
The Sheriff now asked the other side to outline their case. I listened in stunned amazement as the story unfolded.
Apparently some 6 months previously I had sold Mr Smith a tenpin bowling ball and drilled the ball to suit his hand. I had explained to him the need to keep the ball clean of lane oil on a regular basis. Mr Smith had taken me at my word and had left his bowling ball soaking in a bathtub of hot soapy water overnight. Feeling that the finger and thumb holes were wet when he fished the ball out of the bath in the morning he had decided to dry out the ball. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the microwave should dry it out nicely.
Some time later the ball had exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to destroy the microwave and send the door of the microwave flying upward with enough energy to punch through the ceiling and the floor of the room above his kitchen. Unfortunately the room above his kitchen was his neighbours bathroom. The microwave door not only punched through the floor but punched through the actual bath. Really unfortunately the poor woman was taking a bath at the time.
She was suing Mr Smith for the damage to her bathroom from the flying microwave door as well as the water damage to her carpets from the bath full of water. She wasn’t suing for the shock of a microwave door suddenly puncturing her bath although it must have been a terrific shock.
Mr Smith was suing me for the same amount on the basis that I had sold him a bowling ball without specifically telling him not to put it in the microwave.
By this stage several people in the gallery were laughing and the sheriff was definitely smiling. I was still worried but feeling considerably less scared. We all sat politely until Mr Smith’s lawyer had finished. The Sheriff then drew himself very straight and without a trace of a smile said that he was here to apply the law of the land and not to educate idiots. Case dismissed.
So there I was, sitting in traffic court to plead for a reduced fine and or a payment arrangement. The courtroom was packed, it would appear there were many traffic law criminals in the small town I was appearing in.
So I sit and wait my turn.
And wait…
and wait…
After most of the morning had passed, there were only 15–20 of us left. The judge however stopped calling cases. He was busily doing his after-court paperwork for a good ten minutes. Finally, he looks back out to the courtroom and asks “Why are you all still here?”
The response from more than one of us was we had tickets and were here for our day in court. The judge looked quite unhappy as he side-barred with his clerk. When the conversation was over he looked out at us and said “It would appear my office was not prepared for you all to come today. Since the city cannot see fit to be ready for your legally required court date I am dismissing every one of your cases. Please give your name to the clerk as you exit. Also please accept my apologies for the City’s inability to do its job.”
I am of course paraphrasing, it was long ago, but that is the gist of what happened. As we all filed out we were entertained by the Judge’s not-so-discrete chewing out of his staff.
You know guys, I am just accepting of my appearance. I get older, wrinkles appear. Liver spots show up, and my hair goes from grey to white.
I’ve got a bunch of liver spots on my chest, and a massive one on my forearm. And a couple of emerging pinpricks on my hands and wrists.
Its called “getting old”.
If you aren’t there yet, well… you will be.
But my white hair….
I color my hair.
Otherwise, I’d have stunningly white hair. Not grey.
White.
But for now, I perform a nice twice-weekly hair dying exercise. It’s a pain in the ass, but you know, it’s now ingrained in my lifestyle and I accept that.
I use a Chinese black hair color, and then a color formula to lighten it out. The over all look is like my natural hair color.
Now, my wife, on the other hand, even being much younger than myself (25 years younger by the way), really wants to stay beautiful. And she does a great job at it. Don’t you know.
She’s done a lot of cosmetic procedures regarding her eyes, and lids, and so on and so forth. It’s an Asian thing, and most Westerners just wouldn’t understand.
She’s also had a few nose jobs over the decades. Right now, it’s stunning. The procedures for plastic surgery are quite advanced in China. It’s an awesome nose! Last job ran $86,000 so you had best have it done right.
I’ll tell you what.
The nose is the first thing you see when you look at a face. Not the eyes. The nose. It frames the face.
Back in the day, she wanted a European nose. High up like my mother had. I thought it looked good. But alas, it did not fit her face.
So she got it redone.
It looks AWESOME! It’s just amazing what a good nose job can do, Ill tell you what.
You know, most of the cosmetic surgeries that she has had revolved around the eyes. It’s a very Asian thing. I, as a Westerner, can’t tell the difference. But, sheech! everyone around me can.
And they all LOVE it.
(shrug)
What did you know?
She had a boob job around ten – fifteen years ago. Used a nice upper-grade set of implants. Silicone. 260ml. And they were fine.
2023 08 29 09 42
She went from a C cup to a nice big D cup, and everyone was happy.
Something sort of like this…
Not mrs MM
Now that was the older boob technology.
We paid $YUAN40,000 for that set, and it looked good. Back in 2013.
It was under the muscle. You could feel the boob as it was under the muscle as a hard piece that sat there. But overall the effect was what she was looking for and I, being a latent boob aficionado, appreciated it.
It was a textured squashed ball, that protruded her chest outwards.
Now…
When we had our child, we nursed her naturally with the implant, and my wife’s boobs went gargantuan. She was something like a triple F size or so. Damn!
I am not kidding. Sheech!
And then when she stopped nursing, her boobs deflated, and became soft and watery.
Her chest was a wreck.
Hard lump covered by bags of water. Not all that great of a look.
So, we have been wanting to have some nice corrective surgery on the chest, but life and the expensive price put it way on the back burner. At least for a while.
But, things happen.
(wink wink)
Then she went to the hospital (we are VIP don’t you know) and had the old ones taken out, and a set of new ones put in. She opted for the second best grade. The best cost $YUAN550,000 and that was way out of our budget. But the slightly lesser grade was affordable at $YUAN280,000. Ah. The price of a nice car.
It’s a Hermes-level brand and quality.
2023 08 29 12 02
Boob technology has changed a lot over the years, and the medical procedures are new and quite modern. These new boobs (at least the better grades) look and feel like real boobs. You seriously cannot tell the difference.
The boob implant was really different as well.
2023 08 29 12 04
She got a German brand: Freya and worked with a doctor to fix the mess her chest had become and get the biggest size that would fit her frame and look 100% realistic.
[1] Biggest that would look realistic. [2] Biggest that would feel good, and not be hard or detectable. [3] Very soft. Feels like a real boob.
No doctor wanted to implant implants that would end up looking like basketballs on a thin frame, and our surgery center was staffed with really GREAT experts.
1647886039 ewnwccpn0t
He procured 390ml extra-soft silicone implants.
And she spent a week at the hospital after the surgery adjusting to them.
They look real. I mean absolutely real, and feel real, and they are awesome.
She is a large DD. Not some gigantic size like some girls might want, but a nice large but realistic size and they are fun. Large, but not obnoxiously so.
She looks good in clothes, but it isn’t obvious. She does not look like she has a boob-job or anything.
I stayed at the hospital with her, as did our daughter, and a few of her friends.
It’s a Chinese thing where you stay in the room with the hospital patients. And I noticed so many other gals were there getting their boobs done too. There must have been about thirty or so gals during the week we were there, and of course, girls being girls would gather and compare their boobs together.
A girl comes in, the top comes off and its all a lot of ohhhs and ahhhs, and then the squeezes and touching.
I saw so many post-surgery boobs that week in the hospital. I’ll tell you what.
They all looked great.
Being China, it’s not a taboo thing like in the USA. The gals would take off their tops and feel each others boobs, and I was there watching with amusement. I just smiled, shook my head, and went back to my computer work.
Silly.
My wife’s replacement boobs were the largest of all the gals with the typical boob implant size being somewhere between 250 and 320 ml.
Hers is 390ml.
A number of the gals wanted really small implants on the order of 100 to 120 ml, which confused everyone. That will take a flat chest to an A-cup. Maybe a B if the gal has a petite build.
One of our friends (who also had surgery that day, and was sticking around) said…
“I am as flat as a pancake, and 100 ml is nothing!”
One gal was in there and told us that she had eight (x8) surgeries all over. Eyes, lips, nose, boob, etc. They all were back to back, and done over a one month period. I thought it was way too radical, and she was complaining that her hair was starting to fall out.
Well, what do you expect? Stupid 20-year old chick doing crazy stuff all for her internet image. Becoming all plastic for what?
To get a lot of likes, or to get some “sexy projects” (hint hint). Maybe meet a very wealthy man?
Sheech!
Her first boobs were still quite nice with a 250 ml implants.
Not a gel. She got a cheaper grade.
Part of a “package deal”.
Most of the gals opted for the cheaper implants, and they didn’t look or feel as nice as ours. But they all looked ok, while ours looked and felt outstanding!
I mean it. You cannot tell the difference at ALL!
Under the armpit was the preferred insert location, and saline implants (so popular in the USA) are considered to be “backwards”, cheap and unappealing. So everyone were getting “gummy bear” style implants, and other soft gels of varying viscosity, and textures.
All in all, I like a nice set of boobs, and if you have the time and money, I urge you to consider them if you are worried about your appearance.
Remember, whether you are thin, or swat, or tall or chubby… enhancing your shape in slight ways can really make a significant difference in how your feel when you put on clothes.
I’ll tell you what.
1647886046 sfxn5173dz
Me?
For me, well my big issue is white hair and balding up at the top. So I have to keep my hair short, or I look really terrible. Maybe one day, I’ll get some kind of hair replacement surgery… who knows?
It is important to feel good about your body. Feel good in your clothes. To feel healthy and fit.
I will tell you all that I have been contemplating Botox… as my face is starting to show some wrinkles, but I don’t want to end up looking like Nancy Polaski. So I am a bit put off by it. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll make the leap.
It looks painful with all those needles in your face.
That’s how it is done, don’t you know. They inject this botox into your skin.
Now, in China there are other things, and other methods that are much more advanced than Botox. Different names, different means of operation. Different ways of smoothing out skin. I’ll tell you, I’m in the wrong line of business.
All these pretty gals… all ages… coming in to make their faces prettier.
But, for me… yikes!
And my wrinkles are near my eyes, I fear that it would be really, REALLY painful. Yikes!
Well, if I ever decide to try it, youse guys will be the first to know. I will report on it in great detail.
Right now… I am hesitant.
In the meantime, I am a big believer in facial care, and I use (religiously) the NIVEA brand scrubs, cremes, and facial lotions. I do so, except when it is unbearably hot out like this month.
And NO! This is not a paid endorsement.
nivea
Facial scrub and skin replenisher goes a long way to keep your skin looking youthful and clear.
Damn straight!
Todays…
Bioweapons
Suspicions have long been swirling surrounding the possibly nefarious activities going on at the Wuhan Viral Institute, as well as the Ukrainian “biolabs” the U.S. government was so concerned about falling into Russian hands. Now both the Russian and Chinese governments are accusing the United States of conducting research into biological weaponry in violation of a range of international treaties.
I moved out the day after high school graduation because I was tired of the beatings. My mother would hit me until she was so tired she could no longer lift her arm. She hit me when my sister disobeyed, when my father upset her or when the moon was full. I was the family scapegoat.
About six months after I moved out, got myself accepted to a college far, far from home and figured out how to pay for it without their help (3 jobs and financial aid), my father called me. He begged me to move home because my mother had started hitting my sister instead of me. He wanted me to come home and resume my place as the family scapegoat.
I didn’t.
Man shoots through door at would-be burglars posing as maintenance workers: video
China’s second largest Property Developer, EVERGRANDE, has filed for, get this, Chapter 15 Bankruptcy. Yes, you read that right, Chapter 15, which is ancillary to a primary proceeding brought in another country, typically the debtor’s home country.
Chapter 15 is a section in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that was added in 2005 to provide for cooperation between U.S. courts and foreign courts when foreign bankruptcy proceedings touch upon U.S. financial interests.
The section was added in response to a United Nations recommendation for cooperation among nations on what it calls “cross-border insolvency.”
The primary goal of Chapter 15 bankruptcy is to promote cooperation among U.S. courts, their appointed representatives, and foreign courts and to make legal proceedings of international bankruptcies more predictable and fair for debtors and creditors.
As such, Chapter 15 focuses on jurisdiction. It also tries to protect the value of the debtor’s assets and, when possible, financially rescue an insolvent business.1
United States Courts. “Chapter 15 – Bankruptcy Basics: Ancillary and Other Cross-Border Cases.”
Chapter 15 allows a representative in a corporate bankruptcy case that has been filed outside the United States (also known as a “cross-border insolvency”) to obtain access to the U.S. court system. This is intended to provide an efficient and common-sense mechanism for addressing insolvencies that involve debtors, creditors, and assets associated with more than one country. The purpose of Chapter 15 is outlined in the following objectives listed in Title 11, Chapter 15, Section 1501 of the U.S. Code:2
Promoting cooperation among U.S. courts and parties of interest and the courts of other countries involved in cross-border insolvencies
Establishing a better legal foundation for cross-border investment and trade
Providing for better administration of cross-border insolvencies that protects the interests of all parties
Protecting the value of the debtor’s assets
Assisting financially troubled companies
ANALYSIS
The fact that EVERGRANDE filed Bankruptcy in China, and is now doing the same in the US, is a staggering financial catastrophe. They are the second largest Property Developer in China.
U.S. Banks have severe exposure to loans to this company. This could turn into a “Black Swan Event” for US Banks.
Notice, too, the announcement of this Bankruptcy filing in New York City, was done AFTER markets closed for the day! Seemingly because they **know** the impact this is going to have . . .
UPDATE 6:08 PM EDT —
While EVERGRANDE is China’s #2 Property Developer, it’s bigger competitor, COUNTRY GARDEN, with annual revenues of more than $70 billion, is now also on the verge of collapse.
The company’s 8% bonds due in 2024 are trading at a paltry 9 cents, signaling massive losses for the bondholders. The yield is skyrocketing, meaning nobody expects it to be paid. China’s property meltdown continues.
Country Garden Bond Crisis
Thus, with today’s EVERGRANDE Bankruptcy filing in the USA, and the clearly-coming similar fate of China’s largest Developer COUNTRY GARDEN, these two financial collapses could be a “one,two-punch” to the global financial system.
I have ZERO financial expertise or formal training. Yet, as a lowly financial laymen/neophyte, even I can see the writing on the wall over this.
If my analysis is correct, then I personally __SUSPECT__ we here in the U.S. could see tumult in financial sectors for, oh, I’d say about a month. Then, I’d put it between the dates of September 16 and September 22, that the full financial sector impact will be (ahem) “painfully” evident in US financial circles. I suspect BIG . . . . REALLY B I G impact.
Watch Europe over the next two weeks. Europe will go first. They’ve already seen about five-hundred thousand (500,000) German companies go Bankrupt THIS YEAR, mostly over Russia-related Sanctions. So economically, Europe is now hanging by just a few threads financially.
As European Banks go, so will US Banks. Watch Europe closely over the next two weeks.
Do you mean all those countries that China has attacked in the past 40 years?
Such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Uganda, Kosovo, Bosnia and Niger?
Oh wait, those countries were attacked by the USA, not China. China hasn’t attacked any country in the world in the past 40 years.
So which countries do you mean? By any chance, are they countries whose No. 1 or 2 biggest trading partner in the world happen to be China? In other words, every day these countries are buying a lot of Chinese goods and China is making good profit out of them. And you think China wants to invade and attack them?
Or do you mean the countries where China is busy building or planning to build highways, railways, water treatment plants, solar energy plants, schools and hospitals? Which is about 150+ countries on earth?
If China planned to bomb a country to bits, do you think that China would invest billions of dollars in that country’s infrastructure? And then bomb the infrastructure to bits, causing its own investments to suffer grave losses?
Open your eyes. Use your brain. Free your mind from the lies that Western media propaganda has been feeding you.
And no, you CANNOT be the President of the USA when you grow up.
On May 30, 1832, a duel took place in Paris in which a young man barely twenty years old was mortally wounded. Much later he would become one of the greatest mathematical geniuses in history.
His name is Evariste Galois.
It’s pretty clear that in life he had some “gift” as a mathematician, but no one really understood all the “gibberish” Galois was writing about.
His essays and ideas were often rejected, he was denied entry into the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, and he was also a bit of a hothead, especially when, again, no one understood him.
He was simply too ahead of his time.
And to top it off, he was very involved in the French Revolution, and he used to spend a lot of time in jail if necessary.
Galois was a rebel both on the streets and in the math fog.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, he was drawn into a duel, but it is very likely that the direct cause of this duel was a breakup – some say it was with a prostitute, while others think the woman in question was married – and Unfortunately, his nemesis, whose identity remains unknown to this day, was a much better duelist than he was (Galois knows this all too well).
On the eve of the duel, Galois makes the most important decision of his life.
Instead of taking a much-needed break to give himself any chance of survival, he decides to put his mathematical ideas on paper[1] :
Galois was so convinced of his imminent death that he stayed up all night, writing letters to his republican friends and composing what would become his mathematical testament, the famous letter to Auguste Chevalier setting out his ideas, and three accompanying manuscripts. .
In his last letter[2] he laconically describes revolutionary ideas on analysis, continued fractions and group theory, a subject he had created on his own to solve one of the biggest mathematical problems of the time: how (not) to make polynomials by radicals. .
Galois group theory evolved over time to become one of the most important topics in contemporary mathematics, and also finds its place in many other scientific disciplines such as physics and chemistry, quantum theory and its applications, etc.
He was far ahead of his time.
Galois’ last written words, dedicated to his younger brother Alfred, are as follows:
Don’t cry Alfred! I need all my courage to die at twenty!
The famous mathematician Hermann Weyl later wrote:
This letter, if judged by the novelty and depth of the ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial writing in all the literature of humanity.
To honor Galois, I would like to say that this was indeed the case.
How To Leave Your California Residency Forever
Interesting.
But I am NEVER going back to the United States. No fucking way.
Deep Dish Hamburger Pie
Cheeseburger Pie 4IMG 0711c
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 can green beans
Salt and pepper to taste
Ketchup
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Brown the meat and add your seasonings.
Stir in enough ketchup to suit your taste.
Add green beans and stir in well.
Place this mixture in a casserole dish and top with the mashed taters and then top that with the cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F until heated through and cheese is browned.
Coming Back Home After 3 Years In Thailand, here are my thoughts
I am not banned from anything major, but my father got banned from the Maldives for life, due to a rather odd chain of events!
My father loves to sail, and before he got his own boat he used to sail across the seas at any chance he could find.
One day he found himself on a ship with a crew of about 8 other men that were doing a across-the-world-tour on their boat.
To his unfortunate surprise these were all rather young sailors.
The problem wasn’t in their skills, as they managed to all do their share of work without a problem, but rather that they were too poor to afford any variety in food.
After being on board for two weeks upon their vessel he had had enough of noodles for the next months to come.
He got off at the Maldives as soon as they arrived and the group only stopped to let my dad off the boat, then they sailed away towards their next destination.
My dad then proceeded to the customs office to announce his arrival, but more so he could get on a plane to depart again.
When he finally found the place they asked him with what plane he arrived.
He told them he came by boat, to which they stared at him with surprise.
After a bit of back and forth they finally found the documents for arrival by boat and asked my dad to give them the name of the vessel and where it was located.
At this point he said that he can give them the name but the vessel is not located here anymore and he had no way to contact them.
That is where the problems started for all the other sailors would have had to announce their arrival, as well as that of the vessel.
But since my dad was the only one that got off it was as though he had just appeared out of thin air… to which there were no real regulations.
All my dad wanted to do was to get out of the country, but for that he needed to be accepted in the country to begin with, as you cannot leave a country you never arrived in.
Of course no one had ever done this, so my dad was told to find a place to stay and not to leave the country (which was ironically what he wanted to do but couldn’t do).
For the next week my dad talked to the customs office every day, trying to reason with them that he didn’t care about his arrival approval, all he wanted to do was to leave!
But he needed their approval or he wouldn’t be allowed through the gates at the airport…
After about a week of going back and forth between the customs office they finally came to an agreement:
They were going to deport him.
The next day, early in the morning, two police cars and a taxi were waiting for him in front of his hotel.
With a police escort my dad traveled to the airport, at which point two armed men guided him through the gates and into the VIP lane at check-in and to the VIP lane to get on the plane.
At this point they wanted to make absolutely sure he would leave and was treated almost like a criminal.
To get out of the country he never wanted to stay in he had to be forcefully deported.
My dad now has a life-long entry ban from the Maldives and can never go there again, and only because they couldn’t lawfully prove that he even got into the country.
Yellen Stunned! China Dumps $481.3B in U.S. Bonds, Invests in 6,927 Tons of Gold
https://youtu.be/XDgCAvcNo-o
Book About Hawaii Wildfires Published BEFORE Fires Were Out!
In an an almost inexplicable manner, a new book about the Maui, Hawaii “Wildfires” was published on August 10 – BEFORE the fires were even put out! Of course, the book pushes the “Climate Change” political agenda. But how did they write and publish a book BEFORE the fires were even out? Unless they knew in advance, the fires would happen?
More interestingly, look at the description of the book on its AMAZON sales site. The description says the book offers “the harrowing experiences of people who lived through the fire” and “the heroic efforts of fire fighters and Rescuers who battled the flames.” How did they do that while the fire was STILL BURNING?
Book on Hawaii FIres Publication Date 08 10
ot to put too fine a point on this, but the description of “people who lived through the fire” and the “heroic efforts of fire fighters . . . ” was published while the fire was STILL BURNING.
You’ll note in the book description it talks about “the events of August 8-11.” Look at the PUBLICATION DATE: August 10.
Book on Hawaii fires Product Info Page
How did they cover the events of August 8-11 with a book published ONE DAY BEFORE the fire was even out?
Unless, of course, the book was written BEFORE the fire even started, by people who may have known the fire was going to happen?
Was the Maui, Hawaii “wildfire” a staged event? Or was it DELIBERATE, to burn-out land owners who had previously refused to sell to developers who wanted to build multi-million dollar residential complexes on some of the most beautiful – and expensive – real estate in the entire United States?
The fact that this book was published while the fires were still burning seems to some people to be prima fascia evidence the fire was actually planned. Arson.
Some wonder if the book was perhaps written to divert attention form the heinous crime, and then plug a Climate Change agenda to gloss it over.
It seems a criminal investigation is required of this fire – and of this book.
In order that YOU can verify the facts set forth in this story, here is a link to the actual AMAZON web page, selling this book: (Click HERE)
Solving Cicada 3301: Decoding the Internet’s Greatest Mystery
Not to bad mouth my fellow members of the Commonwealth, and I often talk about how tough it is to get around Canada, but Australia takes it to another level entirely.
It’s hard to get to. Australia is extremely isolated. It’s not hard to reach from eastern Asia, the Philippines or Indonesia, but it’s a long, long way from Europe and North America. It’s even far from Honolulu.
The best way to get around Australia – is by flying. The major cities and tourist areas on Australia are very distant from each other. Sydney (one of the major cities) and Canberra (the capital) are two of the closest, but they’re still about 300 km apart. Sydney to Melbourne is about 900 km. Yes, you can drive or take a bus, but that’s some long trip.
Roads are… problematic. The verdant strip running from Adelaide to Cooktown in the east of the country has roads as good as any you will find in the United States or Europe. However, the majority of the country (which has very little in the way of population) has roads that are dangerous and run through some of the nastiest desert in the world. It can be hundreds of kilometers between gas stations. Cell phone service isn’t available. Dying is a distinct possibility.
Trains are are scarce. One popular route is the Ghan, running from Adelaide to Darwin. It’s a five star trip on luxury coaches on a pristine set of tracks that runs through some of the most interesting scenery on the planet. However, the rest of Australia’s rail network is fair to middling. One of the problems is that each state set its own rail gauge. It is possible to cross Australia’s southern limit by train, but it’s not a luxury experience.
The Not So Polite Truth Behind Canada’s COLLAPSING Economy!
RUSSIA BEGINS PROCESS TO WITHDRAW FROM W.T.O. AND W.H.O
The Russian government is starting the process of unilaterally withdrawing from a series of international bodies, including the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization, the Russian Duma’s Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said on Tuesday.
“We have work to revise our international obligations, treaties that today bring no benefit, but instead directly harm our country. The Foreign Ministry sent a list of such agreements to the State Duma,” Tolstoy said. “Together with the Federation Council, we plan to analyze them and to propose to withdraw,” he added.
Tolstoy singled out the international trade and health organizations, saying that “the next step is to withdraw from the WTO and the WHO, which have neglected all obligations towards our country.”
Originally Answered: US is urging Europe not to deal with China and Russia because of human rights in those countries. Why then is US in bed with Saudi Arabia?
President Roosevelt of the United States said his famous phrase:
– Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.
Many people know who Somoza is. I’ll remind those who have forgotten history. Anastasio Somoza is Nicaragua’s cruelest dictator. He killed 150,000 Nicaraguans – a monstrous figure with a population of only 800,000 in 1940.
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In September 1956, the dictator’s enemies shot him. By helicopter the U.S. Navy took the dictator to the Panama Canal, where the best American surgeons, including personal physician of President Eisenhower, eight days fighting for the life of “our son of a bitch”. However, on September 29, 1956, Anastasio Somoza went to the next world. It’s a legitimate retaliation for a hereditary gangster.
Do you think the U.S. policy towards pathological killers and sadists has changed? You’re deeply mistaken. If you read George Orwell, you remember the phrase about equality: “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” So the Saudi authorities may have blatantly killed opposition journalist Jamal khashoggi in the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul. The US and the EU have called for a transparent investigation. And that’s it! No consequences, no sanctions and no expulsion of Saudi diplomats. It’s very simple: “Our business partner may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a…”
2023 08 18 11 51 1
It turns out that being “untouchable” requires “friendship” with the United States and being a source of income for American business.
The U.S. calls on Europe not to contact China and Russia because of human rights violations in those countries. This is only a fictitious excuse. The reality is simple to the primitive. China and Russia have an independent policy and are competitors in international business. It is only natural to weaken a competitor, or better yet, to destroy it, and to appropriate assets…
“You Won’t Turn Niger Into Another Libya!” – African Leaders
Photograph of a victims eyeball after the Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, with an “Atomic Cataract.” A snapshot of the devastating destruction of the Nuclear bomb, permanently burnt into the victims eyeball. Atomic Cataracts can develop 3 months to 10 years after exposure. The incidence of this happening is greater the shorter the distance from the explosion.
Russia Publicly Accuses U.S. “Deep State” and Big Pharma of Deliberate COVID Pandemic to takeover the world
In video below from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russia just publicly accused Deep State actors and Big Pharma of manufacturing the COVID pandemic to take over the world.
They even listed Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Soros, of being the main “Ideologists” behind the plot.
Below, video from a Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov: “Pentagon conducts uncontrolled dual-use research in circumvention of international obligations under the BTWC (Biological and Toxin Weapons Control Treaty).”
Put sccinctly, the Russian Military officially and publicly accuses the US of releasing bioweapons to create “crisis situations”, and claims the US are planning to do it again.
This is the biggest story in human history, and yet it is somehow remaining largely unnoticed.
UPDATE 11:22 AM EDT —
Television stations all over Russia are carrying this bombshell accusation as major leading news stories.
In this Interview, Lt General Igor Kirillov goes even further in the accusation, saying the US is going to do it again:
MORE:
Russian biologist Igor Nikulin, who was presented as a former member of the U.N. Commission on Biological and Chemical Weapons, sounded the alarm in a February 27, 2020 interview on Russia Today’s Arabic-language channel where he said that he believes it is no coincidence that the coronavirus had the effect it did in China, Iran, and certain European countries.
He said that coronavirus was carefully selected to affect countries that rival the United States and that it is a conspiracy by the “global government,” which he said consists of 200 families that control over $400 trillion, that own the media outlets and Hollywood, that control the minds of humanity, and that want to decrease the world’s population by 90%.
He suggested that it may be possible that coronavirus is a targeted biological weapon, like he said Ebola and the bird flu were, that infects some people and not others, and he said that the U.S. government may be testing a pathogenic agent it began developing in 1999.
Nikulin also said that this is a warning to the non-English-speaking world that it must submit to the laws that are imposed upon it.
China is interested in resources in Africa from Cobalt to Lithium to Gold to Aluminium to Manganese to Hydro power to Farmlands to Labor (Human resources)
In exchange China delivers growth and progress – Soft Loans, Machinery, Schools, Hospitals, Bridges, Trains, Factories, Jobs etc
Yet China stays out of two core areas in Africa – RELIGION AND POLITICS
The West doesnt. The West interferes in both. Conversion and Ruling over the Africans
China doesn’t
So China cannot be colonizing Africa at all
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Colonizing means treating the people as second class citizens under the rule of your own government
China certainly doesn’t do that
China simply makes trade deals which may be loaded in favor of the Chinese
China may even to a certain extent take advantage of the Africans
Yet China doesn’t Colonize Africa and Chinas Actions are maybe a 100th of what the West did
Media keeps deceiving us about China’s intentions – here’s how
Baked Spaghetti Pie
Spaghetti Pie Recipe 17 650×975 1
Ingredients
2 pounds spaghetti
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1/2 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound spicy Italian sausage
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1 pound Provolone cheese, sliced thin
1/2 cup Romano cheese, grated
Instructions
Heat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large pan, boil spaghetti for 20 minutes; drain and set aside.
Mix ricotta, milk and eggs together in a small bowl; add to spaghetti and stir together.
Press into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan until compact and even.
Cook ground beef and sausage in a large skillet.
Drain fat, removing as much as possible.
Stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread evenly over spaghetti base in pan.
Layer slices of Provolone over meat mixture, then add the grated Romano on top of that.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Polybius | The Most Deadly Video Game in History | More Truth than Legend
Burger-Bean Spaghetti Pie
Looking for a dinner pie? Then check out this ground beef spaghetti pie packed with spicy chili beans and three types of cheese – a hearty meal.
2023 08 19 11 47
Prep: 40 min | Total: 1 hr 5 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Crust
7 ounces uncooked spaghetti or vermicelli
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chili powder
Filling
1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can spicy chili beans, undrained
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can zesty diced tomatoes seasoned with mild green chiles, undrained
4 ounces (1 cup) shredded hot pepper Monterey Jack cheese
4 ounces (1 cup) shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Cook spaghetti to desired doneness as directed on package. Drain.
Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Beat egg in large bowl. Add butter, Parmesan cheese and chili powder; mix well. Add cooked spaghetti; toss to coat. Spoon mixture evenly into sprayed pie pan, pushing mixture slightly up sides of pan to form crust.
In large saucepan, cook ground beef and onion over medium heat until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain.
Add chili beans and tomatoes; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Add hot pepper Monterey Jack cheese and 1/2 cup of the Cheddar cheese; mix well. Spoon evenly into spaghetti-lined pie pan. Top with remaining 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until filling is set and crust is light golden brown.
On another (that I just cannot find at the moment), that China has secret bioweapons labs and one was accidentally discovered in California… an army of Covid mice to spread it all over California… not that it would matter. California is mostly a waste as it is.
Huawei phones read your brainwaves… don’t you know…
5G destroys your brains… well it did until… American companies renamed their 4G. Calling it “5G”.
India, Japan and the Philippines are going to stop China “dead in its tracks”… yeah. What ever you say.
The bullshit is really deep these days.
Meanwhile in China, actual troubling reports are coming forth.
I sure as fuck hope that China can sidestep this massive insane buildup towards war, but I am starting to waver and have my doubts. I need to contact the DC and find out its take on all this…
The USA is spewing wars everywhere.
2023 08 03 08 20
“President” Biden is taking a nine day vacation. You know the kind you take right before you know that you will die. And he placed Victoria Nuland in charge.
Personally, I think she promoted herself. As there is NO ONE at the helm.
These are Americans who work and live in US, just like you, 100% Americans, except they are Chinese Americans, nevertheless they are Americans just like Donald Trump and you.
Chinese living in China can’t transfer enough money from China to buy properties in U.S. or any foreign countries, because China has strict $50,000 annual limit. It takes 10–20 years of transfers to buy an average home in California.
“Room-temperature superconductivity would enable long-distance lossless power transmission, leading to a new wave of global infrastructure development in the electricity network. Additionally, breakthroughs are expected in areas such as superconducting magnets, superconducting cables, and superconducting maglev trains, according to media reports.
“The breakthrough in room-temperature and atmospheric pressure superconducting materials would undoubtedly bring about revolutionary changes in various fields, including energy, transportation, computing, and medical diagnostics.”
It shows how pathetic and desperate the western news media houses are. The people all over the world are getting more informed and they are now not easily deceived by their blatant lies and deceptions anymore. Thanks to all these social media apps where fact-checks on faked and fabricated news could be shared at the speed of light to all corners of the world. The more the news media spew such silly news, the stupider they look. Even the old grannies today could differentiate them. A laughing stock!
When will the peak occur? It is occurring NOW, and it will go downhill from here.
Actually that is what western nations has become all due to its own doing. You see the west thought that it could simply keep increasing its price each time it’s Union asked for a pay rise and it’s CEO wants another 10 million dollars dollars bonus!
What it does not know is that when no one knows how to do what you do they have no choice paying higher and higher and higher. But close to around 2000 the world has become way smaller and there is really always an alternative product that is just as good.
Hence when the western producer increase the price it lose customers and market to the point that it no longer makes business sense to produce it in the west and it has to be outsourced to the cheapest and acceptable quality producer. This is almost always China.
Why China? First China has 1.4 billion hardworking, skilful workers who are discipline and highly intelligent working long hours and not demanding benefits and absurd salaries. Their automation robots amount to more than the world put together.
Their infrastructure is state of the art and their government focus on making organisations efficient and effective. Together they are simply unbeatable and everything done in the west cost 10 dollars the rest of the world may do it for 5 dollars. And China does it shipped it back to the U.S. for 3 bucks!
Many racist or superior minded individuals here like to fall into self delusions about cheap labour. But China’s labour is certainly higher than many nations yet it still remains the most competitive manufacturer on planet earth.
Today China U.S. making for 50% of humanity.
To do it yourself you need to reduce your CEO salaries by 90% workers salaries by 70% and you need to spent 100 trillion dollars for 10 years. You need to reduce your 800 military bases to 5 and cut your aircraft carriers by 10 and retrenched 1 million CIA and NED payrolls.
Or in plain simple English. You just cannot and won’t do it.
So stop talking shit about China. Just slapping tariff on some products from China caused you a double digit inflation and now a recession. Imagine China decoupling from you? The U.S. will nosedive into a 50 years recession! If I were you, I will be nice to China.
Interesting video…
How propaganda works and how US politicians get American voters to vote for them. Video put together by American university students to show the absurdity of it all.
Russia forgives African debt
Along with China, they are cutting the purse strings of the West from plundering the global south. More bad news for the USD.
A train coded C2551 slowly pulled out of the Beijing South Railway Station and headed for Tianjin Binhai New Area Tuesday morning, marking the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway.
As the first high-speed railway (HSR) with a design speed of 350 km per hour in China, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway carried a total of 340 million passengers since it entered operation.
Over the past 15 years, the daily frequency of trains running on the rail line has increased from 47 pairs to 128 pairs, and the shortest departure interval has been shortened from 15 minutes to 3 minutes, according to data from the China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd.
Wang Manman, a resident of Wuqing District, Tianjin Municipality, takes the bullet train to work in Beijing every day. The quickest journey takes only about 20 minutes, and there are eleven trains for her to choose flexibly during the morning rush hour from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
The operation of the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway in August 2008 was strong support for the hosting of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and has accelerated regional integration and development. It has also unveiled a fast-expanding modern HSR network in the world’s most populous nation, coupled with its booming economy.
By 2022, China had 42,000 km of operational HSR, ranking first in the world, and the length of high-speed rail regularly operating at 350 km per hour neared 3,200 km as of June 2022.
High-speed trains have changed people’s commute circle and lifestyle and greatly optimized resource allocation, noted Cheng Shidong, a transport official with the National Development and Reform Commission.
THE MAN FROM UNCLE Season One Long Opening
How US “democracy” really works…
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Japanese Artist Creates Epic Anime Costumes For His Cats
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If you’re a fan of cats, anime, and adorable cats dressed in tiny anime costumes, this one is going to be a treat. Apparently, there’s a talented Japanese man likes to create handmade anime costumes for his two cute cats and you can find his beautiful creations on his Twitter account.
If you know your anime well enough, you might be able to tell that most of the costumes he creates are based on those seen in productions from Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio. It’s also worth noting that all of his designs are made from scratch and with his own two hands.
My take is that the US will not dare fight China because it fears losing. It is no different from the supposed meanest and baddest mafia refrain from going after their strongest peers. Losing means losing everything.
You see today a good majority of the world still thinks the U.S. is the head honcho. It still fears the U.S. somewhat, though much lesser these days. But what if it is proven without doubt that China’s weapons are much more superior and that in a war the U.S. lose?
What if the Chinese jets simply blow off the F16 in the sky like swatting flies? What if 13 US carriers disintegrate by Chinese hypersonic missiles raining down on them at 10 times the speed of sound giving the U.S. 3 seconds notice? What if a million drones attack in unison and what if China takes Okinawa and Russia takes Hokkaido and Pyongyang takes Seoul and Tehran takes Israel all in a week? What is the dollar becomes a dime a buck? What next?
The U.S. pretence is exposed the aura is gone. For good. It’s weapons will need to be on cheap sales. The U.S. cannot even bully it’s own slaves anymore. That is the real reason it will not fight if China takes Taiwan by force. It won’t and it is smart. China have nothing to lose. The U.S. has everything to lose.
So the U.S. will do the only thing it can do. Talk a lot of shit. And rant and rave. Gang up it’s unholy alliance and pretend it cares. That is what the U.S. can and will do.
White House PISSED at Tucker Carlson for Exposing THIS!
Without exception, being rich in a poor country is the way to go. I moved to the Philippines in 2011. Eleven years later my Filipina wife and I opened our first small day resort on the island of Leyte.
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Though the resort is still under construction, people still want to stop by and enjoy the pool.
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We’ve done a number of projects but this is the biggest and is scheduled to be fully functional with overnight accommodations and all the amenities in three years. Aside from using a backhoe to dig out the pool, everything is done manually using hand tools.
These projects employ a dozen local workers and puts money back into the hands of those that need it the most.
This project started in August of 2021 and my first milestone to have a working pool and pump room was achieved on February 16.
I was raised poor in the richest country in the world. It sucks to be poor in a rich country. Better to be rich in a poor country.
What is Dulles ideology? God’s Mission. America has a mandate from GOD, the King of the Universe, to impose its will on “Godless communism” anywhere, everywhere, on earth, at gunpoint if necessary.
Wild Rice Cheese Soup
2023 08 02 20 05
Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage
1 small onion, diced
1 cup uncooked wild rice
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of potato soup
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 pound cubed processed cheese
Instructions
Fry sausage and onions in a medium skillet until sausage is no longer pink. Drain and set aside.
In a small saucepan, cook rice in 2 cups of water until tender, then set aside.
In a stockpot, combine sausage, onion, rice, soups, milk and evaporated milk. Cook over low heat until warm.
Stir in processed cheese and heat. Stir occasionally until cheese is melted.
China Issues STRONG WARNING to NATO: Stay Out of Taiwan and Asia or Risk WAR
China has rejected NATO’s plan to expand into Asia and warned the Alliance that such a move risks all out war in the region.
2023 08 03 10 06
France opposes ‘decoupling’ after economic talks with China
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday that he opposes the “illusion” of countries “decoupling” from China and he does not believe the world’s second-largest economy constitutes a risk.
He made the remarks after China and France concluded the 9th China-France High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing on Saturday. The two countries reached a series of consensus ranging from finance to climate change and aerospace.
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Le Maire said Chinese investors are welcome in France, especially in the field of electric vehicles, batteries and energy transition, citing an example of Chinese group XTC New Energy Materials that has invested with French nuclear giant Orano in batteries, French newspaper Les Echos reported.
Le Maire told a press conference on Sunday that France wants to get better access to Chinese markets. France is on the right track, Le Maire said, opposing the “illusion” of countries “decoupling” from China.
In 1986, Ronald Reagan said “There is no problem in lying to your people. As long as you don’t believe the lies yourself and fail to see the truth in front of your eyes”
He was talking about USSR and East Germany
Today that’s the case with the Collective West
They believe their own lies
They twist everything to keep believing in their own lies
They will destroy themselves to keep believing in their own lies
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Take Biden
He is still living in the 1990s
He still thinks Russia is a gas station and China is a cheap factory nation
The Pentagon tries to tell him but he brushes them off
He soon only ensures the YES MEN are heard from and his closest advisors are the same
Like our Indians brainwashed by Whatsapp University, they are all brainwashed by their own lies and propaganda
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Take Nuland
She has never made a diplomatic move in her entire life
She believes the US is supreme and anyone can be threatened and she threatens everyone with dire consequences
So most nations she threatens, hates her and hates the US and waits for the time to plunge the knife into the heart of the United States and twist the handle
Even now they are deluded into believing World War III will be won by them
They are deluded into believing that somehow Putin and Xi will be overthrown by their own Generals and US will triumph once again
They don’t realise that XI AND PUTIN are probably the only ones who are keeping the hawks in their countries at bay
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The Ultra Nationalists like Medvedev or even Lavrov and Kadyrov would happily launch nukes tomorrow and die if the Americans also die
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Anyone who knows China would know General Liu and his faction
Luckily until now these fools don’t have the full power to start WWIII
Macron isn’t quite as deluded as he pretends
Erdogan is a wily fox who plays the middle well
Austin is certainly more Pro Pentagon than White House now
Sunak is a lickspittle but he is too Indian to not be cautious
Gen Milley knows WWIII would be a disaster
Sullivan is a political animal but not an idiot or an ideological fool
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Obama controls a huge chunk of the party today and he certainly is no fool. He wouldn’t want Malia and Sasha to become vapor tomorrow.
So does the Pentagon
So push comes to shove, they can push off Biden and say “F*** off Mr President” or push the old man down the stairs after killing the cameras and say “He had an accident”
Yet who knows?
Ursula Van Der Leyen, Habeck, Baerbock, Nuland, Scholz, Marin are all spineless fools or doped to their eyeballs in Lies and Propaganda and they would burn themselves and their people in their delusions
They can happily start WWIII
So the only hope for humanity is for these insane creatures to be voted out or naturally die of some cause
Collective strike of 500,000 people!Will this president step down early?May have a toughest new one!
In the first few weeks I was here I was required to create a new bank account. I took the subway to the bank headquarters with my passport and a nice little letter from my supervisor confirming I was a current student at my university.
I filled in a form, she looked over my documents, did some typing, went to the back to get something, had me sign something, and BOOM, done! She handed me my new card.
All this in twenty-something minutes.
My little mind was blown to smithereens.
In my country (Papua New Guinea) to create an account it would take two weeks (for the paperwork to be processed). You would go to the bank, fill in the forms and show them your ID, birth certificates, and any other docs they need. You’d be told to come back after two weeks to collect your new bank card when your account is ready.
Even though I could still understand much of what this teller said to me in Chinese, she still made sure to type out what she said on a translator app and show me the message on the phone screen.
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I’ll even go far as to say I got special attention, which, being black, I was not really expecting. While I was seated waiting for my number to be called an assistant bank worker came to check if I have everything I needed, and to let her know if I needed any help. She also pointed out the direction of the washroom in case I needed it. Just doing her job, I know; still, I appreciated it.
I had gone recently to do some transactions via Western Union, they handed me this form.
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That was wrapped up quite quickly, too.
All in all, my experiences with banking had gone smoothly and quickly. You don’t even need a good command of Chinese to get your business done. They usually know English themselves or they’ll try to find some other way to communicate.
Treasury Tsunami Coming – U.S. Deficit Spending A Big Disaster
A massive treasury dump is coming and the markets aren’t prepared for a tsunami of bonds hitting.
2023 08 02 19 43
While the US government spending is nothing new, they are borrowing tons of money at high-interest rates. This creates two big problems. It could spark another banking crisis as well as create an even bigger inflation crisis down the road. Here’s what you must know!
In 1905, a photograph was taken in Japan capturing the moment when a Geisha, a female Japanese performing artist and entertainer, washed her hair before styling it. Geisha are renowned for their expertise in traditional Japanese performing arts, including dance, music, singing, and the art of conversation. They possess a distinctive appearance characterized by long, flowing kimonos, traditional hairstyles, and oshiroi makeup.
Geisha entertain at gatherings called ozashiki, frequently entertaining affluent clients. They also showcase their talents on stage and participate in various festivals.
China’s groundbreaking advancements in the semiconductor industry as wafer laser cutting equipment achieves full localization.
China’s Hua Gong Technology has successfully manufactured the world’s first 100% domestically produced high-end wafer laser cutting equipment, a crucial component in semiconductor manufacturing.
Wafers are made of brittle materials mechanical dicing of thousands or even tens of thousands of chips on a 12-inch wafer typically results in a heat-affected Zone and dicing line width of about 20 microns compared with about 10 microns for conventional lasers the reduction in dicing line width means that Wafers can achieve higher levels of integration making semiconductor manufacturing more cost effective and efficient.
This breakthrough not only enhances China’s self-sufficiency in semiconductor equipment but also reduces reliance on foreign technology, countering US technology restrictions.
This is a video from a purported “engineering” channel.
But you may be shocked by the arresting headline:
How Gotland-Class Submarines Transform NATO’s Approach to China and Russia
My eyes popped when I saw it in my feed.
Sweden isn’t even an official member of NATO and people are already incorporating Swedish military power into the wargame against the Russians and Chinese!
The acceptance that war with Russia AND China being inevitable is frankly, either gut-wrenching terrifying or utterly mind-blowing.
But a reading of the news over the past few years will convince even the skeptic that a consensus is being shaped among the first world citizenry, while the Russia-China axis is under constant dehumanization and presented as cartoon whims.
Victory, it seems, is assured, and plans are afoot to upgrade readiness for real conflict in the near future.
Part of the reason why I write about military affairs (particularly from the Chinese angle) is to draw the Western response.
To describe the experience as sorely disappointing is too mild.
I am gobsmacked flabbergasted by the repeated fairy tales thrown my way that bombers and nuclear subs lobbing tomahawks and other missiles will be able to sink the entire Chinese navy or disable the PLA, in a repeat of the 100-hour Iraq War. The rest of the American military then joins in the mopping up.
In other words, a turkey shoot even more spectacular than the Korean War, where 1 American died for 30 Chinese KIA.
The American-dominated media is suspending reality for the American people. No one has questioned the 200b increase in military spending since Donald took office. To put that figure in perspective, the increase is equal to two thirds of the Chinese military budget, the second largest globally. This is in tandem with massive increase of military spending in Europe, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and elsewhere.
In a recent market research note, one recommendation caught my eye. It promoted the merits of the weapons sector—Lockheed, Raytheon, etc—and pointed to the massive inflow that’s been announced by many governments. As far as killing and maiming is concerned, it’s boom time, never mind the frothy market.
There is no equilibrium right now. The American-led west has been upping the pressure since the Barack administration’s pivot east, to the point President Xi is openly exhorting the PLA to be ready for war at all times.
These are dangerous times.
I see two outcomes.
One: The Americans realize the folly of their ways, and u-turning. I find that unlikely, given the dysfunctional politics that refuses to forego the God complex.
Two: Provoking conflict between Japan and China over Taiwan, dragging Korea into the same mess. The entry of Russia into the issue of Taiwan is a stabilizer for the Western Pacific, because Japan will have to work through the strategic calculus of a direct northern neighbor that has an iron grip on Sakhalin.
The risk goes up with time, as both sides ratchet up and escalate. This will continue until there is a clear winner. The best we can hope for is a continuous stream of economic crises emanating from the first world’s profligate and irresponsible ways, forcing leaders to focus on domestic discontent, rather than fixing “the enemy”.
Five years ago, during Donald’s tenure, I would have put the possibility of war within the next decade at 20–30%. Today, it’s 60–70%.
We, as in East Asians, should all make our own preparations for a uncertain and dangerous future.
How to Prevent Won Ton Wrappers From Drying Out: Keep won ton wrappers covered with plastic wrap until ready to use. Wrap any remaining won ton wrappers tightly in plastic wrap and store in freezer.
Make Ahead: Fill won tons as directed. Place in single layer on baking sheet. Freeze 1 hour or until frozen. Transfer to resealable plastic bag; seal bag. Freeze up to 1 month. Thaw in refrigerator before adding to hot soup to cook as directed.
Ingredients
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped water chestnuts
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons GOOD SEASONS Asian Sesame with Ginger Dressing
1 egg, separated
32 square won ton wrappers
8 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup thinly sliced water chestnuts
2 green onions, sliced
Instructions
Mix meat, mushrooms, water chestnuts, onions, dressing and egg yolk until well blended. Spoon evenly onto won ton wrappers, adding about 1 teaspoon of the meat mixture to each wrapper.
Beat egg white lightly. Brush onto edges of each wrapper; fold in half to form triangle. Press edges together to seal. Bring opposite corners of long edge of each triangle together, overlapping corners; brush with egg white to seal.
Combine chicken broth, mushrooms, water chestnuts and onions in large saucepan. Bring just to boil on medium heat. Carefully add won tons; simmer 4 minutes or until filling is cooked through, stirring occasionally.
Serve immediately.
Yield: 8 servings, about 1 1/4 cups each
Military Veterans React to Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
2023 08 20 10 41
The Third Man (1949, Film-Noir) Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli | Full movie
HUNTED…By a thousand men! Haunted…By a lovely girl! Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
It is a GREAT MOVIE. Watch it if you have the time.
The small things are really BIG BIG things. In all sorts of ways.
Don’t you know.
I get a lot of crazy people on MM…
Not that it is bad, mind you. But I am a VERY BUSY fellow.
So this guy pops up on the comment boards.
Long, long diatribes. Interspersing praise, with meandering comments, and passive aggressive demands.
Very suggestive of a home-bound; locked in person with neurotic tendencies. I told him to stop posting long comment trains on the articles, and instead use the forum.
He responded…
2023 07 03 11 33
I don’t want to be dictated to jump, beg and roll-over like a common dog by a stranger on my own God-damn website.
I did not send him to the cornfield. But I did blow away all the MM followers around Nebraska. Oh well…
Passive aggressive FUCK.
2023 07 03 11 37
I do not need this shit.
Good fucking bye.
Interesting Discussion
The United States was sharply critical of Germany’s energy dependence on Russia, imposing sanctions on the construction of pipelines carrying Russian gas beneath the Baltic Sea to Germany (if not, as a now-refuted report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh recently claimed, getting its navy divers to blow them up).
However, the US’s economic dependence on China runs far deeper, and severing the link—for example, in the event of conflict between the two nations—would be far more disruptive.
A provocative report by economist and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis suggests China could more easily break free of the relationship of mutual dependence than the US.
Varoufakis relates that a Chinese official described to him the ‘dark deal’ China struck in the 1970s under which its manufacturers would send their excess production (that is, their output beyond China’s domestic needs) to the US and reinvest the bulk of their US-dollar profits into America’s ‘FIRE’, or finance, insurance and real estate sectors.
‘It ensured that the dollar’s supremacy was just as functional to the interests of US rentiers as it was to Chinese capitalists,’ he says. Of course, the losers in the transaction were the US domestic manufacturers (and their workers) who went out of business under the pressure of Chinese competition.
The list of countries ready to join the BRICS alliance and accept the new currency is growing leaps n bounds. From a set of 19 countries in April, the numbers have spiked to 41 by the end of June. A total of 22 new countries expressed interest to enter the bloc and ditch the U.S. dollar in two months. The next BRICS summit will be held in August in South Africa where the bloc of five nations will combinedly decide the formation of a new currency.
The decision to expand the alliance will be jointly taken in the next BRICS summit and the bloc could soon become BRICS+.
The total number of countries that could challenge the U.S. dollar on the global stage has reached 41. The developing nations that want to accept BRICS currency hail from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Belarus is the first country in Eastern Europe that expressed interest to accept the new BRICS currency. On the other hand, France has also shown its interest to attend the next BRICS summit in South Africa.
Additionally, many countries in Africa remain on the sidelines and could announce their support for the BRICS currency after its launch. Kenya has urged African nations to stop using the U.S. dollar and trade with native currencies within the continent.
Offensive, but funny
2023 07 03 11 17
How free am I really in CHINA?? 在中国的自由
She is correct.
These “little things” are really BIG and important things.
Here’s my version (MM version) of her video above…
When the lightning of History strikes, better cut to the chase in our first draft.
When the lightning of History strikes, better cut to the chase in our first draft.
Here we go.
After the extraordinary events in Russia during The Longest Day, President Putin wins on all counts.
Among other feats, he has made an absolute, inter-galactic ass of the whole collective West MSM – all over again.
He rallied virtually every Russian to end the Special Military Operation (SMO) – or “almost war” (according to some business circles) quicker.
He – and the FSB – amassed a formidable list of traitors and 5th and 6th columnists, which will be properly dealt with.
And he now enjoys unlimited freedom to deploy de facto Counter-Terrorist Operation (CTO) martial law powers.
As much as Putin helped perennial Lukashenko in August 2020, preventing regime change in Belarus, good ol’ Luka prevented Russia from sliding into civil war in June 2023.
A complex wide-ranging counter-terror op is now in effect in Moscow and beyond, while assorted Western sub-zoology specimens are stunned, dazed and confused: wasn’t that supposed to be Putin meeting his Czar Nicholas II moment?
A first glance at the chessboard tells us that all the pieces seem to be falling in their right places.
Prighozin gets a golden parachute in Belarus. Shoigu may be about to be sacked, perhaps even Gerasimov (yes, there are deeply dysfunctional layers inside the Ministry of Defense). The Wagner musicians will be incorporated as a regular Army Corps. They may keep doing business in Africa: demand is huge.
So what really happened after The Longest Day? Hefty CIA funds may have changed hands. But in the end the “coup” could turn out to be the Greatest Russian Trolling of the West Ever.
The Mother of All Maskirovkas
Once again, facts on the ground prove Putin is the undisputed champion of Russia. After keeping a strategic silence for a few hours, his intervention gathered full support from the civilian population, the FSB, the Chechens, the Army, the Communists, everyone.
The exact terms of the deal between Luka and Prighozin, with help from the governor of the Tula region, Alexey Dyumin, are still unclear.
Prighozin said he was satisfied with the terms. Peskov confirmed on the record that a criminal case against Prigozhin would be dropped. A key Prighozin demand was the twin resignation of Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov. That may – or may not – happen in the immediate future.
And that brings us to the still fascinating possibility this was the Mother of All Maskirovkas. Prigozhin sets up all this circus just to get a meeting in Moscow with Shoigu and Gerasimov.
Talk about an overkill just to go out on a date.
The Mother of All Maskirovkas scenario also implies a move worthy of 5D chess.
On Saturday, Wagner was 200 km away from Moscow.
Yet on Sunday, Wagner was 100 km away from Kiev.
Next level Sun Tzu Art of War, anyone?
Between sovereignty and betrayal
Alexander Dugin correctly points out how this was also an exercise in Sovereignty: “Only Sovereign Lukashenko, together with Sovereign Putin himself, confronted [Prighozin]…It turned out that many can frame the President and the people, acting in the shadows and apparently on his behalf, but saving the Fatherland in a critical situation is not their specialty.”
The corollary is that Russia needs “a sovereign elite, otherwise everything will repeat itself.”
As for the dazed and confused collective West, especially the NATO-Kiev junta, with everyone instantly rebranding Wagner from “terrorists” to “freedom fighters”, getting bogged down in their own swamp is the art they excel in.
Mainstream media spun that the proverbial “Western officials” were “taken by surprise” by the mutiny. That depends on the amount of funds that changed hands, and in which direction, during the preparation.
The SMO, now CTO keeps rolling along. The Russian Army continues to fight, undisturbed. The “counter-offensive” remains teetering over the edge of a cliff, ready to kiss the black void.
Putin winning on all counts implies the whole civilian population – and the military – engaged into preserving him and the Russian institutions, as well as perfecting them. There’s absolutely no nation anywhere across the collective West where we find this level of citizen support.
Russian politics is a special animal. It works at the highest level and also at grassroots level – unlike in the West, where the norm is deep hatred between the elites and the people.
Of course it should always be stressed it’s the less patriotic Russian oligarchs who run away every time something approaching The Longest Day takes place.
For a few hours, the West was betting heavily on the dismemberment of Russia. Not now. And not in the foreseeable future.
The succession is already being prepared, by Team Putin and selected patriotic oligarchs. Among the contenders, there’s a secret name that will stun everyone when it pops up. He’s still invisible in terms of public opinion, and works in the shadows. His name should remain secret for the time being.
As it stands, what matters is that Russia as whole emerged even stronger out of The Longest Day. The man and woman in the street showed himself and herself, once again, as a true patriot, ready to defend the Motherland whatever it takes.
There was no confrontation between those who are pro-Russian institutions and those who are pro-Wagner. People actually support both. People regarded Wagner like the “polite green men” who helped to peacefully retake Crimea in 2014. Facing them, there was not a single policeman or military.
So Putin is stronger than ever. But everyone should always keep this in mind: the one thing he can’t forgive is betrayal.
There is an ongoing hazmat incident at the White House in Washington DC. The US Secret Service along with emergency personnel are investigating the situation.
The Secret Service has cordoned off a significant area around the White House, and a full hazmat response has been requested to the scene.
2023 07 03 11 22
Zambia President’s speech made China take only 1% interest on its loans
Russia may have started operating its S-70 Okhotnik heavy-strike stealth drone against Ukron. Based on photgraphs of the drone flying in the Ukron skies published by Ukron’s telegram channels, Turkish media first reported the use of the drone in the Sumy region.
The drone is speculated to have struck military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukron (AFU) in the Sumy region.”
On the afternoon of June 27, the Ukron media reported explosions in Sumy and Kremenchuk, Poltava region.
Report Credibility
A photograph, purportedly of the drone flying over Ukron, posted on Mash Telegram Channel conforms to the shape and size of the Okhotnik (Hunter).
At least two Okhotnik drones are known to be undergoing flight testing.
In June 2022, Janes reported, quoting RIA Novosti, that the S-70B Okhotnik had conducted its first test launch of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) against ground targets on May 28, 2022. The drone had launched air-to-surface missiles developed for the manned Sukhoi Su-57
Janes reported that the missile was likely the Kh-59Mk2 standoff cruise missile, a development of the Kh-59-series heavy tactical missile that entered service in the early 1980s.
Kh-59Mk2 range and payload estimates vary widely, but it’s likely to be able to reach targets at least 150 miles away while carrying a 500lb warhead. The modular nature of the design may allow for multiple configurations, such as larger fuel sections, to be swapped for smaller warhead sections.
Izvestia reported in February 2020 that the Grom (Thunder) 9-A-7759 glide bomb had been integrated with the Okhotnik. The drone can carry four Groms in its internal bomb bay.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (RuMoD) has not commented on the report.
Drone Availability
As per open source information, two Russia Okhotnik prototypes are undergoing flight testing, and two more are under construction/flight testing.
main qimg ec104c82f138e5357f722a2fd60ffdd6
The first prototype, which features a non-stealthy circular exhaust, flew for the first time on August, 2019.
The second prototype incorporated tweaks to the aerodynamic design and electronics based on the operational experience with the first Okhotnik.
“The third and fourth drones “will match the production version of the Okhotnik,” the source said.
In March 2021, it was reported that construction of the second prototype of the S-70 Okhotnik was underway. Besides improved electronics and software, the drone would have a shaped nozzle for improved rear aspect stealth.
On December 14, 2021, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko reportedly told Russia-24 TV channel that a serial contract for the supply of the S-70 “Okhotnik” would be concluded within six months. A special control center is being created for the newest Hunter drone.
Flight testing of the second prototype began in July 2022 summer.
Russia may have operationally deployed two Okhotnik drones. Also, it’s conceivable that the two additional prototypes, under construction in 2021, are either available to Russian forces or will be available shortly. It is even possible that they have been operationally deployed already.
The Su-57, S-70 Combination
Russian officials have consistently reiterated that Okhotniks can operate under the control of a Su-57 fighter jet pilot.
“These planes and drones can interact not only with each other but also in various types of combat formations,” said Andrey Yelchaninov, the first deputy chairman of the Board of the Russian Military-Industrial Commission, in April 2021. “Within a very short timeframe, there will be a possibility to control several Okhotnik drones from the Su-57 cockpit.”
Conclusion
Extrapolating development timelines, Russia may have operationally deployed the Okhotnik drone in Ukron. Indeed, it would be logical for Russia to do so to obtain feedback and accumulate operational experience.
The drone in the published photograph features a circular exhaust, which would mean it’s the first prototype. The use of the first prototype would also be logical. Having been under flight testing since 2019, the prototype has likely served the purpose that it was developed for.
Also, losing the first prototype wouldn’t compromise trade secrets or set back the development program to the same extent as losing the second prototype for reasons discussed earlier.
The first prototype is unlikely to operate as a Su-57 loyal wingman. The communication suite, computer hardware, and software required for loyal wingman operations would most likely have been installed and tested on the second prototype.
If the Okhotnik proves itself capable of penetrating Ukron’s airspace undetected, Russia could fast-track serial production of the drone.
Russia’s competent military industrial base could eventually turn the tide against Ukron, which relies heavily on free Western weapons supply.
Now, let’s get on with some more important stuff…
Your BACKWARD voice reveals all your secrets (And the CIA knows it)
Zero evidence of any link between the pandemic virus and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, whether deliberate or accidental
Zero evidence that the Wuhan Institute even researched the particular strain of coronavirus that was responsible for initiating the pandemic, or even a similar strain
Coronavirus is a large family of viruses. And what the fuck does an Institute of Virology do if not conduct research on viruses?
“We continue to have no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARSCoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic,” the report said.
Out of 6 other US intelligence agencies, 4 have concluded that the pandemic was due to a “natural transmission” of coronavirus, while 2 others are “undecided.”
The declassified CIA report is 4 pages long. That’s how little they have.
But watch their politicians state or suggest the opposite again and again.
First Time Hearing Ronnie James Dio | Rainbow’s “Stargazer” Vocal Analysis
Russia’s Medvedev: “. . . there will be a nuclear winter . . . “
Statements by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, made during an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta:
Below are statements made by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Dmitry Medvedev. Pay close attention!
The course of the AFU counter-offensive proved unexpected for Kiev’s Western sponsors, who believed in the “omnipotence of unlimited dough”. The defeat of the AFU in the Artemovsk direction was a foregone conclusion;
European businesses that have left Russia are “biting their elbows”, lamenting their lost revenues. It has permanently lost the Russian market; goods have been replaced by others. Production growth in Russia is “much higher than in Europe”, and inflation at the end of the year will be lower than in the eurozone;
Russia was forced to conduct a special military operation to protect its sovereignty and millions of people. The Kiev regime should be scrapped and banned as fascist;
The situation in Ukraine is not a regional conflict but a total confrontation between the collective West and the rest of the world. The confrontation between the West and the rest of the world could last for decades;
The current confrontation between the West and the rest of the world has brought the world to the brink of a third world war. In the event of a third world war, there will be no winners – there will be a nuclear winter, epidemics and famine on Earth;
The outcome of the total confrontation between Russia and the West should be enshrined in a new document like the Helsinki Act.”
Tex-Mex Beef Lasagna
2023 07 02 13 44
Turn to Tradition for Tex-Mex Taste
(Family Features) The next time your loved ones crave a comforting dish that’s warming from the inside-out, turn to an all-time classic with a touch of southern flair.
Take inspiration for this Tex-Mex Beef Lasagna from season 3 of “BBQuest: Beyond the Pit,” a video series that dives into the long-held traditions, new flavors and everyday inspiration that make Texas barbecue legendary. Developed from the show by BBQuest co-host and “Hardcore Carnivore” cookbook author Jess Pryles, this tasty take on comfort food can be the perfect solution for a family meal with plenty of leftovers.
After dinner, settle in together and learn pitmaster techniques from the experts as the series follows four themes that capture the essence of Texas barbecue: legacy and tradition; creativity and innovation; Texas trailblazers; and family and community.
“Since launching BBQuest four years ago, it’s truly remarkable to see how much has changed and yet stayed the same when it comes to Texas barbecue, and that’s exactly what you see in season 3,” said Rachel Chou, Texas Beef Council’s director of consumer marketing. “There has been so much exciting innovation around cooking methods and international flavors while there’s still a huge dedication to long-held recipes and smoking techniques.”
10 ounces canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
15 ounces canned red enchilada sauce
1 cup Mexican crema or sour cream
Nonstick cooking spray
12 corn tortillas
8 ounces shredded Mexican blend cheese
Cilantro (optional)
Green onions, thinly sliced (optional)
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In large pan or skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat then add onion. Cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add ground beef and cook, stirring regularly, until beef has browned.
Add kosher salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle powder and onion powder; stir well. Add corn, black beans and diced tomatoes. Turn heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
In bowl, combine enchilada sauce and crema; mix well.
Spray casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup enchilada sauce mixture on bottom to prevent tortillas from sticking.
Layer 2 to 4 tortillas across bottom then top with layer of ground beef mixture. Use ladle to spoon some enchilada sauce mixture on top, distributing evenly. Top with another layer of tortillas then repeat layers until casserole is full, 3 or 4 layers. Top with shredded cheese.
Loosely cover dish with foil in tent shape to help prevent cheese from sticking, then bake for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes before serving. Top with cilantro and green onions, if desired.
I turned 16 in January of 2000, my dad “gave” me his beat up old 1987 Ford Ranger. “Gave” is in quotation marks because it wasn’t REALLY mine, it was my dads but I was the primary driver.
In the summer of 2000, my mom’s youngest brother (my “guncle”-gay uncle) got ANOTHER DUI. I don’t remember if it was his 2nd or 3rd one, but it didn’t matter. He ended up losing his license for a year.
My home life wasn’t the greatest that summer, my mom and dad had separated, I finally had the freedom you can only get when you have a car, but you have to have money for gas and fun things to do.
I had already worked at McDonalds since I was 15 and a half, and I took on another job at our local movie theater (one of the best jobs ever!!)
Of course, since I had my license, and a vehicle, and my uncle’s schedule just happened to work with mine, I became his chauffeur for the summer. No one asked me if I would help, I was told to help.
I was a little peeved about it. I love my uncle, but I wish I had been asked. That’s all.
I’d normally work at McDonalds from noon to 4, go home, change, eat and then head to the movie theater and work from 6 to close.
My uncle worked at a seafood restaurant and had to be there by 9 until 4, the he’d walk to his other job and work from 5 to close, which just happened to be the time I got off of work. Sometimes he’d get a ride home from another co-worker, but it was mostly me.
Most of the time it worked out great. I got to know my uncle better than anyone in my family, I even ended up working with him at a pizza joint for a few months the next summer.
We had our own little rituals, I’d run by Wendy’s once in a while before I picked him up from his 2nd job and get him an iced tea, and he’d make me personal pan pizzas once in a while.
We both worked Saturday nights, so I’d take him grocery shopping after work. It was fun.
As I mentioned before, my truck wasn’t in the best of shape, so the inevitable happened.
I had dropped my uncle off at his apartment and was heading home. My truck broke down. I was able to get it to a side street, but it was in the middle of the road.
I walked over to the gas station and used a pay phone (Hahahaha) and I called my mom. It was like 11:30 PM. I was literally a 10 minute drive from home.
ME: “Mom. My truck broke down. Will you come get me?”
MOM: “Why aren’t you home yet?”
ME: “It’s Saturday, you know I take Trevor grocery shopping.”
MOM: “Well, you’re going to have to find your own way home then. It’s not my fault you’re ‘hanging out’ with Trevor so late.”
ME: “Yes it is! I didn’t volunteer to be his chauffeur, you volunteered me!! I don’t mind doing it, but it’s not fair to pin it on me.” I was so frustrated I shouldn’t have said it, but I did.
MOM: “I will NOT pick you up. Walk home if you have to.”
She hung up on me.
Okay. Fine.
I didn’t want to walk home, in the dark, after midnight, and I didn’t want to leave my truck in the middle of the road.
I sat in my car and cried for about 20 minutes. It was well past midnight.
I look up, and in my rear view mirror I see flashing blue lights.
GREAT. GOOD. A TICKET ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE!!
I rolled down my window and the police officer approached my car.
PO: “Hello young lady. Are you okay?”
ME: “My car broke down and I can’t find anyone to pick me up, plus, I know it shouldn’t be in the middle of the road.”
PO: “Okay. Let me see what we can do. Can I see your license, registration and insurance. I’ll be right back.”
I handed him the paperwork, and he went back to his car.
He came back a few minutes later.
PO: “Everything looks good on my end with you. Why are you out so late?”
I explained that I had gotten off of work and taken my uncle grocery shopping, and my truck stopped and that was as far as I got. I called my mom and she refused to pick me up. I didn’t want to leave my truck in the middle of the road and risk it being towed and it was an almost 2 mile walk home, and I didn’t feel safe walking that far by myself.
PO: “I understand. How about we do this? Put your truck in neutral and we will push it to the side of the road, and I’ll take you home. I’m off at 1, so this will keep me busy until I can clock out. How’s that??”
I started to cry. We got my truck where it needed to be and he took me home.
I can officially check the “rode in the back of a police car,” box off my bucket list.
When we got to my house, he asked me to stay in the car while he talked to my mom.
He knocked on the door and my moms face dropped.
He said something along the lines of “Your 16 year old daughter was stranded on the side of the road She was scared and didn’t know what to do. When she called you, the one person she should be able to rely on, and you refused to take the 20 minute drive to go and pick her up. She is in the back of my car, right now, and she’s still scared. I’m glad I found her before someone else did. In the future, of this happens again, please pick her up or send someone else to.”
He let me out of the car, I told him thank you, and I went into the house.
My mom apologized to me, and we had a long talk. I told her I loved spending time with Trevor, and I’m glad he’s in my life. However, it wasn’t fair for her to punish me for doing something that I was told to do.
She never let me down after that.
For those who will ask why I didn’t call my dad, he was working. This was pre-cell phone (well, they were expensive for the time, and I didn’t have one) and I didn’t have his work number memorized.
The Over-Hyped ‘Spy’ Balloon That Didn’t
With regards to China President Joe Biden said on June 20 2023:
And the reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn’t know about it. When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.
Biden acknowledges that the weather balloon was ‘blow off course’ and thereby debunks previous claims that it was steerable. China had no intent to let the balloon cross Canada and the United States. And if there had really been ‘two boxcars full of spy equipment’ on the balloon why hasn’t the U.S. shown any of it?
Why would or should a president of the U.S. or China know of some weather balloon floating somewhere?
Xi was embarrassed by the circus the U.S. made over that affair? … Xi denied that the ballon was where it was to whom? And the U.S. would know about that how?
There were so many questions about those ‘spy balloon’ claims that, from the very beginning, I was sure and said that it was all bunk:
But the Biden administration created a scandal over the randomly floating weather balloon. It thereby opened itself to criticism from the hawks in the Democratic and Republican parties. It canceled, without need, the planned mission of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to China.
Well – as it turns out it all was bunk, just as I had claimed.
The ‘spy balloon’ was not spying at all. It had a U.S. made camera on board for this or that (navigational orientation?) purpose and was not submitting any pictures from it:
The US gear was intermixed with “more specialized Chinese sensors and other equipment” with the purpose of snapping photos and capturing videos and other information to transmit to Beijing, according to the Journal.
Despite the spy balloon’s surveillance capabilities, the Defense Department does not believe the spy balloon collected data while it was flying over US territory, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday.
Via Reuters the Pentagon confirmed that the ‘spy balloon’ was just a balloon that was not spying at all:
A Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year before being shot down did not collect information as it went across the country, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
“We assess that it did not collect while it was flying over the U.S.,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters.
The balloon spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before the U.S. military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden’s orders.
Biden had already confirmed that the balloon was ‘blown of course’ which had been immediately clear to me and to anyone who could look up and understand the relevant weather maps of pressure systems and their atmospheric wind directions and strength.
2023 07 02 14 00
The balloon was also not a spying device because there are obviously much better ways, like satellites, to gain more precise information than a randomly floating weather balloon will ever be able to catch.
The Biden administration is intentionally using anti-Asian racism to create an ‘enemy’ by alleging that the Chinese are doing wrong in this or that or in whatever may randomly float over the horizon. At the same time it is copying those Chinese policies it had previously criticized:
Bidenomics seems increasingly likely to play a pivotal role in US President Joe Biden’s upcoming 2024 presidential election campaign. With great fanfare in a June 28 speech in Chicago, he offered a stirring endorsement of “industrial policy” as the centerpiece of his economic strategy. … For the US, there is a certain irony, possibly even hypocrisy, in embracing industrial policy as an effective strategy to counter China. Washington has long been critical of Chinese industrial policy as one of its most egregious anti-competitive sins. That was a key allegation in the Trump Administration’s March 2018 Section 301 report that quickly became the foundational evidence for tariffs and the broader trade war that was to follow. The Section 301 report argued that China was unique in relying on the subsidies and targeting of industrial policy—a conclusion I took strong issue with in Chapter 4 of Accidental Conflict, in which I presented evidence of a legacy of industrial policy strategies in Japan, Germany, and, yes, the United States. And now the Biden Administration, which has endorsed most of the tactics of Trump’s trade war with China, is embracing the very same industrial policy approach that China has long practiced.
Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Doing like China does, because what China does is successful, is now the new normal.
Next: A U.S. weather balloon, with a defunct Chinese camera on board, unintentionally crossing China. “U.S.A., U.S.A., …”
Unfortunately the U.S. is not good at imitating China’s policies:
[T]he point I am trying to make here is that both approaches rely on the government’s ability to target the so-called vital, strategic industries of the future. Japan failed miserably at that, and the US didn’t exactly distinguish itself the last time it tried—ironically aimed at the same semiconductor industry that is getting all the attention today. Indeed, the failure of the then widely-heralded Sematech effort of the late 1980s seems all but forgotten. … The US economy is performing well by many accounts. Competitiveness, however, always remains a major challenge. Bidenomics is aimed at addressing this key challenge, a goal I certainly applaud. But is industrial policy, one of China’s hallmark tactics that we, ourselves, have been so critical of, really the best way to pull it off?
The tax-payer money that Biden is now providing to industries is likely to bump up stock prices and CEO wages through major bullshit projects like the over-hyped garbage in-garbage out patter recognition algorithms that are sold to the public as Artificial Intelligence.
Is there, after all the previous promises and investments, any autonomous driving vehicle out there today that is trusted to do no harm? No?
I was over run by a group of very tough, young criminals living in a re-hab group home located about 1/4 mile behind an old caretakers cottage I was renovating. The group home was at the end of an unpaved road in a heavily wooded border to a multi-thousand acre forest. My cottage was down closer to the highway.
As soon as the trades left, they swarmed to their new “clubhouse” to smoke and drink all sorts of stuff and the rubbish they left made it a big problem. Some friendly local cops and the caretakers that ran the house were helpless in discouraging my nighttime and weekend visitors.
The solution: I posted a little typed notice on the front door (no locks yet). “ Caretakers wanted! Meet me here at 6PM Tomorrow. Cokes and snacks provided.”
I was met by a hoard of 6–8 that you wouldn’t want to meet after dark. After a short intro, cooler opening and chip bags handed out, I explained the problem. Damn trespassers, always on days of no work, nights, weekends, neither the cops or I could catch them. The damn mess they left should be a shootin’ offense. I needed help with security.
My proposal was that if they would keep an eye out for trespassers, helped clean up any mess left by ones we couldn’t catch, and get license plate numbers, I’d let them hang out on the porch and every weekend I would fill a cooler with drinks and provide a couple of big bags of chips for weekends and do a monthly hot dog cook out for the couple of months left until I expected to move in.
Brinks Security could not have provided a more secure work site than I enjoyed for the remainder of the project. And Brinks does not offer the trash and debris pick up as a bonus. These kids took to the project as if there was a Nobel Peace Prize at stake.
These truants all, one arsonist, a couple of brawlers, most thieves, all turned out to be some pretty fair neighbors and great lookouts for my little hideaway.
Tex-Mex Calabacita con Puerco
calabacitas con puerco 1a
Ingredients
2 tablespoons shortening
3 pounds pork chops, boned and cubed
3 or 4 serrano chiles, or more or less to taste
1 large onion
2 teaspoons whole cumin seed
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup flour
3 ounces squash (yellow or zucchini or Mexican squash), sliced, large slices quartered
1 can whole kernel corn, including liquid
2 cans Ro*Tel chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Heat shortening in Dutch oven; fry pork cubes in batches until browned. Return all pork to pan.
Place chiles and onion in food processor container and process until chopped (or chop together by hand).
Slice garlic and place with cumin seed and salt in a mortar and pestle and grind together. (The garlic and cumin seed and salt can be chopped in the food processor with the chiles and onion, but grinding it gives it more flavor).
Add chiles, onion, garlic, cumin and salt to pan with pork and cook over high heat until onion is transparent.
Sprinkle flour over pork and vegetables and stir to combine. Cook a few minutes to remove the raw taste of the flour.
Add all remaining ingredients plus about 1 tomato can of water — enough so that pork and vegetables are not quite covered with liquid. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. Cook at a simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, checking periodically and adding more water if necessary.
I was a witness to this during my first year of med school:
One of the second year med students and I decided to hit a pizza place one day for lunch. Our server, who looked like she was in her mid-20s, was walking over wearing a cast on her ankle and using crutches. The guy I was with said “watch this- I’ll show you how to pick up girls using your med school knowledge.” He mentioned her cast and then in an arrogant tone told her that she must have injured this and that tendon or muscle. Second year students can tell you the names of nearly every muscle in the body and tens of thousands of other medical facts but don’t know a lot of clinical information yet because they have not spent much time in the hospital. To make this scene worse he finished with a condescending look and said “oh, I’m sorry, sometimes I forget that you non-medical folks don’t know all of the advanced medical information that those of us in the profession know.” I was cringing.
We had our pizza, paid the bill, and as she was picking up the checks turned around and said to him “ hey sport, it wasn’t any of the muscles you mentioned, I actually injured a different set of muscles” then started listing them. She topped it off by explaining in excellent detail the surgical procedure using flawless medical terminology. His mouth was open, I was dying inside, and her mic drop comment as she walked away was “I’m a fourth-year medical student who just matched in orthopedics. You need to get some better pick up lines.”
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki stated today that he has requested for the United States to begin the Deployment of Nuclear Weapons into Poland due to the recent transfer of Russian Tactical-Nuclear Weapons onto the Territory of Belarus.
Polish President, Andrzej Duda stated in October of 2022 that he had also spoken to U.S. Officials about the possible Deployment of Nuclear Weapons to Poland but this was before the transfer of Russian Nukes to Belarus.
What does Poland want with US Nuclear Bombs on its territory? What do they think it might accomplish?
If such devices were placed in Poland, the Polish government could NOT use them; they don’t have the Permissive Action Link needed to arm the bomb.
Moreover, having US Nuclear weapons on their territory only guarantees that Russia will target Poland with VERY MANY nuclear bombs to make certain Poland cannot achieve anything with any bombs they might get.
So what is Poland actually thinking? Unless they want to get our bombs, disassemble them, take out the enriched nuclear cores, install those cores in Polish-made bombs, then use them . . .
Việt Nam and China have issued a joint press statement on the occasion of Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s official visit to China and attendance at the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin from June 25-28.
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang hosts a welcome ceremony for Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính in Beijing on June 26, 2023. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam and China have issued a joint press statement on the occasion of Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s official visit to China and attendance at the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin from June 25-28.
During the visit, PM Chính met with Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping and held talks with Premier Li Qiang. He also had meetings with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China Zhao Leji, and Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Wang Huning.
The two sides have informed each other about the situation of their respective parties and countries, engaging in in-depth discussions and reaching important shared understandings on deepening the Việt Nam-China comprehensive strategic cooperation in the new context; as well as on international and regional issues of mutual concern.
They agreed to continue effectively implementing the joint statement on further deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Việt Nam and China, which was issued during Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s visit to China last year.
They agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and strengthen party-to-party, government-to-government, and parliamentary exchanges between countries. They agreed to enhance mutual learning and exchange experiences in promoting the cause of socialism building and seeking distinctive modernisation paths in each country. They vowed to promote the overall coordination role of the Việt Nam-China steering committee for bilateral cooperation in deepening exchanges and collaboration in such key areas as diplomacy, defence, law enforcement, trade and economy, and culture.
Việt Nam considers the development of relations with China as a strategic choice and top priority, while China views Việt Nam as a priority direction for its neighbourhood diplomacy. Both sides said they will engage in in-depth discussions on related specific measures.
The two sides concurred to actively promote strategic connectivity, accelerate joint work in building a high-quality “Belt and Road” initiative, strengthen connectivity in border roads and railways, build a multi-modal and efficient logistics system, accelerate the upgrading and connectivity of their border infrastructure, and promote smart border cooperation. They will step up mutual learning and exchange between their state-owned enterprises; explore opportunities to foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation in key mineral sectors. Việt Nam pledges a favourable business climate for Chinese enterprises investing in the country.
The two sides agreed to enhance friendship exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation between localities, especially border ones, raise the awareness of the two countries’ people, especially youths, about the bilateral friendship, and well organise exchange programmes, including the Việt Nam-China Youth Friendship Meeting, the Việt Nam-China border people festival, and the Việt Nam-China People’s Forum.
They will seriously materialise important common perceptions reached by leaders of the two Parties and countries, and the Agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues, satisfactorily control disagreements at sea, foster maritime cooperation, and work together to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea).
Việt Nam and China will also push ahead with the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and on the basis of negotiation and consensus, soon reach a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).
The Vietnamese side affirmed that it consistently supports the “One-China” principle.
On the basis of equality and mutual respect, the two countries will cooperate in human rights issues, promote dialogue and international cooperation in this field, and resolutely oppose the politicisation of human rights issues.
The two sides consented to persist in true multilateralism, work together to safeguard international justice and fairness, and enhance coordination in major international and regional issues.
They will maintain coordination and mutual support within international and regional frameworks such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, ASEAN-China Cooperation, and Mekong-Lancang Cooperation, while effectively implementing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Việt Nam supports China’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in accordance with standards and procedures of the agreement.
During the visit, the two premiers witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in market supervision, smart border gate development, and less-sensitive sea-related fields.
The two sides shared the view that the official visit to China by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính was a great success, helping deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, for peace, stability, and development in the region and the world at large.
PM Chính has on the occassion invited Premier Li Qiang to visit Việt Nam. The Chinese leader accepted the invitation with pleasure. — VNS
It was October 2016. At the UMass Club in Boston, Tom Ashbrook was set to interview the Woz for an alumni event. When I heard about this, I simply had to go. I had to meet the legend and get his autograph on my working Apple II.
Ticket prices were a staggering $250, so I called the event organizer and asked if I could volunteer for free entry. She said yes!!
So there I was in Boston, clutching my Apple II as I waited to be let in to his room. When Woz saw me and the artifact I was holding, he smiled and turned towards me. He started telling me about the making of the original Apple I and how he got color to work for the Apple II series. He also told me about his devotion to circuitry since a very young age.
When it was finally time to get his signature, I offered him a marker I brought. He then told me that I must be uncreative, because I couldn’t predict that he would bring a marker of his own. Simultaneously, he whipped out his personal marker. I just stood there with my mouth open; what could I possibly say!? I was too happy to care, and posed for the following picture.
Yesterday I took my young son to see a property I just closed.
He was in shock.
“What piece of JUNK did you buy, dad? Why waste your money on this?”
I laughed and asked, “Why is it that I find opportunity here, while you see a massive problem?
“But how can this be an opportunity, dad? The place is in ruins!”
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It’s incredible how our reality is determined by how we perceive the world around us…
— While one is giving constructive feedback, the other person may feel criticized and offended.
— While some may feel they’re making the best use of their time, others will feel they’re wasting it.
Our beliefs, values, experiences, and even our mood will massively influence our perspectives.
I enjoyed helping my son change his perspective and visualize the opportunity I had found on this property.
It’s important to note that without his willingness to listen to me, his wrongful perspective wouldn’t have changed.
This made me think how important it is for us to stop, analyze and LISTEN to our trusted friends and advisors before we settle our ideas on stone.
Chinese ambassador wear Mao suit to meet Biden
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He’s EXPOSING The UFO Secret Access Programs
Hey! He is saying that I have been saying for years. LOL! Plus lots of other things, curious. But don’t go too far down the “rabbit hole”. Just pay attention to the overview. Not the details.
So, after watching this video…
Now you know WHY I refer to reptilians, and Tall Greys as a “joke”. Stage-play, and other cover activities that are unbelievable, but used to hide the real truths.
Lots of reverse engineering stuff. But I was involved in actual work with DOMAIN.
Now you know WHY my entire section was “retired”.
Now you know WHY everyone in my MAJ branch fled to China when we had the opportunity.
“I can play dirty, but you can't, it's in the rule book”-From HERE. United States administrator when asked why China cannot adopt the same policies that the United States routinely uses.
You know, I like Ron Unz. His site “UNZ” often has stuff; opinion and news that you will not find anywhere else. But Lordy! Is it full of racism! It drives me insane, and it’s really bothersome. I get it, you know. I understand the why. But I really don’t want to read about Jews this, and blacks that! Please.
I HATE it!
When The Garden of the Saker was up, I enjoyed it as well. But the comments were so filled with racism and hate that I just stopped reading them. Then Andre quit. He left the stage, and the Saker is no longer.
Sigh.
Life moves on…
Call me a wimp, if you will. But I want to live a sheltered life. One free of racism, and harsh opinions about broad brush-strokes about someones culture, society, color of skin, or tattoos. I don’t want to read that junk.
It gives me a headache. Ugh!
Especially if it is a ‘Bot, a mindless 11-year old, or a government paid troll. The United States is too fucked up right now.
Ugh!
Now… on to bigger and better things. You all know that I have been trying to hunt down this mysterious movie about a girl who starts work at a software campus, only to discover that she is a computer program. I’m still looking. Haven’t found it yet.
Here’s my list so far.
THE LIST
1954 — Tobor the Great — This science fiction film tells the story of a young boy, his grandfather, and his best friend — who just so happens to be a robot — as they work together to stay safe from the group of communist agents on their tail. Starring Charles Drake and Karin Booth.
1956 — 1984 — In a dystopian world, society is closely monitored by Big Brother, an omnipotent force for government surveillance. One man breaks the rules by falling in love and must pay a heavy price. Based on the novel by George Orwell.
1965 — Alphaville — A secret agent goes to the futuristic city of Alphaville to find a missing person and eventually stop the ruling dictator, professor von Braun, and his sentient computer system, Alpha 60.
1967 — Billion Dollar Brain — In this espionage thriller, Michael Caine stars as Harry Palmer, a former secret agent who unexpectedly becomes involved with a frenzied Texas oil baron (Ed Begley) working to eradicate Communism with a supercomputer.
1968 — 2001: A Space Odyssey — A group of astronauts is sent on a mysterious mission alongside the AI supercomputer H.A.L. 9000. What follows is an intense battle between man and machine, resulting in a mystifying journey through space and time.
1968 — Hot Millions — Peter Ustinov plays an embezzler who bypasses a mainframe computer’s security system to pay invoices from his fictitious companies.
1969 — The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes — Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) fixes a computer during an electrical storm and gets shocked. The computer’s brain has fused with his, and he’s a genius.
1969 — The Italian Job — A robber (Michael Caine) recently released from prison gets help from a group of Britain’s most infamous computer hackers to steal gold bullion from underneath the noses of the Italian police and mafia. One of the film’s most famous scenes is a massive traffic jam caused by hacking the city’s traffic control computer.
1970 — Colossus: The Forbin Project — Massive computer systems from the U.S. — “Colossus” — and Russia — “Guardian” — connect to each other. Nuclear war is threatened.
1971 — Paper Man — Five bored college students take advantage of a computer glitch and create a fictitious person, but the prank backfires.
1971 — THX 1138 — Set in a futuristic, state-controlled environment, this film follows a man and a woman, named THX 1138 and LUH 3417, respectively, as they instill a revolution upon their strictly-governed and closely-watched society.
1973 — Westworld — For one thousand dollars a day, guests of a futuristic theme park can visit recreations of different time periods and experience their wildest fantasies with lifelike androids. Pals Blane (James Brolin) and Martin (Richard Benjamin) have chosen to visit Westworld and walk the lawless streets of the American frontier. Their fantasies turn to terror, however, when a duel with a robotic gunslinger (Yul Brynner) goes terribly wrong.
1974 — The Conversation — Gene Hackman plays a surveillance expert using high-tech equipment (back in the day) to spy on a couple he fears may be in danger. Nominated for three Oscars.
1975 — Three Days of the Condor — CIA codebreaker Robert Redford tries to figure out why his own agency wants him dead.
1977 — Demon Seed — This science fiction horror film tells the story of Proteus IV, a sentient supercomputer made from artificial intelligence, who goes to incredible and dangerous lengths to attempt to become human.
1982 — Tron — One of the earliest hacking films. A computer engineer learns an executive at his company has been stealing his work and is launched into the world of virtual reality.
1983 — Brainstorm — Researchers Michael Brace (Christopher Walken) and Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) develop a system that allows the recording and playback of a person’s thoughts onto videotape. The project spins out of control when the technology is used to explore intense sexual and near-death experiences.
1983 — Superman III — Richard Pryor plays Gus Gorman, a hacker who is caught skimming from his company’s payroll through a program he developed and is then blackmailed to help turn Superman evil.
1983 — WarGames — High school student (Matthew Broderick) hacks into a military supercomputer in this classic and activates the U.S. nuclear arsenal, at a time when most people didn’t know what hacking was.
1984 — Cloak and Dagger — When 11-year-old Davey sees the murder of an FBI agent, the dying man hands him an Atari video game cartridge with military secrets. With Dabney Coleman.
1984 — Electric Dreams — Set in San Francisco, this science fiction romantic comedy is about a love triangle between an architect, a cellist, and a personal computer.
1984 — Hide and Seek — A young computer enthusiast develops a kind of artificial intelligence program named “Gregory P1.” To ensure its survival, the computer contacts other computers and begins to fight the humans. It also hooks into the mainframe computer of a nuclear power plant.
1985 — Brazil — When Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) gets involved in a case of mistaken identity, he’s labeled as an enemy of the state by the powerful, technology-dependent bureaucracy controlling his society. On a quest to rectify the wrong, Sam meets the woman of his dreams, but, unbeknownst to him, she may be a terrorist.
1985 — Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age — This documentary about the hacker community includes footage of interviews with some of the programmers that created the PC revolution, including Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Filmed at a hacker conference held in Sausalito, Calif.
1985 — Max Headroom — This science fiction drama tells the origin story of its eponymous character, Max Headroom, an artificially intelligent, computer-generated television host. This film was later repurposed to serve as the pilot for a British series of the same name.
1985 — Prime Risk — Computer-savvy lovers scam Automated Teller Machines and plot to sink the Federal Reserve.
1985 — Real Genius — Two teenagers working on a laser project at a prestigious engineering college begin to question the true purpose of their work when the government steps in with intentions to use their project as a military-grade weapon. Starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret.
1985 — Weird Science — Teenagers Gary and Wyatt design their ideal woman on a computer, and a freak electrical accident brings her to life in the form of the lovely, superhuman Lisa.
1986 — Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — A high school student (Matthew Broderick) who wants the day off breaks into his school’s computer system and changes grades and attendance records.
1987 — Bellman and True — Computer expert Hiller (Bernard Hill) finds himself unemployed and is bribed into stealing confidential computer information for a group of bank robbers. He gets the job done but makes the mistake of thinking he’s seen the last of the criminals; little does Hiller know they’ve tracked him and his son to London.
1987 — Terminal Entry — Picking up where War Games left off, this film tells the story of a group of high school students who unknowingly hack into the network of a dangerous terrorist organization under the impression they’re simply playing a game — but the acts of terror caused by their actions are no joke.
1988 — Defense Play — After her father is mysteriously killed while working on a project for the U.S. Air Force, Karen (Susan Ursitti) joins forces with Scott (David Oliver), and together, the two computer-savvy students open their own investigation into the murder.
1990 — Circuitry Man — In a dystopian society, narcotics come in the form of a microchip, heavily sought after by Earth’s remaining inhabitants — two of whom are a bio-android and a female bodyguard who, after stealing said microchips, find themselves being tracked by a dangerous criminal.
1990 — Demolition Man — The year is 2032 in San Angeles, a utopian city created by the citizens of Southern California. When a violent criminal breaks out and threatens the societal peace, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is awoken from 36 years spent cryogenically frozen in ice to capture the fugitive, but he becomes distracted when forced to adapt to the future society made up of voice-controlled devices, autonomous connected cars, and more.
1990 — Hardware — Starring Dylan McDermott, this film — set in a post-apocalyptic America — follows a former soldier who unknowingly gifts his girlfriend spare parts from a self-rebuilding, murderous cyborg.
1990 — The KGB, The Computer and Me — In 1986, Clifford Stoll, an astronomer turned computer scientist, began working on a computer system at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. At the time, two accounting programs were responsible for charging people for machine use. When Stoll discovered a 75-cent discrepancy in the normally flawless programs, he began to investigate and eventually uncovered an undocumented user named “Hunter.” As he dug deeper, he realized that Hunter had hacked into the system and installed new programs. His investigation eventually led him and U.S. intelligence to the realization that Hunter was a computer programmer who worked for the KGB.
1991 — Terminator 2: Judgment Day — A cyborg protects Sarah Connor’s teenage son John from another cyborg intent on killing him.
1992 — The Lawnmower Man —Resembling “Frankenstein,” this science fiction horror film tells the story of a scientist (Pierce Brosnan) and his experiment: a once-simple man (Jeff Fahey) who, through the power of mind-enhancing medication and computer-simulated training sessions, becomes a genius. But it isn’t long before this experiment spirals out of control.
1992 — Single White Female — A woman (played by Bridget Fonda) advertises for a roommate. She soon discovers that her new roommate is a hacker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) intent on stealing her identity.
1992 — Sneakers — A Hacker (Robert Redford) leads a team of experts who test the security of San Francisco companies. They discover a black box that can crack any encryption, posing a huge threat if it lands in the wrong hands… including rogue NSA agents.
1993 — American Cyborg: Steel Warrior — When a fleet of murderous cyborgs threatens the remaining life on Earth after a nuclear war, two of the last humans join forces to save the future of their race. A nail-biting battle ensues.
1993 — Frauds — An insurance investigator (Phil Collins) uses games and gimmicks to manipulate the lives of others, including a couple who make an unusual insurance claim. He approves the claim but makes bizarre demands as ransom.
1993 — Ghost in the Machine — A computer-powered MRI machine extracts a serial murderer’s soul, and becomes a deadly technological weapon.
1993 — Jurassic Park — Seinfeld’s nemesis “Newman” (Dennis Nery) plays an IT guy who hacks his way into a coup that involves him stealing dinosaur DNA to sell to the highest bidder.
1993 — Knights — Set in a futuristic world devastated by war, this science fiction thriller tells the story of Gabriel (Kris Kristofferson), a cyborg, and Nea (Kathy Long), a young girl, who — despite being an unlikely duo — team up against their planet’s dominant, blood-thirsty army of cyborgs to save the human race.
1994 — Disclosure — Starring Demi Moore and Michael Douglas, this thriller balances both the virtual and physical worlds, telling the story of a senior executive at a technology company who’s on track for a big promotion — that is, until his fate falls into the hands of his ex-girlfriend, who is determined to revive their relationship … with or without consent.
1994 — Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II — The sequel to 1990’s Circuitry Man follows a female FBI agent and an android named Danner as they track down Plughead — a notorious criminal known for making and selling microchips that promise an extended life to those who take them.
1995 — Ghost in the Shell — In this animated Japanese sci-fi epic, a cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a cybercriminal called the Puppet Master, who hacks into the brains of cyborgs to get information and use it to commit crimes. (Scarlett Johansson stars in a 2017 live-action remake.)
1995 — GoldenEye — James Bond tries to stop a Russian crime syndicate from using a stolen space-based weapons program and falls into the clutches of an evil genius who plans to rule Earth from cyberspace.
1995 — Hackers —A teenage hacker is back on the scene seven years after being banned from computers for writing a virus that caused the biggest stock exchange crash in history. He and his friends must prove that a sinister superhacker is framing them for a plot to embezzle funds from a large oil company with a computer worm. With Angelina Jolie.
1995 — Johnny Mnemonic — A computer chip implanted in his brain allows a human data trafficker (Keanu Reeves) to securely store and transport data too sensitive for regular computer networks. When he gets a valuable package that exceeds the chip’s storage capacity, the mnemonic courier must deliver the data within 24 hours or die. Assassins are intent on helping him do just that.
1995 — Judge Dredd — Judge Dredd (Sylvester Stallone) is sent to a penal colony for a murder he didn’t commit. On his way there, he gets an unexpected sidekick when he reunites with Herman “Fergee” Ferguson (Rob Schneider), a hacker he previously busted for destruction of property.
1995 — The Net — A computer programmer (Sandra Bullock) who lives a reclusive life is looking forward to time off when she becomes aware of a conspiracy. Her vacation turns into a nightmare when someone tries to kill her and her identity is stolen. She must prove who she is while trying to figure out why someone wants her dead.
1995 — Under Siege 2: Dark Territory — Steven Seagal returns as ex-Navy SEAL Casey Ryback in this sequel to Under Siege, which finds Ryback and his niece Sarah (Katherine Heigl) on a train headed from Denver to Los Angeles. When the train is hijacked by a psychotic computer genius and his fellow terrorist, who need it for their plot to take control of a top-secret satellite, Ryback enlists the help of a train porter (Morris Chestnut) to foil their plan.
1996 — Independence Day — In an epic fight against an alien race, computer expert David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) achieves a crucial win when he hacks into the fleet of spaceships coming toward Earth, infecting them with a virus and putting a stop to the looming alien invasion.
1996 — Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace — On a mission for world domination, Jobe (Matt Frewer), a virtual reality-based consciousness, is determined to hack into all the world’s computers, but his plans are thwarted by Peter (Austin O’Brien) and Benjamin (Patrick Bergin), whose unfaltering passion to save the world — and cyberspace — inspires an all-out war.
1996 — Omega Doom — In a world dominated by violent cyborgs, there is little-to-no hope for what’s left of humanity … that is, until one such cyborg — Omega Doom — is struck in the head, causing his wires to short and recircut, leading to a newfound interest in defeating his own kind.
1997 — Masterminds — The new security chief at a prestigious private school plans to even a score by kidnapping several of the wealthy students and holding them for ransom. A teenage computer hacker, expelled from the school for pulling pranks, thwarts his plans.
1998 — 23 — After an orphan invests some of his inheritance in a home computer, he begins discussing conspiracy theories inspired by a novel on bulletin boards. He’s soon hacking military and government computers with a friend. Based on a true story.
1998 — Enemy of the State — A lawyer (Will Smith) isn’t aware that a videotape in his possession proves a congressman was murdered for opposing surveillance legislation. When he becomes the target of a corrupt NSA official and his life begins to fall apart, he enlists the help of an ex-intelligence operative (Gene Hackman).
1998 — Mercury Rising (Code Mercury) — A renegade FBI agent (Bruce Willis) must protect a 9-year-old autistic boy who has cracked encrypted government code that was supposed to be unbreakable.
1998 — Pi — Is there a mathematical key that can unlock the universal patterns in nature? If found, can that key predict anything — even the stock market? A brilliant, obsessed, and paranoid mathematician who barricades himself in a room filled with computer equipment intends to find that key, but might go mad while doing so.
1998 — Webmaster — In this Danish sci-fi thriller, a powerful crime leader hires a hacker to monitor the security of his computer operations. When someone else hacks into the database, the webmaster must go to extremes to find him, or die within 35 hours.
1999 — Entrapment — An undercover art investigator (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is intent on tracking down and capturing a renowned thief (Sean Connery). They end up attempting a heist together.
1999 — eXistenZ — Computer programmer Allegra Geller’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) latest creation, the hyper-realistic virtual reality game eXistenZ, takes a dangerous turn when a crazed assassin becomes intent on destroying it. With help from Ted Pikul (Jude Law), Allegra sets out to save the game, and her life.
1999 — The Matrix — In a dystopian future, humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality created by intelligent machines to distract humans while they use their bodies as an energy source. A computer programmer / hacker known as Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers the truth and joins forces with other rebels to free humankind.
1999 — Office Space —They’re supposed to be part of one big happy family, but three computer programmers hate their jobs and their boss. They concoct a scheme to embezzle small amounts of money from the high-tech company that employs them, but a mistake results in a bigger theft than planned. With Jennifer Anniston.
1999 — NetForce — In the year 2005, NetForce, a division of the FBI, is tasked with protecting the Net from terrorism. A loophole in a browser allows someone to gain control of the Internet and all the information it holds. Now the commander of NetForce must stop him, as he also tracks down a killer.
1999 — Pirates of Silicon Valley — This biographical drama about the development of the personal computer and the rivalry between Apple Computer and Microsoft spans the years 1971 – 1997. Noah Wyle portrays Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall stars as Bill Gates.
1999 — The Thirteenth Floor — This science-fiction neo-noir film begins in 1999 in Los Angeles when the inventor of a newly completed virtual reality simulation of the city in 1937 is murdered. A computer scientist he has mentored (played by Craig Bierko) becomes the primary suspect and begins to doubt his own innocence because of the evidence against him. He eventually enters the simulation to unravel the truth and realizes nothing is as it seems.
2000 — Charlie’s Angels — Working for the reclusive millionaire Charlie ( John Forsythe), Angels Natalie (Cameron Diaz), Dylan (Drew Barrymore) and Alex (Lucy Liu) take on the case of a young high-tech genius (Sam Rockwell) who has been kidnapped. Part of the action involves employing a variety of disguises and technological tricks to enter a master computer’s massively protected mainframe.
2000 — Hackers in Wonderland — This documentary on hackers in the United Kingdom and in the United States includes interviews with prominent hackers who reveal what drives them. The hackers include ColdFire, Phobos, and cyberjunkie.
2000 — Takedown — Also known as “Track Down,” the controversial movie version of the manhunt for legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick is based on the book by Tsutomu Shimomura, “Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw – By The Man Who Did It.”
2001 — A.I. Artificial Intelligence — In this Pinocchio-esque tale, David (Haley Joel Osment) — a sentient, artificially-created robot — wishes to become a real boy, longing for a stronger connection with his human mother.
2001 — Antitrust — When a college graduate (Ryan Phillippe) gets a job writing software at a multi-billion dollar computer company, he has no idea that the founder (Tim Robbins) and new mentor is hiding dark secrets. Is there anyone he can trust?
2001 — The Code — This documentary covers the first decade of GNU/Linux and features some of the most influential people of the free software (FOSS) movement.
2001 — Freedom Downtime — This documentary covers the plight of convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, from the standpoint that Miramax misrepresented him in the film “Takedown.” It includes the story of several computer enthusiasts who confront Miramax reps about their discontent with aspects of the script, including the film’s ending.
2001 — Revolution OS — The history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements is traced in this documentary. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs.
2001 — The Score — An aging safecracker (Robert De Niro) plans to retire, but his fence (Marlon Brando) talks him into one final score, stealing one of Canada’s natural treasures hidden in the basement of a Customs House. He joins forces with another thief (Edward Norton) who hires someone to hack into the Custom House’s security system, but things go wrong.
2001 — Secret History of Hacking — The focus of this documentary is phreaking, computer hacking, and social engineering occurring from the 1970s through the 1990s. John Draper, Steve Wozniak, and Kevin Mitnick are prominently featured.
2001 — Swordfish — A spy named Gabriel (John Travolta) plots to steal a large fortune. He enlists Ginger (Halle Berry) to persuade Stanley (Hugh Jackman), who spent two years in prison for hacking an FBI program, to help. But what is Gabriel really up to, and who or what is really behind the plot?
2002 — Catch Me if You Can — Frank Abagnale is one of the world’s most respected authorities on forgery, embezzlement, and secure documents. His riveting story provided the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent fast on his heels.
2002 — Cypher — Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) is an accountant turned corporate spy working for a global computer corporation. When a mysterious woman suggests his job isn’t what it seems, Morgan ascends into a complicated world of brainwashing, where he struggles to maintain his true identity.
2002 — Half the Rent — Otherwise known as Halbe Miete, this film follows a computer hacker (Stephan Kampwirth) who, after the sudden death of his girlfriend, breaks into — and camps out at — other people’s apartments when they’re not home. But when what started as a temporary solution to homelessness becomes a dangerous obsession, will the risk outweigh the reward?
2002 — Minority Report — It’s 2054 and a specialized Pre-Crime police department in D.C. stops crimes before they are committed based on information from Pre-Cogs, three psychic beings who channel their visions into a computer. When they accuse the unit chief (Tom Cruise) of a future murder, he becomes a fugitive, hunted by his own department.
2002 — Storm Watch — A champion player of virtual reality games must suddenly race against time to stop a criminal mastermind who has stolen his identify from destroying the world with a weather satellite. Also known as “Code Hunter.”
2002 — Terminal Error — A former employee of a major software company gets even with the president by planting a computer virus on an MP3 and giving it to his son. His plan is to crash the computer terminals, but the virus has a mind of its own and begins to take out large portions of the city. Father and son must create their own virus to stop the chaos.
2003 — Code 46 — In a dystopian world, citizens are forbidden to travel outside their cities without special permits from the totalitarian government. When forged permits start to circulate, William Gold (Tim Robbins) is tasked with investigating, finding, and taking down the individual responsible, though he never expects to fall in love with her.
2003 — The Core — After several bizarre incidents across the globe, a geophysicist and scientists determine that the planet’s molten core has stopped rotating and that the magnetic field will collapse within a year. They devise a plan to bore down to the core and set off nuclear explosions to restart the rotation and enlist a hacker to scour the internet and eliminate all traces of the pending disaster to prevent worldwide panic.
2003 — Foolproof — Kevin (Ryan Reynolds) is part of a friend group with an odd hobby: they plan heists, yet never carry them out despite being perfectly able to do so. But when their plans fall into the wrong hands, the friends are thrust into the criminal world as they’re forced to carry out a jewelry warehouse heist that was never supposed to see the light of day.
2003 — In the Realm of the Hackers — This documentary reveals how and why two Australian teenager computer hackers, Electron and Phoenix, stole a restructured computer security list in the late 1980s and used it to break into some of the world’s most classified and secure computer systems.
2003 — The Italian Job — After a thief (Edward Norton) turns on his partners and gets away with the gold they’ve stolen in a heist, his former team seeks revenge.
2003 — The Matrix Reloaded — With the help of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and other freedom fighters, more and more humans have been freed from the Matrix and brought to Zion. But 250,000 machines are digging towards the stronghold and will reach them in 72 hours, so they must prepare for war.
2003 — Paycheck — Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) makes good money working on top-secret projects and then agreeing to have his memory erased, until a payment of $92 million for a three-year assignment is canceled. With his life in danger, he must get help from a scientist (Uma Thurman) he doesn’t remember dating to figure out the importance of seemingly random items.
2004 — One Point O — Simon (Jeremy Sisto), a young, paranoid computer programmer, finds himself on the receiving end of a series of mysteriously empty packages. Little does he know these deliveries are only the tip of a reality-bending iceberg that will change his life forever.
2004 — Paranoia 1.0 — A computer programmer receives mysterious empty packages inside his apartment and tries to find out who’s sending them, why, and who he can trust. Also known as “One Point O.”
2005 — V for Vendetta — In a dystopian future, a tyrannical British government imposes a strict curfew following the outbreak of a virus. An anarchist in a smiling Guy Fawkes mask seeks revenge with the help of a young woman and hacks into the television network to urge others to revolt against tyranny.
2006 — Deja Vu — Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is an ATF agent working to capture the terrorist responsible for a ferry bombing that killed hundreds. Using an advanced form of surveillance technology, Doug travels back in time, on a mission to prevent the crime, but his newfound obsession with one of the victims puts everything at risk.
2006 — The Departed — Boston police officer Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover to infiltrate — and take down — the dangerous Irish gang tearing up his city, led by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Becoming consumed by his secret life, Billy loses sight of his mission, though everything comes back into perspective when a career criminal infiltrates and begins threatening the police department.
2006 — Firewall — When his family is taken hostage, a security specialist (Harrison Ford) who designs theft-proof computer systems for financial institutions must break into his own system and steal millions of dollars to pay off their ransom.
2006 — Hacking Democracy — This documentary investigates allegations of election fraud during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. It follows Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting, a nonprofit consumer-protection group, and other citizen activists who set out to uncover flaws in the voting system.
2006 — In Ascolto — Also known as The Listening, this film takes inspiration from the mass surveillance operations of the National Security Agency (NSA), chronicling the experience of a spy (Michael Parks) working undercover to get on the inside of a counter-listening station in the Italian Alps.
2006 — Man of the Year — A satirical political talk show host (Robin Williams) runs for president and gets elected with the help of fans who begin a grassroots campaign. It’s later revealed that his presidency was the result of a computerized voting machine malfunction.
2006 — The Net 2.0 — A young computer systems analyst arrives in Istanbul to start a new job, but finds out her identity has been stolen. She must catch who did it to get her life back.
2006 — Pulse — In this remake of a Japanese horror film, a student is shocked when her boyfriend, a computer hacker, commits suicide. Then she and her friends receive online messages from him, asking for help. Another computer hacker must help her stop a supernatural plague traveling through the network.
2006 — A Scanner Darkly — This computer-animated adaptation of Philip K Dick’s 1977 sci-fi novel is set in the near-future. The U.S.’s war on drugs, particularly a hyper-addictive substance called D (for Death), prompts the enforcement of a police state that uses numberless surveillance scanners.
2007 — Bourne Ultimatum — Operative Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) teams up with an investigative reporter to find the people who betrayed him, while a ruthless CIA official and his team continue to track him down in the hopes of assassinating him before he gets his memory back.
2007 — Breach – This docudrama is based on the events leading up to the capture of FBI Agent Robert Hanssen, convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. A low-level surveillance expert gets promoted and assigned to work with Hanssen, unaware that he is to find proof that he is a traitor.
2007 — Every Step You Take — This documentary is an in-depth look at modern-day Britain and its Orwell-esque levels of government surveillance. It explores the pros and cons of CCTV, highlighted by commentary from notable experts in the field.
2007 — Live Free or Die Hard — As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day, a disgruntled government security agent launches an attack on America’s computer infrastructure. Veteran cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) and a young hacker must help the F.B.I.’s cyber division take him down.
2008 — 21 — Six Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students hack their way to success — and millions of dollars — in Las Vegas casinos by counting cards until casino enforcer Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) thwarts their plans. Based on a true story.
2008 — Download: The True Story of the Internet — Told through personal accounts from the founders of Yahoo, eBay, Google, Amazon, and many others, this documentary tells the story of how the internet became what it is today.
2008 — Eagle Eye — Two strangers, Jerry and Rachel, come together after receiving mysterious calls from a woman they never met. She threatens their lives and family to push them into a series of dangerous situations, controlling their actions using cellphones and other technology.
2008 — Hackers are People Too — Hackers created this documentary to portray their community and break down negative stereotypes. It describes what hacking is, how hackers think, and discusses women in the field.
2008 — Untraceable — Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) of the Cyber Crimes Division of the FBI in Portland tries to track down a psychopathic hacker killing people online in live streaming video. As his site gets more hits, victims die faster.
2008 — WarGames: The Dead Code 2008 — Is an American teen hacker playing a terrorist-attack simulator game online a real terrorist intent on destroying the United States? That’s what Homeland Security believes and they set out to apprehend him.
2009 — Echelon Conspiracy — When tech whiz Max Peterson (Shane West) gets sent a mysterious cell phone in the mail, he’s unsure of where it came from or what it is — until it starts sending instructions on how to win at the local casino. But it isn’t long before Max’s newfound luck puts him at the center of a dangerous government conspiracy dealing with the world’s security cameras. Will he make it out alive?
2009 — Eyeborgs — In the aftermath of a major terrorist attack, government surveillance in the U.S. is taken to the next level via robotic cameras called “Eyeborgs,” which track and monitor all citizens for suspicious behavior. But when photographic evidence from the Eyeborgs doesn’t line up with the facts in an ongoing murder investigation, a federal agent starts to wonder, who’s really controlling these cameras and what do they want?
2009 — Gamer — Controlled by a teenage gamer’s remote device, death-row inmate Kable must battle fellow prisoners every week in a violent online game. Can he survive enough sessions to gain his freedom, free his wife from avatar slavery, and take down the game’s inventor?
2009 — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — A journalist searches for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years, with the help of a young female hacker. When they unravel dark family secrets, they must protect themselves. This Swedish language film was remade in English in 2011.
2009 — Hackers Wanted — This unreleased American documentary originally named “Can You Hack It?” follows the adventures of Adrian Lamo, a famous hacker, and explores the origins of hacking and nature of hackers.
2009 — Shadow Government — What impact does the technological landscape have on our daily lives? This documentary, led by Grant Jeffrey, explores exactly how much of our lives are being digitized and observed in the modern era.
2009 — Transcendent Man — The subject of this documentary from filmmaker Robert Barry Ptolemy is Ray Kurzweil, inventor, futurist and author, and his predictions about the future of technology, presented in his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Ptolemy follows Kurzweil on his world speaking tour, where he discusses his thoughts on the technological singularity, a proposed advancement that will occur sometime in the 21st century due to progress in artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics.
2009 — We Live in Public — Directed by Ondi Timoner, this documentary profiles Josh Harris, “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.” An early dot.com entrepreneur, Harris founded Psuedo.com, an early streaming content service. In 1999, he began an experiment called “Quiet,” in which 100 men and women agreed to give up their privacy to live together under constant video surveillance, so their lives could be streamed online.
2010 — Inception — A thief (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can enter people’s dreams and steal their secrets begins using his gift for corporate espionage. Can he also plant an idea into someone’s mind? The film won four Oscars.
2010 — The Social Network — Jesse Eisenberg portrays Harvard student and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg in this drama about the creation of a social networking site that would become Facebook.
2010 — Tron Legacy — In this revamped Tron continuation, Sam (Garrett Hedlund) searches in and out of the computer world for his father, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a brilliant computer programmer.
2011 — Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol — When mega-spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, he and others from his agency, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), must prove their innocence.
2011 — StuxNet: Cyberwar — First discovered in 2010, the StuxNet computer worm marked the beginning of a new era in cybercrime, attacking — and causing substantial damage to — an Iranian nuclear program. This documentary explores the malware’s origins alongside its contributions to the advancement of cyber warfare technology.
2012 — Code 2600 — This documentary explores the rise of the Information Technology Age through the eyes of the people who helped build it and the events that shaped it.
2012 — Genius on Hold — The downfall of Walter L. Shaw, a telecommunications genius who became destitute, and his disillusioned son, who became a notorious jewel thief, are the subjects of this documentary.
2012 — Owned & Operated — Using the lens of the internet, this documentary proves just how much we matter … as consumers, that is. Society today practically lives for privileged individuals — celebrities and politicians, among others — unknowingly adhering to their wicked ways of gaining control, but there is an awakening on the horizon, and it’s going to change everything.
2012 – Panopticon – Living in the digital age, do we really have privacy? This documentary examines how much our daily lives are controlled and watched by omnipresent surveillance, which — as technology advances — has only become harder to avoid.
2012 — Reboot — A young female hacker can’t remember a traumatic event that leaves her with an iPhone glued to her hand. The phone’s timer is counting down to zero and fellow hackers must help her solve the puzzle.
2012 — Shadows of Liberty — Should we trust the media? This documentary examines the five big for-profit conglomerates that control 90 percent of U.S.-based media, raising questions of who to believe in today’s political, economical, and social world.
2012 — Skyfall — James Bond (Daniel Craig) must prove he still has what it takes as he tracks down the source of a cyber-terror attack at M16 headquarters and goes up against a genius hacker.
2012 — Tracked Down — Directed by Paul Moreira, this documentary explains how governments around the world monitor their citizens through advanced electronic warfare equipment — equipment that has fallen into the hands of repressive dictatorial regimes in Libya, Syria and Bahrain. Moreira reveals how the technology can be traded in stealth and traces these deals to their source.
2012 — Underground: The Julian Assange Story — This Australian film follows the early career of the WikiLeaks founder, from his start as a teenage computer hacker in Melbourne.
2013 — The Assange Agenda: Surveillance, Democracy and You — At what point does government surveillance put democracy at risk? According to Julian Assange — founder of Wikileaks — we’re already there. This documentary explores what may lay ahead for today’s digital world if we don’t gain control over the various agencies spying on us.
2013 — Big Data: The Shell Investigation — In the digital age, a journalist’s sources are endless — when consulting big data, that is. This documentary showcases how a team of journalists used easily accessible channels, such as LinkedIn and Wikipedia, to piece together the truth about Royal Dutch Shell’s two-billion-dollar debt to the Iranian government.
2013 — The Bling Ring — Nicki (Emma Watson) and her fame-obsessed group of friends will do anything to make a name for themselves in Hollywood, including breaking into — and robbing — the homes of elite celebrities, which, if not for the internet, would never have been possible.
2013 — DEFCON: The Documentary — The world’s largest hacking conference, DEFCON, has long since had a strict no-camera policy … until now. This documentary follows the four days of DEFCON’s 20th-anniversary event, highlighted by commentary from attendees and staff.
2013 — Disconnect — Three intersecting stories center around the impact of the Internet on people’s lives. The characters include a victim of cyberbullying, a lawyer who communicates constantly through his cell phone but can’t find time to connect with his family, and a couple whose secrets are exposed online.
2013 — DSKNECTD — Do electronic devices bring people together or pull them apart? This documentary examines how human interaction has changed in light of the rise of technologies such as cell phones, social media, and the internet.
2013 — The Fear That Has 1000 Eyes — This documentary looks at various terrorist attacks — New York, London, Madrid, and Oslo — and discusses how they have changed urban life, including increased electronic surveillance. It also explores the balance between the need for security and freedom.
2013 — The Fifth Estate — Based on real events, the film begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg join forces as underground watchdogs and create a platform for whistleblowers to leak covert data to expose government secrets and corporate crimes.
2013 — Goodbye World — More than one million cellphones simultaneously receive a two-word message, followed by the collapse of the power grid and widespread panic. A group of people who find shelter in a cabin soon find out what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic world.
2013 — Google and the World Brain — The Google Books Library Project is certainly ambitious, but is it feasible? This documentary examines Google’s plan to open the world’s largest virtual library, as well as the many issues that may stem from it, such as copyright infringement and lack of online privacy.
2013 — Her — In this futuristic story, a lonely writer ( Joaquin Phoenix ) develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
2013 — Identity Thief — When a woman (Melissa McCarthy) steals the identity of Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman), a financial firm account executive, and wrecks his credit rating, he sets out to confront her.
2013 — In Google We Trust — Who’s keeping tabs on your data? This revealing documentary gives viewers an inside look into how — and why — our digital interactions are tracked and recorded. If you’re worried about the consequences, watch this now.
2013 — Mickey Virus — In this Bollywood hacker comedy, Delhi Police must seek the help of a lazy hacker to solve a case.
2013 — Terms and Conditions May Apply — This documentary exposes how much the Internet and cellphone usage allows corporations and governments to learn about people.
2013 — TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard —This Swedish documentary film, directed and produced by Simon Klose, focuses on the lives of the three founders of The Pirate Bay — Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm — and the Pirate Bay trial.
2013 — The Value of Your Personal Data — Produced by the acclaimed VPRO series, this documentary discusses the companies that collect your personal data, who buys it from them, how it is used, and who owns it. It also gives advice on how you can gain back control of it and stop being targeted and manipulated.
2013 — War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State — This documentary by Robert Greenwald highlights four cases — Michael DeKort, Thomas Drake, Franz Gayl and Thomas Tamm — where American government employees and contractors exposed fraud and abuse through the media at the risk of their personal and professional lives.
2014 — Algorithm — A computer hacker who specializes in breaking into secure systems, including the telephone company and people’s personal accounts, hacks a government contractor and discovers a mysterious computer program, thrusting him into a revolution.
2014 — The Bureau of Digital Sabotage — What is privacy? This documentary argues it is nonexistent in today’s digital age, delving into our new reality and its most crucial issues by asking citizens to stand up when mass surveillance crosses the line.
2014 — Citizenfour — This documentary by Laura Poitras about whistleblower Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal includes interviews of Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013 and features work by journalist Glenn Greenwald.
2014 — Digital Amnesia — An in-depth investigation into the shelf life of digital data and the vulnerable nature in which we store information today, featuring commentary from organizations such as Internet Archive and The Archive Team.
2014 — Ex Machina — A young programmer wins a competition that makes him the human component in a groundbreaking experiment where he must evaluate the capabilities and consciousness of Ava, a breathtaking A.I.
2014 — The Hackers Wars — This documentary discusses hacktivism in the United States, including the government’s surveillance and persecution of hackers and journalists.
2014 — The Human Face of Big Data — This documentary, directed by Sandy Smolan and narrated by Joel McHale, initially focuses on Big Data’s positive aspects, such as how the massive gathering and analyzing of data in real-time through a multitude of digital devices allows us to address some of humanity’s biggest challenges and improve lives globally. It also highlights how the accessibility of this data comes at a steep price.
2014 — The Imitation Game — M16, the newly created British intelligence agency, recruits mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his team to crack the Germany’s Enigma code during World War II. Nominated for 8 Oscars.
2014 — Inside The Dark Web — Internet surveillance takes center stage in this documentary that details the pros and cons of the World Wide Web. With all types of surveillance taking place globally — government, commercial, and more — what does the future look like for those living in the digital age?
2014 — The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz — Filmmaker Brian Knappenberger explores the life and work of Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, a programming prodigy and information activist who committed suicide at the age of 26.
2014 — Killswitch — In a world where we rely so heavily on the internet, what happens if it comes under attack? This award-winning documentary centers on the threat of internet censorship and what we risk losing if we don’t fight back, such as free speech, democracy, and innovation.
2014 — Men, Women and Children — What does it mean to be a parent in the age of social media? This film follows multiple families, each with their own relationships to the internet, as they overcome various challenges, including eating disorders and video game culture.
2014 — Open Windows — A blogger finds out he’s won a dinner with an actress he devotes his website to and is disappointed when she cancels. When he gets a chance to spy on her every move with his laptop, his life gets crazy.
2014 — The Signal — Nic, who is a student at MIT, is on a road trip with two companions when an annoying computer hacker distracts them. They track him to an abandoned shack. After strange occurrences, Nik wakes up wounded and disoriented, wondering what has happened to his friends, and who are these people in space suits?
2014 — Transcendence — Dr. Will Caster, renowned artificial intelligence researcher, is on a controversial quest to create a fully sentient machine, but are the dangerous consequences that follow worth it? This science-fiction thriller stars Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, and Paul Bettany, among others.
2014 — Unfriended — a mysterious, supernatural force haunts a group of online chat room friends using the account of their dead friend.
2014 — Who Am I — A subversive hacker group intent on gaining global fame invites a young German computer whiz to join them.
2015 — Big Data: Unlocking Success — Experts from Berkeley Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Microsoft look into the use of data science and its allied fields in this documentary, noting several real-life examples, including events at Johns Hopkins University and MGM Resorts International.
2015 — Blackhat — Convicted hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) joins a team of American and Chinese technical experts to track down a Balkan cyberterrorist operating in Southeast Asia.
2015 — Cyberbully — In this made-for-TV movie, A British teenage girl (Emily Osment) retreats from family and friends when a computer hacker forces her to do his bidding, threatening to leak compromising photos of her if she doesn’t do what he asks.
2015 — Cybertopia: Dreams of Silicon Valley — A technological revolution is looming in Silicon Valley. This documentary explores the future of digitized reality, as well as how daily life has already changed as a result of the dedicated individuals residing in California’s tech headquarters.
2015 — Debug — Six young hackers assigned to fix the computer system on a vessel drifting in deep space become prey to an artificial intelligence source intent on becoming human.
2015 — Deep Web — Filmmaker Alex Winter interviews the people behind the Deep Web and bitcoin and follows the arrest and trial of Ross Ulbricht (“Dread Pirate Roberts”), founder of online black market Silk Road.
2015 — Democracy: Im Rausch der Daten — From Swiss director David Bernet, this documentary tells the story of how politicians in the EU are working to protect society from the dangers of Big Data and mass surveillance.
2015 — Digitale Dissidenten — What price do whistleblowers pay? Interviews with David Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, William Binney, Thomas Drake, Annie Machon, and Julian Assange shed light on the cost of having a conscience in the dark world of government surveillance.
2015 — Furious 7 —Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), a government operative, enlists Dominic Toretto to find a hacker who has created God’s Eye, a device that can hack any technology that uses a camera. In return, they can use the device to find and stop Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who is seeking revenge against Toretto and his crew for his comatose brother.
2015 — A Good American — This documentary film tells the story of Bill Binney, former technical director of the NSA, a group of exceptional code-breakers, and a program called ThinThread, which, if not dumped three weeks prior to 9/11, would’ve been able to stop the terrorist attacks that took almost 3,000 lives.
2015 — Hacker’s Game — A cyber-detective working for a human rights organization and a hacking expert with shady connections meet on a rooftop and bond over a game of virtual chess. Will their romance survive deception?
2015 — Jobs vs. Gates: The Hippie and The Nerd — This documentary tells the story of two of the biggest men in tech, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and the spectacular rivalry between them. Despite landing on two different sides of the battle between Mac and PC, Jobs and Gates’ mutual respect for one another endured the test of time.
2015 — Mapping the Future — Are our lives predictable? If you take the internet’s overflowing amount of data into consideration, the answer is yes. This documentary explores how the abundance of data gathered on the internet in recent years led to a mathematical algorithm for human life.
2015 — Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden — This documentary discusses what motivated Edward Snowden, an NSA analyst-turned whistleblower, to leak classified information about global surveillance programs used by the American government, leading him to flee to Hong Kong and later to Russia to evade authorities.
2015 — The Throwaways — Drew (Sam Huntington) is an infamous hacker who is captured by the CIA for a slew of cybercrimes. However, his impending jail sentence is renounced after the CIA gives him an alternate option — work for them. Sam agrees, but on one condition: he gets to build his own team.
2015 — War for the Web — Directed by J. C. Cameron Brueckner, this documentary demystifies the physical infrastructure of the internet and explores the issues of ownership and competition in the broadband marketplace, privacy, and security.
2016 — Anonymous — A young Ukrainian immigrant turns to hacking and identity theft to support his parents, with help from a friend who is a black-market dealer. Petty crimes soon escalate. The film is also known as “Hacker.”
2016 — Backlight: Cyberjihad — Can social media become a weapon? This documentary examines jihadism and its online presence, which, without any hindrance, has only grown larger over the past fifteen years.
2016 — Cyber War — Hackers pose a universal threat; how can we defend ourselves? This documentary explores how governments are building up protection against the ever-growing number of digital threats, including by recruiting those with the brains to wage cyberwar and espionage when necessary.
2016 — Data Center: The True Cost of the Internet — Every day, 247 billion emails are sent through the web. Have you ever wondered what powers them? This eye-opening, high-tech documentary takes viewers inside the digital warehouses that run the internet, otherwise known as data centers.
2016 — Down the Deep, Dark Web — Venture down the internet’s rabbit hole into the secretive world of the dark web, guided by crypto-anarchists, cypherpunks, and hackers. This documentary will make you question everything you thought you knew about the darknet.
2016 — Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee — Complex antivirus pioneer John McAfee made millions before leaving the U.S. to live in a compound in the jungle in Belize. This Showtime documentary, which he calls fiction, portrays his life in Belize and 2012 departure after a neighbor was murdered.
2016 — The Haystack — Due to sophisticated hacking techniques and the terrorist organizations that often use them, the British Parliament began reviewing the Investigatory Powers Bill, legislation that would provide more leniency in the interception of private email and phone communications. Prior to the bill passing in 2016, this documentary examined how effective it would be, if it was necessary, and what citizens would have to give up once the bill was implemented.
2016 — I.T. — Aviation tycoon Mike Regan (Pierce Brosnan) hires an I.T. consultant on a temporary basis to do some work at his house and is so impressed he gives him a full-time job. He’s fired when he oversteps boundaries and seeks revenge against the businessman and his family.
2016 — Jason Bourne — Former CIA agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is drawn out of hiding to uncover more about his past while fighting cyberterrorism.
2016 — National Bird — A chilling documentary in which three military veterans blow the whistle on the secret U.S. drone war, highlighting America’s modern warfare program through the harrowing experiences of those involved.
2016 — Nerve — Friends pressure a high school senior to join the popular online game Nerve. She becomes caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition, partnered with a mysterious stranger, but the game takes a sinister turn.
2016 — Offline is the New Luxury — Since the dawn of the internet, humanity has slowly but surely become increasingly dependent on various smart devices — phones, tablets, and laptops alike. This documentary asks one poignant question: what would the world be without them?
2016 — Rise of the Trolls — Is being anonymous a blessing or a curse? In this documentary, filmmakers Jonathan Baltrusaitis and Paul Kemp explore the unnerving truths surrounding internet anonymity, dark instincts, and freedom in cyberspace.
2016 — Risk — Laura Poitras spent six years making this documentary about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who gave her the opportunity to closely film him but later tried to censor the film.
2016 — Silicon Cowboys — This documentary tells the true story of how three unsuspecting friends became computing pioneers by dreaming up the Compaq Computer — a portable PC that would directly impact the future of computing and consequently shape the world we live in today.
2016 — Snowden — Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward J. Snowden in Oliver Stone’s biopic of the former National Security Agency contractor who becomes disillusioned with the intelligence community and leaks classified information, becoming a fugitive from law and a hero to many.
2016 — State of Surveillance — In this documentary film, Edward Snowden — infamously known for leaking classified information from the National Security Agency — invites viewers into the disturbing world of government surveillance. A must-see for anyone who feels like they’re being watched.
2016 — Stingray — This documentary enlightens viewers to just how advanced surveillance technology has become, highlighting the Stingray, which, despite going by many different names, has certified itself as one of the most powerful surveillance devices of all time, though many see it as an invasion of privacy.
2016 — What Makes You Click — Described as both a fascinating psychological study and a gripping cautionary tale, this documentary from the VPRO Backlight series discusses how companies adapt their websites and apps to get consumers to stay on them longer and spend more money.
2016 — Zero Days — Alex Gibney’s documentary focuses on Stuxnet, or “Operation Olympic Games,” a malicious computer worm developed by the United States and Israel to sabotage a key part of Iran’s nuclear program.
2017 — AlphaGo — Can an AI challenger defeat a legendary master in the game of Go? The battle between man and machine takes center stage in this documentary film chronicling Lee Sedol’s nail-biting match against AlphaGo, a computer program devised by Deep Mind Technologies to master the 3,000-year-old game.
2017 — The Circle — Mae (Emma Watson) lands a dream job at a technology and social media company called the Circle. She is soon handpicked by the founder (Tom Hanks) to participate in an experiment that takes transparency to a new level.
2017 — The Crash — The government enlists a team of white-collar criminals to thwart a cyberattack that threatens to bankrupt the United States.
2017 — Facebook: Cracking the Code — What does Facebook know about you? This documentary digs deep into the security issues that social media giant Facebook doesn’t want you to know, including how they track browsing data, promote targeted ads, and spread false information.
2017 — The Fate of the Furious — A cyberterrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron) coerces Dom (Vin Diesel) into working for her, hacks and takes control of cars, and reaps havoc.
2017 — Ghost in the Shell — Major (Scarlett Johansson) is saved from a terrible crash and cyber-enhanced as a soldier to stop the world’s most dangerous criminals. She soon discovers that her life was actually stolen and determines to recover her past, find out who did this to her, and stop them before they do it to others.
2017 — Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web — This documentary tells the story of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, a super-hacker, entrepreneur and notorious Internet pirate accused of money laundering, racketeering, and copyright infringement.
2017 — Meeting Snowden — Edward Snowden, former CIA and NSA collaborator, has become infamous for initiating one of the most controversial mass surveillance scandals of all time. But who is he really? In this documentary, Lawrence Lassig and Birgitta Jónsdóttir sit down with the whistleblower to discuss the future of democracy, among other things.
2017 — Nothing to Hide — Do we really have nothing to hide? This documentary takes an in-depth look into government surveillance today and why the public seems to have unanimously accepted the loss of their right to online privacy.
2017 — Silk Road: Drugs, Death, and the Dark Web — In 2011, Ross Ulbricht launched the anonymous darknet website, Silk Road. This documentary explores everything the black market site had to offer, as well as the events leading up to — and following — Ulbricht’s inevitable arrest.
2017 — Stare Into The Lights My Pretties — Many of us live behind a screen, but at what cost? This documentary examines why so many people are addicted to their screens, all the while exploring the impact this collective mindset may have on our future.
2017 — Thoughtcrime — Directed by Bernd Riemann, this documentary compares the disturbing similarities between the disclosures made by former CIA employee Edward Snowden in 2013 and the world created by George Orwell in the dystopian science fiction film 1984, where independent thinking was censored and holding thoughts opposing those in power was considered a criminal act.
2017 — Weapons of Mass Surveillance — Directed by Elizabeth C. Jones, this documentary explores the dangerous alliance of Western surveillance technology and Middle Eastern governments who use that technology to monitor their citizens. It discusses how high-tech cyber-surveillance enables governments to record, archive, and analyze communications.
2018 — Anon — In a world where everyone’s lives are transparent, traceable, and recorded by the authorities, causing crime to almost cease, a detective (Clive Owen) tries to solve a series of murders that may involve a mysterious hacker (Amanda Seyfried).
2018 — Assassination Nation — After an anonymous hacker leaks the private information of the people of Salem, suspicion falls on four teenage girls who are targeted by the community.
2018 — Black Code — Told through accounts from exiled Brazilian activists, Syrian citizens, and Tibetan monks, this documentary explores how governments across the world are exploiting the internet to gain control over their people.
2018 — Cam — Alice (Madeline Brewer) is an exotic webcam performer whose life is turned upside down when her channel — and livelihood — are stolen by a scarily accurate look-alike. Determined to get her identity back, Alice sets out to unmask, and ultimately take down, the mysterious hacker.
2018 — The Cleaners — Nothing stays on the internet forever. The web’s self-cleaning nature dominates this documentary led by field experts, enlightening viewers to the process of content removal, alongside asking one poignant question: who decides what should, and should not, be seen?
2018 — The Creepy Line — Google and Facebook take center stage in this documentary that depicts how the social media platforms have perfected various manipulation tactics, all in the name of gaining access to the public’s personal and private information. Told through first-hand accounts, scientific experiments, and an in-depth analysis.
2018 — The Defenders — Produced by Cybereason, this documentary invites viewers inside the world of cybercrime, analyzing four of the most well-known cyberattacks throughout history — highlighted by commentary from those working to protect our institutions from the ever-changing cyber threat landscape.
2018 — Digital Addicts — How much do screens affect children’s brain development? This documentary follows a group of kids growing up in the digital age, highlighting the harmful, hyper-addictive nature of social media platforms, mobile phones, and more.
2018 — Do You Trust This Computer? — Is a smarter machine always a better machine? This documentary digs deep into the dangers of artificial intelligence, highlighted by commentary from some of the field’s most respected individuals, including Elon Musk.
2018 — Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or Spy? — In 2013, Edward Snowden infamously leaked highly classified information from the NSA. Five years later, this documentary looks back at the sensational time through interviews with participants and witnesses, including some who are speaking out for the first time.
2018 — The Feeling of Being Watched — This documentary is the result of journalist Assia Bendaoui’s investigation into rumors that the FBI has monitored her quiet, predominantly Arab-American neighborhood near Chicago since the 1990s. Her research exposed one of the FBI’s largest counter-terrorism investigations before 9/11.
2018 — General Magic — This is the story of one of tech’s most influential and least memorable companies. Featuring commentary from members of the original Macintosh team alongside the creators of eBay, iPod, iPhone, and Android, this documentary explores how General Magic created the first handheld personal communicator, aka smartphone, and what happened after.
2018 — The Girl in the Spider’s Web — Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (who is also an avenging angel for abused women) and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.
2018 — Hacked — After losing his job to a state-of-the-art supercomputer, a disgruntled computer technician decides to test his replacement. In the meantime, a group of hackers infiltrates the building to steal the new technology.
2018 — Inside Facebook: Secrets of a Social Network — Which is more important: money or morality? This eye-opening documentary takes viewers inside Facebook’s moderating hub, demonstrating how the social media company regulates harmful content, such as child abuse and hate speech — although the results prove to be more concerning than comforting.
2018 — Inside the Russian Info War Machine — How does Russia undermine democratic governments, alter world events, and manipulate public opinion? In this documentary, acclaimed journalist Paul Moreira breaks down the Russian information war machine, including its hidden weapon: the trolls and hackers pushing Russia’s agenda across cyberspace.
2018 — Irumbu Thirai — A cat and mouse game for the digital age. After losing millions of dollars to a group of cybercriminals, a soldier sets out on a quest to get back everything he lost. Will his efforts be enough?
2018 — Johnny English Strikes Again — After a cyberattack reveals the identity of all of Britain’s active undercover agents, MI7 agent Johnny English must come out of retirement to find the mastermind hacker.
2018 — King of Crime — Marcus King (Mark Wingett) was a well-known crime lord on the streets … that is, until he brought his illegal empire to cyberspace. When Islamic extremists threaten everything he’s built, the newly cemented king of British cybercrime will do everything in his power to maintain his status.
2018 — Ocean’s 8 — On a mission to pull off an impossible heist at New York’s renowned Met Gala, hacker 9Ball (Rihanna) launches a spear-phishing campaign against an employee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gaining access to the museum’s security camera system and giving her all-female crew the insight they need to successfully steal one of the most valuable jewelry pieces in the world.
2018 — Peripheral — This horror film follows a successful young writer — Bobbi Johnson (Hannah Arterton) — who, after experiencing writer’s block while writing her second novel, employs an artificially intelligent software to finish her work. Little does Bobbi know, she’s about to uncover a dangerous conspiracy of social control.
2018 — Searching — A man becomes desperate when his 16-year-old daughter disappears and a police investigation is futile. Hoping to find clues, he searches her laptop, scours photos and videos, and begins contacting her friends.
2018 — Unfriended: Dark Web — After a teen finds a mysterious laptop, he invites several friends to play a game online. The night turns deadly when they become the target of cyber-terrorism.
2019 — BD2K: Big Data to Knowledge — Told through the stories of two patients battling disease in the information age, this documentary film explores how big data has changed the way medicine is practiced, as well as its effect on doctor-patient relationships.
2019 — Cyber Crime — In this documentary, 10 leading cybercrime experts discuss how billions of dollars a year are stolen or lost as a result of cybercrime, destroying businesses and lives.
2019 — Dataland — Living in a world that’s practically run by AI, it’s hard to think we’ve only just scratched the surface of what the technology is capable of — but it’s true. This documentary explores what the world’s top data scientists are working on behind closed doors.
2019 — The Great Hack — This documentary examines the Cambridge Analytica scandal through the roles of several people affected by it.
2019 — HAK_MTL — Tech companies claim to protect our privacy, but is it true? In this eye-opening documentary, a group of Canadian hackers launch an investigation into the internet and how it continues to track, store, and share users’ data, despite assurances that it doesn’t.
2019 — Hero or Villain? The Prosecution of Julian Assange — Depending on who you’re talking to, the name Julian Assange will provoke one of two feelings: fury or awe. This documentary, led by the ABC Four Corners Team, chronicles an investigation into the founder of Wikileaks, featuring commentary from some of the individuals who knew him best.
2019 — Kee — Siddharth (Jiiva) and Shivam (Govind Padmasoorya) share an affinity for hacking, but that’s all they have in common. When the two unexpectedly cross paths, a fight between hacking for good and evil breaks out — and the consequences are fatal.
2019 — Machine Learning: Living in the Age of AI — How do we interact with AI? The technology has cemented itself as one of the foundations of our digital age, but has yet to reach its full potential. This documentary examines what the future of artificial intelligence will look like and the many possibilities ahead of us.
2019 — Official Secrets — Katharine Gun made headlines in 2003 after blowing the whistle on an illegal NSA spy operation. This drama film, starring Kiera Knightly and Matt Smith, chronicles the scandal, as well as the ensuing legal battles that uncovered top-secret manipulation tactics used by the highest levels of government in both the U.S. and the UK.
2019 — Password — A police officer hunts for a cybercriminal who is destroying people’s lives by hacking their passwords.
2019 — The Secrets of Silicon Valley — Directed by James Corbett, this documentary looks at the long and detailed history of Silicon Valley, located in the San Francisco Bay area, including how it was founded in the aftermath of World War II, the technology companies located there that have shaped the world through innovation, the ties between different companies and the government, and according to Corbett, the shadowy underworld hiding beneath the surface and why Big Tech means big trouble.
2019 — Third Eye Spies — Directed by Lance Mungia, this documentary reveals how an experiment in psychic abilities at Stanford Research Institute led to the CIA’s study of psychic abilities for more than 20 years for use in their top-secret spy program. Parapsychologists Russell Targ and Dean Radin are interviewed, along with dozens of others, regarding recently declassified information.
2019 — Unfriends — In this Bollywood thriller, Veer, who has an idea for a startup, receives a Facebook friend request from Vijay, who becomes his investor. While on a long celebration drive, they meet a girl named Mauli. When Vijay rapes her and intends to kill her, Veer comes to her rescue and helps her escape. When she is later subjected to abuse on the internet, Veer seeks justice for her.
2019 — WannaCry: The Marcus Hutchins Story — Marcus Hutchins, a British computer researcher, became an “accidental hero” when he discovered a kill switch in May 2017 that stopped the spread of WannaCry, hours after the ransomware affected thousands of systems across the world. Three months later, the FBI arrested him because of his involvement in a banking trojan. This documentary, directed by Hugo Berkeley, is his firsthand story.
2019 — Who You Think I Am — A 50-year-old divorced teacher (Juliette Binoche) uses a photo of a young, pretty blonde to create a fake Facebook profile of a 24-year-old woman after being ghosted by her 20-something lover.
2019 — You Can’t Watch This — This independent documentary by George Llewelyn-John discusses freedom of speech and the online world. It highlights stories of five individuals who lose their access to social media and how that censorship affects them.
2020 — Archive — Roboticist George Almore (Theo James) is working to create a true human-equivalent AI, but when his focus turns to reuniting with his dead wife, Julie (Stacy Martin), he finds himself reaping Dr. Frankenstein-worthy consequences.
2020 — The Big Reset 2.0 — Every day, AI grows more functional, intelligent, and capable of completing even the most complicated tasks, but at what point does it become too much? In this documentary produced by Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), experts discuss the field’s ongoing battle between risk and reward.
2020 — Childhood 2.0 — What does it mean to be a child in the highly vulnerable digital age? Online predators, cyberbullying, and mental health take center stage in this documentary that delves into the real-life issues plaguing kids and parents today.
2020 — Cyberlante — After getting a job at an isolated hotel run by a cruel bully, Matt (Gavin Gordon) finds himself at the center of a battle between hacking for good and evil.
2020 — Enemies of the State — This American documentary film follows Matt DeHart, targeted by the U.S. government for having confidential documents alleging misconduct by the CIA.
2020 — Interference: Democracy at Risk — In 2016, many new threats against our democracy came to light, such as misinformation campaigns and voter fraud, all of which wouldn’t be possible if not for the advanced, digital age we live in. This documentary urges viewers to make sure it never happens again.
2020 — The Internet of Everything — This documentary discusses how the internet now invades every aspect of our lives, through things beyond computers and phones — such as garbage cans, refrigerators and city infrastructures. It also talks about the problems the Internet has created and asks the question: will the future be a surveillance nightmare or an eco-utopia. Who will determine the outcome?
2020 — Julian Assange: Revolution Now — Overnight, Julian Assange went from coder to convict. This documentary tells the story of the founder of Wikileaks and how his mission to entrust the public with some of the most private information made him an enemy of the United States government.
2020 — Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections — Produced by HBO, this documentary examines the rising number of tech vulnerabilities in the American electoral system, featuring an eye-opening demonstration of how secure electronic voting machines are by hackers at DEFCON, the world’s largest hacking conference.
2020 — KnowBe4: The Making Of A Unicorn — A Cybersecurity Story. How CEO Stu Sjouwerman built a culture of fun and a company worth $1 billion. With Chief Hacking Officer Kevin Mitnick. 23-minute documentary produced by Cybercrime Magazine.
2020 — No Safe Spaces — What does freedom of speech look like in the age of social media? In this documentary, comedian Adam Corrolla and talk show host Dennis Prager travel across America to explore what the future holds for the First Amendment.
2020 — Out Of Dark — Ever wondered what it’s like to be a spy? This eye-opening documentary invites cameras on a mission with a real-world intelligence operative, giving viewers an in-depth look into the top-secret world of foreign and domestic surveillance.
2020 — Password — A Saw-esque thriller in which an IT employee awakens to find himself tied to a chair, surrounded by a dead body and a laptop. Discovering he’s been kidnapped, the employee must find a way out, but will the financial imbalance of India post-globalization get in his way?
2020 — Screen Generation — Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z … and then what? Following the generation dubbed the “Digital Natives,” this documentary ponders what’s in store for the children that grew up behind a screen. Researchers in the U.S. and Europe were interviewed.
2020 — The Social Dilemma — This documentary explores the dangerous human impact of social networking.
2020 — Tenet — In this action thriller directed by Christopher Nolen, an organization called Tenet recruits an unnamed CIA operative known as The Protagonist (John David Washington) for a mission involving “time inversion” to counter a future threat and stop World War III.
2020 — We Need to Talk About A.I. — Director Leanne Pooley takes a close look at the future of artificial intelligence and the impact it will have on the world, including how computers will have the capacity to design and program themselves as they continue to evolve.
2021 — Chakra — Military officer Chandru (Vishal Krishna) is one of fifty people who are robbed on Independence Day. After he discovers his most prized possession was stolen, Chandru joins forces with a police officer to hunt down the dangerous cybercriminal responsible.
2021 — Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains, And The Future Of The Internet — Filmmaker Torsten Hoffmannn’s eye-opening look into the world of cryptocurrency and the controversy surrounding it, featuring commentary from some of the industry’s major players.
2021 — Dark Web: Cicada 3301 — After visiting the dark web, Connor (Jack Kesy), a gifted hacker, is invited to join the mysterious secret society Cicada 3301. He accepts and soon finds himself embroiled in an intense, high-stakes race against the NSA. Based on real-life events.
2021 —Dark Web: Fighting Cybercrime — The fight against cybercrime takes center stage in this documentary highlighting the security industry and its ceaseless determination to defend against the growing number of digital threats.
2021 — Dear Hacker — What happens when your webcam goes rogue? The directorial debut of French filmmaker Alice Lenay, this documentary is a must-watch for anyone who’s ever wondered about the inner workings of a webcam.
2021 — MY.DOOM: Earth’s Deadliest [Computer] Virus — First seen in 2004, MyDoom is universally acknowledged as the worst computer virus of all time, having caused over $38 billion in losses. This documentary explores MyDoom’s origins and chaotic run, all the while making an argument for just how essential white hat hackers really are.
2021 — Hacker Fairies — A short drama that follows two white hat hackers on a mission to retrieve stolen photos of several women. Not long into the search, one of the women asks to learn more about hacking. Can she be trusted?
2021 — Hacker: Trust No One— When Danny cofounds a new cryptocurrency, he thinks it will make him rich. When he gets caught hacking, though, he and his girlfriend end up on a hit list instead.
2021 — Love Hard — A columnist, who writes about her bad dating experiences, thinks she has met her perfect match on a dating app. When she flies across country to surprise him for Christmas, she learns she’s been catfished.
2021 — The Perfect Weapon — Based on a best-selling book by New York Times national security correspondent David E. Sanger, this documentary explores the rise of cyber conflict as the primary way nations now compete with and sabotage one another. Directed by John Maggio, it features interviews with top military, intelligence, and political officials on the frontlines of cyberterrorism.
2021 — Silk Road — Directed by Tiller Russell, this is the story of the anonymous dark web market launched by Ross Ulbricht in early 2011. Ulbricht was jailed for life after an FBI operation shut down Silk Road.
2021 — The Mitchells vs The Machines — Starring Maya Rudolph, Danny McBride, Eric Andre, and more, this animated film follows the Mitchell family, who stumble into an unprecedented robot apocalypse and find themselves fighting to save the future of humanity.
2021 — The Spy in Your Phone — The positive side of smartphones is that they keep us connected, entertain us, store data, and so much more. This documentary highlights the dangers, including privacy issues, how messaging and social media sites store our data and use it, how individuals and organizations can target us through spyware, and the concern about government mass surveillance. It also discusses what you can do to protect your data.
2021 — Twenty Hacker — Hex is a hacker who runs Better World, a “white hacker” club. When he discovers that black hackers have ruined his father’s company, he enlists his club members to take them down, resulting in an inevitable showdown.
2021 — WANNACRY: Earth’s Deadliest [Computer] Virus — This documentary examines how a computer virus that began as a small crypto worm in 2017 ended up infecting thousands of computers as ransomware. It describes the complex process that allowed it to be distributed in several ways and delves into a parallel story.
2022 — Glimpse — This surveillance-footage thriller follows three individuals, who are up for the same job, as their lives slowly spiral out of control. Starring an ensemble cast including Michael Emerson, Raúl Esparza, and David Alan Basche.
2022 — Hacker: Trust No One — This drama film tells the story of a hacker who finds himself and his girlfriend on a hit list after getting mixed up in the shady world of cryptocurrency.
2022 — Hot Seat — Mel Gibson stars in this riveting tale about an IT expert and former hacker, Friar (Kevin Dillon), who finds himself in the middle of a potentially explosive cyber robbery. Forced to choose between stealing digital funds or having his daughter abducted, Friar is left to determine what matters most while simultaneously working to get out of the hot seat.
2022 — Keedam — Main character Radhika Balan is a cybersecurity expert who believes in using technology to benefit others, but after falling victim to a cyberstalking incident and losing any semblance of privacy, she’s left with no choice but to take matters into her own hands.
2022 — Kimi — Starring Zoe Kravitz and Rita Wilson, this thriller chronicles the events that take place after an agoraphobic tech worker discovers evidence of a violent crime, which ultimately leads to her greatest challenge yet — leaving the house.
2022 — Stalked Within — This thriller follows Gary, a home security operator, who begins to spy on a single mother using his company’s technology equipment. It’s only a matter of time before his obsession turns deadly.
2022 — The Takeover — When an ethical hacker is framed for murder, she must track down those who are blackmailing her, stop them, and clear her name. Starring Holly Mae Brood, Geza Weisz, and Frank Lammers.
2023 — @ — A techno-thriller starring Rachel David as an ethical hacker, this film revolves around the dark web and the horrors that lurk within it. Audiences will become acquainted with the many crimes that take place, such as drug peddling, and the cyberattacks that come to fruition in the deep net.
2023 — M3GAN — Artificially intelligent doll M3GAN is a technological wonder, designed to befriend children and support parents. However, it’s only a matter of time until M3GAN becomes sentient and decides to take on a life of her own, leaving those around her to reap the extraordinary consequences.
2023 — Reality — This drama tells the story of Reality Winner, the former American intelligence specialist who was given the longest prison sentence for the unauthorized release of government information to the media about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections via an email operation. Sydney Sweeney stars in the titular role.
So far no hits. I recon that the movie should be somewhere in the early 1990’s to 2005 time frame. Low budget, but a seriously important movie. Perhaps it was a spin off of movies of the Matrix genre… Which would place it around 1999. Or maybe right before it, 1995. And the movie Matrix completely overshadowed it.
Still looking.
Sigh.
12 Things Gone FOREVER…1960s
Ukraine Intelligence Chief Admits KILLING Civilians Who Say or Write the wrong thing!
A senior Ukrainian official has admitted that his country has assassinated “quite a few” Russian civilians who support Putin and his war to assert control of the Donbas region. In interviews first reported by The Times of London, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukraine’s military intelligence service, also promised more attacks are to come.
Budanov isn’t merely an unapologetic terrorist, he’s a boastful one. “These cases have happened and will continue,” he said. “Such people will receive a well-deserved punishment, and the appropriate punishment can only be liquidation and I will implement it.”
In a separate interview with a Ukrainian YouTube channel, Budanov said that any country could be witness to his killing of civilians who say or write the wrong things.
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov, admitted that several Kremlin propagandists have been assassinated since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Budanov also said that Ukraine wanted to establish a demilitarized border zone up to 60 miles inside Russia to reduce the chances of future attacks, The Times reports.
When asked whether Ukrainian security services had killed Russian propagandists, Budanov, 37, said: ‘We’ve already successfully targeted quite a few people. There have been well-publicised cases everyone knows about, thanks to the media coverage.’
Several prominent pro-war figures have been killed or wounded by explosives in Russia since the start of the invasion on February 24 last year.
On May 6, Pro-Kremlin ideologist Zakhar Prilepin, 47, was left with multiple injuries after a car bomb attack.
The Russian writer and pro-war blogger’s vehicle was blown up in a village in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region. He suffered fractures but his driver was killed in the incident.
Russian investigators said that they were questioning Alexander Permyakov, whom they accused of working with Ukrainian intelligence.
Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, a military blogger with close ties to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed by explosives concealed within a statuette handed to him at a public talk that he was giving in a St. Petersburg cafe on April 2.
Later that month, a Russian court denied bail to 26-year-old Darya Trepova. She was charged with terrorism over the bomb attack that killed Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin.
Investigators said she was working on behalf of a pro-Ukrainian group with connections to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny – claims rejected by Navalny’s associates and Kyiv.
The Russian internal affairs ministry said yesterday that an arrest warrant had been issued for Yuriy Denisov, a Ukrainian citizen they claim kept watch over Tatarsky for two months from an apartment close to his home.
It alleged that he had made his way over from Latvia under instruction from the ‘Ukrainian special services’.
In August last year, Darya Dugina, 29, the daughter of a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, was killed by a car bomb on a road outside Moscow.
It is thought that her father, the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who is known as ‘Putin’s brain’, may have been the intended target.
Budanov claimed that the drone strikes that hit the Kremlin on May 3, apparently with the aim of killing Putin, were a result of ‘Russian aggression’.
On Different People, a Ukrainian YouTube channel, Budanov said that recent acts of sabotage inside Russian territory, including attacks on oil and gas infrastructure close to the Ukrainian border and the derailment of a cargo train, were perpetrated ‘almost 100 per cent by citizens of the Russian Federation’.
In another interview with a YouTube channel called Island, Budanov said he had ‘a minority of Russians’ co-operating with his Ukrainian military intelligence agency, the GUR.
He said they had ‘patriotic reasons’ for carrying out the acts and were ‘ready to change Russia’.
Budanov said that although Putin was a legitimate target, Ukraine was not trying to kill him.
He said that his agents would keep setting their sights on Russians who committed “war crimes” against Ukraine.
He said: ‘These cases have happened and will continue.
‘Such people will receive a well-deserved punishment, and the appropriate punishment can only be liquidation and I will implement it.’
Budanov blamed Moscow’s increasingly vicious tactics in Ukraine on Russian propagandists, arguing that Putin’s chances of survival had been put at risk.
He said: ‘[The Kremlin] have invested so much in this propaganda machine that it began to influence them in the end.’
Budanov added that Russia’s business elite was opposed to the invasion and was seeking ways to bring it to a close.
He argued that if the Russians managed to bring Putin’s reign to an end, Ukraine would still have to set up a demilitarised zone 60 miles inside Russian territory to avoid fighting in the future.
He added: ‘This should be our goal. If they are not going to attack and don’t decide they want revenge in a couple of years, this shouldn’t be an issue.’
HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION
Well, well, well, there it is, spoken in public, for all to see and hear: Ukraine is intentionally MURDERING civilian news people/bloggers who dare to write in opposition to Ukraine. This is flat-out terrorist murder.
And YOUR American tax dollars are facilitating it!
This admission by the Chief of Ukraine Military Intelligence makes clear, by funding Ukraine, the Congress of the United States – both houses – as well as the Biden Administration, are literally facilitating MURDER.
THIS IS WW3, NATO just F*cked Up Big Time
https://youtu.be/xhl2qMCDoqo
How do you think China will respond to the G7’s joint statement?
It’s just words
China will make its own statement
It’s the normal political brouhaha
The G7 is today looks like an outdated Colonial Club making imperialist statements about economic coercion of China while sanctioning half the planet
So frankly nobody takes the G7 very seriously
Just compare
China’s Xi met his Central Asian counterparts and signed over 40 MPUs and around CNY 230 Billion ($ 32 Billion) of business deals
G7 met and made speeches with zero impact
Shows their relevance today
This Old Lady Was Selling Her Painted Baby Dolls At The Flea Market And Nobody Had Bought Any, It Was $20 But I Couldn’t Find It In Me To Haggle Her Down. She Told Me She Made The Suit By Hand. My New Fav Office Decoration!
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What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?
Okay, maybe not “insane”, but still pretty cool, I think. In 1997 when I was 29, I went to work for Talbots, the clothing company. I worked in their call center for the next nine years, primarily as a trainer. For maybe half that time, we were housed in a relatively small three-story office building called The Weston.
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This in the largest city in our region in the state. We occupied the entire second and third floors and part of the first floor, so there were very few other tenants in the building. I’m sure I don’t remember them all, but I recall an interior design company, a law office, and a charitable foundation. So there were probably hundreds of us Talbots employees and temps, but I’d guess only a dozen or two employees of these other companies.
Fast forward to 2015. I’d been gone from Talbots for almost ten years, and from the Weston for almost fifteen. I started dating the woman who is now my wife. At some point during a discussion, we were talking about our past work lives. Turns out that my wife worked for the charitable foundation, so we worked in the same small building for five years, but over ten years before we “met”. How many times did I pass my future wife in the lobby, without a clue? (We were both married to other people at the time.) Neither of us have any memory of the other, but after further discussion, she did remember my car. I’d bought a brand-new black Mazda Miata, and I did not park in the “main” lot as I was one of the few employees who worked on the first floor. My wife remembers seeing my car, confirmed by describing where I usually parked!
You might be OLD…If You Remember These! PART 6
I remember a lot of this and now, I actually do miss, what one would consider, now, simpler times…our communities were safer and more neighborly and loving. I just love this channel!
In what ways does the United States engage in coercive diplomacy? What kind of harm does it cause to the international community?
US hegemony uses 800 military bases and 11 aircraft carriers to force the world to follow US economics, trade and finance rules for USA benefits. Anyone refusing is sanctioned, or if weak violently attacked using human rights excuses. That is coercive diplomacy.
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US hegemony in last 70yrs means endless wars, endless arms sales and endless Tbills and usd printing. It is not sustainable now USA printed usd31trillion and deficits are still adding Tbills. Does the world want to continue wars and deaths for US profits? Most of the world says no.
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The 1950s in SHOCKINGLY BEAUTIFUL Colorized Photos
Things Worth Experiencing At Least Once In Your Life, According To People Online
In the everyday rush and routine, we probably don’t find time to think about what we want to do in this life and what really would make us happy. It may be for our whole life or it can also be something that will make us the happiest people alive for a day. There are particular locations, feelings, purchases or activities that we dream about. I may be wrong but many of us probably have our bucket lists made. Some of us have written it down and are actually saving money for our dreams, some of us have written it in our notes and from time to time check it out to see if maybe we managed to complete some of the things. But some of us just have it in our head and create something on the spot if this topic comes up.
Reading a book so good you can’t fall asleep without reading a new chapter, and to feel slightly sad when you finish it.
Walking in the snowy woods at night.
What it’s like to work a busy shift at a restaurant – can be any role, waiting tables, bussing, cooking, hosting. Everyone should have one evening where you are trying to serve and cater to dozens of people at once. You should know how it feels to bring someone the wrong dish or spill a glass on someone. You should know how it feels to work hard af and get no tip, get told to take something back like it’s your fault, all the normal things that happen during a busy shift.
Seeing an ocean in person, from a beach.
Contentment and security. Not necessarily full happiness, but satisfaction in your own life, and safety within it.
I have two. One is seeing a starry night sky, no clouds, no light pollution, just a beautiful night sky. Or better yet, the northern lights. Second is seeing the view from a mountain peak. People always talk about how ugly the world is, but I think these two things really remind you of how beautiful earth is too.
A good nights sleep.
Being in love with someone who loves you back
The sound of it snowing. I laid on the ground, in the snow at night in the Alaskan wilderness, in December, it’s so peaceful.
Even if it’s only for a short period of time: full financial independence, while being single. You can pay your own bills, you have your own place, and you have full freedom over your free time. Whether it’s staying in and binge watching Netflix, or going out and sitting amongst strangers. Your time is your own. No kids. No spouse or significant other. I find this is when you really get to know and understand yourself.
A loving and supportive group of humans.
Having real friends
going on a forest and smelling rain
Everyone should experience the joys of traveling to a foreign land at least once in their lifetime, even if it’s just to realize how much they love their own toilet. Imagine discovering new cultures, cuisines, and the thrill of trying to communicate with locals using just charades and a phrasebook. Trust me, it’s a life-changing experience that’ll give you a new appreciation for your home and a killer accent to boot.
Moving away from your hometown, even if it is for a year
A hug, simple but important
The energy of a concert.
Being well and absolutely disconnected. No phones, no GPS. I last had that experience in the early 90s. Being somewhere with someone you trust and the two of you are the only people who know where you are and what you are doing.
Working a minimum or entry level job as a first job especially when young.
It really makes you appreciate money and interactions with people because it sucked and you got so little of anything even less some respect. Hell you even get to treat the people that work those jobs nicer because you were them once.
Another culture. And I don’t mean as a tourist where you have all the comforts of home. To fully absorb and immerse yourself in the lives of that culture. To eat their foods, drink their drinks, and do as they do.
1970s Things Found In Every Home
https://youtu.be/0g4zXepHASM
Claims that the Belt and Road initiative “could create a new epidemic” are a bizarre new line of attack on Beijing’s efforts in the country
Laos – a landlocked communist state in Southeast Asia, wedged between China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar – has the potential to be a nexus of sorts for the entire region. However, its cooperation with Beijing has come under fire from the West.
The impoverished nation holds the unenviable distinction of “the most bombed country in history” after the US dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on it during the Vietnam War. Laos is still weathering the consequences, including deaths from unexploded munitions. Faced with numerous challenges, it has leaned on its giant northern neighbor for assistance.
In recent years, Laos has benefited considerably from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In late 2021, the China-Laos railway was built, a high-speed system connecting the country’s capital to Beijing. This has been a gamechanger for its foreign trade and exports. Сurrently, a new superhighway is also being built across the country. Last week, however, an article from Reuters
attracted widespread disdain on social media as it sought to frame China’s development in the country as risking a “new pandemic.” It was titled ‘China, birthplace of the covid pandemic, is laying tracks for another global health crisis.’
The article argued that Laos is home to a bat population that carries “novel coronaviruses,” the same source which allegedly gave rise to Covid-19. By building a highway through the country’s tropical forests, the argument goes, humans will be brought into closer contact with bats, thus destroying their environment and risking a new pandemic. This textbook example of an over-the-top ‘China bad’ story exaggerates and fixates on the speculated negative consequences of Beijing’s activities, never providing the full picture. It is never touched on, for example, how up to 50 people a year in Laos continue to die from undetonated US bombs dropped on the country during the Vietnam war.
Western media at large have it in for China’s relationship with Laos, with outlets denouncing Chinese investments as a “debt trap ” and accusing Laos of being a “vassal state.” Why is it met with such backlash? First of all, Laos is arguably the single most pro-Chinese state in Southeast Asia, the region which the US is aggressively targeting as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy. Despite being communist, Washington sees Vietnam as a potential military and economic counterweight to Beijing due to its maritime periphery; however, Laos is a landlocked state which reduces US geopolitical leverage in countering China. Laos is also fearful of neighboring Vietnam and sees Beijing as a guarantor in securing its own independence.
This, combined with America’s bloody history in the country, and the fact it is a communist state, makes Laos a very comfortable neighbor for China, which also stands as its biggest economic guarantor. Chinese-backed infrastructure is helping the landlocked and impoverished country to gain easier access to ports and markets. Furthermore, by making it a nexus of the region, China is also integrating itself with Thailand and allowing its goods to flow to more Southeast Asian ports. This becomes an obstacle to the US vision of hegemony over the region, which involves completely dominating China’s maritime periphery in a way that checks its ability to project power and shape global commerce.
As a result, the Western corporate media are encouraged to vilify the BRI, including specifically its impact in Laos. Those doubting that there is a concerted effort to do this need only look at the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which allocates $500 million to media outlets to ostensibly “combat Chinese disinformation” for overseas audiences. Among other things, it specifically targets the BRI, effectively incentivizing negative coverage of the Chinese infrastructure project. The US hates the BRI, because it creates connections in Eurasia and therefore changes the strategic landscape away from the maritime routes dominated by America.
The Reuters story in particular draws upon the tried-and-trusted practice of scapegoating China for the Covid-19 pandemic to fearmonger about its road development in Laos. But one must question whether the US ever acknowledged what it did to Laos? Did it apologize for dropping 270 million
cluster bombs on it? An estimated 80 million of those did not explode, and while the US has invested in clean-up efforts, the 50,000 lives these bombs have claimed since the end of the war clearly show this is not enough.
Now, China is not only boosting the Laotian economy with its railroad construction, but also helping clear the deadly consequences of American militarism. Meanwhile, the West keeps promising alternatives to the BRI, with a new name cropping up virtually every year, but talk is cheap and these promises have yet to bear fruit. It’s easy to take the moral high ground on an issue when you aren’t the one who has to bear the consequences. It’s fair to say, if there is a new Cold War, Laos won’t be siding with the West.
Why does the USA attack China so much?
This one chart explains it all.
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“Yes, the CIA and FBI WILL rig the 2024 election”
China’s first domestically designed aircraft carrier having EMALS gets launched
The Fujian, the largest aircraft carrier ever built by China, is a crucial part of the Chinese navy. China is making rapid progress in developing advanced aircraft carriers that are on par with those of the US.
It is worth noting that China has chosen to name its new aircraft carrier after Fujian, a province located just across a narrow strait from Taiwan.
The 80,000 metric ton CNS Fujian is 50% larger than China’s current in-service carriers, putting the People’s Liberation Army Navy in the same class as supercarriers like the US Nimitz-class ships, which weigh 100,000 tons.
Unlike China’s other two carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, which are based on outdated Soviet technology and utilize a ski-jump launching system, the Fujian is equipped with an advanced electromagnetic aircraft launch system, similar to that used on the US’s newest carrier, the USS Gerald Ford. This new system will enable China to launch a greater variety of aircraft more quickly and with more ammunition onboard.
After approximately 18 months of trials, China’s largest warship CNS Fujian is expected to become operational by October 2024.
The Fujian and a fourth carrier, which is also under construction, are larger and able to carry more aircraft than the two existing vessels. The South China Morning Post reported in March last year that the fourth carrier might be nuclear-powered.
G7 leaders in Japan declare, China number one enemy
$200 Was Too High For Me But My Mom Insisted On Buying This
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Amarjeet Sada, The 8 YO Serial Killer…
https://youtu.be/kEIMLQ-vE8Q
Chicago-Style Sausage and Peppers
Yield: 8 servings
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Ingredients
2 tablespoons corn oil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 large yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and thinly sliced
2 large red bell peppers, cored, seeded and thinly sliced
1/4 cup Jack Daniels Sour Mash Whiskey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
8 spicy Italian sausages (4 ounces each), not hot dogs!
8 good quality hot dog buns
2 tablespoons reserved sausage grease or soft butter
Instructions
Heat corn oil in large skillet and sauté the onions and peppers until tender and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Add the bourbon and stir quickly until absorbed.
Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar melts.
Season with thyme, salt and pepper. (Can be refrigerated for one week. Let come to room temperature before serving.)
Char-grill the sausages until slightly blackened and cooked through.
Brush the hot dog buns with a little sausage grease or butter and toast on the grill or under the broiler.
Nestle a sausage in a bun and top with about 2 tablespoons of peppers and onions.
The West Sells Weapons, Sponsor Coups & Assassinate African Presidents For Natural Resources
We Found This Massive Print Secondhand. My BF Immediately Knew He Wanted It
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Pan African TV Kwesi Pratt Says The West “Bombed” Democracy To Africa, China Brings Partnerships
Do you think Japan is still occupied by the Americans?
Yup. The test case was a couple weeks ago.
American soldier crashed a car. He was arrested by Japanese cops. The US government demanded he be released immediately and actual threats were made by the US government to the Japanese government.
The Japanese government rolled over.
That’s the big test of if your country is a US bitch or not.
Yangju highway incident - Wikipedia
Killing, 2 Korean girls, US army vehicle Coordinates : 37°51′28″N 126°56′56″E / 37.857722°N 126.948972°E / 37.857722; 126.948972 ( Location of the Yangju highway incident ) The Yangju highway incident , also known as the Yangju training accident or Highway 56 Accident , occurred on June 13, 2002, in Yangju , Gyeonggi-do, South Korea .
A United States Army armored vehicle-launched bridge , returning to base in Uijeongbu on a public road after training maneuvers in the countryside, struck and killed two 14-year-old South Korean schoolgirls, Shin Hyo-sun ( Korean : 신효순) and Shim Mi-seon ( Korean : 심미선).
The American soldiers involved were found not guilty of negligent homicide in the court martial , further inflaming anti-American sentiment in South Korea and sparking a series of candlelight vigil protests in protest of their deaths.
The memory of the two schoolgirls is commemorated annually in South Korea
Death of Harry Dunn - Wikipedia
Fatal road traffic collision resulting in UK/US diplomatic controversy Coordinates : 51°59′49″N 1°11′45″W / 51.9969593°N 1.1959241°W / 51.9969593; -1.1959241
Death of Harry Dunn Date 27 August 2019 Time 20:25 BST Location B4031 road near RAF Croughton Cause Road traffic collision Deaths Harry Dunn Burial 17 September 2019
Inquiries Northamptonshire Police Convicted Anne Sacoolas Charges Causing death by careless driving (convicted) Causing death by dangerous driving (acquitted)
Harry Dunn was a 19-year-old British man who died following a road traffic collision on 27 August 2019.
He was riding his motorcycle near Croughton, Northamptonshire , United Kingdom, near the exit to RAF Croughton , when a car travelling in the opposite direction and on the wrong side of the road collided with him.
The car was driven by Anne Sacoolas, who is a former US spy and wife of CIA employee Jonathan Sacoolas, stationed at the time at USAF listening station RAF Croughton.
Sacoolas admitted that she had been driving the car on the wrong side of the road , and the police said that, based on CCTV footage, they believed that to be true.
Dunn was pronounced dead at the Major Trauma Centre of John Radcliffe Hospital , Oxford. The collision caused diplomatic tension between UK and US officials.
Sacoolas fled the UK soon after the incident and claimed diplomatic immunity with US support.
1998 Cavalese cable car crash - Wikipedia
US Navy aircraft struck ski lift, Italy The Cavalese cable car crash , also known as the Cermis massacre ( Italian : Strage del Cermis ), occurred on February 3, 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese , a ski resort in the Dolomites some 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Trento .
Twenty people were killed when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, flying too low and against regulations, in order for the pilots to "have fun" and "take videos of the scenery", cut a cable supporting a cable car of an aerial lift .
The pilot, Captain Richard J. Ashby, and his navigator , Captain Joseph Schweitzer, were put on trial in the United States and found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide .
If Americans can come and wantonly commit crimes and get almost no punishment then you’re essentially an occupied country.
The West Can’t Be Trusted, Nigeria VP Says China Is A Better Ally To Africa Than The West
Where I Am Going, There Are No Roads…
Thrift store find.
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Why is China’s economy taking over the world?
Why is China’s economy continuing to grow to the point it is the largest or second largest economy in the world based on which method used to compare economies.
China has been able to harness a number of factors over several decades that has benefited its people economically. The Chinese government has taken great effort to improve the lives of its people. Its goal is to create a moderately prosperous society for its huge population. With a country of 1.4 billion people moderately prosperous equates to a large economy.
China has devoted a lot of effort to educate its people. In 1950 the literacy rate was 20%, but today it is over 97%. Eduction is highly important to the government. This has led China to produce the most STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) graduates yearly, which drives innovation.
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Chinese culture is one of business and that means trade is an important part business activity. Now days China trades with almost every country globally. It is the primary trade partner with many.
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With China’s huge manufacturing sector needed to produce goods for it huge population benefits from economies of scale. This in turn drives down manufacturing costs making goods cheaper in China and for export.
Developed economies for the most part are service economies not manufacturing ones, hence their need to import goods.
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China’s ability to produce a wide variety of goods from simple utensils to automobiles and high speed trains means it can produce much of what other countries need but cannot produce.
All the above and more is why China’s economy continues to grow at a faster rate compared to the developed countries of the West.
1970’s Rmic Hand Chair
Thrift store find.
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Kenyan President Ruto Says African Leaders Won’t Be Summoned Like Kids By The West No Longer
Ukrainian Artist Dinara Kasko Continues To Push The Boundaries Of Pastry Design
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Here are the incredible edibles of pastry chef Dinara Kasko. The culinary artist from Ukraine has amassed a huge online following for her innovative cake designs and moulds. Although Dinara graduated from Kharkov University Architecture School, she found her true passion was pastry. However, she now uses her background in architectural design to create her incredible cakes as she uses the 3D-modelling program, 3DSMAX, to create silicone cake moulds.
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Kenyan President Admits The Disrespect African Leaders Faced During The Queen’s Funeral In The UK
According to Ray Dalio, changing world power would mean conflict between the rising world power and the leading world power. Would this predict war between China and America?
No, because both have nukes. The US has been doing everything to stop China’s rise. Lying and accusing China on human rights, genocide, and whatever sins they can think of to discredit China. The US now summons her vassals to go to war with China to weaken China’s economy and military, similar to UR conflict.
Only BABY BOOMERS will REMEMBER these things
“Garden Decor” For Sale On Fb Marketplace
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TWO BOEING E-4B COMMAND AND CONTROL AIRCRAFT AIRBORNE OVER CONTINENTAL USA
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Things No Longer Found at Gas Stations
Did I Just Find A Serial Killer?
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Chicago Hot Dogs
Never leave the celery salt off the Chicago Dogs! They won’t be the same. I guarantee it.
chicago hot dogs
Ingredients
All-beef hot dogs
Green sweet bell pepper, diced
Yellow onions, diced
Mustard
Sweet pickle relish
Dill pickle chips
Cucumbers, sliced thin
Iceberg lettuce, shredded
Tomatoes, diced
Hot peppers (pepperoncini)
Celery salt
Instructions
Steam hot dogs and put condiments on table. NEVER USE KETCHUP! Celery salt is a MUST!
Serve on poppy seed buns, if they are available.
Kenya President Gets Standing Ovation in Pan-African Parliament for Epic Speech
2023 05 24 11 21
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No Eyedea What It Is, From Goodwill
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Is Paypal a scam?
Scam may be overstating it, but they will seize your money without warning or explanation and you should avoid using them as much as possible, especially if you are a business.
I would strongly advise anyone, especially a seller, to avoid using Paypal. Like many, I was in the camp of “They’re the most established payment service on the web and I’ve never had a problem with them.” Until I did, and I’ve learned of the massive amount of unethical behavior they get away with.
In my case, the situation’s not too severe, but it’s still frustrating. I coached a client overseas in Europe. He wanted to pay with Paypal. Not having a better suggestion, I thought sure, why not? I coached, he sent the funds over, all set, right?
Paypal put a hold on the funds for a few days to make sure things were in good order. Shortly thereafter, they suspended my account. I got the following email:
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Mind you, I have literally only done a single transaction on this account, the one I just did. I had no warning there was a problem with my account and my client is in good standing with Paypal. I did not receive any explanation.
On the site, my account now has a banner that looks like this:
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I can no longer transfer money, unlink my bank account, remove my personal information, or anything. Paypal has indefinitely seized my money.
If I attempt to refund my client, they tell me the attempt fails due to technical reasons.
Paypal offered no explanation for the freeze. They claimed the funds would be released after a review that ended on May 15th, 2023, and I got this email:
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I consequently reported them to the Better Business Bureau. Paypal actually responded on this, claiming that my account used an “anonymizing service” (I assume referring to the fact I use a VPN for all of my Internet activity) and that I share limited access with another account (I have no idea what this means). These were the only explanations given for why they seized my funds.
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I will reiterate that I never received any warning or notification that my account had any issues prior to the transaction. It was only after the transaction, when Paypal had possession of my money, that they notified me they would be keeping it for themselves.
If they genuinely believed I was a security risk, they should have prevented my transaction in the first place, or immediately refunded my client’s payment. It’s like if I tried to ship a package with UPS, and UPS just said “we think you might be a drug dealer so we’re just going to keep your package for ourselves.”
As of now, I have requested only that they refund my client. Even if they have an issue with me, I don’t see how they can justify refusing a refund. At this time I have not received a response and my client has not been refunded.
So I know you might be thinking, because I was thinking – “Howie it clearly must be just something with you. You did something wrong to justify this treatment.” I am far from alone.
. They seized $172,000 from one plaintiff, $42,000 from another, and $26,984 from a third. Very similar situation – frozen account, no explanation, get a subpoena if you want to find out why.
If you’d like a plethora of horror stories, just visit the ecommerce subreddit
, or wherever else. Obviously there is a tendency to leave negative reviews rather than positive to go in appreciating that, but you’ll find many, many users who’ll tell you this same story.
Whether you think I’m just a crazy one-off case or not, I strongly encourage you take measures to protect yourself so you do not become a victim as well. I’d offer the following suggestions.
If you can avoid using Paypal, do so.
If you must use Paypal, keep as little balance in your account as possible, as it can be seized at any time.
If you can associate Paypal with a deposit-only account, do so. They shouldn’t be able to withdraw from your linked bank account without your consent, but there are some user horror stories where that has happened.
Be aware that Paypal owns Venmo as well.
There are numerous alternatives to Paypal, several of which even charge lower fees, including Stripe, Wise, Square, Google, and more. All have better reputations and at the very least I can tell you none of them have taken my money for themselves.
Good luck. I hope this post helps you avoid being a victim.
Everything You Remember And Miss About…SEARS
41 Countries Ready To Accept BRICS Currency
The list of countries interested to join the BRICS alliance and accept the new currency for global trade is growing.
China and Russia are lobbying other developing countries in joining the international efforts to dethrone the U.S. dollar.
Developing countries in Asia and Africa are looking to replace the U.S. dollar with their native currencies or a new tender.
The development is causing a roadblock to the dollar’s prospects and challenging its status as the world reserve currency...
Article HERE
Do you think the Indian economy will beat the Chinese economy in years to come? Why?
Not possible.
China is an outlier in most aspects of economy and it is impossible for India to catch up in foreseeable future because –
Current differential between the two countries is too large
Factors that enable future growth (education, innovation, industrialization) are not firing on all cylinders either
Listed below are the data points from few indicators to illustrate the situation –
Trade & Industrialization:
Total exports (2016): India – $260 billion, China – $2.1 trillion
apparel: India – $18 billion, China – $175 billion
footwear: India – $2.5 billion, China – $51 billion
electrical and electronics – India – $8 billion, China – $782 billion
Number of large companies in Fortune 500 (2017): India has 7, China has 109
Infrastructure & Facilities:
High Speed Rails:
India – first HSR project (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) started in 2017, to be functional by 2022 covering 500 km
China – already has 25,000 km of HSR network, transporting double the volume of passengers than airlines
Metro Trains:
India – 8 cities with total track length of 370 km
China – 39 cities with total track length of 3,600 km (Beijing metro alone is 600 km)
Airports: India has 346, China has 507 (2013 data)
World’s Top 1000 hospitals: India has 9, China has 84
Tourism:
Foreign Tourist arrivals: India – 10 million,
China – 60 millionTourism revenue:
India – $27 billion,
China – $114 billion
Education & Innovation:
World’s Top 500 universities: India has 8, China has 21
Adult Literacy: India 74% (2011 data), expected to hit mid-80’s by next census (2021), China – 99% (2010)
Number of Patents and Trademarks: both India and China are in world’s Top 10 (2016 data)
Patents filed by India – 45k, China – 1.3 million
Trademarks listed by India – 313k, China – 3.7 million
Rising Income levels:
75% of world’s new billionaires are coming from India and China:
Since 2010, India is adding one new billionaire every 33 days
China is adding one new billionaire every 5 days
India has world’s third highest number of billionaires and China has world’s largest:
Number of billionaires in India – 131, China – 819
Expanding Middle Class:
India – 600 million people, based on the criteria of spending ($2 to $10 per day)
Only 24 million people, if based on the criteria of wealth ($13k)
China – 500 million by 2022, based on the criteria of earning ($9k to 34k)
GDP Per Capita: India – $1.7k, China – $8.1k
Overall Economy:
Forex reserves: India – $400 billion, China – $3 trillion
GDP (nominal): India – $2.5 trillion, China – $11 trillion
Trend
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Key Take-Aways and Summary:
China’s exports of only electricals and electronics ($782 billion) are three times of India’s total exports ($260 billion)
Length of metro in China’s one city (Beijing – 600 km) is more than total length of all metros in India (370 km)
China’s forex reserves ($3 trillion) are more than India’s total GDP ($2.5 trillion)
China’s middle class is not only larger, but also richer than India’s middle class – making it a more attractive investment destination
India’s growth story is real, but China’s growth story is much bigger. On most economic indicators, India has been performing good, but China has been performing a lot better
Before 2020, India is estimated to overtake UK and France to become world’s fifth largest economy
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By 2030, India is expected to overtake Germany and Japan to become world’s third largest economy. But even then ($6 trillion +), it would be less than one-third the size of China’s economy ($20 trillion +)
A country that is well known for best at controlling internet trolls and media is exaggerating a non-existent event in Africa, namely “China is launching a social movement to persecute black people”. In fact, from 2023 until May 24, 2023, I have not seen any hot topics or frontpage news related to black people in China on any social media platform.
By the way, in China, the vast majority of people have never seen murder in their lifetime. It is foolish to use the lie of ‘encouraging murder’ to describe China. Because even if this kind of encouragement exists, no one will respond. Chinese people do not know how to murder, unlike the country that creates this lie.
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CLOSED Fast Food Restaurants from the past
Beijing summons Japanese envoy over ‘anti-China’ G7 summit
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has summoned the Japanese ambassador to register protests over “hype around China-related issues” at the Group of Seven (G7) summit over the weekend, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The heads of the world’s richest countries who met in the Japanese city of Hiroshima expressed serious concerns about rising tensions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea as well as voicing concerns about the human rights situations in China, including in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Huawei is preparing a number of new chipsets to launch later this year and Kirin A2 is one of them. The company is testing this chip for quite a time and it’s ready for production.
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Huawei will launch the Kirin A2 chipset by this year. If everything goes right, the company could choose Q3 or Q4 for the release.
Also, Kirin A2 is ready for the trial stage and it has mass production capacity.
This is due to the past decision that Huawei took at the very last moment before launch events. Yet, the exact details are unknown. On this matter, Huawei has not revealed any details about Kirin A2 or related returns. But we’ll have to wait, as there are several months left in the making.
Kirin A2 for smartphones?
Nope, Kirin A-series was officially announced for wearable devices such as earphones, smartwatches, and others. The current breakthrough in Huawei’s chipset production capability remains low-key.
Therefore, the company may take this route to start producing self-developed wearables semiconductors. These types of chips don’t require advanced process technology. Hence, it’s very likely that Kirin A2 will be used for wearable gadgets.
Kirin A1:
Kirin A1 was the world’s first Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1 wearable chip. The A1 is developed by Huawei’s chipset designing division, HiSilicon, and printed by Taiwan’s TSMC.
Kirin A1 is designed for wireless earphones, headbands, neckbands, smart speakers, smart eyewear, and smartwatches. Huawei Watch GT 2 series is the first smartwatch to equip this SoC and it’s still running wild in terms of performance and battery.
After the US sanctions in 2019, Huawei had to stop making new HiSilicon chips. And with the recent achievement in automation tech, Huawei could print its own chipset.
Stores We Loved That No Longer Exist!
https://youtu.be/XcewCyZkvWw
What is the purpose of the US-Papua New Guinea defense agreement pact?
Leaked draft of the US-Papua New Guinea defense pact exposes the granting of legal immunity to US personnel and contractors, allowing unrestricted movement of US aircraft, vehicles, and vessels, and exempting US staff from migration requirements.
It is evident that this pact serves the US’s geopolitical interests rather than offering genuine humanitarian aid. The motive aligns with the US’s broader Indo-Pacific strategy.
However, what PNG truly needs is effective action to address the climate crisis and achieve economic growth. Unfortunately, the US is unlikely to prioritize these crucial concerns. Instead, it treats PNG and other South Pacific nations as mere pawns in its larger geopolitical game.
This behavior reflects the US’s historical tendency to come and go in the region as it pleases, without consistent commitment or genuine regard for local priorities.
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SHORPY 4a25677a.preview
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Can someone please explain to them how things in REAL LiFE works:
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You manufacture lies about spying and launched wave after wave of sanctions on successful Chinese companies in order to destroy it because you are resentful of its successes
AND you expect the Chinese to do nothing about it?
NOT only is their domestic Chinese market 4x bigger than hours but their manufacturers dominate manufacturing in this world
they will now use that scale to destroy your companies. They have now
STOP buying Boeing jets where Chinese jet orders was expected to be in the MANY thousands;
REDIRECT corn orders to Brazil
NOW it is clear that they are now ready………and are now targeting your high tech companies. Micron is just the first. Which will be next? It will be the US company whose CEO have a big mouth and a strong anti-China streak.
THIS is called tit for tat followed by a severe beating. Whether Micron or other American companies have security risk is NOT relevant. They have learned from you and are using what they have learned to take your companies down.
ASML, Samsung, Nikon, etc, and other non-American companies, are now all in the process of de-Americanizing their product lines so that they can continue selling to China.
The future of high tech industries in the United States will go the way of dodo birds. The Chinese will now NOT meet you halfway.
You are reaping what you have sown.
What do you suggest for a first time tourist visiting China in regards to VPN, money, and apps needed?
First
Get a SIM
It’s a prepaid sim card. The Airports have many counters. Simply present your passport and visa and get a pre paid SIM card.
That gets you around 20GB Data that should be enough for a few days
Connection takes only seconds. The minute you insert the sim, the phone works and you can make the calls
Now most loaded apps won’t work
Next Money
You can easily download WeChat and Alipay but Alipay is better
However there is a problem for Indians
OTP
You can register Alipay for foreigners and enter your card details and load Rs. 25000/— per day (CNY 2000)
You get your OTP in some cases and that OTP cannot be read by your phone unless you have roaming
In my case, a friend from SBI Shanghai loaded money into my Alipay from his account
So best option is to preload Alipay from India itself except that it’s banned
So what to do?
Don’t worry
Enterprising Chinese at the Airport will gladly take your cash dollars (No Rupee) and load money into your Alipay
They even have counters for foreigners
Next VPN
Install Nord VPN and buy the Pro version
However be prepared for a few days to not have proper Twitter or Instagram or Facebook response
Unless you have WiFi router, Mobile Data usually doesn’t use VPN that efficiently
Finally get a prescription if you are carrying medicines please
Do Volunteer for the Face Scan. That way when you reach your hotel and they simply scan your face, and your details jump out and you don’t need a passport at all wherever you go within Shanghai (Only in Shanghai)
What would you do if your neighbor came to your front door in a barely controlled rage?
I had this happen to me.
My family and I were at home one evening, when all the sudden someone started frantically pounding on my front door. My wife opened the door to the neighbor lady who was crying hysterically. She invited her in, and she told us her husband was in a rage, and had put his hands on her.
About that time, the husband came charging through my front door, and began verbally assaulting his wife with profanity at the top of his lungs. In MY living room.
Before I had a chance to address the situation, my older daughter told him to tone it down, at which point he responded with “shut the F!#K up, B#!CH”.
The words barely left his lips before those lips were introduced to my fist.
Turns out he had no interest in fighting another man.
Once he found his feet, he was out my front door faster than he barged in. I’m sure most of the folks reading this will be disgusted with my actions. I Don’t care.
What does matter to me, is the opinion of that man’s wife.
Years later, she thanked me, saying he never put his hands on her again.
Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was afraid she would run to my house!
Stay tuned. All of the subjects mentioned in the title has already been covered within the messy slush-file of MM articles. All intentionally buried within a safe coverage of delicious food, cats, music, and stories of the human condition. Impossible for computer algorithms and troll agents to root out and locate. It’s the MM way, don’t you know. What subjects?
Nordstream pipeline detonations
The Pentagon using the Musk satellites to ram the Chinese space station, and then China taking down all of them with an electromagnetic cannon
The UK launching a micro-nuke in Ukraine and caught red-handed by Russia
Bio-Weapons NATO general captured at a weaponized development facility (Ukraine) performing “gain of function” studies. Also known as “weaponizing the virus”.
China stopping the bio-weapon attempts to induce famine
China capturing and killing off all of the CIA and NED assets
North Korea missile attacks
Disabling an American nuclear sub that was “this close” to being captured outright.
Sinking another one that had to be recovered (F-35 splash into the South China Sea anyone?)
The Trump mega-flotilla that turned around and sailed back home
Covid-19, the tick-virus and the humanized swine-flu virus bio-weapons and the Taiwan “surprise” virus.
And that’s all right off the top of my head. But I’m not trying to keep score. In this “game” of world war III, it’s impossible to keep score and absolutely meaningless. You have to keep in mind the objectives of all parties (as best as we can ascertain) and then observe the elements play out. And as they play out, we migrate to areas that will not be affected by the fallout (both figuratively and literally). Remember, the reason why everyone is so confused as to what is going on is simply because no one can see the full picture. There’s a plan. There’s always a plan. Keep in mind why things appear to be a world run by crazy people…
They might actually be crazy.
The Western “news” is a propaganda arm of the US government.
Actual “news” and events are not being reported on.
Trivial events are blown all out of proportion.
Real secrets are kept secret.
Counter intelligence operations are at full-speed.
So just sit tight. The latest information from the Domain Commander is…
No change to the previous predictions; small to medium bads lie ahead.
Events are playing out within predictable patterns well known and understood by Domain (Historians).
Some humans will experience discomfort, but any areas of conflict and turmoil will be isolated and geographically segmented.
Take care. Be prudent.
Important note
WordPress has “updated” it’s software, and messed up everything MM side. Do not be frustrated, but much of the grammar corrections, formatting, and pictures were deleted or screwed up in this post, and I am too exhausted to repair what amounts to 10,000 words of text.
Self-format if you must.
Apollo 13 | “Houston, We Have a Problem”
Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation
Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation at annual apex meeting
The agreements were signed at the 18th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting, co-chaired by DPM Heng Swee Keat and Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng
China is where the world future lies :
Small businesses in various states are struggling to pay their rent, a new report shows, with rent delinquency at nearly 40 percent this month.
The findings, published Tuesday by Boston-based business tracker Alignable, are raising more than eyebrows, as they illustrate the stark effect inflation is having on everyday Americans.
The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.
If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.
Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses - almost half of all Americans working in the private sector - were left unable to pay rent in October.
Compounding concerns is the fact that several states, including New York and California, are well over the already-high national average.
Offering an explanation for the phenomenon, study author Chuck Casto wrote that small business owners are steadfast, but that their incomes are 'basically being eaten away by inflationary pressures' as grim figures continue to rock financial markets.
Alignable discerned that one-third of businesses are at risk of closing if revenue does not 'ramp up' significantly in the coming months, as consumers shy away from spending amid fears of an impending recession. As to the reasons for the short funds, poll-takers blamed higher rents, the impact of more than a year of high inflation, steeper-than-usual gas prices, increases in supply chain costs, rising labor expenses and shortages, and reduced consumer spending.
Worse, about 49 percent of restaurants were unable to pay their rent this month, up from 36, in September, while an identical 49 percent of car dealership and repair shop owners defaulted on their October rent.
Chips Act Won’t Work
It doesn’t make sense for the US to invest billions of dollars to support the manufacturing of semiconductors if they have to be shipped to Asia to be completed.
Down Time Recently the provider of this Website, Typepad, moved their systems to a new datacenter. It then announced an additional maintenance period to update the system’s architecture. That ended up in a mighty screw-up. For the last days Moon of Alabama was a casualty of it. After a while the Typepad engineers recognized the problems and decided, correctly, to roll everything back to the old version. It took a while, but finally most stuff is working again. There are two maxims in Information Technology. I. Never change a running system. Unfortunately there are circumstances, like growth pain etc, where one HAS to change things. That usually ends up in trouble. Another IT maxim is: II. Never change multiple things at a time. This is where the recent Typepad screw-up happened. Multiple components of the system were changed at the same time and did not interact properly with each other. Been there, done that. Back around 1995, I was working for a large international access provider who’s systems always had growth pains. Everything was well prepared for a down time and a major update of the architecture. A short maintenance period was announced and we proceeded with it. Every element had been tested before. But unbeknown to the software engineers the network providers, those with the physical access lines, had decided to use our announced down time for a change in their systems too. The two changes collided with each other and it took more than 24 hours to even find out what had happened. The roll back, not well planned, created more of a mess. We were down for 72+ hours. We had several million customers at that time. They weren’t happy. Typepad is now back and with it all the blogs that are running on it. I am pretty sure that there are still some bugs that will have to be cleaned up over the next days. But the service has, in general, been good over the many years Moon of Alabama existed and ran on it. It is relatively cheap and relieves me of setting up and administrating my own servers. That’s why I will stick to it. For now.
The European Union (EU) got hit with a double dose of nasty reality today. When the European Union “Sanctioned” Russian natural gas, they stopped buying it and had to look elsewhere, which sent the price skyrocketing for everyone.
Then The EU decided it would impose a Price Cap on . . . RUSSIAN . . . natural gas, telling all other countries they must not pay over the price cap! Imagine the nerve of the EU trying to tell the entire world what price they MUST pay for someone ELSE’s natural gas?!?!?!
Today, Qatar told Europe it will stop sending natural gas to Europe of they try to impose a price cap on RUSSIAN fuels!
Europe is already in a massive mess over natural gas; it’s not only costing them triple or quadruple what it used to, there are actual shortages.
If Europe alienates Qatar by imposing a price cap on RUSSIAN gas, and thereby gets cut off from Qatar gas – people in Europe might freeze to death this winter for lack of natural gas. Power plants in Europe would have no fuel to generate electric. Europe would be plunged into the dark ages.
Speaking of shortages, GAZPROM announced today that, by their measurements, Ukraine has presently stored 14.6 Billion cubic meters (m3) of natural gas.
But the country needs 19 Billion m3 to get through the winter. Ukraine doesn’t have that much . . . and cannot get it, either.
So it seems at first glance, people in Ukraine, will actually end up freezing to death this winter. So much for Ukraine “winning” it’s war with Russia.
Maybe, if Ukraine surrenders now, they can settle things fast enough so that their people don’t freeze to death?
Or is noble surrender too much to ask from the Zelensky tyrants in Kiev?
.
This Is Serious! We’re Gonna Crash BIG TIME” – Robert Kiyosaki’s Last WARNING
Interesting, though he’s got a problem with communism. I suppose it’s legacy fear. But check it out.
.
https://youtu.be/E4ZDEaqYQDs
Russians Hack U.S. “DELTA Command & Control System” – Complete Ukraine Battle Plans Exposed
. The United States “DELTA” Command and Control System is the computer network that the US uses for battle operations. It is constantly updated by military planners and intelligence sources with troop deployment info, weapons stock info, and complete attack plans. Russia has HACKED it; Ukraine’s battle plans totally compromised. Equally important, the DELTA system is also constantly updated with information about the OPPOSING forces, in this case, Russia. Here is what a Russian computer Hacker got access to, with videos proving he got access, and how it is likely to be dispositive of the entire Ukraine war, in Russia’s favor.
Herman And The Bank Robbers
Enjoy. https://youtu.be/f_DDvG-yv4c
Iran Raises “Red Banner of Retaliation” Over Mosque; Saudis on High Alert
Iran has raised the Red Banner of Retaliation over the dome of Jamkaran Mosque in Qom city, which amounts to a declaration of war. What caused the raising of the Red Banner is yet to be said. The last time the Red Banner was raised was when Qassem Suleimani was assassinated in 2020. After that banner was raised, Iran fired missiles which hit a US Base in the region, injuring many US military personnel. Whatever the present issue may be, Saudi Arabia notified its US Military contacts they expect what they call an “imminent” attack against Saudi Arabia by Iran. They are not certain if the attack will be by missiles, or by Iranian Drones. US and Saudi air defenses are now on high alert.
Men in Black: A Series of Tests
Fun. https://youtu.be/qHR8IdyTO1M
New Fudan Report: US-China Chip War
From HERESecuritisation of the US’s Semiconductor Industry Policy”. Its authors are Shen Yi (沈逸) and Mo Fei (莫非). The former is a controversial professor of international politics and the director of the Centre for International Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University. With a following of almost two million on Weibo as well as regular videos and opinion pieces discussing international relations, he has become a well-known public intellectual in China. Shen has previously written about his experience of being interrogated by the FBI and having his US visa revoked back in 2018. The second author, Mo Fei, is a PhD candidate at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs and a research assistant at the aforementioned Centre for International Cyberspace Governance. This report appears to have been written, or at least completed, in September, in other words, prior to the US’s most recent high-tech export controls. The authors, however, were aware that “the Biden administration plans to further strengthen export controls on China in the areas of artificial intelligence and chip manufacturing, and that it was considering establishing a system within the US government that would give it the power to directly block US entities from investing in China and require information disclosure.” The following summary and excerpts should therefore be read keeping this background in mind. On a side note, I may occasionally post special editions such as this one in addition to Sinification’s weekly format if and when I feel that a particular study is noteworthy, topical and too long to share as a thread on Twitter.
Key arguments from this report:
The US is making a strategic mistake in channelling most of its energy into outdoing China in the tech sector. Semiconductors only constitute a small part of the US-China rivalry.
The US’s chip manufacturing capacity lags far behind that of East Asia. The CHIPS Act is unlikely to provide enough funding and incentives to change this.
US allies will not be willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of America’s.
China has the financial firepower, unrivalled capacity for government-industry coordination and absolute determination to accelerate the development of its chip industry, come what may.
On the drivers and dynamics of the US-China chip war:
“China's fundamental national strategy is to strengthen its national power, improve the standard of living of its citizens and enhance its international status through peaceful economic development. The US’s strategy towards China is to 'lock up' China's rise, curtail its international influence and increase its dependence on the US in the international system. Therefore,the essence of the strategic competition between the US and China is a struggle between economic development and domestic governance rather than a traditional hegemonic or military-security struggle.”“The US, however, has rather simplistically focused on the nature of the strategic competition between the US and China as being a 'technological battle', and then even more simplistically determined that a series of [tech-related] policies will be able to successfully block the strategic challenge posed by China in a relatively short period of time and at a relatively low cost.”“The US has [now] put anti-China national security concerns ahead of such economic interests as ‘cost’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘market’.”“Advanced semiconductors have become an outlet for the US to release its security-related anxieties about China and have been turned into a symbol … demonstrating the US’s superior strength and its gradually winning in the context of US-China rivalry. At the same time, in the absence of one single effective ‘tool’ to contain China's technological rise and as one of the very few holds the US [still] has in the economic sphere that can effectively handicap China, any action that can widen the gap between China and the US in advanced semiconductor technology will have the psychological effect of ‘easing the anxiety’ and ‘increasing the smugness’ of US policymakers. Each [US] crackdown on China's advanced semiconductor technology will release the US’s security-related anxiety about China in stages. [But] when new security-related anxieties reach a certain level, it will once again drive the US to take further restrictive measures against [the development of] China’s advanced semiconductor technology.”“At the [current] stage of the strategic stalemate between the US and China, the US can only add to the semiconductor technology embargo compulsively and frequently to demonstrate that it still has considerable coercive power and strategic advantages over China.”“But the fact is thatadvanced semiconductors only constitute a small part of the strategic competition between the US and China.”
On the difficulty for the US to rebuild a chip manufacturing base at home, gain the backing of its allies and shut out China:
“Global economic integration, the formation and consolidation of global supply chains, and China’s deep roots in the global economic system make it almost impossible for the US to replicate its Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union in its strategic competition with China.”“History repeats itself but never in exactly the same way. The United States today does not have the same strategic capabilities as it did thirty years ago, and China is now already highly integrated into both the new international division of labour and the world’s science and innovation cycle. Even in the area of semiconductors, where the US is in a position of power and China is at a disadvantage, the US is no longer in a position to [simply] remove China from the supply chain of advanced semiconductors. The inherent vulnerability of the Biden administration's chip strategy leaves room for China's semiconductor industry to break out of the US’s siege. More specifically:”
“The Biden administration's semiconductor strategy runs counter to the global semiconductor industry’s development pattern and lacks an adequate domestic semiconductor manufacturing base to support it.”
“US semiconductor manufacturing capabilities lag far behind those of East Asian countries. [This is explained by] the wave of de-industrialisation that began in the late 20th century in the US, coupled with the fact that most American IC companies have opted for a 'Fabless' operating model, focusing on design and outsourcing manufacturing.”
“The US’s heavy reliance on East Asian semiconductor production capacity exacerbates the risk of disruption to the US chip supply chain, while also increasing the US's vulnerability in the context of its strategic competition with China.”
“Now, for national security and geostrategic reasons, the US is planning to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to its shores … However, such a systemic change will be very difficult to achieve with just a single ‘chip bill’.”
“The US’s current approach has seen it use mainly federal funding to invest domestically in high-tech R&D … to train new talent and to attract foreign firms to set up factories in the US. However, … if the US wants to restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry, US$50+ billion from the federal government will clearly not be enough to solve this issue.”
“In September 2022, the Center for a New American Security released [a report] … which stated that the US CHIPS Act is designed to close the cost gap between producing chips in the US versus in East Asia, but that current financial support and related incentives were still far from sufficient to close the cost gap across the industry.”“The actual effectiveness of the CHIPS Act may differ quite significantly from the optimistic estimates (in favour of the US) that are now being made in a large number of studies; one cannot exclude a scenario in which the buzz is followed by business as usual.
“Frankly speaking, although we still need to wait for [these measures] to be put into practice … it is arguably the ‘pull’ by the end customer that will prove more important than the ‘push’ by the US government’s industrial policies. If the end-consumer market proves unwilling to pay a premium [for these high-tech products] … the Biden government's semiconductor strategy … will not be able to [fully] restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry.”
“The US’s influence within its chip alliances is not sufficient to convince its allies to follow the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy on the premise of ‘America First’ and ‘each country has to pay its own way [i.e. with no help from the US]’.”
“[In reality,] the core of the US’s semiconductor strategy, is, on the one hand, to siphon off resources from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and other relevant semiconductor companies to make up for the technological shortcomings in its own semiconductor manufacturing sector. On the other, to convince its allies and partners, using its position of power in the high-tech world, to stop semiconductor technology deals and manufacturing cooperation with China.”
“The Biden administration is [effectively] strengthening itself at the expense of others … thus increasing the vulnerability of the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy. In other words, US allies and partners have their own semiconductor strategies and are not willing to sacrifice their own interests in order to serve the US’s semiconductor strategy.”
“[For example,] South Korea cannot [simply] decouple from China, just for the sake of cooperating with Washington in building up the US’s [new] supply chain, without taking into account the fact that China is South Korea’s largest semiconductor market … South Korea is ambivalent about the ‘CHIP 4’ alliance currently being assembled by the US.”
“Taiwan, on the other hand, still has illusions about [the effectiveness of] its ‘Silicon Shield’ and does not want the US semiconductor industry to develop in the direction of self-sufficiency for national security reasons.”
“There are deep-rooted conflicting currents in the underlying logic of Taiwan's semiconductor strategy with the US. Politically, Taiwan is investing in US factories to curry favour with the US on geopolitical issues. Economically [however], Taiwan's semiconductor industry … does not view the US ‘chip strategy’ favourably.”“In addition to [the Netherland’s] ASML, the Biden administration has also tried to pressure Nikon, a Japanese DUV equipment manufacturer, to stop exporting such equipment to China, but the Japanese have also refused. This shows that, when it comes to the technological embargo imposed on China, although the ‘public-private’ alliance formed by the US will cooperate with the US’s strategy, there is a limit to such cooperation. This can be explained by two factors: the pull of the Chinese market and a concern for US technological hegemony [among its allies].”
On the US’s tech crackdown on China and the the medium-to-long term prospects for both the US and China:
“The specific technical details involved in the semiconductor industry are complex enough to ensure that [only] a small group of elite politicians in Washington can monopolise the content and future direction of these discussions, thereby making it easier to gain indulgence and support for their contrarian actions both at home and abroad.”“Take the latest US chip sanctions against China on 1 September as an example … The ban presents a remarkable internal paradox. It was initially intended to create additional barriers to the development of China's high-tech industry. However, it may well end up having the opposite effect. Ironically, in the medium to long term, US pressure is set to ‘force’ China's high-tech industry to develop a more solid industrial base as well as [its own] core technologies. Objectively speaking and from the US’s perspective, this will lead to [the emergence of] a more challenging, comprehensive, and thus more-difficult-to-contain, powerful adversary.”“In the short term, US tech-related policies targeting China will indeed create a window of opportunity. That is to say, a window during which China will be seeking to fix the adverse consequences caused by the US’s technology crackdown. For the US, this window will mean that the US is given more time to develop itself in a number of key and emerging technologies, including advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence, so as to gain the upper hand over China … But such a turn of events is far from being a given. In other words, in addition to restricting technology exports to China, the US government will also need to implement effective domestic policies to support and guide its efforts in these areas. However, if we look at the US’s performance on related issues since the 1980s, the picture is not particularly promising. Of course, the recently passed CHIPS Act provides some room for imagination. However, … in terms of the type of governance capacity required to steer and organise such large-scale strategic industries, the US government is not currently in a position to provide a convincing answer to observers.”“In the short term, the most immediate and tangible effects of the Biden administration's tech-crackdown on China will be: (i) to create real obstacles for the development of related industries in China; (ii) to generate a public opinion wave of pro-US and anti-China rhetoric; and (iii) to use ‘hurting the US’s strategic rival’ as political leverage during the upcoming US mid-term elections and the presidential elections two years later.”“In terms of [economic] weight, the US economy is still the largest in the world, but its lead over the second-placed has narrowed to the point where it is within sight and able to be overtaken. The US still has an overall advantage in terms of cutting-edge technology, but this advantage does not ensure that its use will simply lead to the continued development of its strengths and consolidation of its superiority. It will [probably] not be possible for the US to maintain its overwhelming technological dominance over the rest of the world. In other words, there is a lack of certainty surrounding the US’s ability to make further technological breakthroughs. Its traditional strengths are shrinking or even [already] lost, and its toolbox lacks an obvious ‘magic bullet’ like the US’s containment strategy during the Cold War, which could simply ‘solve the problem once and for all’ vis-à-vis the US’s main strategic rival. In fact, the anxiety that is spreading in Washington's policy-making circles is constantly forcing the US government to look for, and subsequently try out, any type of tool that can produce short-term results. Thus, for policy makers at least, it is a way of justifying domestically that ‘something has already been done’ and avoiding simply looking on [helplessly] at the gradual erosion of the US’s hegemonic powers.”“The specific condition [to the US’s success] is that the target of such a weapon [export controls] must have a sufficiently weak political will to abandon its intention to develop the industry in question immediately after the US’s strike … [However,] China has both the will and an unmatched capacity for industrial policymaking to drive and guide the development of its own alternative technologies [替代性能力]. Chinese companies and industries have long since begun the production of related products but are [currently] in the uncomfortable position of being constrained by the superior and more mature products of US companies. The subtlety of US bans is that it is the US government, rather than the Chinese government, that has helped these companies to achieve the effective exclusion of their competitors from the [Chinese] market [i.e. this will, according to the authors, allow Chinese companies, in the medium-to-long term, to grow even faster and invest even more in R&D].”“In terms of China's [overall] development, the development of its technologies, the development of its industries as well as a number of other dimensions, this [i.e. pressures from the US/West] does not really constitute a [catastrophic] threat akin to ‘the sky is falling’. Objectively speaking, the discomfort caused by the bans will be the best possible impetus to stimulate and push forward the upgrading of alternative industries and technological capabilities [in China]. China's [past] experience shows that once this short-term discomfort has been overcome and alternative capabilities and industries have been developed, what will follow is a complete rewriting of the rules of the game by China by virtue of the country’s superior production capacity. The potential outcomes of such a scenario are truly exciting.”“For [Chinese] policy analysts [政策观察者], it is important to maintain a greater degree of composure, resilience and patience when dealing with US policy decisions, and to analyse more systematically the [potential] discrepancies between policy intentions, policy content and, ultimately, policy effectiveness. For the Chinese government, the more pressing issue is to build [more] effective and refined countermeasures against US [policies], while maintaining the trend of opening up to the outside world and encouraging globalisation, so that the Chinese market and the benefits gained by US companies in China can be used more fully as leverage and, when necessary, a strategic weapon in China's competition with the US. This is a crucial and necessary part of expanding and improving [our] capabilities in the context of China’s rise.”
Zhu hao (祝好), Thomas
he Hangover (2009) – Stun Gun Demonstration Scene
Comeback kid Lula in the eye of a volcano
18439 ViewsOctober 31, 2022
by Pepe Escobar, first posted at the Asia Times, and reposted with the author’s permission
Lula wins but his room for maneuver will be limited by powerful forces aligned against his Global South agenda
Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva may be the ultimate 21st century political comeback kid. At 77, fit and sharp, leading an alliance of 10 political parties, he has just been elected as Brazilian president for what will be a de facto third term after his first two from 2003 to 2010. Lula even staged a comeback-inside-a-comeback, during the extremely fast and tight electronic vote counting, reaching 50.9% against 49.1% to the incumbent, extreme right President Jair Bolsonaro, representing a difference of only two million votes in a country of 215 million people. Lula’s back in office on January 1, 2023. Lula’s first speech was somewhat anti-Lula; noted for his Garcia Marquez-style improvisations and folksy stream of consciousness, he read from a measured, carefully-prepared script.
Lula emphasized the defense of democracy; the fight against hunger; the drive for sustainable development with social inclusion; a “relentless fight against racism, prejudice and discrimination.” He invited international cooperation to preserve the Amazon rainforest and will fight for fair global trade, instead of trade “that condemns our country to be an eternal exporter of raw materials.” Lula, always an exceptional negotiator, managed to win against the formidable state machine apparatus unleashed by Bolsonaro, which saw the distribution of billions of dollars in vote-buying; an avalanche of fake news; outright intimidation and attempts of voter suppression against the poor by rabid Bolsonarists; and countless episodes of political violence. Lula inherits a devastated nation that, much like the US, is completely polarized. From 2003 to 2010 – he rose to power, incidentally, only two months before America’s “shock and awe” against Iraq – it was quite a different story. Lula managed to bring to the table economic prosperity, massive poverty alleviation and an array of social policies. In eight years, he created at least 15 million jobs.
Vicious political persecution ended up canceling him out of the 2018 presidential elections, paving the way for Bolsonaro – a project entertained by the hard-right Brazilian military since 2014. Collusion between Brazil’s Public Ministry and dodgy “justice” stalwarts to persecute and condemn Lula on spurious charges forced him to spend 580 days in jail as a political prisoner as notorious as Julian Assange. Lula ended up being declared not guilty in no less than 26 motions against him by a lawfare machine at the heart of the – deeply corrupt – Car Wash operation. Lula’s Sisyphean task starts now. At least 33 million Brazilians are mired in hunger. Another 115 million are fighting “food insecurity.” No less than 79% of families are hostages to high levels of personal debt. In contrast to the new “pink tide” rolling across Latin America – of which he is now the superstar – internally there’s no pink tide.
On the contrary, he will face a deeply hostile Congress and Senate and even Bolsonarist governors, including in the most powerful state of the federation, Sao Paulo, which concentrates more industrial firepower than many latitudes in the Global North.
Round up the usual suspects
The absolutely key vector is that the international financial system and the “Washington Consensus”, already controlling Bolsonaro’s agenda, have captured Lula’s administration even before it begins. Lula’s vice-president is center-right Geraldo Alckmin, who can be catapulted to power the minute that deeply hostile Congress decides to fabricate some Lula impeachment scheme. It’s not an accident that the neo-liberal The Economist magazine has already “warned” Lula to shift to the center: that is, his government must be run, in practice, by the usual financial suspects. Much will depend on who Lula appoints as his finance minister. The top candidate is Henrique Meirelles, former CEO of FleetBoston, Brazil’s second largest external creditor after CitiGroup. Meirelles has expressed unrestricted support for Lula, for whom he previously worked as central bank chief.
Meirelles is likely to prescribe the exact same economic policies as Bolsonaro’s top economic enforcer, investment banker Paulo Guedes. That happens to be exactly what Meirelles himself created during the rapacious Temer administration, which came to power after the institutional coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. And now we get to the real juice. None other than US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland visited Brazil “unofficially” last April. She refused to meet Bolsonaro and praised the Brazilian electoral system (“You have one of the best in the hemisphere, in terms of reliability, in terms of transparency.” ) Afterward, Lula promised the EU a sort of “governance” of the Amazon and had to publicly condemn the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine. All that after he had already praised Biden, in 2021, as “a breath for democracy in the world.” The “reward” for the accumulated performance was a Time magazine cover. All of the above may suggest an incoming, shady pseudo-Left government by the Workers Party – neoliberalism with a human face – infiltrated by all sorts of right-wing vectors, essentially serving the interests of Wall Street and the Democrat-controlled State Department. Key planks: acquisition of key economic assets by the usual globalist suspects, and thus no room for Brazil to exercise real sovereignty. Lula, of course, is too smart to be reduced to the role of mere hostage but his room for maneuver – internally – is extremely slim. Toxic Bolsonarism, now in the opposition, will continue to institutionally prosper dressed up as – fake – “anti-system”, especially in the Senate. Bolsonaro is a self-described “myth” created and packaged by the military, coming out in the open about a month after Dilma’s election victory that propelled her to a second term in late 2014. Bolsonaro himself and countless fanatic supporters flirted with Nazism; unabashedly praised known torturers during the Brazilian military dictatorship; and milked serious fascist leanings lurking in Brazilian society. Bolsonarism is even more insidious because this is a military-concocted movement subservient to hardcore neoliberal globalist elites and comprised of evangelicals and agribusiness tycoons while posing as “anti-globalist.” No wonder the virus contaminated literally half of a dazed and confused nation.
Old China hand
Externally, Lula will play a whole different ball game. Lula is one of the founders of the BRICS in 2006, which evolved out of the Russia-China dialogue. He’s immensely respected by the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. He has promised to serve only one term, or up to the end of 2026. But that’s exactly the key stretch in the eye of the volcano, straddling the decade Putin described in his Valdai speech as the most dangerous and important since World War II. The drive towards a multipolar world, institutionally represented by a congregation of bodies from BRICS+ to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the Eurasia Economic Union, will profit immensely to have Lula on board as arguably the natural leader of the Global South – with a track record to match. Of course, his immediate foreign policy focus will be South America: he already announced that will be the destination of his first presidential visit, most probably Argentina, which is bound to join BRICS+. Then he will visit Washington. He has to. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Informed opinion across the Global South is very much aware that it’s under Obama-Biden that the whole, complex operation to topple Dilma and expel Lula from politics was orchestrated. Brazil will be a lame duck at the upcoming G20 in Bali in mid-November but in 2023 Lula will be back in business side-by-side with Putin and Xi. And that also applies to the next BRICS summit in South Africa, which will consolidate BRICS+, as an array of nations are itching to join, from Argentina and Saudi Arabia to Iran and Turkey. And then there’s the Brazil-China nexus. Brasilia has been Beijing’s key trade partner in Latin America since 2009, absorbing roughly half of China’s investment in the region (and the most of any Latin American investment destination in 2021) and firmly placed as the fifth largest exporter of crude for the Chinese market, second for iron and first for soybeans. The precedents tell the story. Right from the start, in 2003, Lula bet on a strategic partnership with China. He considered his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as his top foreign policy priority. The goodwill in Beijing is unshakeable: Lula is considered an old friend by China – and that political capital will open virtually every red door. In practice, that will mean Lula investing his considerable global clout in strengthening BRICS+ (he already stated BRICS will be at the center of his foreign policy) and the inner workings of South-South geopolitical and geo-economic cooperation. That may even include Lula formally signing up Brazil as a partner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a way that won’t antagonize the US. Lula, after all, is a master of this craft. Finding a path in the eye of the volcano, internally and externally, will be the definitive political challenge for the comeback kid. Lula has been written off countless times, so underestimating him is a bad bet. Even before starting his third term, he has already performed a major feat: to emancipate a majority of Brazilians from mental slavery. All eyes will be on what the Brazilian military – and its foreign handlers – really want. They have embarked on a very long-term project, control most levers in the power structure, and simply won’t give up. And so the odds may be stacked against an aging neo-Ulysses from northeast Brazil reaching his Ithaca ideal of a fair and sovereign land.
YOU HAVE 6 DAYS LEFT!! ARE YOU READY? | Patrick Humphrey
Really? In six days, eh? It is pretty weird that a Walmart Distribution Center in South Carolina, US. Is usually really busy this time of year. They have not hired anyone in months now. With it being seasonal time also, that is so strange to me!! Also the ones that are working there, are getting NO hours. This has been going on for months, since February. No departments are working full shifts. Check out the video and then monitor the prices at your local grocery store. Let’s watch the clown-show together. https://youtu.be/SXCtROaU-AE
Brandon’s “Usable Nukes” Are the Fast-Track to Jopocalypse
“The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk.
Citing rising threats from Russia and China, it argues that the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.” Stephen Young, Union of Concerned Scientists
Maybe you’re one of the millions of people who think the US would never use its nuclear weapons unless the threat of a nuclear attack was imminent.
Well, you’d be wrong, because according to the recently-released Nuclear Posture Review, the bar for using nukes has been significantly lowered. The new standard reads like this: (nukes can be used) “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”“
Defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies”??
That’s a pretty broad net, isn’t it? That could include anything from a serious threat to national security to an ordinary economic competitor. And that loosy-goosy definition appears to be just what the authors were looking for. The hardliners wanted to fundamentally change US nuclear doctrine so the conditions under which nukes could be used was greatly expanded.
The obvious objective of this dramatic policy-shift is to eliminate any obstacle to the free and unfettered use of nuclear weapons. Which is precisely what the neocons have always wanted; a green light to Armageddon.
Now they got what they wanted. Here are a few of the changes in policy that suggest that a full-blown nuclear war is no longer a remote possibility, but an increasingly likely prospect.
1– First-Strike Use: Biden refuses to rule out first-strike use of US nuclear weapons …in reversal of his campaign promise. This is from The Daily Mail:
“… on the campaign trail, Biden had vowed to switch to a ‘sole purpose’ doctrine, which maintains that the US would only use nuclear weapons to respond to another nation’s nuclear attack….
President Joe Biden is abandoning a campaign vow to alter longstanding US nuclear doctrine, and will instead embrace existing policy that reserves America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario, according to multiple reports.” (Daily Mail)
2– Nuclear Escalation: The Biden team has accelerated the deployment of modernized U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe. (The B61-12 carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than earlier versions but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground.) This is from Reuters:
Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernised U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.
Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on Oct. 26 that the United States told a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.
“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (Reuters)
3– ‘Tactical’ means ‘Usable’: Biden’s new regime of low-yield nukes (which can still blow up a city the size of New York.) are called “tactical” weapons because they are designed for use on the battlefield, which is to say, Biden no longer limits the use of nukes for national defense but also supports their use in conventional wars. (like Ukraine?) This is from Aljazeera:
“Tactical nuclear warheads were created to give military commanders more flexibility on the battlefield. In the mid-1950s, as more powerful thermonuclear bombs were being built and tested, military planners thought smaller weapons with a shorter range would be more useful in ‘tactical’ situations,” according to Al Jazeera’s defence analyst Alex Gatopoulos. (Aljazeera)
4– Fasttrack to Nuclear War: Biden’s New Euro-Nukes have lowered the threshold for nuclear war. This is from MSN: Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernized US B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning…
“The United States is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into ‘battlefield weapons’, thereby reducing the nuclear threshold,” Grushko said….
… Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Saturday on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a “strategic significance” as Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these U.S. bombs would be just a short flight from Russia’s borders.
“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (MSM) 5– Increasing the Reasons for using Nukes: The Nuclear Posture Review abandons Biden’s promise to ensure that US nuclear weapons would be used for the “sole purpose” of deterring or responding to a nuclear attack. Instead, the NPR states that the US will consider the use of nuclear weapons “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”
Sole purpose could significantly reduce the risk of unintended escalation and increase the credibility of more flexible and realistic nonnuclear response options in a range of importance contingencies.” (Federation of American Scientists)
6– More Escalation: The US now reserves the right to use its nukes against non-nuclear weapon countries. This is from an article at Bloomberg News: The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy rejected limits on using nuclear weapons long championed by arms control advocates and in the past by President Joe Biden.
Citing burgeoning threats from China and Russia, the Defense Department said in the document released Thursday that “by the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries.” In response, the US will “maintain a very high bar for nuclear employment” without ruling out using the weapons in retaliation to a non-nuclear strategic threat to the homeland, US forces abroad or allies.” (“Pentagon’s Strategy Won’t Rule Out Nuclear Use Against Non-Nuclear Threats”, Bloomberg) Here’s more from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:
In the Defense Department briefing, this point is elaborated. The NPR, a department official stated, “establishes a strategy that relies on nuclear weapons to deter all forms of strategic attack. This includes nuclear employment of any scale, and it includes high-consequence attacks of a strategic nature that use non-nuclear means.”
The publication of the document was rapidly condemned by arms control experts. “The Biden administration’s unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is, at heart, a terrifying document,” wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
“It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk,” the UCS argued, by claiming that “the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.”…
This marks a significant development from Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which largely referred to the use of military force to secure economic interests in the negative—asserting that it was China that was doing so. While this was the clear implication of the 2018 document, the definition of “national interests” advanced by the Pentagon’s 2022 document to include “economic prosperity” constitutes an even more open step toward advocating the doctrine that war is an acceptable means to secure economic aims.
A section of the 2022 National Defense Strategy:
These documents, which were not seriously discussed in the US media, make clear the fundamental falsehood that the massive US military buildup this year is a response to “Russian aggression.” In reality, in the thinking of the White House and Pentagon war planners, the massive increases in military spending and plans for war with China are created by “dramatic changes in geopolitics, technology, economics, and our environment.”
These documents make clear that the United States sees the economic rise of China as an existential threat, to be responded to with the threat of military force. The United States sees the subjugation of Russia as a critical stepping stone toward the conflict with China.” (“Pentagon national strategy document targets China”, Andre Damon, World Socialist Web Site) he White House, the Pentagon and the entire US foreign policy establishment now march in lockstep behind the most fanatically-lethal defense policy in the nation’s 246-year history. The National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the National Security Strategy all embrace the same reckless warmongering policy that will inevitably lead to mass annihilation and civilizational collapse. The doves and critical thinkers have all been removed from the foreign policy apparatus while the madmen and warhawks drag the world inexorably towards catastrophe. God help us.
Prussian Major General Carl von Clausewitz famously drew on his own experience in the Napoleonic Wars to examine war as a political phenomenon. In his 1832 book “On War” he provided a frequently quoted pithy summary of war versus peace, writing in terms of politico-military strategy that “War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” In other words, war-making is a tool provided to statesmen to achieve a nation’s political objectives when all else fails. One can reject the ultimate amorality of Clausewitz’s thinking about war while also recognizing that some nations have historically speaking exploited war-making as a tool for physical expansion and the appropriation of foreigners’ resources. As far back as the Roman Republic, the country’s elected leaders doubled as heads of its consular armies, which were expected to go out each spring to expand the imperium. More recently, Britain notably engaged in almost constant colonial wars over the course of centuries to establish what was to become history’s largest empire. America’s dominant neocons characteristically believe they have inherited the mantle of empire and of the war powers that go hand-in-hand with that attribute, but they have avoided other aspects of the transition in turning the United States into a nation made and empowered by war. First of all, what comes out the other end after one has initiated hostilities with another country is unpredictable. Starting with Korea and continuing with Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as other minor operations in Latin America, Africa and Asia, American war-making has brought nothing but grief on those on the receiving end with little positive to show for the death, destruction and accumulated debt. Also forgotten in the rush to use force is the raison d’etre to have a federal national government at all, which is to bring tangible benefit to the American people. There has been none of that since 9/11 and even before, while Washington’s hard-line stance on what has become a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine promises more pain – perhaps disastrously so – and no real gain. If one has any doubt that going to war has become the principal function of both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, it is only necessary to consider several stories that have appeared in the past several weeks. The first comes from the Republican side, and it includes a possibly positive development. House Minority leader Republican Kevin McCarthy warned two weeks ago that the GOP will not necessarily continue to write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they obtain the House majority in next month’s election, reflecting his party’s growing skepticism about unlimited financial support for the corrupt regime in place in Kiev. McCarthy explained “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check.” America’s uncritical support for Ukraine, which has been a contrivance by the White House and media since the fighting started, has led to a growing number of Republicans, particularly some of those aligned with Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, to challenge the need for massive federal spending abroad at a time of record-high inflation at home. Since Russia launched its invasion in February, Congress has approved tens of billions in emergency security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, while the Biden administration has shipped billions more worth of weapons and equipment from military inventories, all done with only limited or even no oversight of where the money and weapons are winding up. But, unfortunately, the GOP is far from unified on its approach to Ukraine-Russia. Congressman Liz Cheney demonstrated that her apple did not fall far from her father’s tree, taking some time off from trying to hang Donald Trump to denounce what she refers to as the “Putin wing of the Republican Party.” She put it this way: “You know, the Republican Party is the party of Reagan, the party that essentially won the Cold War. And you look now at what I think is really a growing Putin wing of the Republican Party.” Cheney criticized Fox News for “running propaganda” on the issue and in particular called out Fox host Tucker Carlson as “the biggest propagandist for Putin on that network… You really have to ask yourself, whose side is Fox on in this battle? And how could it be that you have a wing of the Republican Party that thinks that America would be standing with Putin as he conducts that brutal invasion of Ukraine?” Cheney notably did not address the issue of how the war developed in the first place because the US and UK preferred saber rattling to diplomacy with Moscow. Or why the United States feels compelled to tip-toe to the brink of a possible nuclear war over a foreign policy issue that is of no real national interest to the American people. And where did she make her comments? At the McCain Institute in Arizona. Yes, that’s a legacy of Senator John McCain another Republican who never saw a war he couldn’t enthusiastically support. Both President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have confirmed that the US is in with Ukraine until “victory” is obtained, whatever that is supposed to mean, while other Administration officials have indicated that the actual purpose of the fighting is to weaken Russia and remove President Putin. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre glibly spouted the party line when asked about McCarthy’s comments. She thanked congressional leaders for bipartisan work to “support Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s war crimes and atrocities,” adding that “We will continue to work with Congress and continue to monitor those conversations on these efforts and support Ukraine as long as it takes. We are going to keep that promise that we’re making to the brave Ukrainians who are fighting every day, to fight for their freedom and their democracy.” Perhaps more bizarre than Cheney’s comments is the tale of a letter that was prepared by thirty Democratic Party progressives urging US support for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine. The letter was prepared in June but not released until last week before being quickly retracted under pressure on the following day. Pramila Jayapal, who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it was retracted because it “was being conflated with [the] comments” made by McCarthy over his warning about budget cutting for Ukraine. Jayapal referred to the letter as a “distraction,” but what she really meant was that her group had no desire to make common cause with the Republicans over any issue, including war and peace in an escalating conflict that is manifestly pointless. A clueless Jayapal also took pains to contradict the message put out by her own group, emphasizing that there has been no opposition to the administration’s Ukraine policy from Democrats in Congress. She said Democrats “have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people.” She doubled down on the White House message, affirming that the war in Ukraine will only end with diplomacy after “a Ukrainian victory.” So basically, anyone talking sense about Ukraine in Washington is being shut down by forces within the political parties themselves working together with a compliant national media that is mis-representing everything that is taking place on the ground. It is a formula for tragedy as the Biden administration has shown no sign of seeking diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict despite the president’s recent surprising warning that the world is now facing the highest risk of nuclear “Armageddon,” which he, of course, blames on Putin. Given all of that, in my humble opinion a government that is unable or unwilling to take reasonable steps to protect its own citizens while also avoiding a possible nuclear catastrophe that could end up engulfing the entire world is fundamentally evil and has lost all legitimacy. It should recognize that fact before submitting its resignation.
The Twilight Zone – A Most Unusual Camera (clip)
Why does CCP tell their citizens they “will not be enslaved by foreigners” when no foreign nation is interested in doing that?
To the Chinese, it brings back very bad memories to see Western powers sending fleets to China’s coasts, forming alliances against China, working closely with a brutally Sinophobic Japan, speaking of the breakup of China into Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc., tolerating racist attacks on Chinese immigrants, trying to embargo China and cut off its access to markets and resources, speaking of the desire to overthrow China’s government (e.g. far-right scumbag Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and scumbag British diplomat Roger Garside, author of China Coup), vilifying and barbarizing China’s culture, political system, history, and even regional cuisines, and proclaiming the superiority of Western belief systems.
Anyone who doesn’t understand why should really just exit any discussion of China because they don’t know anything about China’s history over the past 200 years. All of this is extremely familiar to the Chinese. In fact, it makes up most of China’s historical experience with the West. Major Western (British) diplomats visited China for the first time in 1793. Most of the 200 years after that were quite a miserable time for all Chinese.
This is why the CPC has always refused to restore or reconstruct the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) in Beijing, which was once world-famous, breathtakingly beautiful and something like China’s Pyramids or Hanging Gardens. It was looted and destroyed by the French and British in 1860, and today 47 Western museums exhibit and profit from its treasures. This is all that’s left of the Old Summer Palace, and it’s a depressing sight in the capital city of the world’s second-richest nation; but the dilapidated ruins are a reminder to new generations.
x
Can you imagine that these charred pillars and scattered stones mark the spot where the emperors of China once lived and governed for 125 years? Not in ancient times, but from 1735 to 1860.
I think the average patriotic Chinese is thinking, You did all of this before, and we were weak and you won. You really want to do this again? Well this time, we’re just as big as you are.
The story of the Old Summer Palace increases the kinship I feel with China as an Egyptian, because my country’s stolen treasures also fill Western museums from Boston to Berlin.
The West has always seen non-Western peoples more of less as barbarians, but I don’t think barbarians are people who practise polygamy, eat dog meat, worship idols, have no written language, or are ruled by an emperor instead of a parliament. Barbarians are people who have to brutalize and plunder every corner of the earth they ever go, simply because they can.
What kind of people make you ashamed to be a human being?
These absolute sacks of shit.
This is the Westboro Baptist Church. A Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Every day, WBC pickets approximately six locations. They claim to have picketed in all 50 states. What kind of events do they picket? Any events that don’t align with their homophobic, transphobic, anti-Catholic, anti-Orthodox, anti-atheist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, antiziganist, and anti-American views. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have accused them of brainwashing, and the church is often heavily criticized for resembling a cult (which it completely is). Some notable events that they picketed are:
Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of military funerals.
The funeral of Michael Jackson.
The funeral of Ronnie James Dio.
The funeral of Christina Green, a 9 year old victim of the 2011 Tucson Shooting. Luckily, they were unsuccessful because the Arizona legislature passed an emergency bill banning protesters within 300 ft of the memorial.
On October 5, 2011, Margie Phelps (daughter of the church’s founder) tweeted from her iPhone that the church would be picketing Steve Jobs’ funeral. Read that again. She used an iPhone to tell the world that they were going to protest STEVE JOBS’ funeral.
They tried to picket Leonard Nimoy’s funeral, but they couldn’t find it.
They picketed the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
They picketed the funerals of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
They protested the National Holocaust Museum, stating that the Jews are the real Nazis.
They also picketed the 9/11 memorials, with signs that said “Thank God for 9/11,” yet they also demanded that “teh gayz” be punished for causing 9/11.
These slippery little shits use every loophole in the book (or rather, the constitution) to ensure that they can continue their heinous activities.
These parasitic barrels of monkey nuts make me ashamed to not only be American, but a human being. I find some comfort in the parody of the church that was featured in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Oh NO! This is BIGGER than the Snowden leaks, much bigger
This is pretty important. Really. Please watch this video. https://youtu.be/6lSLks0XaAY
They Won’t Be Able To Deny The Cold, Hard Reality Of What Is Happening To The U.S. Economy Much Longer
by Michael They are trying really hard to convince all of us that everything is just fine. But close to one-fifth of the U.S. population is skipping meals because food prices are too high. And nearly 40 percent of our small businesses couldn’t pay rent in October. Our leaders are trying to put a positive spin on things, but the truth is that we are witnessing a tremendous amount of economic suffering all over the United States right now. The core consumer price index just surged to “the highest level since 1982”, and this is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on American families and businesses. This week, I was stunned to learn that a survey that was just released found that 37 percent of all small businesses in the United States could not pay rent last month…
The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses – almost half of all Americans working in the private sector – were left unable to pay rent in October.
Prior to getting this news, if someone had asked me to guess the percentage of small businesses that are currently unable to pay rent, I would have responded with a figure that was far lower. So often, things turn out to be even worse than I thought they were. If those small businesses continue to be unable to pay rent, they will eventually be forced to shut down. So what will our communities look like if millions of small businesses suddenly close up shop on a permanent basis? Meanwhile, a different survey has discovered that 18 percent of Americans are now skipping meals because food prices have become so crazy…
Over the last 12 months, nearly two in five American households (40%) received food or goods from a food bank (22% for Millennials), and the same amount (17%) stopped buying healthier foods (organic or high-priced healthy foods).Nearly one in five Americans (18%) say they skipped meals or didn’t buy groceries due to high inflation (including 28% of Gen Z and 23% of millennials).
Skipping meals can be a positive thing, because fasting is actually really good for your health. But most of these Americans are not skipping meals for the health benefits. In addition, the same survey found that many Americans are not taking medications or seeing their doctors because prices have gone up so much…
Many have cancelled or postponed plans in the past 12 months to see a specialist (14%), take a prescribed medication (10%) or get an annual physical (11%) due to high inflation.
If things are this bad already, what will those numbers look like next year at this time when economic conditions are significantly worse? The American people are going to become increasingly frustrated as our standard of living continues to plunge. All of us have to eat, and so many of the products that so many of us buy on a regular basis have gone up dramatically in price…
A year ago, a bag of potato chips at the grocery store cost an average of $5.05. These days, that bag costs $6.05. A dozen eggs that could have been picked up for $1.83 now average $2.90. A two-liter bottle of soda that cost $1.78 will now set you back $2.17.
Sadly, this is just the beginning. Even though the Federal Reserve has declared war on inflation, food prices are going to continue to rise for a variety of reasons. And as the cost of living keeps becoming more oppressive, more American families are going to struggle to make it from month to month. Even now, nearly two-thirds of the entire country is currently living paycheck to paycheck…
As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget.As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report — near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%.“Consumers are not able to keep up with the pace that inflation is increasing,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.
The worse things get, the more we will see people clamoring for the federal government to help them. In fact, one recent survey actually discovered that 63 percent of all U.S. voters are in favor of “inflation stimulus payments”…
A recent poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans are proponents of the federal government sending out inflation stimulus payments.About 63% of eligible U.S. voters expressed some degree of support for federal inflation relief checks being distributed, the Newsweek poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed. Of those who agreed the federal government should do so, 42% indicated they “strongly agree” while 21% said “agree,” according to the poll.
Sadly, most voters don’t seem to understand that sending out more stimulus checks would create even more inflation. There is always a cost when the government gives out “free money”. If our politicians would have exercised discipline over the past several years, we would not be in the mess that we are in today. But now years of very bad decisions are catching up with us in a major way, and economic conditions are rapidly deteriorating. At this point, the vast majority of the U.S. population can see this. According to one recent Gallup survey, a whopping two-thirds of all Americans believe that economic conditions in this nation are getting worse. So many people are talking about the possibility of a recession in 2023. If all we have is a recession next year, we would be extremely fortunate. Because right now the economy is starting to crack and crumble all around us, and the outlook for the months ahead is exceedingly bleak indeed. .
What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?
1. 1+1 = 3 if you don’t use the condom.
2. Alcohol increase size of the “SEND” button by 89%.
3. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
4. Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through expectations.
5. Life is too short to be with the wrong person.
6. Just because you love them, it doesn’t mean they’re right for you.
7. Feelings that come back are feelings that never left.
This is a nice mystery that has turned the archeological world on it’s side. It’s a great read and I really hope that you all enjoy what is presented here. Translated from an old scan. Correct, and edited to fit this venue. I doubt that you will be able to find a complete recounting of this story elsewhere in the Western Internet today.
…
Father Carlo Crespi, who comes from Milan, has lived in the small town of Cuenca, Ecuador, for more than 50 years. He was a priest of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora.
Crespi was accepted by the local indians as a real friend.
They (the local indians) used to bring him presents from their hiding places.
Over a period of time thefather had so many precious objects stored in his house and the church that one day he receivedpermission from the Vatican to open a museum to display them.
This museum (in the Salesian School at Cuenca) grew and grew Until in 1960 it was oneof the biggest museums in Ecuador, and Crespi was recognized as an archaeological authority.
But he has always been a rather embarrassing servant of his church, for he asserts vehementlythat he can prove that there was a direct connection between the Old World (Babylon) and the New World (pre-Inca civilizations); and thatgoes right against prevailing opinion.
Complicating matters, on 20th July 1962 there was an act of arson and the father’s museum was burnt down.
What Father Crespi managed to salvage from the damaged museum was housed in two long narrow rooms, which were in a terriblemuddle.
Brass, copper, sheet-metal, zinc, tin and stone and wooden objects and in the midst of them all pure gold, sheet-gold, silver and sheet-silver.
Eric Van Danken in His book Gold of The Godssays of this Treasure “Let the Vatican grail guardianFather Crespi of Cuenca be the key witness to the pre- Christian origin of the metal treasures. He said “‘Every’ thing that the Indians brought me from the tunnelsdates to before Christ. “Most of the symbols and pre-historic representations are older than the Flood.’”
“Father Crespi has partiallystacked his metal plaques bymotifs, for example those withpictures of pyramids.
I took a close look at more than 40 objects.
Allthe pyramid engravings have four things in common: a sun, but more frequently several suns,is depicted above the pyramid; snakes are always flying next to or over the pyramid; animalsof various kinds are always present….
“Professor Miloslav Stingi is the leading SouthAmerican scholar in the Iron Curtain countries; he graduated in the ancient civilizationsof America. today he is a member of the Academy of Sciencesat Prague and author of archaeological and ethnological books.In versunkenen Mayasta~dten(1971), for example, is highly acclaimed. Professor Stingl, who was a guest in myhouse, saw the photographs I had taken at Cuenca. ‘If these pictures are genuine, and everything indicates that they are, because no one makes forgeries in gold, at any rate not on such a large scale, this is the biggest archaeological sensation since the discovery of Troy. Yearsago I myself supported the view that the Incas had no writing in the alphabetical sense of the word. And now I am facedwith Inca writing. To beable to give a precise scientific verdict I should have to subject each plaque to a detailed and lengthy examination, and compare each one with material already available. For the moment I can only say that I am dumbfounded. The sun was often part of the scenery in known Inca engravings, but man was never equated with the sun, as I see time and again in these photographs. There are representations of men with sun's rays round their heads and there are men depicted with star points coming from them. The symbol of holy power has always been the head. But in these pictures the head is simultaneouslysun or star. That points tonew direct connections.’”
J Golden Bartonin 1998 tells of a visit see Father Crespi with Dr. Paul Chessman from BYU and others in the late 1970’s. He writes (ref. 2): “High in the Andes mountains of Ecuador lies beautiful Cuenca, a peaceful city with red Spanish tile roofsand worn cobble stone streets. Townspeople go about their daily business happily trading with each other and the native Indians who populate the hills and valleys surrounding the village.
The Indians speak the tongue of their Quechua" ancestors, who watched the sun rise over the Amazon hundreds of years before. With weathered and rosy cheeks they radiate a simplicity of harmony with the rugged mountains where they have worked time out of mind.
The men of the tribe wear a single long braid of hair down their back underneath a Panamanian hat. Men, women and children are dressed in the same black and brown earth-tone cloth, edged with bright colored trim. Each shuffle along the paths long known by their forefathers, carrying them back and forth from village to village. Not many tourists travel this way and the service is unrushed but thorough.
“A few blocks from the center of the village stands a Catholic "College of Salesino."
Young men and women from prosperous families attend this secondary school, its classrooms facing a clay and terrazzo tiled courtyard.
Entering through a side door, we found ourselves in a small open-air enclosure facing stately, hand-carved wooden gates.
A friendly young man bid us enter through old wooden doors and ushered us into a private chamber.
A few moments later, a bearded, monkish-looking man with twinkling eyes and a benign smile arrived and embraced Dr. Cheeseman. Although an octogenarian, he appeared in lively good health, despite his quaking robes which betrayed a shaky hand.
We had heard that he was senile, but his personal behavior only radiated complete mental iompetence.
So this was Father Carlos Crespi, Ecuador's unlikely focus of a unique archaeological controversy that continues to baffle everyone who has heard about it.
“He led us into an inner court of the school yard, where old Spanish wooden doors faced inward, and the oft-scrubbed floors gleamed with sunlight bouncing off the polished terrazzo.
We were unprepared for what was to come.
Father Crespi took a large key from a ring that hung from a braided belt around his robe, then moved to an obscure wooden door and turned the lock. Together with a single helper, he disappeared into the dark room.
Both soon reappeared with a largepiece of metal that had been molded and hammered into a long sheet.
It looked like it might be made of gold. The sheet was inscribed with a curious artworkbeyond identification.
“Next, they dragged something from the darkness too large to be carried, and only with strenuous exertions were they able to lean it against the stuccowall.
It stands twenty-two inches high and about seven inches wide its weight must have been prodigious.I reached my hand to touch the object and noticed it featured a dark covering, as if it had been painted.
At first, I supposed it must have been made of lead, because it was soft and almost pliable.
Then the nailsof my fingers bit into thebody of the figure through the paint and the gleam from the tell-tale scratch left no doubt that it was made of pure gold.
Our cameras began to click, and in the excitement Father Crespi talked excitedly, hardly stopping to breathe. He was our enthusiastic instructor, showingus each new piece as though it had just been brought to the light of day for the first time.
“What other wonders did his black vault contain, we wondered? The old man's nimble fingers joined the ends of two barren electric wires and the chamber was instantly revealed in the radiance of an incandescent globe.
The gleam of gold, silver, and bronze everywhere added to the brightness of its interior.
Shelves of dusty, worn ceramics, starry-eyed idols posturing in hideousstances or strange proportions.
Stacked from floor to ceiling were hundreds of large cardboard pieces on which were wired metal bracelets, earrings, nose rings, and necklaces,some untarnished by time. Hide-scrapers, tools, implements of war, spears, axes, clubs, of wood, metal and stone were stacked everywhere.
Father Crespi's mysterious room seemed overburdened with the treasures of an unknown antiquity. It literally over-flowed with bizarre artifacts, many wrought in precious metals.
Most intriguing were the innumerable plates of bronze, brass and gold.
Many bore strange inscriptions and hieroglyphic symbols. Others were replete with the engravings of incongruous animals--elephants, snakes, jaguars, wild beasts of every kind.
The images of horse-drawn chariots were clearlyetched into metal, calling to mind Juan Moricz's description of "a Roman chariot" in his underground chamber.
“Wephotographeda plateinscribed with representations of what appeared to be Egypt's step-pyramid.
Still more plates contained artwork with what looked like Assyrian or Babylonian symbols.
We grew dizzy with the gleaming opulence and historicalanomaly all around us.
Newell Parkin, a banker from Bountiful, Utah, Dr. Paul Cheeseman, Wayne Hamby, an undergraduate student from Brigham Young University, D. Craig Anderson, a Utah State UniversityResearch Associate, whoacted as our interpreter, and I spent the afternoon amid these otherworldly splendors.
In all my travels throughout the world, my visit to the Crespi Collection was to be their crowning experience.
“We asked Father Crespi how he came by suchmarvelous things. He said he headed the local parish for over fifty years after studying at Italy's University In Milan, where the subject of archaeology had caught his interest.
Following graduation, he became a priest and was assigned to Ecuador's beautiful city of Cuenca to work among theIndians.
In time, he came to lovethem. Moreover, in South America he had opportunity to further his archaeological interests.
To his great surprise and delight, the religious celebrations over which he presided brought a host of Indians bearing gifts to the kindly man who performed baptisms and marriages and was their friend in trouble.
Aware of Father Crespi's enthusiasm for archaeology, the grateful Indians brought him ancient objects long hidden in the jungle.
Soon, his collection steadily increased until, after fifty years, it filled many rooms.
“A museum was constructed to house these remarkable gifts, but a few years before our visit it was seriously damaged by an arsonist's fire.
Father Crespimanaged to salvage three full rooms of the relics, one of relatively obscure and unimportant tributes, another filled with items of curious antiquity, but the last was a treasury of gold artifacts.
Residing high amongthe Andes mountains in an obscure village, the old man had no interest in fame or fortune.
Few travelers knew of his collection and even fewer scientists.
He was a private person with a big heart and a deep interest in the past. ‘Where and how do the Indians find these incredible things.,’ we wondered.
‘Oh, they just get them from the caves and subterranean chambers inthe jungles,’ he answered in an offhand manner.
'There are over 200 kilo-meters of tunnels starting here in Cuenca.
They run from the mountains down to the eastern lowlands near the Amazon."
Wayne Hamby, an assistant to Cheeseman, spent a few more days with Father Crespi to catalogue and photograph the entire collection.
His results went into the files of Dr. Cheeseman, who died after his retirement from the faculty of Brigham Young University.
“Two years following our visit to the kindly priest,I returned to Cuenca with Ben Holbrook, our two young sons, and a pair of Ecuadoran LDS missionaries acting as interpreters.
We were greeted by a young priest, who informed us that Carlos Crespi had passed away in January 1980, and his collection was no longer available for public view.
In spite of my effortsto convince him that we had traveled a long distance to view the relics, he stubbornly refused to allow us tosee the treasures.
He insisted that the room with the artifacts could not be shown on orders from the Vatican.
To my knowledge, no one from the outside world has seen the treasure since the death of the old Padre.“.
Mr. Barton heard rumors that much of the treasure had been shipped to Rome to the Vatican.
Richard Wingate a Florida based explorer and writer visited Father Crespi four times during the mid to late 1970’s and photographed the extensive artifact collection. He says this concerning his visits:
“IN A DUSTY,cramped shed on the side porch of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cuenca, Ecuador, lies the most valuable archaeological treasure on earth.
More than one million dollars worth of dazzling gold is cached here, and muchsilver, yet the hard money value of this forgotten hoard is not its principal worth.
There are ancientartifacts identified asAssyrian, Egyptian, Chinese, and African so perfect in workmanship and beauty that any museum director would regard them as first-class acquisitions.
Since this treasure is the strangest collection of ancient archaeological objects in existence, its value lies in the historical questions it poses, and demands answers to.
Yet it is unknown to historians and deliberately neglected in the journals of orthodox archaeology….
‘Ah,’ the priest said, ‘enough flattery, then, let’s take a look.’ Without ceremony, he forced a key into an ancient, rusty padlock and opened the rickety door to his museum.
He touched two bare wires together and a watery yellow light went on.
FatherCrespi was smiling like a man with a very remarkable secret.
I was skeptical of the reports I had heard about this place, but now that cautious attitude gave’ way to unabashed astonishment.
Stacked against the far wall were golden mummy cases in the quasi-Egyptian style with a black, baked-enamel finish.
A dozen complete sets of gleaming, golden ceremonial armor, beaten-gold Chaldean-style helmets, and golden inscribed plaques were piled haphazardly on the floor.
These dazzling memoirs of lost times were scatteredamong an array of beautifully carved Pacific Oceanic and African-styled wooden statues,shields of a rich, red copper, pottery, canes, sheets, androlls of silver-colored metal, and strange, unidentifiable gears, pipes,and wheels which might have been parts to long-lost technological systems.
Rolls of intricately figured sheet metal stood haphazardly piled around the shed.
The priest explained that it had been torn off the interior walls of long abandoned, vine-choked buildings in the inaccessible eastern jungle.
The Indianartifact hunters bring this wallpaperin three different metals: gold, a metallurgically unique, untarnished silver, and an unknown alloy with the appearance of shiny aluminum.
Every square inch of the peculiar sheet metal is decorated with intricate designs, some of them depicting long-forgotten ceremonial occasionsand some of them humorous andcartoon like.
Therolls come in heights that vary, for the most part, from eight to twelvefeet, and they are often fifteen to thirty feet long.
These lengths are composed of many individual four-foot sheets which have been artfully riveted together.
He showed me a dozen bronze plaques. Seemingly,they were among his favorite acquisitions.
The illustrations borne by the plaques made me catch my breath.
Images of Egyptian princesses and Assyrian gods stared at me with a severity undiminished by the passage of centuries.
One of the plaques bore the image of a Caucasian man writing linear script with a quill pen.
Linearscript?
A quill pen?
Needless to say, the Andes Indians did not have a written language when the Spanish arrived, let alone a tool for writing.
There were reportedly fifty-six solid gold plaques originally, but after a disastrous arson in 1962,which local political fanaticsclaimed credit for, Father Crespi had molds made by a local casket maker and the best dozen of his precious plaques were duplicated in coffin-handle bronze.
The original gold plaques lie safe today in a bank vault.
“Father Crespi granted me permissionto take photographs. Since most museums jealously guard their treasures from photographers, the priest’s open generosity won me over.
Lack of space inside the shed forced me to set up my tripod and camera in the sunlit outer courtyard.
The priest himself brought his treasures out for me to record on film.
Hours passed, and the usual, afternoon equatorial winter rain began.
The Fatherwas growing tired. We quit for the day.
I had exposed over ten rolls of film, taken more than three hundred pictures, and covered only a tiny percentage of the seventy thousand artifacts which filled the museum’s three rooms to their ceilings.
“As it turned out, I made not one but three additional visits to Father Crespi in Cuenca, exposed over three thousand frames, and Istillhave captured only 2 percent of the collection onfilm.
Between my secondandthird trips, the Padre’s treasure hunters apparentlyhit upon a fresh cache inthe jungle caves.
So manynewpieces arrived during thisperiod that I was forced to climb over heaps of newly unearthed objects in order to get to certain items that I particularly wanted to photograph.
I found myself in the classic one- step-forward, two-steps-back situation, for new articles were arriving more rapidly than I could take pictures of the old!
“One of the reasons for my continued efforts was my apprehension for Carlo Crespi’s advanced age.
He was born on April 29, 1891, and when he dies, the integrity of the collection is by no means assured.
It might be saved and protected by benevolent church authorities, but an auction to private dealers seems just as likely.
If the priceless museum is somehow disbursed before modern techniques of dating and evaluation can be applied to its artifacts, a great chance for the reevaluation of the history of the Western hemisphere will have been missed.
“In spite of the plethora of startling material in his museum, Father Crespi regrets that he missed acquiring most of the ‘treasure unearthed in the jungle, including mostof the best articles, because he simply couldn’t match prices with other bidders.
Maintaining the jungle museum has proven a difficultadventure for the Father in other ways as well.
The collection weathered an arson fire in 1962 which melted many objects, burned others, and substantially diminished its value.
Another fire occurred in 1974.
There have also been instances of outright theft.
A few archaeologists whohaveheard of the collection are prone toan understandable condescension, because the shedful of artifacts poses a violent offense tothe procedural r~es of their fraternity.
The articles in the trove have been discovered in sloppy, unsupervised, surreptitious digs by wholly untrained J ivaro Indian diggers.
Crespi is not even an accredited museum curator.
Although not an uneducated man~he holds a master’s degree in anthropology from a Milan, Italy, university.
The priest has no formal archaeological training, and the time he gives to hisimmense collection is stolen from a heavy schedule of parish duties, as I saw on my visits.
Crespi, furthermore, occasionallyexpresses a salty indifference to the judgment of the accepted experts.
Theclassification system of his museumis best described as chaotic.
It does not make highly publicized acquisitions at blue ribbon auctions, for the Father wouldn’t have the money, even if he had the need.
Nor does it have advanced dating machinery, assistant curators, guards, guides, set hours, or any of the other appurtenances of the respectable, contemporary museum.
And yet the affection in which the Padre is heldby his Shuara (Jivaro) collectors,has made it possible for him to accumulate the most significant single assemblage of South Americanartifacts anywhere.
“Carlo Crespi was raised in the prosperous northern Italian -city of Milan, where, after a youth spent with a comfortably wealthy family, he decided to jointhe Salesian Fathers. Morethan fifty-five years ago this missionary order sent Father Crespi to South America.
Ever since that voyage, Father Crespi has lived a life of voluntary poverty, sleeping on the floors of native huts with only a single blanket, and carelessly eating poor but lovingly offered food.
He has cared for the people, listened to their stories of fabulous deep-jungle temples, explored the treasure-filled Tayos caves, and stubbornly provided a museum for the strange artifacts of the country…
WhenFather Crespi and his Indian diggerstell of the places where they find their artifacts, they described giant pyramids, immense, deserted cities, fantastic sacred tunnels, and caves.
The cities, they say, still shine with a mysterious, cool bluish light when the sun goes down.
The tunnels are reportedly large enough to drive a locomotive through.
They have cut-stone entrances and walls which, by native account, are as smooth as glass.
And it is thesetunnels, at least according to the Indian explorers, that hold the bulk of the material being offered to the Maria Auxiliadora museum and to other collectors.
It is a fantastic tale, but when one sees the evidence, the thousands of gold treasured trinkets, the story of a vast tunnel system become nearly plausible.
“Although legend tells of this tunnel network honeycombing all of Ecuador and Peru, the only part of it that has, to my knowledge, been documented, is located in the very dangerous Jivaro country, between the Santiago and Morona rivers, near Tayos.
Unfortunately, this area is decidedly out of bounds for the foreign adventurer.
The local Indians have killed at least fourinquisitive outsiders in the last two years.
Yet the tunnels of the Shuara tribes (Jivaro) have been photographed.
A naturalized Ecuadorian named Juan Moricz took several rolls of high-quality pictures, verified in this way the accounts the natives have been giving Crespi, and subsequently lay legal claim to the entire tunnel network.
His grandiose claim was denied by the courts, but his photographs cannot be.
<Portion unrecoverable>...less than the bullion value of the precious metal.” (p. 139)The “heavy mineral crust enamel coating” of many artifacts indicates that they were “buried under searing volcanic heat.” (p. 139) Concerning sophisticated artifacts, like the Phoenician calendars, the golden Middle Eastern helmets, the golden armor, and the golden plaques: these “would bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and perhaps millionson the private market; to suggest that a sophisticated forger unloaded them on the priest for a low price is to deny the greed that motivates forgery!” (p. 140) Concerning a cast steel shield: “Steel casting is beyond the metallurgical capacity of present day Tayos Indians.” (p. 143)
(B) Fakes
Regarding fakes (which Crespi knowingly purchasesin his casual, humanitarian style, at the same time chiding the seller): “The modern solder and hacksaw marks give them away.” (p. 136)
(C) Hybrid real-fakes
Far from creating fakes in order to reap high profits, some of the Indian diggers in Ecuador have cut up and reshaped genuinely ancient and priceless materials in order to get any kind of price at all for it. We have mentioned earlier the ebony column...carved with the Ecuadorian national seal and decorated with gold cut from a sheetof mysterious ancient wallpaper.” (p. 139)
Picture (p. 36)—“Obviously genuine copper ‘radiators’ were redecorated by Indian discoverers.”
Picture (p. 39)—“Heavy brass ‘bass viol’ a real-fakesoldered together from original thick wall sheeting.” The brass sheet metal is genuine and very old, but the instrument was crafted by modern forgers. One can see where existing designs on the brass sheets were cut through in the manufacture of the article.
Picture (p. 142)—“Genuine silver wrapped goldtrimmed elephant. Yet decorated with modern brass thumb tacks.”
Picture (p. 146)—“Bottom of tin can. Clumsily fireblackened to simulate real volcanic mineral patina on genuine objects. The carbon on this olive oil can be rubbed off on a sheet of paper. The black patina on most of Crespi’s material is enameled to the metal.”
In summary:“The genuine green porphyry patina onmany of the articles,...the enormous quantities of cheaply bought gold articles, the metallurgical uniqueness of some of the artifacts (such as the platinum nose cone and the radiators), the Mid-eastern artistic motifs, and the abundance of art ides for which little or no market exists (such as the air pipes and the ‘wallpaper’) pose difficult questions for thosewho carelessly write the collection off as a hoax.” (p. 140)
References 1.Eric Van Daniken Gold of The Gods (1973) 2.J. Golden BartonThe Lost Gold ofAncient Ecuador,Ancient American Vol.4 Number 25, 1998 3.Richard Wingate Lost Outpost of Atlantis 1980Everest House Publishing Company 4.Wayne Hamby Voices From The Dust1977 Osmond Publishing Company
Summary
I hope that you enjoyed this little glimpse in the statist-overturning world of the good Father.
When I was a boy, my father bought me this used hard-cover book.
I was in the bedroom, playing around. He came home from work, and handed me the book. Stuck around a while, and then back downstairs. I way a young boy. Maybe eleven years old.
I loved the illustrations in it. They were well done, beautiful, really. I treasured that book. And I kept it with me for years and years until I was “retired”, and my belongings sold by my “friends” and “family” for what ever profit they could derive from our relationship.
Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates.
Later, as I got older, I realized what I once had. Sigh.
It’s called life.
Today, we will visit the beautiful illustrations of pirates and buccaneers that so colored my childhood with adventure, treasure and high piracy on the seven seas.
Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone.
Vincent Van Gogh admitted to his brother Theo, he was struck “dumb with admiration” when he saw Howard Pyle’s illustrations in a magazine. Pyle (1853-1911) was the top American illustrator circa 1880-1910. His work made top moolah pulling in five times the going rate or $75 for a double-page spread in Harper’s Bizarre, 1878.
010 HOWARD PYLE DEAD PIRATE
Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone. In modern parlance: his work was cinematic, powerful, and dramatic. If he’d been born a few decades later, Pyle may have been a film director. He used strange angles to look down on battle scenes or cast figures centre frame while mayhem occurred all around. He sketched deserted figures in a landscape which explained the whole narrative in a single frame.
When I, as a boy of perhaps 11 or 12 was given the Book of Pirates by my father, I was enthralled.
The book was a collection of popular pirate stories, which mostly centered around brave non-pirates who crossed paths with an infamous pirate and yet who lived to tell the tale.
Sure, they were very romanticized stories focusing on the more adventurous side of piracy than the true aspect of it (though the sacking and slaughter of entire towns is mentioned, just not in gory detail). But for me, as a young boy, I found it all to be an enjoyable, quick read.
09 HOWARD PYLE CITIZENS GIVE TRIBUTE
Pyle was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His parents early recognised his prodigious talent for drawing and painting. They encouraged him to focus on developing this talent. He was lucky he got sent to a private school which fostered his genius.
08 HOWARD PYLE KIDD WATCHES PIRATES BURY TREASURE
When he first moved to New York to become a magazine illustrator, he had no idea how to sell himself. He needn’t have worried.
One glance by the editor of Pyle’s artistry pulled in commissions.
He was soon illustrating books like the The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood which created the imagery we are all familiar with today. Or books about knights in shining armour like Men of Iron and Otto of the Silver Hand.
Publishers would hire Pyle knowing no matter how trashy the novel, Pyle’s artwork would make it a hit.
07 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT CAPTAIN
In the 1890s, Pyle, by then married with seven kids, was asked to teach drawing at university.
This led him to set up the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art in 1900. His school launched a whole new generation of artists who shaped the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
As a young boy, when I read the book, what really stood out were the absolutely stunning and beautiful illustrations throughout the book. Looking at them, you could smell the rum, fish and cannon powder and hear the ocean and gun shots.
Every book, magazine, and Hollywood film used Pyle’s illustrations of pirates to dress Errol Flynn as Captain Blood or Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.
04 HOWARD PYLE SHOT IN THE HEAD
What is not well know, however, is that once he mastered his work, he turned to teaching others in his technique.
Howard Pyle was an instructor at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University) from 1894-1900, and in that time, he taught a generation of celebrated illustrators including, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Frank E. Schoonover, and Violet Oakley.
03 HOWARD PYLE WALK THE PLANK
More than 20 oil paintings will hang in the Paul Peck Gallery, including Howard Pyle’s “Here, Andre! A Spy! (1897)” on display with a variety of works on paper, as well as accompanying artifacts.
A majority of the exhibit will be presented in the Paul Peck Alumni Center, which is a historic Frank Furness designed building itself.
Some of the featured original paintings and drawings decorated American homes during their time period — also gracing the covers of publications such as Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.
02 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES AN ATTACK
“A.J. Drexel founded the Drexel Institute in 1891, and when he died, he made it clear that his vision should be accessible to men and women from all backgrounds, which was unique for a college of that time period,” said Paula Marantz Cohen, Pennoni Honors College dean.
“Pyle’s time at Drexel undoubtedly shaped the field of American Illustration. He was an early parallel advocate of Drexel’s philosophy of ‘learning by doing’ encouraging his students to go out into the world to study their subject matter, an approach reflected in Drexel’s present-day Co-op program.
01 HOWARD PYLE CAPT KIDD
Not long after Drexel’s founding, Philadelphia’s publishing industry took off — greatly influencing Pyle’s artistic philosophy.
Pyle honored Drexel’s mission of experiential, democratic learning. His influences greatly contributed to illustrative painting and drawing becoming one of the truest forms of applied art.
He taught his students to be practical and commercially focused by observing reality first-hand.
020 HOWARD PYLE DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 1280×900 1
“Today everyone knows the name Norman Rockwell but few people know the name Howard Pyle, let alone his art or his impact on generations of artists and American illustration,” says Judy Goffman Cutler, co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration.
019 HOWARD PYLE HE STRUCK HIM
After his death from Bright’s disease in 1911, a giant compilation of Pyle’s illustrations of swashbuckling buccaneers was published under the title Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates.
It became a go-to-book for Hollywood costumiers and pulp fiction illustrators when conjuring up those daring pirates of the seven seas.
018 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT
The book that I dedicate this entire article towards is a formula for (almost) every piece of swashbuckling fiction, namely scarred pirate captains, roguish and witty surogates, forced romance and the triumph of the just and lawful citizen whose virtue is rewarded with oh-so-fairly-gained and definitely-not-tainted-by-piracy wealth.
It’s perfect fodder for the young boy in all of us, and yes, you girls too.
018 HOWARD PYLE BUCCANEER
Many pirates were women. And I hear that many of them were absolutely ruthless.
017 HOWARD PYLE DROWNED SAILOR
I lament that I lost the book to someone who found more pleasure in getting the fifty cents from a used book store from it, than any real value. To others, I suppose it’s just an item to profit from. Not one that held value. For me, the greatest pleasures of this book are the occasional descriptions that place you on a ship or an island, where you can briefly feel yourself bobbing over the swells or smell the brine.
016 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES KILL EACH OTHER
The illustrations in the book are phenomenal, and it reads like you are at the bar or a pub during a rainy day and your friend is recounting a story his grandfather once told him.
015 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES IN JAIL
Here’s an excerpt from the book…
Then the pirates marched into the town, and what followed may be conceived. It was a holocaust of lust, of passion, and of blood such as even the Spanish West Indies had never seen before. Houses and churches were sacked until nothing was left but the bare walls; men and women were tortured to compel them to disclose where more treasure lay hidden.Then, having wrenched all that they could from Maracaibo, they entered the lake and descended upon Gibraltar, where the rest of the panic-stricken inhabitants were huddled together in a blind terror.
014 HOWARD PYLE THE TREASURE WAS DIVIDED 1280×871 1
I will admit that the writing style is old and not easy for all of us used to contemporaneous feeds.
After him came one Mansvelt, a buccaneer of lesser note, who first made a descent upon the isle of Saint Catharine, now Old Providence, which he took, and, with this as a base, made an unsuccessful descent upon Neuva Granada and Cartagena. His name might not have been handed down to us along with others of greater fame had he not been the master of that most apt of pupils, the great Captain Henry Morgan, most famous of all the buccaneers, one time governor of Jamaica, and knighted by King Charles II.
013 HOWARD PYLE CUT AND SLASHED
But for a young boy of eleven the stories were rich and ripe of adventure…
The attack of the castle and the defense of it were equally fierce, bloody, and desperate. Again and again the buccaneers assaulted, and again and again they were beaten back. So the morning came, and it seemed as though the pirates had been baffled this time. But just at this juncture the thatch of palm leaves on the roofs of some of the buildings inside the fortifications took fire, a conflagration followed, which caused the explosion of one of the magazines, and in the paralysis of terror that followed, the pirates forced their way into the fortifications, and the castle was won. Most of the Spaniards flung themselves from the castle walls into the river or upon the rocks beneath, preferring death to capture and possible torture; many who were left were put to the sword, and some few were spared and held as prisoners.
012 HOWARD PYLE BULLETS HUM FLY
With the text and the illustrations, as well as the swash-buckling battles, it was a great escapist adventure for me to live out my boyhood dreams.
011 HOWARD PYLE LED TO THE CAPT
As for the bulls, as many of them as were shot served as food there and then for the half-famished pirates, for the buccaneers were never more at home than in the slaughter of cattle.
Then they marched toward the city. Three hours' more fighting and they were in the streets, howling, yelling, plundering, gorging, dram-drinking, and giving full vent to all the vile and nameless lusts that burned in their hearts like a hell of fire. And now followed the usual sequence of events—rapine, cruelty, and extortion; only this time there was no town to ransom, for Morgan had given orders that it should be destroyed. The torch was set to it, and Panama, one of the greatest cities in the New World, was swept from the face of the earth. Why the deed was done, no man but Morgan could tell. Perhaps it was that all the secret hiding places for treasure might be brought to light; but whatever the reason was, it lay hidden in the breast of the great buccaneer himself. For three weeks Morgan and his men abode in this dreadful place; and they marched away with one hundred and seventy-five beasts of burden loaded with treasures of gold and silver and jewels, besides great quantities of merchandise, and six hundred prisoners held for ransom.
Whatever became of all that vast wealth, and what it amounted to, no man but Morgan ever knew, for when a division was made it was found that there was only two hundred pieces of eight to each man.
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The rest of them sailed away to the East Indies, to try their fortunes in those waters, for our Captain Avary was of a high spirit, and had no mind to fritter away his time in the West Indies, squeezed dry by buccaneer Morgan and others of lesser note. No, he would make a bold stroke for it at once, and make or lose at a single cast.
On his way he picked up a couple of like kind with himself—two sloops off Madagascar. With these he sailed away to the coast of India, and for a time his name was lost in the obscurity of uncertain history. But only for a time, for suddenly it flamed out in a blaze of glory. It was reported that a vessel belonging to the Great Mogul, laden with treasure and bearing the monarch's own daughter upon a holy pilgrimage to Mecca (they being Mohammedans), had fallen in with the pirates, and after a short resistance had been surrendered, with the damsel, her court, and all the diamonds, pearls, silk, silver, and gold aboard. It was rumored that the Great Mogul, raging at the insult offered to him through his own flesh and blood, had threatened to wipe out of existence the few English settlements scattered along the coast; whereat the honorable East India Company was in a pretty state of fuss and feathers. Rumor, growing with the telling, has it that Avary is going to marry the Indian princess, willy-nilly, and will turn rajah, and eschew piracy as indecent. As for the treasure itself, there was no end to the extent to which it grew as it passed from mouth to mouth.
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And now Blackbeard, following the plan adopted by so many others of his kind, began to cudgel his brains for means to cheat his fellows out of their share of the booty.
At Topsail Inlet he ran his own vessel aground, as though by accident. Hands, the captain of one of the consorts, pretending to come to his assistance, also grounded his sloop. Nothing now remained but for those who were able to get away in the other craft, which was all that was now left of the little fleet. This did Blackbeard with some forty of his favorites. The rest of the pirates were left on the sand spit to await the return of their companions—which never happened.
As for Blackbeard and those who were with him, they were that much richer, for there were so many the fewer pockets to fill. But even yet there were too many to share the booty, in Blackbeard's opinion, and so he marooned a parcel more of them—some eighteen or twenty—upon a naked sand bank, from which they were afterward mercifully rescued by another freebooter who chanced that way—a certain Major Stede Bonnet, of whom more will presently be said. About that time a royal proclamation had been issued offering pardon to all pirates in arms who would surrender to the king's authority before a given date. So up goes Master Blackbeard to the Governor of North Carolina and makes his neck safe by surrendering to the proclamation—albeit he kept tight clutch upon what he had already gained.
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It was a glorious thing for our captain, for here were thirteen Yankee crafts at one and the same time. So he took what he wanted, and then sailed away, and it was many a day before Marblehead forgot that visit.
Some time after this he and his consort fell foul of an English sloop of war, the Greyhound, whereby they were so roughly handled that Low was glad enough to slip away, leaving his consort and her crew behind him, as a sop to the powers of law and order. And lucky for them if no worse fate awaited them than to walk the dreadful plank with a bandage around the blinded eyes and a rope around the elbows. So the consort was taken, and the crew tried and hanged in chains, and Low sailed off in as pretty a bit of rage as ever a pirate fell into.
The end of this worthy is lost in the fogs of the past: some say that he died of a yellow fever down in New Orleans; it was not at the end of a hempen cord, more's the pity.
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The cheat was kept up until the fruit of mischief was ripe for the picking; then, when the governor and the guards of the castle were lulled into entire security, and when Davis's band was scattered about wherever each man could do the most good, it was out pistol, up cutlass, and death if a finger moved. They tied the soldiers back to back, and the governor to his own armchair, and then rifled wherever it pleased them. After that they sailed away, and though they had not made the fortune they had hoped to glean, it was a good snug round sum that they shared among them.
Their courage growing high with success, they determined to attempt the island of Del Principe—a prosperous Portuguese settlement on the coast. The plan for taking the place was cleverly laid, and would have succeeded, only that a Portuguese negro among the pirate crew turned traitor and carried the news ashore to the governor of the fort. Accordingly, the next day, when Captain Davis came ashore, he found there a good strong guard drawn up as though to honor his coming. But after he and those with him were fairly out of their boat, and well away from the water side, there was a sudden rattle of musketry, a cloud of smoke, and a dull groan or two. Only one man ran out from under that pungent cloud, jumped into the boat, and rowed away; and when it lifted, there lay Captain Davis and his companions all of a heap, like a pile of old clothes.
Capt. Bartholomew Roberts was the particular and especial pupil of Davis, and when that worthy met his death so suddenly and so unexpectedly in the unfortunate manner above narrated, he was chosen unanimously as the captain of the fleet, and he was a worthy pupil of a worthy master. Many were the poor fluttering merchant ducks that this sea hawk swooped upon and struck; and cleanly and cleverly were they plucked before his savage clutch loosened its hold upon them.
Marooned
Not a word was spoken after they had thus left the shore, and presently they might all have been ghosts, for the silence of the party. Barnaby True was too full of his own thoughts to talk—and serious enough thoughts they were by this time, with crimps to trepan a man at every turn, and press gangs to carry a man off so that he might never be heard of again. As for the others, they did not seem to choose to say anything now that they had him fairly embarked upon their enterprise.
And so the crew pulled on in perfect silence for the best part of an hour, the leader of the expedition directing the course of the boat straight across the harbor, as though toward the mouth of the Rio Cobra River. Indeed, this was their destination, as Barnaby could after a while see, by the low point of land with a great long row of coconut palms upon it (the appearance of which he knew very well), which by and by began to loom up out of the milky dimness of the moonlight. As they approached the river they found the tide was running strong out of it, so that some distance away from the stream it gurgled and rippled alongside the boat as the crew of black men pulled strongly against it. Thus they came up under what was either a point of land or an islet covered with a thick growth of mangrove trees. But still no one spoke a single word as to their destination, or what was the business they had in hand.
The night, now that they were close to the shore, was loud with the noise of running tide-water, and the air was heavy with the smell of mud and marsh, and over all the whiteness of the moonlight, with a few stars pricking out here and there in the sky; and all so strange and silent and mysterious that Barnaby could not divest himself of the feeling that it was all a dream.
So, the rowers bending to the oars, the boat came slowly around from under the clump of mangrove bushes and out into the open water again.
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There he lay for I know not how long, staring into the darkness, until by and by, in spite of his suffering and his despair, he dozed off into a loose sleep, that was more like waking than sleep, being possessed continually by the most vivid and distasteful dreams, from which he would awaken only to doze off and to dream again.
It was from the midst of one of these extravagant dreams that he was suddenly aroused by the noise of a pistol shot, and then the noise of another and another, and then a great bump and a grinding jar, and then the sound of many footsteps running across the deck and down into the great cabin. Then came a tremendous uproar of voices in the great cabin, the struggling as of men's bodies being tossed about, striking violently against the partitions and bulkheads. At the same instant arose a screaming of women's voices, and one voice, and that Sir John Malyoe's, crying out as in the greatest extremity: "You villains! You damned villains!" and with the sudden detonation of a pistol fired into the close space of the great cabin.
Barnaby was out in the middle of his cabin in a moment, and taking only time enough to snatch down one of the pistols that hung at the head of his berth, flung out into the great cabin, to find it as black as night, the lantern slung there having been either blown out or dashed out into darkness. The prodigiously dark space was full of uproar, the hubbub and confusion pierced through and through by that keen sound of women's voices screaming, one in the cabin and the other in the stateroom beyond. Almost immediately Barnaby pitched headlong over two or three struggling men scuffling together upon the deck, falling with a great clatter and the loss of his pistol, which, however, he regained almost immediately.
What all the uproar meant he could not tell, but he presently heard Captain Manly's voice from somewhere suddenly calling out, "You bloody pirate, would you choke me to death?" wherewith some notion of what had happened came to him like a flash, and that they had been attacked in the night by pirates.
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The vessel in which they sailed was a brigantine of good size and build, but manned by a considerable crew, the most strange and outlandish in their appearance that Barnaby had ever beheld—some white, some yellow, some black, and all tricked out with gay colors, and gold earrings in their ears, and some with great long mustachios, and others with handkerchiefs tied around their heads, and all talking a language together of which Barnaby True could understand not a single word, but which might have been Portuguese from one or two phrases he caught. Nor did this strange, mysterious crew, of God knows what sort of men, seem to pay any attention whatever to Barnaby or to the young lady. They might now and then have looked at him and her out of the corners of their yellow eyes, but that was all; otherwise they were indeed like the creatures of a nightmare dream. Only he who was the captain of this outlandish crew would maybe speak to Barnaby a few words as to the weather or what not when he would come down into the saloon to mix a glass of grog or to light a pipe of tobacco, and then to go on deck again about his business. Otherwise our hero and the young lady were left to themselves, to do as they pleased, with no one to interfere with them.
As for her, she at no time showed any great sign of terror or of fear, only for a little while was singularly numb and quiet, as though dazed with what had happened to her. Indeed, methinks that wild beast, her grandfather, had so crushed her spirit by his tyranny and his violence that nothing that happened to her might seem sharp and keen, as it does to others of an ordinary sort.
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One of the things that I was involved in; a hobby really, was the design of numerous wooden sail boats. This occurred when I was in land-locked Indiana. It was hot, boring, corn as far as the eye can see, and I worked in a “real life” Office Space environment. My only escape was hope.
I well remember the day trip that I, as a young AOC at NAS, NASC Pensacola, Florida and my class 21-83, enjoyed. It was on a 53 foot (as I recall) ketch, and we spent the afternoon sailing in Pensacola bay.
I well remember the sun, the breeze and how all my troubles melted away as we enjoyed the day. We learned basic seamanship, watched dolphins sail along side. We practiced overboard drills, and watched our sails go luffing.
But Indiana was harsh, cold and barron. I worked as a drone in a cubicle mill for the mega-company General Motors in one of their divisions; Delco Electronics.
And in those days, the hope was to sail away to an interesting place at the other side of the world. Here we will touch on some of the beauty of wooden sail craft. I had met numerous people who were building their own sailboats, mostly out of steel, and then hauling them to the great lakes and living their dream of freedom and escape. It appealed to me at that time, and I bought every book that I could get, and read them all voraciously.
I subscribed to magazines about sailing and adventure. I also equipped my home with a fine tool shop of wood and metal working tools, and bought the plans to construct a 53-foot ketch. I was that “into” the dream. There is really so much to cover in this venue, that I am just going to bounce around from here to there and let the pictures tell the story.
Sailboat Hull Types
Sailboats ride on different hulls, which differ in the total number of hulls and their shape. It’s really simple, actually.
Alden schooner plans.
The basic three hull types include:
Monohulls (one hull)
Catamarans (two hulls)
Trimarans (three hulls)
Monohulls Monohulls have one hull but that doesn’t make them all the same. Traditional monohulls may have full keels (heavy encapsulated ballast that runs along the bottom of the hull), cutaway keels (similar to full but the forefoot is cutaway allowing the boat greater maneuverability in tight quarters) or bolted on fin keels that may have a bulb at the bottom for extra ballast to keep the vessel stable.
Monohull.
Monohulls can also have a swing keel, daggerboard or centerboard that retracts up into an appendage in the hull itself.
With the keel or board up, the boat can enter shallow water and can travel faster downwind. With the keel down, the vessel tracks better upwind. Small monohulls like sailing dinghies, may also have shallow planing hulls that can surf off a wave.
Finally, monohulls can also foil on appendages (usually made of carbon fiber) with the actual hull out of the water when a minimum speed is reached.
Catamarans Catamarans (often nicknamed “cats”) have two hulls with a deck or trampoline in between. Large cats (35 feet and over) have become popular in charter use because they offer more interior and deck space and an easier motion to induce less seasickness. Small catamarans usually have just a trampoline in between the hulls and make fun daysailers.
Catamaran.
Because catamarans don’t have deep and heavy keels, they tend to sail faster off the wind.
Foiling catamarans were made popular by the America’s Cup races and are proliferating into general cruising use.
Trimarans Trimarans have three hulls: a main hull and two amas (side hulls used for stability). On some trimarans, the arms that hold the amas can fold inward, making the trimaran narrower and in some cases trailerable. Large cruising trimaranas are gaining popularity because they are stable and fast sailers.
Sailboat Rig Types
Sailboat rigging includes:
the mast(s);
boom(s);
and the shrouds or stays that hold up the mast.
A sailboat with one mast is usually a sloop with one mainsail and one headsail. A cutter rig usually has one mast but two or more headsails. This rig “cuts” the foretriangle between the head (forward) stay and the main mast. Multiple headsails allow for flexible sail combinations in variable wind conditions.
1897 William Fife Gaff Cutter.A 40 foot gaff-rigged cutter.
Ketches and yawls have a secondary mast behind the main one. The ketch configuration places that mizzenmast behind the mainmast but ahead of the rudderpost while the yawl places it behind the post.
The second mast is shorter than the main mast. Both of these designs (split rigs) provide more sail area that isn’t reliant solely on the height of the mainmast and therefore can be easier to manage when sailing shorthanded.
A gaff-rigged ketch.An Alden 56 Yawl.
Schooners also have multiple masts—two or more. However, the foremost mast is shorter than the main mast. Tall ship rigging is in its own category and can get quite complex.
Gaff rigged schooner.
Most Rigs are Marconi Rigs
Most of the rigs are known as Marconi rigs. Meaning that it’s just one sail to catch the wind. But my love is for the Gaff rigs. Here is there is a sail above it to catch the littlest wisps of air that lie above. It’s rarely seen today because it’s really a lot of work.
The top triangular sail is the top-sail on a gaff rig.
Sailboat Types by Primary Use
You can do many of the same things on all sailboats, but some types are more specialized.
Sailing dinghies: Small boats usually sailed by one or two people, sailing dinghies are often used to teach new sailors. That said, experts on high tech sailing dinghies compete in athletic racing up to Olympic level.
Day cruisers: Although any sailboat can be cruised for a day, day cruisers are often boats shorter than 30 feet that are designed to be sailed for an afternoon. They’re usually more Spartan in their outfitting and may or may not have a cabin with amenities.
Sailing cruisers: These sailboats can be monohulls or multihulls and are designed to cruise for weekends or longer. They usually have a berth (bed), a head (toilet) and a galley (kitchen). They can be sloop, cutter, ketch, yawl or schooner-rigged and vary in length (from 25-85 feet). Larger sailboats tend to fall into the crewed superyacht category.
Racing sailboats: Most offshore racers are larger boats crewed by multiple individuals while smaller racers can be single or double-handed. Racing boats are usually built lighter, have fin keels and laminate performance sails.
Racer/cruisers: These designs try to straddle the two above. They’re usually more lightly built cruisers with full amenities so they can be weekended. Some people will argue that these boats are a compromise for owners who want to primarily cruise but also race.
Bluewater cruising sailboats: These boats are designed to cross oceans or sail “blue waters.” They’re typically heavier in build with a stout rig and are fully equipped for extended offshore use.
Motorsailers: This term has fallen out of favor since it’s often pejorative. These sailboats may rely on the engine to sail in light wind conditions, especially due to their excessive weight.
Antique/classic sailboats: These are usually older restored vessels. They may be built of wood and have classic yawl rigs. These sailboats are often showcased in special events.
Sailboats occupy multiple segments and experienced sailors learn the finer points of design and use. Then, they never see two sailboats the same way again.
Just some pictures of beauty
We start with…
The 39m Schooner-rigged yacht VAGRANT from 1913.
And this…
Not a sailboat, but a wooden lovely never the less.
My love for these works of art has never diminished.
I love the lines, the craftsmanship and the quality.
And…
Nice weathered teak decking.
And…
A gaff-rigged catboat.
And…
Sailing day boat in a yawl configuration.
Some interiors
Let’s take a look what’s inside…
This is what you see when you step inside.
And…
Many sailboats have a pilot house inside so that you don’t need to get wet sailing in the rain. This is what it looks like.
And…
This is the interior of a motor-sailer. It has a sail, but relies on a motor to get from point A to point B.
And…
The pilot house in the aforementioned motor-sailer.
I was laid off. I wasn’t given any notice. I was just told to hand in my badge and never come back.
For the remaining five months I laboriously tried to find work elsewhere, and then when I did, I had to sell off most of my tools, books, and abandon the framework of my dream sailboat.
It’s called life.
You would think that my manager and his manager, and his boss, and the boss above them would have the compassion to give someone who worked for them for five years the consideration of a month’s notice, or some severance pay. But they didn’t.
I was only an engineer, and a disposable one at that.
So I left Indiana, and moved on with my life. And two years later, my life was substantially better, nicer, and in every way a great improvement.
So don’t get all caught up in the negative aspects of the twisty and turny thing called life.
You adapt to the changes as they are and not pine away for what you wish them to be.
I still have and possess my love of sail, water, the ocean, boats and all the rest.
Years passed.
I obtained work in the South Pacific in American Samoia.
However, after living in Pago Pago and actually meeting the people who wrote those articles praising the lifestyle, I (and my wife) decided that we really didn’t want to have any part of it. Pago Pago was beautiful. It was lovely. But the sailing LIFESTYLE was not.
Not at all. It’s a life of hardship and not as glamorous as it was made out to be in all those magazines and books that I read.
Yet, here I am.
I am living a life of adventure and delicious food.
So when one dream collapses another materializes to take it’s place. That too is called life.
Master Index . You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is an interesting read. I think that many MM readers will enjoy this article. In it, a remote viewer, investigated some of the administrative and entry processing centers for General Population programming and egress. Very intersting.
Honoring Bruce Moen – Afterlife Explorer and Pioneer
Bruce has completed this leg of his journey and has made his transition to the world of spirit on November 14, 2017.
In February 1996 I attended the first of two Exploration 27 programs at The Monroe Institute, a program in which participants explore specific areas of Focus 27 called “Centers”.
The following excerpt is taken from an exploration of a portion of the Reception Center called “the Reentry Station”, the place in Focus 27 human beings pass through on their way to lifetimes in the physical world.
CHAPTER 5: THE ENTRY DIRECTOR
Copyright: Bruce A. Moen, All Rights Reserved
.
During our next program tape exercise our task was to explore how human beings move from Focus 27 into physical lifetimes on the earth.
I arrived first at my place in Focus 27, noticing the hanging canvas chairs were occupied as usual by people who were always there waiting.
After talking with them about the insights I’d gained during the previous exercise examining the chair and playing with the clover, it was time to leave and meet up with my group of fellow explorers at the crystal.
Bob and Ed were there waiting again when I arrived, motioning for me come over to where they were standing.
…
“That clover of yours was an interesting creation,” Bob remarked.
“Sure left me with some questions!”
“Good! A little something for that curiosity of yours to play with,” Bob laughed.
“Maybe somewhere along the way you’ll find some answers,” Ed casually remarked.
…
Then it was time to leave for my encounter with the Entry Directory (ED), the guy who supposedly knew about how humans entered lifetimes on the earth.
After taking on a charge of energy from the crystal with the rest of the group, I placed my intent to find the ED.
I shot straight up through the roof and into blackness.
After a brief sense of movement the tower I’d seen earlier, with the two bell shapes, came into view.
Very tall, it looked like a radio antenna tower with two huge bell shaped objects at the top.
The small ends of the bell shapes joined together and appeared to be fastened, horizontally, to the tower at its very top.
Stopping to look more closely, I became aware of someone standing behind me.
…
“Are you the Entry Director I’m supposed to talk to?” I thought out to the presence behind me.
“Well, let’s just say I’m one of many who attend to the operation of the Reentry Station and I can probably answer your questions.”
“I’m a member of a group in a program called Exploration 27 at The Monroe Institute back on earth. We’re all here to learn about the inner workings of Focus 27.”
“Yes, I know. Your buddy, Bob Monroe, told us your group would be coming for a tour of the place. How can I be of assistance?”
“Is this thing I’m looking at, the tower with the bell shapes at the top, is that the Reentry Station?”
“Yep.”
“What does it do and how does it work?”
“Look closely around the big open end of the bell shape at the left and tell me what you see,” the ED suggested.
“I see a flow of something entering the open end of the bell shape,” I described.
“Direct your attention to that flow and tell me what you see there,” the ED continued.
“I see a cylindrical flow of little bits of yellowish-gold light, all moving together into the bell shape.”
“Look closely at the bits of light.”
I moved closer to the flow to get a better look.
“They all have generally the same size and shape, and they’re emitting light. They look a little like cocktail shrimp after they’ve been cooked and peeled, kind of the shape of little cheese curls.
I’ve seen these things before in a place I call the Flying Fuzzy Zone.
These curls look the same, but in the Flying Fuzzy Zone they fly all around like moths buzzing a bright light. What are these things?”
“Focus your attention on them, what do they feel like?”
After gazing at them for several moments I got the precept, “I’ll be a son of a . . . those curls are people! Each one is a separate human being!”
“And?”
“They seem to be in some kind of ‘dormant’ state. Not too much activity going on in them, not much thinking. More like they’re asleep and waiting. Why are they like that, and why are they entering the bell shape of the Reentry Station?”
“Come on, follow me,” the ED replied, “we’ll go inside the station so you can take a look.”
There was a quick feeling of movement and then I was standing at the center the of the area where the small ends of the two bells joined. I could plainly see the flow of curls being compressed as it passed through this area.
“This part of the station is called the constriction,” the ED volunteered.
“This section seems to be putting the curls under pressure. Why?” I asked.
“Preparation for entry into physical world reality. The awareness of each curl is compressed here to help hold it together and stay focused in one place long enough to make the transition.”
“I’m getting the sense that compression also closes down its conscious awareness of nonphysical reality in general, including awareness of nonphysical aspects of itself. Is that a result of compressing a curl’s conscious awareness?”
“Yes. Physical world reality is a pretty crowded place. By compressing the curl’s awareness into one place, it’s more concentrated. It’s better able to focus, concentrate if you like, on its tasks and purposes once its in the physical world. Less apt to be distracted by input overload from the high level, M-band noise pressure.”
“Input overload? High level M-band noise pressure?”
“At the level of physical world reality there are presently over five billion human inhabitants packed onto a very small place called earth. Everyone living there is constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings into that close quarters environment. They’re like five billion little radio stations all broadcasting their own, unique talk shows into the airwaves at the same time. Those thoughts and feelings are what we call M-band noise. There are so many people broadcasting at once, all pushing their thoughts and feelings out into the environment, we call it high level, M-band noise pressure.”
“Does closing down a curl’s level of awareness by compression in the constriction section have something to do with limiting the effect of that M-band noise?” I asked, responding to impressions I was getting as I watched the curls pass through.
“It limits the curl’s ability to sense things in the nonphysical environment, doesn’t it.”
“Yes it does. You see, if a curl’s conscious awareness remained fully expanded to its normal size during and after entry into physical world reality it couldn’t function. It’s being constantly bombarded by a great percentage of the M-band noise. Finding its own memories and thoughts amongst that blaring jumble would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. At its normal level the curl’s awareness would be in a constant state of complete and utter chaos, as a result of the input overload. Such overload would make progress on a curl’s purpose for being in physical world reality impossible. The compression step of the reentry process concentrates the curl’s awareness into a very small area, allowing it to be less aware of M-band noise.”
“So compression reduces conscious awareness of nonphysical reality. But doesn’t that also make it so the curl has no memory of what happened to it or decisions about its purpose made before entry into the physical world?”
“Well, yes, sort of. Memory of those decisions and contact with the Greater Self, your Disk or Monroe’s I/There, is also almost completely blocked by the compression. You see, compression works on the level of the curl’s conscious awareness. That doesn’t mean those memories and contacts are removed or totally inaccessible, they’re just compressed into the subconscious. They are fully accessible, but ordinarily only at the curl’s subconscious levels.
“Wouldn’t be better to let curls decide whether they want this to happen or not?”
“They do decide, Bruce. Each curl understands and agrees to this as part of the reentry process. It’s not a rule imposed upon the curl by anyone, it’s part of the preparation necessary for survival in the environment. You could think of it like the old fashion, deep sea diving suits. You know, the ones with the big heavy helmet and air hose hooked to a pump on the surface. To withstand the pressure and survive while exploring the ocean bottom in the old days, divers had to wear the suit. Compression at the Reentry Station is where the curl puts on that suit.”
“I’m getting that M-band noise is somehow similar to the water pressure at the bottom of the ocean in your metaphor,” I said, responding to incoming impressions.
“Very good! M-band noise IS like the water of the ocean. As you go deeper toward the ocean bottom, physical world reality, M-band noise pressure becomes greater. Once a curl reaches physical world reality M-band noise pressure actually helps maintain compression of its conscious awareness within the limits of its physical body.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember, we are talking about conscious awareness of the curl. If the diver, in my metaphor, tries to expand himself at the bottom of the ocean he has to push outward against the surrounding water pressure. If a curl attempts to extend its conscious awareness beyond the confines of its body it encounters the M-band noise of all the other inhabitants.
Just like a diver extending himself beyond his suit and feeling the water, a curl extending its awareness beyond its body becomes aware of the blaring jumble of the M-band noise. The thoughts and feelings of the other inhabitants begin to come into the curl’s awareness.
It’s such a jumble it tends to breakup the concentration and focus required to further extend its awareness. Prolonged contact with the surrounding M-band noise leads to wandering thought trains that jump from one track to another as thoughts and feelings of others flood into the curl’s thus triggering memory associations.
After a while, curls generally stop trying to expand their awareness, since they so easily lose the train of thought necessary to do so. That’s how M-band noise pressure tends to maintain compression of conscious awareness. Some curls continuing trying to expand their awareness into the M-band noise and some of the successful ones are often labeled psychotic.”
“How can curls safely get through the M-band noise to expand their awareness?” I wondered out loud.
“By learning to focus their attention not through the M-band noise, but beyond it. If the curl learns to focus its awareness at a level of consciousness where the M-band noise is attenuated or nonexistent, expansion is much easier. Meditation is an useful, time tested method and the one you’re using seems to work pretty well.”
“The method I’m using?” I asked, puzzled.
“You learned to focus your attention beyond the M-band noise using the sound patterns of hemi-sync. Remember something in the advertising about coherent brain wave states. You learned to maintain your focus and avoid the jumble by shifting your conscious awareness past M-band noise and into states you call Focus levels. Focus 10, Focus 21 and so on are levels of human consciousness with greatly reduced M-band noise.”
“I see what you mean. The hemi-sync the tool I stumbled upon allowed me to remain in a coherent, focused state as I expanded my awareness past the M-band noise and into states beyond it!”
“You sound surprised! Hemi-sync is an adaptation of a long known technique. As for stumbling upon it, later you might want to check for filament of awareness connections between yourself and the guy who introduced that system. For right now let’s get back to the to the purpose of your tour,” the ED said cryptically.
“Okay. I’m getting that compression also causes the curls to lose memory of where they came from. It’s the reason so few have any past life memories or awareness of anything that exists beyond their present physical world.”
“Yes, that’s a byproduct of the compression. Again, compression pushes these memories into the curl’s subconscious, by definition that means the curl is not consciously aware of them. Typically, they are unable to extend their conscious awareness through the M-band noise to access ‘outside’ sources of the information either. These, so called, outside sources of information exist in awareness levels adjacent to the physical. Past life memories, the focus levels you’re aware of, lots of information sources exist in these adjacent levels of awareness. Of course the information is carried inside the curl too, but few learn to focus inward to find it there. Curl’s, compressed as they are have little if any conscious awareness of that information stored within themselves, and the M-band noise tends to cut off access to adjacent sources. Of course there are some exceptions, in fact, here comes one now,” the ED said, as he directed my attention to the incoming flow of curls.
Focusing my attention to where he pointed, I saw what my Tour Guide was referring to. In amongst all the other little curls in the flow was one at least ten times their size. It stood out as the biggest, brightest curl in view.
“Big Fish, we call them,” the Tour Guide said. “What do you get from that one?”
Reaching out to sense the Big Fish, it seemed more awake and active then the other curls. I watched as it moved through the constriction and then exited off to my right.
“Seems to be more aware and active then the others. It knew about the compression process it was going to go through and maintained its awareness while passing through it. I get that it remembered most of what it entered with after passing through the constriction,” I replied, relating my impressions.
“Big Fish have developed the ability to be consciously aware of far greater ‘volumes’ of information. They pass through the constriction losing very little of their multidimensional awareness. They’re exceptionally well suited to bringing awareness of adjacent realities, and of human existence in them, into the physical world. Many live lives in which they share their multidimensional awareness with others living in physical world reality who are lacking it. By doing so they help others become Big Fish,” the ED said, with a wistful pride.
While pondering the implications of little curls and Big Fish, something else in the flow caught my eye. There were four curls, a little above average size, that appeared to be connected together along some kind of lighted filament. They looked like shrimp on a string with two, close together, leading the way, followed by two others spaced close together, further along the string.
“Could be a family of four, or just four curls planning to act on a common purpose,” the ED Tour Guide explained before I could ask the question. When we see them strung together like that, we know they have a prior agreement about something that requires they pop into the physical world in a certain time sequence.”
“So if it was a family of four, the two in the lead are probably the parents and the next two will be their kids?”
“Yeah. And if it’s not an actual family, with parents and children, it could be just that those four have to arrive in a specific time sequence.”
That phrase, specific time sequence triggered a question, “Is that group headed for Focus 15?”
“Of course, every curl goes to 15 after they finish compression. I don’t have time right now to go into all the details of what happens from then on, so don’t ask.
That will all be covered later in your tour,” the ED said, cutting off the whole line of questions I was forming. “Groups like those four are usually tied into a cooperative effort aimed at carrying out individual and group purposes.”
“Like?”
“Like, maybe those first two have to bring a discovery into physical world awareness that the second two will later utilize. In the case of that specific group, the second curl will be traipsing through a jungle when he meets the first one, a native medicine man, a local shaman. Their combined knowledge of drugs and diseases will uncover the healing properties of a certain plant. Years later, the second two curls will meet when they each deliver research papers at the same medical conference. They’ll discover they’ve both been working independently to bring the use of the plant’s properties, discovered by the other two, into practical use. They’ll join forces to carry on their work together as man and wife. That’s when they’ll start working on the most important joint purpose for the entire group’s entry.”
“Most important purpose?”
“With the inflated egos those two have it’s going to be quite a challenge for them to learn to love through each other,” the ED said, with concern in his voice. “At least they’re got their love of humanity bonding them together. Working toward practical use of the that plant’s properties for the good of mankind is a real plus in that department.”
“How do you know all that, or are you just making it up?” I asked inquisitively.
“I’m not making it up, I know because I can read curl, and because my awareness extends beyond what you’re used to.”
“Who decided what their purpose was and what they were going to do to accomplish it? Sounds like predestination, like they have no choice.”
“Those curls made all those choices for themselves. You could call it predestination I suppose, as long as you remember they made all the decisions effecting their destinies and agreed to work as a group before they came to the Reentry Station.”
“So there is predestination!”
“Of course! They decided what they were going to do, and now they’re going to go do it. You can call it predestination if you like, as long as you remember who made the decisions,” the ED stated flatly.
“I want to know more about that string that connects them and what it has to do with when they arrive in the physical world?”
“That string, as you call it, is a filament of awareness that connects them now and will remain in place throughout their lives. You could also call it a section of a time/event line. The string is part of the process of insertion into time frames in the physical world and the Big Clock gets used as part of that process.”
“What are time/event lines and what’s the Big Clock?” I asked excitedly, hoping to learn more about the Focus 15 angle.
“I’d suggest you save those questions for your visit to The Planning Center. They can explain it better in the context of what they do there.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll make a mental note to do that.”
“Don’t worry. If you don’t remember I’m sure your Tour Guide there will have gotten the word to remind you.”
“Thanks.”
“Take a close look a the curls in the flow again. Pick out a group on a string and look real close at the filament of awareness associated with them. Here comes a group of three now, check out the area directly behind the group.”
“I don’t see anything other than that they’re connected together by a fine bright filament. . . Wait a sec . . . There’s an even finer filament trailing them. In fact, now that I can see that one, I see all the other curls in the flow have the finer filament trailing them too. Didn’t notice it before, what is that?”
“Do you remember the story of Curiosity you wrote in your first book? Do you remember Curiosity’s Probes?”
“Yes, why?”
As I waited for the Tour Guide’s answer, it hit me like a forty foot wave crashing into a sea wall and I caught insights in the spray.
“Those are Probes! Those filaments trailing each curl are their connection to their Disks, the things Monroe called I/There! Those filaments are what provide transfers of awareness between the Probe and its Disk! I saw my filament and followed it back to my Disk during a vision in the mid 1970’s. That’s how I became aware of the my Greater Self, my Disk, my I/There!”
“Glad you caught on to that, Bruce, As you continue your tour of Focus 27 during your program, I’d like to suggest you be open to learning more about who and what you really are. There’s more to learn.”
Looking closely at the filaments trailing the curls again I noticed something odd. “That group of three I saw had only one filament trailing it. Some of the other groups I see have more than one filament trailing them. Why is that?”
The ED just stood there looking at me, waiting for me to get the answer on my own. Then it hit me! “Those three curls with the single filament are all from the same Disk, aren’t they!”
“And the ones with more than one trailing filament?” the ED asked.
“Not all the curls on the connecting string are from the same Disk!”, I blurted out.
“What are the implications of that?” I asked.
“Like I said, there’s more to learn, but that’s one you’ll have to explore and discover for yourself.”
For several moments I floated in silence, trying to get more insight into what my Tour Guide seemed to be alluding to. Not getting much I decided to pursue something else.
“I’m puzzled by something.”
“Shoot.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if all curls who reentered physical reality lifetimes carried more of their memories in their conscious awareness? Wouldn’t I have a better shot at carrying out my purpose in life if I knew what it was? Couldn’t the compression process of the Reentry Station be modified to allow that to happen?”
“In some cases, like Big Fish, much of such memory remains intact and easily accessible. And there are things that can be done to help a curl move toward Big Fish awareness levels. Part of that process is the curl learning to feel what’s going on inside its awareness, becoming aware of what’s stored within it’s subconscious. That process also involves becoming aware of what’s available in adjacent levels of awareness. That’s an internal learning process all curls go through as they make progress towards becoming Big Fish. But to do that within the M-band noise of physical reality, one must utilize the emotional charge and emotional impact of events in physical world reality. Emotional impact is part of the earth school training system, part of learning to feel and become a Big Fish.”
“So remembering too much would interfere with learning, Big Fish training if you will?”
“It tends to reduce the emotional impact of events which normally help a curl learn to feel what’s inside itself. Think of it this way, if someone told you all the details of a suspense thriller you were planning to see at the theater, including the climactic ending, what would it do to a movie’s emotional impact on you?”
“If I knew everything ahead of time, including how the movie ended, most of the emotional impact would be gone.”
“And you might experience less or weaker feelings in response to what happened on the screen?”
“I see what you mean, emotional impact helps us learn to feel and so we curls don’t remember our purpose in life because it might spoil our movie?”
“Something like that. There’s also learning to use the filament connection to consider.”
“What’s the filament of awareness connection got to do with becoming a Big Fish,” I asked, not seeing any possibilities.
“Becoming aware of that connection can lead to awareness of your Disk. That in turn can lead to an accelerated opening of awareness by virtue of the information available via that connection to the Greater Self. Surely, you of all people, can see the possibilities in that!” the ED said, like I really ought to have figured it out already.
“Oh . . . you mean my vision of the Disk way back in the middle ’70’s. I see what you mean! Once I had some limited awareness of my Greater Self, and my connection to it, the pace of my growing opening picked up. Gee, you mean I’m in training to become a Big Fish?” I questioned proudly.
“Bruce, all curls are in training to become Big Fish,” he said, taking a little wind out of my sails.
Dar’s voice startled me when it cut into my conversation with the Tour Guide at the Reentry Station, suggesting it was time to return to the crystal at TMI There.
“That’s my signal to go back to physical world reality, I got so involved in our conversation I forgot this is just a tape exercise in a program. Seems like there’s a lot left unanswered.”
“As you continue your tour you’re free to keep asking questions of anyone you meet and of course, let that curiosity of yours have free rein. Feel free to come back and visit me whenever you like.”
“Before I leave, since you read curl and all, can you give me anything on my purpose during my present lifetime?”
“Sure,” he said as he flipped me a thought ball, “but you already know most of it, so nothing in this one should come as any big surprise.”
“Thanks, ED, you put on quite a tour, and thanks for this,” I said, holding up the thought ball.
“Anytime.”
On my way back to the crystal, moving through blackness, I excitedly opened the thought ball, anticipating some great revelation. It said: “You entered this lifetime as a retrieving type to recover many of yourselves and those with other Disks of origin. Most of all, you wanted to learn more about the energy called Love. Beyond telling you that, I wouldn’t want to spoil your movie!” It was signed, “ED, Entry Director.”
Conclusion
This is a fascinating look at a remote viewing session. It opens up all sorts of new terms and ideas that are new to me. I would like to find out more, investigate other books and works and so on and so forth. If any one has some links or suggestions I will incorporate what we can gather in MM so that all of us might learn and benefit.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
I have these EBP things in my body. In August or September 2021, I discovered that I could open up a comm link using them to their owners; The Domain. I was surprised when they communicated back. After a short while we honed the process and now I have a mechanism where I can ask questions and get answers. This is part of the various Q&A sessions that I have had with them. This one occurred in October 2021.
Here’s some additional questions that I have asked.
Are any members of the Domain’s “Lost Battalion” part of the MM readership?
This might be a curiosity to some, and important to others. It was asked in a question on 18OCT21. Here is the response.
Yes.
And talk about being terse! Jeeze. That’s about as helpful as knowing that there are worms in your backyard grass.
So I asked for elaboration.
It is best if the members of the "Lost Battalion" do not realize who they are at this time.
Those that view / read /respect /search for answers are on the path towards rehabilitation. But many are not ready for the answers and truth yet. Their conditioning has been far too invasive, distressing and thorough.
By their very nature they will fight against anything new or different. They will appear gruff and cantankerous at times for after all, their life on the Prison Planet has not been kind to them. As well as that is part of their very nature.
Enough said.
What do you regard as their highest truth? If there is a master key to the puzzle that we are all missing that will make the universe make sense?
Again, quick. Faster than what I was ready for.
Yes there are truths, and then there are TRUTHS. What we would regard as a "truth" would hold a completely different meaning to an person (inmate) within an artificial reality.
Humans on the earth, as well as many other creatures, are inmates.
Imagine a fish tank full of fish. There are big fish, small fish, crabs, a frog, all types of things. To them, their entire universe is that fish tank, and while they can peer through the glass, the objects in the distance are identifiable to them, but not understood by them. They are recognizable shapes, but they have no understanding of them.
That telephone on the table is just a rectangular shaped object. That light that comes on and off at times is a "natural rhythm". They don't understand them. They don't understand that the telephone is the "Bees Knees". They just don't understand.
Now, let's suppose the lady of the house waltzes in the room. She smiles like she always does, and feeds the fish with the fish food nearby, and then walks away with her gams in rhythmic motion. The fish would assume that she is part of the nature of things. That she is reliable, and dependable and that their existence depends on her. To them, she appears as a swanky goddess. To them, the "truth" is that they are part of her daily routine. It's a natural world.
But the actual TRUTH is something entirely different.
The fishbowl is a construct. The lady, as beautiful and kind as she is, is their keeper. And their very life depends on her. The fishbowl lies within a much larger universe, and there are so many things that they just do not understand about it. In fact, you can say that outside the fishbowl is a much different world. There is no stable bubbling oxygenation of water, no thermoclines, no gravel at the bottom, and no algae on the sides of the tank walls.
And if you told them this, what would it matter?
Are any of the fish going to jump out of the tank, and try to make it to the front door in the living room?
Truth is a relative thing. It depends on the person asking the question.
For the questioner...
... the truth is simple. You are in a prison. The "universe" that you see that lies outside beyond the prison, but what you observe is not what actually exists. It's something else entirely. You are not going to take a rocket ship and travel the "vast gulf of space" to another star like you think you are able. It will not be like Star Trek, or Flash Gordon. It is similar to what you observe (from afar), but decidedly and functionally different. As the universe that you view is not what it actually is. This is not hokum.
Outside the prison walls is a universe that does not at all resemble what you think it does. That's a truth that you must accept.
I have been having these images of what I once was. A Mades Escapleon. Are these perceptions correct?
Again, a personal question.
My images are a comically gnome / dwarfish / kind of lizardly elfin figure with a big belly and a kind of green and white Santa Claus style outfit. Pretty bizarre eh?
Your mind constructs images that you have encountered during this life. The constructs an image of what you would expect yourself to be. That is the case right now.
There are multiple species in co-habitation in the "Old Empire". Many resemble the images of faeries, goblins, dwarves, and so on and so forth. However the images and the presentation of what you have in popular media and literature is not the real and actual depictions of these archetypes nor is it a depiction of the societies that they occupy.
Mades Escapleon was not a human archetype. He became one when he entered General Population in fear to escape The Domain when we took over the local command and control facilities at the administration center. Your depiction of him, however comical, is actually pretty close to his (garbled. interruption. Not clear.). You would not recognize him as storybook fable type of character. But rather as a smallish, ugly businessman with an abrupt manner, and a sneering demeanor.
The administration and command and control operation for the earth planet within this prison planet is inside the moon in a large void that resides adjacent to the offset metallic hot core. We (The Domain) have taken over this facility and now use this region for our own purposes. However there are many members of the "Old Empire" that did not egress into the General Population when we seized the administration complex. they still live there inside the cavity. To you, they might appear as those fairy tale book characters.
Your office was large, and was in the most predominant structures within the void. Keep in mind that Mades Escapleon was just a singular (series of) incarnations that you maintained as a (not clear) role for his majesty (not clear / garbled / not important). You need not get too upset or worry about your past. The incarnations in the general population of the Prison planet system has changed you.
Consider these thoughts just echoes of a former life that no longer has any importance to who you are today.
The Lost Battalion living in human form. Do the Mantids interact with them?
From my previous Q&A…
“Unfortunately most humans are prevented from configuring their “stage upwards / higher form / above non-physical” bodies. This is a Mantid (sic.) directive. This is why inmates are quickly shuttled off to “Heaven”. So they cannot shape change their “migration paths / attunement centers / organ clusters” to fit other forms.”
The Lost Battalion living in human form. Do the Mantids interact with them? Or are they outside of the Mantids’ directives/supervision? I believe the Mantids supervise every human or at least monitor them at death. If so, then that suggests the Mantids know where the members of the Lost Battalion are. This drills down into some inconvenient questions, which I assume both you and the Commander is very much aware of.
The answer came in the form of sliding events, which I really don’t want to describe right now, as I am tired. And I need to get some sleep.
Think of it is a kind of layered deck of cards that you push to the side and draw off the top card, and then another appears and so on and so forth….
Yes. The Mantids (sic.) interact with all inmates in General Population. There are Mantid(s) (sic.) associated with every human (or mammal) form as this is an artificial construct that needs to be maintained while in the Prison Complex.
The forms that the Domain "Lost Battalion" were in when they were captured are not the forms that they are inhabiting now. These forms are not "doll bodies". But rather, they are specially constructed "skin suits" for use within the General Population chambers in the Prison Complex. Some are human, some are in other mammal bodies. Each "skin suit" has an associated Mantid (sic.) to maintain it, operate it, and make sure that it follows the pre-birth world-line template (sic.)
Since the Domain interacts and communicates with the Mantids (sic.) we are able to identify where the elements of the "Lost Battalion" are. We know where they exist within the Prison Complex at any moment, and we work with the Mantids (sic.) as necessary towards our end goals and directives.
The Mantids (sic.) control the "skin suits". They maintain and help follow the progression of life events along the pre-birth world-line template (sic.).
But these Mantids (sic.) are not the same as the creatures (Mantids Prime) that occupy roles within the "Heaven" that was constructed as part of this Prison Complex.
Both the Mantids (sic.) and Mantids Prime (sic.) that occupy heaven are of the same genetic classification, however they are totally different in their operational parameters.
[1] The Mantids Prime (sic.) continue to follow the "Old Empire" directives and operate within "Heaven" as if the Domain does not exist.
[2] While the Mantids within the Prison Complex work with us and are aligned with our end goals.
We of The Domain do not venture within the "Heaven" constructed sub-universe. To do so would require us to go through the electromagnetic washing of our very being and souls. So we have never visited the "Heaven" constructs. Thus we have never communicated with the Mantid Primes (sic.)
Thus, when a member of the "Lost Battalion" dies it is immediately shuttled off to the "Tunnel of Light", enters "Heaven" and is met by Mantid Prime (sic.) caretakers that have a directive to immediately recycle back with a pre-defined (nasty) pre-birth world-line template.
Then upon the General Population in the Prison Complex, "our" Mantids (sic.) take over and work with us to our end goals.
How are cats not part of the inmates!?
From my previous Q&A…
“Felines follow the same general behavior rules as humans do. Except that felines are not inmates in the Prison Planet Complex.”
How are cats not part of the inmates!? Are they visitors from elsewhere? This suggests that they are pretty advanced. In fact by my limited interaction with my feral cats, in some respects they display more human behavior than most humans. I actually learnt kindness and trust in ways which surprised me.
This was an interesting response.
(Pause.) I have to get back to you on this.
So, what will happen is that the Commander will go off and do his / her / it research or communication, and get back with me. Probably at an odd point in time.
Four weeks later. His response…
Felines, not only ordinary house cats, have a quantum makeup that differ substantially from that of the inmate archetypes that were developed when the Prison Complex was first established. You can think of it as oil vs. water, or Windows computer operating system, and the Lunix operating system. Or you can think of it as an electrical heater as opposed to a kerosene heater. It's completely different.
But it is more than that.
The feline archetype did not approve of making any inmate version archetypes. Every time an attempt was made to create a feline prison suit, it was thwarted and blocked. Not only because it was much, much harder to do, but also become the felines themselves did not want that to happen.
You cannot contain or constrain a cat. They are their own free entities, and they value this aspect of their lives in the must fundamental manner. They actually view most other forms of physical manifested life as "below them". They would not permit a "lower" species to create a genetic manipulation of their archetype.
So it did not happen.
When the first efforts were undertaken to do so, there were all sorts of problems and issues. Eventually, the engineers and researchers of the "Old Domain" gave up. They "shelved" the feline project and excluded it from the catalog of inmate skin suits.
Now, initially, they did report these issues to their superiors. Each and every time their superiors demanded that they work harder. Eventually, they decided not to say anything and the Prison Complex was opened up without feline archetype modification.
There were side projects in which archetypes were developed and failed. Eventually, the researchers told their superiors that it was not advisable as the felines would find a way to escape from the Prison Complex. This was an excuse that the upper management accepted, and so all research was filed away and forgotten. And you now have this situation that persists to this day.
Your point about trans species migrations.
Dogs and elephants etc may be equally intelligent as humans, just limited by their containers. So a dog when in a human behavior has all the same emotional and mental intelligence when freed from the limits so imposed. This suggests that emotions and intelligence is similar across specie across the worlds.
If true then many characteristics are cultural or biological. (I’m thinking your Commander can absorb the culture of humans because he has access to ALL of your memories lol. But this rabbit hole I will leave to you. For me it’s more benign than it looks.)
Trans-species migrations happen all the time. It's fairly common outside of the Prison Complex universe. However, there are limitations, and favoritism in the body selection and group quantum clusters that make a favorite type of incarnation more desirable than others.
In the Prison Planet environment, however, it is a completely different situation. The mantids in Heaven (mantid prime) make the decisions and give permissions or not to allow or not this kind of inter-specie transfer experience. Individual IS-BE's have very little say in the outcome of that request.
One of the problems that can arise is when one species, say a predatory insect species, inhabits a modified human skin suit for the General Population in the Prison Complex. Their personality will stay the same, but will adapt to the new skin suit and environment.
These old previous species behaviors, while natural in other environment could end up being toxic in the human environment. Thus it is one of the reasons why we (The Domain) put a stop to other civilizations dumping their undesirables into the Prison Complex for administrative punishment.
Does your ownership of planet Earth come from right of conquest? Some sort of Terra Nullius?
Continuing on the Q&A. This particular question was asked late at night after I finally got my young daughter to sleep. I then sat down and started the process.
We created the master universe that the Prison Complexes and it's pocket universe inhabits. We established the creatures, the plants, the planets, the stars and the entire operation of everything. At that time, The Domain was an earlier incarnation, and we all were learning and establishing fundamentals and boundaries for the universe.
We let general chaos expand, and as a result the master universe became something that we do not like to see. We held a series of meeting in this regard and decided to secure all errant elements and maintain a most basic and fundamental foundational aspect of control.
What is going on with your "Milkyway galaxy" is that we are suppressing the unstable elements in favor of unified control according to our most basic principles.
Rather than a territorial expansion and seizure of this galaxy, we are instead working behind the scenes where possible to stabilize errant civilizations. When we cannot do so, we secure the civilizations by force. This is what we did with the "old empire".
In all cases the civilizations are then scrubbed of the negative attributes and problematic behaviors and permitted to operate within a very broad set of guidelines that will prevent a relapse of dangerous behaviors.
If Earthlings are in the position of native Americans who faced annilation at the hands of the Great White Father, what do we do?
Morning inquiry.
Fear is the problem. Certainly there is reason to be concerned, as earth history is rife with stories of conquest. But the earth is a unique environment peopled with many vicious and malevolent / selfish / profiteering entities. This is NOT (there was a great vibrational rocking with this particular word. Almost like a earthquake) the norm in the "master universe".
This Prison Complex was derived and came from a particularly unique culture of war-like entities that formed a society that we refer to as the "Old Empire". So this war-like, profiteering society took their worst (and their best) citizenry and locked them up inside this prison complex. The lives that you have experienced here, and the histories that you have experienced here are excessive and extreme.
That being said, the "Old Empire" being warlike and aggressive is in itself an extreme manifestation. It's not the normal.
These extreme manifestations of society crop up throughout the universe, and that is what The Domain is active in suppressing. There are approximately two to three really problematic civilizations per galaxy, and the larger galaxies such as yours might hold from seven to twelve (or fourteen) such societies.
Your fears are rational because they are based on your known histories.
This is what you can expect;
[1] The "Old Empire" has been purged of it's "darkest" elements. It is now on the mend and is turning into a calmer, quieter and more peaceful society. Though certain elements of that society had to be forcefully amputated.
[2] By the time the Prison Complex is fully actuated under The Domain control, many trapped IS-BE's will be able to return to their former relationships and lives in the "Old Empire" or elsewhere as the need be.
[3] Prior to this happening, however, there has to occur numerous events prior to the release of the inmates.
[3A] Sentience sorting. We cannot permit those sentience's that are prone to dangerous behaviors to exist outside of a monitored area on their own. Instead they will be granted supervised parole, and observed and watched so that they cannot unduly influence their surroundings negatively.
[3B] Scrubbing of the skin suits. The attire of the entities will all have to be remanufactured to fit their natural archetypes. Obviously STS , DIS, and SFA entities (under parole) would posses "parole" skin suits, while STO entities would possess natural archetype skin suits.
STO = Service to others
STS = Service to Self
SFA = Service for another
DIS = Disjointed
[3C] Memory re-injection. We will attempt (and succeed) in the restoration of all memories.
[3D] Phased release. The members of the lost battalion will be the first major group to be released. Followed by STO individuals. Then a phased system of SFA individual consciousnesses. The last would be the very dangerous STS and DIS consciousnesses.
[3E] The Most dangerous. The most problematic entities and the highest probability of disruption / destructive abilities / and borderline evil entities would be either recycled or banished.
[3E-1] Those banished would be sent to the pocket universe known as "Heaven" which is a pocket universe within the pocket universe of the Prison Complex. There they would be locked in place and stay there until a sufficient method can be arranged to rehabilitate them.
[3E-2] Those recycled would be reduced to basic components through a system resembling the "tunnel of light" until they are rendered inert.
The questioner need not fear any of this. The questioner is slated for a phased release, after memory restoration.
If things are less dark, then how do we work or trade together?
I assume that this concerns what is presently going on earth-side and the question relates to the next few years. As such, I queried it that way. Morning probe at 9am.
The fears abound. But things will return to normal sea lane shipping, and normal levels of commerce. However, there will be a decrease in the volume of the products, the type and mixture of products, as well as the relative utility and life of those products.
This is something that is well documented on our side.
We see and anticipate a "new normal" after a seven year (or so) adjustment period.
Some nations will be impacted the most. Such as the United States, the UK and parts of Europe. Others, many others, will not be. And they will continue their lives as if the disruption was a trivial matter.
Those nations or societies that will be impacted the most will undergo severe and abrupt societal readjustments. Mostly it will be triggered by energy utility, currency or the inflation related to, and inherent and intentional balkanization of the citizenry.
Next group of questions – Some important points
If I cannot understand the question, I cannot communicate to the Commander. Further, I need to be able to understand what he is communicating. Anything that lies outside of my knowledge or experience is impossible to communicate with. We have to have a common frame of reference, and then be able to use that reference to form a basis of understanding.
This next bath of questions took me back.
Heavy in technical jargon.
A large number of multi-part questions.
Coming from a non-influencer who didn’t even bother with a singular donation.
A disregard to the effort all this takes.
As they did not at all follow my request that only one question be asked and that it be put in a clear and easy way for me to communicate to. This was the question…
Here are some late & difficult but revolution-assisting questions:
*Are Clifford Algebras with real-value coefficients a serviceable mathematical format for representation for reality?
*Is there a better type of math to use? If so, what? Otherwise:
*What is the sign aka signature (+ or -) of the squares of the basis vectors of the spatial dimensions?
*Is this a convention or is it physically significant?
*Are there other such dimensions with the same signature, e.g. “proper time”?
*How many such space-like dimensions are there?
*and what is their significance?
*How many dimensions of opposite signature to the spatial ones are there, e.g. relativistic time and other time-like dimensions?
*What can be said about their role – e.g. do they concern nuclear reactions or allow for branching time-lines?
*Are there effectively null-square (zero-square) dimensions formed from the sum and differences of pairs of + and – signature dimensions, e.g. light-cones or “conformal” projective dimensions?
*Are there null-square dimensions independent of the + and – square dimensions?
*Are null-square dimensions your home environment?
*Are there applications of null-square dimensions, e.g. portals between realms or amnesia devices?
*Does thermodynamic entropy create “Akashic records”?
*What principles relate thermodynamic entropy (heat diffusion) and information from physical histories (wave equation); are they analogous to exchanging a + square for a – square dimension, (or relativistic time for proper time, or time (t) for imaginary time (it)),
*...and if so, can this “Wick rotation” be done in both directions so as to allow passing from our physical realm to the “afterlife” and back?
16 fucking technical specialized questions! Are you fucking kidding me?
Now you know, this son of a bitch did not give me a donation, nor did he add anything to MM aside from saying that the posted art was beautiful. So what? It’s beautiful. I know that.
Duh!
Now, for these questions, I had to do some research. Then I had to understand it. Finally, I had to communicate it to the Commander in the “easily digestible form”.
Understand the language.
Understand the physics involved.
Phrase it so that I understood the questions when I read it.
Query question by question to the Commander.
Communicate that query.
Transcribe the answer.
Double check the answers for uniformity.
All in all, I figure months of dedicated study, if not years. Then weeks, to months of asking these questions.
That’s one FUCK of a lot of work.
So, I sent an email to this clown.
I said.
Listen guy, let me make something perfectly clear. If I cannot understand the questions, then it cannot be communicated properly to the Commander. Some of these questions I can ask.
And another thing. I am doing this for free.
Look at the God damn bulk of questions you asked. Do you have any god damn idea what stress I go through in this procedure. Have some fucking compassion, or at least throw a donation my way. Jeeze!
To respond to this query, I need to fully understand the question.
Remember. With information comes responsibility. You are now responsible in the dissemination of this information.
He responded.
Frankly, by all indications it seemed like you were a whole team getting paid by the word by some Chinese intelligence agency, so I gave you some of the best open-source intel I could – that 300-reference COVID origin paper on unz.com and the rexresearch.com technology archive.
I have also tried to suggest ways you might increase your rhetorical effectiveness, though it’s often hard to point such things out without giving offense.
I don’t get paid for anything myself, I’m still recovering from repeated heatstroke from labor in a SE US sweatshop and don’t have funds to spare, unfortunately. I wasn’t aware how your link depends on your understanding or the effort required, my apologies.
That’s an apology? By insulting me? And still he’s not even going to toss me money for a cup of coffee for the seven months it would take to answer his questions?
He continued…
Nevertheless, the topics of my questions could yield very important intelligence, understanding of principles behind advanced technology and even the nature of reality.
I have found them worth spending many years of study, but for the same reason it is not easy to briefly summarize them. Here’s an attempt, still too long:
***
http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2012/07/28/transrealism-interview-with-leon-marvell/#comment-50789
[Notes on Cabbalistic significance of the whirling double cone in projecting between higher and lower worlds]
“the double-cone’s vortex form can be made by swinging a rod by its center point so that the ends describe circles” [doing so associated with sudden destructive tornado]
“Another instance of a form similar to the double-cone occurs in Bruce Moen’s exploration of what the Monroe Institute calls “Focus 27”, though the cones are more like bells or hyperboloids. He describes a large, antenna-like, horizontal structure of this double-cone form whose function is to compress souls (which he says look like cocktail shrimp or cheese curls) so that they can reincarnate without excess awareness, which would lead to sensory overload.” [expanding the center point of a double-cone into a circle results in a hyperboloid]
“Yeats had a more interesting vision of the importance of the double-cone – he saw helical gyres on the surface of the cones as tracing out the history of every mind… ‘The mind … has a precise movement … this form is the gyre.’ This was the origin of the famous lines: ‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; ….” [The poet W.B. Yeats was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the most influential group in the development of modern occultism.]
***
Geometric Algebra (GA, real-valued Clifford Algebras, a.k.a. hypercomplex numbers) gives the only mostly-comprehensible-to-me account not only of higher spatial / temporal dimensions, but of physics in general. One of the best things about it is that nearly every paper using GA explains it from first principles before going on to use it for physics or computer science. Most physics papers in other fields seem to take a positive joy in obscure math and impenetrable jargon. I’ll try here to give an even less mathematically difficult account of some of GAs implications than most GA papers.
Given a set of n mutually orthogonal basis vectors, one vector for each independent dimension, a space of 2^n quantities results from considering all possible combinations of these basis vectors multiplied together. For instance taking pairs of vectors from a 5D space gives 10 possible planes of rotation, 4D space 6 planes of rotation, while in 3D there are only 3 independent planes of rotation. (The numbers of other combinations for n dimensions go as the n-th row of Pascals triangle or binomial.) For orthogonal vectors such as the basis vectors of a space, the order of multiplication determines the sign of the result, so: d1 d2 = -d2 d1. This can be interpreted as being a rotation in the plane defined by the two vectors, either in one direction (d1 -> d2) or the other, “negative” direction (d2 -> d1).
Sums of all the 2^n elements, each weighted by a different scale factor give “multivectors”, which are generalizations of complex numbers.
Each of the basis vectors will have a positive or negative square. (Vectors’ squares are always scalars, that is, real numbers.) In conventional relativity the basis vectors squares’ signs, also called “signatures” are (+ – – – ) or (+ + + -), with the different sign from the others belonging to time. When plugging into the Pythagorean theorem, the square of time can cancel out the squares of the spatial dimensions, giving a distance of zero when the spatial distance equals the time interval (time multiplied by c to give all units in meters). This happens for anything moving at the speed of light. The zero interval is the amount of perceived or “proper” time for a light wave traveling between any two points. This light-speed type of path is also called a “null geodesic”. For any given point in space and time, there is a “past light cone” of places that could be seen from that point, called a “cone” because it spreads out as one goes back further in time. Likewise, for each point at a given time there is a “future light cone” of places from which an event at that place and time can be seen. The “cone” terminology comes from looking at 2D plus time, each cross section of the cone is then a 2D circle of points. (It’s easier to imagine the future light cone as pond ripples spreading out from a dropped pebble. The past light cone is like reversing the film so the ripples converge to throw the pebble out of the pond. In 3D, it looks sort of like glass onions turning inside-out. Placehoder: Transactional Interpretation of QM, Carver Mead’s Collective Electrodynamics) Mathematiclly the points on the past light cone are defined by the spatial separation, r, and the time-times-lightspeed, ct, so: (ct)^2 = r^2 .
Now it is possible and actually quite useful for computer graphics to add a pair of dimensions with signature (+ -) to the usual spatial ones (+ + +). The sum and difference of the extra dimensions give an alternate basis for these two dimensions, but with the basis vectors squaring to zero (0 0). These “null dimensions” are called “origin” and “infinity”. A projection from this augmented space down to 3D allows many other structures besides points and directions to be represented by vectors in the 5D space. For instance, multiplying 3 points gives a circle passing through those points, 4 points gives a sphere. If one of those points is the point at infinity, then the product is a line or a plane respectively. The other advantages of this way of doing things are too many to list here. This “conformal” scheme is actually quite easy to visualize and learn to use without getting into abstruse math by using the free GAViewer visualization software and its tutorials.
An interesting thing about the ( +++, +- ) signature algebra is that it is the same as one that has been <a href=”http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0601194″> proposed</a> by José B. Almeida as an extension of the usual 3D+t (+++-) “Minkowsi space” of relativity, augmenting the usual external time (-) with a second sort of time having positive square and describing internal or “proper time”, (which in relativity will be measured differently by a moving external observer). But if it is assumed that everything in the universe is about the same age, then they have comparable proper time coordinates, so proper time can be used as a universal coordinate corresponding to the universe’s temporal radius. This gives a sort of preferred reference frame for the universe, which is ordinarily considered impossible. In this 5D scheme, not just light but also massive particles follow null geodesics, and from that single assumption can be deduced relativity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, and in addition dark matter, the big bang and the spatial expansion of the universe seem to be illusions.
The math is also easier than the usual warped-space general relativity, instead using flat euclidean space and having light, etc. move more slowly near mass, that is, treating gravitational fields as being regions of higher refractive index than regular space.
Quantum mechanics is also much much easier to visualize using GA. For instance, the behavior of the electron can be described fully by treating it as a point charge moving in a tight helix at light speed around its average path (a “jittery motion”, or in German: “zitterbewegung”). The handedness of the helix is the electron spin, the curvature of the helix is the mass, the angle of the particle around the helix is the phase.
Geometric Algebra is useful in all areas of physics and computer modeling of physics. GA has been successfully applied to robot path planning, electromagnetic field simulation, image processing for object recognition and simulation, signal processing, rigid body dynamics, chained rotations in general and many other applications. It gives very clear, terse and generally applicable, practically useful descriptions in diverse areas using a single notation and body of techniques.
Basic Geometric Algebra (GA) visual introduction:
https://slehar.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/clifford-algebra-a-visual-introduction/
Interactive visualization software, includes 5D (3+2D) Conformal Geometric Algebra (CGA)
https://geometricalgebra.org/gaviewer_download.html
Tutorial for CGA using GAviewer software:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265065144_GABLE_A_GAViewer_Tutorial_for_Geometric_Algebra
Thorough math/physics intro:
https://www.av8n.com/physics/clifford-intro.htm
Good old intro from the top GA study group:
http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~clifford/pages/introduction.htm
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wick_rotation
replacing inverse temperature, kT (Boltzmann’s constant times temperature) in thermodynamic equations with: -i f hbar (negative imaginary unit (square root of [-1]) times frequency times Planck’s constant divided by 2 pi) (both of which have dimensions of energy), converts the heat diffusion equation to Schrodinger’s wave equation (the fundamental equation of quantum mechanics). Frequency and time are inverses of each other; Wick rotation is more often expressed using imaginary time than imaginary frequency. My research shows that frequency should be regarded as primary and time should be seen as being derived from frequency.
* entropy= heat, and entropy=information: they are the same thing. Therefore since entropy always increases (2nd law of thermodynamics), information always increases and accumulates in the universe, giving a very scrambled record of the history of the universe. This can potentially be unscrambled using a Wick rotation
***
https://www.specularium.org/
Peter Carroll, noted as the originator of “Chaos Magic”, has for some years been working on physics rather than magic, in particular a scheme that uses three dimensions of time. I corresponded with him over a few months last year regarding some of the relations to GA, in particular the possibility that each spatial-temporal dimension pair would form an alternate basis with two null-square dimensions. I can’t say I understand his hypersphere cosmology or 3D time theories, but they certainly do resonate with my intuition.
*
Anyway, I hope that’s more interesting, edifying & enlightening than burdensome — you owe me nothing, of course, but perhaps it may lead to some profit for you down the line.
Just a bunch of cut and paste from the internet. Supposedly, I guess to give the impression that he knows something.
Christ. This information has to be USED. I am not some novelty for your own God Damn personal comfort and queries. I fully expect you to USE this information and make GOOD USE of it, disseminate it, and do good works with it.
I am not a novelty.
I am not some yokel that goes round and round in a hamster cage, just for some novelty questions.
I am NOT doing this easily and for fun.
It’s a labor.
It’s also painful, physically exhausting, and a chore. Thus I get angry when people treat me, and what I am doing trivially. You WILL respect me. You WILL show respect to The Domain, and you WILL behave when you visit MM. Or I will fucking get rid of you, and if you still persist, I will make it a permanent stay in the corn field.
Are Clifford Algebras with real-value coefficients a serviceable mathematical format for representation for reality?
Is there a better type of math to use? If so, what?
And the answer…
This is an insincere request made by a malevolent entity. They do not seek an answer, but rather are desirous in trying to "trip you up", "run snipe hunts" to occupy your time and labor. Any information provided will not even be read. Nor will it be disseminated or used.
Future associations with it will be problematic. It is advisable to sever all communication channels and avoid them.
…
So on Monday 25OCT21 I severed all communication with this person. I sent him a response to his comment and gave him 45 minutes to respond. I was being generous.
I am a contributor to both the UNZ and The Saker. This you should know.
You should also understand who I am and why I am doing this. Obviously you do not.
Long time readers will recognize what an insult it is to say that I work for the Chinese government. That alone is enough to send you to the cornfield.
But I am not going to do that. I think you are trivially intelligent but have the social skills of a goat.
KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH.
Your lack of perception, veiled insults, and general garrulousness is irritating to me. I am too old for this bullshit. Therefore you are banned. Good bye.
Then I went and blocked his entire city from accessing MM. Not just him alone. Then another MM follower Ultan responded…
Mr Man. You are very much loved and respected by those of us out here who have been reading and listening to you for years, and have actually taken the time to read and think about your experiences while comparing / contrasting those experiences with our own. Rather than, say, trying to fit your narrative into our narrative, or what we think we know about reality.
And in the case of this character above, failing very badly. But a classic example of wooden thinking if ever there were. And let’s not even get into the subtle hints about you being a paid liar. Or other contributors for that matter. I mean, for all the errrr, intellectual nitty gritty (for want of a better expression), he doesn’t even know anything about free energy and the plasma-fusion core.
Good call, IMHO.
And please do not let these guys get you down– there’s a lot of messed up people out there looking for answers. You’ve placed the pearls for all who have eyes to see, some of us have scooped them up; let the herd blunder on toward the intellectual abattoir.
My response…
A big thank you for the uplifting response.
You know that I hate banning people, but if I find myself feeling bad by something that someone said, I do not analyze it. I just throw them into the gutter.
MM is not for everyone. It is not for the general population to visit and ohh and ahh at. It is only for a few very special people.
People like you, the guy from Ohio, Florida, Australia, South America, Northern Europe and Israel as well as the guy from Africa. There’s women from France and the Caribbean, and Georgia that mean the world to me. And it’s for you guys that I keep pumping this stuff out day in and day out. You guys are so very, very special to me. So special. You have no idea.
Lately when I see people get on my forum, on my site, and lay down insults about what I say, write or report. They lay down insults about me and why I do what I do, it hurts. And honestly the world would be a much better place if we all see that when we are hurt it’s a real thing. It’s just like that video of the dish breaking.
The dish is gone. You had a dish. Now you don’t. So good bye.
Who them responded back to me with…
All part of the ‘demonisation and dehumanisation of the other’ phenomena that’s accelerated thanks to ‘social media’ over the past few years, Mr Man. And by design, of course.
Folks entrapped emotionally in a circle-jerk by these very advanced algorithms tend to forget that on a cyber-forum you are dealing with another human being– that’s what the word ‘forum’ means! A place to gather and discuss anything and everything; and just like in the real forums of old– insult anybody or try and force your own peculiar views on others in that forum and you’d be laughed out of the atrium, at best, or kicked out on your ear with a dagger in your arse, at worst.
Folks, free men, knew how to behave, back then. And ‘natural selection’, let’s say, did away with the socially retarded. (Check out what woulda happened to you in ancient Sparta if you insulted another person or his views in a disrespectful manner. And that was just the warriors/free-men, alone– men and women.)
But in cyberspace it’s easy to remain anonymous and dismiss opposing views to yours no matter how rationally put or well-intended with the utmost disrespect– or get angry when your views aren’t upheld in a way that you’d like; shills, bots, NPCs, non-humans; trolls; paid disinfo; and much worse….we’ve seen it all before. Such is what passes for ‘discourse’ in cyberspace. Again, all by very clever design.
So keep ’em coming, IMHO– and if one day you decide to pull the plug, I at least have downloaded your classics to keep forever and reread at my leisure.
So thanks again for that.
And I commented…
It’s always a pleasure to hear your kind words and support. FYI, I didn’t just ban this guy. I banned his entire city. Chinese-style. Anyone in his city now gets a notice when they try to visit MM.
It says “Your geographic region has been banned from accessing this site by the site administrator.”
And this was the response.
😂, oh man, blocking the regional I.P. address? F that; why don’t you call up your Domain contact, fire up his or her doomsday device, and plough the furrows in the remains of that dump with salt while you’re at it, Scipio Africanus style.
How’s that for polite debate! Respect the Metallicman and you can live and let live; disrespect him, however, and the Rods of God are a-comin your way.
Duck, you sucker, 😂.
Ah.
Don’t piss me off.
Never the less, I did actually ask the question.
It took me days to present, unpack, translate, transcribe and review. Here it is.
Keep in mind, that I still don’t understand the question. To me it is a question on the tools of a methodology related to utilization of a system that could be used to describe the nature of a universe. And thus I presented it as such.
Here’s the result.
The use of mathematics to describe the universe that the prison complex is part of makes sense from the point of view of the inmates. However, it is a very awkward and feeble methodology. The better methodology is a simpler pictorial representation.
The prison complex operates in a pocket universe that exists inside a general "master" universe. With in this pocket universe are secondary universes known collectively as "Heavens". Each universe possesses different rules, different environments, and different ways of operating.
Here we must assume that the question is in regards to whether Clifford Algebra can help describe the nature of the "physical universe", which is functionally different in operation from the "master" universe that is resides within.
(Now, I hope that I get this transcribed properly. It was parsed out slowly and carefully for me, and I really still do not understand it.)
The problem with using this methodology to describe the prison universe; the "pocket" universe that resides inside the "master" universe is that it relies on the notion that time does exist.
Here, time is the scalar component of a Clifford space. In Clifford Space geometry, "time" results from properties of space itself. This comes about when one properly uses the higher dimensional formalism afforded by Clifford’s geometric algebra.
At that, it can be viewed as an intrinsic geometric property of three-dimensional space without the need for the specific addition of a fourth dimension. (As people tend to do, referring "time" as the fourth dimension.) Thus, it is quite attractive to those seeking mathematical solutions to the geometry of the artificial prison universe.
Clifford algebra is a unification of real and complex numbers, (quaternion and vector algebra) which reflects the intrinsic properties of space-time.
(I wrote down "qu-an-er-non", as I try to phonically assemble words that are new to me, but the closest apparently useful word is quaternion.)
The reason why Clifford algebra is attractive is because it provides a unified, standard, elegant and open language and tool for numerous complex mathematical and physical theories. By using it, engineering principles can be devised to provide solutions within the prison planet universe.
If you base everything / mathematics / physics / engineering on the four basic principles and Clifford algebra, all basic physical equations within the prison planet universe can be derived.
And it stopped there! Talk about being maddening.
I really haven’t a clue as to what he is talking about, or whether or not the question was actually answered. So I “prodded” for “more”. (Don’t force me to explain. It’s a way that I communicate using the EBP.) And the result was more “forceful”, and “stronger”.
The logical relations between equations can all be reconstructed using Clifford Algebra.
Additionally all of the solutions of the more typical equations can be solved.
This system does explain the concepts of space-time and quantum theory.
As such, it is a useful, by some, methodology to help better understand the nature of the prison complex pocket universe.
The queried answer is; Yes.
Clifford Algebra, using real value coefficients CAN (there was a syllabic emphasis in the forth tone) be used AS A serviceable (used as an italicized image) solution to a mathematical representation of the reality as experienced by the inmates within the prison complex pocket universe.
At this point, I really wanted to get some specific details. So after I transcribed the answers, I parsed them out for detail.
Q: You said “The logical relations between equations can all be reconstructed using Clifford Algebra.” Do you mean “most”, or can I use the word “all”?
The proper term is "all". However, there are some mathematical "tricks" that need to be employed on some of the solutions. Not every "trick" or technique is well known. This is an esoteric avenue for the specialists in this field.
This should not be your concern.
Q: You said “…all of the solutions of the more typical equations can be solved. ” Again do you mean “all” or “most”, and why did you use the adjective “typical”?
The more accurate translation is "most of the functional equations can be solved, and those that cannot can be 'bridged' using mathematical 'work-arounds'".
Again, this is not your realm of expertise. Those with the necessary skills and expertise now possess the understanding that they are on the right track and moving in the proper direction. In truth, there are some valid and appreciate work in this field by those of that interest and skill level.
It need not be your concern.
The questioner also put up this part 2 of the question. It is, rather, if the Clifford Algebra cannot explain the nature of the reality universe, what can? And the questions ran like this…
Otherwise:
*What is the sign aka signature (+ or -) of the squares of the basis vectors of the spatial dimensions? Is this a convention or is it physically significant?
Are there other such dimensions with the same signature, e.g. “proper time”?
How many such space-like dimensions are there, and what is their significance?
*How many dimensions of opposite signature to the spatial ones are there, e.g. relativistic time and other time-like dimensions?
What can be said about their role – e.g. do they concern nuclear reactions or allow for branching time-lines?
*Are there effectively null-square (zero-square) dimensions formed from the sum and differences of pairs of + and – signature dimensions, e.g. light-cones or “conformal” projective dimensions?
Are there null-square dimensions independent of the + and – square dimensions?
Are null-square dimensions your home environment? Are there applications of null-square dimensions, e.g. portals between realms or amnesia devices?
*Does thermodynamic entropy create “Akashic records”? What principles relate thermodynamic entropy (heat diffusion) and information from physical histories (wave equation); are they analogous to exchanging a + square for a – square dimension, (or relativistic time for proper time, or time (t) for imaginary time (it)), and if so, can this “Wick rotation” be done in both directions so as to allow passing from our physical realm to the “afterlife” and back?
Because the answer was substantive in the first part of the question, I did not proceed with the second part.
However, I think that the Commander wasn’t clear enough to meet the precise needs of the questioner. So I wanted to get some much better answers and some “meat” that I could provide herein. So I got myself a quiet spot, and a cup full of warm water. And started transcribing. And it does not make sense to me, but here it is…
Q: In Unified Field Theory, how does this Clifford Algebra fit?
And you know, that I am shoot wildly in the dark. I haven’t a clue as to what I am asking or how it would all fit together.
Many are trying to understand the nature of the pocket universe that surrounds the prison complex. The unified field theory is one such mechanism.There is Way-Al scale invariant (?) methodology, Kal-uze-al five dimensional space time, Hamilton Formalism and the gauge unified field theory. Each one has it's pluses and minuses in utility.
Clifford Algebra is a methodology used to help resolve numerous paradoxes. These include the Twins, Effer-Fest, and the ladder paradoxes.
There are other scientists on other prison planets within the entire prison complex that are proceeding on their versions of these theories. Which is why we are very aware of the questions that you ask.
The strongest attribute / characteristic of the Clifford Algebra methodology is the utilization of the Nonlinear Spinor Equation. There is the Nonlinear Dark field, the electromagnetic Interaction field and the interactions with classical mechanics and with the Lorentz Transformation. All of these show usefulness and utility. The key to understanding the use of Clifford Algebra is the use of Spinor property utility.
You need the Inter-grable Conditions of the Eli-Gen Equation, and the Curvilinear Coordinate System solution.
Q: Are these hints or directions for the mathematical solutions using Clifford Algebra geometry for unified theory and space-time resolution?
Yes.
The way to proceed is to develop Inter-grable Conditions for the Dir-Ack, and the Pauli equations.You will then develop a "New Model" for Strong Interactions. Then, with a strong understanding of the Light-Cone Coordinate System, you can then begin the simplification of Einstein Tensor.
From there, you would then work on the Linearization of Einstein Field Equation. (He said it twice as if it was important.) Linearization of Einstein Field Equation. Then work on the dynamics of observed stars and all should be obvious to the researcher.
It looks like a “road map” for flushing out unresolved aspects of the Clifford Algebraic solution.
Honestly guys. I don’t know if he is “pulling my leg”, or just messing with me. This is just a bunch of disjointed statements that I just cannot figure out heads or tails over. I only hope that someone in the MM audience can understand it. In words that are new to me I used phonics to spell them out.
And that’s it. I am spent. I feel like an empty shell casing after completing final exams during my university years.
The next morning I asked this question;
Was I too harsh in perma-banning the questioner?
No.
The questioner is a DIS sentience. He would do nothing with the information. He would fail to disseminate it. He would only nod with a smirk that you fell for his "trap" / ploy / snare / amusement.
By allowing him to continue to visit MM, you would be empowering his sickness / illness / distortion of self.
It would be akin to allowing a family alcoholic member a bottle of whiskey a day just to keep him sedated and out of harms way. When the real solution would be to push him out of the house and lock the doors so that he cannot come in.
Note to the readers that it was my decision to ban him. I was not ordered to do so.
In the late 1940’s one of your vehicles were downed in Roswell New Mexico. From this event we obtained the document “Alien Interview”. Can you please tell us what downed your vehicle?
At that time we believed that it was downed by a disruption of it's operational field by natural energy discharge / lightning discharge. We learned however, that it was more complex than that. The real reason was the radar equipment that was being tested at the Roswell base.
The captured (Nazi) German radars Flakleit G, Freya, Mammut and Wassermann were being used and studied at the American Roswell, NM base at the time of the crash.
We are unsure which particular radar was the actual culprit at this time, but that is immaterial, as all the radars possess interference properties that we have since had to counter.
During the crash, the two (minor) officers lost their doll bodies immediately and they returned to their operational staging locations. The Commander was captured and secured, and you know what happened after that.
Regarding the document titled “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission.”. Is this document really from Matilda? Does Airl have knowledge of it?
I posted this question. And I was told…
Read the book, and then ask the question again.
Sheech!
What does this mean? Does that mean that they obtain all my impressions, and sensory input, and then use that to base their answers on? Or do they rely on my impressions and then alter my opinions in how I transcribe? It’s all so confusing. I am pretty much convinced that they need my thoughts and impressions, for whatever reason, to come to a conclusive answer. It explains so much, but also opens up some questions as well.
So I need to read the document. So ok. No problem. I’ll respond to this question later on after I read the document.
What happened to me when my EBP was installed? Where did I go, and have I met your expectations?
Well, I want to know.
We do not question your loyalty to the Domain nor your dedication to responsible service. In fact, these characteristics were carefully vetted prior to us presenting the opportunity to you.
We know that you want to entertain the idea that you went to some exotic location. Any of the moons of gas giants would cause biological disruptions due to the radiation belts inherent within their planetary fields.
You went to a medical facility within the moon. There is no need to venture further away to achieve the procedure that we conducted.
You have correctly surmised that it was not a vehicle, and that it was upon a planetary body. What you might not be clear on is that it occurred deep inside the moon, well under the planetary surface.
The idea that it occurred on Mars is a romantic assumption on your part.
If Heather is now occupying the human body of <redacted>, how is this possible as all human bodies are inmate skin suits, and cats transcend those limitations?
It’s a persistent question.
Heather (FYI, Heater was a previous cat from 30 years ago) isn't really occupying a human body, but is rather sharing it. Felines have the ability to co-inhabit bodies of all sorts of creatures. This is especially pronounced in the Prison Complex environment. This is exactly what is going on.
From your point of view <redacted> is a "shadow person" (sic.), but your cat Heather occupies it with you as your "traverse the MWI" (sic.). Thus both of you share the same experiences together. When you die, your cat will leave the co-inhabited body. It's a natural process.
Conclusion
This is just some personal questions that I have asked using my EBP. I’ve had these things in my head for decades, but only recently realized that two-way communication could be achieved with them.
There are numerous MM readers and commenters that had a role in this selection of questions and all in all, it was a big positive. So thank you for all of your nudges, and questions and concerns.
In the future, I will open up the EBP for more questions and you all can ask some more questions. This was just my own personal ones, and I must apologize if my questions were banal or boring.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
In early October 2021, I established a task request asking for those versed in LD and other skills to investigate whether or not there were any “backdoors” or other ways in and out of the “Old Empire” “Prison Complex” that we are all (unfortunately) part of. By the second week of October the results began to pour in. The first group of results was posted HERE.
This is a posting of subsequent results.
Volunteers
I asked in this post if any MM readership would be interested in joining The Domain to help rescue their “Lost Battalion”.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
And then within a few days after the readership started adding affirmations and confirmations that they wish to help The Domain, be a Rufus, and do whatever they can contribute, many many MANY of them started writing to me privately.
They were (for the most part) terrified.
Within hours or days of making a verbal affirmation that they indeed wanted to assist The Domain, all of them, every single one of them, experience sleep paralysis and horrible fears and manifestations. All of which is very similar to “abduction events”.
That they were “hijacked” in their dream state and all sorts of operations and procedures occurred. For them, it was truly frightening.
However, I said then, and I will say now…
In the non-physical reality, thoughts take on tangible form.
Fears are used to control you.
So when you experience any type of help, your fear-defenses (part of the “Old Empire” programming), will try to make you fight and prevent the assistance.
So keep in mind…
To help The Domain, certain retardations and alterations to your inmate human body must be undone.
This requires an operation; a procedure.
The Domain will undo those alterations when you join in the effort. They will conduct an operation and perform a procedure to remove those “chains” and “blocks” that you have shackled to your non-physical body.
Do not fear it. You NEED to have it done, whether you want to help the Domain or not.
It is a medical procedure.
Many people have commented on this event as a “dream”, or a “Join the Domain related dream”.
Janus Mission Briefing
This is from an anonymous MM lurker that communicates with me by secure means. He is an expat like myself. He is prior SAP like myself. He is retired like myself, but unlike myself he fled the ‘States before he could be formally “retired”. You all can leave messages and your thoughts about his experiences on the forum or in the comments. He will read them, but he will not comment on them directly. In this matter, I act as an intermediary. -MM
I have been unwilling to 'Go under' for some time now. To be honest I have been scared. I've previously had some success with Lucid Dreaming, but I have much more control in OBE (Out of Body Experience/astral travel etc.).
The problem was, the minute I 'let go of the rope' I feel like being kidnapped. Not unlike being sucked into the giant vacuum cleaner.
It feels like somebody is waiting for me at the entry point (not a good word, it's more like bopping to 3D from 2D). Like they were ready for me. That has never happened to me before.
OBE has always been a joyous, refreshing and FREE state. Now it's scary and that sucks. I thought they were the Prison Guards but didn't stick around to ask questions.
Then I read the experience of others, and it dawned on me. It was The Domain scrubbing away the prison colors, so I wouldn't be spotted right away!
I have the house to myself the whole day, I will attempt an entry now.
Janus 10-18-2021, 09:30 AM
The “Join The Domain Dream”.
I am only now able to write about it all. I had to do 60min deep meditation to thoroughly rinse my mental palate of disgusting gunk that covered my consciousness.
After I understood that the kidnapping was for my own protection, I didn’t try to evade it. As soon as I released myself from my body, I felt like I had grown an umbilical core and was pulled by it.
I let it happen.
After a period of time that was from nanosecond to a lifetime (I really don’t have any frame of reference for time there), I found myself suspended in a rig. I knew instantly that I have been in this before, many times apparently.
What happened next was without a doubt the most intensely unpleasant experience of my life. I felt like being skinned alive with a butternife.
It wasn’t sharp pain, it was more like a too heavyhanded massage. It lasted as long as it did, again no way of telling the time in any meaningful way.
I was no longer in the rig, it was more like a lounge-chair from the future.
The material felt like a memory-foam but better. I felt weightless and totally supported at the same time. I was unable to move, wasn’t able to even try to move.
Next sensation I felt, was like my head was held in a vice.
You know how to boil a frog? That happened just like it; initially I felt no discomfort, then the grip was so strong I thought my eyes would pop out.
Thia is difficult to verbalize.
My brain was rinsed.
I felt very close to dropping out of the OBE, perhaps I did. I felt my consciousness being totally independent and outside my brain and body, but I could still feel powerwashers drumming my sclera or cortex. I could feel dozens of small needle like thingies getting dislodged from the brain-tissue.
I somehow blacked out, there was a clear cutoff, because I was no longer held or suspended.
Now I was very much THERE.
I felt fit, my vision was disturbingly clear and vivid, like I was using my eyes for the first time. But it wasn’t my eyes I was seeing thru.
I was ‘sensing’ everything.
I knew I was able to sense ultraviolet light as well as infrared, and then some. Do you remember the scene from Matrix, where Neo is able to see the code for the first time?
That was it to the T.
The whole episode felt like getting an oil-change, tires rotated, new spark-plugs and a coat of paint; I didn’t get superpowers, but more like superUSER powers. It felt like I could see thru walls and distinguish between players and NPC’s. To use an American vernacular, I felt like a million bucks!
But I felt totally spent at the same time.
I swam back to the surface.
I opened my eyes and realized that I was sweating like a pig. Only 30 minutes had passed, it felt like a lifetime. I took quick dip in the almost freezing lake and planned my next move. I was in flames to try my enhanced abilities, but on the other hand I was very tired.
Lucid Dream Attempt
I haven’t been very successful in Lucid Dreaming lately, but part of it was the nagging fear of getting kidnapped.
Why not give a go? Worst case, I Could fall asleep.
I went to bed, just over the covers, not between the sheets, and took a keychain in my hand.
…
I was in a shopping mall. The Mission was to look for open entry points or hidden backdoors. I took the escalator to the bottom floor. Doors opened, and I saw the place crawling with NPC/guards. I saw a an old woman trying to go out thru the main doors. There were four revolving doors, she went to the second from right. I looked at her as she stepped into the revolving door.
As on command, all the NPC’s turned to look at her as well, grinning. The door sped up. It looked like a dust-devil. After a few seconds the door slowed down, the woman was gone, but not outside.
Ok, four exits, check.
Viability as possible rally/entrypoints: zero.
I was at the bottom floor, so it seems that only way is up. As I was sneaking back to the elevators, another thought struck me.
> You are standing in front of a door. You see corridor to your right.
> _
When I was a teen I played a lot of these text-based games. One of the game-designers Holy principles is “The unintuitive move is the right move”. If the only rational move is to open the door in front of you, you can bet your ass there’ll be Dragons behind it.
The revolving doors were enter only, manned with killer-bots, and a death-trap if you try to exit.
The elevators go from “E” to “10th floor, women’s lingerie”.
There was bound to be a skylight that opens or a hidden staircase. This took forever to write, but dream-time is non-local, and time there is an irrelevant artifact.
I was descending the hidden stairs before I finished the thought.
I went down and flipped 180 degrees emerging up. Very weird sensation. It was like a move I knew how to do, but have forgot. Like learning to fly by jumping up and forgetting to come down.
I came up and I kept going up until I was so far from the ground that I spotted a familiar looking beach, some mountains over the left. I was looking to east, south-east, the beach was behind me.
I was in West-Africa, somewhere around Senegal or Gambia.
That’s not so bizarre as it sounds, I’ve been there several times. I even ran an NGO in Gambia. I was up north, Mauretania, I think. The place I went through looked like a target. X marks the spot, eh?
Anyway I tried to spot the place in Google Earth just now.
Holy Shit!!
.
Caldera.
I need to drop this off to you now. I haven't even read this through. Sorry about poor penmanship, I just needed to write this down before it goes away.
You can share it with the class, if you wish.
Conclusion
Warning: Please take general caution against getting too excited about any particular place on LD/RW/Astral.
Do you see what happens when we all work together as part of a team? This image resembles a volcanic island, only not in the ocean. Yet, I would hazard a guess that around the time when this entire planet was set up as a Prison Planet that this area was covered in water. This goes together and add a lot of interconnected puzzle pieces to the mix. I cannot wait for others to report on their findings.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
There is a ton-load of disinformation, opinion, mixed messages and all sorts of distractions and bullshit on the internet. Nothing is more rife than that associated with the “Type-1 greys”.
Indeed, there are MM followers, well meaning no doubt, and inadvertently pick up on these other “signals” (whether through reading something, or in a vision or other non-physical method) and repeat it here. I am not saying they are bad, or wrong. But I really want clarity.
I try to provide what I know in simple, clear language, and in a non-confrontation (for the most part) manner. I want this place to be a “safe place”; a “safe space”. I want people who arrive at MM doorstep to be welcomed and accepted, no matter what they believe, no matter what social environment they come from, and no matter what their experiences are. I want this place to be a sanctuary where you are accepted without hesitation.
Never the less, sometimes our experiences, our backgrounds, our understandings contain baggage that seeps into our daily lives, and we bring it here to MM. Like automatically assuming that Mantids are the angels spoken about in the Bible. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. Maybe they are something else. But does it REALLY matter?
No.
What matters is how YOU view them. And you can communicate your views using the tools at hand. Which might be the Bible… and well understood by Christians, but confusing to Daoists.
Communication is the key. The ability to communicate openly and freely.
And when we are receiving the messages from others we can get a little confused. Try teaching vibrational mechanics to a classroom of college students hung over from last nights drinking to get an idea of what I am talking about. Which is pretty much WHY I try to simplify, simplify, and dumb down everything.
MerLynn has some great information, but he gets so enraptured in the content, that you must really latch onto it or you will get thrown off. It’s like a bucking bronco and you must hold on for dear life. Which is why I have asked him to simplify it, and not be so information dense.
Here’s an example of how understandable it can be once you simplify things…
This entire Universe is made of Light Structures. Everything is the Light said Tesla. Thales and Aristotle agreed that Everything is Water and Life is in Everything. What this means is.... Light, from ALL sources, candle, spark, sun, bulb is a STRUCTURE that is Magnetic. Like a tiny "lego" piece that has a North and South Pole and an 'equatorial' polarity region. These Structures of Light come together to form Tetrahedrons and then these Tetrahedrons form ALL OF CREATION. There are no electrons or protons or neutrons Dracul. So if you want to discuss ALIEN TECHNOLOGY which is TESLA and Leedskalnin TECHNOLOGY, please do so using their terms of Reference and 'electrons' are just not part of any real science. Think in terms of Energy, Frequency and Vibrations with WAVE FORMS.
Brilliant. Really.
It doesn’t mean that he is wrong, or bad, or misunderstanding things from my point of view. It just means that I want his information to be spread out as understood by a much wider scope of MM readership, than just the hard-core. I want more people to read it. More people to understand it. More people to embrace it.
It’s a good thing right?
Information, and the communication of it, is important. We all come from different places, with different backgrounds, different histories, different needs, wants and desires. But we all want to share.
One common way on the internet is to use “themes” and “memes”.
We all know what a meme is. It’s a common phrase or understanding that is well packaged in a mannerism, or scene (from a movie or television show).
“Sure Jan” meme. This is from the 1960’s television comedy show “The Brady Bunch”. Where one sister is talking to the other about something that her older sister well understands, and knows it’s not going to work out of be the way she thinks.
Likewise are “themes”.
There are ton-load of “Themes” in the American internet. Donald Trump was the master of creating themes…
Jail Hillary.
Contain China.
Build a Wall.
Make America great again.
But these “themes” come in all sorts of other venues as well. Even themes that you don’t realize are themes.
Katana swords are great for killing zombies.
Do not by a used car from a dealer wearing a polyester plaid business suit.
Having a tattoo shows your “uniqueness”.
‘Merica!
And in the conventional scene we have…
Madcow illness will turn your into a moron if you eat that hamburger.
Y2K means that you had best be prepared for the apocalypse.
3G radiation will fry your brain.
Cell phones will explode near gasoline pumps.
And when you start talking about extraterrestrials… well then there are a host of themes…
Reptilians shapeshift and control the worlds governments.
Little grey extraterrestrials are a dying race that are time travelers and are trying to cross breed with humans.
Tall Nordics are peaceful who want to teach enlightenment to the earth.
We use these themes to communicate our thoughts and our opinions.
But it does not mean that the themes themselves are accurate. It just means that we are using the themes to describe our thoughts and beliefs. And with that comes a problem…
When we say “Build that wall!” (as an American), what are we saying?
[A] We want a wall to keep everyone out of America except those properly vetted by the government?
[B] We want the entire nation of America to have a wall of isolation for our protection against the fearful external world.
[C] Powerful forces want this wall to be built. It has a dual purpose to keep people out and to keep people in.
[D] Donald Trump is “my man” and I will follow him because I sincerely believe that he has my best interests at heart.
[E] I tire of the endless “news” about people streaming into America taking my money, resources, and using up my tax money. I am strapped as it is and I don’t want further erosion of my buying power while experiencing an increase in taxation.
Now, the person who is using this “theme” might be thinking of situation [A] in his usage of it. However his wide and diverse audience might view the statement in another way, or in another form. For [C], for example. Or for [E] for example. Just because someone nods in agreement with you does not mean that they agree with you. It means that they recognize a part of what you are trying to convey, and that part that THEY recognize is what they are agreeing to.
Because it is so easy to confuse thought intention with the limitations of the English language, I try to simplify things. Because, I know, I am abrasive caustic and sarcastic at times. I really do not want to offend anyone. I just want the information to be disseminated.
When I say I like the AK-47, it does not mean that I like all the millions of people that it killed, or the destruction of societies that it participated in. It simply means that I like the technical innovations that provide a clear, functional robust design. If I were talking to a fellow engineer, this point would be obvious. But if I am talking to the girl behind the ice cream counter, it would easily be misinterpreted.
And then you couple all these issues with communication with the onslaught of intentional disinfo. (Big Sigh.) There are people and organizations that spread intentional disinformation and try (and often successfully) inflame to derail the communication process. So we all have to be wary. We all have to be aware. We all have to be careful.
I do NOT want this MM site to become another clone of the forced disinfo campaigns, whether intentional or not.
Shape-shifting reptilians.
Star-children to impart knowledge.
Time-traveling police to adjust world-lines.
Coronavirus is a hoax, or China manufactured it, or vaccinations are XYZ…
Y2K will cause the upcoming end of civilization as we know it.
2012 will bring in the “new enlightenment”.
And so on and so forth.
Millions of United States federal funding went towards disinfo on extraterrestrials. Millions.
Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to open up a comm line to the Domain Commander via my EBP and ask them questions regarding themselves and their operations here. One on one. Direct.
For me only.
For my purposes only. Because it is a personal issue with me. It is who I am now. I am sorry guys. I have these fucking things in my head. I’m not lying about them. They exist and they can be seen in an MRI, and I fucking deal with them every god-damn day.
So I am committed.
Because after all, if COVID was not a bio-weapon but really some form of mind control over Americans, the idea that extraterrestrials don’t exist because Oprah or Ellen Degeneres didn’t validate it, or that the Greys are actually from Zeta Reticuli then I must really be all full of shit.
And thus, MM has no value.
It’s just another blog on the internet, yet another in a series of millions of blogs. It is of no special value. I’m just a blowhard with a five dollar blog churning out my opinions into the internet hoping to connect with others for my own nefarious reasons.
I should really just chuck it all away.
Say fuck it, and go out whoring and drinking. And let me tell you guys; that’s an option that exists and I’m keen on going that direction. I mean really. Really.
Really keen.
The internet is full of opinions. Just like MM has opinions.
Some are ‘bots. Here’s an example of a ‘bot that trolls my LinkedIN posts…
And others aren’t ‘bots. As there are some real and honest experiences.
I really don’t know why you all are here, but I really hope that MM benefits you.
I sincerely hope.
And for it to provide benefit, I must keep it sanitized. Clean. Simple. Fun. And easy to understand. No bullshit. The things as I see them. Straight, open, honest and real. “Justthefacts, ma’am“.
"Justthefacts, ma'am" is acommon catchphrase often attributed to Friday, orless often, to Stan Freberg'sworksparodying Dragnet. But neither used the exact phrase. WhileFridaytypically used the phrase "All we want are the facts, ma'am" when questioningwomenin the course of police investigations, Freberg'sspoofchanged the line slightly to "I just want to get the facts, ma'am".
-Wikipedia
This Q&A was designed for, and is is for my personal benefit. ONLY. The rest of you all can read or not. The rest of you can believe it or not. It’s purpose is to help me better understand my purpose and utility in this entire MM situation. Thus it is a personal, a deeply personal conversation, and published as is.
It’s a published Q&A; MM to the Domain Commander. No others are involved.
[1] An update on the expansion of The Domain in the Milky Way galaxy
I am curious just as everyone else is. If you try to ask others about what is going on, they look at issues regarding the same tired old meme’s. They don’t realize what kind of real access we have right here.
Real access to information.
As such, I an ask things directly via the EBP than what I could have asked of my Mantid via the ELF constellation of probes. So I am a curious sort. So I figure it wouldn’t hurt to ask some general questions and get some answers that we all can “chew on”.
Especially since I have a keen and direct interest in space, our universe and our galaxy. Not to mention; society.
Question: Can you please kindly provide me with a brief and general overview of The Domain expansion efforts in this galaxy? The last update we obtained was in 1947 with “Alien Interview” that was released only a decade ago.
The Domain's expansion into the Milky Way galaxy is continuing. Much of the "Old Empire" has been conquered. There are pockets of resistance, but most have been subdued.
We have encountered a very large empire that appears to be around 10,000 light years in diameter. (The "Old Empire" was much smaller than that. -MM) They are also advanced technologically. They do not appear to be as brutal as the "Old Empire" however.
They are rather benign and peaceful. However they did engage in wars of conquest to obtain their current size.
[2] What is this empire like?
Well, I am curious. Come on! Aren’t you?
They are space-faring. With physical bodies that are not like anything you have been exposed to. They exist on planets that you would not find attractive, or inhabitable.
(I image a gas shrouded heavy planet. Maybe not a gas giant, something smaller than that. Like a "Hot Super Earth" with a very dense atmosphere.)
Consider the "Old Empire".
The "Old Empire" did not resemble what you image it to be. There were no futuristic skyscrapers that you see in your minds eye.
(He is correct, I have imagined it as some kind of futuristic "Jetsons'" city inhabited with creatures that were very human appearing. Only with a decidedly cyberpunk feel to it.)
Rather it was peopled with gargantuan public constructions, and a society of smaller more diminutive people which were probably the source of your stories about dwarves, elves, faeries, trolls and goblins. They use technology that you would consider to be akin to magic spells, hexes and alchemy / occult practice.
The same is true for this other empire.
Only instead of planets that resembled a more Springlike earth, these planets and systems that they inhabit are very, very different in atmosphere, weather, lifeforms and in just about every criteria. You would have a difficult time recognizing the civilization for what it is because your biases are so profoundly in error.
I pictured (when this information was being conveyed) something on the order of a “hot super-terran” to a sub-sized “Hot mini Neptunian”. That is the impression that I have. I guess that the planets would be from 5Me to 15Me (Mass of Earth where 1 Me = earth size) and all located in the “hot zone” of a parent star. All under a very dense and heavy atmosphere.
Here is a good chart of the characterization of the “recognized” world types that have viewed over the last few decades. The impression that I have is that the kinds of world that my Commander refers to sits in the top row between the “superterrans” and the “neptunians”. Let’s give it an MM name; the “superterran-subneptunians”.
Further, in the interests of clarity, and (my personal joy in classification), lets use this accepted exo-planetary chart to help us…
And from the impression that I have, these planets are in the “Class T” range. Just for your interest and curiosity. Certainly this civilization would not seemingly be of any interest to contemporaneous humans.
[3] What is your procedure for domination?
I mean is it like Genghis Khan, or more like the American Empire? Or is it “hands off” and live and let live? This is a direct question. After all, The Domain is trying to control the “Master Universe”. So why not ask?
Question: When you take over an existing society or empire, what changes do you make, if any? Do you wipe them all out and destroy everything, or do you do something else? What is the procedure in the case of the “Old Empire”?
IS-BEs who enter this "Master Universe" that we created must behave in certain ways that do not [1] harm the planets that they are on, [2] disrupt the ecosystem that we have created, [3] create hardship or distress to other IS-BEs.
Those societies that do so are corrected / adjusted / modified / controlled in whatever manner we deem appropriate.
In the case of the "Old Empire" there had to be a regression of technology, a correcting of society behaviors, and a change in the patterning of the incarnation process. These were done through a process of occupancy of the leadership, and then wholesale readjustments of the structure to approved archetypes for that selection of species and for that particular environments.
We avoid dangerous destruction of societies and cultures, but we do perform cultural amputations, social reconstruction, and personality readjustment. We have entire divisions / battalions / armies devoted to these efforts. Our end goal is to make the conquered empire a more stable place to exist in.
.No harm to the planets that they occupy or control.
.No disruption of the ecosystem of those planets and systems.
.No hardship, torture (for amusement), or distress to other IS-BEs.
[4] Is The Domain a “dying race”?
A number of MM commenters on the site and forum are repeating the idea that the “Greys are a dying race”. These comments come from people who I love and respect. Their thoughts and their opinions matter to me.
I have to listen to them. What they say; everything that they say has weight, meaning and importance.
When a three year old goes up to you and says “You have stinky-poo poo breath” you believe them. Right? You know that they are being honest with you. So when people suggest things to me and are trying to be open and honest with me, I want to “do my homework”.
And I don’t want to be the duped guy who is broke, penniless on a sidewalk while others drink their Starbucks coffee and snicker “I told you so.”
Seriously.
I’ve been fucked over way too many times not to sit up, take notice, and peer a little more “squint eyed” towards those that I seem to be so enraptured with. I mean, why not? A second or third, or fourth look is always good. As I have explained to my staff; “The more eyeballs that look at something, the easier it is to find mistakes.”
And if I am in error, what then?
After all, then what the fuck and I messing around with them then? Am I brainwashed? If The Domain is a dying race, and the Mantids are really the Angels that the Bible says, the possibility exists that maybe I am the one in error. Maybe I am the one who is wrong about everything. That maybe I am the fool for believing everything that I encounter.
So I asked them.
Question: Is The Domain a dying race?
No. Absolutely not.
The Domain is a social structure of IS_BE entities that choose to spend the vast bulk of their time in the timeless state. This is different from the many, many IS-BE's that enjoy the "Master Universe" as physical entities in one degree or the other.
IS-BE's are without physical form, and live outside of time and space. All came into being trillions of years ago, and we will continue to live for trillions of years hence.
None of us "dies".
The Domain structure may or might not change during that period of time. However, the system in place; a merit driven system based upon the desires of the participants work well for the vast numbers of Domain membership. It has for trillions of years, and we clearly intend it to work for trillions of years in the future.
Any and all Domain members may easily obtain physical bodies to experience physical experiences at will. However, we are involved in some rather serious undertakings that involve moving the entire state of ALL-THERE-IS to BEYOND-THAT.
To get to that state we need to "tame" the populated universe down to a state before we "buggered it up" back billions of years ago. this was a mistake that we inadvertently unleashed and created the fracturing and discordant social systems to develop as they have. This is discord, and it is not bettering any IS-BE. Just providing enjoyments and pleasures.
The IS-BE's that comprise The Domain are not dying.
The Domain itself; it's organizational structure and society is not dying either.
Those IS-BE's that desire to leave the Domain are welcome to do so and either set up their own societies, or adapt to other existing ones are welcome to do so. There is a small leakage of membership in this regard, however the egress tends to be small, short lived, and trivial. Once you have purpose, as The Domain clearly has, you will not be easily swayed by physical pleasures and the beauty of the physical environment.
Of course they would say this. But doubts still linger.
I have been duped and tricked so many times in my past. I just don’t think that I could take such a fundamental shock to my system. Remember people; I am fully committed.
You do know the difference between "committed" and being a participant?
In a plate of bacon and eggs, the chicken was a participant, but the pig was committed.
[5] Does The Domain possess physical societies on planets like the Earth or elsewhere?
Along with this idea that the Domain is a dying race is the idea that they have physical cities, physical societies and structures that are collapsing. This narrative can be found all over the internet. Which various sub-plots where they come to earth to cross-breed, or extract “precious bodily fluids” and so on and so forth to keep their species alive?
Let’s cut to the chase then.
Question: Does the Domain possess physical societies on planets like the Earth or elsewhere?
The Domain has structured environments. However they do not really resemble what your would consider to be societies. They lie outside of the physical time and space environment.
However, we do have communities that exist within the "Master Universe". Such as the bases here in "your" solar system. When we interact within these communities we utilize "doll bodies". You would consider these facilities to be barren and spartan.
Never the less, the vast bulk of our time is spent in a non-physical state, with forays in and out of the non-physical worlds, the physical worlds and other universes as we see fit.
No. We do not have a society that resembles anything upon the earth, whether in the physical realm or the non-physical realm. You simply cannot compare what The Domain is to anything you know and understand.
[6] If The Domain is primarily part of the timeless “Master Universe” then why bother conquering any nations of it?
I am sorry guys. But it doesn’t make any sense to me. If The Domain exists outside of the physical portion of the “Master Universe”…
…then why is it so busy in capturing and absorbing the civilizations and societies in this universe? Hum?
Question: Why is a society (The Domain) who only visits the “Master Universe” as needed, so interested in conquering and controlling the societies that inhabit it?
"You got me there." (He actually transmitted this statement. Can you fucking believe it?)
We created the vast bulk of the "Master Universe". Over time we improved upon it, and created planets, lifeforms, societies and the environment that you see within it.
Other universes with other IS-BE's entered and merged with it over time.
These new ideas and thoughts and ways of doing things merged with ours and changed them. The "Master Universe" became a stew of all sorts of exciting changes, interesting possibilities and constructions.
All very good. All very exciting. All very wonderful.
But, along with that came negative behaviors, and negative structures and destructive systems that started to undone the good works that we started.
These new system's, and many of the hybrid systems that developed afterwards started to run amok and started to unleash a torrent and cascade of changes that really damaged the universe. Indeed, entire civilizations were destroyed, hurt, and the IS-BEs deformed and altered into new undesirable forms.
This is not just catastrophic wars with gargantuan and colossal weapons of destruction, but the entire structure; the fabric of the universe started to be altered in really irreparable and dangerous ways. Think of a fine silk dress with a tear. OR maybe some pantyhose, if there is a snag, you must do something about it, or the entire article of clothing will be ruined beyond repair.
The Domain is tasked with preventing these "tears". Then "smoothing out the wrinkles" in the fabric of the universe. Finally with all the most worrisome attributes subdued, we can focus on the NEXT-BIG-THING.
[7] Are the Domain, or their craft from the future?
One of the on-going sub-plots in the entire grey extraterrestrial disinformation campaign is the idea that they are actually not extraterrestrials at all. But rather that they are humans from the future and they have come back to “warn us”, “alter history” or some other related purpose.
So, let’s ask them directly.
Are the Domain, or their craft, or their crews from the future; specifically the earth’s future?
The Domain exists in a timeless, dimensionless condition. It is part of he "Master Universe" but not of it. Because there are great misunderstandings what time actually is, it is nonsensical to claim that the Domain come from the future.
Many humans have trouble with this.
The easiest way to imagine what The Domain is, is to imagine a society of spirits. Each one has no body. Each one lives in a place without time. Each one goes about their own individual business with other spirits. This society created the place; this "Master Universe". And the spirits (IS-BE) visit it from time to time in groups and clusters. Always for a purpose. Always working toward a goal.
If you call these spirits "IS-BE". And, if you fully understand how the "Master Universe" differs from the "Physical Universe" (that is the MWI with world-lines) then you can see that the answer is not what you expect, but is actually clearer than what you would expect.
The Domain can enter the MWI in the "Reality Universe" at any point in "time". And thus we are "time travelers" in that sense. In a similar manner the IS-BE "spirits" can enter the "Master Universe" at any point in time.
Like both universes, this ability to enter and leave at different time periods is "time travel".
However, the popular narrative that you are referring to is incorrect. The Domain are not evolved humans from the far-far future that have come back to the "past" to change things. That is absurd.
[8] Cats, humans and IS-BE’s
I have long wanted to write more information regarding cats, and felines. However I am limited as to until I have been contacting the Domain directly, I had to rely on the Mantids to provide me information.
ELF = MAJestic and Mantid Comm Link.
EBP = The Domain / Type-1 Grey Comm Link.
And the Mantids, well, they have been very unhelpful regarding felines. It’s not that they do not want to help, it’s that they cannot. Felines are not part of their charter and so they know very little about them.
So I have wanted to collect some data on felines from The Domain and see if the Commander can help me.
Question: There are many MM members who are cat lovers and who have close friends that are cats. Can you please provide insight on the IS-BE’s that become felines and their relationships with humans?
You guessed correctly. All living entities (as you call them) consist of shells within the MWI "Reality Universe". Some are (as you refer to them) "shadow people" and some are inhabited with a consciousness.
Felines follow the same general behavior rules as humans do. Except that felines are not inmates in the Prison Planet Complex. They can come and go in and out of the "reality universe" (MWI) and the "Master Universe" at will.
They never suffer amnesia or map out pre-birth world-line templates (sic.) for themselves.
Instead, they prefer to "latch onto" a friend / buddy / pal / companion that is "riding" / following / exploring the MWI "reality universe" and so attached, they experience the same kinds of ups and downs as the host human goes through.
Being a free IS-BE they can come and go at will. They can enter bodies at will. They can enter and leave a body at will. In many, many ways they are far, far freer than any inmate in the Prison Complex.
When a feline is sleeping or resting (they are two different states) the IS-BE consciousness segments and they are off traveling in other places doing other things. For many (felines) it is close to the physical reality, but moving about in the non-physical reality. You might refer to this as "feline lucid dreaming".
Cats can come and go as they please. So if there is a special bond between a human and a cat, all that is needed is for the cat (if it dies, for instance) to find a highest probability body for it to occupy that you will meet. And then your "feelings" or "intuition" or "gut feeling" will be drawn to it. And if you two get to meet, and stay together it is all good. The feline IS-BE will adapt to the physical limitations of the new inhabited body and that will result in some personality changes. But you two will be together.
If you two meet up, but something happens and you are not able to be together, the cat will try again. And again. And again. Each time in different bodies until you two are together again.
If you really want to speed up this process, all you need to do is focus your thoughts (through verbal affirmations) and it will manifest quickly.
In general, felines consider humans to be rather slow, retarded (but lovable) companions that can't hunt for shit. (!) They love being around humans, especially one that they have bonded with, and will try to find (if possible) other bodies to occupy that is of the same shape, color or some other attribute that might trigger the human to recognize that it is a "reincarnation" event.
But that is very difficult to trigger.
Most of the time, they select bodies that are available. And then try to emulate "attraction thoughts" to help cement a new bond between the human and the new cat body.This is why you might bond with a cat that "feels" close to you, but it will look different, act a little different, and behave a little differently than your former (but now dead) friend.
[9] Why won’t the Mantids discuss the feline and human relationship?
I am very curious about this issue. Obviously they know a lot, as human and feline interaction is common and an important part of human society. It also figures predominantly in the pre-birth world-line template generation. Why are the Mantids so reluctant to discuss feline to human interaction with me?
As you have surmised, the Mantids (sic.) are a hybrid-construct based on a local dominant earth-centrist body form. This "Old Empire" DNA and biological alteration was one that focused all their energies towards herding humans within the Prison Complex system. Very little thought was given towards outside or relationships, forms or shapes. The Mantids (sic.) are very human-centrist. (Includes the other dominant inmate forms; pigs, horses, dolphins, elephants, etc.)
Not feline.
The Mantids (sic.) possess a basic understanding of felines. They possess a basic understanding of soul and consciousness construction (sic.). They understand the basics of the human-feline dynamic. And that is the extent of their knowledge in this matter.
In general, the Mantids (sic.) are bred to be very focused on "helping humans" endure strife and then be rewarded afterwards.
They are so focused on this aspect, that event though they have a very strong awareness of their own IS-BE state, they ignore that state in everything else. They are elitist in that way, and when they encounter a human, for example, that is aware they treat that person as a special oddity and follow very special protocols in how to interact with that person.
When they encounter a feline (or any other creature for that matter) that shows or indicates strong IS-BE non-amnesia characteristics they simply ignore it. They cannot understand it. Nor do they try.
In hindsight, I have absolutely zero memories, connections, feelings or associations with Mantids and any of my cats in any way, shape or form. Not even in my dreams!
[10] Trans-species migration of IS-BE’s
I often wonder why an IS-BE would go from one human life, into another and then again into yet another. Why always a human? I know from Dr. Newton that there is trans-species migration, but all of them seem to evolve into similar types of creatures.
My question is this; If an human dies, and is a pure IS-BE, could it not become a feline and then escape the entire Prison Planet system?
Physical bodes are not blobs of flesh. They are complicated mechanisms. Likewise, the non-physical bodies are not blobs of non-physical flesh. They are also complicated mechanisms. And the IS-BE that chooses to enter a specific body, must alter it's form / shape / composition / operation / energy / vibrations to do so.
Alteration of an IS-BE form is easy to do...
...if you are outside of the Prison Planet Complex.
Unfortunately most humans are prevented from configuring their "stage upwards / higher form / above non-physical" bodies. This is a Mantid (sic.) directive. This is why inmates are quickly shuttled off to "Heaven". So they cannot shape change their "migration paths / attunement centers / organ clusters" to fit other forms.
Thus humans, and dogs, and elephants, and dolphins, and horses, and pigs (and a few others) are prevented from migrating out of this Prison Complex environment. This is one of the layers of control.
However, IS-BE's that are not configured in their inmate form (inmate clothing such as humans in this Prison Planet) can naturally shape their "migration paths" to reconfigure to be a human, or a dog, or a feline.
Which is why you have felines entering and leaving the Prison Planet complex at will.
Further, cats (using felines as an example) can decide to enter a unmodified human body [a "shadow person" (sic.)] and inhabit it, free of the Prison Complex restrictions on IS-BE movement. And then leave at will.
In your case, your cat Heather (this is a cat that I owned when I lived in Indiana back in the late 1980's) is now your [redacted for very personal reasons]. This kind of hybrid movement of IS-BE into human bodies is illustrated in the movie "A dog's Purpose" (2017).
On a side note, if you haven’t watched either of these movies you must. The first “A Dog’s Journey” is a tale of reincarnation from a dog’s point of view. And the second “A Dog’s Purpose” talks about trans-species reincarnation. Both are very emotionally moving movies. Have tissue nearby.
[11] Why me?
I have been a little down on myself lately. We all have ups and downs. But sometimes I feel like I am a sucker; a fool to take on this responsibility. I have read some MM comments about those who wish to assist the Domain, but don’t want to have any further association with them. They argue that it is dangerous to trust those that … well, look at what The Domain has admitted to.
Why trust them, and as being so trusting, why was I selected, and why am I running MM instead of cavorting with pretty girls, gorging myself on delicious food, and quaffing down some fine red wine.
Question; Why me?
There is a great deal of angst and frustration in your life right now, but this is what you have agreed to endure in your pre-birth agreement. The [redacted].
I can tell you that things will become clearer over time, and that your work is significant on many levels and that you have changed others for the better. There's [redacted], and they will see their great works in [redacted].
When to start to compare yourself, and that is what you are doing now, it will only serve to cause distress. You can never be the illusions that others present. It is not in your makeup.
You are correct on many, many levels but are surrounded by others that do not posses your insights. You worry too much about [redacted] and part of the reason behind that is [redacted]. Remember what [redacted] therefore, when you start to notice the [redacted] you should [redacted].
[Redacted].
[Redacted].
We made you this way. It had to be this way.
Sorry about that guys. Too much personal stuff to the internet community. Nothing really important concerning you all has been redacted, it’s just that some things I want to keep private. You understand right?
[12] Why did you alter me?
He made some statements about my alterations in all of my bodies (physical and non-physical, etc) and that got me thinking.
We needed to alter you to carry out your mission parameters. This included both your physical and non-physical bodies. When we installed the EBP (sic) we changed things.
You had diseases inside your body that we removed. You know which ones. (Yes, I do, but I only suspected the "hidden time-bombs".) You had trackers in your body that we removed. You had "holes" in your make up that we filled in. You had damage to your structure that needed to be repaired.
Your life is what it is today because of the changes that we made, as well as your ability to direct and focus your thoughts so that your consciousness can engage in directed target assignments.
What I did not include in the above dialog is a very detailed piece on how pre-birth world-line templates can have areas of “DO NOT CHANGE” established in them. GuyFromAfrica knows what I am talking about, and these had to be removed.
Of course, he did not use my terminology. But that is what he was talking about.
[13] What will happen to me after I die?
I am very selfish. I want to know. I really want to know if I will die and then kind of waft around like some kind of disheveled spirit in the wind, while the world changes but I just remain a specter.
You will not be discarded. That is your fear, no?
You have a role, and we are cultivating and rehabilitating your IS-BE body to better adapt to the changes that lie outside of the Prison Planet Environment. We picture a great role for you, and a rewarding and personally significant role for you after your physical death.
Your physical death means nothing as your non-physical being will still be interacting with us long, long after your body decays.
You will continue to help others. You will continue to have an interesting, colorful, and adventuresome life, only that it would involve a greater part of you and you will experience the great satisfaction of helping others. This is just the first beginnings my friend. Do not fear.
He did not promise me any kind of great military post, rank or mission / position. He simply promised me a spot in the society where I will have a meaningful and purposeful life. And that sounds good to me. Thank you.
[14] Am I a former member of The Domain’s “Lost Battalion”?
I don’t think that I am. But, you know, I figure, why not ask?
No. You are not.
[15] The idea that I am Mades Escaplion is repulsive to me. I ask again. It is who I am?
I just want a double confirmation. That’s all.
(Being kind.) It is a role and a personality that you had during a phase in your soul experience track. You will note that this experience has been useful to us in unraveling the entire network of traps and snares that exist in the Prison Complex. You serve a great role and hold great purpose. Do not be discouraged.
In truth, the image that you hold of Mades Escaplion is wrong. He was a functionary. He was a minister. He held an administration role. He was neither cruel nor evil. He was a "cog in the machine".
Your role was part ceremonial, and part functionally administrative. You spent much of your time in meetings (or the equivalent of) and in discussions with the various architects of the on-going array of systems that were implemented one on top of the other.
So you need not fear. You were not repulsive nor evil. You were just an entity doing it's job. You were the perfect little civil servant. You were uninspired, did what you were told, and had no desires to "buck the system".
When we (The Domain) destroyed the remains of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the region you disappeared. We tracked you down by personality signature (sic.) We (at the time we found you) were working with the Mantids (sic.) and made arrangements to set you on this life path that you have now.
It has been beneficial for all.
[16] (Last minute addon) Who are you, and what is my role?
The following is / was a request for clarity on my role in this “thing” with The Domain and who I am “talking to”. I just want to know “pecking order” on a pyramidal organization structure. Funny thing is that I did not need to verbalize it, but I formed the thoughts and boom! the answer materialized.
It makes me wonder if this was an implanted question.
I am "the unit Commander" for all Domain operations in this region of geographical space.
You (referring to myself) are my I/O. You are my direct “hands / fingers /sensory inputs / ears / senses". You have a critical role. Without you, I am unable to perceive the contemporaneous events going on in the earth environment.
There are thousands of implanted individuals (sic.). Only a handful were carefully vetted. You are one of the "special" ones. You have provided the most useful information and sensory experiences for us. You are continuing in other equally important roles right now. Your impressions of the world around you establishes the groundwork / foundation for our implementation of the planetary changes that will / have been / going to be established in the future.
Most of what you do or see are bland in your eyes but are crucial and significant in ours. It is a pleasure to work with you sir!
Conclusion
This is just some personal questions that I have asked using my EBP. I’ve had these things in my head for decades, but only recently realized that two-way communication could be achieved with them.
There are numerous MM readers and commenters that had a role in this selection of questions and all in all, it was a big positive. So thank you for all of your nudges, and questions and concerns.
In the future, I will open up the EBP for more questions and you all can ask some more questions. This was just my own personal ones, and I must apologize if my questions were banal or boring.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
In early October 2021, I established a task request asking for those versed in LD and other skills to investigate whether or not there were any “backdoors” or other ways in and out of the “Old Empire” “Prison Complex” that we are all (unfortunately) part of. By the second week of October the results began to pour in.
This is a posting of the results.
Volunteers
I asked in this post if any MM readership would be interested in joining The Domain to help rescue their “Lost Battalion”.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
And then within a few days after the readership started adding affirmations and confirmations that they wish to help The Domain, be a Rufus, and do whatever they can contribute, many many MANY of them started writing to me privately.
They were (for the most part) terrified.
Within hours or days of making a verbal affirmation that they indeed wanted to assist The Domain, all of them, every single one of them, experience sleep paralysis and horrible fears and manifestations. All of which is very similar to “abduction events”.
That they were “hijacked” in their dream state and all sorts of operations and procedures occurred. For them, it was truly frightening.
However, I said then, and I will say now…
In the non-physical reality, thoughts take on tangible form.
Fears are used to control you.
So when you experience any type of help, your fear-defenses (part of the “Old Empire” programming), will try to make you fight and prevent the assistance.
So keep in mind…
To help The Domain, certain retardations and alterations to your inmate human body must be undone.
This requires an operation; a procedure.
The Domain will undo those alterations when you join in the effort. They will conduct an operation and perform a procedure to remove those “chains” and “blocks” that you have shackled to your non-physical body.
Do not fear it. You NEED to have it done, whether you want to help the Domain or not.
It is a medical procedure.
Many people have commented on this event as a “dream”, or a “Join the Domain related dream”.
Perhaps one of the best explanations of what goes on is from GuyFromAfrica…
GuyFromAfrica comments
So I got the “Join the Domain Dream”.
I could “see” the Type-1. He was somewhere seated.
Then There was MM. I guess as an intermediary.
They didn’t speak literally but I could hear their voice and understand what they were saying. He said (The Type-1) that I would have to make a decision and because they knew who I was (my attributes, character and more) that I was the only one who could do it and see it to the end.
I also [1]got the paralysis and I literally could not move in the dream. someone had to drag me out. ( In the physical too.) Damn weird man. I just laid on the bed half asleep unable to move.
All this happened after I decided to join the domain but coz am still on my pause I had to wait till at least next month. (I think it was due to my thoughts.) [2]
They have [3] helped in suppressing somethings that were really disturbing that’s what they said and showed me. (Actually true. Never gonna go back.)
I just hope that shit doesn’t go down. NO FEAR. JUST CONCERNED. [4]
MM Comments on GuyFromAfrica
[1] This is what really freaks people out. Don’t be afraid. This is necessary. Your consciousness must be removed from your physical and non-physical bodies for the operation to occur.
[2] You do not have to be in a campaign or out of it to have this happen. The moment you “think” and make up your mind to help The Domain, you telegraph a message to them. They monitor all activity on MM. You all should be well aware of this.
[3] One of the things that they will do, provided that you are not too freaked out and trembling in fear or anger, will show you why they are doing it, and how it will personally benefit you. In the case of GuyFromAfrica, they showed him the impediments from his life that they are removing.
[4] He was able to discuss this clearly simply because he held his fear in check. Everyone, GuyFromAfrica is certainly a leader in this. Learn from him.
Freaking out folk
So many dear MM readers have been completely freaked out with the speed, and the unexpectedness of having themselves paralyzed and filled with their worst fears. Images of harm, terrible things, violence to their children were (are) commonplace. It’s really terrible fears. Your worst fears. Everything thrown at you to freak you our royally.
It’s all part of the “Old Empire” programming.
As an inmate you are not permitted to change your physical and non-physical bodies. You are inmates. These changes will permit you to “go through” the fence. These changes will allow changes to your world-line templates. These changes will seriously and substantially reduce the conflict and turmoil in your life.
Which is why the “Old Empire” put up these “trigger blocks” to force you to go primal, filled with fear, and resist changes to your physical and non-physical bodies.
If you make a commitment to be a Rufus and assist The Domain in what ever capacity that your have (and most people have absolutely no idea of their abilities), the Domain will undo your chains.
They will “change your out of the inmate uniform”. They will give you an “access pass” to “go through the fence”. They will scrub tracking information, and erase pre-life behavior settings that you have lived with.
It’s all so frightening.
But ah, so exciting.
If you haven’t committed, but want to, and you are sincere and serious. it will be done. Just remember not to freak out. The fears are all part of “Old Empire” programming. They need to be culled and removed. That’s your job to keep those fears of yours in check.
The Task at hand
The specific task call out was posted in THIS ARTICLE.
This is what I asked for…
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Background – Backdoors
I argued that something must have happened since the “Old Empire” collapsed. Then with the battles and destruction within this solar system, obviously there was a corruption of the (formerly pristine) Prison Complex.
The Prison Administration “bailed out”, and left.
The Prison System has been taken over, and corrupted by very malevolent entities.
It seems to me that there MUST be some kind of “backdoor” that enables these self-serving for-profit entities to corrupt the Prison System for their own purposes.
In cybersecurity, a backdoor is anything that can allow an outside user into your device without your knowledge or permission. Backdoors can be installed in two different parts of your system:
Hardware/firmware. Physical alterations that provide remote access to your device.
Software. Malware files that hide their tracks so your operating system doesn’t know that another user is accessing your device.
A backdoor can be installed by software and hardware developers for remote tech support purposes, but in most cases, backdoors are installed either by cybercriminals or intrusive governments (like the United States) to help them gain access to a device, a network, or a software application.
Any malware that provides hackers access to your device can be considered a backdoor — this includes rootkits, trojans, spyware, cryptojackers, keyloggers, worms, and even ransomware.
If there is a “backdoor”, then we can come to the conclusion that the “backdoor” was put there intentionally by one or more of…
The architects of the “Prison Complex”.
The administration of the “Prison Complex”.
A technologically advanced society (not the “Old Empire”) that exploited the prison system intentionally.
Some kind of dimensional / universe malware.
Background – The advantages of LD talent
Those that have the important ability to LD (Lucid Dream) are in a unique position to reconnoiter towards this end.
It would be a reconnaissance mission.
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, long-range reconnaissance patrol, U.S. Army Rangers, cavalry scouts, or military intelligence specialists), ships or submarines, manned or unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, or by setting up observation posts.
Espionage is usually considered to be different from reconnaissance, as it is performed by non-uniformed personnel operating behind enemy lines.
-Wikipedia
And if you want to be specific, it is purely espionage. As the LD asset is an inmate in general population.
I can tell you that doing so is very important, and would be greatly appreciated by The Domain. Though, I must caution everyone that LD travel is not to be taken lightly. Dangers abound. I also do not know what the LD asset would discover, or what surprises await them. But I am ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they would like some talented assets to volunteer for this task.
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Background – Mission parameters
For starters…
This is a volunteer activity, and there is no dishonor in refusal.
And then,
You absolutely not reveal who you are or what you are doing.
You must not engage any subject entities that you encounter. You observe.
The specific tasks are…
You must identify [1] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are involved in selection of pre-birth world-line template selection and layout.
You must identify [2] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are using the collected memories or records of memories of other humans for anything other than the original stated purposes.
Reporting and dissemination.
No matter what your opinions are, you must report what you experience.
You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)
MM will publish your findings.
Finally,
You must vocalize permissions to allow The Domain to observe your operations. You may place restrictions on how they observe and time limitations or windows if that is your desire.
Please kindly know and realize that possession of a EBP would “blow your cover” and thus it is impossible for you to be implanted at this time for this role. Thus this request follows this procedural venue. Finally, there is no dishonor in refusal. The Domain realizes just how seriously dangerous this mission activity is.
Collection of the data
Everyone is different. We all have different abilities and different strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, our experiences, whether in dreams, LD, or any other format are very personal things.
For instance, when I get messages and comm in my channels in either the ELF or EBP implants the results are very difficult to explain. Most especially how I discern between a message and my own internal thoughts, and external clutter. It’s not easy and takes practice, and when I try to explain it just opens up an entire long train of question after question. The bottom line is you either KNOW that you experienced X, or your BELIEVE you experienced X, or you SUSPECT you experience X.
Each elemental wording has a different degree of validity.
Each elemental wording has a different degree of validity.
As of late, I have been mercifully been granted physical confirmation “pings” to confirm that I am not letting my imagination get the better of me, but this is not always possible with others.
For me, the “pings” are a rush of endorphins, a physical reaction to my body while simultaneously obtaining a brief message confirmation.
Most people have some “keys” of understanding that will allow them to unlock what they experience. And with this in mind, let’s look at this first report. Here, the tasked agent had a very active dream of significance, and it is mighty confusing…
I walked in on an intimate celebrity workshop class led by… you guessed it… Chuck Norris!?
Chuck Norris
Joe Rogan was there too.
Joe Rogan
I understood (in a meta-dream analysis sense) that these actors were not specifically important or accurate. They were stand-ins for people of power gaining insights from older mentors.
There were barrels on the stage and participants had to strip naked, get in the barrel, and pee on each other. The point of the ritual was humiliation.
A ritual involving humiliation.
Utterly bizarre… I didn’t want to watch but I was told, in no uncertain terms, “THAT’S THE POINT.” Now you’ll remember. They were utterly beyond the pale, but that’s the programmable zone.
Humiliation is the point.
Any inputs and suggestions from Chuck (bless his soul) were immediately followed, because the decency line had already been crossed.
Once the person completes the humiliation they are listened to / respected.
They were being programmed with a trauma feedback loop. “We’re doing it, we’ve done it, and now we can do anything.”
The humiliation sequence is a purging experience to create a new kind of person.
Then, a blonde woman joined the scene. She got in a barrel too, and I got the impression that it was completely upsetting the programming. This is when I saw them. Men were standing behind a red curtain off to the side where I hadn’t noticed.
A different kind of entity enters the programming environment and upsets the entire process.
Joe, in his programmable state, was beginning to lose his compliance. The woman was totally upsetting the psychodynamic balance in the room.
Those that had previously accepted the programming now question it.
She said, “My favorite thing in the world is baking pain au chocolat.” The incredibly strange juxtaposition of this statement in a room full of naked men peeing on each other was…. odd.
(I'm so sorry forum readers. Nothing about this was sexual, and couldn't be further from my idea of a fantasy. I'm just presenting my dream as-is. Hope someone has a laugh at least.)
It was a trigger phrase and Joe snapped out of it.
A trigger phrase or event occurred and the participants were released from their programming.
Programmers are pissed. I’m being ejected.
The Programmers are upset and the observer is ejected.
Woke up with incredible back pain. Can’t turn my head all day. I have lasting impressions of similarities to L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise. There’s a significant link between his religion and the programming of celebrities.
I also realized that the men behind the red curtain were like a mix of metaphors from Twin Peaks and Wizard of Oz.
Scene of the “man behind the curtain” in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.
Takeaways:
Investigate L. Ron Hubbard and what he knew.
Investigate Scientology as it relates to the prison system.
Investigate actors as favored “clients.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger was clear in my mind (Sorry, I personally like the dude).
I’m so sorry – just following orders:
"You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)"
Recon Mission Undertaken at the Request of the Domain Commander: The Volcanic Prison
Notes;
DM authorized involvement with The Domain, and specifically approved of them observing his activities and helping them.
The Domain altered his non-physical body and he experienced all the paralysis that I have written about above.
When he provided this information to me, I was a little taken back that the Domain didn't witness the events themselves, and instead relies on MM here to transcribe and translate for them. It's a mystery to me. But apparently the transcription is very important for them to use the information.
Never the less, the feeling that I get is that these espionage activities are something that must be taken very carefully and that there must be absolutely no association with The Domain in so conducting them.
In the report below, I have taken the time to parse every nugget of information that DM has provided. I only hope that it serves some benefit.
By [Daegonmagus] compiled 10OCT21.
Introduction:
I think I have something for the Domain Commander. I wasn’t lucid but I am fairly certain this was a good intel hit; though it did come after deliberately trying to enter a lucid state. I have been here before, several times, I am certain of it.
Interested in hearing yours and the Commander’s opinion. There is some concerning things in it regards to rape camps, not sure if you want to delete this part before publishing; it is entirely up to you. I am curious to know if the name I got rings any bells.
Summary:
I come to on some volcanic island. I am not lucid, but operating on “autopilot”.
Not a Lucid Dream. But is a "special" dream. Knowing what I know of DM, I would classify this event as "high quality" Intel.
I have been here before.
This location is one that is familiar to him. in either dreams, LD , memories or all of the above.
A prison has been built into the crater. There are hundreds of people being kept here against their will. These are people’s energetic bodies. I recognize some of them from school.
It is a prison. It is in a confined area.
Many people are in the prison against their will; means that they were there either through [1] a corrupted judicial system, [2] got there by bypassing a legal system, or [3] were born into it without any say in the matter.
In prison, there are many people who believe that they goat a bad deal. But there is a world of difference between...
[A] I was committing crimes, but you know the punishment was way, way beyond what I deserved. It's unfair. Its unjust.
And...
[B] I didn't commit any crimes at all. I was "railroaded" by a corrupt system, and now "blackballed" for life.
The impression that I get from DM is that many of the inmates fell under category "B".
I materialize here.
Other people can’t phase in and out of this place like I do.
DM describes that he has a special affinity for this "place", and special abilities to enter and leave at will.
To begin with, I blend in with the crowd and pretend to be a guard. This gives me the ability to tour some parts of this prison system. I have definitely been here many times before…
This is a familiar place to DM, and perhaps had other missions / adventures associated with it. It is not new to him.
… and there is something very strange going on, sort of like a breakout or a riot.
As he enters it, this time, he notices something unusual and strange going on. To him it appears to be a breakout or a riot. Both of these events describe a situation where the inmates override the protection rules and systems. And in both situations, it is the corrections officers tend to be ill prepared and typically follow procedures and retreat while awaiting backup.
The cells are cut into the rim of the crater, all around it.
I believe this might be a reality brainwashing facility.
This is an important comment. DM suggests that the purpose of this particular structural object / place is a "brainwashing" facility. Which would imply that it is where the amnesia (that we all unfortunately live with) takes place.
The prison complex goes inside the crater, like a good deal of rock has been carved out and the network extends into this rock and underground.
There are green trees inside the crater; it actually looks like a decent island paradise apart from the prison.
The physical details can represent things or not. But what I take from this is that this is a singular place. Like a zit on your face, or a wart on your arm, or a volcano in the middle of the ocean, or an island. It is a singular place.
He also says that it appears to be a nice place. Like a calm island, or a well taken cared for campus, or a well up-kept neighborhood.
So I am in this room pretending to be one of the guards and the riot breaks out.
The mind creates the visualization. The information is transferred.
I take the opportunity to go for a bit of tour while the rest of the guards are preoccupied.
DM conducts his espionage activities when he has the opportunity to do so.
I penetrate deep into the network; this thing goes several stories beneath the bottom of the crater.
DM explores deep into the complex. He recognizes that it is an extensive facility and goes very, very deep. It must be enormous.
It would be ideal if he could have somehow explored the administration and see what he might discern. However, this kind of exploration is fraught with danger. So it might not be a good thing to do during this particular event.
He goes into the lowest levels of the facility trying to find the darkest and deepest secrets.
These subterranean rooms are where they do all the bad shit, torture, reality brainwashing, breeding programs etc whatever it is this island is being used for.
DM finds the ugly activities, etc. All of it is not pleasant.
I have memories of being down here in a similar riot.
Curious statement. I get the impression that these "riots" have been an on-going thing over the many years.
Something happens – I don’t know what exactly – but the volcano is now about to erupt.
Referring specifically to this particular event, it appears that the build-up is reaching a critical juncture; an inflection point of substantive change. Like a volcano.
I decide to head back to surface.
I come across several panicked guards – helmets covering their faces, and khaki colored coveralls, fairly short maybe 5ish feet tall, who are shocked to see me.
Everything is chaos; the six or so guards are trying to evacuate.
This is a representative scene. There is a panic in the corrections officer cadre. There is chaos. And the corrections officers are trying to retreat and disengage.
These guards try to apprehend me, drawing these guns that shoot photon beams or something similar but I annihilate them with a flick of my hand – I am not lucid, but this is a left over reaction from my lucidity expeditions. It is a natural reaction that happens without me even thinking of it when I am threatened.
Thoughts are powerful. Whether in LD state or in dreams. If you believe that you can do something, the chances are that you actually can.
The guards disappear, and I make it to the surface.
One of the prisoners asks me for help, so I decide to help them figuring I can get more information on who is in charge of the place.
It's a scene from one of the Mission Impossible movies, where the one agent is trying to escape from a Russian Prison. Never the less, the root breakdown is that DM assisted in the breakout, and was led on how to make it happen by another inmate.
Within minutes everyone is freed from their cells.
I am now leading a group of about 20 to 30 of these people through these metal lined rooms, over scaffolding, and bitumised pathways that wrap up the edge of the crater.
DM is leading a cluster, or a group of inmates, towards freedom. Not all of them. Just a group of the ones associated with the particular individual that he helped.
They are are going upward Z-axis.
Downward Z-axis is the horrible torture pits and structures.
For some reason they think getting to the top will solve their problems; I don’t tell them the only way out is through portals they don’t have access to.
I have a vague recollection of coming here via one.
This is important. Everyone believes that the way out; the exit is the opposite of the depths of the structure. But they are wrong. The exit is not the opposite of the obvious. It is something else.
A few more guards appear here and there, but I extinguish them like the others.
Soon it is just me and the prisoners, everyone else has left.
The volcano is raging; there is a definite time constraint we are working against.
It is a race against time. To leave now is preferable than to wait until the entire system collapses.
Scene from Joe vs. the Volcano.
Regardless, we stop for a breather about half way in a sort of courtyard that has been built upon the scaffolding and under overhanging rock.
There is a woman I know her from school as being Tegan.
One of the guys makes a snide remark about her having sex with someone – possibly him -, basically calling her a slut. I roll my eyes; this is the last shit we need. I feel like punching this guy in the face. It was typical bullshit school children politics.
Tegan is clearly upset and distressed and tries to explain there was a different side of the story and she didn’t want to go into it right then and there, but this guy persists. Tegan eventually ends up replying saying it was not consensual and this guy had raped her. The one calling her a slut goes red, now there is a fucking fight amongst the inmates. Great.
Control mechanisms. "Old Empire" utilizes fear, emotion, anger to side-track inmates and delay them into a maze of other issues instead of focusing on what is directly important. (This must be a characteristic of inhabiting a human body.)
I am angered, but some how keep my composure – was this a trick to turn my attention away from what I was here for?
Yes. It was.
Did Tegan mean this took place at school, or in this prison? I got the impression she meant it was in the prison. I have knowledge of other “rape camps” in these non physical planes, where men are doped with a drug that affects their conscious before being hypnotised to rape women against their will, though that knowledge is not based on my own experiences.
This is a side issue that we might explore in the future.
Until now I have no memory of ever being in one.
It’s an argument I really don’t want to get involved in so I walk off and leave the others fighting.
I remember I am supposed to be finding someone who can tell me who is in charge of this place.
This is the mission and I am glad the DM is keeping focus.
I come back and find an older woman.
Her face is really distinct, very monkey like, old, withered, and dark tanned. If I had to guess, I would say she was from a southern American tribe of some sort.
She had a really long face, her chin was very angled and she had raised cheekbones. She was wearing what appeared to be a very grubby and ripped shirt – you could see one of her breasts poking through it and a definite tribal skirt.
She was the “mother” of the place; you could tell by the way everyone looked up to her and the younger girls that looked after her fragile body; helping her get up and helping her walk etc.
DM is directed to the entity that is in charge of this amnesia facility. Aside from the appearance, it is an old entity that is very knowledgeable and has been involved in this system for many, many years.
It is not clear if she is a revered inmate, or an administrator. My guess is that she is an inmate.
She started telling me a story – I cant quite remember the details of it, maybe it was how she got captured I don’t know – but I remember it finished with her trying to pronounce a name that she couldn’t properly pronounce.
She is from the earliest days of the first group of inmates to the facility. She has been here in the prison facility the longest.
She said the name was like sasquatch but with a “D” sound at the start and “ahuwy” or “ahuty” at the end Dasquachahuwy Dasquachahuty or something.
This name was in relation to the main antagonist in her story.
I got the impression it was the same one in charge of the volcano facility.
The impression is that the name of the administrator fo the amnesia machinery facility goes by the name Dasquachahuty.
Da-squach-ah-uty
I wondered if she meant Thoth, whose other name is Tahuty.
The eruption all of sudden got much worse. The people seemed to remember what was going on, stopped fighting and started panicking, looking to me for help.
I apologized, telling them I had to leave. Shortly thereafter I woke up.
My previous memories of this place:
Some background information.
I have a memory of coming here and having to infiltrate it via the top of the volcano.
There is some kind of rappelling system that takes you to the top of the rock.
Suggestive of others that have tried to manually infiltrate the facility.
It is a mountain of sorts that is very barren and of a black rock that stretches for miles in every direction.
It is very similar to Mordor out of the Lord of the Rings movies.
The trees don’t become apparent until you get to closer to the crater.
It is very, very large.
At the top of the crater, in this particular experience, it is heavily guarded and there is some sort of machinery littered about; it feels very similar to a mine site.
Heavily guarded is indicative of prior incursions being monitored, noted and the area reinforced with guards and corrections officers.
I remember watching a line of people being marched down from the rappelling system into the crater by the guards in a single file. The diameter of the crater is several kilometres across.
It is a big facility, and there is a manual entrance-way. Inmates and others can enter via this methodology rather than just using a portal.
I can’t remember if it was this experience or another one, but I have also explored the same subterranean network before.
There is a lift that takes you most of the way down.
Intel.
You come out in what appears to be a natural lava tube/ cave tunnel. There are concrete steps and a concrete pathway that are built into the ground to make walking around easier.
There are a myriad of steel doors several feet thick that slide open from the middle.
I am fairly certain at the end of this tunnel is a stargate like portal – different to the ones I used to gain access which are spherical and summoned through my own mind.
I believe this is how proper access to this place is gained.
This is serious Intel.
In this past experience I am headed towards this portal, after a similar riot breaks out.
Another recent dream…
I also recently had another dream which I believe is connected to an area close to this place that I think is relevant.
In this dream weird things were going on – I cannot adequately describe it but these weird things are usually a tell for me that I am not having a standard dream.
I was in a train/ mono rail type carriage that would snake around this island, but it would do so by going in and out of different non physical planes.
So in the span of what equated to about 500 meters of train track, you’d go through 5 or 6 different planes.
This suggests ...
[1] A manual "rappelling from the top" access method.
[2] A portal that is special and designed specially. (Perhaps the egress portion of the "tunnel of light".)
[3] This multi-portal dimensional "train". Perhaps this is the "egress portion of the tunnel of light".
As well as...
[5] The portal technique DM has been using now and previously.
I remember talking to someone “important” on this train.
They were talking very specifically about when the “simulation is turned off and what to expect”; everyone on earth would be given a special “document” that would brief them on the next part of the operation.
I could not tell if this was a good or bad thing.
From my particular vantage point I could see the volcano Island in the background separated by a few kilometers of water. There seemed to be some sort of glass like structure erected around it which I believe was used for cloaking purposes. This glass structure consisted of many rectangular panels that had been arranged at oblique angles to each other. It could very well have been an entirely separate building at the edge of the island.
Sort of like the island in the movie "Free Guy" eh?
Scene from “Free Guy”. The area shielded from view.
Conclusions
Breaking down as follows…
We see that DM has observed the “amnesia complex”.
There are four entrances that DM identified.
One of which is probably the egress section from the “Tunnel of Light”.
DM met one of the first people who be imprisoned at the facility.
She game him a “key”; a “name”, or a “clue”.
This “key” is Da-squach-ah-uty.
The fact that there is a torture area in the deepest levels of the facility suggests either…
That there is a “Hell” or “Pugatory” awaiting certain visitors through the egress portal. This is a planned portion of the entire prison reincarnation system.
Or, the deeper levels were “add ons” to the complex at a later time, implying that others have taken the system and modified it for their own personal amusements.
This area is still functioning. However, it is having operational problems.
The operational problems could be catastrophic.
The corrections officers are on station, but the administration functions seem to be “off line” or “elsewhere”.
Once the person completes the humiliation they are listened to / respected.
The humiliation sequence is a purging experience to create a new kind of person.
A different kind of entity enters the programming environment and upsets the entire process.
Those that had previously accepted the programming now question it.
A trigger phrase or event occurred and the participants were released from their programming.
The Programmers are upset and the observer is ejected.
As I read this, it appears that the Prison system has become some kind of “system of change” of the entities. The inmates accept the changes and go along with the changes.
Then a new entity enters the picture. This is unexpected and upsets the previous status quo. They change everything. An event or trigger phrase occurs and the programming is interrupted.
Those that control the programming are angry and eject the observer.
Combined comparisons
Both Intel suggest that there is a long established system. That it is undergoing change due to an interruption. The purpose of this system is established as part of the “Prison Complex” methodology of Punishment/reward.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
One thing that I have learned over the decades was the interpretation of signals from the EBP and ELF constellation. While I am functionally retired from MAJestic, The Domain considers me a forever active asset and I pretty much get a near constant stream of sensory input or data. While there are special events like when I was able to open up dedicated channels to the Commander, most of the signals a “quieter”, not so assaultive on my personal sensibilities.
These “softer” and “quieter” signals are in three “packets” or “groups”.
And I have organized these “groups” into projects, and thus, I have a number of on-going “themes” or projects that I am (supposed) to be working on, I have a regular life and things have to go at my pace. I am a human, not a machine. Anyways, the projects that I am going to launch consist of the following…
An article on possible “back doors” to the ‘Prison Planet” established by the “Old Empire”. (That is this article. As well as the request at the end of it.)
A series of articles that consist of plans to create a “wish machine” that will beam signals to your mind and greatly accelerate the manifestation of affirmation prayer campaigns. (Basic electrical design engineering based upon some existing “mind control” patents.)
A fabrication of the above machine for sale on this MM site. (I’ll design it, I’ll make it. I’ll sell it.) Maybe I will be able to sell three or four units. LOL!
Personally, I am a bit nervous of the creation of a “wish machine”. As it could be dangerous in the “wrong hands” and be used to affect the thinking of others. As long as it is just provided here on this site, and the vast majority of the MM readership are STO sentience, I feel relatively comfortable that it will not be used for ill or selfish intent.
Let’s start with this Article – Profiting from the Prison Planet system
Given the nature of the “Old Empire” as described in “Alien Interview”, it seems obvious that there would be entities / individuals there who would have tried to profit from the “Prison Complex” system. Just like there are many, many people who are profiting from the various prison complexes in the United States today.
For instance, in the American prison system, you have wealthy oligarchs that profit from…
Being the sole supplier for commissary supplies.
Corrections officers stealing supplies, using trucks for personal use etc.
Corrections officers supplying contraband goods to the inmates.
Free labor at work-shops and factories.
Free labor by the Hard Labor Squads.
And so on and so forth.
We know, from “Alien Interview”, that the “Old Empire” was corrupt and practiced cannibalism, and held “gladiator style” sports. It would not be unreasonable to expect that some of these attributes of “pleasures” could somehow be used in part of the massive “Prison Complex”.
Granted that this is a very large kind of prison and it has a completely unique system, I would have to argue that the systems used to profit from this “Prison Complex” would somehow revolve around the torturing and amusement of the inmates, or in the selling of “vacation packages” to wealthy individuals.
Trigger article
This train of thought was inspired by an MM reader who submitted this following article for perusal. Key trigger phrases are in BLUE.
Some of you may be familiar with the interview I conducted with a man I met who experienced a Demiurge during his near death experience.
Here is some very interesting feedback I received from a woman who also had a near death experience. She claims to be able to access the akashic records and verifies what he is saying. This is from the email I received on December 16, 2017:
"Dear Mr. Bush, Good day!Just this morning, whilst seeking an IANDS group which might meet closer to me than Culver City, CA.I happened upon your Interview.I see you have a website: Tricked By The Light. I have not read it as yet.Although I concur! I have been putting up installments of my most unusual phalanx of paranormal and hideous experiences on Wattpad - just to leave some sort of record, in case I wound up "disappeared."Indeed, my hard drive was stolen - and once my friend's son gave me a laptop and downloaded the contents of an external hard drive I had hidden behind my bookcase - (unnoticed by the thieves), said laptop went Kerplooey. So my friend's son worked for weeks to salvage the contents of my original desktop and did so, most admirably.The only other stories I have read which in many ways reflect my own experiences in my home at 1926 Parksley Ave,Baltimore, MD are the books of Reverend Bill Bean ("Dark Force") and Bill Scott ("When Satan Came Calling").While it is easy to attribute the terrifying events of the last 14 years to "ghosts" and "haunting" and "demons" - alas, there were also some ex-Military persons involved - one of whom I met. You may, or may not know MANY Satanists and Occultists routinely interface with Lower Astral Entities (demons) and enslave them, as well. This is ancient knowledge.All that to say - your Guest who saw a Demiurge was telling the truth. I know him by another name.Due to my unexpected and certainly astonishing experiences, I began to research anything and anyone and read all articles, web pages, books et al, which might have helped me. I was disabled, nearly bedridden and out of my mind with fear. My children all lived in other states, trying to work and raise children. No one believed me. So I stopped at nothing to arrive at the truth.I was a plain, old-fashioned Lutheran Grandmother - nada special about me.I knew absolutely nothing about Souls, God Source, Karmic Contracts, "heaven/hell" - Karma, Life Reviews, Earth School, Reincarnation, Life Movies, etc.Zero.Suddenly, in the middle of the horror, my memories of Near Death Experience(s) returned.I prayed for death daily, anyway, so ghastly were my experiences, I certainly did NOT need those memories - and all the "gifts with a razor blade attachment" Aftereffects an NDE can provide.So now - I see Past, Present and Future Lives, Life Before and Between Lives, Souls creating the films for their "Lives," Discussing and rehearsing "roles" (which Soul is going to play which "part") "taste-testing" Karmic Intersections (they can actually jump in and out of their character at important Karmic Intersections (US being the "characters") so they'll remember them, going to the Programming Center for their "Programmed Prompts" (sometimes called Guideposts) and I see these as movies - snapshots, trailers - and indeed, when people asked me where I got the ideas for my stories and paintings, I told them all I had to do was watch the "little movie" and copy it.My art class friend patted me on the shoulder and said, "Guin, no one else sees the little movies."I was aghast! I've seen all that Programmed CRAP all my so-called Human Life!I've read Dr. Newton's books, Dr. Weiss's books and everything else you can imagine. At least I got SOME relief and assistance from PMH Atwater, herself a triple NDEr.They are all partly programmed to spread propaganda.I live EVERY DAY with a transparent-appearing overlay - as I had it explained to me - a side effect of an open Third Eye. This overlay is more of the "Game Plan" and "Life Lessons" and even film clips of WHO'S COMING NEXT in my "life movie.” This is on top of what my normal human eyes see. I became clairvoyant, clairsentient, clairaudient - a MOST reluctant medium. However, unless the person is involved in my life, I won't know anything about them. I try to ignore ANY medium crap. I hate it.My children asked me NOT to tell them what I see about their lives.My life is HELL. Hell. It is hard to function when you can SEE your future! And it plays out as you can see it!You are right on the money, m'friend. We have ALL been deceived. Souls care nothing for us - some Light Beings, eh? They call us "Host Bodies and Host Vehicles” and program and manipulate the woo hoo out of us!Stewart Swerdlow was a Lot of help to me. I am one of MANY school children chosen for Mind Control Experiments back in the 60s. We are usually killed off when the Mind Control begins to fragment or wear off - around age 50.So that is what happened to me- almost.I am still alive and telling my tale. SO glad to find your website.I remember "Class" and "Teacher-Guides" and "Soulmates" and the entire shebang. Don't buy that Lesson crap. We are HUMAN and don’t need but one lesson - we have the Body and Human Brain and we can cancel those "Life Contracts" . . . "Life Plans" whatever.Trust me, what happened at my former home should NEVER happen to ANY being, human or nonhuman.Because I did not die - my phone, cell, computer, snail mail were all hacked. No one ever got my phone calls. Or emails. They were all answered by hired folk who probably had no idea why they were being paid to do so. I've had people I did NOT know walk up to me in a grocery store and talk about the very subjects I'd just discussed with one of my few friends the day before - on the PHONE.Excuses about Karma don't move me. I am a nice person and most people are. Souls don't like us and many don't even know how to operate us. I am disgusted that not one Guide will come down here and console me for what occurred . . . and explain it, or show me love or consideration.Here is how it works: They are told it is a School or Game. The Game on The Limitation Plane. Earth School. One-third of our lives WE are asleep. They are not veiled and that is play time, the creeps.We are NOT Souls. Only part of our consciousness is their consciousness. I found my Soul to be unlike me and set up a rather vengeful retaliation program. Gotta love the Programming part, eh? What a crock! Well, we can also undo a lot of that programming, Stewart Swerdlow tries to help people do that all the time.The Demiurge in fact DOES have to do what he does - I know him all too well. There is a balance which MUST be kept, It IS his Game. It was never meant to be.
He has copies of Akashic Records, which can be taken out JUST LIKE NETFLIX and he sticks poor Souls in various characters and THEY are forced to lead lives of HELL, not to mention he puts some of his "demons" (negative polarity beings) in the roles of people who were supposed to be Helpful, or a Soulmate or a Friend or a Karmic Intersection meant to allow us to teach a lesson, etc.
Just the opposite will occur. Those intersections will be terrible. Mine were obvious! I just deconstructed my entire Life Plan in Baltmore.The Game has been hacked, in other words. Akashic Records are NOT safe and inviolate. The Demiurge's name is "Maratona." Call him that. He HATES it. Maratona's Armada! (Satan's Army)You know what they call us? "Marionette Amore!" "Love Puppets."He can mess with us any which way he pleases. Yes, we can cancel the contracts ALL SOULS MUST MAKE WITH HIM or they cannot Game here. Think Holo-video Game. We already have this coming in the Human World.
Why doubt it exists? The entire world is a Holographic Universe (Universal Games) and "Source" is NOT "All That Is.” Those Hollywood movies are SO obvious, too!Souls trapped in one of those "Games" are in a Life Movie already lived by other Souls. They claim they are using those Lives as Video Instructions. B.S.
They get ENERGY out of OUR SUFFERING. Period!
The poor human "characters" have NO CLUE why "life sucks and then you die," "most men live lives of quiet desperation." Guess why!I pray for DEATH, I tell you. Rod Sterling cannot beat THIS story. Your Soul is your WORST enemy! The Light is only a frequency of vibration which FEELS GOOD to Souls, so they are taught that is “love” and Souls are often Firefly Entities. Why would they care about us?I was one. They are impossible to understand. And I am pretty darn good at communicating with them!We cannot think the way they do. It is not possible. We have short lives!Man has been messed with for ages. Now they have the Internet. Our lives are ALL scripted, filmed, rehearsed, reviewed, previewed, you-name-it.We can break the Game. I keep trying. Everything is MIND. All of it. I HATE "The Light" - because they OWE me an explanation of what happened to me at my legally owned home - so awful and malevolent and sadistic I had to move and auction off all my stuff! If it were not for my daughter I'd be dead now.I was dead. Dead. Dead for good. Not a true NDE. Dead.I went back to a Space Station and watched The Life Review. All Aliens. Stewart thought they might be Andromedans. "I" was infuriated because I did not finish a painting of my daughters. (American Beauties)There was a meeting at an oval table. A bunch of beings were present. Each had a copy of the new Script. Many Beings did NOT want my Soul to return. She argued with them, LOUDLY. She must have won - I see she is sitting with a Military HUMAN man and working on her Lesson Plan. He spent a lot of time with her.She got back into my body - problem! Time had passed. Since I keep detailed diaries, I knew something was not right! I don’t know how much time had passed. There is NO TIME, as we perceive it.Our lives and all Timeline Options and Possible/Probables are filmed. That is the Labyrinth your Guest called by another name. If you marry June instead of Andrea, THIS AND THIS will manifest. And so on.Guess what? I SEE THOSE MOVIES, TOO! All the time, every day. The good side is my ability to do so has saved my life a couple of times!I feel like I have lived this entire life before. I can tell you, the chances are very good that I have, or some other Soul has “played” me. No way to tell.I recognize entire neighborhoods, tell you what I was, used to do, who lived where. When I look up those houses on Zillow, they are in pre-foreclosures or Foreclosure! There is literally NO ONE to ask if I am correct or the time period in question. Definitely another life.Before 2006 I did NOT believe in Reincarnation.I HATE The Light. I HATE their Game. I HATE their “God.” Love and Light? NOT EVEN. NOT FOR MANKIND!I can see Astral Activity, including how Guides let Souls know the next series of “Prompts” for their Game! I have learned to discern just about any Being, and it all is soooooo not who I am!!I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. And winding up a Lab Rat for the Dark Military was NOT on MY human agenda.A human man not only programmed me, I can see he teaches the Dark Energy entities in some sort of Grade School out in the Astral. Light Beings are simply taught on a different frequency domain.How ungodly AWFUL can this get???Maratona is actually a monster - (Satanists describe him very well. He manifests as a 30-ish Blond, Curly-headed Angelic Man, VERY tall, not old and white-haired) - I harass him all the time. I don’t care one whit if they kill me. I am afraid ONLY that the military men involved, who know I am well aware they are hooked into the Astral via an antenna (the military has worked on that for YEARS) and one of them is the Interface for human/alien relations, not to mention a rapist, torturer, Satanist and murderer, will get their mitts on my human bod! Torture is their specialty.Aliens? Craft? I can tell you boodles about them. EVERYWHERE. Mankind can only perceive on a VERY limited “channel” if you will.Yes, DRAMA! Maratona means “Marathon.”
Stewart once suggested it was like SURVIVOR. That is right! And a Reality TV show!A Production Company! That is what those Akashic Records are! Like Netflix!I kid thee not! Souls do not sleep. They live in a place of No Time, No Space. They LOVE computer Games! I mean LOVE them! Some part of Ourselves is up there, jacking us around like Avatars.I have been doing drawings for years. I even drew a chessboard which has some meaning for Souls- and which I never understood. It is disgusting.Souls don’t have to go back to The Light, but they’d better be nimble, better be quick. If you die that Guide is RIGHT THERE.If Maratona wasn’t such a booger I’d stay with him. He does not make you incarnate! Master Guides LOVE to torture Souls in a human body! The human body HURTS. It is how they punish and punish and punish for every little infraction!Man, you name it - it has been done to me. A regular old Grammy with 7 Grandchildren. That’s all there is to me.There are Angels! Incredible Beings! Thank Someone!My understanding is Yahweh is the Principal of the School and Developer of the Game. There are many, many Souls who can design planets, even worlds.Any American School kid can halfway design an Avatar and World, for Goodness’ sake!This is a piece of my ghastly story. My heart went out to your Guest.This is Satan’s Game. Absolutely. I go bother him (in Spirit) all the time. We called him Satan because he was such a BRAT when he was young.Enki nothing! That is Marduk! And the Anunnaki were nothing more than PEOPLE from another Dimension trying to help Mankind. Just people! They had longer lives but they died like everyone else.I can teach you how to view one of Enki’s programs, if you like.I tell everyone my name. I am not hiding behind any Mask! I’ll tell you who the Military men are and the Spiritual Guru (*rolls Eyes*) who actually programs Human Beings to do the will of Souls - they try to over-ride our brains all the time! I’ll just put their names in another email.
The emotion-laden text threw out some very interesting concepts that I highlighted in BLUE. Which suggested that there are those that use the “Prison Complex” as some sort of GAME. Or who also use it like recreational MOVIES.
I do NOT think that this “Prison Complex” was intended to be a GAME or a source of amusement like MOVIES. But I do believe that over the centuries that a kind of illegal “black market” arose and that others have been using the “Prison Complex” to do exactly that.
Systems used to profit from
As best as I can figure, there are those, whether part of the “Old Empire” or from somewhere else that have constructed some kinds of systems inside the “Prison Complex” from which to profit from. And as far as I can see these systems fall into one or two general categories;
A “First Person Shooter” GAME. Where an entity pays for the privilege to live on the Earth as a human and experience all the sensory pleasures or discomfort that goes along with that experience.
A torture MOVIE. Here, the entities have somehow hijacked the pre-birth world-line template creation system. They establish one to fit the desires and fantasies of the entities that pay for a “good show”, and the hapless consciousness is convinced that it must experience the pains and the sorrows laid out for them. The entities that paid for this pre-birth world-line template then sit and watch the events unfold for the sorry human that is convinced that it must endure these disruptions and horrors.
Backdoors
Unless something happened…
The Prison Administration “bailed out”, and left.
The Prison System has been taken over, and corrupted by very malevolent entities.
It seems to me that there MUST be some kind of “backdoor” that enables these self-serving for-profit entities to corrupt the Prison System for their own purposes.
In cybersecurity, a backdoor is anything that can allow an outside user into your device without your knowledge or permission. Backdoors can be installed in two different parts of your system:
Hardware/firmware. Physical alterations that provide remote access to your device.
Software. Malware files that hide their tracks so your operating system doesn’t know that another user is accessing your device.
A backdoor can be installed by software and hardware developers for remote tech support purposes, but in most cases, backdoors are installed either by cybercriminals or intrusive governments (like the United States) to help them gain access to a device, a network, or a software application.
Any malware that provides hackers access to your device can be considered a backdoor — this includes rootkits, trojans, spyware, cryptojackers, keyloggers, worms, and even ransomware.
If there is a “backdoor”, then we can come to the conclusion that the “backdoor” was put there intentionally by one or more of…
The architects of the “Prison Complex”.
The administration of the “Prison Complex”.
A technologically advanced society (not the “Old Empire”) that exploited the prison system intentionally.
Some kind of dimensional / universe malware.
The advantages of LD talent
Those that have the important ability to LD (Lucid Dream) are in a unique position to reconnoiter towards this end.
It would be a reconnaissance mission.
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, long-range reconnaissance patrol, U.S. Army Rangers, cavalry scouts, or military intelligence specialists), ships or submarines, manned or unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, or by setting up observation posts.
Espionage is usually considered to be different from reconnaissance, as it is performed by non-uniformed personnel operating behind enemy lines.
-Wikipedia
And if you want to be specific, it is purely espionage. As the LD asset is an inmate in general population.
I can tell you that doing so is very important, and would be greatly appreciated by The Domain. Though, I must caution everyone that LD travel is not to be taken lightly. Dangers abound. I also do not know what the LD asset would discover, or what surprises await them. But I am ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they would like some talented assets to volunteer for this task.
To be brutally honest, this is an OFFICIAL REQUEST for a volunteer. It is direct request via EBP from The Domain.
As I understand it, it is only something that can be done by an inmate with a strong ability to this end. And that this specific type of mission WILL encounter unknowns and if the person encounters any kinds of dangers, they are to retreat and regroup.
It’s just a “fact finding” mission.
And, for what ever it is worth, they have certain people in mind for this action, and consider them to be very important and valuable assets that must be protected at all costs. (I am to repeat and underline this last sentence.) They are very important and must be protected at all costs.
Mission parameters
For starters…
This is a volunteer activity, and there is no dishonor in refusal.
And then,
You absolutely not reveal who you are or what you are doing.
You must not engage any subject entities that you encounter. You observe.
The specific tasks are…
You must identify [1] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are involved in selection of pre-birth world-line template selection and layout.
You must identify [2] if there are others, who are not part of the “old empire” prison complex, that are using the collected memories or records of memories of other humans for anything other than the original stated purposes.
Reporting and dissemination.
No matter what your opinions are, you must report what you experience.
You are to report your findings, no matter how disjointed or confused, and include your associations and thoughts and ideas regarding them. (Some results might be disturbing or distasteful, but you must report everything.)
MM will publish your findings.
Finally,
You must vocalize permissions to allow The Domain to observe your operations. You may place restrictions on how they observe and time limitations or windows if that is your desire.
Please kindly know and realize that possession of a EBP would “blow your cover” and thus it is impossible for you to be implanted at this time for this role. Thus this request follows this procedural venue. Finally, there is no dishonor in refusal. The Domain realizes just how seriously dangerous this mission activity is.
Conclusion
It seems that there must be “backdoors” to the “Prison Complex”. Exploiting those backdoors would enable some rapid transformation of this sentience nursery from a Prison Planet to something else and far easier to manage.
The only people who can find out the details of such a system are talented LD assets, and in asking them to do so, they must deal with entities that have access to all of their memories and are not handicapped by amnesia.
I do not think that any of them (those using the backdoors) are anticipating espionage but the request to view this aspect of the Prison Complex is very important and comes direct from the administrator of the operation charged with the clearing of the Prison System field.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
This article consists of my explanation of what our “universe”; the “Reality universe” otherwise known and the MWI, actually is. And while in many ways, it resembles the science fiction movie “The Matrix” it is far more cunning, with far more serious implications. And this article discusses those implications. For here, we will get into the basic overlying general construction of this Prison Complex.
Those of you who are long time readers of MM know what I am talking about about. New comers, well, you’ll probably get lost fairly early on. Sorry about that. this is an advanced subject.
The basic construction of everything
We live inside of an artificial construct.
Being inside of this “thing”; this environment distorts our understanding of reality. It distorts our thinking and our ability to fully comprehend what is actually going on.
We call this place where we live as “our universe”.
And inside of it, we describe the operation of it as “the MWI”. Or multiple world theory.
And that is all we know. We know nothing about what lies outside of our reality. We do not know what lies outside of our universe.
Then it is “The Matrix”?
Well, kind of.
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Most MM readers will know what “The Matrix” is. It is a science fiction movie that says that all of what we know of, see and believe, is an elaborate computer simulation, and we are “plugged into it”.
An overly LARGE Synopsis for those who never watched the movie (they do exist, you know) …
The Matrix begins with a squad of police officers surrounding a building where they believe a computer hacker by the name of Trinity is currently hiding. A mysterious group of “agents” show up and chastise the police commander for not waiting for them before entering the building, due to the dangerous nature of their suspect.
We then jump inside where Trinity takes down a squad of police officers before going on the run from the “agents”, across the roof tops of the mysterious city. Trinity eventually makes it to a phone booth, seconds before the phone booth is plowed over by a Mack truck driven by one of the “agents”. When the “agents” examine the wreckage, they do not find Trinity’s body and state that she has escaped, but that they have found the one she is looking for.
The film then jump cuts to Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer by day and a computer hacker by night who goes by the name of Neo. Anderson is played by Keanu Reeves in all his Keanu glory. Neo is receiving mysterious computer messages that tell him to “follow the white rabbit”. After encountering someone with a white rabbit tattoo on her body, he follows her to a techno club where he meets a very much alive Trinity.
Trinity tells him that Morpheus, an infamous terrorist hacker, wants to meet Neo, and the young hacker is very interested. However, before that meeting can take place, Neo is arrested at work the next day and interrogated/tortured by agents. Fortunately, the agents release Neo (along with a little electronic bug), and Neo is able to keep his date with Morpheus.
Morpheus tells Neo that he is living in a dream world, and he can choose to leave it, if Neo so wishes it. Choosing to continue to follow the rabbit hole, Neo takes a red pill, and his reality begins to disintegrate. Neo awakens, naked and weak, in a liquid-filled pod, with cables attached all over his body. He sees thousands of similar tubes all around him before a machine comes down and disconnects him from the pod. Neo is then flushed out with the refuse where he is eventually picked up and brought aboard Morpheus’ hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.
Once there, Morpheus begins to explain what the Matrix is. Neo is told that in the 21st century, that the humans of the planet fought a war with machines that had become self aware. As part of this war, the humans had blocked the skies, to prevent the machines from using solar energy. As such, the machines had to find alternative means for the power that they needed to survive, so they created the Matrix. The Matrix is a cyber reality that allows the machines to use human beings as an energy source, or a battery as it is explained in the movie.
In the Matrix, humans believe that they are living in the year 1999, and that they are in control of their lives, with no memory of the human/machine world. Morpheus explains that he is responsible for “unplugging” enslaved humans, and returning them to the real world. Morpheus further explains that there is a prophecy that one such freed person will end the war with the machines, and that he believes that Neo is that person.
The film then goes into the education of Neo for his adventures in the Matrix world. Because the Matrix is a computer program, Neo is told that they have the ability to do superhuman feats since they can bend the physical laws. However, if a person is killed in the Matrix, they will die in the real world as well. Neo is also warned that everyone who has ever taken on an agent has been killed.
Ultimately, Neo is taken by Morpheus to see the Oracle, who will, in theory, confirm whether Neo is indeed the Christ figure of this film. The bad news is that the Oracle tells Neo he is not the one. The worse news is that she tells Neo that Morpheus will die to protect Neo because of his beliefs, unless Neo sacrifices his life for Morpheus.
The good news…Neo gets a delicious cookie. As Morpheus’ crew heads back to the extraction point, they are met by policeman and agents, who have been tipped to the crew’s Matrix-world arrival by their own personal Judas, Cypher. Everyone but Morpheus escapes, but Cypher makes it back to the real world hovercraft first. There he begins killing the other members of the crew by unplugging them while their minds are trapped in the Matrix. Before he can kill Trinity or Neo, a computer monitor by the name of Tanks kills Cypher and saves the duo.
Morpheus is taken to the agents’ headquarters, where they plan to torture him and interrogate him in order to get the access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, the humans’ last stronghold in the real world. Neo decides to go back into the Matrix in order to save Morpheus, and Trinity tags along for the ride. The duo encounter overwhelming numbers, but they manage to free Morpheus and make their escape. Morpheus and Trinity are able to make their escape from the Matrix, but Neo becomes trapped when Agent Smith destroys his exit. Neo thinks about running from the agent, but he begins to believe in the prophecy and finds confidence in his abilities.
Neo and Agent Smith fight. Spectacularly. But ultimately, Neo has to get out of the Matrix, so he goes on the run trying to find another exit while being pursued by three agents. Tank attempts to lead Neo to an exit and safety, but Agent Smith cuts him off and places several bullets into Neo’s chest, killing the hacker.
However, as the agents begin to walk away, Neo resurrects and is now completely aware of his abilities and his power. He stops the bullets from the agents’ guns with a wave of his hand, and destroys Agent Smith by jumping into his “code” and blowing him up. Neo makes his escape from the Matrix, returning to the real world just in time before the hovercraft crew blows up an EMP that would have killed Neo if he had stayed in the Matrix.
The film ends with Neo making a call to the Matrix, stating that he knows that they are afraid now. Neo tells them that he will show their human prisoners “a world where anything is possible” before hanging up the phone. Neo then Superman’s off the screen, essentially creating the first cyber-world super hero.
The idea is valid.
Yes. We exist inside of an elaborate simulation.
The Matrix.
Except that instead of it being a computer simulation, it is far, far more than that. It is a completely separate and unique “universe” of sorts. The entities that built this simulation did so intentionally and used technologies that appear “God Like” to us.
They created a unique “universe” which is a “bubble” within a much larger universe.
Important Note
And important note: this is NOT a universe that lies outside of the “larger universe”. This is a “bubble universe” that lies inside of the “larger universe”.
As this statement clearly explains (from “Alien Interview”)…
"The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe."
How universes come into being
I’ll let “Alien Interview” explain…
"Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing an object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called "space".
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream.
In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be". She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time.
An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial". They can span great distances of space instantly.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began. As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe. Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, "home" universe. That is, when an IS-BE's "home" universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS- BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
1) the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
2) IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion.
…
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as "IS-BEs", for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space.
An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS- BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom.
A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will? What if you couldn't do anything else? What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time.
There is no measurable "beginning" or "end" for an IS-BE.
They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one's own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration. One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces. These were the "home" of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs. A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play. IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game. Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals. Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events have been created by IS-BEs and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum. Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes. The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed. So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it. It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS- BEs which they themselves do not want to experience. For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god?
They pretend NOT to know. How can you play a game of "hide and seek" if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to "seek" them. This is how games are created. You have forgotten that you are just "pretending". In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
How does one create a cage, lock one's own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an "inside" or "outside", and even forget there is a self? Create the illusion that there is no illusion: the entire universe is real, and that no other universe exists or can be created.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god. Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves -- individually and collectively -- are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
…
And let’s look at this one statement in detail…
[1] There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum.
[2] Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes.
[3] The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
[1] IS-BE’s create universes at will.
[2] They are complete separate entities that exist within it’s own set of laws, rules and continuum.
[3] The Domain exists in one such universe, AS WELL as “The Physical Universe”.
Since, the Domain Commander was discussing the situation at Roswell he was making s simplification statement that has been pretty much glossed over by most everyone who reads the “Alien Interview” document.
There is the BIG “parent” universe. This is where The Domain exists. As well as where the “Old Empire” existed.
And there is …
The Physical Universe. This is a smaller “pocket universe” that sits inside the “BIG parent universe”. It is what we see. It is everything that we physically see, and sense. But it is not the totality of everything. Because this “Physical Universe”; the MWI is the “Old Domain” “Prison Complex”.
The creation of a “artificial” universe within a universe
So this “Prison Planet” is more than just a singular planet with a “fence” around it. It is a planet within it’s own “pocket universe”.
And I can tell you, from MAJestic, that Earth is not the only planet within this “pocket universe”. But there are perhaps four to five other solar systems involved. (Five if you include “our” solar system.)
So it is a very special “pocket universe” within a much larger BIG universe.
This is a very unique universe
Furthermore, there is an elaborate structure that makes this “Prison Complex” unique. It is much more than a simple “electric fence”.
There is a system of recycling IS-BE consciousness’s back and forth from “Prison” to “Parole”. We know this system as …
Birth
Living on the earth
Death
Going into the light
Heaven
Reincarnation
The “Punishment” aspect of our incarceration is in BROWN. The “Parole” / rehabilitation aspect of our incarceration is in BLUE.
Thus we have something else.
We have [1] a huge complex that handles the “punishment” aspect of our incarceration. We call this the “physical reality”, or the MWI. And we have have [2] a massive complex for the “parole” / rehabilitation aspect of our incarceration. This goes by the name of “Heaven”.
There are two massive complexes involved in this “Prison Complex”.
Our “Pocket universe” contains multiple universes
For every imprisoned IS-BE consciousness species, there is an equivalent “Heaven”. And there are many. It’s not only humans. There are horses, elephants, dolphins just to name a few. Each “Heaven” is a universe.
So looking from the outside, you can see that this “pocket universe” is segmented into other universes, and the entire complex, or cluster, of universes is one grand “Prison Complex” that is administered by a complete and ruthless system of control.
Why it is like a geode
A geode is a geological secondary formation within sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Geodes are hollow, vaguely spherical rocks, in which masses of mineral matter (which may include crystals) are secluded.
Geode.
The crystals are formed by the filling of vesicles in volcanic and sub-volcanic rocks by minerals deposited from hydrothermal fluids; or by the dissolution of syn-genetic concretions and partial filling by the same, or other, minerals precipitated from water, groundwater or hydrothermal fluids.
In our case, the creation of a universe within a universe was a very special construction. In fact, I might argue that it would have been far easier to create a universe outside of our universe, but apparently the rulers of the “Old Empire” as technologically advanced as they were, wanted to create a system that would permanently imprison FOREVER those that they condemned…
…within their universe, and within their geographic territory.
So they FORCED the artificial construction of a unique static “pocket universe” with very strict MWI world-line behaviors. And were any inmate to escape, at the very worst they would escape to geographic terrain of the “Old Empire”. This would not be something that would be possible with a completely separate universe that would lie outside that of the “parent universe”.
And in so escaping, they would be going from a “reality universe” where the laws and rules are one thing, and to a “parent universe” where they are something else entirely different. With a complete amnesia, it would be extremely difficult for an inmate to successfully escape.
What does this understanding provide to us?
This provides us with a great deal of insight regarding the technology of the “Old Empire” and what they could and could not do.
They could create a “pocket universe”.
They could not create a total self-contained universe to exile others to.
Thus it is not wonder that The Domain was able to vanquish the “Old Empire”. As members of The Domain are fundamentally IS-BE’s with a class structure that prohibits memory amnesia when occupying a physical body. While the “Old Empire” (apparently) was a societal structure where the occupancy of a physical body allowed or forced memory amnesia.
It also tells us why it is difficult for The Domain to reverse engineer this “Prison Complex”. As this is not a separate universe, but rather a “pocket universe” construction that lies within a “parent universe”.
Where do we inmates fit into the picture?
This region, this “Prison Complex” appears to be just like the “Parent Universe”. So much so, that The Domain entered it, set up a base of operations inside of the “reality universe” totally and completely unaware that it was within a spawned “pocket universe”.
I am confident that The Domain has learned many, many things over the decades and centuries. But I do not believe that mastery of this “pocket universe” can be obtained in the next few years. It might take longer than that. Thus the track that The Domain is on is quite reasonable.
Set up a system for sentience sorting and rehabilitation.
Enlist the Mantids towards this goal.
Assist the”conditional release” of inmates as they acquire “exit visas”.
Regain control of the entire “Prison Complex” through mastery of the “Pocket Universe”.
Administer care to the inmates…
With the goals of rescue of the Lost Battalion, and recovery of all memories of all IS-BE’s so incarcerated.
Conclusion
One of the most important fundamentals that an inmate must understand when trying to escape a prison, is the layout of that prison. Well known “prison breaks” all required an understanding of the prison layout, the routines of the guards, and an understanding on what needs to occur; step by step, prior to a successful break-out.
While there are many who are tying to escape one way or the other, I argue that it will be very difficult to do so unless the inmate have a good understanding of the environment where he is incarcerated within.
Given the nature of this “Prison Planet”, it seems reasonable to conclude that a map or an understanding of a path must be laid out for the inmate to extract themselves out of the general population environment. This will not only list the various traps, snares, and tricks that lie along the way, but also the boundaries and mechanisms for the other associated “pocket universes” that lie within this “Prison Complex”. Such as the various heavens, and the very detailed snares.
This article might not seem like much, but it establishes a most fundamental understanding of the limits and the geography of the “Prison Complex”.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “The Domain Action Articles” over here…
This article consists of answers from The Domain to questions collected by the MM audience. This is the second of (hopefully) many such events. Though, I must admit that it is really a lot of work to do.
I collected the questions from the last week of September 2021, and tried to contact with the Domain via the EBP in fits and starts over this period. I was successful, and unsuccessful. Some times the connection was strong while at other times it was weak. All having to do with my various situation at the time.
An Important note
I asked a question. A very personal question at the end of this article, and obtained an answer.
It is very disturbing, and I am very upset by it.
I decided to put it in and let you all know what was stated. This goes against my “better judgement”, but we will see what happens.
What this is all about
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I have numerous devices installed in my body. The seven ELF probes are for MAJestic, with the EBP system is of Domain manufacture and utility.
Terminology
EBP – A hardwired device that connects MM to The Domain.
ELF – A hardwired device that connected MM to MAJestic through a Mantid intermediary. Now deactivated.
The Domain – The name of the species / civilization that the type-1 greys belong to.
“Old Empire” – A term used to describe a vanquished civilization that used to be in control of this section of the galaxy.
Comm channel – A link to the MM “handler” or Commander. Rank and position is unknown except that it is a senior being. This is a channel though the EBP system.
Prison Planet – Earth and the surrounding solar system.
Prison Complex – Our solar system with four to five other solar systems together.
Warden – Chief administrator for the Earth.
Corrections Officers – Police that work for the Warden.
Questions
This is the SECOND collection of Q&A from The Domain.
Here are the questions with the answers. We start off with one of MY questions to get the ol’ ball rolling…
[1] Who is Madesescapalion? Is this just a name out of my imagination, or something that I need pay attention to?
In an odd event, this name suddenly popped into my head, and stayed in my head for hours. Just banging around and around and around, and around. Jeeze!.
It’s really annoying.
Someone is addressing in a formal form like you would a officer, or the head of the FBI or something like that.
So I wrote it down. Then for the next four hours or so it still kept banging around in my skull until I wrote this question down. And then, oh, for Goodness Sakes! This popped out…
Who is Madesescapalion?
Madesescapalion (sic) is the name / a name of / one of the names of the Chief Administrator / High Authority of the Earth-centric portion of this Prison Complex. He is the local de facto head of this facility.He was a (preferential form) human who has injected himself into the prison complex as a means of escaping / avoiding / hiding from The Domain.He conducted this “donning of prison attire” when the Domain defeated the forces of the “Old Empire” sometime between 1135 - 1230 AD during the destruction of the local “Old Domain” space fleet in this region.He has been cycling in and out of “general population” in the Prison Complex ever since.He has systems in place that detect our movements and alert him, and when we get near to him he dies and goes into “Heaven” where we have difficulty following. Once he is safe, he then re-injects himself in the general population again. He is very cunning. He is very skillful. He holds many answers regarding the systems and the control attributes of this Prison Complex.
Scene from the movie Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp.
(I wonder if there is some kind of message in the movie Dark Shadows concerning this administrator.)
I don’t know if this is the right spelling. I just wrote it as it appeared to me.
Ma - des - escapa - li - on
It could also be read as “Ma-des Escapa-Li-on”, as in “Warden Escapa-Li-on”. Tht’s my thinking of this. I don’t know if it is true or not.
Warden Escapalion
Administrator of the “Old Empire”. In charge of this Prison Complex. Went into hiding (inside the prison General Population) when The Domain took over.
Update; Maybe I wrote it wrong.
The pronunciation is not "lion" but rather "leon".
- MM
[2] What is the relationship between the Domain and the Mantids. Why won’t the Domain ask the Mantids for help?
This issue has been bothering people for some time. It’s a valid concern and there are many questions regarding it. For some people, the Mantids represent angels, while the Domain represent demons. Now they see things in a new light and are concerned.
Personally, I was afraid to ask this as there are some MAJestic prohibitions on Mantid disclosures. But, I just didn’t think about it. I just got comfortable and read and waited for a response. There was a pause of a few minutes and then this flowed out.
Domain & Mantid relationship.
The Mantids (sic) are a species that has their own civilization and culture. They have accepted The Domain jurisdiction in this geographical area. They are also neutral in regards to territory, administration, and other encumbrances of physical life.They have transcended those interests.They maintain their roles within the Prison Complex “Heaven” and are satisfied with whatever might or might not happen in the future. Our relations with them are cordial. And if we ask them for support and assistance, they provide it. They have accepted our administration over this area and Prison Complex, and are willing to work with us in whatever way that we deem fit.
Do you have any thoughts about this answer?
[3] There is a group that you are working with that I am unfamiliar with. So I refer to them as <redacted>. Who are they and what do they do?
This is one of my questions that I would like to see answered better than what I would normally call out. You see my interpretation of direct data from the EBP differs substantially from this around-about method of collecting answers. And so I wanted to see what kind of answers that I would get.
This <redacted> is a new group that was first brought up when the Domain had its first direct communication with me. I would like a name and some background on them, please.
Who are the <redacted>?
They are a species that you have never encountered before, and is rare in this section of the universe. Their society / empire / housing cluster are from a very distant galaxy and have been involved in large massive complexes, works and systems not unlike that of the “Prison Complex” here.
They are helping us decode and unlock the systems that we encounter and develop new devices and mechanisms for detection of traps and snares.
They have a name, but it would not serve you to understand something that you could not pronounce let along write. They do not physically resemble humanoids or insects. They resemble something else entirely alien to the earth experience as they are not from the same kind of planet or sun that the Prison Complex has. (The image that I get is a very large maggot or caterpillar about the size of a sofa.)
You may refer to them as “helpers” like the little people in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, the “oompa loompas”, or the “Minons” from “Despicable Me”.
Note: I will refer to this group as “Technical helpers” from now on. –MM
[4] Are there any catastrophic events due in the next few years?
I was able to get answers to this question but it was full of “stops”, hesitations, pauses, and “drag-ons”. If you all can understand what I am trying to say.
Everyone in the United States are fearful of the future. Indeed it seems like the entire nation is a broken down car skidding all over the place and being run by drunken raging maniacs. The passengers are terrified. What’s ahead is unknown, and everyone wants to know what is after that “bend in the road”.
Catastrophic Events
“The [physical] earth has undeniably gone through catastrophic events… cyclically and continuously. If I recall correctly, the most common recurring event(s) are at about 25,000 year increments or so… pole-shift, crustal displacement – stuff like that. Of course other things cause destruction as well – and I presume some are NOT natural. Anyway, my current best information says that such an event is likely to happen again – SOON – VERY soon (before 2025, but maybe even next calendar year). Can you comment on this?”
There are a number of clusters of time-lines (of large size) that are on a vector route towards a catastrophic purging of life and civilization elements within certain specific societies. What will happen depends on the trajectory of those clusters. The drivers behind their movement are well-established “Old Empire” forces that intentionally manifest results that (the MM readership) you would find distasteful.Thoughts can result in many manifestations. Not only in the movement of large numbers of people towards catastrophic results like lemmings, but also in the turmoil of natural processes. These thoughts can result in natural disasters, fiascos of unexpected intensity, and horrific results that will be unexpected. In many ways it is like an infant playing with a loaded gun. You must not allow horrific consequences whether “natural” or “manmade” to include all sorts of thought-induced reactions to manifest if you can avoid them.In the Prison Planet environment is an MWI configuration that permits world-line changes and alterations. There are various individual IS-BE’s imprisoned within the complex that have the ability to conduct mechanized world-line travel to different locations and different periods. After all, and you must remember, the MWI within the Prison Complex is an artificial construct. And thus, there are people who can create turmoil on certain world-line templates (sic) and then escape to safer havens.This is what is apparently going on. If you were to capture one of these IS-BE inmates and ask them what they are doing they would come up with all kinds of stories and excuses, but none will admit that they are participating in a relative “looting” of certain templates (sic) so that they can enjoy the fruits of their labors in other templates (sic).The good thing is that the “future” is never guaranteed. Being in such an artificial construct as the Prison Complex is, guarantees that those that can control their thoughts, and that understand how the Prison System works can “ride out” any crises or turmoil that might “boil up to the surface” with the confluence of multiple anchored clusters vectoring straight to catastrophic event scenarios.
Do not fear the future. Control your thoughts and you will control your destiny. Worrying about others is a fine passion but will not benefit you as your future will be under the fabric of your creation via your thoughts.If you can control your thoughts, even if your local environment undergoes horrific events, you will be able to endure it relative comfort.
I immediate thought that this was NOT the kind of answer that the questioner wanted.
After all, I myself, have been warning about catastrophic events in the future. I say this as a nod to the Deagal Report.
His questioner wanted a yes or a no answer and some details.
And the following came though…
Yes. There will be difficult times ahead.
It will be on a scale that many people will be unfamiliar and uncomfortable with.
It will not be something that you can point to and say "here it is". It will be a growth, a growing, an amassing of a state. Then it will achieve a critical tipping point. Then, it will be very uncomfortable.
It will not be televised, or reported on. Any information that the average person obtains will be lies, distractions or manipulations. No one will know what is going on. This will continue into the "main heat" of the event cycle.
(A list was provided in laconic fashion like someone reading from a handout.)
Treasuries will be emptied.
Resources will be stolen and carted off.
Secret military engagements will take place with death and destruction.
Back-stabbing, betrayals, and and "under hand" actions will be common.
Agreements will be torn-up or ignored.
New secret agreements will be written between unlikely participants.
(Fourth tone emphasis on the last syllable of the end word in each sentence.)
No one will know any of this. Many people will continue to be *oblivious* to what is going on even after millions of people are dead. So much will not be reported.
Significant event will pass into history unknown and unrecorded.
There are numerous clusters heading towards numerous scenarios. The most worrisome are being mitigated and controlled by the Domain. Yet, the large quantity and diversity of the various participants suggest that some kind of event will happen one way or the other.
However, please note that it will happen without anyone realizing it happening until afterwards.
There is an over reliance on electronic manipulative media. Many people believe that they know everything that is going on simply by the massive scope of the size of the media. That is a dangerous illusion. Nothing truthful will be displayed. Then when cracks and fissures in the news starts to point to some disturbing things, it will be all over and past the point of no-return.
However you can control how those difficult times affect your life. If you control your thoughts, you will control the range / extent of those influences on your life. Do not allow others to control your thoughts.
Keep in mind that the Domain is monitoring this situation very closely, and will not permit substantive destruction of the environment. However the mass concentration of evil and distorted IS-BE inmates have other ideas. And there are numerous scenarios where bad catastrophic events might still be able to occur no matter how hard the Domain tries to prevent them. Such as what happened with your World War I.
Many Americans and Western governments, such as those in Europe, and Asian-Pacific nations that have “hitched a ride with Uncle Sam” are witnessing a collapse of everything that they believed in.
But you see, all nations rise and fall.
I have discussed this over and over before. And they follow a normal progression of birth to death. What this questioner is worried about can be summed up in one simple graph here…
Do you have any thoughts about this answer?
[5] Why are the Mantids so keen on helping humans when they know that our memories will be erased later?
Well, why do they keep doing what they are doing. And what are they doing exactly?
Mantids and Memory Erasure
“There is something also bugging me about the mantids involvement on earth (and when I was talking to my husband about it, the PC started doing it’s own thing…weird!) I’m having a hard time articulating it, but maybe someone else can grab it. So here we go: Why do the mantids stay with us our whole lives and reviewing it in the end, when there comes the amnesia and everything we learned is forgotten? Don’t they know about the amnesia? Are they also kind of trapped on earth and cannot escape? Or do they profit somehow from being our wardens?”
The Mantids are not Wardens. They are corrections officers / archivists / medical practitioners and they are bred for their role. They differ from specific Prison Planet to Prison Planet.
A form (originally native) to the particular Prison Planet (within the Prison Complex) is elevated and provided with a duty and a role, then their success within that role is determined by that duty. The other four or so systems in the Prison Complex each has their own version of these helpers.In the case of the Mantids, this form is found throughout the universe just like humans are, but this form has been on the earth much longer than any humans have. They call it their home and treat the humans as “adopted children” from their nest.
As transdimensional creatures they are particularly suited as the caretakers of individual human consciousnesses.They believe that it is important for them to help and guide the human species from the general population segment of the Prison Planet into “Heaven” and help them grow. They also believe that strife, experiences, and conflict make humans into better beings.
This seemingly conflicting belief is not native to their original archetype.
Like humans within the confines of the prison planet, they too have been modified. Both humans and mantids have been modified to live, work and stay within this prison complex and never leave it.
The Mantids are absolutely convinced of their need to help humans in the prison grow through pain and suffering and then reward them with a rest-period in “Heaven”.This belief was cultivated / manufactured / genetically forced into them by the “Old Empire” when this particular Prison Planet was first established. Thus they, like the inmates that they tend to, are both hybridized archetype forms dedicated to specific roles within this Prison Complex.
They believe that they are involved in great compassionate works by providing great suffering to human inmates and then rewarding them with a “Heaven” afterwards.
Jesus! – MM
[6] Is enlightenment a benefit or a distraction?
A good question from someone who is not taking the answers from the Domain at face value. Worthy of consideration.
Again, the query was calm, easy and the response was immediate.
Enlightenment
“The bit about enlightenment is highly confusing. I’m guessing because it is poorly defined/undefinable. The Domain officer said that those who managed to escape the prison mechanism were able to control their thoughts to a high degree. That’s exactly what I would expect from someone on “the way” to enlightenment (Never a final destination either). Those who point to the way also advocate self-knowledge. Isn’t this in parallel with what the Domain advises? Any clarification here would be appreciated.”
Enlightenment is a tool that is used by religions as part of a control mechanism. The individual components used to achieve an enlightened state, such as meditation, focus, mantras, and all the rest are useful components for the control of one’s thoughts. Control of one’s thoughts is THE (THE – emphasized twice) most important skill set that a IS-BE consciousness can develop.If the intention of using these components (mediation / breathing / focus / etc.) is to achieve a state of nirvana (and consider it as enlightenment) it is a “dead end”.
What you are doing is using the proper tools, but not building anything of worth or value. You are moving forward doing everything correct, and then parking the results in a great nothingness of no practical utility.You must use the exact same skills that you use to achieve enlightenment towards functional outcomes.
“Enlightenment” in of itself is NOT a functional outcome. (The Domain officer is getting rather worked up.)
Religions have taken the skills originally taught to inmates to help them leave this Prison Planet and put them on “snipe hunts” that lead nowhere. Thousands of very well skilled and talented individuals were so very close to escaping the clutches of this inmate population, only to be sidetracked. They died and believed that the tunnel of light was the enlightenment that they seek.
No. It’s just a trap. Avoid that trap. Do not try to become enlightened. Never try to become enlightened. Use the same skills for enlightenment to control your thoughts and focus your abilities.
I had to break from this for a spell. I have never experienced such a strong impassioned response before. (Not that I have many of these kinds of responses, but they all tend to be friendly – neutral. Not so…emotional.)
[7] Enlightenment and being service to self
Is enlightenment considered Service to Self?
Yes. It is a selfish action.
“There’s also the concept of the Bodhisattva who attains a high degree of self-mastery such that they could transcend, but choose not to in order to help others along the way. Such examples might be Christ or the Buddha in various incarnations.”
You do not need to obtain enlightenment, mastery or perfection in order to help others. You simply help them regardless of your current situation.
As it is functionally used, irregardless of what other potential it might possess, enlightenment is a means of tricking IS-BE's of high potential into the "Tunnel of Light" so that their memories can be erased, and they can be sent back to start all over again.
Enlightenment has never freed anyone from the Prison Complex. You must be aware of that reality.
After this response, I “felt the need” to put up this picture…
Robin Williams giving helpful advice to a fast food worker on her situation. A day or two later, he killed himself. You do not need to be enlightened in order to help others.
You do not need to be enlightened to help people.
[8] Why not just break the WHOLE machine?
“A great way to ruin the “harvest” would be to poison the crop, or break the machine. Perhaps the “elites” driving us toward destruction might be altruistic if they are trying to end all life on earth and throw a wrench in the gears. Why not destroy the entire earth system so that life here is not possible? Wouldn’t that free all IS-BEs?”
A fast and stunning response shot back to me most clearly…
This solution would be catastrophic for trillions of IS-BE's. All would have no memories except their current incarnation at the time of destruction.
They wouldn't know what to do.
Eventually a flood of (multiple) armies of the deranged evil IS-BE's could engulf this section of the galaxy with horrific consequences.
The neutral to good inmates would easily fall under their control. It would become a runaway train / domino effect / cascading of catastrophes that would run as a toxic cancer. It would envelope entire civilizations and societies and then run unchecked, one galaxy after the other.
And so I added…
In the movie Ghostbusters, bad or malevolent spirits and ghosts are captured and stored in a “containment grid” which was a device that held all the spirits in place. It was a field of electromagnetic energy that the spirits and ghosts could not break through.
Containment machine.
However there were forces that wanted to shut off the containment machinery. And, when the power was shut off from the containment grid, all of the stored spirits escaped and flew into New York City in mass…
Escaping spirits from Ghost-busters.
As they did so they created all sorts of problems.
The Governor of New York called up the the leadership and the National Guard, calling it a National Emergency of Biblical Proportions.
A National Emergency of Biblical Proportions.
Why not? Is he correct?
[9] Other extraction agents?
“Is there an official title for the robed Elders who have upwards of 20 000 other consciousnesses posted in the prison to act as extraction agents? Can this organization be considered as the same entourage of consciousnesses that are associated with either the IS-BE known as Sanat Kumara or the IS-BE known as Aetherius?”
The answer to this hit me quite fast and was unexpected. I didn’t even read the entire paragraph. I just skimmed over it. In fact, I wasn’t even fully ready to transcribe anything. I had to put my sandwich down and start typing away. I know that no one understands, but that’s what happened here.
There are all kinds of official titles for all the places, locations, people, operations, and positions of everyone. The titles are not in English. And there is no need to generate translations of titles for your use when your own names are already quite sufficient.Remember who you are. You are IS-BE. You define your world, your reality, and how you interact with it. You are GOD. You are the highest most important consciousness in everything.
(Pause. Then a continuation.)
There are numerous organizations that you refer to as "robed elders". Each one has a niche role in this Prison Environment.
(Then he starts listing. When listing, there is a sort of emphasis at the first syllable of the first word, so that I know that it is a new list item. I added numbers to help with the absorption of this information. The numbers were not provided in the transmission, but added by myself later on.)
[1] Some have been around for centuries and were initially established by Domain agents (in their spare time) as a pastime. We put an end to the unauthorized efforts around 1955. There are currently authorized efforts only, and it is a part of our overall grand strategy.[2] While other organizations were established by mischievous outsiders who find it enjoyable to play games with the inmates here. For them, it's like putting a leaf in a cage with a bored kitten. They find pleasure and enjoyment "toying" with the more active non-physical components of inmates. It's an activity of theirs. [3] Some have been established by well-meaning inmates that wanted to set up anti-Prison Operations, as a sort of like a form of warfare. It started out as a way to figure out what was going on and then evolved into something rather serious. Some of these kinds of "elders" have been around for many, many thousands of years. They have purpose. The questioner asked about one such organization.[4] Some were established by physical occult organizations from within the Prison population and has taken on a life of their own. These kinds of organizations are many. Some were created by accident. And some were created on purpose. One of the most famous (and prolific) occult leaders in your modern era was a man named Aleister Crowley and he was very active in creating some of these organizations in the non-physical worlds. Some spawned others, and some fractured and grew.[5] Some are part of the traps and snares that were established by the administration of the Prison Complex.These ones are very devious. They are run by Prison Correction Officers. Often autonomously.
[6] Some are the result of prayer and meditation leading up to quasi religious sponsored organizations that them "took on a life of their own". And operate with the highest intentions, often in ignorance, and suffering from the chains of dogma.
Each one goes by a name or group of names depending on who is dealing with them and why.
Their overall mix of intention is roughly...14% Sincere11% Mischievous24% Impassioned / religious22% Run by the Prison Complex as a snare / trap19% Accidentally spawned or grown on it's own.03% Initially set up by the Domain07% Misc
The numbers are REALLY difficult for me to nail down. So what I did was write them down as transmitted.
Then I discovered that they did not add up so I rounded them downwards to get numbers that made sense. I think that the commander was just pitching vague rough figures for illustrative purposes. The readers should not take these numbers as solid figures but as a guide to get a general feel for the kinds of organizations that are around, and the chances of one encountering one or the other.
We urge caution in dealing with all non-physical organizations.
There are many tricks and side-tracks that are purposely designed to put you in a dangerous situation. Then if you fail, you are then recycled, and your physical body dies in it's sleep. If you pass, then you go on to harder more aggressive "tests" and combat arenas. Eventually ALL IS-BE's return back to the "Tunnel of Light" and are recycled in this manner.This system is one of the most common ones used by the Prison Planet to trap those inmates with advanced skills for travel in the non-physical worlds.All IS-BE's should be very, very careful when dealing in the non-physical realm that lies inside of the Prison Confines. There are very dangerous and very complex traps purposely designed to snare the unprepared.
Then, out of the blue, about two days later this comes in.
The questioner has been involved in multiple groups. This is true even though it might appear to be a singular group authority.
At least one of them was a Corrections Officer sponsored group.
Often the "Old Empire" Corrections Officer groups disguise themselves (it's easy to do) and pretend to be another group.
As such they convince the IS-BE that they are what the IS-BE wishes / desires / wants /expects. Then they set up snare scenarios to trap the inmate. It is easy to trap such an inmate, as they are often singular and working alone.
Every caution must be taken. One should never perform dangerous actions or efforts in isolation. The risks are far too great.
Thoughts?
[10] Non-physical base monitoring traffic in and out of the Prison Complex?
“Is there an official title for the organization who maintain a permanent station in the non physical domain who are tasked with monitoring all inter-dimensional traffic coming into and out of the earth prison?”
Answers came quick. Clean.
There are multiple organizations, all working independently. The Domain, of course is one. The others are set up for their own purposes. You might think of them as regulatory agencies rather than customs officials.
Obviously the Domain has started monitoring the traffic when the fencing and monitoring mechanisms were damaged.
Some of the civilizations that (have been) dropping off their riff-raff to this environment have set up monitoring stations and platforms.
There is also a kind of constellation / data network / records system / archivist operation that monitors everything regarding this Prison Complex.
Additionally, note that even though the fencing surround this entire Prison Complex has been damaged it has not been obliterated. There are self-aware autonomous Prison systems still working, still monitoring, and still in communication with Mantids and Corrections Officers. (There are other creatures that are Corrections Officers as well as Mantids.)
Thoughts?
[11] Domain approved process for reporting targets …
“What is the Domain approved process for lucid dreamers to report targets they suspect with 100% surety as being part of the amnesia machinery when they are unable to provide exact coordinates?”
This one is complicated and I got a headache just trying to sort through all the inrush of data and stuff. I am still trying to sort it out in any kind of meaningful way. A big jumble and mess of data, concepts and information that I haven’t much experience on and cannot speak about clearly. So I will greatly simplify.
The EBP handles tracking and comm with the physical components of an IS-BE when they are attired in inmate "clothing". That is the primary purpose of the EBP. It is to completely monitor the physical person.
The non-physical comm and monitoring is another system completely. It is completely different.
Part of the Domain operations on the non-physical bodies is to release the chains of control by the Prison Administration. (Greatly simplified.) But part is something else as well. Depending on the person, other systems can be added or subtracted from the non-physical body of a given inmate.
One of the more substantive and comprehensive operations is a very complex procedure that permits tracking and recording abilities associated with a given non-physical body. Because of it's in-depth / invasive / critical infrastructure changes /alterations /dangers it is only used on the most important or critical non-physical bodies (A lot of things that I have no idea of. Simplified the response.) that have a need to be observed and monitored.This procedure is given to those that are active in "Lucid Dreaming" activities and related movements in the non-physical world that ALSO wish to participate with the Domain as a volunteer. If this occurs then the individual would experience a very strange "experience" (a bunch of concepts that I am at a loss to explain.) that would not appear to be like their normal "Lucid Dreaming" events. Instead they would be having operations performed on them, and then released. Then for the most part, their normal activities would continue as before, though they might start to get "nudges" or messages or directions. Which would be "coaching" / requests / advisement from the Domain handler to them. Their ability to understand what is going on takes time and there is no set training period for this activity.Afterwards they would not need to report anything. Their experiences would be monitored tracked, observed and noted.This is a unique procedure for unique assets. For most volunteers this is not necessary.
Is this reasonable?
[12] Suggestions or messages for escapees from the Prison Complex
“Are there any messages for those who have escaped the prison through lucid dreaming and retain much of their memories as an immortal consciousness ie as an IS-BE?”
Again this is quick and surprisingly short.
Keep in mind that as long as your physical body is alive, your consciousness will still be connected to it. The only way that you can escape this Prison Complex is to physical die within it.
Yet, when the physical body is dead, your IS-BE consciousness will still be connected to the non-physical body. For many, they will appear to be one and the same.
At that point, there are a small number of IS-BE's that [might] possess the skills to actually leave the Prison Complex. If they have that ability, we suggest that they request assistance from The Domain.
The Domain is the highest authority in this region. By requesting assistance, it is no different from calling the Fire Department, calling for an ambulance, or calling for the police. The IS-BE consciousness should have no fears or qualms about asking for support and assistance ever.
Call for help. That is what you must do, and wait for us to arrive.
What are your thoughts?
[13] Black-hole anomaly reference
“Do the Domain know about a black hole like “anomaly” that permeates through both physical and non physical worlds and has the potential to “decompose” such worlds”? This is hard to describe in Earth based language. From outside the prison it would be appear as a dark void that encompasses many of these non physical and physical worlds simultaneously.”
When I read this I got the impression of the Commander / handler sighing and looking up and thinking. Not that it actually happened, mind you, but that was the impression that I had.
And then this…
Ask this question later.
So then I waited… I waited all afternoon, had dinner and then I asked again. The response was like a tired old kindly grandfather or cherished uncle that only wants the best for you.
There are many things in space and the surrounding area that are unknown to the human inmates. This is in both the physical and the non-physical realms.
Some resemble a black-hole as you consider it. Others are something else entirely different. There are voids, and areas of occluded thought transference. There are many, many areas, and many such objects.
I would advise staying away from any objects or situations that you do not understand. This is for your own safety and to prevent you from being engulfed in a snare of the "old empire".
What are your thoughts?
[14] Any “consciousness” doping facilities?
“Are the Domain aware of “consciousness” doping facilities within the non physical planes where hypnotic commands for reality brainwashing are uploaded to the IS – BE via a type of screen?”
This was an interesting response. It was dismissive. And you all shouldn’t be taken aback by it. It’s just a response.
Yes. The Domain is aware of everything.
I am sure that this isn’t what the questioner wanted to hear. But this is all that I’ve got. Simple. Are you bothered by it?
[15] The “Wet Room”?
“Is the Domain familiar with a device known as “the Wet Room” which has the ability to “spin” a consciousness through multiple non physical worlds simultaneously and is used specifically to torture/ disorientate an IS-BE traveling outside their physical body?”
I had to read some writing on this and then re-read the question. The answer was slow in coming. Maybe too general. It was hesitating and sluggish.
IS-BE's can create anything by thought. It is common to create entire universes. But those that are inmates have forgotten this ability and the Prison Correction Officers use all sorts of devices and systems to control those in the non-physical environment.
This "wet room" is one such system. There are many, many more. Some are truly awful. You do not want to get involved in any of these traps, snare or devices if you can avoid them.
Additionally, evil people use the lack of understanding and knowledge of the IS-BE inmates to throw them into these devices of torture. Then they gleefully enjoy the agony, fear, pain and suffering that they witness.
One of the problems with this kind of third party communication is that the receiver” myself can only communicate ideas, thoughts, images and concepts that I am familiar with.
I had a very strong feeling that the Commander knew what was being asked, but was frustrated in that he couldn’t provide meaningful answers to me personally.
I suppose that were he talking to the principal questioner, he would be able to transmit ideas and answers much more readily. The Wet Room.
[16] Other escapees?
“Are the Domain aware of any IS – BEs, apart from their Officers mentioned in Alien Interview who were caught in one of the electronic traps and were able to escape?”
There was a kind of frustration in the “tone” to this response.
Others have escaped. This is true.
However, today it is very uncommon event.
Each time that there is an escape, the Warden (or his surrogates) creates a new system of preventative measures so that it will not happen again. Many of the escapes occurred early on after the system was built, and over time, with the addition of more snares, traps and systems, they became fewer and fewer.Any escapes are highly unlikely to occur without Domain assistance.
(Intentional pause. Then he continued...)
It is worth noting that when the first escapes began, at the start of the Prison Complex, the "Old Empire" needed to locate a militarized police force to patrol the region around the complex. And it was this arm of their space forces that we first battled when we entered this solar system. (Clear image of other actual military forces coming later.)
When the escapees were captured, they were re-injected into the Prison Complex and treated as "escaping offenders". This gave them "special treatment" by the Mantids. They were earmarked for tougher-than-usual difficulty in mapping out the pre-birth world-line template (sic) and much shorter cycling in reincarnation events. (Shorter lives on the earth, followed by a special "Hell" area located in "Heaven" made just for them and other escapees.)
This is a standard procedure by the (Mantid) Corrections Officers. The closer an inmate gets toward escaping, the more difficult his / her next reincarnated life will be. This is controlled by the Corrections Officers in "Heaven".Today the space surrounding all Prison Complexes, both the physical and the non-physical environments are filled with a minefield of traps and snares. They are multi-layered. We have begun cleaning out large swaths of "space" (sic. I don't know why he wanted me to add this notation.) with systems that we have developed just for this purpose, and it is a tedious and time consuming process.Part of the reason for this is that the traps and snares react only to inmates. Not to normal humans and other species.
What are your thoughts on this?
[17] How can an average Joe communicate with them? (Aside from communicating via MM)
I put this question out, and then sat by waiting for a response with my cup of coffee. As it is the way that I deal with these things. I then wait. While I was on another task (my personal journal) I felt the rising hair on the back of my neck (well, it’s like rising hair on the back of my neck. Not actually the same thing.) and switched over to record it.
I vocalized it again and then typed the response.
There is no need for an "average person" to contact us. We have everything under control and in place.
It might appear to be cold and heartless, it's just our efficiency. If we need to contract you, you will be contacted.
What is important is that everyone who works with us follows the rules and obeys the procedures. The Domain works as a unified whole and a "well oiled" organism. We need people who wish to be part of this unified whole, and not a bunch of college hooligans out for a Saturday lark. (I get the strong image of a box of kittens running all over the carpet.)
(Followed by an equally strong image of a group of college students riding in a distressed model "A" with words written all over the car, and the guys wearing strange white and black shoes, striped long sleeve sweaters with sewn on letters, and the girls wearing skirts and holding triangular pennants. I get the impression that the Domain Officer must have spent some time on the Earth in the "Roaring 20's".)
If and when you are contacted by, need to communicate with, or participate in any kind of interaction with us, it is important that you remain calm.
Do not allow your thoughts to take you to bad places.
These are fears set up by the many many layers of the Prison Planet system of control. You will find that working with us is very efficient and satisfying, and that we will be able to assist you in the recovery of so many things that you have lost.
(I think that he was talking to the questioner directly in this response. Not in generalities though me.)
Interesting.
[18] How can I detect and possibly circumvent the Old Empire aesthetic mechanisms to keep us enslaved to the physical environment?
I felt that this was a good question, and the Domain Commander agreed. The answer came forth readily without hesitation.
The typical consciousness will easily be drawn into the snares and the traps. This is far truer today than say 20 or even 40 years ago. Most inmates have become accustomed to manipulation to such a degree that they cannot recognize what is going on. This is on all levels, from the physical to the non-physical.
The best equipped to avoid the snares are those with the ability to control their thoughts, and who are very cautious and focused on end goals. Those that are not easily distracted, or manipulated by strange new events will be those best able to avoid the traps.
That being said, the traps and snares are very devious and cunning. It is unlikely that anyone can avoid them without help and assistance.
That is why there are numerous non-physical organizations. Such as "elders", "leaders", "Prophets", and the like occupying roles in the non-physical reality. The purpose of these organizations is to assist and muster groups of IS-BE consciousnesses to fundamentally fight, or avoid the traps set up by the "Old Empire" prison administrators.
Unfortunately, many of the organizations are not effective enough. Their efforts have had a very minor impact on the entrapment mechanisms of the Prison Complex.
We ask everyone who works with us to focus on controlling your thoughts. Avoiding areas of danger. And helping others in need. When the time comes for your egress from the prison system, we will be there assisting you. All you need to do is call for us.
Could it be that some of the inventions of the last few decades have become traps and snares themselves? Like social media?
[19] Can they teach us how is to live and work as citizens of the Domain?
I only just glanced at this question and got a definite answer.
Yes. Absolutely.
All imprisoned IS-BE's once they regain their memories will desire to return to people, places and things that they know.
For many of them, not all, but a high percentage of them, this will mean returning to the geographic confines of the (former) "Old Empire".
But they will be quite different (from what they once were, and from their former friends) given their experiences in the Prison Complex.
We will always be willing to accept rehabilitated prison inmates of this harsh environment into The Domain. And to this end we are working on rehabilitation plans and systems just for this express purpose.
Rehabilitation is necessary, first to reacquire an IS-BE identity, and secondary to re-enter the IS-BE community as a whole. All inmates will have been damaged by their relentless tortures in the Hell that is the Prison Complex.
(Message addendum.)
Keep in mind that the (former) "Old Empire" is now the De Facto territory of The Domain. So that makes any released inmates automatically members of The Domain.
However this is not what the questioner asked. They wanted to know if they will be able to have a substantive ROLE as an ACTIVE member of The Domain rather than just a citizen under it's authority. And the question is, of course, yes.
What are your thoughts on this?
[20] How dangerous are the traps that surround the Prison Complex?
I know that they are pretty dangerous. But I figured that I would ask just how dangerous. You know, maybe just thrown back in, or perhaps something very lethal to IS-BE’s right? So I thought that I would ask.
This is the answer.
Check your cell phone.
WTF?
I turned it on, and when my Douxing (Chinese version of TicTok) turned on and opened up. This is the first video that it displayed. An interesting coincidence.
It’s pretty amazing how this coincidence came up.
[21] Anchoring to a time-line?
This was asked while I was very busy with personal issues. So, I plopped it down and then left it be until I could get around to it. When I had a chance I got straight to it. Tuning in was calm, smooth and easy. Though I really didn’t understand the question well-enough, the answers just flowed forth.
“Not sure if you’ll read this as it’s an old post. I got hit by a car, “died”, and got shunted into this almost perfectly similar reality except for a few changes. Mandela effects flip flopped for a while.”
Would The Domain be able to explain what technology/process is involved in anchoring us to a body & timeline?
Mandela effects, anchoring, world-line cross overs, and all other aspects of these strange events are unique to the prison environment that you inhabit. You refer to it as the MWI. It is an artificial construct. It is not the way the true universe works, only the universe that you live in.
The creation of this universe is very detailed and very complex, and it is unique to the understanding of the group of IS-BE's that created it. They obviously spent much time working on it, developing it, and honing it to a degree of perfection.
Usually, IS-BE's are so enraptured with the pleasures of the physical body that they lose contact with their "spiritual" (sic) side in the non-physical and they forget what abilities that they have. Obviously this was not the case during the fabrication, construction and design of this prison facility. Some mighty (major) skill sets were called into being (use).
The Domain is in the process of studying this system. Each day are new surprises. We have been working with the [technical helpers] to discover it's operation and design. From which we would be able to extract any traps, snare, or problems that lie hidden.
Anchoring to a time-line, world-line interactions, and everything associated with it is unique to this prison environment. Certainly we understand the need to anchor groups of consciousnesses. It's like herding cattle. You cannot have them all over the place and clumping up. And this was a technique that we developed over time as we became familiar with this environment. It is not totally well understood.
Anchoring is one of the containment systems used by the administration of this Prison Complex. They use it to herd inmates. Thus they can control them, and move them towards wars and conflicts that will result in the inmates expending all of their energies on wasted endeavors. Thus, and such that they will be unable to concentrate on anything else.
Remember that the entire Prison Complex is designed to have war, after war, after war. It's designed to be a Hell. Where the inmates are tortured over and over. Then forget everything, are re-injected, and then relive the same kinds of events.
The Domain is using this system to avoid wars, conflicts and turmoil. Though, there are many, many strong forces inside the Prison Complex pushing towards this goal aggressively.
MM uses the visualization method of a three-dimensional map. It is extremely helpful, but not wholly accurate.
The actual environment is like a hot cauldron full of all sorts of things. (Food, stew, meat, eggs, tentacles, etc.) Anchoring is similar to turning the knob on the temperature control.
Anchoring to avoid conflict is similar to turning down the heat on the cauldron. All of the items settle. Some sink to the bottom, while others float to the top.
Anchoring to create conflict is similar to turning up the heat on the cauldron. All the items start to toss and turn as the mixture boils. During this period, there is a lot of steam, and smoke and evaporation. And the volume of the cauldron decreases.
If you think of the volume to be the prison population inside of the Prison Complex, then you can see that the anchoring towards wars will decrease the actual prison population inside of the physical realm. Many will die off. And thus got to "Heaven" to be forgiven, forget their memories, and "rewarded" with a break. Then the cycle begins again.
This is why The Domain has had operatives anchor world lines. They acted as a method of controlling the temperature of that cauldron.
(Pause)
Anchoring to a world-line template is of a different scope than group anchoring efforts. Much of what the Domain has been involved in has been group anchoring efforts to control "the temperature" of the "cauldron stew".
What you are asking about is what happens when you are following a normal progression on a world-line template. Then there is an "event" where somehow your IS-BE consciousness "skips" and slides to a totally different template. Then, perhaps, skips and slides to another one, and then again, and maybe again, and again.
This is a big subject...
I needed to take a break and a breather. I had the impression that I was about to get a massive dose of information.
So I said “tone it down please”.
And got up, went downstairs and got my self a coke from the vending machine.
If you use the 3D template map concept that MM promotes then the best way to visualize this as a railroad line going from one world-line to the next. It's currently visualized as a plain and simple line. But if you visualize it as a railroad line it might be easier to understand.
While the topographic surface is the strongest likelihood of movement, it is not all the options available. There's "tracks" going up and above, and "tracks" going down below.
These are equivalent to "nearby slides".
If you can imagine world-line template maps stacked upon each other like a layered cake, and that an event occurs that has you make you slide up or down into a different layer in that cake, that is what is going on.
Sometimes the "event" is so traumatic that you slide to a different world-line template. One near by, of course, but not exactly the same as the one proceeding it.
In effect, you are not just simply moving from world-lien to world-line, but you are actually sliding up or down on the Z-axis as well.
In general, if this happens, the chances are that you momentarily slid to a pre-birth (default) world-line template when the "event" occurred. As you must have somehow altered your existing template in your past and have been riding it for some time on your own autonomously.
Then, when your "components" tried to latch on to the the highest probability relationship items / components /vectors it threw you off, and you ended up on a different template, and again and again, until the "components" resettled with highest-probability fits based on the thoughts associated with you at the moment of the "event".
I have no idea what the last part is about. I have to reread it a couple of times to figure it out. I think that the “components” of our consciousness ties us to the templates that we inhabit.
And thus the selection of the pre-birth world-line template must somehow tie our IS-BE consciousness with a particular world-line.
Thus, when an “event” happens, that connection can be disrupted… until it resettles.
Not every “event” is physical only. Non-physical events happen and scar our non-physical bodies.
[22] Why/how is our awareness prevented from carrying through to the dreamworld?
“I know the body is checking for movement and thoughts and will not enter sleep until the mind has blanked out, it’s an obvious “feature” built in for control.”
This is an intentionally engineered "interrupting" feature of the inmate prison body and how it differs from that of a "normal" human archetype body that lies outside of the Prison Complex.
The physical body is intentionally designed to NOT communicate or travel when sleeping.
However, this is a developing function. It does not appear immediately. It is a feature that "grows" over time. It's an intelligent feature.
This function acquires experiences, and sensory input as the IS-BE is born in the physical reality.
Then over time, this intelligent biological alteration manifests. By the time the entity is five to seven years old, most of the population will be unable to communicate with the "dreamworld" (sic).
However, it is not a perfect system.
Certain IS-BE's of strong character and ability, as well as strong environments that foster the belief of the spirit-world as a familial norm, can avoid this biological and non-physical layer of interruption. The entity as a person can learn to be able to have "Lucid Dreams", and "Astral Projection" as well as many other skills that are denied the vast humanity that is imprisoned.
Since this is a developed "growth" that is acquired over time, it is possible to destroy that "growth", alter it's composition or destroy it entirely. This can occur by directed thought, skilled intention, and practice.
Since the vast majority of inmates do not have this ability, this system of control is effective in the Prison Complex.
What are your thoughts on this?
[23] Why is astral projection hard to achieve while awake?
Strangely this response happened very quickly. I don’t even think I got a chance to take a breath.
It’s really a lot of work doing this you know. I feel very “speedy” (a LSD reference for your children of the 70’s and 80’s). My body and hair are getting exhausted from being so electrified, and my body temperature is running rather hot. I am bathed in sweat.
Sensory overload. Your engineering physical body is unable to partition out multiple consciousnesses like the IS-BE can. Thus, you must rely on a singular consciousness to manifest events.
If you want to conduct astral projection then you will need to be able to separate your physical senses from your non-physical sensing ability.
This is a normal feature of all physical human bodies, and is not an engineered feature of the inmate prison body.
What are your thoughts on this question and answer?
[24] Why do memories from astral/dreams not carry over easily?
He continues. And my keyboard is getting slippery with all the sweat from my fingers.
Memories are stored outside of the physical body. When a physical body accesses the memories they access what can be be described as RAM. It's the everyday use memories.
This varies from person to person. Some have an easier time accessing the day to day memories. Other have a difficult time, and still others with a photographic memory remember everything.
You can remember what you had for breakfast today simply because you are using local memory. Your inmate container allows this random access of everyday memories.
The same is true with your memories of what happened one year ago.
All these memories are stored on (something similar to the computer memory system known as) "RAM".
Normally, all "normal" (unmodifed) human bodies permit access to a central repository of memories. This is equivalent to a "hard drive".
Not inmates however.
The engineered inmate bodies have blocked access to the "hard drive" that contains all of the memories that you as a IS-BE has.
This ability was not only erased by the "brain washing" efforts upon entry to the Prison Planet, but access to it is not physically possible in the physical inmate (engineered) body. The entire access circuitry is ripped out.
When you, as an IS-BE exist as consciousness from the physical reality to the non-physical reality, your memories (and experiences) are being recorded and they go straight to the "hard drive".
But when you are in the physical body, they go into RAM and the "hard drive".
Inmates are never permitted to access the "hard drive" memory circuitry. Only RAM. It's biologically engineered into all inmates.
However, when an inmate "dies" and leaves the physical "general population" and gets rewarded with a "Heaven", he or she can access these "hard drive" memories by permission. A Corrections Officer (usually a Mantid) will accompany you to a "viewing area" where certain memories will be presented to you to observe.
However, that is only for inmates.
All unmodified humans do not have this problem and can access both types of memories in real time with no problem whether they are in a physical body or not.
So, in a way, you can access some of your memories. So it’s not all bad.
[25] Is this related to the memory wipe that our memories are so poor now, or biology/soul interaction?
And this came fast as well…
It is engineered in all inmate bodies.
“With the timeline I’m sure we can shift to a completely alternate reality with a new history but I’m unsure of the process involved. And yeah, thought dump sorry, I just see these bodies are actively designed to stop us leaving in soul form.”
You can only use the skills associated with world-line , time -line travel to MWI events within the prison universe; the Prison Complex. Your thoughts will not take you out of the Prison Complex alone. That is why the entire complex is constructed as it is today.
It is unlikely that you can create a universe (via a alternative reality slide) within a universe that controls the construction of your being.
The science fiction movie “Inception” comes to mind.
(A bunch of "chatter" and a confusing mix about stuff related to "time travel" to a point in time before the construction of the Prison Planet, and other things that I am having a bunch of time understanding. I think that I a just getting tired.)
Guys, I appreciate all this input, but really. Please don’t pull a “Back to school” Rodney Dangerfield on me.
These last five questions by one person just about killed me.
It makes me just want to stop and end MM completely. Have a heart and some compassion here. Please everyone, one or two questions only. These five to eight questions in a single go is not tenable. It is not something that I want to do and it is personally very, very difficult for me to handle. To give you all an idea what it is like, then do this; Grab a screwdriver and stick it in a power outlet. Now, keep putting it in that outlet for six hours.
That’s what it’s like.
When I refer to Rodney Dangerfield, “Back to School”, I am referring to a singular scene. Where the one professor gives him one singular question.
It’s just that it has these massive 64 parts. Poor Rodney answers, “concerning part 63b, subpart d, section R-12, part 14″…
It’s tiring and takes a lot out of me. Christ. I need a drink!
Back to school.
[26] There must be flaws in the system where we can throw that anchor off somehow?
The questions continue…
Yes, there are flaws, but they are very difficult to locate, and even harder to exploit.
Enough! I’m toast. No more questions. This is more than enough for one person.
…
After a break of two days, I sat down and added these questions from someone else…
[27] My question is why the “caste system”.
“Why do the type-1 have different roles, ranks, bodies, and even abilities. Unlike the mantids they use physical bodies and are limited to the limits of time and space. STO all have the same soul structure from my understanding which are different from STS. Why this? Could you please clarify.”
Everyone is an IS-BE. Everyone is thus capable of any position within any society. That includes the Domain.
The members of the Domain have roles within society based upon their abilities, and capabilities. We have a very rigorous method of merit that determines where an IS-BE "fits" within our society.
Certainly anyone can rise to become whatever class they want. It is not a rigid caste structure. It is a hybrid class structure. The only limitations are those of the IS-BE itself.
A goose cannot swim under the water, but with practice it can take longer and longer periods of time under water as needed. By practice, the goose can indeed start to swim somewhat under water. It just takes effort and drive and ambition. However, most geese do not try to swim under the water to their roles are locked in, like a caste, to floating on the water and flying. That is what they prefer.
Now, to achieve the class rating that they want, the IS-BE must get to that position through hard work, determination and merit. In the case of the goose, it must try and try and practice and practice. It must do this over and over again until it is adept at swimming under the water.
With each class are certain "benefits" or "allowances" granted to the IS-BE. Such as the ability to use certain doll bodies and so on and so forth.
(New subject.)
Note that all members of The Domain are inherently neutral in sentience.
However the accumulation of experiences manifests in the desire to serve the society; The Domain, to the best of one's ability.
This is because of the way the society is structured. In societies that grant roles based on effort, then all efforts (in all societies) eventually evolve into Service to Others sentience.
Those societies that are not based on merit, hard work, community, or effort tend to evolve into Service to Self sentience's. The more corruption, graft, crime, corruption, the more selfish the society becomes.
Thus, because of this, the vast majority of IS-BE's in The Domain are Service for Others sentience.
Any thoughts on this answer?
[28] And volunteering to work with the domain?
“Would this mean a harder life (experiences) or what would you really be doing?”
No. In many ways it could be much easier.
The questioner is dealing with many non-physical issues that reflect how his reality manifests. By working with The Domain, many of those non-physical issues can be suppressed or even completely eliminated.
Every action that one takes has tradeoffs.
For many inmates, joining the Domain adds an extra layer of effort that one might not desire. Such as MM here.
However, for those, such as the questioner, the benefits of working with the Domain far outweigh any of the negative issues. It is all about tradeoffs.
Any thoughts on this?
Some final thoughts leading up to question [29]
You know, these answers bring up so many questions for me personally.
You see, I as MM was in MAJestic and in my interactions I fully came to understand the topography of the MWI Prison Complex.
I came to understand how the Prison Planet works in great detail.
However, from these answers, it is clear that this kind of knowledge is not available to The Domain. They are having a great deal of difficulty in figuring out all the layers, the traps the systems and so on and so forth.
The Domain captured this geographic region. However, they do not know how the Prison Planet works.
From the answers (here and before) it appears that it is possible that I know (perhaps, and I am only saying) more than The Domain does about this Prison Planet.
I understand how it works and the many, many layers and how to navigate inside of it, and so much more. Right? Are these things that I just casually picked up in all my slides and adventures? What are these “things” that I somehow understand in great clarity?
Well, whatever they are, these are things that are unique to The Prison Planet.
Not to The Domain.
Not to the universe outside of the Prison Planet. Only inside the Prison Planet.
The Commander and all the workers in The Domain know many, many things. But they DO NOT know the structure and the architecture of this complex. They need to know it in order to turn off the suppression and monitoring equipment. And so they are enlisting me to help them.
Why ME?
Was it just that I had the right education and the right background and the right place and time and coincidentally it all fell into place when I joined the United States Navy? As this is what I have believed all these years. But then again… there is no such thing as coincidences.
Do you see what I am saying?
Perhaps my involvement in MAJestic goes far deeper than what I had been made aware of.
Perhaps I, myself an a reincarnated kind of aide or assistant, or architect or something or the other. Maybe I am somehow tied with some “Old Empire” skills, knowledge.
Maybe, you know…
… it was like what happened in the Ancient China. When an Emperor had his treasure tomb built, he then killed all the workers who built it, and then buried his architects in the tomb with him so that the secrets of the tomb will never see the light of day.
Maybe that is what happened.
I am not saying that I am this person or something like that. Not at all.
But it does seem really odd to me, and as these Q&A responses flush out I find myself asking these questions more and more often. Why do I know so much more about the inner workings of the Prison Planet MWI than The Domain Commander assigned to this area?
From the movie “The Matrix”; The Architect is a highly specialized, humorless program of the Machine world as well as the creator of the Matrix. As the chief administrator of the system, he is possibly a collective manifestation, or at the very least a virtual representation of the entire Machine mainframe.
What is the story?
And so, it’s really one of those moments “of truth”. You know.
What the Hell is going on?
I put it off for a day, but I just couldn’t wait. I had to ask.
…
On Sunday 26SEP21 after I had a bowl or home-made chicken noodle soup, I asked the question.
[29] Who am I? Who is MM?
And the answer came back swift and clear.
Mades Escapalion
…
…
…
Thoughts?
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This article provides a free PDF of the amazing work titled “Forbidden Archaeology” for the MM readership. It is an amazing work that documents OOPARTS that prove the the statist view of what history is, and mankind are is absolutely wrong.
It’s an AMAZING work. And the book is the size of a thick table dictionary. Seriously.
It’s not the kind of tome that you would sit down and read page by page. It tends to be on the dry side. However, just parsing and going though it you will be amazed at the careful documentation of proof of humans on this earth long, long before we were supposed to evolve.
It’s a truly amazing work. And the OOPART section is stunning in it’s volume and background.
In 1993, Cremo and Richard Thompson published Forbidden Archaeology (FA), a voluminous exposé of “anomalous archaeological artifacts” that suggested modern people possibly lived on earth almost as long as the world existed, some 4.3 billion years ago.
Summary
Forbidden Archeology is a work that questions current beliefs about human evolution. Part I of Forbidden Archeology (which covers 458 pages) is based on what the authors call anomalous evidence and
"provides a well documented compendium of reports absent from many current references and not otherwise easily obtainable."
The authors discuss how scientific evidence has been
"systematically suppressed, ignored, or forgotten...not through a conspiracy organized to deceive the public, but through an ongoing social process of knowledge filtration that appears quite innocuous, but has a substantial cumulative effect."
Chapter One discusses information that has been overlooked, suppressed, or forgotten even though a lot of the evidence was discovered immediately after Darwin published The Origin of the Species. This chapter explains the basics about archeology, such as the geological timetable and the incompleteness of the fossil record.
The authors’ thesis is based on the premise that anomalous finds should be studied and possibly accepted along with currently accepted evidence. Perhaps as is the case with other types of controversial information,
"One prominent feature in the treatment of anomalous evidence is what we could call the double standard... evidence agreeing with a prevailing theory tends to be treated very leniently...In contrast, evidence that goes against an accepted theory tends to be subjected to intense critical scrutiny, and it is expected to meet very high standards of proof."
There is a section in Chapter One titled The Phenomenon Of Suppression which perfectly describes what abductees or experiencers and those involved with experiencer research are faced with.
"...there are some observations that so violently contradict accepted theories that they are never accepted by any scientists. These tend to be reported by scientifically uneducated people in popular books, magazines, and newspapers."
Chapter Two covers detailed descriptions of reports involving intentionally cut and broken bones of animals. In other words, bones that have been altered by man. Some of this evidence points toward a theory that there was a human presence in the Americas far earlier than was originally believed, which is thought to be between 12 thousand and 25 thousand years ago. However, many serious scientists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reported that marks on bones as old as 25 million years old were indicative of human work.
This chapter illustrates that when ‘unbelievable‘ information arises and people are convinced that it cannot exist, the evidence pointing to such conclusions is overlooked or ignored by the scientific community.
Chapters Three, Four and Five continue with extremely detailed studies of anomalous old stone tools and industries. Chapter Six closes out the first section of Forbidden Archeology with a discussion of anomalous human skeletal remains. In their conclusion of Part I, the authors write:
"…the evidence suggests the existence of anatomically modern humans as far back as the early Tertiary - the first period of the Cenozoic era; 65¬37 million years ago."
A partial review of this anomalous evidence is listed at the end of this report.
Part Two of Forbidden Archeology involves discussions of ‘accepted evidence.’ Beginning with a review and discussions of Java Man, and continuing with The Piltdown Case, and Peking Man, which is very interesting. In addition, a highly recommended read is Chapter Nine, Peking Man and Other Finds in China.
The authors write in detail about how the Rockefeller Foundation funded many of the digs in Peking (Beijing). From page 534:
"It thus becomes clear that at the same time the Rockefeller Foundation was channeling funds into human evolution research in China, it was in the process of developing an elaborate plan to fund biological research with a view to developing methods to effectively control human behavior. [Canadian physician Davidson] Black's research into Peking man must be seen within this context in order to be properly understood."
From pages 537 and 538, in reference to a new beginning of philanthropy,
"All programs in various Rockefeller charities 'relating to the advance of human knowledge' were shifted to the Rockefeller Foundation, which was organized into five divisions. Each division was run by a highly competent academic and technical staff who advised the trusties of the Foundation where to give their money. It was not to be five programs each represented by a division of the Foundation; it was to be essentially one program, directed to the general problem of human behavior, with the aim of control through understanding…the Foundation also saw itself engaged in a kind of thought control. Fosdick (1952, pg.143) said: 'The possession of funds carries with it power to establish trends and styles of intellectual endeavor.' "
In a discussion about Beijing man, when actual physical evidence is not available for study, some reports are believed while others are dismissed:
"[The authors] propose that reports about evidence conforming to the standard view of human evolution generally receive greater credibility than reports about non-conforming evidence. Thus deeply-held beliefs, rather than purely objective standards, may become the determining factor in the acceptance and rejection of reports about controversial evidence."
Bigfoot
Chapter Ten is titled Living Ape Men? This chapter reviews and discusses many descriptions of what is sometimes referred to in the Pacific Northwest as “Bigfoot.” The term used by the authors most often is “wild men.” This chapter is highly recommended. It increased my knowledge and awareness about the prevalence of reports concerning this type of creature or being.
Indeed, after pages and pages of descriptions and discussions of evidence, the authors write,
"Despite all the evidence we have presented, most recognized authorities in anthropology and zoology decline to discuss the existence of wild men. If they mention wild men at all, they rarely present the really strong evidence for their existence, focusing instead on the report least likely to challenge their disbelief."
Later in the book during another discussion about skeletal remains discovered in Africa the authors write [pg. 649]:
"Most of the discoveries scientists have used to build up their picture of human evolution are similarly ambiguous, their significance obscured by professional rivalries and imperfect investigative methods."
A Sample of Anomalous Evidence
From pages 795-814 Appendix 2, which is titled Evidence for Advanced Culture In Distant Ages. A sample of anomalous evidence follows:
"Raised letter-like shapes found inside a block of marble from a quarry near Philadelphia, PA. The block of marble came from a depth of 60-70 feet, which suggests the letters were made from intelligent humans from the distant past."
"A metallic bell-shaped vessel that was blown out of pudding stone now called the Roxbury conglomerate, is over 600 million years old...by current standards, life was just beginning to form on this planet...but this vessel indicates the presence of artistic metal workers in North America over 600 million years before Leif Erikson."
"A chalk ball was found...and based on its stratigraphic position, it can be assigned a date of 45-55 million years ago."
The appendix has a long list of other anomalous evidence, but since I’ve already over-quoted from this text, I will leave the remainder of the secrets to be discovered by the reader.
The Book
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this somewhere in my OOPART Index here…
This article deals with one of the most important fundamental aspects of the fence that surround this “Prison Planet” environment. Which is the idea that the inmates reside within specially modified bodies that are designed in such a way that they can never leave the fenced in prison compound.
Basic fundamentals
The earth is a Prison Planet.
The Domain is trying to change that role to that of a rehabilitation area instead. Which I have repeatedly referred to as a “Sentience Nursery“.
This is what DM said about this…
...the Grand Elder told me that people stuck on earth (ie those who were not evil service to self oriented) would be flicked over to a “buffer” rehabilitation “reality” specifically to detox them from all the virtual reality (brainwashing) dependancies they had come to rely on whilst under the control of the Cabal (Old Empire).
All of this information (regarding this) has been detailed elsewhere on MM.
Now, due to it’s excessive size, complexity and length, it’s best that if you do not understand what is going on…
… it might be best for you to leave and go elsewhere. This article is likely to be way, way over your head.
Key principles
Actually, the idea that the earth (along with it’s solar system and four / five other solar systems) are all part of a Prison Complex should not be too difficult to understand.
The earth.
Additionally, the idea that the entire Prison Complex is much like the artificial-reality that is described within the movie The Matrix shouldn’t be that difficult to understand either.
What we think of as “reality” is in fact, an artificial construct that we think is real.
The key idea being that there is the true and actual reality, and at some point in time, a society known as “The Old Empire” created a Prison system for it’s criminals. This prison system is an artificial reality. Just like in the movie The Matrix.
This prison system is an artificial reality.
Where in the movie “The Matrix” the people can move in and out of the artificial reality by a system of electronics (such as a phone call that simulates a change in electronic manipulation)…
Moving in and out of the matrix.
…it is different in this Prison Complex.
The differences…
All and any IS-BE consciousness can enter the electro-magnetic force field at will. They can also leave it at will as well.
After all, there are many vehicles from The Domain and others that come in this Prison Environment all the time and they are able to come and go at will.
All manner of extraterrestrials can come and go in and out of this prison environment at will. Why not the inmates?
But…
…once you are designated as an inmate, your entire “self” is erased, and you are provided with a new body (system) to inhabit.
And this new body has been modified in such a way that it cannot leave the Prison Complex ever. It is sort of like having a product or software with certain features blanked out.
Appliance manufacturers make feature-omitted versions of their products to differentiate for product placement in stores.
Since you have a new body that is unable to act, behave and respond like the old body did, you are not trapped in a feature-reduced or retarded body. As such, the warden and the prison system controls everything that you have.
Everything.
In the movie the Matrix, the character Neo is shown that the system can control his actions and movements at well. This include preventing him from yelling for help or screaming.
This article talks about the differences between the “normal” human body, and the body used by inmates. We also discuss the different types or levels of a body, and what The Domain is doing to them for the irregular volunteers.
Human bodies are all over the universe
The first thing that you all must remember is that there is no such thing as evolution.
The Domain (or whatever preceded it) manufactured every type of creature that we know of.
And humans, as one such creature, is a dominant biological template that lies everywhere all over the universe. (Not THE dominant template, but one of the more common templates for a “Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet”.)
The following are extracts from “Alien Interview parsing of comments deemed trillions of years old” HERE…
"The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate. Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on false memories, inaccurate observation, missing data, unproven theories, and superstition.
…
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind, as well as from the minds of your mentors. In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, "No, not exactly".
You will find "evolution" mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns. The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain. These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist. It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become "alive" or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self- animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true. Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens. Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally. It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs. Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs. However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect. No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time is nothing more than a hypnotic lie instilled by the amnesia operation to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind. Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
The following are extracts from Alien Interview deemed billions of years old from HERE…
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one. It was called the "Arcadia Regeneration Company". I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians. It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets. There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also. Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the "class" of the planet being populated. Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies. The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life. Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
The "Arcadia Regeneration Company" specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions. Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe. The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content. In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms. There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys. This is when I learned my skills as a pilot. The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial "brain" or complex calculating machine. It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions. In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures. Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems. It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments. Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was "endowed" or "animated" with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms. Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies. The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both. This is part of a science or art you call "Eugenics".
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
…
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind. Your scientists believe that the fallacious "theory of evolution" is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here. The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet? How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature? To say it is the work of "god", is far too broad. Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects. About 350,000 of these are species of beetles. There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time. In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current "theory of evolution" of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity. Evolution by natural selection is science fiction. One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
…
Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for "Star Type 3, Class C" planets. In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion's Belt in this galaxy.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field. Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased. Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the "Old Empire" prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self- regeneration, or sexual reproduction. It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures. Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry. The infamous "Council of Yuhmi-Krum" was responsible for coordinating creature production.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the "food chain".
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be "Bugs & Blossoms" . They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms. They invented a "scientific theory" to use as a promotion gimmick. The theory was that all creatures needed to have "food" as a source of energy. Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy. Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Of course, "Bugs & Blossoms" went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores. Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult. As a 'solution', "Bugs & Blossoms" proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using 'sexual reproduction' as the basis for replenishing life-forms. "Bugs & Blossoms" was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and pre-programmed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by "Bugs & Blossoms" too.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies. These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life- forms. It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry. Ultimately, the 'food and sex' idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including "Bugs & Blossoms". The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared. Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost. Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
The core concept behind 'sexual reproduction' technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called "cyclical stimulus-response generators". This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a "chemical-electrical trigger" mechanism in the body. The "trigger" which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of "flesh body", is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses "aesthetic pain" to attract the IS-BE.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is "baited" with an aesthetic electronic wave.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get "stuck" in the body.
The "reproductive trigger" used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical- electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources. Starvation promotes reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the "sexual aesthetic-pain" electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies. This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies. This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
The civilizations of The Domain and the "Old Empire" both depend on this device to "recruit" and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations. These IS-BEs are the "working class" beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
Thus, the human archetype is a creation of The Domain, or a precursor to it. And it is located throughout the universe.You will find people who look like “everyday” humans, big and old, fat and thin, beautiful and ugly, all over the universe.
Various IS-BE’s can control humans by exposing them to the addiction of the “sexual aesthetic-pain” desires of the human form.
Earth Prison Complex Bodies are unique
However, while the “sexual aesthetic-pain” desires can snare and entangle a given IS-BE…
…a different system must be employed to keep them tethered to a specific geographic region.
Much like clipping off the wings of a bird, or foot binding of attractive wives, or a chain around a slaves neck would do. This Prison Complex utilizes a very special kind of fence. One that ONLY reacts to the movement of inmates.
The Prison Planet has a very special fence that surrounds it.
Apparently that is what happened in the creation of this “Prison Complex”.
There were alterations to the human (and other species that also serve as prison vehicles) that prevent them from ever leaving the Prison Complex. I argue that the alterations revolve around all elements of a human body. And this includes the physical body as well as the non-physical bodies.
The make up of a body
If you study any of the oriental religions, you will discover discussions and studies of the “planes of existence” where different elements of yourself reside. On each “plane of existence” you have an associated body.
Thee bodies radiate outward, with the coarsest body being the Physical body. And as you move further away from that body (not necessarily in a Geo-position sense, but rather in an energy sense) your bodies get “finer”, “lighter” and “more energetic with higher energies”.
Or so I have read.
But I am a simple guy, and we really do not need to get involved in all those details. I have the distinct impression that many of the writings on this subject are only confluence of religious dogma rather than any practical application. Or, to put it in a better way…
… “who cares about the name of the 3rd level of the casual plane, if you cannot use that information to improve your life?”
We are going to keep things here on an elementary level. If you wish to study the religious teachings / new age / spiritual teachings there are tons of websites all over the internet that you can refer to. But for now, we are going to keep things really simple.
[1] Your consciousness (IS-BE) resides within a container.
Your IS-BE consciousness is inside a body constructed for you by the Prison Complex.
[2] This container exists within a Prison Complex as a “human-shaped inmate”.
We are surrounded by other inmates that seem much like us.
[3] The “human-shaped inmate” form is derived from the human form that is common all over the universe.
The difference being that it has been modified to exist only within a Prison Complex.
“Normal people” talking to inmates using the video conference software without needing to pass through the gates to get in the prison.
[4] This modification is complete and affects both the physical body, but the non-physical body as well
Female inmates of the ADC.
Simplification
So, because of this we will consider all those various “light bodies” that reside on all those other “planes of existence” as one singular “combined body” that is the non-physical body.
Thus, this simplification for the “human inmate body” is actually…
A physical body.
A non-physical body.
The Physical Body
It is impossible for the physical body to cross the electromagnetic “fence” that surrounds the Prison Complex. The technology of the inmates is not at the level that will permit them to build a spacecraft that will be able to cross the fence. Nor will the system ever permit the prison inmates ever obtain the kind of technology needed to build a space-traveling vehicle that can breech the fence line.
One must remember that the ONLY reason why earth’s technology is so high presently is because the mental suppression technology (or at least one of the mechanisms) was destroyed by The Domain around 1150AD. Prior to that, it was anticipated that most of the inhabitants of the Prison Complex, would at best, be living in a primitive early iron-age culture for hundreds of thousands of years.
Thus, the system of constant wars, destruction, and collapse of civilizations and technology on earth is designed to prevent any kinds of space travel or advanced propulsion techniques that might allow one to escape from the prison complex.
The non-physical body
The non-physical body can move about all over. It is not constrained by technology or manufacturing ability.
It’s the power of thought. An IS-BE who can remember a specific location or memory outside of the Prison Complex can visualize it and propel themself outside of the Prison Complex.
Thus it is imperative that all memories be suppressed. Without any idea of where to go, people to meet, places to visit, the inmate is forced to be tethered to the Prison Complex.
No memories.
However, what if something reminds an inmate of some distant memory. While every action has been taken to prevent the occurrence of memories, the fact remains that one singular memory, no matter how faint or brief can be used by an IS-BE to “latch on to” and “home into” and thus go through the electronic fence that surrounds the Prison Complex.
Thus it is of particular interest that the non-physical body be modified so that it cannot go through the electromagnetic fence line surrounding the Prison Complex.
How the Domain alters the body to avoid the force screens
The “Old Empire” has designed a system where the only way out of the Prison Complex is through use of a “normal” non-physical body. And inmates have a modified body that prevents them from leaving the Prison Complex.
Once in, you are never going to leave.
It is much like the scene in The Matrix Revolutions where Neo is trapped in a subway.
Thefinalinstallment in theMatrix trilogy finds an unconscious Neo trapped in a subway stationina zone between the Matrix and the machine world. Insidethe Matrix, Neo istrapped in a subway station named Mobil Ave (an anagram forlimbo), atransitionzone between the Matrix and the Machine City. He meets a "family" of programs, including a girlnamed Sati. The "father" tells Neo the subway is controlled by the Trainman, a program loyal totheMerovingian.
The modification to the non-physical body snares the escaping inmate so that they cannot cross the fence threshold, and perhaps even alerts the warden and his administration to retrieve the errant IS-BE.
The modifications necessary to do this
I cannot state explicitly enough what the modifications are to the non-physical body, nor can I even begin to comprehend what the non-physical body is like. I once observed my non-physical body being worked on and it was really colorful, chaotic and detailed. And way, way beyond my comprehension.
It’s a medical procedure.
Once you understand that, and calm down all your fears you will see it in fine comforting images that provide answers and insight instead of fearful images of horror and terror.
It is ONLY a medical procedure. You will be surrounded by trained professionals. You need not fear anything.
What I do know is that the non-physical body must go through a number of procedures to be able to suppress or eliminate the mechanisms associated with this Prison Complex. The changes made to YOUR body must be undone. And it must be undone BEFORE you are tricked into going back into the “Tunnel of light”.
The Procedure and consciousness extraction
I will relate a little story that occurred to me.
Around 1984-5, before I was compelled to go to China Lake NWC, I had an (intense) urge to visit the North Carolina seacoast. At that time, my wife and I were living in the hills not so far from Nashville, NC.
And so, out of the blue, my wife and I traveled a eight hour drive to go to this tiny bath-house on the beach.
It was around 8 or 9 at night when we arrived. The area was deserted (aside from one other car) and We both got out of the van and walked towards the bath house.
There, we met to other people. One, a woman took my wife by the elbow and led her back to our van where they chatted up a storm on the road, and the man took me towards the bath-house.
Suddenly I was inside this lounge of sorts, and he led me down to sit. So I sat down on this sofa. A pleasant woman came up to us. She reminded me of an airline stewardess. Everyone was “normal” looking. She smiled and placed a greenish box on the counter of the coffee table in front of me. Then she did something. I’m not quite sure what.
The upshot is that my consciousness went into that box. And I was unable to feel any movement of my body. It felt like I was completely paralyzed all over. It was like "sleep paralysis" except that I wasn't asleep.
A few hours passed.
The next thing I knew, I was waving goodbye to the man and the woman. They stood there near the bath-house on that deserted stretch of road, and we drove home. I never recounted what happened. I never discussed it with anyone. Nor did my wife.
The only thing that my wife said “That was weird”. And we rode home in silence, and didn’t say anything else.
We arrived back in the early morning.
This is kind of how it is done.
When The Domain wants to modify your non-physical body, the take you to an operating room and then place your consciousness in a containment field; or box, or container. It is possible for you to watch what they are doing, were it to be suggested to you.
And that is it.
Warnings about the non-physical reality
The non-physical world is very, very hyper sensitive to thoughts.
So if you are afraid when your consciousness enters the containment field, your fears will conjure up all sorts of nasty images and terrible things that will occupy your surroundings. It’s really awful.
So you must remain calm.
HEREis an article that describes a “Lucid dream” where I was extracted to a Domain medical facility, and my consciousness put into a containment field where I would experience “sleep paralysis”.
Evil people realize they are in a prison and make the best of it
In many prisons you have groups of inmates that form gangs and societies.
They band together and use their strengths to carve out a life for themselves under the harsh prison environment. There is no reason why this isn’t occurring here today.
Scene from the movie Goodfellas. The mafia were very powerful and when they were arrested and sentenced to prison, they used their contacts, wealth and connections to make a good life for themselves inside the prison walls.
When the Mantids tell you to make a future life for yourself, and they help guide you to lay out a pre-birth world-line template, why do you listen to them? They show care, concern and compassion. They are loving and caring.
But the evil self-centered IS-BE’s go their own way and set forth pre-birth world-line templates of power, lust, greed and physical pleasures and ignore the advice of the Mantids.
And when they die, and return back to “Heaven” it’s all forgiven and forgotten.
What a gig!
Many service to self people have constructed their pre-birth world-line template in defiance of the Mantid advice and instead live a life of ease and comfort on the earth Prison Planet.
While all the rest of us have all these prohibitions on how we live our lives and what we can and cannot do, and when we are hurt, we are told to forgive those that hurt us.
And we all go to Heaven together.
And then they (the ones that hurt us) make the next-life arrangements to return to a star-studded life full of sensory pleasures and wealth.
And we, the dumb fools we are, we listen to our loving Mantids who tell us to suffer and experience pain… to make us better.
What a gig!
We live a life chosen for us from help by the Mantids.
Prison administrators escaped by going into “General Population” but are not using a prison-body
I would like to take a moment to underline an aspect that haunts me. I cannot shake it. But apparently, the administrators and operators of this Prison Complex escaped The Domain. And the method of escape was to throw themselves into the Prison itself.
After all, we know that there are agents or “operators” that work inside the Prison Complex itself…
"Old Empire" operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers. The banks are operated covertly as a non-combatant provocateur to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth.
Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
These individual IS-BE’s that operate within the prison “walls” must have some sort of key /pass /badge /fob /or knowledge that enables them to control the environment like they do. And thus, it is not unreasonable to expect the administration to have access to this knowledge.
Keep in mind that only thing that is specialty that that they know how the prison system works. So they are in this prison complex; on this earth… walking around near us, nearby. All the time with the knowledge in their heads of how to turn off the many, many systems and avoid the electromagnetic containment fence.
The administrators are hiding inside this Prison Complex somewhere. They have the keys, the knowledge and the skills to shut down or control this environment.
They live within the prison complex living a nice comfortable life of ease. They are somewhere. And some how, if they can be located, and brought to the officers and personnel of the Domain, many of the mysteries of the Prison Complex can be resolved.
Summary
For most humans, the body that you have is prison attire. (Or as we used to say in the ADC; “State Issue”.) This is a special uniform that makes it easy to identify who you are and what your role is. Once you put on the clothing and don the attire you cannot leave the prison grounds. This attire is ONLY for use on prison property.
If a guard sees you wearing this clothing and you enter a sally port or gate, they will draw their weapon and alert the prison for someone to come and take you back inside. It is a fundamental aspect of prison life.
“State Issue” of the Arkansas department of Corrections.
In a similar manner, every human within this Prison Complex wears his “State Issue”. This is similar to that of American prisons. But instead of clothing that a person wears, it’s a physical (and non-physical body) that the consciousness dons when it enters the MWI reality universe (from the Prison “Heaven”).
The body that you have prevents you from crossing the electromagnetic force field fence. And if you ever want to egress from the Prison Complex, you will need to [1]have your body altered so that you can pass through it.
Or…
[2]You can wait. Lifetime after lifetime, until (on day) the force-field fence is turned off and everyone can (line up) leave this Prison Complex together.
Prison Complex.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This article consists of answers from The Domain to questions collected by the MM audience. This is the first of (hopefully) many such events.
I collected the questions over the third week of September 2021, and tried to contact with the Domain via the EBP in fits and starts over this period. I was successful, and unsuccessful. Some times the connection was strong while at other times it was weak. All having to do with my various situation at the time.
I am trying to provide a description on how it worked out, and the relative issues or feelings involved. Some of it might seem confusing but there just isn’t the vocabulary to describe my experiences.
What this is all about
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I have numerous devices installed in my body. The seven ELF probes are for MAJestic, with the EBP system is of Domain manufacture and utility.
Terminology
EBP – A hardwired device that connects MM to The Domain.
ELF – A hardwired device that connected MM to MAJestic through a Mantid intermediary. Now deactivated.
The Domain – The name of the species / civilization that the type-1 greys belong to.
“Old Empire” – A term used to describe a vanquished civilization that used to be in control of this section of the galaxy.
Comm channel – A link to the MM “handler” or Commander. Rank and position is unknown except that it is a senior being. This is a channel though the EBP system.
This project / system
I know, and I am absolutely convinced that The Domain wants to do this. They are sort of waiting for me to set the incident(s) in place, and then will direct it as they see fit.
It's kind of like how a microwave keeps flashing after it finishes cooking the food, or how a washing machine has the display beeping after it finished washing a load. This flashing / beeping is still present. (Though... it's something different.)
My initial idea was to collect questions, and then ask them. I did this knowing full well that they may or may not answer them.
In all cases the comm channel is a dedicated channel via my EBP.
I will admit that the type-1 grey commander of The Domain that has been helping answer these questions is not at all comfortable with the system I set up.
Let it be well understood that they prefer to communicate in a very different manner. Which is; “They speak and we respond.”
In this effort, we ask questions and request answers. And, they have a real problem with this format.
They are very uncomfortable with this, and it is not how they communicate.
So in order to facilitate this effort, what I did was post the questions as a subject. Then placed the asked questions as secondary information to each subject. I then read the text out loud, and then repeated the subject.
I then paused for input.
They seem to categorize by subject. Then take the questions as subsequent data, and then discuss the subject relative to the question. I hope this makes sense. It’s much like I described a scenario or event and asked them to comment on the statement event (meaning the entire situation involving the person asking the question and his / her mental process and situation at that time) instead of commenting on the details of the question.
When I did this, the system seemed to work much better.
The Questions and Answers (Group 1)
This is exactly how I began. I read the subject title, then the question, then the subject title. I did so reading without understanding. If that makes any sense. Like reading a dishwasher repair manual out loud. Then when the comm opened up, I wrote what came to me.
Enlightenment & Lost Battalion
Are IS-BEs who attain what is often called “Enlightenment” while in a physical body free from the amnesia machinery in death?
No. Absolute answer.
Are they useful to the Domain’s efforts and should we work to become “Enlightened” as a way of being useful to the Domain?
No. “Enlightenment” has no bearing at all on extraction from this prison mechanism. It is part of the “Old Empire” system of conditioned control and brainwashing. Enlightenment is another path that leads one into the tunnel of light.
*I understand “working” or “doing” anything to become “Enlightened” is technically incorrect but it’s hard to describe such things in duality.
Understood, but we know what you are referring to.
Thank you for this.
My pleasure.
The next group of questions happened about three hours later. At that time I asked the channel (whether or not anyone was listening) to lower the amplitude so that I wasn’t thrown into turmoil for the rest of the day. This occurred and things really mellowed out, but the comm channel was much fainter. So it was a trade off.
So as long as I was able to receive, all was well.
The Questions and Answers (Group 2)
This group of questions got no or null responses. I had to try and retry numerous times. Finally on my fifth or so attempt, I started to get some responses. I actually think that the problem was not the questions but the Commander (or their representative) was on other tasks at the time, and could not respond.
Lucid Dreaming & Lost Battalion Rescue
How can those with astral projection and lucid dreaming abilities be properly coordinated to attack the amnesia traps from the inside?
This is a dangerous request.
When The Domain decides to solve a problem, we research it in great detail, then we come up with possible solutions, each one with both positive and negative scenarios. We then weigh the pros and the cons. In this effort we use concentrated forces with strategic aims and tactical strike against specific traps and snares.
Individual IS-BE's should never attempt to engage in attacks against any "Old Empire" traps. Instead they should be marked for extraction, and the Domain notified of their existence in the exact form that they were encountered in.
A person with the ability to conduct “lucid dreaming” has a special and unique skill set that enables them to be a mission critical asset. However, this kind of asset should not be meaninglessly squandered, but rather should be briefed on a specific target and then act in coordination with other unified forces to achieve a very specific outcome.
Those that have this skill set will be (interviewed / selected) for a specific task and then allow to lie dormant until the moment occurs. Then the asset will perform their function in coordination with other (specifically trained) Domain forces.
Are there any specific locations that are proving difficult for the Domain to dismantle that those who are already in the “prison” may have a better chance at reaching.
Yes.
There are numerous systems that are problematic at this time. None, however, are impossible to dissemble.
The <redacted> (a species and cluster that MM is unaware of) are providing technical assistance in this matter.
While it was not specifically asked in the question, the implied question is would we provide you (the questioner) the information or coordinates of such processes or traps. The answer is no, at this time. Consider it a confidential need to know matter.
Your disappointment (in this matter) is for the greater good.
Are there any specific “Domain approved” frequencies or modulation techniques that infrastructure can be built around to provide a physical communication pathway so that messages may be more readily received by those without EBP. This extends to frequencies that can be tuned into via “lucid and astral based telepathy”.
Yes. There are many, or more properly specified / explained there are groupings or dances of frequencies that act as system keys or codes.
When we negate or suppress a system we utilize these techniques along with various types of electromagnetic cannon in the non-physical realms that are tuned to such intricacies.
Can electronic infrastructure found within the prison be constructed to aid in the “astral body” DNA change, or to break the amnesia as a whole?
Yes, in a way, and only partially.
The entire system has both physical and non-physical components.
The bodies of humans and certain animals have had their DNA and mRNA modified to assist in the imprisonment of IS-BE’s.
By correcting this physical biological component to the universal norm, numerous existent amnesia systems will fail to work.
If so what sort of technologies should be focused on.?
Biological magnetism, electromagnetic frequencies at large voltages, and DNA and mRNA alterations.
The Questions and Answers (Group 3)
This group was quick to answer and very clear. I had no trouble getting or obtaining answers or information. All this makes me wonder if this (Domain) individual is a dedicated handler.
Technology & Prison Planet
Have the Atlan hybrids who were experimented on under Project Prometheus, began their reunion in the astral planes?
There is nothing to say about this. Null.
Is there any technology present within the prison that may be able to aid in healing those who have been targeted by the Old Empire to have debilitating illnesses to put them off carrying out their astral based assignments?
There is technology all over the physical solar system, and the non-physical solar system.
The issue is to recognize what it is, identify how it can be used, and then trained to use it properly.
While the <redacted> are using their expertise in this matter, they have a long way to go in discovering and uncovering what lies within these layers upon layers, upon layers of complex traps.
Needless to say, they are complex and far too dangerous for the casual, but enthusiastic IS-BE, to discharge.
There are many traps and snares, and one of which is a special mechanism that seeks out certain thought patterns, personalities and actions and targets it for illness or debilitating fiascos.
These systems roam the non-physical reality and the Domain destroys them when found.
But many still exist, and many are expertly camouflaged.
Those that travel the non-physical realms need to be extra cautious and understand that superior technologies, honed by billions of years, engulf the non-physical prison environment around the earth and snare, and harm the unprepared.
Luckily, most IS-BE’s that are self-actuated are aware that they are immortal, and cannot be harmed, but if the IS-BE is tethered to the prison environment, they can be damaged and returned to the amnesia process in a very harmful way. Care and caution needs to be observed.
The Questions and Answers (Group 4)
This group was also relatively quick to answer, and the “signal” came in rather strong and clear. It was like a kite on a nice fresh Spring Day. I attribute this to the Domain Officer on the other die of the Comm Channel.
Location and Rescue
Are the 3000 in one physical location and if not are they aware of each other’s presence?
The members of the “Lost Battalion” are scattered all over the world.
They occupy different bodies, and species. Many are human, but not all of them.
They have no recollection of who they are, nor their history.
They are isolated, and the “Old Empire” has created a system that immediately throws these IS-BE consciousness’s back to the earth environment immediately.
They do not even get to “rest” in the established “Heaven” that the “Old Empire” has set up for them.
Many (but not all) are living in a life of extreme poverty, confusion, fear and hopelessness’. And this system is specifically designed to foster this environment upon them.
They are not aware of any others from their Battalion and live very singular, lonely, isolated lives for the most part.
In general, almost all of the Lost Battalion are occupying bodies / situations / forms that are lower to middle to average social stratification. Of that, the weighed average is trending to the lower social strata.
Was the location in the Himalayas the ONLY location the 3000 stayed?
The Himalaya facility was the primary base of operations. Obviously they traveled as need be throughout the local physical environment, and there were “camps” in other locations that they would occupy and visit. However, the base was new, and there wasn't much time to develop other locations before they were attacked.
Were there any defectors and have they been located.
Aside from the few that were mentioned in the “Alien Interview”, there has not been any successful escapees.
The kind of IS-BE needed to escape is very special indeed. Not every IS-BE can reach this level of capability and ability. Those in the “Lost Battalion”, while very capable, were of a caliber that was not as flexible to reality manipulation as some of the leadership was / are.
Most of them were of military / service corps caliber. They were highly skilled and trained, and very aggressive, but they did not have the skills required to escape the Prison Planet configuration. Their strengths have been used against them. Like the "Chinese finger trap".
Are the 3000 still together or in “cells” scattered around the world?
No. They are homogenized throughout the planet, and rarely ever meet another imprisoned member.
None are in holding cells or other facilities. They are in "general population" throughout the globe.
The "holding cells" are used for officers and higher level Domain personnel. The Domain maintains a class system. Each class has it's own advantages, strengths, weaknesses and privileges. Those in the various levels of leadership possess much greater abilities of an exponential nature than the class directly below them.
Blank Slate Technology is a singular part of the many mechanisms used to generate an effective amnesia system. There are many systems involved. This is just another name for the wider-scope term “Brain Washing”. Keep in mind that this is a stratified system of control with many layers.
In the MWI there are multiple histories and multiple futures.
There are futures where this theory is embraced and futures where it is not.
What is important is that the trapped Battalion regain memories and skills for egress from the environment that is fencing them in.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a critical mass of “insight” or “understanding” that will “lift up” Battalion members out of their situation.
They (intentionally) have extra systems and controls that tie them down, isolate them, fill them with fear, and force them to try to act alone if ever.
The Questions and Answers (Group 5)
This set of queries were odd in that there was a noticeable pause of hick-up (if that makes sense) during the process. I was just about ready to get up out of the chair, it was so long, when the responses came back.
Freeing of Lost Battalion
How may we recognize members of the Lost Battalion should we meet them?
You will not be able to recognize them unless we specifically point them out to you.
They have no overt markers, characteristics or any other feature or attribute that sets them apart from the rest of society.
You will not be able to sense them either.
Those with heightened and trained abilities might be able to determine a general (touch / wisp / characteristic) but that is about it.
What actions are recommended should we recognize a member of the Lost Battalion?
Take no action unless specifically directed to.
You are not to get involved in their affairs unless specifically tasked to do so. While we appreciate your sympathies we must allow only overt actions where benefits can be tangibly manifested per our goals and plans.
The Amnesia Machinery
Upon death, when we perceive the “tunnel of light”. Is it recommended that we enter it?
No. We will send someone to retrieve you.
What are the pros and cons (of entering the light)?
If you enter the tunnel of light you will go straight into the reprogramming machinery.
There you will find yourself in “Heaven”, which is a special universe constructed for this Prison Planet realm.
Going through the tunnel adds your earth experiences in the last incarnation to that already collected in prior reincarnations (while in prison). You will have no knowledge of anything that transpired before that. All the trillions of years of events prior to your arrest and incarceration will be denied you.
However, you cannot access these Prison Planet memories directly. You will need a guide (a warden) to assist you. They will then carefully measure out previous memories to give you the illusion of control and remembrances of your past.
You will be permitted to attend “schools” in this Heaven construct, and then you will be provided with a new “mission” from which you will then be (again) injected into the earth Prison Environment. And subsequently lose all memories and start out all over again.
...
If you fail to enter the tunnel of light, then you will be a non-physical consciousness that is still trapped within the electromagnetic containment field, but you would still be permitted to move about at will.
You will need to seek out help and assistance to find your rightful place in the universe.
Unfortunately many IS-BE’s that try to do this find out that they are on their own. And are thus easily tricked by other malevolent non-physical entities that are also trapped within the confines of the Prison Environment. Many, not knowing any better will return to what they know; the loving warmth of the tunnel of light, and the calls of their loved ones.
...
You can think of going “into the light” as entering the main prison building, and Psych ward. Where, not going “into the light” sends you into the prison yard. In both cases, you need to make contact with someone who has the keys to the front gate to help you leave.
If we choose not to enter into the tunnel, is it a simple freewill decision on our part not to enter, enough to escape it?
To enter or not is the decision of the IS-BE.
The IS-BE always has free will, and decisions are based upon logic diagrams.
As long as the facts, and data are correct and extensive, most IS-BE’s will make correct and valid decisions.
However, one of the layers of the prison incarceration system is to distract, and mislead the inmates. This will cause them to make invalid and erroneous decisions.
Should we choose not to enter into the tunnel, what is (a) recommended place that we should next go to?
If any IS-BE decides not to go into the tunnel, they can remain in the non-physical realm associated with their body upon death. They can move about and explore.
Those who work with The Domain will be acquired in short order and taken to a holding facility for processing, debriefing and next steps.
Those that are just “normal” and regular people should start shouting out for help and assistance. The problem with doing this is that it will attract all sorts of entities and they will have all sorts of (desires / interests / plans) which may or may not be in the best interests of the IS-BE.
The best thing to do is to call out for a Domain Officer to come and pick you up. You do this through thought visualization. Much the same way that people call out for Ganesha, or Jesus.
Destruction of other Traps
If the universe is malleable and responds to our Intentions, is it sufficient to use intention to free ourselves from or destroy these traps?
The universe is malleable to a point. And the use of thoughts and intentions is how you are able to control it.
However, the ability to manipulate the universe and realities is a function of skill level, and skills are an acquired mastery.
This is the major problem with the amnesia fence, it is difficult to use the skills that you acquire if you constant forget what they are.
Is the Domain supervised by a higher power? If so please describe this higher power.
The Domain is the highest power. The Domain does not report to or serve under any other power.
The Questions and Answers (Group 6)
This group was a quick call out and a very quick response. At this point, I felt like we were “on a roll.”
The Domain & Service to Others Sentience
How can you be STO sentience and invade other IS-BE etc. Is this like a preemptive strike so protect your freedom? Or is this like, we make contact and see if we can work together, and if not we go to war?
Imagine you have a very healthy body. You exercise it, eat well. You take care of it. But there is a cancer that develops in it.
The healthy body was here first.
The cancer attacks the body with distortions that disrupt the function of the body and will eventually destroy the body completely.
Being a STO sentience, should you live and let live the cancer that is running on a rampage? Or should you protect the weak and helpless healthy cells before the dangerous cancer cells take over.
The Domain was established at the very start of everything. We created universes, worlds, plant and animal lives. We watched as fellow IS-BE's occupy those bodies and started to corrupt the creations that we built. At a certain level, it becomes necessary to prevent the creation of dangerous civilizations, and structures that will disrupt and destroy the whole. Such as with the "Old Empire".
Service to others sentience performs actions for the greater good.
However, often we discover that Service to Self individuals tend to appear when they experience the physical pleasures of beauty in the physical reality.
It is the duty of "service to others" sentience to protect others from the malevolence of "service to self" societies.
The Questions and Answers (Group 7)
The communication for this group f questions were clear, crisp, and laconic.
Freeing of Lost Battalion
Can you provide step by step instructions for helping freeing the Lost Battalion?
No. This task is too large for any one IS-BE no matter how well-intentioned. The entire procedure is an enormous undertaking and requires a coordinated and precise group collaborative effort.
Imprisoned IS-BE's who wish to participate need only vocalize that intention as per the MM Prayer system, and focus on guidance though their observations, emotions and ("intuition" / gut feelings) and dreams.
The use of directed thought from inside the Prison Planet will enable a number of non-physical events to materialize. Then, coupled with specific training or skills that will will provide in the non-physical realms to those IS-BE's (who will notice happening while in their dream state), they will become active and valuable members of this entire effort.
Destruction (Escape) of the Amnesia Machinery
Can you provide clear instructions in order to minimize/ avoid the effects of this Machinery?
Yes we can.
We have had Domain Officers escape from this system and avoid the machinery without mRNA or DNA changes to their physical bodies, and material physical destruction of the systems. However, they were able to gain control of their thoughts to an exacting amount.
The key is the ability to control one's thoughts and alter the machinery of this reality by your thoughts.
What MM is pointing out here is that the entire system of visualization of world-line templates on the MWI is a description of the Prison Planet system. It is a machine; a machinery that controls the inmates.
It is NOT a description of the ultimate reality outside of the prison.
MM has laid out a map and an understanding on how to control and navigate in and out of the prison while mastering the control of this reality machinery.
By controlling your thoughts, not only can you alter your reality, but you can egress out and away from the control of the entire Prison Planet system.
Destruction of other Traps
Are religious systems part of the traps installed here?
Yes. From the earliest records that we know of, the "Old Empire" designated and crated religious systems to control the population. This served to objectives. First to erase the idea that IS-BE's are themselves God, and second to create a fearful environment for non-compliance with the Prison Rules.
If not, do religious practices provide an escape from amnesia? please detail which ones.
Null.
The Questions and Answers (Group 8)
I did not understand the question at all. But I read it out and got a lightening quick response that actually startled me. The “being on a roll” continued.
The evil entities within the Prison system.
How to clean the infected is be that corrupt the world, mostly as members of secret societies, and have dispersed everywhere technologies and 5G and satellites to control and tax everything and beings.
All of the systems that exist in the world today are derivatives of the "Old Empire" and set in place by intentional malevolent beings who have reincarnated intentionally to positions of power. This is a core function of the Heaven universe that is tethered and directly adjacent to the physical worldly realm.
In addition, you have "Old Empire" wardens that intentionally escaped and egressed into the system, fully understanding how it works, placing themselves into positions of power and control, and living a comfortable life of ease and wealth. We suspect, but haven't fully investigated this situation, but they seem to have "rigged the game" in their favor so that they (the wardens and elite members of the "Old Empire") can reincarnate over and over again and still retain memories. It's like they posses special keys and abilities.This is one of the tasks that we need to extract from them.
Unfortunately, they are slippery folk. As soon as they sense we are going to get them, they die and are immediately taken to the Heaven construct though the "tunnel of light" that erases all memories (except theirs), and if we follow them, we too would become trapped into this Prison Planet system.
The very nature of the Prison Planet is to create a Hellish existence where IS-BE's would relive events over and over again, and make it so that each life that they live is one of fear, terror, fright, sadness and disgust.
Technology is not evil. Much of what people experience is fear of technology which is one of the controls that the Prison Planet uses. A true and actuated IS-BE has no fear. In the world today, many evil and corrupt individuals use fear to gain control and achieve emotional satisfaction.
Currently The Domain needs to rescue the Lost Battalion. Then assist in the release of all the service to others sentience's trapped in this earth-centrist Prison Planet.
For the record, these communications are relatively easy for me (personally) to engage in. My problem is receiving the contacts without the background noise. If the “amplitude” of the connection is turned up, the messages are very clear. But I end up shaking like a leaf, am very dehydrated, an emotional ball, and spend the next eight hours or so “bouncing off the walls”. To control this, I asked to tone down the amplitude, and I have begun to listen more closely without the bothersome side effects.
The Questions and Answers (Group 9)
Again, I don’t fully understand the question but posted it anyways. I didn’t get much of anything for a while. Just a bunch of “dead air” if that means anything. Then a few bursts of information. Then silence.
Then the comm link opened on the other side and here’s the responses.
Affirmation Campaigns and The Domain
Will affirmation campaigns geared toward nullifying all contracts unwittingly taken out on our souls/astral bodies help in breaking the through the amnesia?
Yes. They are the most powerful tool for those you are unable to remove their preconditioning, programming and set baseline biases and social constructs. It's a method of thought control. They best and only way for an IS-BE inmate to self-actuate is by thought control.
If we don’t agree any of the hypnosis will this help?
Anything that focuses on control of the mind will help. But the focus must be without fear of consequences, fear of society, or any other fears as these get into the way of processing the thoughts.
The mechanisms in place take those fears and use them to bend the thought waves. As now distorted vectors they end up going in other locations and the helpless inmate is forced to experience life in coils. Over and over and over again. Fear controls it all.
Be cautious of all sources of fear generation. This includes religion media, politics, friends, rumors, society, and every other thing that makes you question your actions (whether taken or not).
The Questions and Answers (Group 10)
Short simple questions. Easy to conceptualize, and transmit. I tried to get answers but nothing happened. Null. Tried again. Null. Then on the third try I received some answers.
I have to tell you that the answers made me sit back and wonder WTF. Because they are not in agreement with my understandings of history and events.
Destruction of the amnesia machinery.
Does any of the machinery still exist in the physical reality on Earth?
We suspect that yes; some self-actuated autonomous systems do still exist on the earth surface in the physical reality.
However we have not been able to locate the machinery. They have been expertly concealed and their "footprints" are difficult to track if you do not know what to look for. Those elements that reside in the non-physical realities are far easier to locate.
The best way to track these mechanisms is to track the comm channels when the physical machinery interacts with the non-physical machinery. All of which required <redacted> support, analysis and disarming.
If so, how can we recognize it should we come across any machinery?
You would not be able to recognize it. Even if you could, it would be far too dangerous for you to disarm or attempt to disarm. The last earth-side (physical event) took place in 1908 in Tunguska. A major mechanism was destroyed completely. It had been hidden under a "force shield".
We believed that this facility was a remaining "Old Empire" logistics and storage facility. (Which seemed to have some control over thought processes. At that time we were unaware of the true extent of the systems.) This is because we were unaware of an electronic fence surrounding the region or the true purpose and nature of the region.
We thought, at that time that that was the last of the systems remaining. But we were wrong. There was an entire fully operational base staffed with "Old Empire" personnel operating and in existence.
Unaware of this, and under the impression that we cleared out the systems, we began an operation to attempt to bring peace and stability to the earth at that time.
It was an operation that enabled a Domain Officer to occupy the body of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The plan was to suppress a build up towards war by restoring Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany.
How do we notify the Domain so it can be deactivated and removed safely?
All IS-BE's that wish to work with the Domain, need only vocalize that they volunteer to be part of The Domain. Then, over time, various systems will enable instantaneous monitoring of all experiences of the IS-BE so involved.
The Questions and Answers (Group 11)
This was really strange. I just copied the text from the comment without reading it, and plopped it down in the wordpress, and the channel burst out laughing. Which was really a weird feeling. It’s sort of like having a vibrator in your skull. The answers came smoothly. Like hot syrup.
Why Now?
My first issue is that the original timeline was pushed forward 5000 years. This implies that something really big happened and they need a new plan of action. Did something unexpected happen that caught them by surprise?
Yes. It was unexpected that the inmates in the Prison Planet would be desirous of working with The Domain. Of course, they had ulterior motives. They wanted power, technology, knowledge and skills that they could use to lord over others, and obtain more power.
We established lines of communication and engaged in technology transfer activities (of a minor nature) in exchange for assistance in monitoring the environment, society, trends, and in helping us to start shutting down the prison mechanism apparatus.
Once we applied for and obtained approval from our leadership, resources were allocated and a staff was increased to help mitigate the situation here and help recover and restore the "Lost Battalion". A major colony was set up in the moon, which MM has written about.
Early on we began collecting members of the "Lost Battalion" and implanted EBP (sic) systems to help track and monitor them. They typically are unruly to the extreme in regards to this effort. We have also identified key individual IS-BE's that seem to be close to having the necessary skills (independently) to leave this Prison Planet environment. Finally, there are a handful of MAJestic members, such as MM, which have a special role in this entire project.
There have been remarkable advances since the Roswell event. And since MAJestic was initiated, the assistance from earth-side has been invaluable. Since then, we have independently contacted other governments and entities in the world and have other groups working with us in this effort.
These organizations are diverse and all are secretive. None advertises their work, process or recruitment drives. There are formal organizations in modern day Russia, India, China, Bangladesh, as well as in South America and Africa. Each organization has a certain role.
Certainly the American MAJestic organization has been quite busy, but the other (names redacted intentionally by MM) organizations are invaluable. Most especially at this particular time.
Certainly there are all sorts of seriously bad consciousnesses and IS-BE’s that are in positions of power and control. They seem to be driving the world to the brink of extinction. What is going on? What can we do?”
You are in a Prison Environment. There are many bad people along you.
There is a high percentage of very evil people in this Prison Planet environment and they have created systems over systems over systems that reflect their desires. Eventually the entire system will explode in a major collapse, and then society will need to rebuild up all over again. It is what happens when you have a certain threshold of evil people in positions of power in society.
The good news is that The Domain have agents (now) occupying the bodies of key individuals and they will not "push the red button", or engage in war, no matter what their evil and vile crazed leaders might want them to do.
You need not worry about this. The Domain will not allow a repeat of World War I. However, a smaller, more localized event might still occur even though we are doing everything in our power to prevent it from occurring. Some events like tidal waves and typhoons and hurricanes can be prepared for, but you cannot stop them. They need to run their course.
To make it short, is there anything they should disclose to us humans or the participants? (bearing in mind, we humans can be pretty altruistic. And if things impact humanity, we still need to have some good faith disclosure).
No. There is no need for any disclosure that might generate fear.
Fear distracts from the thoughts, and thoughts affect reality. All one needs to know is that all of the situations involving the earth Prison Planet are monitored and observed and resources have been moved into place to mitigate any catastrophic events from happening.
If we have a possibly limited window to communicate , then we should focus on priorities for humanity and the Dominion.
Yes. This is correct. Thank you for understanding.
My instincts tell me we need to understand why they turn to us. In any deal, we have to know the dynamics.
This event with MM was planned at the start of MAJestic and occurred before the birth of MM. Everything now is following the steps laid down by The Domain. The plan is well thought out and methodical.
MM is not the only operative resource that we put in place. Others are working in other capabilities, and all have varying degrees of success.
The Questions and Answers (Group 12)
This train of thought continues with another batch of questions from another person. And like the preceding batch of questions the results and answers were fluid and easy.
Reasoning behind comm at this time
What was the reasoning for asking for our help at this time? Is there an urgency that we should be aware of?
All is on schedule. We (The Domain) anticipated enlisting General Population participation in the 2021 time-frame.
This is exactly 40 years from the date MM joined MAJestic. -MM
What skills, talents, or perceptions do we as imprisoned IS-BE’s possess that would assist in this mission?
The inmates that wish to assist The Domain possess a Service-to-self others sentience which is different from the Service-to-self sentience of the MAjestic and other government organizations.
We need [1] selfless devotion to a cause, and [2] directed thought that [3] emulates from within the Prison Planet confines.
In case there is any confusion as to what is expected of a Service to others sentience, consider this video that was brought to my attention this morning.
A young Pioneer (a Chinese version of the cub scouts / girl scouts) shows us what a Service to Others life is all about.
Is there anything in the physical world we should be doing, either in regards to the Lost Battalion or the traps and machinery of the “Old Empire”, or will our efforts concentrate on the spiritual realm and Intention campaigns?
The most important aspect of participation is anchoring efforts as part of intention campaigns. This is crucial to this phase in the effort. In addition, we might ask certain individuals with other advanced skills to participate in other ways, and we might ask a few to accept a EBP (sic) modification.
What should we be most wary of, and should we expect to be part of this operation for multiple lifetimes?
Every IS-BE is different. Ideally, this would be the last cycle of reincarnation for the participants with The Domain.
However, fear is a strong driver, and not everyone who wants to be a service-to-others sentience actually is. Thus, there are those that may choose to assist with the Domain and then upon death cycle back into the "Heaven universe" associated with this Prison Planet and begin all over again.
What plans do you have for the rehabilitation of your imprisoned IS-BE’s and the release of other favorable IS-BE’s?
We are currently working on systems to do this, and this requires a number of helpers that are and would be considered to be very strange to your sensibilities. But the rehabilitation systems are being developed right now and are on schedule.
The Questions and Answers (Group 13)
This was an interesting reaction. Odd. Surprisingly quick. Like how a father would speak to a young child who just lost their puppy. It was a very curious feeling.
Existing comm with the Domain.
Some of us are highly aware and actively engaged in our contracts through the Domain, but have become aware of a breech in communication efforts.the interference does not seem like CMEs etc, but rather are terrestrial satellite interference’s. will we be able to reopen our channels soon? or is this too great of a security threat at this time? has anyone else questioned why we feel ” forced into solitary confinement” and silence?
(Long Pause.) There are authorized and unauthorized contacts. There are also frauds and hoaxes. MM and members of his project cell are the only MAJestic-authorized direct contacts.
We once permitted ad hoc communication of Domain officers in the Prison Environment, such as with Nikola Tesla. That ended by directive when we decided to implement efforts to recover this solar system. There are no longer any unauthorized communication efforts.
Yes. There are contacts through some other organizations.
We do not authorize individual communication without a physical EBP installed in the physical body. You will know if you have it. It happens in the physical body. It is not easily dismissed or forgotten.
Communication through the EBP is impervious to all external interference and interruption. It is a direct comm link to (a handler, local to this region in) The Domain.
We do make changes to the non-physical bodies, and the individual IS-BE's so modified will have a disturbing dream, a frozen in place feeling, or a very lucid dream that they cannot control. Most will retain a memory of it. Many misinterpret this as an "Alien Abduction Event". But these changes to the non-physical body do not permit ease of communication. They serve another purpose.
If you are experiencing anything other than direct communication efforts then ... (Intentionally trailed off.)
(I do not know what happened.)
These contacts and communication channels are not trivial things. The channels are for assignments, tasks and collaborate collection in Intel. Nothing else. (The phrase "nothing else", echoed like in a long hallway.)
I am aware of every communication effort with the inmates in this region. If you want to open a dialog, strengthen your... (again, long pause), or understand your relationship with the Domain, you need to focus your thoughts to that end. You need to focus on the needs of The Domain if you wish to communicate with us.
(Then, I could picture a kind smile, like what a vet would give me when my beloved cat was very ill.)
I tried to offer some additional suggested text and hit a blank wall, and nothing. This is a final word.
The Questions and Answers (Group 14)
This next group comes piggy-back, back to back with the one preceding it. I actually have the impression that the Commander was a little snarky in the previous chat. No. Snarky is not the right word, maybe humorously aggressive in a Boston-Friendly sort of way.
Kind. Very kind. But also very fatherly.
And the “feeling” was “switch from A to B”, or go from “color green to bright yellow”. If that makes any sense. I felt a distinct serious and fatherly tone.
Time and world-lines
Am I right in assuming, that the ‘help’ we can offer is limited to this particular timeline, timeline being understood as linear progression of time from this point forward?
Yes. You are correct from your point of view.
(There are a series of in-depth and advanced information garbles that I cannot make heads or tails out of. The Commander is obviously trying to submit information. I just cannot catch it.)
(I have snatches that I understand. Clustering. Anchoring. Progression forward. Soul / consciousness "beam-walking".)
The impression that I get is that there is much that can be said and the Commander wants to transmit valuable information here, but I am not up to the task. I am sorry.
Am I right in assuming that our activities should be limited spatially to this particular instantiation of ‘planet earth’?
No. Earth is one of numerous solar systems caught up in the Prison Planet force field. And the entire MWI slices involved... (Again, much information. Too much to sort out. I am failing and flailing here.)
(Commander backs off.)
Focus on your IS-BE consciousness at your moment of time and work from there. You not worry about all the other aspects of it. You, in particular (directed at the person who asked the question), will see the clarity of the entire situation once you exit the physical reality. Just don't go back into the (that) tunnel.
(Wants to transmit more information.)
(Good will. Right track. Positive glee.)
If one should gain insight into the life/lives of this current Soul/Sentience. -combination, is that information/insight still valid in this timeline?
Yes. Everything is valid. The issue is remembering it all, then recompiling it at the end of the lifetime and reusing that information to build upon and grow.
The Questions and Answers (Group 15)
When I got this group of questions I just shook my head. And “felt a smile”, and a memory flooded my mind clear as day. When I lived in Indiana we would often have lots of cats, and litters of kittens. Often from nearby feral cats that would have a bunch of kittens.
Once I had maybe eight kittens in a tall cardboard box. They were mostly orange and white in different patterns. But one was a cute nearly all black kitten with a white and orange stripe on it’s head. And while the other kittens were all content to romp and play inside the box, this one; this black one, was constantly trying to climb out of the box and run away.
One day he climbed out, ran across the street and was hit by a car and died.
This memory and image came up clear as day when I read this following cluster of questions.
Answers are not specific enough.
Still not specific enough. What facilities do they not know the location of?
(Snark response.) What non-physical entities are you NOT aware of that occupy the 3Km diameter region centered from your bathroom?
What do they suspect the traps are and how do they need assistance in disabling them?
Null response.
(There is an answer to this question above.)
What is the power source for the equipment being used to suppress memories?
(Snark response.)
The standard local power sources that all the traps use. Duh! (Yes, as really strange as it seems he actually went "Duh!" with an overlay of Homer Simpson.)
Will they commit more resources in the short term if assistance is offered?
We have everything we need right now. If there is a need for more resources then we will apply for them, and obtain them. This is not an issue that you need be concerned about.
You’ve said in other posts that the Greys are like the Borg from Star Trek, and that someone in the know likely tipped Paramount productions off about the real aliens as inspiration for that idea. I’m a ‘Love thy enemy like yourself’ sort of person. Help can be offered, still there is risk. Will they promise not to harm humanity if their battalion is freed?
All entities of this geographic and spatial region are under the ownership and control of the Dominion. No harm will come to anyone. You are all under our jurisdiction. Please keep in mind that IS-BE's cannot be destroyed. However there are other awful futures that can be contemplated for the malevolent.
I read the Alien interview closely when you published it. Any more specifics other that what was already mentioned in the alien interview are better than none. Surely if they contact you again they can offer a tidbit more than what we already have or they wouldn’t have contacted you and your audience in this fashion.
This is the purpose of this dialog, human.
The Questions and Answers (Group 16)
I tackled this Q&A with the feeling of “ready, let’s do this”. And the answers flowed forth. It was all very matter-of-fact, on point and direct.
Amnesia Trap
Does the amnesia trap have a physical size or range of effectiveness in physical space?
Yes it does. It is limited to a small geographical area that contains five inhabited solar systems. Not every inhabited system contains planets like the Sun Type 12, Class 7 that the earth is.
This region is ovoid in shape with a oval X axis, and oval, X axis, and an oval Z axis. (3 dimensional football-like shape. -MM)
About 70 million years ago a great war devastated many of the solar systems in this geographic region of the galaxy. This occurred long before the "Old Empire" came into existence. During the recovery period a number of colonies were established on the planets in this region, but not of them grew to be major hubs of trade or commerce.
Around 208,000 years ago the "Old Empire" established dominance, and took over this geographical region. They ascertained that this section of the galaxy was a "junk yard" / rubbish / "of no use" and decided to turn it into a big Prison System. They destroyed what ever colonies or civilizations existed in the systems around 75,000 years ago, and created the Prison Complex that exists today.
It seems that since IS-BEs need to be brought to Earth for imprisonment, there might be a region or volume in which the trap is effective. If it does have a finite size, what would happen to humans who travel beyond it’s edge?
The entity would be free of the Prison environment and all the traps that exist. The IS-BE would be able to explore and travel anywhere.
However, the felon would not have any memories aside from the singular last lifetime on the Prison Planet environment.
All the trillions of years prior to their arrest and incarceration would be missing, as well as the memories associated from the hundreds to thousands of lives that they lived cycling in and out through the Prison "Heaven" would all be gone.
What would happen if a human were to die while beyond the edge?
Humans are IS-BE. IS-BE's never die. There is a fundamental vested interest of the "Old Empire" prison system to prevent you from seeing who you actually are. They fear that you will identify (by using your own memory) the slave masters who keep you imprisoned.
The Questions and Answers (Group 17)
This next question is in regards to communication between MM readership and The Domain. I guess that the intention is on an individual basis. I asked after I ate lunch, and settled down. I had a period of nothing. No responses. Then the comm opened up.
Communication
What can we do to support and improve communications?
The best way to communicate with The Domain is to use the EBP. If you do not possess one, then the second best way is to use someone that has as an intermediary.
Individual inmates that are of service-to-others sentience, and who sincerely wish to provide supporting roles with The Domain can volunteer.
To do this, [1] you modify your affirmation prayer campaigns (sic) to specifying (your) acceptance of volunteering and assisting The Domain in our efforts what ever they may be. (I have script code to add to your prayer affirmations to accomplish this. -MM)
Over time, some quicker than others, an [2] opportunity will arise where you are contacted in the non-physical body. It is very rare to be contacted in the physical body.
[3] The perceptions of this event will differ from person to person. Some "feel" this event. Some witness this event. Some remember this event as a very strange dream. This "contact" will take different forms for different people, and it depends on many things. Some people might feel a vibrational attachment (of some sort), while others might witness a medical procedure. Still others might experience a very lucid but completely strange dream. Some will feel like they are frozen and unable to move, and the fear of that will cause all sorts of terrible manifestations. Some will feel like they are under water, and unable to breathe, and others will feel both big and small and very very disoriented. It will be horrific. But it's all perceptions colored by fear.
How it appears will depend on many things.
It will be strange. It will be unusual. It will be difficult to describe. But it will feel absolutely real.
However, take and make an important note [4], if you believe, or feel, that this event occurred then it actually did occur. (All emphasis is from the Domain Officer, not MM.)
The over all purpose of this communication is to gather up a group of volunteer inmates to assist in efforts of The Domain. If you accept this recruitment effort by MM, then follow the steps outlined above.
Note that every task will be a personal task, and will not really be anything that will make sense to others outside of your operational cell. We would truly love for your participation with us. (Smile.)
On a personal note, I think that I am getting better at this. I think that this comm system is working out.
Additional comments from the officer
The following are follow-up comments from the Domain officer(s)…
19SEP21 15:49
There are numerous individuals that are (now) experiencing things; events, situations and are confused. You need not be. Everything is proceeding to plan. Some of you will be assigned some dangerous tasks, but nothing that you will not survive out of, nor will you operate alone. You will always be supported.
(Garbled / unclear.)
Trust in yourself, and follow MM. Perform your exercises. Be of good heart.
My own personal questions
I mean, I can do this right? So I asked.
A number (more than just a few) of MM followers are reporting “sleep paralysis”. What is going on?
In every case, those that experience this sensation have agreed to support the efforts of The Domain and have volunteered to join our local irregulars.
What they are experiencing is an operation (of sorts) [like a medical procedure] that alters their non-physical body. These alterations serve to sever numerous well known chains /tethers /controls /traps set up by the "Old Empire" and the warden(s) in this environment.
Some will need to experience only one procedure. Some might experience multiple procedures. No one need be fearful, but if you are unaware of what is going on, it will be a natural fear response and your thoughts will conjure up all sorts of terrors. They are not real. Everyone must remain calm and realize what is going on.
These procedures are not the installation of EBP (sic). These are something completely different and varies from IS-BE to IS-BE. It will make it easier for the IS-BE to work with The Domain, and be able to move about the non-physical environs as well as be able to leave this entire region all together.
Everyone will experience the procedure differently. One of the most common effects is feeling like you are in a state of paralysis. What is actually going on is that the consciousness is placed in a holding chamber / facility / stasis state while the non-physical body is being operated on. For many this is a first-time experience, and is entirely new and strange. They naturally panic, and the fears generate nightmares in the thought-sensitive operating chamber.
My message to all is to remain calm. We are not harming anyone. We are altering your body so that you can work alongside The Domain. If things become too terrifying for you, you need only relax. You are in the midst of friends.
Conclusions
Some of the responses were surprising. There was a latent humanity that I was not expecting. Some were aggressive and it was intended for me to transfer that aggressiveness in my report. I hope that you all benefited from this.
I know that some will not be satisfied with the answers; claiming them to be too general. While others will be satisfied. While still others, maybe a little frustrated or angry. As we used to say in corporate America; “Don’t shoot the messenger”.
I do hope that everyone has benefited in some way over this. Have a great day.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This article is a request for the MM audience to collect questions for me to ask The Domain via my EBP. If you all don’t know what I am talking about, then you can probably skip this article.
On 17SEP21 I posted an article that related the fact that The Domain opened up a dedicated channel to me via the EBP. As always, it was one-sided, and detailed. But during the conversation, I had no real mental ability. I was in a receiving and reporting state. I was really unable to think for myself. I just queried what I was told to ask and recorded the answers.
You can read this article HERE, if you are confused with what is going on.
Some Background
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I do know that MAJestic works intimately with the Domain. And that it has acquired technology, information and understandings from The Domain. Obviously further more exacting information came forth and was accumulated in the 75 or so years since the formation of MAJestic.
This project
I know, and I am absolutely convinced that The Domain wants to do this. They are sort of waiting for me to set the incident(s) in place, and then will direct it as they see fit.
It’s kind of like how a microwave keeps flashing after it finishes cooking the food, or how a washing machine has the display beeping after it finished washing a load. This flashing / beeping is still present. (Though… it’s something different.)
My idea is to collect questions. Know full well that they may or may not answer them. But I will go read the questions and then record the answers if available. If they do not answer, I will respond as such.
People (!) this is your first, maybe ONLY chance, to ask questions to an extraterrestrial.
My impression is that this is an officer or an approved liaison that is associated with my EBP implants. I am also under the impression, most strongly, that this is an approved effort. And that it is somehow associated with my Majestic role. To this end, there is a channel that is open and dedicated to this purpose.
I know it is open. I can fucking feel it.
I do not know how long it will remain open. Hours. Months, Years. I just do not know.
I have the impression that they WANT to do this, and that they WANT actual inmate involvement in their efforts in this region of geographical space. I believe that they NEED and / or require our participation in some way.
What are the interests of The Domain on Earth?
This EBP channel is not for popular trivia.
Nor is it for questions about our worries or fears. It is for queries on how we, as inmate humans, can help and participate with the Type-1 extraterrestrials of The Domain. That’s it.
It’s for Rufus’s to ask questions so that we can learn how to be able to assist the Type-1 greys of The Domain.
I get the distinct impression that they really want for us to participate in their objectives, and they are willing to provide a diversity of answers to help alleviate our fears and concerns. But in all cases keep in mind that they will only answer what they want to answer.
Thus, any questions that you might conceive of, MUST be directed towards [1] The Domain and [2] their role and mission in this earth regional environment.
Their interests are…
Freeing the 3000 members of the “Lost Battalion”.
Control and destruction or control of the amnesia machinery that surrounds the earth.
Destruction of the various traps, systems, and mechanisms that entrap consciousness in this environment.
Preservation of the earth’s environment and prevention of nuclear, biological or climatic destruction.
Patrol and policing of this region from “dropping off” more consciousnesses into this Prison Planet.
Establishment of a rehabilitation plan for the inmates in this environment.
Support of the sentience sorting efforts so that the “good” inmates may be freed from this environment.
Freeing of IS-BE’s that are worthy of leaving this Prison Environment.
Because these are the interests of The Domain at this time, in our region, these are the topic areas that we would be able to obtain answers regarding.
Some notes on how this open channel affects me
It is like electricity.
Normally, with the ELF probes active, and the EBP it was like a normal life, just “very active”. Everything was like a car engine running at full speed.
Then when I was retired, and the ELF probes were shut off, everything went quiet. It was a state of calmness that I hadn’t felt for decades. It was like calm still water, while before it was like being tied to an electric chair with 30,000 volts surging through my body.
But the EBP was still active.
And yet, as a result of this, I would have a channel in the EBP open and get chit-chat from time to time. Always one sided. Always directed. Always functional. Always on a passive station but ready for my responsive actions.
Then when I received the communication from a Commander of The Domain, it’s like “multiple channels”, or a bandwidth increase. Much better data transfer and sensory input.
I’m not used to it.
It’s not bad, it’s not horrible. It’s just that it’s unlike what I have been exposed to and pretty fierce.
It’s like plugging in a fan, as opposed to letting the fan sit in the corner of the room inert and alone.
As a result, I have a very clear comm channel.
When I say that they are open to answering sincere questions, then they will do so. And that when I say that they want us to work with them, believe me. That is the situation.
So be the Rufus, and posit some decent questions.
Question format and queries
What I plan on doing is collecting any and all questions that might result from this article. Then simplifying them, and placing them in a Q&A format. And seeing what happens.
If nothing happens, then so be it.
But if something does, then you might be surprised at the answers. As you can tell, they answer things very clearly and directly with a great deal of detail. It’s very similar to what was found in The Alien Interview.
Please ask questions that fall under these categories, and when you ask a question, please specify what category that it falls under.
Freeing the “Lost Battalion”.
Ask questions on what we can do to free the “Lost Battalion”. Or what problems or issues seem to be stopping their release. Ask what we can do to help, or anything related to freeing inmates.
Destruction of the amnesia machinery.
You should ask questions related to this machinery and how an inmate might be able to assist in the destruction of this equipment. Maybe we, as insiders, have a benefit, or skill or strategic advantage that we can offer. We should ask.
Aside from the amnesia machinery, the destruction of other systems or traps.
It’s not only the amnesia machinery that needs to be destroyed, but the layers and layers of other systems, in all forms. From the various social constructions, religious constructs, and even the environmental constructs, what can we do or how can we help.
Preservation of the earth’s environment.
I know that the type-1 greys are very keen on preserving the earth. This entire region has experienced galactic wide wars of great destruction and the ruins of many a civilization litter this region. This is more than just climate change.
Prevention of nuclear and biological destruction of the biosphere.
Certainly there are all sorts of seriously bad consciousnesses and IS-BE’s that are in positions of power and control. They seem to be driving the world to the brink of extinction. What is going on? What can we do?
Patrol and policing of this region from “dropping off” more consciousnesses into this Prison Planet.
When The Domain destroyed the “Old Empire” units and bases in this region they inadvertently opened up a “Wild West”. For the last few thousand years, all the nearby galactic civilizations have been dropping off their criminal elements here to imprison them. What of it?
Establishment of a rehabilitation plan for the inmates in this environment.
This is a big issue, and we are up close and up front. We can ask questions regarding this plan or systems or programs that are being considered.
Support of the sentience sorting efforts so that the “good” inmates may be freed from this environment.
Release of everyone immediately would be catastrophic for the galaxy. As there are many, many very terrible consciousnesses in our region. The universe doesn’t need a new Khan Running around.
Freeing of IS-BE’s that are worthy of leaving this Prison Environment.
What of the “average joes? The artists, and the creators that somehow found their way here in this environment and imprisoned improperly? We can ask questions about them, and how they can be distinguished between the really bad and nasty folk.
Procedure.
Put your questions in the comments of this article. I will collect them in another article and run a request up-stream. Let’s see what happens.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented a great and wide diverse selection of articles to the MM audience. And I do hope that you all appreciate them, enjoy them, learn from them, and I most certainly hope that they will all better your life in some way. This article is going to be a little different.
This article kicks off a project that I believe is important. It is something that I want to do.
Instead of being an informative article, this article asks all those Rufus’s in the MM audience to help the Type-1 greys of The Domain. They have a “Lost Battalion” that is imprisoned here on the Earth with us. And we should do what ever we can to help rescue them.
MM Role
I have no recollection of ever being in The Domain, or being a Type-1 grey or anything like that. I was in MAJestic and I dedicated my life to helping others and being part of something larger. I want to help them. I do not expect riches, wealth or some kind of trans-species reward or anything like that. I just want to help them.
If there are Rufus’s in the MM audience that are so inclined to join me, then please do so. Let’s give something back. Let’s make the Earth a better place, and lets all work together to bypass the memory suppression technology that surrounds this Earth Environment, and help free the “Lost Battalion” and enable them to recover their memories.
What I am asking the Rufus’s to do…
It is my personal “gut” feeling that the members of the Domain’s “Lost Battalion” 3,000 have some very strong erasure protocols installed in their world-line templates. Stronger than say, the rest of us.
When the Types-1 greys try to conduct medical or other procedures on the soldiers, they fight and resist aggressively.
I’ve been thinking that the best thing for us to do is lay down “suppressive fire” that will alter all of our templates in favor of these imprisoned soldiers.
It will not cause damage to our goals or anything, but we will start to anchor our world-line clusters in favor of the imprisoned Domain members, and make it much easier for them to break out of their confining electro-magnetic prisons and suppressive brain-washing.
The task…
For those Rufus’s that are so inclined, and only if you are so inclined, I suggest adding some special lines of code to your affirmation prayer campaigns.
Lines of code from the movie “The Matrix”.
These lines of code will help anchor your world-lines to that of a group cluster that focuses in rescuing the trapped Domain soldiers in the Earth Prison Planet.
Here are the lines of code…
From a contributor…
I volunteer and support “The Domain” in their mission to rehabilitate the IS-BEs on Earth.
I allow an officer from “The Domain” to enlist me and alter my non-physical body to allow for communication and collaboration.
I am being trained in techniques to assist my assigned role in this mission.
My participation in this mission will not affect me and my family negatively in the physical reality.
And my suggestions…
Any and all members of The Domain’ “Lost Battalion” are no longer imprisoned in this “Old Empire” containment facility.
All of these IS-BE entities are in recovery and rehabilitation.
They are all on the way to recovering their memories and regaining a role within their society.
Just add the lines of code, and the next time that you start your next campaign, just read off these lines with the rest of your affirmations.
You might also want to add this line as well…
I, as an IS-BE have recovered all of my memories, and now have the necessary skills to be freed from the Earth Prison Planet environment.
Rewards…
There are no rewards. So do not do it in the expectation of any kind of benefit.
What is all this about?
Not everyone reading this article will understand what is going on. MM has many “one article stands” where someone stumbles on the site, skim reads and then leaves. But if you stay around and read the articles you will see what is going on.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The key text segments…
"What would you like to say, Airl?", I asked. "I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
…
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time. Many of the people in that region reported sighting "vimanas" or space craft in the area.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still "Old Empire" ships and well-hidden "Old Empire" installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
…
"Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted -- telepathically -- a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the "files" of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to "feed" this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or "history lesson". This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently -- only about 10,000 years ago. Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the "Old Empire" (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond. About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a "force screen". The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the "Old Empire". Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the "Old Empire", had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that "Old Empire" has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years. No one knows exactly how long. Eventually, the space craft of the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the "Old Empire" force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the "Old Empire" base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD. The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was "taken over" by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The purpose of this "take over" was to use the body as a "disguise" through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. he officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply "pushed" the being out and took over control of the body.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly "knocked out" of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the "amnesia force screens" and was captured.
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an "electronic force field" which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it "captures" them in a kind of "electronic net". The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe "brainwashing" treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE. This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use "electric shock therapy" to erase the memory and personality of a "patient" and to make them more "cooperative".
On Earth this "therapy" uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the "Old Empire" operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS- BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE. This includes the command to "return" to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again -- forever. The hypnotic command also tells the "patient" to forget to remember.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the "Old Empire" has been using Earth as a "prison planet" for a very long time -- exactly how long is unknown -- perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the "force screen", they are captured and "ordered" by hypnotic command to "return to the light". The idea of "heaven" and the "afterlife" are part of the hypnotic suggestion -- a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately "commanded", hypnotically, to "report" back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison -- at least not for the prisoner.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as "untouchable" by the "Old Empire". This included anyone that the "Old Empire" judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An "untouchable" classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of "political prisoners". This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant "free thinkers" or "revolutionaries" who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the "Old Empire". Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the "Old Empire" is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of "untouchables" include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the "Old Empire".
"Untouchables" also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the "Old Empire" considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can't remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain officer who was "assassinated" while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the "Old Empire" force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret "Old Empire" base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the "Old Empire" base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This "Old Empire" base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
Although the military base of the "Old Empire" was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this "mind control prison" operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
The Domain has observed that since the "Old Empire" space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own "untouchable" IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby. Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the "Old Empire" base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the "Old Empire" prison planet.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by "Old Empire" traps."
…
And, the very unusual combination of "inmates" on Earth - criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses - is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment. The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind "the wall" of electronic force screens.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others.
There are IS- BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments.
Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria. Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system were very different from the civilization of the "Old Empire" itself, which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former "Old Empire" was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation. They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed. Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally "loved to death" by them.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the "Old Empire". The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by an egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the "Old Empire".
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the IS- BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
The Domain conquest of the central "Old Empire" planets was fought with electronic cannon. The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the "Old Empire" are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the "Old Empire", The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The government of the "Old Empire", before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth. They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others.
Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty. One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent. However, extraordinary understanding, self- discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a "logic" or "science" to conceive that an "ultimate solution" to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the "Old Empire" arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of "false civilizations" which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the "Old Empire".
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India.
They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World. They were hypnotically "commanded" to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the "Old Empire" prison operators.
This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original "Old Empire" planets from which they were deported.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them. It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
A "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms. The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet.
Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small. Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms "feed", as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India , bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form. During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as "Vishnu".
He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus. Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the "Old Empire" forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by "Old Empire" administrators. The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many "gods" and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who "managed" them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the "Old Empire" to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual is only a biological body and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives.
The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve. Men are slaves to the dictates of the priests who threaten eternal spiritual punishment if men do not obey them.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the "Old Empire" that still continues to operate.
A battle was waged between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain through religious conquest. Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being, to several influential beings on Earth.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own power.
The "Old Empire" priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS- BE. Obviously, this is the work of the "Old Empire" amnesia operation.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one's own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic "god" resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader -- Moses -- who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called "The Brothers of The Serpent" known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun. They were a very ancient, secret society within the "Old Empire".
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self- glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten.
His pitiful existence was soon ended.
He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or "Amen", which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the "Old Empire" forces.
The idea of "One God" was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves.
While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the "Old Empire" near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was "the" One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the "Old Empire" to trap IS-BEs.
Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call "Yaweh".
The name "Yaweh" means "anonymous", as the IS- BE who "worked with" Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia / prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia / hypnosis / prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
This "Old Empire" operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the "Ten Hypnotic Commands" to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so- called "Yaweh" also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster, and other philosophers. The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the "Old Empire" religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known.
Land on Earth?
Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time.
This will occur in the not-too-distant future -- about 5,000 Earth years -- according to the time schedule of The Domain. At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area. Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet. No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosion
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20,000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a "pit stop" or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth- like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time. The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be "killed", the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs.This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of "traps".
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the "Old Empire", beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago. Traps are often set up in the "territory" of the IS-BEs being attacked.Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of "beauty" to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE's own thought energy output when the IS- BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE's own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them "stuck" in the trap.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion. In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
(1) the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE
(2) takeover of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
(3) political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time. All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no "saints" in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between- lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one of the mechanisms of an elaborate system of "Old Empire" IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the "Old Empire", using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Earth is a "ghetto" planet. It is the result of an intergalactic "Holocaust". IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the "Old Empire". Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the "Old Empire" caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a...
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the "Old Empire" of such "untouchables", the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This "final solution" was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the "Old Empire".
The mass extermination of "untouchables" and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the "Old Empire".
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the "Old Empire" prison operators. The so-called "civilizations" of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of "Hell", their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either.
They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the "Old Empire" force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE."
Summary and conclusion
We can all use our special abilities to help others in need. It’s fine to read about Alien Interview, or participate in MAJestic, but it is something else entirely to go forth and devote time and thoughts to helping our benefactors. Here I ask and call upon all Rufus’s in the MM sphere to add some rescue code to their prayer affirmation campaigns to help the trapped Domain Battalion. Participation is optional, but it would b nice if others would join me in this effort.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This is a big special treat for the MM audience. Boy oh boy! Straight from the “horse’s mouth”. Oh baby!
Most people are aware that the work titled “Alien Interview” is a transcript of a Commander of The Domain when it’s vehicle crashed in 1947. What most people do not know is that this event spawned an American top secret agency known as MAJestic that fell under the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).
This waved, unacknowledged special access program handled (and still handles) all extraterrestrial events, technologies and interactions with the United States government. I was a unique part of that organization prior to being retired.
I do know that MAJestic works intimately with the Domain. And that it has acquired technology, information and understandings from The Domain. Obviously further more exacting information came forth and was accumulated in the 75 or so years since the formation of MAJestic.
This article is my attempt to further flush out some points (in addition to) the Alien Interview. Fill in the blanks, so to say.
Here’s where it gets strange…
You plan on one thing happening, and something entirely different transpires…
Background
Initially I had planned to disgorge what I knew of these matters though my involvement with MAJestic, and then redact everything that was questionable. But, you know, it didn’t work out that way. Not at all.
Something else happened.
As always, I set up a new “post” based on a wordpress format that I established. I cleared the wordpress, and started typing. I wrote the two paragraph introduction, fully planning to discuss what I could piece together based on my four decades of involvement, and just as I was about to start…
…I had to jump up. And then pace in my office. I actually paced. Kind of shuttered a bit to the left and almost walked out of the office to the hallway, but didn’t and went back in.
I kind of bounced around from the corner plant to the sofa, and back to the credenza.
I sat down. Cleared my desk, and took a sip of coffee, and started to type. And well, nothing came out. You know. I started to type, but (you know) I was not able to write anything down at all. I couldn’t do anything.
Blank.
So I leaned back. Perplexed.
I couldn’t even think. Blank.
I took a sip of coffee, and tried again. Still blank.
Blank.
Blank.
And then, I got goosebumps all over my arms. No shit. And right then and there, truly, something unique, and very special happened. Listen closely. Pay attention.
…
An officer of The Domain opened up a channel and talked to me directly.
No Bullshit
And make no mistake I am directed to do this with excitement / urgency (expediency).
It’s a real thing.
I am not blowing smoke up your ass. Not like Jerry Falwell getting a message from Jesus that he needs a million dollars before Tuesday or Satan will take over, or any bullshit like that. This is a real fucking thing, with real physical effects.
Communication through the EBP is always subtle and one way. I listen and then respond.
EBP– Task Directive / question.
MM– Do and confirm.
However, in this case, the system worked like this…
EBP– They prompt for a specific question.
MM– I ask / verbalize the question.
EBP– Get answer.
MM– I record the answer.
EBP– Next query…
I am forced (it’s the only way that I can do this at this time) to lay it out in Question and Answer format. And what I know or conscious of is a direct function of what I am allowed or permitted to disclose. Nothing more.
My questions and the officer’s answers…
The Disclosure
As of today, how close is The Domain able to shut down the amnesia-force-field and associated “Prison Planet” technology?
The Domain has established a task team to work on this problem.
They are working with MAJestic, as well as a number of other earth organizations to accomplish this.
The earth environment is a "battlefield" of all sorts of "traps" and "snares". Many of which are independent, individual, self-autonomous in nature.
The Domain has located and tracked our missing battalion. We work with their non-physical bodies in various efforts to release them.
As of this date, most of the battalion are still imprisoned.
However, serious and strong steps have been taken to root out and shutdown and suppress the machinery and systems that many of the mechanisms that the snares operate under.
These actions have laid down a foundation for further more successful subsequent efforts to take place.
Most of the equipment and systems are in the non-physical realms.
Any efforts towards directed thought will be most helpful.
What is the time-line for the completion of this effort?
From the start it was anticipated that the project can begin in 5,000 years. This date has been advanced, and is in process now.
We do not have a realistic time-table for completion.
This entire effort is a staged, and built-upon, effort. And it takes time. It will take many human life-times.
Sentience sorting is the methodology that will be used to select and release IS-BE's from this environment.
We anticipate the reestablishment of containment control (to stop other species from dumping their riff-raff in), and simultaneously building upon control over thought process suppression. Meanwhile snares, traps and tricks will continue to be rooted out and destroyed.
Once those most basic steps are secure, then the modification of the (physical) human biology can advance with mRNA and DNA alterations making it easier to release the non-physical bodies from the non-physical environment that surrounds this region.
We are active in modifying the non-physical bodies of many imprisoned IS-BE's. But because there are so many, it is a herculean task. Our priority is to save the Domain Battalion, and all MAJestic members that work with us (and other organizations that work with us as well). We physically change their non-physical bodies to assist in suppression of the effects of the field that surrounds this region.
We also work with other special IS-BE's that show a preference to assist us in this task. This includes both imprisoned IS-BE's as well as other IS-BE's from outside this region who volunteer to help.
How do you select or prioritize those IS-BE’s that can leave this Earth Prison Planet region?
We sort by sentience.
We have prioritized The Domain IS-BE members first. They are our most important asset in this entire effort. They hold the "keys" to "unlock" the fences.
We also work with <redacted>. You do not know them. (Referring to MM here.)
Why are you having trouble freeing the “Lost Battalion”?
They are mostly specialized "troops" that you would consider to be of military caliber. Their nature is to fight aggressively.
Additionally, they have had special "chains" or "processes" that make their recovery so much more difficult than your typical inmate.
What about other species?
Humans are not the only enslaved and imprisoned species here. Other species include dolphins, and horses.
We are working to free all IS-BE's in the regions irregardless to what physical form they inhabit and what associated Heaven they are associated with.
What can I do to help?
(Directed at MM) You are just doing great. Follow your intuition.
I think that while it was directed at me personally, I strongly think that this applies to all MM readership as well. I strongly have the "message" that it is specifically directed to some certain MM followers, but no names are being given to tell youse guys who.
What about prayer affirmation campaigns and the other things that are listed here?
(Directed at MM readership) All the tools you need to find are here. Keep in mind that the techniques are conceptual and can be modified by your own mental utility to fit your needs, do not believe in absolute solutions, as it is your thoughts that modify your reality.
Is this “channeling”?
This is "EBP stuff" as you call (refer to) it.
I want to really be a bridge between The Domain and the MM followers here. What can I do to participate in this?
(Directed at me.) Perhaps we can provide more of this in the future. It will depend on the mindset and desires of your audience. It will develop.
Is there anything else that I can ask or that you want to say?
No. Message sent. Do not worry too much (directed at the MM audience). The physical saturation of discomfort is under our (the Domain) control (observation and manipulation as necessary), and the tools that MM provides.
Conclusion
Wow!
You are welcome.
References
This communication occurred between 9:45am and 10:39am on 16SEP21. It is a direct EBP channel direct from the Type-1 greys of The Domain to me personally. It is exactly as sent. And I am personally stunned as it never happened this way before.
Final Comments
There are so many questions that I want to ask, but I was unable to gather my thoughts and ask them. That is not how you deal with these entities. I was only able to ask what they told me to ask. Though, I did have some degree of freedom on how to phrase the questions, and then post-edit some parts of the answers.
This is big stuff for me personally. If you don’t understand you can leave. I am now filled with emotion and actually my physical body is shaking with “goosebumps” all over it. Chills running back and forth.
It took me about 8 hours to cool down.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
This article discusses the idea that ancient megalithic locations and sites have a non-physical component; a designed energy field for one reason or the other. And it’s an interesting idea and concept. After all, it shakes the entire foundation of the idea of “cave men” being dumb, brute savages. Which is the Newtonian, and Victorian narrative. And instead gives us a picture of an astonishing understanding of things that are far in advance of what their physical accomplishments might say otherwise.
But before we jump into the meat of this article, let’s talk a little about MM here. Because [1] it’s what I want to talk about, and [2] it affects the writing of this article. As this article will be the first article written on this new computer.
I got a new computer! Woo Woo!
Yeah. I have been dealing with a five year old ASUS that ran on Windows 8. It was a budget model, on sale when I bought it. But it met my needs. But then Windows automatically installed Windows 10 on it. And then wouldn’t stop. No matter what switches and commands that I specified.
Windows 10 kept on adding bloatware, and hogging up more and more of my computer resources until it reached a point of saturation. I simply could not run a 4GB ram computer with an OS that required 4 GB just to operate. Jeeze!
Indeed, it was a pain in the ass. Not to mention the periodic (every two day) updates, and so forth.
My solution was to run an Unix based system, and I was all “gung-ho” to do so too. However, the wife ordered me to get a new computer. And guys, you know who is the boss. Right? And so I did.
And I started a looking.
I went into the local stores and found off the shelf computers from 2,000 RMB to 8,000 RMB. (Roughly $350 USD to $1230 USD.) I was just about ready to snag one when I realized that everything was in Chinese, and while I can get by on Chinese, I wanted a wholly English language system. It’s a personal preference, don’t you know.
Enter Amazon
So I figured that I would buy a wholly American computer (made in China obviously) but with American software, American duties, American taxation, and American systems including American spyware.
So I went to the website Amazon.com. I hear that it is a pretty popular website in the States today, and well known. But I cannot verify that. What I can verify is that I went there and found many computers that met my needs, but none were actually available. They were on “waiting lists”. Jeeze!
Prices appeared (in the basic capability range) to be in the $1500 to $2300 USD arena with all the taxes and duties taken into account.
Enter an IT professional
Recognizing my consternation, my wife laid down the law and told me what to do.
So we contacted my IT guy (an employee of mine) and he made up a custom computer laptop for me. He used Windows 10 as that is what I am used to, but used a Chinese modified version. (A scalpel was taken to the NSA backdoors and reporting systems, as well as updates. It’s a “safe” and inert version for Chinese users.) Granted, it’s still bloatware, and a pain in the ass sometimes, but it gets me where I want to go. And on this newer and faster system, it’s like a hot knife through butter.
My old computer had 2 GB ram. Windows 10 needs 4 GB ram just to operate. This new joy used 32 GB ram and the difference is astounding.
My old PC had 100GB storage in SSD HD. And I was told that “everyone” used cloud storage “these days”.
Bullshit.
I couldn’t get anything done without contortions and manipulations.
My new PC has an internal 500GB SSD storage and an outside HD of 2TB SSD storage. Holly Hell!
Connection speeds are off the charts. Typing is easy as all get out, and the graphics are astounding. This system has amazing graphics. Maybe I’ll install a few simulators that I have been Jonesing about. Like the X-Plane 11.
X-Plane 11
Or Flyinside…
Flyinside
Anyways, my IT guy took an off the shelf Shaomi, modified it with Samsung memory and local Chinese graphics cards. The price is much cheaper than what you would get in the ‘States. For certain and meets my needs.
BTW, I have received tremendous support from MM readers who have substantial skill in IT matters. They helped me keep typing while my old computer burped and sighed as it got older.
Now you would think that I wouldn't need this help as I had an IT guy nearby. But I didn't. I have a periodic IT guy that jets around all over Asia, and helps me remotely as time permits. He made up this computer remotely to my specifications and then shipped it to me via the mail.
People! You make do with what is available to you. And never forget the network of friends that you have.
Here a BIG call out to those who have helped me in the past, and the movies, and the step by step instructions that they sent me. It keep MM alive. Big THANK YOU!
I do not play games that often
I do love a good game, and the computer games are awesome, but this is a work computer. Not a gaming computer. It has a lighted keyboard, and the ram, but not the graphics card need to run the modern intensity games. But this computer can run most of the conventional games of interest, and that’s good enough for me.
Though X-plane 11 does look awfully tasty…
X-Plane 11.
My biggest sigh of relief is that the MS Windows will not be trying to jam a watermelon down into a pin hole any longer. I can actually get some work down without MS shutting down the system for lack of resources every forty minutes or so.
Harmony OS
Oh, and Harmony OS is not yet ready for PC operation. Which is a great disappointment to me. But you deal with what you are familiar with and what you work with. And that is that.
Harmony OS
Did I cop out?
Nope. If you need to dig a ditch you grab what ever shovel is available and you use it. If you have a choice, you use the best one available to you.
I wish that I could tell you that I could walk into a nearby store with a Harmony OS or UNIX computer off the shelf with the latest and greatest hardware, but that is not possible at this time. And so you make do with what you have available to you.
All in all…
All in all, a computer is just a tool. It’s like a car, a blender, a lawnmower or a razor. You use it as you see fit and if you use it often enough, you will want to use the best quality tool available and treat it with care and dignity.
And now to the article…
Is there MORE to the eye when you look at these 10,000 year old piles of rock and stone? Are there magnetic alignments, electrical currents, eddy currents and forces that geographically exist, but is not discernible to those without the necessary equipment?
And if so…
Then 10,000 years ago either
Ancient humans had the ability to naturally sense these magnetic or electromagnetic lines of force.
Or,
They had equipment that could.
They’re Alive! Megalithic Sites Are More than Just Stone
It doesn’t take much to stimulate the human body’s electro-magnetic circuitry, in fact a small change in the local environment is enough to create a change in awareness.
People who visit ancient temples and megalithic sites often describe such a sensation. The standard explanation is that such feelings are nothing more than a ‘wow’ factor: the result of visual stimuli from the overwhelming impression generated by megalithic constructions such as stone circles, ancient temples and pyramids.
But the cumulative evidence proves otherwise: that megaliths and other ancient sacred places are actually attracting, storing, even generating their own energy field, creating the kind of environment where one can enter an altered state of consciousness.
Generating Energy Fields
In 1983 a comprehensive study was undertaken by engineer Charles Brooker to locate magnetism in sacred sites. The test subject was the Rollright stone circle in England. A magnetometer survey of the site revealed how a band of magnetic force is attracted into the stone circle through a narrow gap of stones that act as the entrance. The band then spirals towards the center of the circle as though descending down a rabbit hole.
Two of the circle’s western stones were also found to pulsate with concentric rings of alternating current, resembling ripples in a pond.
Magnetomer survey image of the Rollright Stones. Adapted from Charles Brooker. Magnetism and Standing Stones, New Scientist, January 13, 1983.
The analysis led Brooker to state how,
“the average intensity of the [geomagnetic] field within the circle was significantly lower than that measured outside, as if the stones acted as a shield.”
Such discoveries help us decipher what the ancients were up to when they built megalithic structures. At the Temple of Edfu in Egypt there is a wall featuring what amounts to a recipe for establishing a space that differs energetically from its surrounding landscape — a temple. The instructions describe how certain creator gods first established a mound and ‘pierced a snake’ to the spot, whereupon a special force of nature impregnated the mound, which led to the construction of the physical temple.
The symbol of the serpent has always been a culturally shared metaphor of the earth’s meandering lines of force, what scientists refer to as telluric currents.
Egyptian goddess harnessing the serpent energy.
Controlling the Laws of Nature
It seems ancient architects had a fine degree of control of the laws of nature, because a recent study of energy fields in and around Avebury, the world’s largest stone circle, shows how its megaliths are designed to attract a ground current into the site.
Electrodes planted at Avebury reveal how its circular ditch breaks the transmission of telluric ground current and conducts electricity into the ditch, in effect concentrating energy and releasing it at the entrance to the site, sometimes at double the rate of the surrounding land.
Magnetic readings at Avebury die away at night to a far greater level than can be accounted for under natural circumstances. They charge back at sunrise, with the ground telluric current from the surrounding land attracted to the henge just as magnetic fluctuations of the site reach their maximum.
Studies conducted by the late physicist John Burke also discovered how the stones of Avebury are deliberately placed and aligned so as to focus electro-magnetic currents to flow in a premeditated direction using an identical principle to modern atomic particle colliders, in which airborne ions are steered in one direction.
Avebury stone circle. Image by Freddy Silva.
The effect of sacred sites behaving like concentrators of electromagnetic energy is enhanced by the choice of stone. Often moved across enormous distance, the stone used in megalithic sites contains substantial amounts of magnetite. The combination makes temples behave like weak, albeit huge, magnets.
Spiritual Technology
This has a profound influence on the human body, particularly the dissolved iron that flows in blood vessels, not to mention the millions of particles of magnetite floating inside the skull, and the pineal gland, which itself is highly sensitive to geomagnetic fields, and whose stimulation begins the production of chemicals such as pinolene and serotonin, which in turn leads to the creation of the hallucinogen DMT. In an environment where geomagnetic field intensity is decreased, people are known to experience psychic and shamanic states.
An exhaustive investigation into the Carnac region of France, where some 80,000 megaliths are concentrated, reveals a similar spiritual technology at work. At first the leading researcher, electrical engineer Pierre Mereux, was skeptical that megalithic sites possessed any special powers.
Mereux’s study of Carnac shows how its dolmens amplify and release telluric energy throughout the day, with the strongest readings occurring at dawn. The voltage and magnetic variations are related, and follow a phenomenon known as electric induction . According to Mereux,
“The dolmen behaves as a coil or solenoid, in which currents are induced, provoked by the variations, weaker or stronger, of the surrounding magnetic field. But these phenomena are not produced with any intensity unless the dolmen is constructed with crystalline rocks rich in quartz, such as granite.”
His readings of menhirs reveal an energy that pulsates at regular intervals at the base, positively-and negatively-charged, up to thirty-six feet from these upright monoliths, some of which still show carvings of serpents.
Extreme pulsations recycle approximately every 70 minutes, showing that the menhirs charge and discharge regularly.
Mereux also noticed how the voltage of standing stones in the Grand Ménec alignment diminished the farther away they lay from the stone circle, which itself behaved as a kind of condenser or concentrator of energy.
Carnac menhir caption: One of the 80,000 menhirs in the Carnac region. Image by Freddy Silva.
The composition of the stones and their ability to conduct energy was not lost on Mereux and others. Being very high in quartz, the specially chosen rocks are piezoelectric, which is to say they generate electricity when compressed or subjected to vibrations.
The megaliths of Carnac, positioned as they are upon thirty-one fractures of the most active earthquake zone in France, are in a constant state of vibration, making the stones electromagnetically active.
It demonstrates that the menhirs were not planted on this location by chance, particularly as they were transported from 60 miles (97 km) away, because their presence and orientation is in direct relationship to terrestrial magnetism.
Sacred Sites and Magnetic Portals
Ancient Mysteries traditions around the world share one peculiar aspect: they maintain how certain places on the face of the Earth possess a higher concentration of power than others.
These sites, named “spots of the fawn” by the Hopi, eventually became the foundation for many sacred sites and temple structures we see today. What is interesting is that each culture maintains that these special places are connected with the heavens by a hollow tube or reed, and by this umbilical connection the soul is capable of engaging with the Otherworld during ritual. However, it also allows a conduit for the spirit world to enter this physical domain.
In 2008 NASA may have unwittingly proved this observation to be true when it published details of an investigation into FTEs, or flux transfer events, in which this organization describes how the Earth is linked to the Sun by a network of magnetic portals which open every eight minutes.
Such discoveries help to validate, in the scientific eye, the long-held belief by sensitives and dowsers since the recording of history that megalithic sites and ancient temples are places set aside from the normal world, where a person can connect with locations far beyond this planetary sphere.
Certainly the ancient Egyptian priests regarded the temple as far more than a conglomerate of dead stones. Every dawn they awakened each room with orations, treating the temple as a living organism that sleeps at night and awakens at dawn.
Near Copper Harbor, Michigan, USA, at the northern tip of the Keewenaw Peninsula, a large and long protrusion of rock emerges far up the hillside in deep forest.
Many petroglyphs cover this rock. It sits on the ancient shoreline of Lake Duluth. One figure is a large boat rigged with a square sail. Most viewers who trek that far into the forest proclaim it a Viking boat. Other carvings on this stone called ‘Picture Rock’ have recently been defaced as the location becomes well known and the public gains greater access.
A dolmen, a large cap stone supported by three shim stones holding it aloft, is located on the Kelso River out of Sawbill Landing, Minnesota, within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) in a national forest. Canada considers these to be lithic works created by the Neolithic cultures long before recorded history. Many others have been found on this continent and around the world, suggesting they are guideposts for ancient man.
lithic
By definition, Lithic means “of the nature of or relating to stone.” Strong and formidable, stone has laid the foundation for infrastructure.
In ancient times, water levels were higher from melting glaciers. The surface of the earth was still pressed down from the Ice Ages and had not begun rebounding with the removal of all that ice.
If ancient boats did traverse the Laurentian Divide (a raised area across North America dividing the direction of water flow) between the watersheds, this spot is a likely possibility. Several times I have trekked to Magnetic Rock on the border trail (prominent on the north side atop the Laurentian Divide) between Magnetic Lake and the Gunflint Trail. It was only after the Ham Lake forest fire in 2007 that the rock ‘reappeared’.
b-stone.
In an article by Wakefield and de Jong on megaliths in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, a standing menhir closely resembles the rock in Minnesota.
Dr. de Jong’s interpretation was sailing data is encrypted in the Orkney stone, explaining the unique shape and lines of the stone on our northern border.
The stone I was sitting on in photo below is possibly a shim placed to hold the stone erect. The rock was raised, by persons unknown, to mark a water passage through the Laurentian Divide. At that date, higher water levels would have created a channel. The menhir sits on the highest elevation, according to USGS maps. The swampy valley below is the headwaters of the Cross River.
Author rests upon may have been a shim placed to hold the standing stone erect.
If this area was used by man in the distant past, supporting evidence was crucial. Further exploration produced indications of the presence of prehistoric man.
Magnetic Lake, Superior National Forest, Minnesota, and surrounds.
Magnetic Rock is the same high iron content igneous rock that makes up the Laurentian Divide. A waterhole near the Gunflint Trail attracted our attention due to the right angles and cut rocks surrounding it. Sitting next to the watercourse was a stone cube. Two other cubes were subsequently located, the smallest on the heights east of the river.
Cubed rocks.
The rock did fracture at right angles.
The lower right image might have been a demonstration of an ancient mining technique, wherein intense fire is doused with water to fracture the rock. Today First Nation, or Native American peoples pour boiling water, during winter, into cracks in the Souix Quartzite to freeze and break apart the rocks, to aid mining of Catlinite, a reddish-brown rock in Pipestone, Minnesota.
On the ridge overlooking this area, large boulders were placed exactly on the top edge of the slope and prepared with trigger stones to be rolled down the hill. They dot the cliff line, and one is shown in detail. They are a fixed defense and would require more than one person to function. The purpose for these rocks is not known, but they are obvious in intent and lethal in scale. The border trail heads north from here along the ridge of a cliff that leads to Magnetic Rock .
On the west edge of this cliff, on a short ledge four feet below the summit, was a cache.
West Edge
It is well designed and skillfully made.
The right image shows where the cap stone was taken from the cliff, then moved horizontally along the ledge through human effort. While the chamber is empty today, detritus has accumulated on the ledge, awaiting qualified investigation.
Across flowing water to the east, on a ledge below steep cliffs, sits a large boulder calling attention to itself by shape and position in the landscape.
Kerri Jones of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, took a telephoto image.
This rock, upon closer examination by Diane Bruns, showed chisel marks and shaping.
While not a classic dolmen, I believe this qualifies as a piece of Neolithic rock art.
The placement, shape, and expression speak too much of the monuments left by man in this time, contemporary with Stonehenge in Britain and the pyramids of Egypt.
An amethyst deposit was removed directly beside the menhir and a “sun sign” remains. The rock is igneous, so this is not a fossil. Kasey Jones, pointing, said this was found close to magnetic rock. Note the sun sign on the Kelso Dolmen, so-named for the Keslo River (below, hand calling attention to the symbol). Since this photo was taken, the standing stone has fractured due to natural forces and a large slab has calved off the side, now covering this important piece of evidence of man’s activity. I fear to never set eyes on it in the future.
This photo by TJB Archaeological Associates-Thunder Bay, ON.
Kelso dolmen and Magnetic Rock have been shown over the internet recently on YouTube, gaining awareness.
The climb from the Gunflint Trail to Magnetic Rock was improved last year by the Minnesota Conservation Corp.
It is important to evaluate and preserve these unique sites for posterity. While the Ham Lake forest fire brought this menhir back out of the forest, the heat of the fire and exposure to elements has taken a toll.
This unique spot, a transit point between watersheds, may have been used to access the rich copper deposits of Isle Royale and the Keewenaw Peninsula. Four thousand years ago higher water levels and a temperate arctic may have brought conditions allowing this.
A demand for copper clearly existed. Several locations around the prehistoric world were known for stepping up to metallurgy.
It is obvious there must have been a copper period before the Bronze Age could exist. A defining aspect of human culture is trade, and the success of many early groups was rated by the distance their resources were distributed, or the cultural practices they followed.
Float copper would have been available for easy transportation and man has always practiced war and trade, both being methods for transferring wealth.
Our technology offers new data and insights into cultures invisible to written history. Questioning and studying the aquaculture of Machu Picchu is astounding urban designers today. It is only in the last century we understand what the stone masons were doing building the Greek Parthenon.
There are levels of sophistication we are not aware of at this time. These odd spots in the forest must be protected, and require qualified examination and evaluation with an open mind. New paradigms are arising in understanding the activities of Neolithic man.
Some Conclusions
Well, let me suggest some thoughts.
Ancient man at 10,000 years ago had understanding and abilities regarding the ability to sense non-physical actions, and energy better than what we modern humans have.
The mining of metals, notably copper occurred during this time with implies the utilization of metal tools.
How the ancient peoples used their skills to both sense these fields, and fashion metals tools indicates early civilizations of a far greater capability and extraordinary utility than what has been assigned to them.
I like to believe that by studying their actual abilities at this time, we should be able to decipher more about who they were and what their societies were at that remote time in the past.
And now it’s time to go and eat…
Some of my thoughts on food (while I am at it). And why not? Seriously. Why not? When I go on adventures, meet attractive and interesting people, women or animals, or just enjoy a beautiful day, I think about food.
Like a nice steak. Thick, heavy with nice juices.
Some of the best food porn used to be found on Tumblr before it was “perfected” by Yahoo into a sterile corporate money-making platform, instead of a refuge for amateurs and artists.
I must tell you that they make real delicious perfects steaks in two places on this planet. The places are Brazil and Zambia. And you have no idea how well taken cared for you are and with delicious thick juicy steaks in the lands of Zambia and Brazil.
Typical Lusaka, Zambia steak.. Eggs, ham, sausages, french fries, mushrooms, fried tomatoes and icy cold beer. My goodness!
Typical Lusaka, Zambia steak.
Now, for my comment of the day.
Instead of buying five "Fast Food" package meals for lunch all week, how about bagging it with some home made soups and sandwiches, and then spend Friday night eating a delicious steak like the one pictured above. The same amount of money will be used, it's just that the quality of what you will eat will change substantially.
But that’s just my opinion.
My belief is that you move away from five “fast food” fill-up dash-and-burp meals, and replace them with home-made fresh simple but filling meals. Then spend the savings on a deluxe special meal at the end of the week. Depending on your situation and the budget you can decide on restaurants or on cooking at home.
Oh, and don’t forget your friends, and your little guys. It’s a time to go out and celebrate just for the heck of it. You DO NOT NEED an excuse. You just make some phone calls and tell those folk to show up.
If you all are poor…
…make it “pot luck” and everyone brings a home-made dish. Just organize it. Suzy and Jake brings a salad. Tom and Roy bring a bacon / cauliflower dish. Daniel brings some rolls, breads. James brings a case of beer. Tommy brings some potato chips. Etc. Etc. Etc.
What are you waiting for?
An invitation?
And while I am at it, here’s a Zambian Africa version of steak and mushroom pizza. I tell you what, you won’t find such a concentration of mushrooms and steak on a pizza anywhere else. You just won’t.
Zambian steak and mushroom pizza.
Maybe you can make home-made steak and mushroom pizzas as the theme. Provide lots and lots of beverages, and just invite friends to come over, eat their fill, drink and chat with you. I’ll tell you that if one of my friends told me that they are experimenting making steak pizzas and wants me to come over, smunch, jam (with some music) and watch a movie later on, I’d be the first one at their door-step.
What will it do?
Nothing obviously. Stop thinking in terms of “profit motives”. Instead of thinking about changing your lifestyle into something better. Making it a more adventuresome and exciting fun life. A life, mind you, that you share with others.
But, you do know, that it will set things in motion that will manifest later on. Just do it. Trust in the wisdom of MM.
Now…
Talking about themes…
You know, if I lived in the UK, I would take this moment to go visit some of these most interesting megalithic sites that all throughout the region. Maybe not the most famous ones, but the “out of the way” places. Then take some pictures, get a “feeling” for the area. Who knows, maybe I could experience some feelings of the Leigh Lines, or whatever they are called.
Then…
Check out the local pub(s). Try the local meal specialties (if any). Chat it up with the old bar flies there, the townies, and all the rest, and maybe make some friends. I’d make a day of it. But that’s just me.
Fine delicious pub food.
Of course, for me, a beef pie would be awesome. Just awesome, while everyone else might yawn and look the other way. As if (to say) “tourist”.
But really, there’s so much to see and explore in this world.
I well remember a fine meat pie lady who well investigated a OOPART in the UK. Such an adventure, and even though no direct discoveries occurred, the day trip was a wonderful adventure with many, many good times. Memories. Companionship.
Oh, and she did discover a curious abandoned construction that somehow ended right on top of what used to be the ruins. What a coincidence.
And you all know about coincidences, eh?
Anyways, the fact that you go out of your house, and you go forth and explore, and that you go and make friends. Oh, Lordy! It’s so awesome!
If I was in Indiana, Pennsylvania or Ohio, I would tromp out to the local historical parks, and museums and see if I could sense of “feel” any magnetic or patterns around the structures there. I probably couldn’t, but the exercise in trying to discover the effects would actually be awesome. I think.
Mound builders “footprint”.
You never know what life will present to you.
I once had an interview for a job in Deland, Florida.
What a beautiful place. And interesting work on sonar buoys. But they low-balled me on salary. I mean really, seriously offered me a salary just above minimum wage. WTF?
But I told them that I would consider it.
Deland, Florida.
And the wife and I (my first wife) spent a week trying to figure out if that place was good for us. And it was certainly beautiful.
They had fern farms. That’s right, this was were they grew ferns. They has these ferns under the trees that lay under an canopy and it was really deep, dark, lush and calm. Spanish moss hung from the trees.
So nice.
Deland, Florida.
Alas, I did not accept the job. Not that I didn’t want to accept the low salary, but we physically couldn’t afford it. The rents were out of our reach at that salary. Which is probably why the turnover was so high at the company. Sigh.
But it was in the 1990’s. It was at the time when profits over all drove all companies throughout the USA.
Working in the 1990’s really sucked.
But, what I want to tell you all is that next to the area where we stayed was a horse race track. And we visited it during the day to have lunch.
Very relaxing.
The riders were not racing. Just going through their paces, and we got a reasonably inexpensive lunch on an off moment in time.
A nice relaxing lunch at the club or the track.
But as we got back to our rental car, we heard meowing.
And there near the fence was around 16 of the cutest little kittens you ever did see. (Sixteen kittens. So many.) They were all white. Every single one of them.
Perhaps two or three white cats gave birth to all these kittens, and they were so friendly and came up to us. I just wanted to take all of them home.
But I didn’t.
Many white kittens.
I should have taken the event as a SIGN.
“Signs”. They do occur.
Signs are real things. But I didn’t. I was too focused on the material aspects of a functional life. I shouldn’t have been, but I did.
This was just a few months after my only ever white kitten; snowflaker, died.
Instead I took another job. It fizzled and I left it. But maybe I should have listened to the signs…
Maybe I should have listened to the signs…
Maybe I should have listened to the signs…
Maybe I should have listened to the signs…
…but I would never have been exposed to the signs if I did not venture forth and get out of the environment that I was in. Oh, so many MM readers are still in their boxes. It’s tough to venture outward, but when you do, things happen.
THINGS HAPPEN.
Things happen.
…
OK. So what am I trying to say. Well, go out of your “comfort zone” and try to explore the world nearby. You might be surprised at how interesting it is. And if you don’t find it interesting, you might be surprised at all the new experiences you will have.
Even the most bland place has some very interesting stories that are just waiting for YOU to experience.
I well remember living in Kentucky. Bored, my wife and I went for a long ride. Lord knows where we went, but somehow we ended up in the middle of no where. So we pulled up at a lone gas station. There was a glider sofa, on the porch.
Kentucky
We got some ice cream, and spent one hour just rocking on that glider while the world sat frozen in time. It was magical.
Kentucky
I always enjoyed glider sofas. Everyone used to have them. Both of my grandparents had them, and later on my father got a old antique one that he refurbished and fixed up and put on his porch. Most people put cushions or throws on the sofas and set them on their porch.
So nice.
Glider sofa.
Can you just imagine what it would have been like if we lived in France?
France…
France.
In Scotland?
Scotland.
In Germany?
Germany
In Poland?
Female hiker enjoying mountain trip, and taking pictures. Photo taken in Tatra Mountains, Poland.
In Morocco?
Morocco.
In Namibia?
Namibia.
But I lived in Kentucky.
Kentucky
Stop reading about the adventures of others. Use your knowledge and your desire for adventure to experience things on your own.
-Lecture ends.-
Remember, that adventures will surprise you
The thing about going out and going forth doing something new, or something that you don’t often do, is that you will experience some surprises.
I went to visit a 200 year old greenhouse as a day trip when I lived in Massachusetts, and then ended up discovering the best retro diner that I ever sat in.
Or, I once went to visit a butterfly conservatory. It was this enormous network of connected greenhouses just filled with butterflies from all over the world. It was awesome, but what’s more on the way home we pulled off and discovered the largest collection of twine in all of Northern Massachusetts. This crazy old coot spent his entire life collecting twine and made a huge ball of it. They had to make this metal pole building around it to keep it out of the weather.
Who knows what might lurk nearby…
A swimming pool perhaps…
A swimming pool.
Maybe a chance to tour a Craftsman style home that is being sold and has an “open house”…
Craftsman style house.
Or maybe just pull into a campground, and spend the night in the tent (that you keep in the trunk of your car just for that occasion.) You never know.
Time for a nice fire, eh?
You never know.
Final thoughts
It is hot as hell her in this middle of September 2021 in Zhuhai. Temperatures are routinely in the high 90’s F, or the 34 to 36C, and all with abnormally high humidity. I feel like I am swimming when I walk down the halls.
But it will end.
Sooner or later.
What ever your situation or your condition, please realize that it will change. Change is the natural state of affairs in this region of reality. And do not give up up hope or be frustrated. Good times lie in the future. It is up to you to navigate to that crossroads. I believe in you.
Keep on pushing forward.
And…
…never, ever, ever, ever, give up.
Never give up.
And a final message…
Everyone has ups and downs. Everyone gets happy and gets sad.
But you must know, that sometimes life can “bitch slap you” so hard that you lie broken and collapsed. You are hurt. Not just hurt. You are shattered. Financially, socially, physically, mentally and emotionally. You are just burnt out, and discarded.
I know that there are some frustrated folk out in MM land. I know that things are tough, tight, seemingly hopeless or impossible. And upsetting and sad as all get out. I know this.
Jobs.
Work and money.
Uncertain futures.
Even, just Eating.
You feel like giving up. You feel like quitting.
Focus on your affirmation campaigns. Be a good person. Eat only delicious and healthy food. Spend time with your friends. Spend time with your animals / pets. Calm your mind through meditation, hemi-sync, and long walks in nature. Be the Rufus.
Leave the world behind you safer, happier, cleaner, and better because YOU happened by.
And you know…
Never give up.
And that is not just some cutesy saying.
The biggest tool in your toolbox is persistence. You don’t just hop from one project to the other. American style like the USA government, or an American hire-and-fire company. No. You be like China and you plan for the long haul. No matter what happens, no matter what storms lash at you, and no matter how worried you are…
Never give up.
And I mean it. I really, really, really do.
It might seem so strange to talk about visiting parks, eating delicious food, and spending time with friends, when it seems like your entire world is collapsing. But it’s not. Focus. Relax as the rest of the world howls. Relax. And focus on your plans and actions.
And never, ever, ever give up.
Never give up.
And remember your little buddies…
They can help you.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this somewhere in my OOPART Index here…
Some thoughts. A bunch of “stuff” flooded my brain this morning, and so I want to spew this stuff on paper and move on with my other projects and activities. So just let me go a spewing. And as I spew forth on this beautiful morning let’s all keep in mind to have a lovely day.
Shall we go a spewing?
Coffee, freshly brewed in the morning, tastes great.
Perhaps we take what we commonly consume for granted. I watched one of those “cop shooting videos” where this guy threatens a police officer to shoot him. He said “go shoot me!”. And the police tell him “lay down your weapon.” And so he lunges out at the officer, and is shot dead. I think he was dead before he hit the ground.
Ugh.
In one year no one will remember his name, what he did for a living, or really care.
And you know what?
That cup of coffee that he had in the morning was his last.
He probably didn’t savor it either. He probably poured himself a cup, gulped it down without a thought and read the “news” about “Presidents says this…”, or “Rich oligarch flies into space because he can. And fuck the rest of youse guys”
Or better yet “Coronavirus is worst ever!”. Or “new strain attacks people left and right!” Or, maybe “new leaked evidence about US funding, and Coronavirus development in China”.
Or perhaps, “Australia alarmed”, or “Japan Alarmed”, or “Refugees pour in from Afghanistan”. Yada. Yada. Yada.
Sheech! Enjoy what you have.
Morning coffee.
Do you smell the coffee when it is brewing? Do you have the opportunity to drink it in the early morning with some “me” time? Do you eat something along with it?
Like eat a bagel.
Or hang out with your little buddies.
NOW.
Engineering of humans for this “Prison Planet” environment.
As I understand it, the “normal” and default biological life-form is fully capable of simultaneous co-habitation in both the physical world and the non-physical world.Most creatures naturally go back and forth between the two realities quite easily.
Yet humans do not have this ability.
For us (Earth bound) humans, we can only see the physical reality, and have no ability to see the non-physical reality, and what’s worse, not even able to remember it.
The reasoning behind this is described in the work “Alien Interview”.
I suggest that this implies that the human species (for this earth environment) was specifically modified (or retarded) to prevent this ability. And this belief is confirmed in the “Alien Interview”.
Alien 3 movie – A prison planet.
If we can determine what the alterations are, we can reverse this aspect of the damage.
I argue that the Type-1 greys are physically modifying the non-physical reality bodies to correct these and other issues, and all that nonsense about abductions are just fears manifested from ignorance. Now, to prevent me from going into stuff that I just cannot state, I will suggest that the “other” humans that sometimes attend these events are not from our “Sentience Nursery Region / Prison Planet”. Instead they are from “outside” of it.
Their bodies are not “retarded” Prison-bodies that we are all so entwined with in this realm that we are in.
The key then is “containerizing” our consciousness outside of the physical body, as it seems to have been devised (or modified) as a physical cage.
Indeed this “Prison Planet” has many, many levels.
Body selection for the truly evil
I think that those souls that developed into truly evil and vile consciousnesses needed to be put into a secure holding facility; a “Prison Planet”. The problem is that as the “Old Empire” got old and corrupt itself, everyone was thrown into this environment. And it is thus and environment that we share together.
Good. Bad. Evil. Disjointed.
Earlier I wrote about CJ, the beauty model that I lived with. She was amazingly beautiful, but inside she was like a horrible demon. At times, when her “real” side came out, I considered her to be an actual evil demon-like entity.
I wonder…
If you were evil and vile and you were in Heaven, and it was time for you to construct your time on earth, what kinds of bodies would you inhabit?
I think that most evil and vile people would inhabit the bodies that would give them…
Large amounts of Power.
Unlimited sex with whomever they wanted.
Control over others, domination.
Wealth in copious and ridiculous amounts.
Thus, is it any wonder that we see such a concentration of evil and vile people in Washington DC, or in the leadership of smaller African, and South American nations today?
And thus we see an outrageously beautiful person who is a real evil vile person inside.
Alien Interview placed many concepts, now accepted as real, decades before scientific acknowledgement of them.
For instance “continental drift”. “Chariots of the Gods”. The “12th Planet”. “Pole Shifts”. The ability to clone and design creatures with DNA. The list goes on and on.
It is so easy for us to read “Alien Interview” with the eyes of a contemporaneous person from 2021 instead of a person from 1947.
We have to keep that in mind.
In 1947, the “new age” movement did not exist. It did not occur until the late 1960’s. Most Americans believed the Bible was the de facto history of the world. And while Darwinism was taught in the universities, most people focused on the principle subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic.
For the “leadership” of America at that time, it all must have come as a great shock. The idea of “not to follow the tunnel of light”, and that there is no “Heaven” or “Hell”, and that memories are not ever supposed to be erased.
All in all, it was obvious from the reading of the narrative in support of “Alien Interview”, that leading scientists and capable people at that time were pulled in for their thoughts and commentaries. And after much deliberation, I am positive that they HAD to conceive of a secret organization to deal with this species and all of what it talked about.
That is how MAJestic came about. And no, it wasn’t JUST because one singular “flying saucer” was captured. It was EVERYTHING associated with it.
Some cat quotes
I found these humorous.
Does McDonald’s i(outside of China) still have those little white plastic stir-sticks? What about those little metal foil ash-trays? Or those cute kitty-sized little milk creamers?
This is so relatable.
Indeed. They seem to be immune to the earth as a “Prison Planet”.
They come and go from non-physical to physical and back again as if it were nothing.
Poor kitty.
And…
Yeah. I hear ya bud.
And…
Fact. Jack.
Japanese press is hyping up a war with China
American influence no doubt. But it’s all nonsense. A lot of words, and posturing. And it ignores the serious, serious open wounds that fester inside of China.
But let me tell you all, and any Chinese in the MM audience can confirm this statement as true.
"If Japan makes ANY military move against China, China will start nuking that fucking little island like there is no tomorrow. Fuck their military. It will be their cities and people who will all die God Damn it!"
For the last 75 years every single person in China has been exposed to the horrific tragedies and rape of China by the Japanese and the hatred is visceral. I, as an American, am shaken to the core when I see the Chinese react to any of this Japanese nonsense. Believe me. They will fucking bludgeon Japan into a bloody pulp.
Believe me.
Japans had best hide from China, and not do anything that the USA wants. Mind My Words. Video…
The Japanese were brutal against the Chinese, and China wants PAYBACK in the worst way.
Things have changed.
This was then. Now look at today. If you want to fuck with China you had best get ready for a real bludgeoning. Video.
If you want to fuck with China you had best get ready for a real bludgeoning.
Greek Breakfast foods
Every now and then I come across a Greek restaurant. I love the food there. And I think that it would be great to try some of their breakfast foods.
Feta, Veggies and Eggs
Whether they’re scrambled or served omelette style, you can’t go wrong with topping eggs with Feta. Try adding chopped onion, a bit of garlic, veggies of choice (zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes are great in this dish). Sprinkle in some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss in a splash of milk, and whip together in a bowl. Cook the eggs either omelet or scrambled style, adding the Feta, when the eggs are almost finished. Delicious Greek breakfast food!
A fine Greek Breakfast.
Eliopsomo: Greek Olive Bread
You can pick up this wonderful, traditional bread at a Greek bakery or cafe, as well as many specialty grocery stores. While it’s delicious simply toasted and served with your morning cup of coffee, try switching it up a bit by topping the bread with a good Greek cheese.
Eliopsomo.
Spanakopita
Who doesn’t love Spanakopita? But, remember, it’s not just for lunch and dinner. Why not warm a slice and serve it on a plate with your morning cup of coffee? It’s a great alternative to the everyday breakfasts you’re likely tired of eating.
Spanakopita
PLA expels U.S. destroyer from China’s territorial waters off Nansha Islands
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said Wednesday it had expelled a U.S. guided-missile destroyer that trespassed in China's territorial waters near the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.
PLA Southern Theater Command spokesperson Tian Junli said in a statement that the U.S. military's act had seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security interests.
Calling Washington "a risk maker" to the security of the South China Sea and the "biggest destroyer" of the region's safety and stability, Tian warned that the theater command will "remain on high alert."
"We will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as peace and stability in the region," he said.
I expect more belligerent actions by the US Navy in the coming months. And expect China to tire of the “cat and mouse games” after a while.
With all the new a talking about Afghanistan, no one is talking about this little tidbit of treasure. The national animal of Afghanistan is Snow Leopard.
The Snow Leopard is a big cat who lives on a high altitude and preys on Argali wild sheeps, Ibex, Pikas and rabbits etc.
A snow leopard.
Snow Leopard are very rare and are only found in 12 countries like China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Russia, Afghanistan etc. Snow Leopards are so rare that they estimate that there are only 3500 of these creatures left.
China has the 60% of the population of these majestic cats.
These white big patched cats love to live between an altitude of 10,000 meters – 18,000 meters. The gestation period is 3 and half months. An astonishing there here is that their limbs are extremely powerful, even they can hop up to 30 feet which is 6 times their body length, extremely strong limbs huh?.
A snow leopard.
Another specialty of these Snow Leopards is that it have a gray or light green eyes rather than a yellow or gold like the other big cats. The Snow Leopard was thought to be extinct in Afghanistan, however, 100 are still out there somewhere.
There is no specified reason why Snow Leopard is opted as the national animal, but some says as the people Afghanistan are well known for their brave character and this majestic cat, however, reflects the very same ideology. And you know, the Afghanistan people are not as the USA media pictures them. They are something else entirely. I think the Snow Leopard fits their psyche.
Changes in the geography of the basic world-line template that many people use
Changes are happening, and the templates are changing. No, not the anchoring effects, but the general master templates themselves. To do this is very, very, VERY powerful.
I was once asked how powerful the extraterrestrial benefactors were. They asked if they had weapons powerful enough to destroy cities. I responded that they had the ability to move the earth from it’s orbit. Put it inside the Sun for five minutes. Let it bake good and well, and then place it back in orbit. That is how powerful they are.
I see that there are some events that are changing. Future life-track world-lines seem to be adjusting to new templates, and these templates are … peculiar.
Peculiar.
You heard it here first.
Bob Odenkirk back on ‘Better Call Saul’ set after heart attack
I enjoy “Better call Saul”. It’s a great show. But you all gotta follow it for a while to figure out what is going on. I think it’s great. But them I was surprised to discover the actor who plays Saul Goodman had a heart attack. It bummed me out.
Better call Saul.
58 years old. Had a heart attack and blockage. Major bummer. I am glad that he’s back on his feet again. You all must take care with your body. As you get older heart attacks become real threats.
I’ve had two of the fuckers.
The first time was in a high-stress work environment, while dealing with a high-stress mentally ill wife. I was in the machine shop and had a serious heart attack. Good thing that I was young. 36 years old or so. I was able to pick my self up from the floor and get to the doctor. The second time was last year when I was adjusting to new blood pressure medicine.
Eat well. Watch your health. You never know.
What is “freedom”?
I know, I know, I know. I have gone on and on endlessly about this subject. But “freedom” is NOT the ability to vote in a democracy™. It’s something else. It’s entirely something else.
Some things that need to be underlined…
Freedom to be left alone.
Freedom to disappear.
Freedom of complete privacy.
Any nation that does not allow these freedoms is just a prison.
Facebook pays contractors to read your ‘encrypted’ WhatsApp messages, shares info with prosecutors – reports — RT World News
Obviously this is an ideal, but I do have to tell you’se guys that if your nation isn’t allowing it’s citizenry these freedoms then it is not DOING ITS JOB. Nations have a duty to their citizenry.
All nations in the world today violate these aspects of life to one degree or the other. I argue that this also includes China…
…but, China is far better protecting the massive onslaught against the individual by aggressive interests than the United States is. The freedom to be left alone is a major issue, don’t you think?
Some thoughts on democratic voting balancing
I have long given up on the belief that a democracy is the best way (or even a way) of running a nation. But others haven’t. Here’s some thoughts by RM on how the American democracy could be improved to better serve it’s people.
What we are not seeing at the city and county level is this:
USA balancing act.
Rural farming areas and downstaters are screwed when there is a big city in their state.
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Their vote is continuously cancelled and it does not count toward the results that they want.
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States are like a giant gerrymandering. I have often thought that states should have a series of county referendums or whatever legal path they could find and redraw their boundaries. For instance here is Greater Idaho, which they are currently working on:
Changing the lines of control.
Then groups of these newly defined states could make coalitions in Congress.
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Create cooperative zones for building their economies.
Cooperate on state banking and mutual credits for home and industry.
Support common problems of pollution or agriculture development.
Have an Environmental protection that does not stop at state borders.
Combine their national guard forces. (This one is important.)
Maybe make tax free zones and trade concessions.
Well, they should do everything to grab more power from the Feds.
Even change the US tax structure.
I believe that in the US they would have to find a better way to consolidate interests into bigger factions, to wrest governance away from the present power structures. This could be a way, without disruptive protest or armed rebellion.
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Is it too late? Or is the process just getting started?
Just some kids playing
In America they banned toy guns “for the children”. In China, all kids get to play with toy guns, and they all receive real military training on how to use them in the Pioneers and Scouts. Not to mention the mandatory Middle School mandatory boot camp. Video.
Kids playing.
FOX “news” praises China!
Are pigs flying in the skies above the United States these days? Did Hell freeze over?
The famous China-hater Carlson says China does a few things right:
Houses are for people to live in, not for speculation;
Children are to limit their gaming time to three hours in the weekend;
Celebrities are not to be worshiped; he should add: young men are not to wear make-up to look like women.
The differences in the relative importance of sex to women as opposed to men
Men and women are different.
Men have testosterone flowing through their veins and women have progesterone flowing through their veins. Both hormones greatly affect our social interactions with others, as well as our drive to succeed, make friends, form businesses, and establish long-lasting relationships.
Both levels fluctuate over the life-time. And thus both males and females experience different phases of life.
Testosterone levels for men and women during a life-span.
For Women… the progesterone levels fluctuate on a cycle. This reflects the ability to have children. As the levels fluctuate, moods, emotions, and physical appearances all change. I am sure that all MM readers realize this.
Now, you notice that after a period of time, this cycling stops. And thus we have this graph…
And my point is this…
Both women and men change biologically through their lives. For women, they tend to cycle faster on a more or less monthly basis, while men are fairly constant. Then at around 35 years old everything changes.
And the reason why I bring this up is that physical cosmetic changes in transgender surgery might help a person’s ego and self-esteem, but it will not change their biology. No matter what amount of dosages of hormones that they take.
When a 50 year old man goes into transgender surgery to become a woman, the only changes will be external appearance, and perhaps personal ego. It will not change their internal biology. For the rest of their lives they will be tethered to external hormonal treatments just to maintain their state of mind. The moment that you decide to go transgender, you become addicted to big-pharma, and at the mercy of what ever they demand of you.
If you stop, intentionally or unintentionally (such as a societal collapse, war, or inaccessibly of hormonal treatments) your biological regression could become a living Hell for you.
Do you think that I am being mean or cruel to point this out?
If people want to do something, I say do it! But, please do so with balance. If you are proud to be a transgender person, then tell your story. Firstly for those who need hope, but also for those that don’t understand. However, don’t paint a 100% rosy picture either.
Life is about tradeoffs. You all need to discuss those tradeoffs realistically and openly.
If you are in your late 40’s and wish to be a transgender woman then you must realize that the lifestyle that you are moving towards will have consequences.
American military transgender people speaking out about their decisions.
Some Chinese food
I eat a lot of food in China that you simply cannot get anywhere else. All those “Chinese” restaurants only sell pre-packaged “Chinese fast food” that has been Americanized, or Westernized to some extent. Here’s some short videos. Please check them out…
This is the “real deal”. Not the pale processed meat patty things that you get in fast food restaurants.
XianXi chicken tenders.
The ONE problem that I have with these delicious foods is the glossiness. All that gloss and shine is caused by heavy quantities of MSG. Ugh!
Facing a Harsh Future With the Wisdom of the Past
Ah. It’s a very American-centrist article. Very myopic. However the conclusion is critical. Americans MUST take a good hard look at what America is TODAY, and work on a NEW WAY to govern, deal with a great diverse citizenry, and function properly.
But before we get to the article, lets note what was said about the former Soviet Union. One observer described this as follows.
As the state and economy collapsed, their money worthless, their jobs evaporating, with crime, disorder, and corruption rampant, life expectancy plummeted in post-Soviet Russia. The longstanding Russian curse, alcoholism, became an endemic phenomenon in Russian life. Abortions substantially exceeded births, suicides soared, and the state apparatus and law enforcement collapsed along with the unkept utopian promises of a failed system.
Well…
Can’t you describe the United States this way today?
As the state and economy collapsed, their money worthless, their jobs evaporating, with crime, disorder, and corruption rampant, life expectancy plummeted in the United States.
Alcoholism, and drug abuse (both legal and illegal) became an endemic phenomenon in American life.
Abortions substantially exceeded births, suicides soared, and the state apparatus and law enforcement collapsed along with the unkept utopian promises of a failed system.
By tradition Americans are an optimistic people. As the saying goes, we are imbued with an “indomitable spirit” in times of hardship at home and major crises abroad. These qualities contribute to our sense of national unity. We view ourselves as a country defined by, but not imprisoned in, the past. We eagerly await future opportunities that will make our lives better and more fulfilled. We don’t fear what is to come — we welcome challenges of all sorts.
Throughout our history, we have bonded together when necessary to overcome barriers to our development as a nation. We have tamed an entire continent and fought wars abroad in support of freedom. We have survived economic failures, massive political unrest, and other threats to our sovereignty.
However, in light of recent events and civil disruptions, the cohesiveness of times past — “our indomitable spirit” — is no longer as firmly embedded in our national consciousness as before. Other countries are challenging our scientific dominance in many areas.
Our role as a leading world power is being questioned if not discredited.
China and Russia are expanding their influence throughout the globe with impunity. Obsessed with domestic unrest, the COVID pandemic, and immigration, we have not yet fashioned a coherent policy to deal with their aggressive strategies.
In spite of this shift in priorities, we tend to fall back on old ways of viewing our national goals and international commitments. Rapidly shifting conditions have created the need for a reevaluation of our relationship with allies and adversaries.
Once again, we have reverted to what I call the basic fallacies in the way we negotiate issues of national and international importance. Our optimism and pioneer spirit, as mentioned above, have a decided effect on the following observations:
The first fallacy is minimizing the impact of radical change: believing that successful measures should stay the same.
Our nation was founded on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Many political scientists and judges are classified as “constructionists”: they believe that these two documents are “sacred” in nature and cannot be changed as written; others, on the other hand, are “organic life” specialists who conceive of these same documents as broad-stroked guides to political governance.
As a result, they should be interpreted according to the exigencies or dynamics of the times. Conservatives, in this debate, wish to preserve the integrity of past legislation and its precedents; liberals seek a flexible, malleable Constitution that can be interpreted as conditions warrant.
Conservative and liberal scholars both admit that adjusting to societal needs is the purpose of Constitutional amendments (27 overall to date); however, from a conservative perspective, why should legislators modify its basic framework at the same time?
We cannot project current trends with any accuracy into the future. For more than 234 years our republic has been well served by the wisdom of the founding fathers.
Resistance to change is normal but the refusal to change or alter our strategies can be very costly in the political arena. In general, cautious flexibility in judgment should always prevail to avoid the fallacy of expecting similar results over time.
The second fallacy is that good-hearted people, guided by compassion, will always determine political outcomes.
Laws, as well as wars, are rarely decided by well-intentioned government agencies. War is ended through defeat or surrender, in most instances without conditions.
Compassion has nothing to do with how the enemy is treated during the occupation of their land. Expediency and collaboration serve as principles of conduct for most Western powers. Countries in the Far East have long ruled their conquests by sheer force, terror, and indoctrination.
Western laws are legislated with mutual interests in mind, not compassion.
They are the end product of hard-nosed compromises in republican governments. Under dictatorial rule, laws are enacted by representatives who are subject only to the will of a tyrant. As Louis XIV of France famously said” “L”Etat c’est moi!” (“I am the State”)
The third fallacy is that democratic or republican government will always be preferred to autocracies that suppress individualism and freedom.
The United States has tried repeatedly to impose democratic rule on countries they have conquered. Without a foreign military presence and forcible adoption of republican-like governments, these nations would most likely have reverted to an autocratic form of leadership that meets the needs and expectations of native or tribal leaders (e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq). Autocracy–if administered with a full understanding of the people and culture–can be very effective: to wit, the despotism of Saddam Hussein in Iraq that held warring tribes together (the Sunni vs. Shia).
Countries in the Middle East have been governed by monarchies, emirates, and dictatorships for many years. Democracy and its emphasis on individual rights are for the most part incompatible with these cultures.
Lacking the oversight of American military forces, Afghanistan will quickly return to tribal governance; extremists (i.e., the Taliban) will enforce Islamic laws that are detrimental to women and young girls. More than twenty years of warfare have forced us to admit that the Islamic world has hierarchical gender customs that are unacceptable to Western sensibilities.
The fourth fallacy is that, in times of crisis, America will always protect the rights of the individual as dictated by law.
LOL. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This fallacy is a product of Western thinking and political expectations. In the Far East, with the exception of South Korea and Japan (“conquered” nations with an active American military presence decades after the end of hostilities), in times of crisis the individual will always be sacrificed to the welfare of the group or nation.
In the United States, there would be a hue and cry of protest if individual rights were not protected, even during the worst of times.
Dictatorial or autocratic governments see little benefit in making an entire nation suffer to improve the life of an individual or a small group of citizens. This attitude reflects the culture’s view on human life and its relative value to society as a whole.
The fallacy of assuming that all cultures will accept our interpretation of human rights is the basis for multiple conflicts abroad, especially in the Middle East and China.
The subcontinent of India, with its rapidly increasing population, seems to be the exception to autocratic or monarchical Far Eastern regimes. Its republican government comes from the Raj or British colonial rule. Within a relatively short period of time, demographers project that India’s population will surpass that of China, thus making it the most populous country in the world. With multiple ethnic groups, religions, and languages, one wonders just how long India’s national unity will endure under the stress of these social and sectarian divisions.
In spite of many attempts to do so, we cannot impose our political style of governance on conquered nations (“nation-building”).
The American concept of local or state sovereignty, allied with the federal government on issues of national importance, is unknown in many nations around the globe.
Our system of government is successful because most citizens accept its efficacy.
Once that cooperative spirit and support are disparaged, our belief in the necessity of collective action will eventually disappear. If this should occur, our democracy, in its current form, could not survive.
Given the widespread diversity that now characterizes the American population, how can we preserve the willingness to accept electoral results? When voting procedures are litigated and broadly challenged, the seeds of discord are planted.
The outcomes of future elections will be viewed with suspicion.
Voter acceptance will be weakened and outcomes subjected to excessive scrutiny. We are quickly moving toward a more tribalistic form of governance as identity politics and interest groups take priority over concerns of national stability. The progressive movement to rewrite history in favor of “disadvantaged” minorities will undermine our sense of national unity. The wokeism of modern politics will have disastrous consequences in the years to come.
Our recent celebration of the Fourth of July (2021) with fireworks and the traditional appeals to unity rang a little hollow.
Many liberal extremists now view the American flag as a symbol of white domination, not national unity. Radicalized athletes “take a knee” in protest against racial injustices of the past. In a few decades, if this anti-American trend continues in our schools and social media, what will the cohesive theme of the Independence Day celebrations be? Will we continue to show the same enthusiasm about our country and its uniqueness?
This divisive mood was evident in the singing of the “Black national anthem” together with the “The Star Spangled Banner.”
If Blacks can impose their will on authorities at this event that celebrates national unity, we should expect Hispanic or Vietnamese music at next year’s festivities to emphasize their growing national influence. An hour-long special on the evils and repercussions of slavery would also be appropriate. This would encourage Whites to reflect on their “privilege” and need for atonement, not on the common traits that join our diverse ethnic groups into a functioning whole.
Do not expect, however, an in-depth documentary on the “root causes” of Black-on-Black crime in the bloodbath of Chicago’s ghettos. Blacks who shoot other Blacks are considered collateral damage (if not commonplace) and not worthy of media attention since they do not conform to the “progressive narrative.” Blacks are important only if they are perceived as victims of white neglect or violence. More than anything, a White police officer who shoots an “unarmed” Black merits national media coverage of a prolonged nature.
A statue of George Floyd (“I can’t breathe”) — a five-time convicted felon, counterfeiter, drug dealer and addict — is emblematic of this racial disparity. In a sense, his monument places a minor-league Black criminal on an equal footing with the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Washington D. C. which is a focal point for racial justice and peaceful compromise.
In summary, we tend to reason in ways that reflect our personal experiences and biases . The fallacies we have discussed pertain to national habits and attitudes which offer reassurance that most problems, no matter how difficult, can be solved by good-will diplomacy and relentless hard work. In a word, it is the “American way.”
In another context, this fallacious approach to domestic issues will have a negative impact on our national security and future solidarity. The questions that we should address in discussing our current political crises are many. The following are only a few examples among the most critical:
The Left’s recent promotion of “systemic White racism” as an intrinsic quality of being White; race is deemed a form of social destiny if not a “disease” that must be eradicated. The celebration of Project 1619, now being taught in many schools and Juneteenth (the arrival in America of the first shipment of slaves and its adoption as a national holiday); the introduction of “critical race theory” into the classroom (our country was founded on slavery and the continuous oppression of Blacks up to the present day; history must reflect this reality as an innate and permanent evil of white leadership.); social progressivism and its narrative: the Marxist ambition to remake America into a socialist state. To wit, laws enacted by white legislators have no relevance in the wokist community and are consequently illegitimate in their eyes. Rioting in the name of woke political causes is effective and morally justified, no matter what the results may be. As the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin once stated, to make an omelet you must first break some eggs. Unrestricted immigration is not so much a demographic issue for Americans but a means of achieving the long-term dominance of the Democratic Party.
We must also remember that to remain silent in the face of this dystopian turmoil is a sign of assent. The Biden-Harris regime is using the full power of the federal government to enforce its agenda. The COVID pandemic and its variants will be the stalking horse for the implementation of draconian measures related to gun control, “white supremacists” and their insurrection, climate issues, and the radical socialization of American politics. President Biden is now touting “human infrastructure” in his efforts to promote child care and parental subsidies that have nothing to do with the rebuilding of bridges and roadways. COVID vaccinations will become mandatory in spite of legitimate objections to their application on a national scale. Ideology is promoting vast changes in the way we relate to others.
The America First of the Trump era is becoming a radicalized new country in its political aspirations toward equity and inclusion of minorities in all facets of government, regardless of true merit.
If we remain as we are now — diverse, quasi-socialist, egalitarian, and democratic — we have no reason to expect that this trajectory will change.
That means, that for the first time, we must reconsider our assumptions about what America is, and look instead to what it must be in order to survive our bad decisions as a democracy up to the present date.
And one of the reasons why you won’t find anything positive about China in the USA media or literary sections…
Sad, but true. I guess that a 98% satisfaction rate with their Chinese government isn’t good enough.
And in the WTF department…
Can someone please explain…
Messed up.
China’s August exports defy reality and surprise many
When 150 million wealthy Chinese tourists travel and spend domestically:
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150 million people = 33 times the size of New York City
The western sanctions and aggressiveness against Chinese businesses (The “Hybrid war on China”) resulted in a reciprocal response from China. This response allowed Chinese businesses to take back their native markets from the barbarian big brands….
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… all working together as one.
Along with the completion of many infrastructure projects. Both domestically and internationally via the BRI (the belts and roads strategy). The Chinese economy is now completely independent from the Western “crusader” markets.
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The outcome is:
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China’s exports grew by 25.6 % in August compared with a year earlier, up from 19.3 per cent growth in July
China’s imports grew by 33.1 % last month, year on year, up from 28.1 per cent growth in the previous month
Welcome to the new world order without the (Anchorage, Alaska April 2021) style bullying by the Western nations.
The situation in the USA is madness
Well it is. You simply cannot deny it. Video HERE.
What is the true situation in Russia today?
From “Amorphous Anonymous” .
We talk a lot about the Soviet Union, but how does this relate to modern Russia? I don’t know the answer, consider this as a question. (Socialism I suppose?)
A) The transformation of the city of Ivanovo and seven others.
Video blogger, Студия Позитивчик, named “Studio Positive”, has made 8 before/after videos comparing the last 9 years of development within 8 Russian cities. The video links are on his home page:
Gelendzhik, NE coast Black Sea 150 km up from Sochi
Veliky Novgorad, 125 km south of St Petersburg on road to Moscow (about 450 km from Moscow)
Ryazan, 200 km SE Moscow
Saratov, On the Volga, about 850 km SE Moscow
Tyumen, East of Ural mountains, about 8-900 km east Moscow
Naberezhnye Chelny, in Tatarstan, about 600 km east of Moscow
What do you see when you scan through these video records? Well, you see modern Russian architecture, which is very interesting just for that. Eight cities are developing, growing, being renewed. I ask “How is this being done”? You can identify several different kinds of projects.
Renewed streets and landscaped parks and waterfronts. This is all local government financed obviously.
Commercial activity, strip malls, restaurants, shopping malls. I am thinking this is all private investment, it must be capitalism, for the wide variety of it.
Some large residential complexes? I don’t know, is there social ownership in living spaces? Or is it capitalism again?
Many old residential complexes (ragged looking in the 2011 before photos), are renewed with white walls and brightly colored balconies and the accent of architectural touches. Would a private owner put money into building aesthetics? Would they get any more rent out of it? Has it changed hands and the new owner is upgrading? Maybe it is old communal residences with community financing doing the work?
Also there are some stadiums and other large structures. What is the ownership status of these complexes and who are the investors?
These are questions that I don’t have the answers to. Who are the city planners, and how much do they have a say about city development?
B) An understanding of Russia’s Future
We try to get a better understanding of Russia’s future by going to some websites that are purported to have expertise on Russia, and run by Russian speakers. These are like the Saker, Dmitry Orlov, Andrei Martyanov, Charles Bausman, John Helmer,Vsevolod Pulya,Patrick Armstrong, Alexander Mercouris, Marko Marjanović, I think that there are others that I have left out.
What do they say?
Lots are concerned with geo-politics and military science. Then we are led to believe that
"Putin’s successes are anchored in a powerful energy sector, along with a vigorous science-technical and arms sector, which are also under direct state control".
Russia must be doing pretty good, right? Or are we getting a correct picture from these new “Hypersonic missiles”, gas pipelines, super weapons, and atomic Ice-breakers?
Plus now lately, we are told that Russia will build 5 new cities from scratch in Siberia, and the order is signed and the money is available. (Let them start with one.)
Will this happen? Is this a full and correct picture of modern day Russia? The 8 videos above show developmental progress in some important cities. If this is the general picture it should show up in all phases of Russian technical, scientific, educational, and commercial activity.
But lets’ try to take an honest look with a 2017 survey of Russia’s achievements.
B.1) Russia is number 12.
In a listing of published scientific articles by country, Russia is number 12, with only 10% by numbers, of the articles published in the USA. I won’t discuss the quality of the articles, which some do. the 2021 figures are here:
You can also divide the papers up by what Russia is good at, like mathematics and astronomy, but still the standing is very poor.
B.2) Russian foreign studies
Russia has a very poor standing in studies of foreign countries. For example China has at least an order of magnitude more people studying about Russia than Russia has studying in the universities about China. That being said, it is the global norm. The amount of American studies of other nations is practically zero.
Russian salaries in 2012,
$500/month for a Research Fellow,
$900/month for a senior researcher at the Institute of the Far East RAS.
$1,000/month for an Assistant Professor,
$1,500/month for a full Professor at Moscow State University’s (MSU) Institute of Asian and African Country Studies. (2012)
The $ exchange rate has more than doubled since then, so do scholars survive on those same old ruble rates, or have they gotten a raise? (Admittedly their expenses are in rubles, not in dollars.) But if it was too low they may leave the country.
B.3) Salaries for R&D
Salaries for R&D are some of the lowest in the top 50 countries. I could put up a chart, but Russia is at the bottom.
B.4) Technical equipment is gutted and sold off
R&D equipment is missing, in 2017 Russia had 3 supercomputers, China had 202, US 143. Russia is 18th in the list.
B.5) DNA
It is hard to come up with the number of Russian “high throughput DNA sequencers” for biotechnology research. But I think it is minuscule compared to the rest of the world. Some (older) sources said only 8, but let’s give it 25. 2013-14. Back then there were 250 in China and over 900 in the USA. Europe is loaded too.
B.6) Patent Applications
Russia is 6th in patent application in 2017, 30,000 compared to 1 million in China, 300,000 in US and 250,000 in Japan.
B.7) Venture Capital
In 2016 Venture Capital funding in Russia was 300,000 Euros, about the level of (less than) Ireland, or Finland, and more than in Italy. All of Europe $14 billion, US $72 billion, China $49 billion, India $8 billion. Russia is 6% of China, Russia 4% of US.
B.8) Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence startups in 2017, Europe 409, US more than 1000, Russia only 12. Equal to Sweden, Finland or Switzerland each with 10% of Russia’s population.
B.9) Industrial Robots
Russia had an operational stock of around 1,771 multipurpose industrial robots as of 2012. America 200,000, China 100,000, Japan 300,000, ROC Korea 138,000, Germany 162,000. Poland 4,500.
The absurdly low levels of robotization in industry raise serious questions about Russia’s political economy and its economic future. Low wages preclude automation, and low automation preclude greater productivity and higher wages?
B.10) Tooling and machining
2014-2015 Russia is 17th in machine tool companies, 485 companies producing machine tools in Russia (Canada just ahead, Thailand just behind).
China 22,000 companies,
Japan 13,000,
German 12,000.
Italy 5000,
Korea ROC 4,600,
USA 4,500.
The problems holding Russia back are severe, and possibly intractable. There are strong financial and ultimately institutional barriers to unlocking Russia’s scientific potential.
(Russia does consume around 2.7% of the world’s machine tools – it is, after all, the world’s eighth (or so) manufacturing power.)
A solid start would be to look at these statistics and acknowledge that a very big problem exists, which if unresolved, will continue to degrade Russia’s economic, industrial, and eventually military competitiveness. Where is the money and where is the resolve to tackle these problems? That is what I am asking, to anybody that might know.
Who are the true friends of Russia? Those that sound this alarm, or he who says “don’t say things that our western sworn enemies are always saying”? To me the answer is obvious.
Of course I have sources for all of this data. It comes from Karlin on Unz. He’s got all the charts and 5000 words of commentary. 2017. You can check them yourself. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/russias-technological-backwardness/ If there is a newer study, of course I would love to see it.
…
You don’t hear much about Russia these days, and thus Americans and most of Europe are kept intentionally ignorant about both China and Russia. As I see it, the rest of the world is growing and sorting itself out the tangled monstrosity that the United States has become. And unless the USA starts taking time to improve its piss-poor domestic state, it will be doomed to become a modern day Portugal.
The United States ranks last in media trust — at 29% — among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries, a report released Wednesday found. That’s worse than Poland, worse than the Philippines, worse than Peru. (Finland leads at 65%.)
One reason is that U.S. media are either not reporting important events, are misreporting them, or are very late in covering twisted plots that even a lowly blogger can get right just as they happen.
It’s 4:30 PM in China. A very mellow time.
It is a mellow time. It’s peaceful and calm. China (outside of the big cities) has a much slower pace of life, and lifestyle than what the hyper West has. And it is refreshing as “get out”. Check out the video below.
Note that even though China is very safe and isolates any virus outbreaks immediately, everyone still wears masks, and is a heightened level of security and safety.
Also note that all my life, walking and enjoying life at 4:30p, was denied to me. I was usually at my desk or in a meeting in a sterile workplace technical corporate environment. Being outside that bullshit is refreshing to me. Video.
4:30pm mellowness.
Actually this is a big issue, and I need to devote a few articles to this subject. Do you all “get” what I am trying to say in this matter?
In pondering Washington’s new toy, a cold war against China, one sees a pattern. China’s approach to influence and prosperity is commercial and longsighted. This does not mean that the Chinese are warm and fuzzy, only intelligent. They advance their interests while turning a profit, which wars don’t. China invests heavily in the infrastructure, both physical and educational, that makes for current and future competitiveness. They are fast, agile, innovative, and imperfectly scrupulous. They seek trade agreements: The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with Europe, The RCEP, Regional comprehensive Economic Partnership, the CPEC, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the huge Iran deal, the development with Russia of the NSR, the Northern Sea Route. They seem good at it, China now being the largest trading partner of something like 165 countries.
Washington’s approach is military, coercive, shortsighted, and commercially dimwitted. It forms military alliances: the Quad in the Indian Ocean, with Japan against China, puts missiles in South Korea, pushes Europe to buy more American weaponry, sends naval forces to the Indian Ocean, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea, Black Sea, and Persian Gulf to intimidate, without much success, China, Russia, and Iran. It wants to get the Ukraine and Georgia into NATO to threaten Russia. It makes as much sense as lug nuts on a birthday cake.
China’s major capital expenditures, as gleaned as best I can from pubs covering these: highways, dams, bridges, very-high-voltage power lines, airports, rail, new high-tech 360 mph rail, five-g implementation, reactors, and semiconductor catchup.
America’s major capital expenditures: the B-21, F-35, Virginia-class subs, , Ford-class aircraft carriers, SSN (x) attack submarine. Biden says he will build infrastructure but, if history is a guide, he will pander to the woke, fight systemic racism, promote LBGQXYZ, become mired in congressional infighting, and the whole thing will devolve into pork. Want to bet?
What are these weapons for? The B-21 is an intercontinental nuclear bomber. What does one do with intercontinental nuclear bombers? Engage in intercontinental nuclear war. Are we sure this is a good idea? There will be no such war unless America starts it. China isn’t going to since (a) its approach to power and influence is commercial, which is working well, and (b) America has so many, many nuclear weapons of all sorts that China would be obliterated. If the US launched a first strike, the bombers would get there hours after the war was over. What would be the point?
The point is to funnel vast amounts of money into a bloated, running-on-autopilot military business so large that it can’t be reduced or controlled. All of this send-money PR assumes that China thinks it needs a nuclear holocaust. Who can doubt it?
It is impossible even to leave the military budget as it is, much less reduce it.
Military industry is so pervasive, providing so many jobs in so many states with so many lobbyists, that the President and his party cannot control it
China-Africa trade hits record high of $139.1 billion from January to July: MOFCOM
America sends troops (Africom, Africa Command) and builds drone bases. China builds rail lines and buys up resources. Did we say something about a pattern?
What is a Ford-class carrier good for? The Fords are versatile ships, having a three-fold purpose: Funneling lots of money into military industry, killing defenseless peasants, and sticking the Pentagon’s tongue out at China. Killing peasants and soldiers in third-rate armies of bedraggled third-world countries is what the American military does. Think Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Somalia. Getting into big wars with real countries is no longer practical despite the opportunities for profits because big countries depend on each other too much commercially. Even killing peasants begins to lose cache, as witness the comic opera defeat in Afghanistan..
A list of examples from Ohio. When military industry wants to produce a new weapon, it makes sure that components are produced in as many states as possible. But some things should be obvious. A big-ticket carrier creates a huge number of jobs for years at Newport News as well as jobs all over America for parts. When the carrier is completed and sails off to kill its peasants, the town goes into depression and stockholders lose dividends. The Pentagon then discovers an urgent need for another carrier. Congress shares this sense of urgency. Surprise, surprise.
What do I mean in saying that America is “short-sighted”? Try this:
Oregon Governor Kate Brown quietly signed a bill last month that removed the requirement for graduating high school children in the state to be proficient in reading, writing, and math, in an effort to aid “students of color.”
Wowee, that must terrify them over in China’s engineering departments, where students are years ahead of American in mathematics. This sort of thing goes on across America.
Number of Chinese overseas military bases: 1 (Djibouti) American: Hundreds. Number of Chinese military conflicts: One, a minor border clash with India. American: You know the list as well as I do, with Iran perhaps being groomed for the next war. Which country spends more on the foregoing? What has America gained?
This is long and kind of techy but makes the point that China is leaving the US far behind in five-g. While many think of Five-G as being for use in smart phones, this is actually of negligible importance. Where it counts is in industry, robotics, smart cities, mining with nobody underground, on and on. The United States, unable to compete with Huawei, consigned itself to primitivism by excluding the Chinese. Then it failed in its attempt to prevent China from rolling out five-g within its own borders. So much for bringing manufacturing back to America.
Here is a point worth noting. The Chinese have the engineers, the numbers and the focus to do pretty much anything. They do not always have the machinery. AI takes more brains than machinery.
CATL goes all in on next-gen sodium-ion EV batteries
CATL Goes All in on Sodium Ion Batteries
Not a game-changer, and other countries look at the same thing but, as so often, China is right up there with the other big boys.
“Last month, during high-level talks in Honolulu, the US Indo-Pacific Command and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) agreed to build a new base in the island nation.” To contain China.
Military, military, military, military. The assumption in the Five Sided Wind Box seems to be that China is about to come roaring into the Pacific like the Japanese Imperial Naby in full flood, to conquer it. China is more likely to buy it.
Associated Press: “The politically sensitive goods deficit with China rose to $27.8 billion in June, up 5.8% from the May level. So far this year, the goods deficit with China, the largest that the United States runs with any country, totals $158.5 billion, an increase of 19.2% compared to the same period in 2020.”
Some economists predict America’s first overall trade deficit of a trillion dollars.
“China’s state-owned Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) grabbed the Haifa port contract in 2015 which allows it to operate the commercial shipping facility for 25 years.”
Commercial, commercial, commercial, commercial.
Moscow Bothered by ‘Uncontrolled, Unrestricted Expansion’ of US Military Biolab Network Near Russia
And here in Mexico, where I live, people swear they see Chinese electric scooters and mini-electric which, they also swear, can be bought online from Alibaba and such. Meanwhile the narcos get assault rifles from the US.
I’ve seen this look before
This expression is one that I have seen time and time again. A foreigner visits China for the very first time, and he /she has been her for maybe a week… and this is the expression that they get on their faces. It’s precious.
This is the start of a series of short thoughts and articles that I just want to clump into a new category of article. What do you guys think? Do you think it’s fine, or would you like me to continue to write long in-depth articles on singular topics? Any preferences?
Do you want more?
You can find more such articles in my “Rambling Thoughts” Index which is currently in my massive Happiness Index…
This article discusses why the Earth (and a number of other solar systems in our region of physical space) is known as a “prison planet” and why it is now morphing into what I refer to as a “Sentience Nursery”. It’s a rather detailed, and strange look (I guess) at the world we all share in light of the events of MAJestic and the “Alien Interview” disclosure.
Now, let it be well understood that throughout my entire time in MAJestic, I was told that the earth was a “sentience nursery” for the evolution and sorting of the consciousnesses here. But when I encountered the disclosure “Alien Interview”, which I am wholly and positively convinced that it is authentic, they referred to the earth (and nearby solar systems) as “Prison Planets”.
This did NOT change the fact that the earth and it’s environs are “Sentience nurseries”, instead, if provided a background that helped me (personally) flush out the events leading up to what is going on today.
Alien Interview – 1947
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. It was released in 2007. There is a lot of good stuff there, and now I am convinced that everything is in agreement with what was presented to me in MAJestic.
A quick reminder
In graphic form. A picture tells more than two encyclopedias.
Key events of The Domain occupation plotted against Humankind technical advancement.
Here’s the pertinent section…
The Domain enters the Milky Way galaxy
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently — only about 10,000 years ago.
The Domain conquers the Old Empire
Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the “Old Empire” (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
The Domain installs bases inside the Milkyway Galaxy
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond.
The Domain sets up a base on Earth
About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force.
An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a “force screen”. The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
The Old Empire attacks the Domain base on Earth
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the “Old Empire”.
Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the “Old Empire”, had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
The unusual handling of the capture Domain forces
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that “Old Empire” has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years.
No one knows exactly how long.
Final destruction of the Old Empire in this region
Eventually, the space craft of the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system. According to Airl, there was a running battle between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the “Old Empire” force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
A hidden Old Empire base in our area
About 1,000 years later the “Old Empire” base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD.
The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was “taken over” by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
A “electric fence” surrounds this area
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an “electronic force field” which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth.
The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
Snare, capture and make compliant
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it “captures” them in a kind of “electronic net”.
The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe “brainwashing” treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE.
This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use “electric shock therapy” to erase the memory and personality of a “patient” and to make them more “cooperative”.
On Earth this “therapy” uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the “Old Empire” operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS-BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity.
They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
Reprogramming and return back to prison
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE.
This includes [1] the command to “return” to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again — forever.
The hypnotic command also tells [2] the “patient” to forget to remember.
The Old Empire was using Earth as a Prison Planet
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer (in the body of the Archduke of Austria) is that the “Old Empire” has been using Earth as a “prison planet” for a very long time — exactly how long is unknown — perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body.
They are detected by the “force screen”, they are captured and “ordered” by hypnotic command to “return to the light”.
The idea of “heaven” and the “afterlife” are part of the hypnotic suggestion — a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately “commanded”, hypnotically, to “report” back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body.
Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison — at least not for the prisoner.
Who are the inmates in prison?
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as “untouchable” by the “Old Empire”.
The worst of the worst were sent to the Earth Prison Planet.
This included anyone that the “Old Empire” judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An “untouchable” classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of “political prisoners”.
This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be non-compliant “free thinkers” or “revolutionaries” who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the “Old Empire”.
Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the “Old Empire” is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of “untouchables” include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the “Old Empire”. “Untouchables” also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field.
Since everything the “Old Empire” considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens. Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the “Old Empire” are “untouchable” and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth. The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can’t remember who they are, where they came from, where they are.
They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain Officer unravels this entire scheme
The Domain officer who was “assassinated” while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the “Old Empire” force.
Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret “Old Empire” base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity.
When he escaped from the “Old Empire” base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This “Old Empire” base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
The “fence” and snare and return continued to function in 1947
Although the military base of the “Old Empire” was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of [1] the IS-BE force screens, [2] the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment.
The main base or control center for this “mind control prison” operation has never been found.
So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
Earth has become a “dumping ground” of misfits
The Domain has observed that since the “Old Empire” space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own “untouchable” IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby.
Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth.
The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are inhabited by
only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the “Old Empire” base.
So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancientnetwork of electronics machinery that create the IS–BEforce screensat this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought controlof the “Old Empire” prisonplanet. Of course all of the crew members of The DomainExpeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by “Old Empire” traps.”
MAJestic – 1947
The “Majestic–12″ committee, was organized by President Harry Truman shortly after the Roswell incident in 1947. And this created the SAP known as the MAJestic organization.
MM and the MAJestic Narrative
I joined MAJestic as a Naval Aviator / (Astrophysicist & Aerospace Engineer) in May 1981. After thirty years of active participation in the organization, I was retired in May 2006. My “active retirement” lasted five years and ended in 2011. I am now a discarded MAJestic operator.
EBP insertion and non-physical training began in 1981. My training, and calibration of the ELF probes happened a number of years after that. All exposure that I have to knowledge, understanding and skills comes from the entanglement of our benefactors.
My primary and functional duty was “anchoring” of consciousnesses in this region to prevent catastrophic events from occurring. (Whatever those catastrophic events were, I haven’t a clue.) This meant world-line travel and consciousness manipulation were my primary tools.
I was involved in…
Manipulation of consciousness
World-line travel
Anchoring of clustered world-line behaviors.
As strange as this might appear and sound, if you look at what the events and operational projects entailed, you can clearly see that they were involved in the control and manipulation of world-line alterations as a function of consciousness mass-manipulation.
Not protecting the earth from those pesky Reptilians as part of the great marine space fleet. LOL! I had to throw this bunch of popular fiction in, don't you know!
If you consider that each consciousness was “retarded” in access to their memories, then…
… my actions were all in alignment with rehabilitative services within a restorative clinic or hospital environment.
So, obviously Earth is a “sentience nursery”. Just as what has been described to me all these years within MAJestic.
So, please most kindly take notes. Today the earth is not considered to be a “Prison Planet”. It is considered and treated as a rehabilitation complex. And all those “abductions” and “probing” and “procedures” are good things designed to alter your prison (non-physical) bodies into a (operation gown) bodies for rehabilitation purposes.
But what happened? What changed?
Think people.
If you manage to destroy a sizable number of the systems and facilities (the walls and the guard towers) of a prison, what are you going to do with all the inmates? Are you going to release them “Ghostbusters” style all at once (like what happened in the Ghostbusters movie)?
All the spirits were released in Ghostbusters all at once.
No.
There are all kinds of people in the Earth Prison Planet Environment.
Some are really innocent. Some just got caught up and imprisoned here. Others were political prisoners who were sent here. Some are terribly creative individuals who were sent here, and some are truly evil, and selfish creatures.
So how you do sort them all out?
And you do need to sort them all out. If you don’t you would end up polluting the entire galaxy with hordes of very evil and dangerous entities.
You sort them.
You sort them by sentience.
The criteria
So if you are going to sort consciousness by sentience, you need to filter out what you keep, what you allow to leave, and what you keep an eye on as they are almost ready to leave, just not totally there yet.
As far as I understand, the sentience of human beings fall into the following categories…
Service to self (being selfish and greedy).
Service to another (a follower, a believer, a NPC).
Service to others (a member of a group of people putting them first).
Disjointed, confused, or emotionally, mentally sick.
Service to Self sentience sub-types
As best as I can tell, the subcategories of a Service to Self person are…
Psychopath
Sociopath
Selfish
Greedy
Narcissistic
They get to stay in the “Sentience Nursery” / “Prison Planet” environment simply because they are too dangerous to unleash on the rest of the universe.
Service to Another sentience sub-types
These consciousnesses are not ready to leave yet, but they are on the way and almost ready to go. I would guess that their progression in sentience would depend on many things, most importantly is their position in any of the subcategories of this type of sentience.
And the subcategories of a Service to other person are…
1. Sycophants
These are very close (if not the same as) a Service to Self sentience.
Also known as a toady, a sycophant follower knows nothing but an advantage. All that is in his mind is nothing but a strategic plan to keep on holding on or following till he gets what he really wants or keep on maintaining the advantage he wants.
More often than not the sycophant follower seems to be self-seeking and behaves like a parasite: gives nothing, yet takes.
2. Critics
Critics are also close to being Service to Self sentience entities.
They are annoying, they are also motivating. The critic followers will always post, comment or say unfavorable opinions concerning a person or an organization or a political party at all times. For others it may be a very annoying process yet for some it is a learning point and adjusting method for future reference.
3. Realists
These are sentience’s that are caught up in the material world. They are not necessarily bad, but they still have much to learn. They need a few more cycles of “reincarnation” to straighten out their sentience.
Here are the philosophers. The realist followers are so aware of reality and they have to let you accept it. The realist followers are always on the side of the truth, the naked truth. They will always accept the physical and most evident of circumstances and issues and they will always let the world know, and to the person or thing or group, they might be following.
4. Loyalists
These are close to Service to Others sentience, but not all the way there. They, for the most part, are but one reincarnation away from a Service to Others sentience.
They are the best kind of followers, the loyalist followers. They are as loyal as dogs can be. You will likely never be disappointed by a loyal follower for they are as true and as honest. No mischief in them or cunning activities. They are loyal almost to a fault.
5. Traitors
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
Traitors are another bunch of followers that are the complete opposite of the loyal followers. These are the Judases that will betray Jesus from time to time.
Traitor followers will stick by you; follow up with you as long as the weather seems as conducive to continue being with you, not forever but till that time when the first drop of rain falls and the going gets tough, then they will betray you.
6. Spectators
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
The spectator followers are always on the sideline and surely enough are careful enough not to cross it and only do so when the excitement gets too much. The spectator followers are never in the game but will make sure that you get your support.
They will give you all deserving praises and belief then let you walk into the battlefield all alone.
7. Opportunists
These are Service to self individualists in disguise.
They have not much of a difference from the sycophant followers or traitor followers. The opportunist follower will have no other reason for starting following other than for an advantage at some point.
He or she does not have upmost loyalty. They are like a soaring eagle in the sky keenly eyeing and falling indistinctively with an end goal to capture an unaware fish or mouse.
8. Sheep
These sentience’s are on the path, but they need a few more cycles of reincarnation to sort out the sentience better.
The common myths and facts suggest that sheep are the dumbest of all animals following without question or doubt, keenly observant to only beck at its master’s call and commands. And so is the sheep follower.
They follow with no question, they seem so loyal, and they might be. More often than not, the sheep followers would rather follow other than making an informed and independent decision.
Many associate those that blindly follow government rules or elected officials without any questions as sheep.
9. “Yes” People
They need a few more reincarnations to straighten out their sentience direction. They are actually “sitting on the fence” in the over all scheme of sentience selection.
The ‘yes’ followers simply want to avoid confrontation and pleasing people is their number one priority. The ‘yes’ people follower will always find themselves in uncalled for situations since they do not take their time to think through the yes responses that they give.
They are a often resentful types of people which makes them end up having following what they do not even believe in.
10. Alienated
They are almost at a Service to Self sentience.
The alienated type of follower will always strive to make you feel indifferent and rather hostile. They really know how to pick their words and actions to fit well with their aim and purpose.
11. Survivor
These kind of sentience’s are closer to the Service to Other’s sentience, but need some time to sort things out a little better.
Survivor followers are the most prevailing as they stick by you through hard moments and also stick by you through the good times. The survivor followers have a strong belief in you.
12. Effective
They are almost at a Service to Self sentience. Almost “one foot in the door”.
Here are the kinds of followers that just really know which decisions to make in the order for you reach your intended goal. The effective followers not only follow you but also have a really good impact on your success.
13. The Isolate(d)
A person who is strongly leaning to a Service to Self sentience.
The isolate(d) follower needs no cushioning. He or she acts on their own and most seemingly enjoys the following solo. He does not like crowds. The isolate follower is a lone wolf.
14. The Bystander
This person is solidly in the Service to another realm, and needs a few cycles to sort things out.
The bystander follower seems like the spectator follower. He too does not necessarily take part in the course of action. In his following, he becomes the keen observant from a distance.
15. The Participant
This person is almost a Service to others sentience, and might end up being one entirely within this lifetime.
Here is the jack of all spades. The participant follower is active and vibrant. He is very present and would even go the extra mile for you. He is also the type to bring fun along.
16. The Activist
Almost a full Service to Others sentience in this life.
The activist follower is not just the average follower. He is the one that always follows and cares to bring about change and in most cases, the popular good is his aim.
17. The Diehard
Almost a full Service to Others sentience in this life.
The diehard follower is very instinctive. Like a viper, he is ready to strike and will go down even to the bottomless pit for you. If there is one who can die for you then it is the diehard follower. Fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise would quickly identify Sam Gamgee as the diehard follower of Frodo.
Who gets to leave and who needs to stay?
As I understand it, the ability to leave the “Sentience Nursery” is a function of what your consciousness is.
A service to others sentience gets to leave. At least that is how I understand it today. Obviously when the Old Empire controlled this area, no one ever got to leave it. But things are quite different now.
A service to self sentience gets to stay. They get to relive their time in the earth habitat over and over, and over, and over until they start to feel compassion towards others and their sentience changes.
A service to another sentience stays but is monitored. They are not yet fully developed enough to leave, but not really ready to be released. You can consider this sentience to be on various states of parole.
Disjointed, confused, or non-settled sentience’s stays. Until they straighten out one way or the other, they must stay in this realm under supervision.
Summary and conclusion
The earth realm, both physical and non-physical, is a Sentience Nursery. it was initially set up as a Prison, but that has changed since the Domain started working with MAJestic. The ability to leave this environment depends on your true nature, and this is determined by your sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and in your heart, you think that they are suckers, idiots, or fools; then you are probably a Service to Self sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and in your heart, you feel emotion, joy and wish to be a helpful person, then you are a Service to Others sentience.
If you watch a few Rufus videos but are quickly bored and find no interest in them, then you are a Service to Another sentience.
If you watch Rufus videos and wonder about them, are curious about them, but cannot relate to the Rufus in the video, nor the people needing help, you are a disjointed sentience.
Are you ready to take the test?
Watch the video below. Measure your feelings and thoughts after viewing it, and use it to see what sentience that you are “leaning towards”. Sentience is not something that you can hide. It is a resonance point that is affiliated with your consciousness.
There are no right or wrong answers. It’s a method to determine where you are at in regards to sentience and whether or now you need to reincarnate over and over again on the earth, or if you are worthy to be “altered” to permit “escape velocity” from this region.
The sentience test.
Grading
If you think that She is brave and the embodiment of what a person should be, then you are a Service to Others Sentience.
If you think that she is stupid for not trying to steal the guys wallet, then you are most certainly a Service to Self Sentience.
If you think that she should have stood by and called the police, as she is too old, and the accident is too serious, then you are a Service to Another Sentience.
If you don’t think anything other than this is a “stupid” and silly movie, and a waste of your time, then you are a Disjointed Sentience.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of thousands of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
The text segments…
"What would you like to say, Airl?", I asked. "I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
…
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time. Many of the people in that region reported sighting "vimanas" or space craft in the area.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still "Old Empire" ships and well-hidden "Old Empire" installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
…
"Airl told me her reasons for coming to Earth and for being in the area of the 509th Bomber Squadron. She was sent by her superior officers to investigate the explosions of nuclear weapons which have been tested in New Mexico. Her superiors ordered her to gather information from the atmosphere that could be used to determine the extent of radiation and potential harm this might cause to the environment. During her mission, the space craft was struck by a lighting, which caused her to lose control and crash.
…
Airl was, and still is, an officer, pilot and engineer in an expeditionary force which is part of a space opera civilization which refers to itself as "The Domain". This civilization controls a vast number of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and asteroids throughout an area of space that is approximately one-fourth of the entire physical universe! The continuing mission of her organization is to "Secure, control and expand the territory and resources of The Domain".
Airl pointed out that their own activities were very similar in many ways to the European explorers who "discovered" and "claimed" the New World for The Holy Father, The Pope and for the kings of Spain, Portugal and later, Holland, England, France and so forth. Europe benefited from the property "acquired" from the native inhabitants. However, the native inhabitants were never consulted with or asked for their permission to become a part of the "domain" of European nations and the soldiers and priests they sent to acquire territory and wealth in order to advance their interests.
Airl said she read in a history book that the Spanish king regretted the brutal treatment of the native inhabitants by his soldiers. He feared retribution from the gods he worshipped, as described in the various testaments of the Bible. He asked the Pope to prepare a statement called "The Requirement" which was supposed to be read to each of the newly encountered native inhabitants.
The king hoped that the statement, whether it was accepted or rejected by the natives, would absolve the King of all responsibility for the resulting slaughter and enslavement of these people. He used this statement as justification to confiscate their lands and possessions by his soldiers and the Pope's priests. Apparently, the Pope, personally, did not have any feelings of guilt or responsibility in the matter.
Airl thought that such actions were those of a coward and that it is no surprise that the territory of Spain was diminished so quickly. Only a few years later the king was dead and his empire had been assimilated by other nations.
Airl said that this sort of behavior does not occur in The Domain. Their leaders assume full responsibility for the actions of The Domain, and would not denigrate themselves in this fashion. Nor do they fear any gods or have any regret for their actions. This idea reinforces my earlier suggestion that Airl and her people are probably atheists.
In the case of the acquisition of Earth by The Domain, the rulers of The Domain have chosen not to openly reveal this intention to the "native inhabitants" of Earth until a later time when it may, or may not, suit their interests to reveal themselves. For the present time, it is not strategically necessary to make the presence of The Domain Expeditionary Force known to Mankind. In fact, until now, it has been very aggressively hidden, for reasons that will be revealed later.
The asteroid belt near Earth is a very small, but important location for The Domain in this part of space. Actually, some of the objects in our solar system are very valuable for use as low-gravity "space stations". They are interested primarily in the low gravity satellites in this solar system which consists mainly of the side of the moon facing away from Earth and the asteroid belt, which was a planet that was destroyed billions of years ago, and to a lesser degree, Mars and Venus. Domed structures synthesized from gypsum or underground bases covered by electromagnetic force screens are easily constructed to house the Domain forces.
Once an area of space is acquired by The Domain and becomes a part of the territory under its control, it is treated as the "property" of The Domain. The space station near the planet Earth is important only because it lay along a path of The Domain expansion route toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Of course, everyone in The Domain is aware of this -- except for the people of Earth."
…
"Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted -- telepathically -- a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the "files" of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to "feed" this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or "history lesson". This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently -- only about 10,000 years ago. Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the "Old Empire" (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space. These planets are located in the star systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond. About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a "force screen". The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the "Old Empire". Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the "Old Empire", had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked. The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that "Old Empire" has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years. No one knows exactly how long. Eventually, the space craft of the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the "Old Empire" force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the "Old Empire" base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD. The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria was "taken over" by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The purpose of this "take over" was to use the body as a "disguise" through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. he officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply "pushed" the being out and took over control of the body.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly "knocked out" of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the "amnesia force screens" and was captured.
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an "electronic force field" which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it "captures" them in a kind of "electronic net". The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe "brainwashing" treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE. This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use "electric shock therapy" to erase the memory and personality of a "patient" and to make them more "cooperative".
On Earth this "therapy" uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the "Old Empire" operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts! This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS- BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic non-entity.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE. This includes the command to "return" to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again -- forever. The hypnotic command also tells the "patient" to forget to remember.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the "Old Empire" has been using Earth as a "prison planet" for a very long time -- exactly how long is unknown -- perhaps millions of years.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the "force screen", they are captured and "ordered" by hypnotic command to "return to the light". The idea of "heaven" and the "afterlife" are part of the hypnotic suggestion -- a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately "commanded", hypnotically, to "report" back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison -- at least not for the prisoner.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as "untouchable" by the "Old Empire". This included anyone that the "Old Empire" judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
An "untouchable" classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of "political prisoners". This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant "free thinkers" or "revolutionaries" who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the "Old Empire". Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the "Old Empire" is also shipped off to Earth.
A list of "untouchables" include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the "Old Empire".
"Untouchables" also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the "Old Empire" considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can't remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than where they really are.
The Domain officer who was "assassinated" while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the "Old Empire" force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret "Old Empire" base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the "Old Empire" base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt. His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base provided by this officer and to destroy that base completely. This "Old Empire" base was located a few hundred miles north of the equator on Mars in the Cydonia region.
Although the military base of the "Old Empire" was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this "mind control prison" operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
The Domain has observed that since the "Old Empire" space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own "untouchable" IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby. Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the "Old Empire" base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy. Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the "Old Empire" prison planet.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by "Old Empire" traps."
…
"The Domain Expeditionary Force has observed a resurgence in science and culture of the Western world since 1150 AD when the remaining remnants of the space fleet of the "Old Empire" in this solar system were destroyed.
The influence of the remote control hypnosis operation diminished slightly after that time, but still remains largely in force.
Apparently a small amount of damage was done to the "Old Empire" remote mind control operation which resulted in a small decrease in the power of this mechanism.
As a result, some memory of technologies that IS-BEs already knew before they came to Earth started to be remembered. Thereafter the oppression of knowledge that is called the "Dark Ages" in Europe began to diminish after that time.
Since then knowledge of the basic laws of physics and electricity have revolutionized Earth culture virtually overnight.
The ability to remember technology by many of the geniuses in the IS-BE population of Earth was partially restored, when not so actively suppressed as it was before 1150 AD. Sir Isaac Newton, is one of the best examples of this. In only a few decades he single-handedly reinvented several major and fundamental scientific and mathematical disciplines.
The men who "remembered" these sciences already knew them before they were sent to Earth. Ordinarily, no one would ever observe or discover as much about science and mathematics in a single life-time, or even in a few hundred life-times. These subjects have taken civilizations billions and billions of years to create!
IS-BEs on Earth have only just begun to remember small fragments of all the technologies that exist throughout the universe. Theoretically, if the amnesia mechanisms being used against Earth could be broken entirely, IS-BEs would regain all of their memory!
Unfortunately, similar advances have not been seen in the humanities as the IS-BEs of Earth continue to behave very badly toward each other. This behavior, however, is heavily influenced by the "hypnotic commands" given to each IS-BE between lifetimes.
And, the very unusual combination of "inmates" on Earth - criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses - is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment. The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever. Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind "the wall" of electronic force screens.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others. There are IS- BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments. Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria. Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system were very different from the civilization of the "Old Empire" itself, which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former "Old Empire" was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation. They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed. Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally "loved to death" by them.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the "Old Empire". The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by an egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the "Old Empire".
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the IS- BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
The Domain conquest of the central "Old Empire" planets was fought with electronic cannon. The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the "Old Empire" are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the "Old Empire", The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The government of the "Old Empire", before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth. They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others.
Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty. One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent. However, extraordinary understanding, self- discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a "logic" or "science" to conceive that an "ultimate solution" to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the "Old Empire" arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them. The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of "false civilizations" which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the "Old Empire".
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India. They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World. They were hypnotically "commanded" to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the "Old Empire" prison operators. This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original "Old Empire" planets from which they were deported.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them. It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
A "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms. The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet.
Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small. Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms "feed", as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India , bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form. During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as "Vishnu". He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus. Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the "Old Empire" forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by "Old Empire" administrators. The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many "gods" and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who "managed" them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the "Old Empire" to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual is only a biological body and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives.
The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve. Men are slaves to the dictates of the priests who threaten eternal spiritual punishment if men do not obey them.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the "Old Empire" that still continues to operate.
A battle was waged between the "Old Empire" forces and The Domain through religious conquest. Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being, to several influential beings on Earth.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one's own power.
The "Old Empire" priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS- BE. Obviously, this is the work of the "Old Empire" amnesia operation.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one's own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic "god" resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader -- Moses -- who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called "The Brothers of The Serpent" known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun. They were a very ancient, secret society within the "Old Empire".
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self- glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten. His pitiful existence was soon ended. He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or "Amen", which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the "Old Empire" forces.
The idea of "One God" was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves. While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the "Old Empire" near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was "the" One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the "Old Empire" to trap IS-BEs. Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call "Yaweh".
The name "Yaweh" means "anonymous", as the IS- BE who "worked with" Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia / prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia / hypnosis / prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
This "Old Empire" operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the "Ten Hypnotic Commands" to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so- called "Yaweh" also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster, and other philosophers. The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the "Old Empire" religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known.
Land on Earth? Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time. This will occur in the not-too-distant future -- about 5,000 Earth years -- according to the time schedule of The Domain. At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area. Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet. No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosion
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20,000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a "pit stop" or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth- like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time. The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be "killed", the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs.This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of "traps".
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the "Old Empire", beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago. Traps are often set up in the "territory" of the IS-BEs being attacked.Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of "beauty" to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE's own thought energy output when the IS- BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE's own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them "stuck" in the trap.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion. In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
(1) the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE
(2) takeover of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
(3) political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time. All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no "saints" in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between- lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one of the mechanisms of an elaborate system of "Old Empire" IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the "Old Empire", using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Earth is a "ghetto" planet. It is the result of an intergalactic "Holocaust". IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the "Old Empire". Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the "Old Empire" caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a...
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the "Old Empire" of such "untouchables", the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This "final solution" was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the "Old Empire".
The mass extermination of "untouchables" and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the "Old Empire".
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the "Old Empire" prison operators. The so-called "civilizations" of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of "Hell", their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either.
They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the "Old Empire" force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE."
…
"The actual history of Earth is very bizarre. It is so nonsensical that is it is incredible to anyone on Earth who attempts to investigate it. A myriad of vital information is missing from it. A huge conglomeration of non sequitur relics and mythology has been arbitrarily introduced into it. The volatile nature of the Earth itself cyclically covers, drowns, mixes and shreds physical evidence.
These factors, combined with amnesia and post- hypnotic suggestions, false facades and covert manipulation make a reconstruction of the factual origins and history of Earth civilizations virtually indecipherable. Any investigator, no matter how brilliant, is doomed to wallow in a quagmire of inconclusive assumptions, unworkable hypotheses, and perpetual mystery.
Since The Domain does not suffer these afflictions, having the advantage of memory, longevity and an exterior point of view, I will add some clarification to your fragmentary knowledge of the history of Earth.
These are some of the dates and events that are not mentioned in Earth history textbooks.
These dates are significant because they provide some information concerning the influences of the "Old Empire" and of The Domain on Earth.
Although I have attended several briefings by our mission control personnel on the general background of Earth within the past few hundred years, I will rely principally on data gathered from records captured after our invasion of the "Old Empire" planetary headquarters. Since that time The Domain Expeditionary Force has tracked the general progress of events on Earth.
As I mentioned, in some cases The Domain has chosen to intervene in certain affairs on Earth in order to ensure the success of our long term expansion plans. Although The Domain has no interest in Earth, per se, or in the population of IS-BEs on this planet, it does serve our interests to ensure that the resources of Earth are not destroyed or spoiled. To that end, certain officers of The Domain have been sent to Earth on reconnaissance missions from time to time to gather information.
However, the following dates and events have been extrapolated from the accumulated information in the data files of The Domain -- at least those that are accessible to me through the space station communications center.
208,000 BCE --
The establishment of the "Old Empire", whose headquarters were located near one of the "tail stars" in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation of this galaxy. The "Old Empire" invasion force conquered the area with nuclear weapons sometime earlier. After the radioactivity subsided and the clean-up and restoration were completed, it received the immigration of beings from another galaxy into this galaxy. Those beings set up a society that kept going until about 10,000 years ago when it was superseded by The Domain.
Very recently Earth civilization has come to resemble aspects of that civilization, now that it has fallen out of its immediate control. In particular, the appearance and technology of transportation such as planes, trains, ships, fire engines, and automobiles, as well as what you consider to be "modern" or "futuristic" architecture, which emulate the design of buildings in the major cities of the "Old Empire".
Before 75,000 BCE --
The Domain records contain very little information about the civilizations on the continental land masses of Atlanta and Lemur, except to note that they did coexist on Earth at more or less the same time. Apparently, both civilizations were founded by remnants of electronic, space opera cultures who fled from their native planetary systems to escape political or religious persecution.
The Domain knows that a long-standing edict of the "Old Empire" prohibits unauthorized colonization of planets. Therefore, it is possible that their destruction was caused by police or military forces who pursued the colonists as criminals and destroyed them. Although this seems a likely supposition, no conclusive evidence exists that explains the complete destruction and disappearance of two entire electronic civilizations.
Another possibility is that a massive submarine volcanic eruption in the region of Lake Toba, in Sumatra and Mt. Krakatoa in Java caused the destruction of Lemur. The flood waters caused by the eruption overwhelmed all the land masses, including the highest mountains. Survivors of the destruction of the civilization, the Lemurians, are the earliest ancestors of the Chinese. Australia and the ocean areas to the north were the center of the Lemurian civilization and are the source of Oriental races. Both civilizations possessed electronics, flight and similar technologies of space opera cultures.
Apparently, the volcanic eruption expelled such a significant mass of molten rock that the resulting vacuum beneath the crust of Earth caused great areas of the land masses to sink below the oceans. The continental areas occupied by both civilizations were covered with volcanic matter, and then submerged, leaving very little evidence that they ever existed except for legends of a global flood which prevail in every culture of the Earth, and for survivors who are the genus of oriental races and cultures.
That kind of colossal volcanic explosion fills the stratosphere with toxic gases which are carried around the whole planet. The usual refuse of these volcanic eruptions can easily cause a rain that lasts for "40 days and 40 nights" due to atmospheric pollution as well as an extensive period during which radiation from the sun is deflected back into space, and cause global cooling. Certainly such an event would cause an ice age, extinctions of life forms and many other relatively long-term changes lasting thousands of years.
Due to the myriad types of naturally occurring global cataclysmic events which are indigenous to Earth, it is not a suitable planet for habitation by IS-BEs. In addition there have been occasional global cataclysms caused by IS- BEs such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago. That destruction was caused by intergalactic warfare during which time Earth, and many other neighboring moons and planets, were bombarded by atomic weapons. Atomic explosions cause atmospheric fallout much like that of volcanic eruptions. Most of the planets in this sector of the galaxy have been uninhabitable deserts since then.
Earth is undesirable for many other reasons: heavy gravity and dense atmosphere, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, continental drift, meteor impacts, atmospheric and climatic changes, to name a few. What kind of lasting civilization could any sophisticated culture propose to develop in such an environment?
In addition, Earth is a small planet of a "rim star" of a galaxy. This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy. These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for its current use as a prison -- but not much else.
Before 30,000 BCE --
Earth started being used as a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged "untouchable", meaning criminal or non- conformists. IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps and transported to Earth from various parts of the "Old Empire". Underground "amnesia stations" were set up on Mars and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, in the Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal, and in steppes of Mongolia.
These electronic monitoring points create force screens designed to detect and capture IS-BEs, when the IS-BE departs the body at death. IS- BEs are brainwashed using extreme electronic force in order to maintain Earth's population in state of perpetual amnesia. Further population controls are installed through the use of long range electronic thought control mechanisms.
These stations are still in operation and they are extremely difficult to attack or destroy, even for The Domain, which will not maintain a significant military force in this area until a later date.
The pyramid civilizations were intentionally created as part of the IS-BE prison system on Earth. The pyramid is alleged to be the symbol for "wisdom". However, the "wisdom" of the "Old Empire" on planet Earth is intended to operate as part of the elaborate amnesia "trap" consisting of MASS, MEANING and MYSTERY. These are opposite to the qualities of an Immortal Spiritual Being which have no mass, or meaning. An IS-BE "is" solely because it thinks that it "is".
MASS represents the physical universe, including objects such as stars, planets, gases, liquids, energy particles and tea cups. The Pyramids were very, very solid objects, as were all of the structures created by the "Old Empire". Heavy, massive, dense, solid objects create the illusion of eternity. Dead bodies wrapped in linen, soaked in resin, placed inside engraved golden coffins and entombed with Earthly possessions amid cryptic symbols create an illusion of eternal life. However, dense, heavy physical universe symbols are the exact opposite of an IS-BE. An IS-BE has no mass or time. Objects do not endure forever. An IS-BE "is" forever.
MEANING: False meanings prevent knowledge of the truth.
The pyramid cultures of Earth are a fabricated illusion. They are nothing more than "false civilizations" contrived by the "Old Empire" mystery cult called the Brothers of the Serpent. False meanings were invented to create the illusion of a false society to further reinforce the amnesia mechanism among the intimates in the Earth prison system.
MYSTERY is built of lies and half-truths.
Lies cause persistence because they alter facts which are comprised of exact dates, places and events. When truth is known, a lie no longer persists. If the exact truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery.
All of the pyramid civilizations of Earth were carefully contrived of layer upon layer of lies, skillfully combined with a few truths. The priest cult of the "Old Empire" combined sophisticated mathematics and space opera technology, with theatrical metaphors and symbolism. All of these are complete fabrications of truth, baited with the allure of aesthetics and mystery.
The intricate rituals, astronomical alignments, secret rites, massive monuments, marvelous architecture, artistically rendered hieroglyphs and man-animal "gods" were designed to create a unsolvable mystery for the IS-BE prison population on Earth.
The mystery diverts attention away from the truth that IS-BEs have been captured, given amnesia and imprisoned on a planet far, far away from their home.
The truth is that every single IS-BE on Earth came to Earth from some other planetary system. Not one person on Earth is a "native" inhabitant. Human beings did not "evolve" on Earth.
In the past, Egyptian society was run by the prison administrators or priests, who, in turn, manipulated a Pharaoh, controlled the treasury and kept the inmate population enslaved physically and spiritually. In modern times, the priests have changed, but the function is the same. However, now the priests are prisoners too.
Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The "Old Empire" feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The "Old Empire" priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
The "Old Empire" operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could "remind" a being and rekindle his memory.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the "Old Empire", have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double- speak. Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance. The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their "soul" or "Ka" after death. An IS-BE does not "have" as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.
On the home planet of an IS-BE their material possessions were not lost, stolen or forgotten when the being died or left the body.
An IS-BE could return and claim the possessions. However, if the IS-BE has amnesia, they will not remember that they had any possession.
So, governments, insurance companies, bankers, family members and other vultures can pick their possessions clean without fear of retribution from the deceased.
The only reason for these false meanings is to instill the idea that an IS-BE is NOT a spirit, but a physical object! This is a lie. It is a trap for an IS-BE.
Countless people have spent endless hours attempting to solve the jig-saw puzzle of Egypt and other "Old Empire" civilizations. They are puzzles made of pieces that do not fit. A question states its own answer. What is the mystery of Egypt and other pyramid cultures? Mystery!
circa 15,000 BCE --
The "Old Empire" forces supervised the construction of a hydraulic mining operation in the Andes Mountains in present day Bolivia near Lake Titicaca (Lake of Tin Stones) at Tiahuanaco including construction of the massive stone complex of carved stone buildings known as Kalasasaya and its "Gate of the Sun" at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.
11,600 BCE --
The Polar Axis of Earth shifted to a sea area. The last Ice Age came to an end abruptly as the polar ice caps melted and the level of the ocean rose to submerge large sections of the land masses of Earth. The last remaining vestiges of Atlantis and Lemuria were covered by water. Massive extinctions of animals occurred in the Americas, Australia and the Artic Regions due to the shift of the poles.
10,450 BCE --
Plans were made by the "Old Empire" IS-BE called Thoth for construction of a Great Pyramid of Giza. The 4 "air shafts" of the pyramid point precisely to key stars in the "Old Empire" as seen from Giza in this year. The alignment of the Pyramids of Giza on the ground matches perfectly the alignment of the constellation of Orion as seen in the sky from Giza relative to the Nile as the earthly representation of the Milky Way in the sky.
10,400 BCE --
According to the Earth historian, Herodotus, records from the ruined civilization of Atlantis, containing electronic technology and other technology of that society, were buried in a vault beneath the paws of The Sphinx. The Greek historian wrote that he was told this by some of his friends who were Priests of Anu, the Sumerian god, at the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. However, it is highly unlikely that any traces of an electronic civilization would be allowed to be left intact on Earth by the "Old Empire" prison system administrators.
8,212 BCE --
The Veda or Vedic hymns are a set of religious hymns that were introduced into the societies of Earth. They came forward in spoken tradition, memorized, from generation to generation. "The Hymn to the Dawn Child'' includes an idea called the "cycle of the physical universe": the creation, growth, conservation, decay and death or destruction of energy and matter in a space. These cycles produce time. The same set of hymns describes the "theory of evolution". Here is a tremendous body of knowledge which contains a great deal of spiritual truth.
Unfortunately, it has been incorrectly evaluated by humans and altered with lies and reversals of fact by priests which are a booby trap to prevent anyone from using the wisdom to discover a way to escape from the prison planet.
8,050 BCE --
Destruction of the "Old Empire" home planet government in this galaxy. This was the end of the "Old Empire" as a political entity in the galaxy. However, the vast size of the "Old Empire" will take many thousands of years for The Domain to conquer completely. The inertia of the political, economic and cultural systems of the "Old Empire" will remain in place for some time to come.
However, remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the solar system of Earth were finally destroyed in 1,230 AD. In addition to operatives of the "Old Empire" who run the Earth prison operation, there were other beings from the "Old Empire" who came to Earth.
Since Earth was no longer under the control of the "Old Empire" after their defeat by The Domain Forces, there was no police force to control military renegades, space pirates, miners, merchants and entrepreneurs who came to Earth to exploit the resources of the planet for personal gain, and many other nefarious reasons.
For example, the history of Earth, according to the Jewish people, describes the "Nephilim". Chapter 6 of The Book of Genesis, describes the origin of the "Nephilim" :
"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the "sons of God" saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
The ancient Jewish people who wrote the history book called the Old Testament were slaves, herders and gatherers. Any modern technology, even a simple flashlight, would seem astounding and miraculous to them. They attributed any unexplainable phenomenon or technology to the workings of a "god". Unfortunately, this behavior is universal among all IS-BEs who have been given amnesia, and cannot remember their own experiences, training, technology, personality or identity.
Obviously, if these were men, and they mated with Earth women, they were not "sons of god". They were IS-BEs who inhabited biological bodies in order to take advantage of the political situation in the "Old Empire", or simply to indulge in physical sensation. They set up small colonies of their own on Earth beyond the reach of the police and tax authorities.
Coincidentally, one of the most serious crimes an IS-BE could commit in the "Old Empire" was to violate income tax regulations. Income taxes were used as a slavery mechanism and as a punishment in the "Old Empire". The slightest error in a tax report made an IS-BE "untouchable", followed by imprisonment on Earth.
6,750 BCE --
Other Pyramid civilizations were set up by the "Old Empire" on Earth. These were established in Babylon, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. The Mesopotamian area provided service facilities, communication stations, space ports, and stone quarry operations for these false civilizations.
Ptah was the name given to the first in a succession of administrators from the "Old Empire" who represented themselves to the Earth population as "divine" rulers.
Ptah's importance may be understood when one learns that the word "Egypt" is a Greek corruption of the phrase "Het-Ka-Ptah," or "House of the Spirit of Ptah". Ptah, was nick- named "The Developer". He was a construction engineer. His high priest was given the title 'Great Leader of Craftsmen'.
Ptah was also the god of reincarnation in Egypt. He originated the "opening of the mouth ceremony" which was performed by priests at funerals to "release souls" from their corpses. Of course, when the "souls" were released, they were captured, given amnesia, and returned to Earth again.
The so-called "Devine" rulers who followed Ptah on Earth were called "Ntr", meaning "Guardians or Watchers" by the Egyptians. Their symbol was the Serpent, or Dragon which represented a secret priesthood of the "Old Empire" called the "Brothers of the Serpent".
"Old Empire" engineers used cutting tools of highly concentrated light waves to quickly carve and excavate stone blocks. They also used force fields and space craft to lift and transport blocks of stone weighing hundred or thousands of tons each. The placement on the ground of some of these structures will be found to have geodetic or astronomical significance relative to various stars in this galactic region.
The buildings are crude and impractical, compared to building standards on most planets. As an engineer of The Domain, I can attest that make-shift structures like these would never pass inspection on a planet in The Domain. Stone blocks such as those used in the pyramid civilizations can still be seen, partially excavated, in the stone quarries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Most of the structures were hastily built "props", much like the false facades of a western town on the set of a motion picture. They appear to be real, and to have some use or value, however, they have no value. They have no useful purpose. The pyramids and all of the other stone monuments erected by the "Old Empire" could be called "mystery monuments". For what reason would anyone waste so many resources to construct so many useless buildings? To create a mysterious illusion.
The fact of the matter is that each one of the "divine rulers" were IS-BEs who served as operatives of the "Old Empire". They were certainly not "divine", although they were IS- BEs.
6248 BCE --
The beginning of active warfare between The Domain Space Command and the surviving remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet in this solar system that lasted nearly 7,500 years. It began when an installation was established in the Himalaya mountains by a battalion of the 3,000 officers and crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force. The installation was not fortified as The Domain was not aware that the "Old Empire" maintained Earth as a prison planet.
The Domain installation was attacked and destroyed by space forces of the "Old Empire" who continued to operate in the solar system of Earth. IS-BEs of The Domain battalion were captured, taken to Mars, given amnesia, and sent back to Earth to inhabit human biological bodies. They are still on Earth.
5,965 BCE --
Investigations into the disappearance of Domain forces in this solar system led to the discovery of "Old Empire" bases on Mars and elsewhere. The Domain took over the planet Venus as a defensive position against the space forces of the "Old Empire". The Domain Expeditionary Force also monitors life forms on Venus which has a very dense, hot and heavy atmosphere of sulfuric acid clouds. There are a few life forms on Earth that can endure an atmospheric environment like Venus.
The Domain also established secret installations or space stations in the Earth solar system. This solar system has a planet that is broken up -- the asteroid belt. It provides a very useful low-gravity platform for take off and landing of space craft. It is used as a "galactic jump" between the Milky Way and adjoining galaxies. There aren't any planets at this end of the galaxy that can serve as a good galactic entering spot for incoming transport, and other ships. But this broken up planet makes a very ideal space station. As a result of our war against the "Old Empire", this area of the solar system is now a valuable possession of The Domain.
3,450 - 3,100 BCE --
The intervention into the affairs on Earth by the "Old Empire" operatives or "divine gods" was disrupted at this time by The Domain Forces. They were forced to replace themselves with human rulers. The First Dynasty of human Pharaohs who united Upper and Lower Egypt began with the rule of a Pharaoh who, coincidentally, was named "MEN". He established the capital city called Men-Nefer, "The Beauty of Men" in Egypt. This started the first succession of 10 human Pharaohs and a period of 350 years of chaos that followed in the administrative ranks of the "Old Empire".
3,200 BCE --
As I mentioned earlier, Earth was under attack between The Domain and the "Old Empire" forces during this period. Of course this does not make any sense to archaeologists or historians on Earth, because the Egyptian period is a space opera era period. Since Earth historians have amnesia, they assume that this was only a religious period.
Further, because the technology and civilizations installed on Earth during this period were "pre-packaged", they did not "evolve" on Earth. Of course, there is no evidence anywhere on Earth of an evolutionary transition which resulted in sophisticated mathematics, language, writing, religion, architecture, cultural traditions in Egypt or any of the pyramid civilizations. These cultures, complete with all of the details of racial body types, hair-styles, facial make-up, rituals, moral codes and so forth, just "appeared" as complete integrated packages.
The physical evidence suggests that all evidence of the intervention of The Domain or "Old Empire" Forces, or any other extraterrestrial activity, has been carefully "cleaned up", so as not to create suspicion. The "Old Empire" force does not want the IS-BEs of Earth to suspect that they have been captured, transplanted to Earth and brainwashed.
So, Earth historians continue to assume that Egyptian priests were not supposed to have "ray guns" or other technology of the "Old Empire". And, they suppose that there was nothing going on, on Earth, except some priests walking around saying 'Amen', which the Christians still say.
3,172 BCE --
Layout of the astronomical grid that joins the key mining sites and astronomical buildings of 'the gods' in the Andes Mountains such as Tiahuanaco, Cuzco, Quito, the cities of Ollantaytambu, Machupiccu and Pachacamac for the mining of rare metals, including tin for use in making bronze. Metals were the property of "the gods", of course.
A great variety of entrepreneurial mining was done on Earth at that time due to the war between the "Old Empire" force and The Domain. These miners did carve a few sculptures of themselves. They are seen wearing mining helmets. The Ponce Stela sculpture in the sunken courtyard of the Kalasasaya temple is a crude rendering of a stone worker using an electronic, light-wave emitting stone cutter and carving tools, held in a holster.
The "Old Empire" has also maintained mining operations on planets throughout the galaxy for a very long time. The mineral resources of Earth are now a property of The Domain.
2,450 BCE --
The "great" pyramid and complex of pyramids near Cairo were completed. An inscription created by the "Old Empire" administrators can be seen in the so-called Pyramid texts. The texts say that the pyramid was built under the direction of Thoth, Son of Ptah. Of course there was never a King buried in the chamber, since the pyramids were never intended to be used as a burial chamber.
The great pyramid was located precisely at the exact center of all of the land masses of Earth, as viewed from space. Obviously such precise measurements require aerial perspective and a view of the land masses of Earth from space. Purely mathematical calculations of the geodetic center of the continents of Earth could not be made otherwise.
Shafts were constructed inside the pyramid to align with the configuration of stars in the constellation of Orion, Canus Majora, and specifically Sirius. The shafts are also aligned to the Big Dipper, where the home planet of the "Old Empire" existed. Also, Ainitak, Alpha Draconis and Beta Ursa Minor. These stars are each one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
The configuration of all the pyramids of the Giza Plateau was intended to create a "mirror image", on Earth of the solar system and certain constellations within the "Old Empire".
2,181 BCE --
MIN, became the God of Fertility of Egypt. The IS-BE, also known as Pan, was also a Greek god. Min or Pan, was an IS-BE who somehow managed to escape from the "Old Empire" amnesia system.
2,160 - 2040 BCE --
One of the results of the intensifying battle between The Domain Forces and the "Old Empire" forces was that the control of the "divine rulers", was broken at this time. They finally left Egypt and returned to the "heavens", so to speak, in defeat. Human beings took over the ruling role as Pharaohs. The first human pharaoh moved the Capital city of Egypt from Memphis to Heracleopolis.
1,500 BCE --
This is the date for the destruction of Atlantis given by the Egyptian high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis of Sais, to the Greek sage Solon. The Priests of Anu recorded that the Mediterranean area was invaded by "Atlantean" people about this time. Of course, these people were not from the ancient continent of Atlanta, in the Atlantic Ocean, which existed more than 70,000 years earlier.
These were refugees from the Minoan civilization on Crete escaping from the volcanic eruption and tidal waves of Mt. Thera that destroyed their civilization.
Plato's references to Atlantis were borrowed from the writings of the Greek philosopher Solon, who was given the information by the Egyptian priest who called Atlantis "Kepchu", which also happens to be the Egyptian name for the people of Crete. Some of the survivors of the Minoan volcanic disaster asked Egypt for help, since they were the only other civilization with high culture in the Mediterranean area at the time.
1351 BCE - 1337 BCE --
The Domain Expeditionary Force actively waged a war of religious conquest against the Egyptian mystery cult called the Priest of Amun, also known as the "Old Empire" Brothers of The Serpent. During this time the Pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the priesthood of Amun, and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to the new location at Amarna, at the exact geodetic center of Egypt. However, this plot to overthrow the "Old Empire" religious control was quickly spoiled.
1,193 BCE --
In the Near East and Achaea, the Greeks and Trojans fought for supremacy, which ended in the destruction of Troy as the finale of the Trojan War. During this same time, war was being fought out in the space of the solar system between two forces for control of the "space stations" surrounding Earth. That period of 300 years was a very violent resistance to The Domain Forces by the remnants of the "Old Empire" forces. It did not last long however, as it is futile to resist The Domain.
850 BCE --
Homer, the blind Greek poet, wrote the stories 'the gods' as borrowed and modified from earlier sources in Vedic texts, Sumerian texts, Babylonian and Egyptian mythology. His poems, as well as many other "myths" of the ancient world are very accurate descriptions of the exploits of IS-BE's on Earth who were able to avoid the "Old Empire amnesia operation and operate without biological bodies.
700 BCE --
The Vedic Hymns were first translated in the Greek language. This was the beginning of a cultural revolution in Western civilization that transformed crude and brutal tribal cultures into democratic republics based on more reasonable conduct.
638 - 559 BCE --
Solon, a wise man from Greece, reported the existence of Atlantis. This was information he received from the "Old Empire" high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, with whom he studied in Egypt.
630 BCE --
Zoroaster created religious practices in Persia around an IS-BE called Ahura Mazda. This was yet another of the growing number of "monotheistic" gods put in place by operatives of The Domain to displace a panoply of "Old Empire" gods.
604 BCE --
Laozi, a philosopher who wrote a small book called "The Way", was an IS-BE of great wisdom, who overcame the effects of the "Old Empire" amnesia / hypnosis machinery and escaped from Earth. His understanding of the nature of an IS-BE must have been very good to accomplish this.
According to the common legend, his last lifetime as a human was lived in a small village in China. He contemplated the essence of his own life. Like Guatama Siddhartha, he confronted his own thoughts, and past lives. In so doing, he recovered some of his own memory, ability and immortality.
As an old man, he decided to leave the village and go to the forest to depart the body. The village gatekeeper stopped him and begged him to write down his personal philosophy before leaving. Here is a small piece of advice he gave about "the way" he rediscovered his own spirit:
"He who looks will not see it; He who listens will not hear it; He who gropes will not grasp it. The formless nonentity, the motionless source of motion. The infinite essence of the spirit is the source of life. Spirit is self. Walls form and support a room, yet the space between them is most important. A pot is formed of clay, yet the space formed therein is most useful. Action is caused by the force of nothing on something, just as the nothing of spirit is the source of all form.
One suffers great afflictions because one has a body. Without a body what afflictions could one suffer? When one cares more for the body than for his own spirit, One becomes the body and looses the way of the spirit. The self, the spirit, creates illusion. The delusion of Man is that reality is not an illusion. One who creates illusions and makes them more real than reality, follows the path of the spirit and finds the way of heaven".
593 BCE --
The Genesis story written by the Jewish people describe "angels" or "sons of god" mating with women of Earth, who bore them children. These were probably renegades from the "Old Empire". They may also have been space pirates or merchants from a system outside the galaxy who came to steal mineral resources, or smuggle drugs.
The Domain has observed that there are many visitors to Earth from neighboring planets and galaxies, but they rarely stop and live here. What kind of beings would live on a prison planet if they were not forced to do so?
The same book also reports the story of a human named Ezekiel who witnessed a spacecraft or aircraft landing near Chebar River in Chaldea. His description of the craft uses very archaic language, technically, but is nevertheless, quite an accurate description of an "Old Empire" saucer or scout craft. It is similar to the sighting of "vimanas" by the people in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Their Genesis story also mentions that "Yahweh" designed biological bodies to live for 120 years on Earth. Biological bodies on most "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planets are usually engineered to last for an average of about 150 years. Human bodies on Earth last only about one half as long. We suspect this is because the prison administrators have altered the biological material of human bodies on Earth to die more frequently so that the IS-BEs who inhabit them will recycle through the amnesia mechanism more frequently.
It should be noted that much of the "Old Testament" was written during the captivity of the Jews who were enslaved in Babylon, which was very heavily controlled by priests of the "Old Empire". The book introduces a false sense of time and a false concept of the origin of the creation.
The serpent is the symbol of the "Old Empire". It appears in the beginning of their creation story, or as the Greeks say, "Genesis", and causes the spiritual destruction of the first human beings, who are metaphorically represented by Adam and Eve.
The Old Testament, clearly influenced by the "Old Empire" Forces, gives a detailed description of the IS-BEs being induced into biological bodies on Earth. This book also describes many of the "Old Empire" brainwashing activities, including the installation of false memories, lies, superstitions, commands to "forget" and all manner of tricks and traps designed to keep IS-BEs on Earth. Most importantly, it destroys the awareness that humans are Immortal Spiritual Beings.
580 BCE --
The Oracle at Delphi was one temple in a network of many oracle temples. Each temple was a communication center. The "Old Empire" priests designated a local "god" for each temple. Each of the temples in this network were located at precisely 5 degrees of latitude intervals from the capital city of Thebes throughout the Mediterranean area as far north as the Baltic Sea.
The shrines served, among other things, as a grid, housing electronic beacons, later called "Omphalus Stones". The grid arrangement of Oracle sites can only be seen from miles above the Earth. The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
The symbol of the "Old Empire" priesthood is a Python, dragon or serpent. It was called the "earth-dragon" at Delphi, which is always represented in sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent.
In Greek mythology the guardian of the Omphalus Stone at the temple at Delphi was an oracle whose name was Python, the serpent. She was an IS-BE, who was conquered by a "god" named Apollo. He buried her under the Omphalos stone. This is a case of one "god" setting up his temple on the grave of another. This is a very accurate euphemism for The Domain Force that detected and disabled the "Old Empire" temple network on Earth. It was one of the fatal blows to the "Old Empire" Force in the solar system of Earth.
559 BCE --
The Commanding Officer of The Domain Battalion who was lost in 5,965 BCE was detected and located by a search party sent to Earth from The Domain Expeditionary Force. He was incarnated as Cyrus II of Persia during this time.
A unique system of organization was used by Cyrus II and the members of that Battalion who followed him from India through his progression of human lives on Earth. In part, it enabled them to build the largest empire in the history of the Earth to that date.
The Domain Search Party who located him traveled around the Earth searching for the lost Battalion for several thousand years. The party consisted of 900 officers of The Domain, divided into teams of 300 each. One team searched the land, another team search the oceans and the third team searched the space surrounding Earth.
There are many reports made in various human civilizations concerning their activities, which humans did not understand, of course.
The Domain Search Party devised a wide variety of electronic detection devices needed to track the electronic signature or wavelength of each of the missing members of the Battalion. Some were used in space, others on land, and special devices were invented to detect IS-BEs under water.
One of these electronic detection devices is referred to as a "tree of life". The device is literally a tool designed to detect the presence of life, which is an IS-BE. This was a large electronic screen generator designed to permeate wide areas. To the ancient humans on Earth it resembled a sort of tree, since is consists of an interwoven lattice of electronic field generators and receivers. The electronic field detects the presence of IS-BEs, whether the IS-BE is occupying a body, or if they are outside a body.
A portable version of this detection device was carried by each of the members of The Domain Search Party. Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings. They are also shown carrying the power unit for the scanner which are depicted as stylized baskets or water buckets, being carried by eagle- headed, winged beings.
Members of the aerial unit of The Domain Search Party, led by Ahura Mazda, were often called "winged gods" in human interpretations. Throughout the Persian civilization there are a great many stone relief carvings that depict winged space craft, that they called a "faravahar".
Members of the Aquatic Unit of The Domain Search Party were called "Oannes" by local humans. Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes are shown wearing silver diving suits. They lived in the sea and appeared to the human population to be men dressed to look like fish. Some members of the lost Battalion were found in the oceans inhabiting the bodies of dolphins or whales.
On land, The Domain Search Party members were referred to as "Annunaki" by the Sumerians, and "Nephilim", in the Bible. Of course, their true mission and activities were never disclosed to homo sapiens. heir activities have been purposefully disguised. Therefore, the human stories and legends about the Annunaki, and the other members of The Domain Search Party have not been understood and were badly misinterpreted.
In the absence of complete and accurate data, anyone observing a phenomenon will assume or hypothesize explanations in an attempt to make sense of the data. Therefore, although mythology and history may be based on factual events, they are likewise full of misunderstood and misinterpreted evaluations of the data, and embellished with assumptions, theories and hypotheses which are false.
The space unit of The Domain Expeditionary Force are shown flying in a "Winged-Disc". This is an allusion to the spiritual power of the IS-BEs, as well as to the space craft used by The Domain Search Party.
The Commander of the lost Battalion, as Cyrus II, was an IS-BE who was regarded as a messiah on Earth by both the Jews, and the Muslims. In less than 50 years he established a highly ethical, and humanitarian philosophy which pervaded all of Western Civilization.
His territorial conquests, organization of people and monumental building projects were unprecedented before or since. Such sweeping accomplishments in a short period of time could only have been achieved by a leader and a team of trained officers, pilots, engineers and crew members of a unit of The Domain, acting as a team, who had been trained and worked together for thousands of years.
Although we have discovered the location of many of the IS-BEs in the lost Battalion, The Domain has been unable to restore their memory and return them to active duty as yet.
Of course we cannot transport IS-BEs who are inhabiting biological bodies to the space stations of The Domain since there is no oxygen in our space craft. Also we do not maintain life support facilities for biological entities there. Our only hope has been to locate and rekindle the awareness, memory and identity of the IS-BEs of the Lost Battalion. One day they will be capable of rejoining us.
200 BCE --
The last remnant of the "Old Empire" pyramid civilization is at "Teotihuacán". The Aztec name means “place of the gods” or “where men were transformed into gods”. Like the astronomical configuration of the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the entire complex is a precise scale-model of the solar system that accurately reflects the orbital distances of the inner planets, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Since the planet Uranus had only been "discovered" with modern Earth telescopes in 1787, and Pluto not until 1930, it is apparent that the builders had information from "other sources".
A common element of the Pyramid Civilizations around the Earth is the constant use of the image of the snake, dragon, or serpent.
This is because the beings who planted these civilizations here want to create an illusion that the "gods" are reptilian. This is also a part of an illusion designed to perpetuate amnesia.
The beings who placed false civilizations on Earth are IS-BEs, just like you. Many of the biological bodies inhabited by IS-BEs in the "Old Empire" are very similar in appearance to the bodies on Earth. The "gods" are not reptiles, although they often behave like snakes.
1,034 - 1,124 AD --
The entire Arab world was enslaved by one man: Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah , the Old Man of the Mountain. He established the Hashshashin who operated a part of Mohammedanism which controlled by terror and fear much of India, Asia Minor and most of the Mediterranean Basin. They became a priesthood that used an extremely effective mind-control mechanism and extortion tool that enabled the "Assassins" to control the civilized world for several hundred years.
Their method was simple. Young men were kidnapped and knocked unconscious with hashish. They were taken to a garden filled with beautiful black-eyed houris in a harem decorated with rivers of milk and honey. The young men were told that they were in paradise. They were promised they could return and live there forever if they sacrificed themselves as an assassin of whomever they were commanded to kill. The men were knocked out again, and shoved out into the world to carry out the assassination mission.
Meanwhile, the Old Man of the Mountain sent a messenger to the caliph or, whatever wealthy ruler from whom they demanded payment, demanding camel-loads of gold, spices, incense or other valuables. If payment did not arrive on time, the assassin would be sent to kill the offending party. There was virtually no defense against the unknown assailant who wanted nothing more than to carry out his mission, be killed and return to "heaven".
This is a very crude example of how simple and effective a brainwashing and mind-control operation can be when it is used skillfully, and forcefully. It is a small scale demonstration of how the amnesia mind-control operation is used against the entire IS-BE population of Earth by the "Old Empire".
1119 AD --
The Knights Templar was established as a Christian military unit after the First Crusade but quickly transformed into the basis for the international banking system to accumulate money to conduct the agenda of operatives for vestiges of the "Old Empire" on Earth.
1135 - 1230 AD --
The Domain Expeditionary Force completed the annihilation of the remaining remnants of the "Old Empire" space fleet operating in the solar system around Earth. Unfortunately, their long established thought control operation remains largely intact.
1307 AD --
The Knights Templar was disbanded by King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Order. He pressured Pope Clement V to condemn the Order's members, have them arrested, tortured them into giving false confessions, and burned them at the stake in an effort to erase his debt by seizing all of their wealth.
A majority of the Templars fled to Switzerland where they established an international banking system which secretly controls the economy of Earth.
"Old Empire" operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers. The banks are operated covertly as a non-combatant provocateur to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth. Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
The purpose of the senseless genocide and carnage of wars financed by these international banks is to prevent the IS- BEs of Earth from sharing open communication, cooperate together in activities that might enable IS-BEs to prosper, become enlightened, and escape their imprisonment."
…
This was compounded by the fact that The Vedic Hymns were brought to Earth 8,200 years ago by The Domain Expeditionary Force. While they were based in the Himalaya Mountains, the verses were taught to some of the local humans who memorized them. However, I should note that this was not an authorized activity for the crew of The Domain installation, although I am sure it seemed like an innocent diversion for them at the time.
The verses were passed along verbally from one generation to the next for thousands of years in the foothills and eventually spread throughout India. No one in The Domain credits any of the material in the Vedic Hymns as factual material, any more than you would use "Grimm's Fairy Tales" as a guide for rearing children. However, on a planet where all of the IS-BEs have had their memory erased, one can understand how these tales and fantasies could be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the humans who learned the Vedic verses passed them along to others saying that they came from "the gods". Eventually, the content of the verses were adopted verbatim as "truth". The euphemistic and metaphorical content of the Veda were accepted and practiced as dogmatic fact. The philosophy of the verses were ignored and the verses became the genesis of nearly every religious practice on the planet, especially Hinduism.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain, I must always assume a very pragmatic point of view. I could not be effective or accomplish my missions if I were to use philosophical dogma or rhetoric as my operations manual. Therefore, our discussion of history is based on actual events that occurred long before any IS-BEs arrived on Earth, and long before the "Old Empire” came into power.
…
Coincidentally, a friend and engineer with whom I used to work with at the Arcadia Regeneration Company -- a long time after I left the company -- told me that one of the projects they contracted to do, in more recent times, was to deliver life forms to Earth to replenish them after a war in this region of the galaxy devastated most of the life on the planets in this region of space. This would have been about seventy million years ago.
The skill required to modify the planet into an ecologically interactive environment that will support billions of diverse species was an immense undertaking. Specialized consultants from nearly every biotechnology company in the galaxy were brought in to help with the project.
…
"Today Airl told me about some very technical things. I took a few notes to remind myself, so I can repeat what she said as closely as possible. She began with an analogy about scientific knowledge:
Can you imagine how much progress could have been made on Earth if people like Johannes Gutenberg, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Nicola Tesla, Jonas Salk, and Richard Trevithick, and many thousands of similar geniuses and inventors were living today?
Image what technical accomplishments might have been developed if men like these never died? What if they were never given amnesia and made to forget everything they knew? What if they continued to learn and work forever?
What level of technology and civilization could be attained if Immortal Spiritual Beings like these were allowed to continue to create -- in the same place and at the same time -- for billions or trillions of years?
Essentially, The Domain is one civilization that has existed for trillions of years with relatively uninterrupted progress. Knowledge has been accumulated, refined, and improved upon in nearly every field of study imaginable
-- and beyond imagining.
Originally, the interaction of IS-BE illusions or inventions created the very fabric of the physical universe -- the microcosm and the macrocosm. Every single particle of the universe has been imagined and brought into existence by an IS-BE. Everything created from an idea -- a thought with no weight or size or location in space.
Every speck of dust in space, from the size of the tiniest subatomic particle, to the size of a sun or a magelantic cloud the size of many galaxies, was created from the nothingness of a thought. Even the tiniest, individual cells were contrived and coordinated to enable a microbial entity to sense, and navigate through infinitesimally small spaces. These also came from an idea thought up by an IS-BE.
You, and every IS-BE on Earth, have participated in the creation of this universe. Even though you are now confined to a fragile body made of flesh; you live for only 65 short rotations of your planet around a star; you have been given overwhelming electric shock treatments to wipe out your memory; you must learn everything all over again each lifetime; in spite of all these circumstances, you are who you are and will always be. And, deep down, you still know that you are and what you know. You are still the essence of you.
How else can one understand the child prodigy? An IS-BE who plays concertos on a piano at three years of age, without formal training? Impossible, if they did not simply remember what they have already learned from thousands of lives spent in front of a keyboard in times untold, or on planets far away. They may not know how they know. They just know.
Humankind has developed more technology in the past 100 years than in the previous 2,000 years. Why? The answer is simple: the influence of the "Old Empire" over the mind and over the affairs of Mankind has been diminished by The Domain.
A renaissance of invention on Earth began in 1,250 AD with the destruction of the "Old Empire" space fleet in the solar system. During the next 500 years, Earth may have the potential to regain autonomy and independence, but only to the degree that humankind can apply the concentrated genius of the IS-BEs on Earth to solve the amnesia problem.
However, on a cautionary note, the inventive potential of the IS-BEs who have been exiled to this planet is severely compromised by the criminal elements of the Earth population. Specifically, politicians, war-mongers and irresponsible physicists who create unlimited weapons such as nuclear bombs, chemicals, diseases and social chaos. These have the potential to extinguish all life forms on Earth, forever.
Even the relatively small explosions that were tested and used in the past two years on Earth have the potential to destroy all of life, if deployed in sufficient quantities. Larger weapons could consume all of the oxygen in the global atmosphere in a single explosion!
Therefore, the most fundamental problems that must be solved in order to ensure that Earth will not be destroyed by technology, are social and humanitarian problems. The greatest scientific minds of Earth, in spite of mathematical or mechanical genius, have never addressed these problems.
Therefore, do not look to scientists to save Earth or the future of humanity. Any so-called "science" that is solely based on the paradigm that existence is composed only of energy and objects moving through space is not a science. Such beings utterly ignore the creative spark originated by an individual IS-BE and collective work of the IS-BEs who continually create the physical universe and all universes. Every science will remain relatively ineffective or destructive to the degree that it omits or devaluates the relative importance of the spiritual spark that ignites all of creation and life.
Unfortunately this ignorance has been very carefully and forcefully instilled in human beings by the "Old Empire" to ensure that IS- BEs on this planet will not be able to recover their innate ability to create space, energy, matter and time, or any other component part of universes. As long as awareness of the immortal, powerful, spiritual "self" is ignored, humanity will remain imprisoned until the day of its own, self-destruction and oblivion.
Do not rely on the dogma of physical sciences to master the fundamental forces of creation any more than you would trust the chanted incantations of an incense-burning shaman. The net result of both of these is entrapment and oblivion. Scientists pretend to observe, but they only suppose that they see, and call it fact. Like the blind man, a scientist can not learn to see until he realizes that he is blind. The "facts" of Earth science do not include the source of creation. They include only the result, or byproducts of creation.
The "facts" of science to not include any memory of the nearly infinite past experience of existence.
The essence of creation and existence cannot be found through the lens of a microscope or telescope or by any other measurement of the physical universe. One cannot comprehend the perfume of a flower or the pain felt by an abandoned lover with meters and calipers.
Everything you will ever know about the creative force and ability of a god can be found within you -- an Immortal Spiritual Being.
How can a blind man teach others to see the nearly infinite gradients that comprise the spectrum of light? The notion that one can understand the universe without understanding the nature of an IS-BE is as absurd as conceiving that an artist is a speck of paint on his own canvas. Or, that the lace on a ballet shoe is the choreographer's vision, or the grace of a dancer, or the electric excitement of opening night.
Study of the spirit has been booby-trapped by the thought control operation through religious superstitions they instill in the minds of men. Conversely, the study of the spirit and the mind have been prohibited by science which eliminates anything that is not measurable in the physical universe. Science is the religion of matter. It worships matter.
The paradigm of science is that creation is all, and the creator is nothing. Religion says the creator is all, and the creation is nothing. These two extremes are the bars of a prison cell. They prevent observation of all phenomenon as an interactive whole.
Study of creation without knowing the IS-BE, the source of creation, is futile. When you sail to the edge of a universe conceived by science, you fall off the end into an abyss of dark, dispassionate space and lifeless, unrelenting force. On Earth, you have been convinced that the oceans of the mind and spirit are filled with gruesome, ghoulish monsters that will eat you alive if you dare to venture beyond the breakwater of superstition.
The vested interest of the "Old Empire" prison system is to prevent you from looking at your own soul. They fear that you will see in your own memory the slave masters who keep you imprisoned. The prison is made of shadows in your mind. The shadows are made of lies, and pain, and loss, and fear.
The true geniuses of civilization are those IS- BEs who will enable other IS-BEs to recover their memory and regain self-realization and self-determination. This issue is not solved through enforcing moral regulation on behavior, or through the control of beings through mystery, faith, drugs, guns or any other dogma of a slave society. And certainly not through the use of electric shock and hypnotic commands!
The survival of Earth and every being on it depends on the ability to recover the memory of skills you have accrued through the trillenia; to recover the essence of yourself. Such an art, science, or technology has never been conceived in the "Old Empire". Otherwise, they would not have resorted to the "solution" that brought you to your current condition on Earth.
Neither has such technology ever been developed by The Domain. Until recently, the necessity of rehabilitating an IS-BE with amnesia has not been needed. Therefore, no one has ever worked on solving this problem. So far, unfortunately, The Domain has no solution to offer.
A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time. These officers leave their "doll" at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth. In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.
This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking. It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully. One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla.
It is my intention, although is not a part of my mission orders, to assist you in your efforts to advance scientific and humanitarian progress on Earth. My intention is to help other IS-BEs to help themselves. In order to solve the amnesia problem on Earth you will need much more advanced technology, as well as social stability to allow enough time for research and development of techniques to free the IS-BE from the body, and to free the mind of the IS-BE from amnesia.
Although The Domain has a long term interest in maintaining Earth as a useful planet, it has no particular interest in the human population of Earth, other than its own personnel here. We are interested in preventing destruction, as well as accelerating the development of technologies that will sustain the infrastructures of the global biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
To this end, you will discover, on very careful and thorough examination, that my space craft contains a wide assortment of technology that does not yet exist on Earth. If you distribute pieces of this craft to various scientists for study, they will be able to reverse engineer some of the technology to the extent that Earth has the raw materials required to replicate these components.
Some features will be indecipherable. Other features cannot be duplicated as Earth does not have the natural resources required to replicate them. This is especially true of the metals used to construct the craft. Not only do these metals not exist on Earth, the refining process required to produce these metals took billions of years to develop.
It is also true of the navigation system which requires an IS-BE whose own personal wavelength has been specifically attuned to the "neural network" of the craft. The pilot of the craft must possess a very high order of energy volition, discipline, training and intelligence to manipulate such a craft. IS-BEs on Earth are incapable of this expertise because it requires the use of an artificial body specifically created for this purpose.
Certain individual Earth scientists, some of whom are among the most brilliant minds in the history of the universe, will have their memory of this technology jogged when they examine the craft components. Just as some of the scientists and physicists on Earth have been able to "remember" how to recreate electric generators, internal combustion and steam locomotion, refrigeration, aircraft, antibiotics, and other tools of your civilization, they will also rediscover other vital technology in my craft.
The following are the specific systems embodied in my craft that contain useful components:
There is an assortment of microscopic wiring or fibers within the walls of the craft that control such things as communications, information storage, computer function, and automatic navigation.
The same wiring is used for light, sub- light and ultra-light spectrum detection and vision.
The fabrics of the interior of the craft are far superior to any on Earth at this time and have hundreds or thousands of applications.
You will also find mechanisms for creating, amplifying and channeling light particles or waves as a form of...
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces, I am not at liberty to discuss or convey the detailed operation or construction of the craft in any way, other than what I have just disclosed. However, I am confident that there are many competent engineers on Earth who will develop useful technology with these resources.
I am providing these details to you in the hope that the greater good of The Domain will be served."
...
Although The Domain will not hesitate to destroy any active vestiges of the "Old Empire" operations where ever they are discovered this is not our primary mission in this galaxy. I am sure that the "Old Empire" mind-control mechanisms can be deactivated and destroyed eventually. However, it is not possible to estimate how long this make take, as we do not understand the extent of this operation at this time.
We do know that the "Old Empire" force screen is vast enough to cover this end of the galaxy, at least. We also know from experience that each force generator and trapping device is very difficult to detect, locate and destroy. Also, it is not the current mission of The Domain Expeditionary Force to commit resources to this endeavor.
The eventual destruction of these devices may make it possible for your memory to be restored, simply by virtue of not having it erased after each lifetime. Fortunately, the memory of an IS-BE cannot be permanently erased.
There are many other active space civilizations who maintain various nefarious operations in this area...
... not the least of which is dumping unwanted IS-BEs on Earth.
None of these craft are hostile or in violent opposition to The Domain Forces. They know better than to challenge us!
For the most part The Domain ignores Earth and its inhabitants, except to ensure that the resources of the planet itself are not permanently spoiled. This sector of the galaxy was annexed by The Domain and is the possession of The Domain, to do with or dispose of as it deems best.
The moon of Earth and the asteroid belt have become a permanent base of operations for The Domain Forces.
Needless to say, any attempt by humans or others to interfere in the activities of The Domain in this solar system -- even if it were possible, which it definitely is not -- will be terminated swiftly. This is not a serious concern, as I mentioned earlier, since homo sapiens cannot operate in open space.
Of course we will continue with the next steps of The Domain Expansion Plan which has remained on schedule for billions of years. Over the next 5,000 years there will be increasing traffic and activity of The Domain Forces as we progress toward the center of this galaxy and beyond to spread our civilization through the universe.
If humanity is to survive, it must cooperate to find effective solutions to the difficult conditions of your existence on Earth. Humanity must rise above its human form and discover where they are, and that they are IS- BEs, and who they really are as IS-BEs in order to transcend the notion that they are merely biological bodies. Once these realizations have been made, it may be possible to escape your current imprisonment. Otherwise, there will be no future for the IS-BEs on Earth.
Although there are no active battles or war being waged between The Domain and the "Old Empire", there still exists the covert actions of the "Old Empire" taken against Earth through their thought control operation.
When one knows that these activities exist, the effects can be observed clearly. The most obvious examples of these actions against the human race can be seen as incidents of sudden, inexplicable behavior. A very recent instance of this occurred in the United States military just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Just three days before the attack, someone in authority ordered all the ships in Pearl Harbor to go into port and secure for inspection. The ships were ordered to take all the ammunition out of their magazines, and store it below. On the afternoon before attack all of the admirals and generals were attending parties, even though two Japanese aircraft carriers were discovered standing right off Pearl Harbor.
The obvious action to take would have been to contact Pearl Harbor by telephone to warn them of the danger of a fight starting and to put the ammunition back and order the ships to get out of port into open sea.
About six hours before the Japanese attack began, a U.S. navy ship sank a small Japanese submarine right outside the harbor. Instead of contacting Pearl Harbor by telephone to report the incident, a warning message was put into top secret code, which took about two hours to encode, and then it took another two hours to decode. The word of warning to Pearl Harbor did not arrive until 10:00 AM Pearl Harbor time, Sunday -- two hours after the Japanese attack destroyed the U.S. fleet.
How do things like this happen?
If the men who were responsible for these obviously disastrous errors were stood up and asked bluntly to justify their actions and intentions you would find out that they were quite sincere in their jobs. Ordinarily, they do the very best they can do for people and nations. However, all of a sudden, from some completely unknown and undetectable source enters these wild, unexplainable situations that just 'can't exist'.
The "Old Empire" thought control operation is run by a small group of old "baboons" with very small minds. They are playing insidious games with no purpose and no goal other than to control and destroy IS-BEs who could otherwise manage themselves perfectly well, if left alone.
These types of artificially created incidents are being forced upon the human race by the operators of the mind-control prison system. The prison guards will always promote and support oppressive or totalitarian activities of IS-BEs on Earth. Why not keep the inmates fighting between themselves? Why not empower madmen to run the governments of Earth? The men who run the criminal governments of Earth mirror the commands given them by covert thought-controllers of the "Old Empire".
The human race will continue to shadow box with this for a long time -- as long as it remains the human race.
Until then, the IS-BEs on Earth will continue to live a series of consecutive lives, over and over and over. The same IS-BEs who lived during the rise and fall of civilizations in India, China, Mesepotamia, Greece, and Rome are inhabiting bodies in the present time in America, France, Russia, Africa, and around the world.
In between each lifetime an IS-BE is sent back again, to begin all over, as though the new life was the only life they had ever lived. They begin anew in pain, in misery, and mystery.
Some IS-BEs have been transported to Earth more recently than others. Some IS-BEs have been on Earth only a few hundred years, so they have no personal experiences with the earlier civilizations of Earth. They have no experiences of having lived on Earth, so could not remember a previous existence here, even if their memory was restored. They might, however, remember lives they lived elsewhere on other planets and in other times.
Others have been here since the first days of Lemuria. In any case, the IS-BEs of Earth are here forever, until they can break the amnesia cycle, conquer the electronic traps set up by their captors and free themselves.
Because The Domain has three thousand of their own IS-BEs in captivity on Earth also, they have an interest in solving this problem. This problem has never been encountered or effectively solved before in the universe, as far as they know. They will continue their efforts to free those IS-BEs from Earth, where and when it is possible, but it will require time to develop an unprecedented technology and the diligence to do so.'
…
Summary and conclusion
The vast bulk of the narrative in the “Alien Interview” contained references and information relative to the conventional situation. When a need to elaborate on certain points occurred, the extraterrestrial used personal stories and data to “flush it out” so as to clarify the situations involved.
This article contains the vast bulk of the narrative as it pertains to contemporaneous humans on Earth devoid of any older historical references.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the largest and most alien time scope; trillions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
The text segments…
"Personally, it is my conviction that all sentient beings are immortal spiritual beings. This includes human beings. For the sake of accuracy and simplicity I will use a made-up word: "IS-BE".
Because the primary nature of an immortal being is that they live in a timeless state of "is", and the only reason for their existence is that they decide to "be".
No matter how lowly their station in a society, every IS-BE deserves the respect and treatment that I myself would like to receive from others. Each person on Earth continues to be an IS-BE whether they are aware of the fact or not."
…
"Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing an object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called "space".
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream.
In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be". She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time.
An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial". They can span great distances of space instantly.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began. As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe. Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, "home" universe. That is, when an IS-BE's "home" universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS- BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
1) the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
2) IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion.
…
The Domain has conducted a periodic survey of the galaxies in this sector of the universe since it developed space travel technologies about 80 trillion years ago.
A review of changes in the complexion of Earth reveal that mountain ranges rise and fall, continents change location, the poles of the planet shift, ice caps come and go, oceans appear and disappear, rivers, valleys and canyons change. In all cases, the matter is the same. It is always the same sand.
Every form and substance is made of the same basic material, which never deteriorates.
…
"The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate. Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on false memories, inaccurate observation, missing data, unproven theories, and superstition.
…
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind, as well as from the minds of your mentors. In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, "No, not exactly".
You will find "evolution" mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns. The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain. These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist. It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become "alive" or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self- animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true. Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens. Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally. It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs. Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs. However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect. No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time is nothing more than a hypnotic lie instilled by the amnesia operation to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind. Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
…
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as "IS-BEs", for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space.
An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS- BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom.
A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will? What if you couldn't do anything else? What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time.
There is no measurable "beginning" or "end" for an IS-BE.
They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one's own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration. One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces. These were the "home" of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs. A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play. IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game. Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals. Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events have been created by IS-BEs and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum. Each universe is created using its own unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it. Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes. The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed. So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it. It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS- BEs which they themselves do not want to experience. For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god?
They pretend NOT to know. How can you play a game of "hide and seek" if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to "seek" them. This is how games are created. You have forgotten that you are just "pretending". In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
How does one create a cage, lock one's own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an "inside" or "outside", and even forget there is a self? Create the illusion that there is no illusion: the entire universe is real, and that no other universe exists or can be created.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god. Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves -- individually and collectively -- are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
…
Some comments on this.
These discussions, and text narratives, refer to a time where our universe (via the “Big Bang”) was not yet created. And in that land of no time (yet the extraterrestrial refers to time…?) and no space, the IS-BE consciousness existed. And this is what it was like.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of billions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
Perspective
According to the learned “experts” the “big bang” hit around 14 – 15 billion years ago. Eventually forming our galaxy which absorbed other galaxies in the process. Based on the composition of stars, they have estimated that most stars in our universe today are fourth or fifth generation.
Our solar system is around 4 – 5 billion years old.
The text segments
Every once in a short while, a few million years, an area or planet will be taken over by another group of IS-BEs entering into the area.
Sometimes they will capture other IS-BEs as slaves. They will be forced to inhabit bodies to perform menial, or manual work -- especially mining mineral ores on heavy-gravity planets, such as Earth.
Airl says that, when she became a pilot for a biological survey mission which included occasional visits to Earth. She can remember her entire career there, and for a very long time before that.
She told me that Earth scientists do not have an accurate measuring system to gauge the age of matter. They assume that because certain types of materials seem to deteriorate rather quickly, such as organic or carbon-based matter, that there is a deterioration of matter. It is not accurate to measure the age of stone, based on the measurement of the age of wood or bone. This is a fundamental error. Factually, matter does not deteriorate. It cannot be destroyed. Matter may be altered in form, but it is never truly destroyed.
…
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one. It was called the "Arcadia Regeneration Company". I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians. It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets. There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also. Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the "class" of the planet being populated. Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies. The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life. Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
The "Arcadia Regeneration Company" specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions. Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe. The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content. In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms. There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys. This is when I learned my skills as a pilot. The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial "brain" or complex calculating machine. It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions. In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures. Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems. It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments. Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was "endowed" or "animated" with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms. Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies. The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both. This is part of a science or art you call "Eugenics".
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
…
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind. Your scientists believe that the fallacious "theory of evolution" is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here. The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet? How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature? To say it is the work of "god", is far too broad. Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects. About 350,000 of these are species of beetles. There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time. In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current "theory of evolution" of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity. Evolution by natural selection is science fiction. One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
…
Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for "Star Type 3, Class C" planets. In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion's Belt in this galaxy.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field. Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased. Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the "Old Empire" prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self- regeneration, or sexual reproduction. It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures. Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry. The infamous "Council of Yuhmi-Krum" was responsible for coordinating creature production.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the "food chain".
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be "Bugs & Blossoms" . They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms. They invented a "scientific theory" to use as a promotion gimmick. The theory was that all creatures needed to have "food" as a source of energy. Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy. Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Of course, "Bugs & Blossoms" went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores. Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult. As a 'solution', "Bugs & Blossoms" proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using 'sexual reproduction' as the basis for replenishing life-forms. "Bugs & Blossoms" was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and pre-programmed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by "Bugs & Blossoms" too.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies. These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life- forms. It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry. Ultimately, the 'food and sex' idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including "Bugs & Blossoms". The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared. Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost. Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
The core concept behind 'sexual reproduction' technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called "cyclical stimulus-response generators". This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a "chemical-electrical trigger" mechanism in the body. The "trigger" which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of "flesh body", is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses "aesthetic pain" to attract the IS-BE.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is "baited" with an aesthetic electronic wave.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get "stuck" in the body.
The "reproductive trigger" used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical- electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources. Starvation promotes reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the "sexual aesthetic-pain" electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies. This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies. This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
The civilizations of The Domain and the "Old Empire" both depend on this device to "recruit" and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations. These IS-BEs are the "working class" beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
As I mentioned, there is a very highly regimented and fixed hierarchy or "class system" for all IS-BEs throughout the "Old Empire", and The Domain, as follows:
The highest class are "free" IS-BEs. That is, they are not restricted to the use of any type of body and may come and go at will, provided that they do not destroy or interfere with the social, economic or political structure.
Below this class are many strata of "limited" IS-BEs who may or may not use a body from time to time. Limitations are imposed on each IS-BE regarding range of power, ability and mobility they can exercise.
Below these are the "doll body" classes, to which I belong. Nearly all space officers and crew members of space craft are required to travel through intergalactic space. Therefore, they are each equipped with a body manufactured from lightweight, durable materials. Various body types have been designed to facilitate specialized functions. Some bodies have accessories, such as interchangeable tools or apparatus for activities such as maintenance, mining, chemical management, navigation, and so forth. There are many gradations of this body type which also serve as an "insignia" of rank.
Below these are the soldier class. The soldiers are equipped with a myriad of weapons, and specialized armaments designed to detect, combat and overwhelm any imaginable foe. Some soldiers are issued mechanical bodies. Most soldiers are merely remote controlled robots with no class designation.
The lower classes are limited to "flesh bodies". Of course, it is not possible for these to travel through space for obvious reasons. Fundamentally, flesh bodies are far too fragile to endure the stresses of gravity, temperature extremes, radiation exposure, atmospheric chemicals and the vacuum of space. There are also the obvious logistical inconveniences of food, defecation, sleep, atmospheric elements, and air pressure required by flesh bodies, that doll bodies do not require.
Most flesh bodies will suffocate in only a few minutes without a specific combination of atmospheric chemicals. After 2 or 3 days the bacteria which live internally and externally on the body cause severe odors to be emitted. Odors of any kind are not acceptable in a space vessel.
Flesh can tolerate only a very limited spectrum of temperatures, whereas in space the contrast of temperatures may vary hundreds of degrees within seconds. Of course flesh bodies are utterly useless for military duty. A single shot from a hand-held, electronic blast gun instantly turns a flesh body into a noxious vapor cloud.
IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies have lost much of their native ability and power. Although it is theoretically possible to regain or rehabilitate these abilities, no practical means has been discovered or authorized by The Domain.
Even though space craft of The Domain travel trillions of "light years" in a single day, the time required to traverse the space between galaxies is significant, not to mention the length of time to complete just one set of mission orders, which may require thousands of years. Biological flesh bodies live for only a very short time -- only 60 to 150 years, at most -- whereas doll bodies can be re-used and repaired almost indefinitely.
The first development of biological bodies began in this universe about seventy-four trillion years ago. It rapidly became a fad for IS-BEs to create and inhabit various types of bodies for an assortment of nefarious reasons: especially for amusement, this is to experience various physical sensations vicariously through the body.
Since that time there has been a continuing "de-evolution" in the relationship of IS-BEs to bodies. As IS-BEs continued to play around with these bodies, certain tricks were introduced to cause IS-BEs to get trapped inside a body so they were unable to leave again.
This was done primarily by making bodies that appeared sturdy, but were actually very fragile. An IS-BE, using their natural power to create energy, accidentally injured a body when contacting it. The IS-BE was remorseful about having injured this fragile body. The next time they encountered a body they began to be "careful" with them. In so doing, the IS-BE would withdraw or minimize their own power so as not to injure the body. A very long and treacherous history of this kind of trickery, combined with similar misadventures eventually resulted in a large number of IS-BEs becoming permanently trapped in bodies.
Of course this became a profitable enterprise for some IS-BEs who took advantage of this situation to make slaves of others. The resulting enslavement progressed over trillions of years, and continues today. Ultimately the dwindling ability of IS-BEs to maintain a personal state of operational freedom and ability to create energy resulted in the vast and carefully guarded hierarchy or class system. Using bodies as a symbol of each class is used throughout the "Old Empire", as well as The Domain.
The vast majority of IS-BEs throughout the galaxies of this universe inhabit some form of flesh body. The structure, appearance, operation and habitat of these bodies vary according to the gravity, atmosphere, and climatic conditions of the planet they inhabit. Body types are predetermined largely by the type and size of the star around which the planet revolves, the distance from the star, the geological, as well as the atmospheric components of the planet.
On the average, these stars and planets fall into gradients of classification which are fairly standard throughout the universe. For example, Earth is identified, roughly, as a "Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet". That is a heavy gravity, nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere planet, with biological life-forms, in proximity to a single, yellow, medium-size, low-radiation sun or "Type 12 star". The proper designations are difficult to translate accurately due to the extreme limitations of astronomical nomenclature in the English language.
There are as many varieties of life forms as there are grains of sands on the beach. You can imagine how many different creatures and types of bodies have been manufactured by the millions of companies such as "Bugs & Blossoms" for all of the myriad planetary systems during the course of seventy-four trillion years!"
…
As Airl mentioned previously, a very rigid and distinctive hierarchy of social, economic and cultural classes exists throughout The Domain which has remained unvaried and inviolate for many millennia. The body type and function assigned to an IS-BE officer varies specifically according to the rank, class, longevity, training level, command level, service record, and meritorious citations earned by each individual IS-BE, as with any other military insignia.
The body used by Airl is specifically designed for an officer, pilot and engineer of her rank and class. The bodies of her companions, which were destroyed in the crash, were not of the same rank or class, but of a junior rank. Therefore, the appearance, features, composition and functionality of those bodies were specialized, and limited to the requirements of their duties.
The junior officers whose bodies were damaged in the crash have left their bodies and returned to their duties on the space station. The damage suffered by their bodies was due primarily to the fact that they were officers of lower rank. They used bodies which were partially biological and therefore far less durable and resilient than hers.
…
Some thoughts
In general, we can consider these selected text extracts to represent the time period from when the “Big Bang” happened to the early years in the formation of our solar system.
You can see that The Domain (or what ever it called itself then) was very busy creating life templates or systems, or archetypes for our universe. And most of the discussions during this period involved this activity. You can also see that it had created organizations that had similar names to what we refer to as companies, groups, marketing and scientists.
All in all it is very interesting. And in many ways is near equal to my understanding of this time period.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
In the transcript the extraterrestrial jumps all over. And in many instances he seems to reflect normal regular human feelings and attitudes about issues (such as the platypus) and you can read it and miss many things as it is a dated document translated by a nurse in 1947. In order to best sort it out, to a frame of reference that we can all understand, I am now (in this series of articles) going to separate the “Alien Interview” document into sections categorized by dates.
The extraterrestrial discussed period of time in…
Trillions of years. (Birth of consciousness, universe creation.)
Billions of years. (Galaxy creation, and early civilizations.)
Millions of years. (Local events in our region, and mankind.)
Thousands of years. (A scope most important to humans.)
In this article we will discuss the time scope of millions of years.
Because the text will be taken out of the document, there might be some discontinuity in the text. In any case, I would advise reading the entire full document for a better understanding of context. Further, keep in mind that the purpose of this particular post / article is to separate the transcript into wide categories depending on the span of times discussed. I fear that the extraterrestrial was talking about a few thousand years in the past, then jumped to trillions of years ago, jumps to millions of years ago, jumps to decades, and then back to billions of years ago. This effort is to help sort things out chronologically.
Millions of years ago.
Our solar system is around 4 – 5 billion years old (according to the “experts”). And our planet Earth really wasn’t much of anything worthwhile up until the last one billion years. Up until around 800 million years ago or so, it was just a hot smoggy mess.
Most Earth humans cannot picture a span of time in the millions of years. But to put things in context, you can use this handy guide…
Most of the stars and planets that we can see through our telescopes were pretty much also visible millions of years ago. Though many had changed and gone through “life cycles” in the process.
On the Earth, life fit into these broad categories…
800m – 500m Early life
500m – 70m Dinosaurs
70m – 10m Mammals
10m – 3m Proto-apes
3m – present Humans
Now there are all sorts of ways to splice and dice these categories up, so I’m not gonna want to hear your arguments one way or the other. This is just a very rough (ROUGH) rule of thumb to put things into context when you are reading the text extracted from the “Alien Interview” document.
The following text refers to stories, experiences, and narratives that took place when the world was rather young. As the extraterrestrial entity narrates, please keep in mind that the earth at this particular time was primitive. If it had life, the chances were that the life was dinosaurs or something similar.
The text segments
Several million years ago I was trained and served as an Investigation, Data Evaluation and Program Development Officer for The Domain. Because I was experienced in that technology, I was sent to Earth as part of the search team. (around 8,000 years ago.)
…
A simple example of IS-BE intervention is the selective breeding of a species on Earth. Within the past few hundred years several hundred dog breeds and hundreds of varieties of pigeons and dozens of Koi fish have been "evolved" in just a few years, beginning with only one original breed. Without active intervention by IS-BEs, biological organisms rarely change.
The development of an animal like the 'duck- billed platypus' required a lot of very clever engineering to combine the body of a beaver with the bill of a duck and make a mammal that lays eggs. Undoubtedly, some wealthy client placed a "special order" for it as a gift or curious amusement. I am sure the laboratory of some biotechnical company worked on it for years to make it a self-replicating life form!
The notion that the creation of any life form could have resulted from a coincidental chemical interaction moldering up from some primordial ooze is beyond absurdity!
…
Thoughts and conclusions
This article discusses extracted quotes relating to a period of time on the order of millions of earth years. Roughly 100 million to 1 million years ago.
The extraterrestrial did not mention much about this period of time. There were only two separate instances that include dates in this time frame.
What we do know, or can infer, is that during this period of time that [1] “The Domain” existed. And that this particular extraterrestrial was involved in various roles to include [2] “training”, “working” and “learning”.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 8.
This is part eight of the parsing of this document
“It is my personal belief that the truth should not be sacrificed on the altar of political, religious or economic expediency.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain it is my duty to protect the greater good of The Domain and its possessions.
However, we cannot defend ourselves against forces of which we are not aware.
The extraterrestrial wants to discuss truths as it understands them, but realizes that there are limitations on what it can say, and barriers in understanding what is related.
The isolation of Earth from the rest of civilization prevents me from discussing many subjects with you at this time.
The forced isolated of Earth, makes it very difficult to discuss matters of importance. Most of what would be discussed would be new, strange or incomprehensible to humans.
Security and protocol prevent me from revealing any but the broadest, general statements about the plans and activities of The Domain.
It is a military officer in an organization with limitations are requirements that it must meet.
However, I can give you some information that you may find useful.
But, and never the less, some information can be provided that will be useful.
I must return to my assigned duties on the “space station” now.
This "Alien interview" was a distraction. Not a major event. It it time for the extraterrestrial to return to it's normal duties.
I have provided as much help as I feel ethically able to offer, given the requirements and constraints of my duties as an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces. Therefore, I will depart, as an IS-BE, from Earth within the next 24 hours.’
It is time for it to leave.
Notes
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following several paragraphs appear to be personal comments made by Matilda to the stenographer regarding her interview with Airl.)
What this means is that Airl will leave her “doll” with us, as her craft is damaged beyond repair. We can examine, dissect and study the body at our leisure. She does not have any further use for it, nor does she have any personal feelings or attachments to it as others are readily available for her use.
Airl does not recommend that there is any technology in the body that Earth scientists will find useful, however. The technology of the body is simple, yet vastly beyond the reckoning of our current ability to analyze or reverse engineer any facet of it. The body is neither biological or mechanical, but a unique fabrication a materials and ancient technologies not found on any Earth-type planet.
As Airl mentioned previously, a very rigid and distinctive hierarchy of social, economic and cultural classes exists throughout The Domain which has remained unvaried and inviolate for many millennia. The body type and function assigned to an IS-BE officer varies specifically according to the rank, class, longevity, training level, command level, service record, and meritorious citations earned by each individual IS-BE, as with any other military insignia.
The body used by Airl is specifically designed for an officer, pilot and engineer of her rank and class. The bodies of her companions, which were destroyed in the crash, were not of the same rank or class, but of a junior rank. Therefore, the appearance, features, composition and functionality of those bodies were specialized, and limited to the requirements of their duties.
The junior officers whose bodies were damaged in the crash have left their bodies and returned to their duties on the space station. The damage suffered by their bodies was due primarily to the fact that they were officers of lower rank. They used bodies which were partially biological and therefore far less durable and resilient than hers.
Transcript resumes
(EDITOR'S NOTE: At this point, the transcript appears to resume with statements made by Airl.)
Although The Domain will not hesitate to destroy any active vestiges of the “Old Empire” operations where ever they are discovered this is not our primary mission in this galaxy.
The Domain primary mission is something else. It will destroy "Old Empire" remnants where ever it finds them.
I am sure that the “Old Empire” mind-control mechanisms can be deactivated and destroyed eventually.
I agree with this.
However, it is not possible to estimate how long this make take, as we do not understand the extent of this operation at this time.
I also agree with this, though I do believe that things has changed substantially with MAJestic assistance from the 1960's to present.
We do know that the “Old Empire” force screen is vast enough to cover this end of the galaxy, at least.
It is not limited to the Earth. Nor is it limited to the solar system. But it extends much further than that and includes a region of space with numerous solar systems. I can tell you that there are at least five "sentience nurseries" or recovering "prison planets" in this neighborhood.
We also know from experience that each force generator and trapping device is very difficult to detect, locate and destroy.
Not a good thing.
Also, it is not the current mission of The Domain Expeditionary Force to commit resources to this endeavor.
Not a good thing.
The eventual destruction of these devices may make it possible for your memory to be restored, simply by virtue of not having it erased after each lifetime.
The destruction of the devices will probably and likely prevent the erasure of memories. But it will not be able to recover previously lost memories unfortunately.
Fortunately, the memory of an IS-BE cannot be permanently erased.
So, the memories will still be dormant, sitting there. They just will not be easily recovered.
There are many other active space civilizations who maintain various nefarious operations in this area, not the least of which is dumping unwanted IS-BEs on Earth.
There are many other space civilizations similar to the "Old Empire" that acts in this geographic area of our solar system.
None of these craft are hostile or in violent opposition to The Domain Forces. They know better than to challenge us!
They are war-mongering with evil intent, but they are afraid of the Domain. Which is probably why the Type-1 greys are so dominant in the solar system with MAJestic.
For the most part The Domain ignores Earth and its inhabitants, except to ensure that the resources of the planet itself are not permanently spoiled.
They do not want the earth to be radioactive, or swamped with incurable biological weapons.
This sector of the galaxy was annexed by The Domain and is the possession of The Domain, to do with or dispose of as it deems best.
This entire region, including the Earth is the property of The Domain.
The moon of Earth and the asteroid belt have become a permanent base of operations for The Domain Forces.
Permanent bases of operations for the Domain exist on the moon and in the asteroid belt. You all might want to read my article on The Hollow Moon.
Needless to say, any attempt by humans or others to interfere in the activities of The Domain in this solar system – even if it were possible, which it definitely is not – will be terminated swiftly.
Up front warning to the military leadership at Roswell.
This is not a serious concern, as I mentioned earlier, since homo sapiens cannot operate in open space.
Still the warning is there.
Of course we will continue with the next steps of The Domain Expansion Plan which has remained on schedule for billions of years. Over the next 5,000 years there will be increasing traffic and activity of The Domain Forces as we progress toward the center of this galaxy and beyond to spread our civilization through the universe.
This region of space will see more type-1 grey activities and will become more important as time moves on.
If humanity is to survive, it must cooperate to find effective solutions to the difficult conditions of your existence on Earth.
Humanity must cooperate with the Domain. Which is probably why MAJestic was established.
Humanity must rise above its human form and discover where they are, and that they are IS-BEs, and who they really are as IS-BEs in order to transcend the notion that they are merely biological bodies.
Once these realizations have been made, it may be possible to escape your current imprisonment.
Otherwise, there will be no future for the IS-BEs on Earth.
Thus anyone or anything that dwells on the carnal things of the flesh and the physical takes away from the notion of consciousness and purpose. Be the Rufus, or try to become filthy rich and popular like the media says. there is no in between.
Although there are no active battles or war being waged between The Domain and the “Old Empire”, there still exists the covert actions of the “Old Empire” taken against Earth through their thought control operation.
Covert actions are engaged on the earth.
When one knows that these these activities exist, the effects can be observed clearly.
The most obvious examples of these actions against the human race can be seen as incidents of sudden, inexplicable behavior.
A very recent instance of this occurred in the United States military just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Such as carpet bombing China with bio-weapons, and the Coronavirus, and the strange behaviors of American and British Naval vessels.
Just three days before the attack, someone in authority ordered all the ships in Pearl Harbor to go into port and secure for inspection. The ships were ordered to take all the ammunition out of their magazines, and store it below. On the afternoon before attack all of the admirals and generals were attending parties, even though two Japanese aircraft carriers were discovered standing right off Pearl Harbor.
The obvious action to take would have been to contact Pearl Harbor by telephone to warn them of the danger of a fight starting and to put the ammunition back and order the ships to get out of port into open sea.
About six hours before the Japanese attack began, a U.S. navy ship sank a small Japanese submarine right outside the harbor. Instead of contacting Pearl Harbor by telephone to report the incident, a warning message was put into top secret code, which took about two hours to encode, and then it took another two hours to decode.
The word of warning to Pearl Harbor did not arrive until 10:00 AM Pearl Harbor time, Sunday – two hours after the Japanese attack destroyed the U.S. fleet.
How do things like this happen?
If the men who were responsible for these obviously disastrous errors were stood up and asked bluntly to justify their actions and intentions you would find out that they were quite sincere in their jobs. Ordinarily, they do the very best they can do for people and nations. However, all of a sudden, from some completely unknown and undetectable source enters these wild, unexplainable situations that just ‘can’t exist’.
Such unexplainable actions by otherwise sensible people can and will occur.
The “Old Empire” thought control operation is run by a small group of old “baboons” with very small minds. They are playing insidious games with no purpose and no goal other than to control and destroy IS-BEs who could otherwise manage themselves perfectly well, if left alone.
It's an apt description of a very low mental state of humanoid.
These types of artificially created incidents (as recently) are being forced upon the human race by the operators of the mind-control prison system. The prison guards will always promote and support oppressive or totalitarian activities of IS-BEs on Earth.
Think of America today, and South Africa.
Why not keep the inmates fighting between themselves?
Why not empower madmen to run the governments of Earth?
The men who run the criminal governments of Earth mirror the commands given them by covert thought-controllers of the “Old Empire”.
Directions from their controllers who are well hidden and dispersed throughout the Old Empire. Even though it is in ruin, they still work their roles.
The human race will continue to shadow box with this for a long time – as long as it remains the human race. Until then, the IS-BEs on Earth will continue to live a series of consecutive lives, over and over and over. The same IS-BEs who lived during the rise and fall of civilizations in India, China, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome are inhabiting bodies in the present time in America, France, Russia, Africa, and around the world.
Sigh. This sucks.
In between each lifetime an IS-BE is sent back again, to begin all over, as though the new life was the only life they had ever lived. They begin anew in pain, in misery, and mystery.
Sigh. This sucks.
Some IS-BEs have been transported to Earth more recently than others. Some IS-BEs have been on Earth only a few hundred years, so they have no personal experiences with the earlier civilizations of Earth. They have no experiences of having lived on Earth, so could not remember a previous existence here, even if their memory was restored. They might, however, remember lives they lived elsewhere on other planets and in other times.
A very interesting statement. If the person had a life on another planet and was then transported to earth and had the memories erased, the memories of the prior planet might still exist and be easier to acquire.
Others have been here since the first days of Lemuria.
In any case, the IS-BEs of Earth are here forever, until they can break the amnesia cycle, conquer the electronic traps set up by their captors and free themselves.
It is a four step plan on what to do.
[1] Break the amnesia cycle.
[2] Conquer the electronic traps.
[3] free themselves from this region.
Because The Domain has three thousand of their own IS-BEs in captivity on Earth also, they have an interest in solving this problem.
This problem has never been encountered or effectively solved before in the universe, as far as they know.
It is a new problem as of 1947.
They will continue their efforts to free those IS-BEs from Earth, where and when it is possible, but it will require time to develop an unprecedented technology and the diligence to do so.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following statement is a comment by Matilda.)
I think it is Airl’s sincere desire, as one IS-BE to another, that the rest of our eternity will be as pleasant as possible.”
End of Part eight
It’s all a pretty interesting discussion. What’s up? Well, now I am going to parse this entire document all over, but in a format for us contemporary humans to understand. Actually the “Alien Interview” as well written and narrated as it is, is actually “all over the place” and jumps back and froth from great swaths of time and situations. My next series of articles will correct this uncomfortable situation.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 6.
This is part seven of the parsing of this document
Immortal Spiritual Beings, which I refer to as “IS-BEs”, for the sake of convenience, are the source and creators of illusions. Each one, individually and collectively, in their original, unfettered state of being, are an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing entity.
IS-BEs create space by imagining a location. The intervening distance between themselves and the imagined location is what we call space. An IS-BE can perceive the space and objects created by other IS-BEs.
IS-BEs are not physical universe entities. They are a source of energy and illusion. IS-BEs are not located in space or time, but can create space, place particles in space, create energy, and shape particles into various forms, cause the motion of forms, and animate forms. Any form that is animated by an IS-BE is called life.
I have no problem with this. Though I do realize just how difficult it is to understand.
An IS-BE can decide to agree that they are located in space or time, and that they, themselves, are an object, or any other manner of illusion created by themselves or another or other IS-BEs.
I have no problem with this.
The disadvantage of creating an illusion is that an illusion must be continually created. If not continually created, it disappears. Continual creation
of an illusion requires incessant attention to every detail of the illusion in order to sustain it.
Indeed. Entire books can be written on this subject.
A common denominator of IS-BEs seems to be the desire to avoid boredom. A spirit only, without interaction with other IS-BEs, and the unpredictable motion, drama, and unanticipated intentions and illusions being created by other IS-BEs, is easily bored.
This is a deep statement, and I guess, that it is wholly above the heads and minds of the Roswell military leadership present at the facility at that time.
What if you could imagine anything, perceive everything, and cause anything to happen, at will?
What if you couldn’t do anything else?
What if you always knew the outcome of every game and the answer to every question?
Would you get bored?
Yes. You would.
The entire back time track of IS-BEs is immeasurable, nearly infinite in terms of physical universe time. There is no measurable “beginning” or “end” for an IS-BE. They simply exist in an everlasting now.
Yes. I have no problems with this statement.
Another common denominator of IS-BEs is that admiration of one’s own illusions by others is very desirable.
If the desired admiration is not forthcoming, the IS-BE will keep creating the illusion in an attempt to get admiration.
One could say that the entire physical universe is made of unadmired illusions.
This is so very deep that it deserves complete indexes of articles to investigate further.
The origins of this universe began with the creation of individual, illusionary spaces.
Also known as the "Big Bang".
These were the “home” of the IS-BE.
Sometimes a universe is a collaborative creation of illusions by two or more IS-BEs.
A proliferation of IS-BEs, and the universes they create, sometimes collide or become commingled or merge to an extent that many IS-BEs shared in the co-creation of a universe.
Here we are discussing the creation of heavens and universes. And most strangely, I have dim recollections of events similar to what is described. Dim, curious, "memories" of a "something else".
IS-BEs diminish their ability in order to have a game to play.
Of course. You give up omnipotence for physical sensation.
IS-BEs think that any game is better than no game.
They will endure pain, suffering, stupidity, privation, and all manner of unnecessary and undesirable conditions, just to play a game.
Pretending that one does not know all, see all and cause all, is a way to create the conditions necessary for playing a game: unknowns, freedoms, barriers and/or opponents and goals.
Ultimately, playing a game solves the problem of boredom.
Reincarnation as a mortal being solves the problem of boredom. If you don't know what he is talking about, then perhaps a re-watching of the old Sean Connery movie "Zardoz" is in order.
In this fashion, all of the space, galaxies, suns, planets, and physical phenomena of this universe, including life forms, places, and events that have been created by IS-BEs…
…and sustained by mutual agreement that these things exist.
Sustained by mutual agreement.
There are as many universes as there are IS-BEs to imagine, build and perceive them, each existing concurrently within its own continuum.
Each universe is created using its own, unique set of rules, as imagined, altered, preserved or destroyed by one or more IS-BEs who created it.
This idea has been adopted by the scientific community as a given concerning "bubble universes".
Time, energy, objects and space, as defined in terms of the physical universe, may or may not exist in other universes.
Very true, and this is something that MM has stated repeatedly.
The Domain exists in such a universe, as well as in the physical universe.
Big stuff here. The Domain exists within a non-physical universe, and the physical universe as well.
One of the rules of the physical universe is that energy can be created, but not destroyed.
E=mc2
So, the universe will keep expanding as long as IS-BEs keep adding more new energy into it.
This physical universe is ever expanding.
It is nearly infinite. It is like an automobile assembly line that never stops running and none of the cars are ever destroyed.
Every IS-BE is basically good.
Therefore, an IS-BE does not enjoy doing things to other IS-BEs which they themselves do not want to experience.
A consciousness does not enjoy doing things to others which they do not want to experience. Hum. Unless, they have no recollection of their past.
For an IS-BE there is no inherent standard for what is good or bad, right or wrong, ugly or beautiful. These ideas are all based on the opinion of each individual IS-BE.
Beauty is in the beholder. Good and bad is as determined by the consciousness.
The closest concept that human beings have to describe an IS-BE is as a god: all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. So, how does a god stop being a god? They pretend NOT to know.
How can you play a game of “hide and seek” if you always know where the other person is hiding?
You pretend NOT to know where the other players are hiding, so you can go off to “seek” them.
This is how games are created.
You have forgotten that you are just “pretending”.
In so doing, IS-BEs become entrapped and enslaved inside a maze of their own devising.
All of this is very deep and a very in-depth discussion and conversation that must have been way, way above the heads of the Roswell military leadership at that time.
How does one create a cage, lock one’s own self inside the cage, throw away the key, and forget there is a key or a cage, and forget there is an “inside” or “outside”, and even forget there is a self?
How to do this?
Create the illusion.
As in the Earth Sphere.
On Earth, the propaganda taught and agreed upon is that the gods are responsible, and that human beings are not responsible. You are taught that only a god can create universes. So, the responsibility for every action is assigned to another IS-BE or god.
Never oneself.
No human being ever assumes personal responsibility for the fact that they, themselves – individually and collectively – are gods. This fact alone is the source of entrapment for every IS-BE.
Thus, as I have repeatedly stated in MM, it's all your life and soul and consciousness and pre-birth world-line template. And you have the means and the ability to define your life, your future and your happiness. You do. No others.
End of Part seven
You can visit part eight HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
The new book, ” The Ganymede Hypothesis” is meant as a replacement for the earlier “Cosmos in Collision”, beginning with the .PDF/download edition. The new book is substantially better organized then the earlier book, flows better, is easier to read, contains updated material, and a number of better images.
"The experience of the last few years has cured me of wanting to deal with ebooks or the companies involved in the e-book business. Those have acted like anchors to prevent the earlier book from going anywhere and the ideas involved in this work are too important to allow that to go on.Moreover, ebooks are difficult for users to deal with both to read and to copy from for quoting, while anybody with any kind of a Computing device at all can easily manage and deal with .PDF files. The Ganymede Hypothesis is thus being released as a free download from this site."
Paperback and/or hardbound copies will be available as time and conditions permit.
The download is in the form of a .zip file since having large numbers of people trying to read the document itself in a web browser could crash goDaddy and this website. The idea is to download the file, unzip it, and read it in a normal pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat
I have known Theodore A Holden for years, and he has the most amazing resource on information that would be of interest to MM searchers. I highly recommend that everyone take a look at his website HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
“Today Airl told me about some very technical things. I took a few notes to remind myself, so I can repeat what she said as closely as possible. She began with an analogy about scientific knowledge:
Can you imagine how much progress could have been made on Earth if people like Johannes Gutenberg , Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Nicola Tesla, Jonas Salk, and Richard Trevithick, and many thousands of similar geniuses and inventors were living today?
Image what technical accomplishments might have been developed if men like these never died? What if they were never given amnesia and made to forget everything they knew? What if they continued to learn and work forever?
What level of technology and civilization could be attained if Immortal Spiritual Beings like these were allowed to continue to create – in the same place and at the same time – for billions or trillions of years?
Essentially, The Domain is one civilization that has existed for trillions of years with relatively uninterrupted progress.
This is TRUE.
Knowledge has been accumulated, refined, and improved upon in nearly every field of study imaginable – and beyond imagining.
This is TRUE.
Originally, the interaction of IS-BE illusions or inventions created the very fabric of the physical universe – the microcosm and the macrocosm. Every single particle of the universe has been imagined and brought into existence by an IS-BE. Everything created from an idea – a thought with no weight or size or location in space.
This is MM language. Consciousness can do only ONE singular thing; think. This is all it can do in wave form.
Every speck of dust in space, from the size of the tiniest subatomic particle, to the size of a sun or a magelantic cloud the size of many galaxies, was created from the nothingness of a thought.
This is TRUE.
Even the tiniest, individual cells were contrived and coordinated to enable a microbial entity to sense, and navigate through infinitesimally small spaces. These also came from an idea thought up by an IS-BE.
This is TRUE.
You, and every IS-BE on Earth, have participated in the creation of this universe. Even though you are now confined to a fragile body made of flesh; you live for only 65 short rotations of your planet around a star; you have been given overwhelming electric shock treatments to wipe out your memory; you must learn everything all over again each lifetime; in spite of all these circumstances, you are who you are and will always be. And, deep down, you still know that your are and what you know. You are still the essence of you.
This is TRUE.
How else can one understand the child prodigy? An IS-BE who plays concertos on a piano at three years of age, without formal training?
Impossible, if they did not simply remember what they have already learned from thousands of lives spent in front of a keyboard in times untold, or on planets far away.
They may not know how they know. They just know.
This is TRUE.
Humankind has developed more technology in the past 100 years than in the previous 2,000 years. Why? The answer is simple: the influence of the “Old Empire” over the mind and over the affairs of Mankind has been diminished by The Domain.
This appears to certainly be the case. It's like shackles have been removed, and people are allowed to grow; to fly, to develop and to grow.
A renaissance of invention on Earth began in 1,250 AD with the destruction of the “Old Empire” space fleet in the solar system.
A major encounter. It had great influences throughout our solar system.
During the next 500 years, Earth may have the potential to regain autonomy and independence, but only to the degree that humankind can apply the concentrated genius of the IS-BEs on Earth to solve the amnesia problem.
Starting in 1947, the next 500 years has the potential to be astounding.
However, on a cautionary note…
… the inventive potential of the IS-BEs who have been exiled to this planet is severely compromised by the criminal elements of the Earth population.
All you need to do is look at the United States today to see how true this is.
Specifically, politicians, warmongers and irresponsible physicists who create unlimited weapons such as nuclear bombs, chemicals, diseases and social chaos. These have the potential to extinguish all life forms on Earth, forever.
Oh, and aren't we facing these three threats right here, right now?
Even the relatively small explosions that were tested and used in the past two years on Earth have the potential to destroy all of life, if deployed in sufficient quantities. Larger weapons could consume all of the oxygen in the global atmosphere in a single explosion!
No reasonable person wants nuclear war. The problem is that America is run by idiotic psychopaths.
Therefore, the most fundamental problems that must be solved in order to ensure that Earth will not be destroyed by technology, are social and humanitarian problems.
And which nation is handling the social and humanitarian problems?
United States - War, money, power, rich oligarch greed.
China - Social systems, reduction of poverty, humanitarian issues.
The greatest scientific minds of Earth, in spite of mathematical or mechanical genius, have never addressed these problems.
Not in 1947. But they are being addressed by China from 1980 to the present.
Therefore, do not look to scientists to save Earth or the future of humanity. Any so-called “science” that is solely based on the paradigm that existence is composed only of energy and objects moving through space is not a science.
"Science" without a understanding of how quantum consciousness animates the physical is just voodoo-woo-doo.
Such beings utterly ignore the creative spark originated by an individual IS-BE and collective work of the IS-BEs who continually create the physical universe and all universes.
You cannot ignore the quantum consciousness.
Every science will remain relatively ineffective or destructive to the degree that it omits or devaluates the relative importance of the spiritual spark that ignites all of creation and life.
This is TRUE.
So anyone who has ideas or wants to promote the information that they obtain from "their handlers" or contacts as they try to disseminate the information MUST REALIZE that unless they include the aspects germane to the mechanism of consciousness within their calculus, they are heading down the road to a dead end.
Unfortunately this ignorance has been very carefully and forcefully instilled in human beings by the “Old Empire”.
(This is) to ensure that IS-BEs on this planet will not be able to recover their innate ability to create space, energy, matter and time, or any other component part of universes.
As long as awareness of the immortal, powerful, spiritual “self” is ignored, humanity will remain imprisoned until the day of its own, self-destruction and oblivion.
It's a dangerous destructive cycle. And we are watching it in "real time" with a "front row seat".
Do not rely on the dogma of physical sciences to master the fundamental forces of creation any more than you would trust the chanted incantations of an incense-burning shaman.
Any "science" that does not include the spark of consciousness is just mumbo-jumbo.
The net result of both of these is entrapment and oblivion.
Which is the way that the "prison planet" operates.
Scientists pretend to observe, but they only suppose that they see, and call it fact.
I have argued this point for years.
Like the blind man, a scientist can not learn to see until he realizes that he is blind.
The “facts” of Earth science do not include the source of creation. They include only the result, or byproducts of creation.
The “facts” of science to not include any memory of the nearly infinite past experience of existence.
These omissions are serious ones. It's like have a beautiful nice car, but without an engine, transmission, radio, air conditioning, or electrical system.
The essence of creation and existence cannot be found through the lens of a microscope or telescope or by any other measurement of the physical universe.
It cannot be discerned through observation, which is the technique used by science through all these centuries. As you cannot observe thought. You cannot observe soul. You cannot observe emotions or feelings. You cannot observe attachments.
One cannot comprehend the perfume of a flower or the pain felt by an abandoned lover with meters and calipers.
As I have said.
Everything you will ever know about the creative force and ability of a god can be found within you – an Immortal Spiritual Being.
It's all inside of you.
But you are unaware of it. This is by design and intent. And by evil destructive people. It is a horrible situation.
How can a blind man teach others to see the nearly infinite gradients that comprise the spectrum of light?
The notion that one can understand the universe without understanding the nature of an IS-BE is as absurd as conceiving that an artist is a speck of paint on his own canvas.
Or, that the lace on a ballet shoe is the choreographer’s vision, or the grace of a dancer, or the electric excitement of opening night.
Study of the spirit has been booby-trapped by the thought control operation through religious superstitions they instill in the minds of men.
A very true statement and worthy of discussion off-line.
Conversely, the study of the spirit and the mind have been prohibited by science which eliminates anything that is not measurable in the physical universe. Science is the religion of matter. It worships matter.
So very TRUE. It is the study of the observation of physical matter. Anything that happens in the non-physical simply does not exist according to science.
The paradigm of science is that creation is all, and the creator is nothing.
Religion says the creator is all, and the creation is nothing.
These two extremes are the bars of a prison cell. They prevent observation of all phenomenon as an interactive whole.
Study of creation without knowing the IS-BE, the source of creation, is futile.
When you sail to the edge of a universe conceived by science, you fall off the end into an abyss of dark, dispassionate space and lifeless, unrelenting force.
On Earth, you have been convinced that the oceans of the mind and spirit are filled with gruesome, ghoulish monsters that will eat you alive if you dare to venture beyond the breakwater of superstition.
This is true.
The vested interest of the “Old Empire” prison system is to prevent you from looking at your own soul.
This is true.
They fear that you will see in your own memory the slave masters who keep you imprisoned.
This is true. Just like the oligarchy in Washington DC are all afraid of the vast bulk of American citizens who have had enough with the mindless game of around-and-around-and-around.
The prison is made of shadows in your mind. The shadows are made of lies, and pain, and loss, and fear.
This is true.
The true geniuses of civilization are those IS-BEs who will enable other IS-BEs to recover their memory and regain self-realization and self-determination.
I hope that I am able to live up to this standard. -MM
This issue is not solved through enforcing moral regulation on behavior, or through the control of beings through mystery, faith, drugs, guns or any other dogma of a slave society.
Moral regulation, or the regulation of morals, is a characteristic of a slave society.
And certainly not through the use of electric shock and hypnotic commands!
Indeed.
The survival of Earth and every being on it depends on the ability to recover the memory of skills you have accrued through the trillenia; to recover the essence of yourself.
The survival of the Earth is up to us. We must all do our part, no matter how small.
Do not be confused by the lies in the "news" media. You do not need to be a millionaire oligarch to enact change, nor some kind of crazed radical protestor. You just need to be yourself, be helpful, and be the Rufus.
Such an art, science, or technology has never been conceived in the “Old Empire”. Otherwise, they would not have resorted to the “solution” that brought you to your current condition on Earth.
Very True.
Neither has such technology ever been developed by The Domain.
This technology about mind-wipe, and shocks, and erasure amnesia, has never been developed by the Domain; the type-1 greys.
Until recently, the necessity of rehabilitating an IS-BE with amnesia has not been needed.
Until 1947.
Therefore, no one has ever worked on solving this problem. So far, unfortunately, The Domain has no solution to offer.
In 1947.
A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time.
These officers leave their “doll” at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth. In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.
This is understood.
This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking.
Yes it is.
It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully.
It is extremely dangerous.
One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla.
Interesting.
It is my intention, although is not a part of my mission orders, to assist you in your efforts to advance scientific and humanitarian progress on Earth.
It's intention, but not it's orders.
My intention is to help other IS-BEs to help themselves.
The purpose of MM is to give everyone the tools to better your lives, and to free yourself to what ever level or degree that you desire.
In order to solve the amnesia problem on Earth you will need much more advanced technology, as well as social stability to allow enough time for research and development of techniques to free the IS-BE from the body, and to free the mind of the IS-BE from amnesia.
From the point of view from the type-1 grey commander in 1947, the task to free the trapped IS-BE's on Earth is herculean.
It requires...
[1] Much more advanced technology.
[2] Social stability.
[3] Time to develop the necessary R&D baselines.
Although The Domain has a long term interest in maintaining Earth as a useful planet, it has no particular interest in the human population of Earth, other than its own personnel here.
The Domain has it's own issues and directives to follow. The situation on Earth, as bad as it is, is rally not of critical importance to the Domain.
We are interested in preventing destruction, as well as accelerating the development of technologies that will sustain the infrastructures of the global biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
It can offer, as a Domain officer,...
...technologies that can prevent destruction of the world. As well as technologies that can sustain the infrastructures of the global environment.
To this end, you will discover, on very careful and thorough examination, that my space craft contains a wide assortment of technology that does not yet exist on Earth.
If you distribute pieces of this craft to various scientists for study, they will be able to reverse engineer some of the technology to the extent that Earth has the raw materials required to replicate these components.
Some of the components. Not all.
Some features will be indecipherable.
Other features cannot be duplicated as Earth does not have the natural resources required to replicate them.
This is especially true of the metals used to construct the craft.
Not only do these metals not exist on Earth, the refining process required to produce these metals took billions of years to develop.
This is true. But I can tell you that MAJesic has been working on these technologies for years now. Decades, even.
It is also true of the navigation system which requires an IS-BE whose own personal wavelength has been specifically attuned to the “neural network” of the craft. The pilot of the craft must possess a very high order of energy volition, discipline, training and intelligence to manipulate such a craft.
Understood.
IS-BEs on Earth are incapable of this expertise because it requires the use of an artificial body specifically created for this purpose.
Understood.
Certain individual Earth scientists, some of whom are among the most brilliant minds in the history of the universe, will have their memory of this technology jogged when they examine the craft components.
Just as some of the scientists and physicists on Earth have been able to “remember” how to recreate electric generators, internal combustion and steam locomotion, refrigeration, aircraft, antibiotics, and other tools of your civilization, they will also rediscover other vital technology in my craft.
And they are. All over the place.
I posit that there are members of the "Old Empire", either formally, or of like mind, embedded within the Earth civilian population. They control the West. They control Washington DC. And in this control, they have purposely created a world of fiat paper money, and a destruction of science, technology and manufacturing.
And we see this in real time.
The following are the specific systems embodied in my craft that contain useful components:
1) There is an assortment of microscopic wiring or fibers within the walls of the craft that control such things as communications, information storage, computer function, and automatic navigation.
2) The same wiring is used for light, sub-light and ultra-light spectrum detection and vision. 3) The fabrics of the interior of the craft are far superior to any on Earth at this time and have hundreds or thousands of applications.
4) You will also find mechanisms for creating, amplifying and channeling light particles or waves as a form of energy.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain Forces, I am not at liberty to discuss or convey the detailed operation or construction of the craft in any way, other than what I have just disclosed.
Understood. We all have our limitations.
However, I am confident that there are many competent engineers on Earth who will develop useful technology with these resources.
I am providing these details to you in the hope that the greater good of The Domain will be served.”
Provided so that the Earth will be maintained, and not be destroyed, and that eventually, the imprisoned IS-BE's on Earth will be able to free themselves.
Conclusion
As I parse though this entire document, sentence by sentence, I have come to revise some of my beliefs and understandings. I have obtained numerous “Eureka!” moments where events and experiences fall into place and explain things. Yes, I can honestly say. Everything herein is accurate and is exactly what has occurred.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and some things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 5.
Key point – Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Key point – Errors
However, there are some errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates seems to have some errors. The translator was having difficulty with those areas.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics might in error. If you are having trouble in these areas, treat them as non-resolved issues and can be ignored.
Key point – This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
“The origins of this universe and life on Earth, as discussed in the textbooks I have read, are very inaccurate.
I have no problem with this statement.
Since you serve your government as a medical personnel, your duties require that you understand biological entities. So, I am sure that you will appreciate the value of the material I will share with you today.
I have no problem with this statement.
The text of books I have been given on subjects related to the function of life forms contain information that is based on…
false memories,
inaccurate observation,
missing data,
unproven theories,
and superstition.
For example, just a few hundred years ago your physicians practiced bloodletting as a means to release supposed ill-humors from the body in an attempt to relieve or heal a wide variety of physical and mental afflictions.
Although this has been corrected somewhat, many barbarisms are still being practiced in the name of medical science.
In addition to the application of incorrect theories concerning biological engineering, many primary errors that Earth scientists make are the result of an ignorance of the nature and relative importance of IS-BEs as the source of energy and intelligence which animate every life form.
No medical textbook includes the relationship between consciousness and the body and how they interact.
Although it is not a priority of The Domain to intervene in the affairs of Earth, The Domain Communications Office has authorized me to provide you with some information.
(It is) in an effort to provide a more accurate and complete understanding of these things and thereby enable you to discover more effective solutions to the unique problems you face on Earth.
I have no problems with these statements.
The correct information about the origins of biological entities has been erased from your mind.
As well as from the minds of your mentors.
In order to help you regain your own memory, I will share with you some factual material concerning the origin of biological entities.
I have no problem with these statements.
I asked Airl if she was referring to the subject of evolution. Airl said, “No, not exactly”.
You will find “evolution” mentioned in the ancient Vedic Hymns.
The Vedic texts are like folk tales or common wisdoms and superstitions gathered throughout the systems of The Domain.
Hum. This makes me want to add the Vedic Texts to MM.
These were compiled into verses, like a book of rhymes. For every statement of truth, the verses contain as many half-truths, reversals of truth and fanciful imaginings, blended without qualification or distinction.
Unfortunately.
The theory of evolution assumes that the motivational source of energy that animates every life form does not exist.
It assumes that an inanimate object or a chemical concoction can suddenly become “alive” or animate accidentally or spontaneously.
Or, perhaps an electrical discharge into a pool of chemical ooze will magically spawn a self-animated entity.
There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true, simply because it is not true.
Dr. Frankenstein did not really resurrect the dead into a marauding monster, except in the imagination of the IS-BE who wrote a fictitious story one dark and stormy night.
This extraterrestrial did have quite the word power.
No Western scientist ever stopped to consider who, what, where, when or how this animation happens.
Complete ignorance, denial or unawareness of the spirit as the source of life force required to animate inanimate objects or cellular tissue is the sole cause of failures in Western medicine.
Obviously, as I have stated herein throughout MM. The physical (body and world-line(s)) are just physical containers. It is the consciousness that animates them.
In addition, evolution does not occur accidentally.
It requires a great deal of technology which must be manipulated under the careful supervision of IS-BEs.
Evolution does not occur naturally. It requires a consciousness to make it happen and form into place.
So, for example, you are desirous of a new kind of frog. One that is yellow with horns, then a consciousness must work over long swaths of time to manifest the changes to create such a creature. This is what evolution is.
Very simple examples are seen in the modification of farm animals or in the breeding of dogs.
However, the notion that human biological organisms evolved naturally from earlier ape-like forms is incorrect.
No physical evidence will ever be uncovered to substantiate the notion that modern humanoid bodies evolved on this planet.
Humans DID NOT evolve on Earth. Nor did they evolve from primates as is the current belief.
The reason is simple: the idea that human bodies evolved spontaneously from the primordial ooze of chemical interactivity in the dim mists of time…
…is nothing more than a hypnotic lie…
…instilled by the amnesia operation…
….to prevent your recollection of the true origins of Mankind.
I have no problem with this statement, no matter how ungainly wordy it is.
Factually, humanoid bodies have existed in various forms throughout the universe for trillions of years.
The human form is an archetype. But the issue of consciousness and sentience makes the utility of that archetype vary.
So there are "people" that look like humans all over the universe, and in every corner of the galaxy.
This was compounded by the fact that The Vedic Hymns were brought to Earth 8,200 years ago by The Domain Expeditionary Force.
The Vedic Hymns originated from the type-1 greys.
While they were based in the Himalaya Mountains, the verses were taught to some of the local humans who memorized them.
However, I should note that this was not an authorized activity for the crew of The Domain installation, although I am sure it seemed like an innocent diversion for them at the time.
This is the second time it mentioned this. The Domain has a policy of non-intervention, but some of the Domain information activity was passed down as part of a kind of recreational pastime.
The verses were passed along verbally from one generation to the next for thousands of years in the foothills and eventually spread throughout India.
No one in The Domain credits any of the material in the Vedic Hymns as factual material, any more than you would use “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” as a guide for rearing children.
However, on a planet where all of the IS-BEs have had their memory erased, one can understand how these tales and fantasies could be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, the humans who learned the Vedic verses passed them along to others saying that they came from “the gods”.
Eventually, the content of the verses were adopted verbatim as “truth”.
The euphemistic and metaphorical content of the Veda were accepted and practiced as dogmatic fact.
The philosophy of the verses were ignored and the verses became the genesis of nearly every religion practice on the planet, especially Hinduism.
The philosophy of the Vedic verses are what is important. Not the content.
As an officer, pilot and engineer of The Domain, I must always assume a very pragmatic point of view.
I could not be effective or accomplish my missions if I were to use philosophical dogma or rhetoric as my operations manual.
The extraterrestrial begins to discuss very ancient history that predates the "Old Empire", and certainly pre-dates humans on the Earth.
Therefore, our discussion of history is based on actual events that occurred long before any IS-BEs arrived on Earth, and long before the “Old Empire” came into power.
I can relate part of this history from personal experience:
Many billions of years ago I was a member of a very large biological laboratory in a galaxy far from this one.
It was called the “Arcadia Regeneration Company”.
I was a biological engineer working with a large staff of technicians.
It was our business to manufacture and supply new life forms to uninhabited planets.
There were millions of star systems with millions of inhabitable planets in the region at that time.
The creation of lifeforms to inhabit worlds and planets that have no life, but will potentially be able to thrive with custom made life.
There were many other biological laboratory companies at that time also.
Each of them specialized in producing different kinds of life forms, depending on the “class” of the planet being populated.
Over a long span of time these laboratories developed a vast catalogue of species throughout the galaxies.
Also known as approved archetypes.
The majority of basic genetic material is common to all species of life.
Therefore, most of their work was concerned with manipulating alterations of the basic genetic pattern to produce variations of life forms that would be suitable inhabitants for various planetary classes.
You take a basic form, and then you modify it to fill a unique and specialized planetary environment.
The “Arcadia Regeneration Company” specialized in mammals for forested areas and birds for tropical regions.
Our marketing staff negotiated contracts with various planetary governments and independent buyers from all over the universe.
The technicians created animals that were compatible with the variations in climate, atmospheric and terrestrial density and chemical content.
There are many worlds that are similar, but have variations that run from the comfortable to the uncomfortable. This effort produced animals and creatures that were stable and able to thrive in a very broad and diverse range of planetary environments.
In addition we were paid to integrate our specimens with biological organisms engineered by other companies already living on a planet.
You take local organism "A", then you integrate specific changes taken from a catalog of "attributes" and you end up with an organism "A++".
In order to do this our staff was in communication with other companies who created life forms.
There were industry trade shows, publications and a variety of other information supplied through an association that coordinated related projects.
As you can imagine, our research required a great deal of interstellar travel to conduct planetary surveys.
This is when I learned my skills as a pilot.
The data gathered was accumulated in huge computer databases and evaluated by biological engineers.
All this happened billions of years ago. Could the Domain be the same thing as the progenitors?
Mind BLOWN!
A computer is an electronic device that serves as an artificial “brain” or complex calculating machine.
It is capable of storing information, making computations, solving problems and performing mechanical functions.
In most of the galactic systems of the universe, very large computers are commonly used to run the routine administration, mechanical services and maintenance activities of an entire planet or planetary system.
Based on the survey data gathered, designs and artistic renderings were made for new creatures.
Some designs were sold to the highest bidder. Other life forms were created to meet the customized requests of our clients.
The design and technical specifications were passed along an assembly line through a series of cellular, chemical, and mechanical engineers to solve the various problems.
It was their job to integrate all of the component factors into a workable, functional and aesthetic finished product.
Prototypes of these creatures were then produced and tested in artificially created environments.
Imperfections were worked out, modifications made and eventually the new life form was “endowed” or “animated” with a life force or spiritual energy before being introduced into the actual planetary environment for final testing.
This is the basic procedure. Can you just imagine the shock on the faces of the Roswell military leadership?
After a new life form was introduced, we monitored the interaction of these biological organisms with the planetary environment and with other indigenous life-forms.
Obviously, sometimes things didn't work out so well.
Conflicts resulting from the interaction between incompatible organisms were resolved through negotiation between ourselves and other companies.
The negotiations usually resulted in compromises requiring further modification to our creatures or to theirs or both.
This is part of a science or art you call “Eugenics”.
In some cases changes were made in the planetary environment, but not often, as planet building is much more complex than making changes to an individual life form.
This is understandable.
Coincidentally, a friend and engineer with whom I used to work with at the Arcadia Regeneration Company – a long time after I left the company – told me that one of the projects they contracted to do, in more recent times, was to deliver life forms to Earth to replenish them after a war in this region of the galaxy devastated most of the life on the planets in this region of space. This would have been about seventy million years ago.
About 70 million years ago was a major war in our region of space and many solar systems were affected. Many planets were devastated beyond casual repair, and efforts were made to not only replace the lost life forms, but also to improve and add new forms.
"One of the planet’s largest extinctions, which wiped out non-flying dinosaurs and most other species 66 million years ago, was caused by a “one-two punch” of volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts, a new reconstruction of Antarctic Ocean temperatures suggests."
-From HERE.
The skill required to modify the planet into an ecologically interactive environment that will support billions of diverse species was an immense undertaking.
Specialized consultants from nearly every biotechnology company in the galaxy were brought in to help with the project.
For this region, or for the Earth proper? I wonder.
What you see now on Earth is the huge variety of life forms left behind.
Your scientists believe that the fallacious “theory of evolution” is an explanation for the existence of all the life forms here.
The truth is that all life forms on this and any other planet in this universe were created by companies like ours.
Now this is just a "kick in the teeth" for evolutionary theory.
How else can you explain the millions of completely divergent and unrelated species of life on the land and in the oceans of this planet?
How else can you explain the source of spiritual animation which defines every living creature?
To say it is the work of “god”, is far too broad.
Every IS-BE has many names and faces in many times and places. Every IS-BE is a god. When they inhabit a physical object they are the source of Life.
For example, there are millions of species of insects.
About 350,000 of these are species of beetles.
There may be as many as 100 million species of life forms on Earth at any given time.
In addition, there are many times more extinct species of life on Earth than there are living life forms. Some of these will be rediscovered in the fossil or geological records of Earth.
The current “theory of evolution” of life forms on Earth does not consider the phenomena of biological diversity.
Evolution by natural selection is science fiction.
One species does not accidentally, or randomly evolve to become another species, as the Earth textbooks indicate, without manipulation of genetic material by an IS-BE.
Consciousness creation of life is what animates it.
Fundamental.
A simple example of IS-BE intervention is the selective breeding of a species on Earth. Within the past few hundred years several hundred dog breeds and hundreds of varieties of pigeons and dozens of Koi fish have been “evolved” in just a few years, beginning with only one original breed.
Without active intervention by IS-BEs, biological organisms rarely change.
The development of an animal like the ‘duck-billed platypus’ required a lot of very clever engineering to combine the body of a beaver with the bill of a duck and make a mammal that lays eggs.
Undoubtedly, some wealthy client placed a “special order” for it as a gift or curious amusement.
I am sure the laboratory of some biotechnical company worked on it for years to make it a self-replicating life form!
This "cracks me up"!
The notion that the creation of any life form could have resulted from a coincidental chemical interaction moldering up from some primordial ooze is beyond absurdity!
Factually, some organisms on Earth, such as Proteobacteria, are modifications of a Phylum designed primarily for “Star Type 3, Class C” planets.
This differs from our solar system which is a "Sun Type 12, Class 7" planet.
In other words, The Domain designation for a planet with an anaerobic atmosphere nearest a large, intensely hot blue star, such as those in the constellation of Orion’s Belt in this galaxy.
The three bright stars that form the Orion’s Belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The stars are believed to have formed from the same nebula in Orion constellation, and they are roughly the same age.
Creating life forms is very complex, highly technical work for IS-BEs who specialize in this field.
Genetic anomalies are very baffling to Earth biologists who have had their memory erased.
Unfortunately, the false memory implantations of the “Old Empire” prevent Earth scientists from observing obvious anomalies.
This is the core, underlying theme, of the extraterrestrial.
The greatest technical challenge of biological organisms was the invention of self-regeneration, or sexual reproduction.
It was invented as the solution to the problem of having to continually manufacture replacement creatures for those that had been destroyed and eaten by other creatures.
Planetary governments did not want to keep buying replacement animals.
The idea was contrived trillions of years ago as a result of a conference held to resolve arguments between the disputing vested interests within the biotechnology industry.
The infamous “Council of Yuhmi-Krum” was responsible for coordinating creature production.
Such a story. I am just positive the the Roswell military leadership were besides themselves in incredulity.
A compromise was reached, after certain members of the Council were strategically bribed or murdered, to author an agreement which resulted in the biological phenomenon which we now call the “food chain”.
The idea that a creature would need to consume the body of another life form as an energy source was offered as a solution by one of the biggest companies in the biological engineering business. They specialized in creating insects and flowering plants.
The connection between the two is obvious. Nearly every flowering plant requires a symbiotic relationship with an insect in order to propagate. The reason is obvious: both the bugs and the flowers were created by the same company. Unfortunately, this same company also had a division which created parasites and bacteria.
Hum...
The name of the company roughly translated into English would be “Bugs & Blossoms”.
Hum...
They wanted to justify the fact that the only valid purpose of the parasitic creatures they manufactured was to aid the decomposition of organic material. There was a very limited market for such creatures at that time.
Interesting.
In order to expand their business they hired a big public relations firm and a powerful group of political lobbyists to glorify the idea that life forms should feed from other life forms.
They invented a “scientific theory” to use as a promotion gimmick.
The theory was that all creatures needed to have “food” as a source of energy.
Before that, none of the life forms being manufactured required any external energy.
Animals did not eat other animals for food, but consumed sunlight, minerals or vegetable matter only.
Very, very interesting.
Of course, “Bugs & Blossoms” went into the business of designing and manufacturing carnivores.
Before long, so many animals were being eaten as food that the problem of replenishing them became very difficult.
As a ‘solution’, “Bugs & Blossoms” proposed, with the help of some strategically placed bribes in high places, that other companies begin using ‘sexual reproduction’ as the basis for replenishing life-forms.
“Bugs & Blossoms” was the first company to develop blueprints for sexual reproduction, of course.
Curious, and fascinating.
As expected, the patent licenses for the biological engineering process required to implant stimulus-response mating, cellular division and preprogrammed growth patterns for self-regenerating animals were owned by “Bugs & Blossoms” too.
Of course.
Through the next few million years laws were passed that required that these programs be purchased by the other biological technology companies.
These were required to be imprinted into the cellular design of all existing life-forms.
It became a very expensive undertaking for other biotechnology companies to make such an awkward, and impractical idea work.
This led to the corruption and downfall of the entire industry.
Ultimately, the ‘food and sex’ idea completely ruined the bio-technology industry, including “Bugs & Blossoms”.
The entire industry faded away as the market for manufactured life forms disappeared.
Consequently, when a species became extinct, there is no way to replace them because the technology of creating new life forms has been lost.
Here we are talking about the "worlds and the realities of the Gods".
Obviously, none of this technology was ever known on Earth, and probably never will be.
There are still computer files on some planets far from here which record the procedures for biological engineering. Possibly the laboratories and computers still exist somewhere. However, there is no one around doing anything with them. Therefore, you can understand why it is so important for The Domain to protect the dwindling number of creatures left on Earth.
Understandable.
The core concept behind ‘sexual reproduction’ technology was the invention of a chemical/electronic interaction called “cyclical stimulus-response generators”.
This is very interesting. It is what drives humans to reproduce.
This is an programmed genetic mechanism which causes a seemingly spontaneous, recurring impulse to reproduce. The same technique was later adapted and applied to biological flesh bodies, including Homo Sapiens.
Also known as "going into heat". It cause the female to go into a Lordosis posture.
Another important mechanism used in the reproductive process, especially with Homo Sapiens type bodies, is the implantation of a “chemical-electrical trigger” mechanism in the body.
The “trigger” which attracts IS-BEs to inhabit a human body, or any kind of “flesh body”, is the use of an artificially imprinted electronic wave which uses “aesthetic pain” to attract the IS-BE.
An "artificially imprinted electronic wave" used to attract a consciousness to inhabit a physical body.
Every trap in the universe, including those used to capture IS-BEs who remain free, is “baited” with an aesthetic electronic wave.
Very interesting.
The sensations caused by the aesthetic wavelength are more attractive to an IS-BE than any other sensation. When the electronic waves of pain and beauty are combined together, this causes the IS-BE to get “stuck” in the body.
Avoid them if you want to be free.
The “reproductive trigger” used for lesser life forms, such as cattle and other mammals, is triggered by chemicals emitted from the scent glands, combined with reproductive chemical-electrical impulses stimulated by testosterone, or estrogen.
Well understood.
These are also interactive with nutrition levels which cause the life form to reproduce more when deprived of food sources.
Interesting. China's population sky-rocketed during famines. As did India's.
Starvation promoted reproductive activity as a means of perpetuating survival through future regenerations, when the current organism fails to survive. These fundamental principles have been applied throughout all species of life.
All species of life.
The debilitating impact and addiction to the “sexual aesthetic-pain” electronic wave is the reason that the ruling class of The Domain do not inhabit flesh bodies.
This is also why officers of The Domain Forces only use doll bodies.
This wave has proven to be the most effective trapping device ever created in the history of the universe, as far as I know.
It is the MOST effective trapping snare in the universe.
The civilizations of The Domain and the “Old Empire” both depend on this device to “recruit” and maintain a work force of IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies on planets and installations.
These IS-BEs are the “working class” beings who do all of the slavish, manual, undesirable work on planets.
Class System
As I mentioned, there is a very highly regimented and fixed hierarchy or “class system” for all IS-BEs throughout the “Old Empire”, and The Domain, as follows:
The highest class are “free” IS-BEs. That is, they are not restricted to the use of any type of body and may come and go at will, provided that they do not destroy or interfere with the social, economic or political structure.
Below this class are many strata of “limited” IS-BEs who may or may not use a body from time to time. Limitations are imposed on each IS-BE regarding range of power, ability and mobility they can exercise.
Below these are the “doll body” classes, to which I belong. Nearly all space officers and crew members of space craft are required to travel through intergalactic space. Therefore, they are each equipped with a body manufactured from light weight, durable materials. Various body types have been designed to facilitate specialized functions. Some bodies have accessories, such as interchangeable tools or apparatus for activities such as maintenance, mining, chemical management, navigation, and so forth. There are many gradations of this body type which also serve as an “insignia” of rank.
Below these are the soldier class. The soldiers are equipped with a myriad of weapons, and specialized armaments designed to detect, combat and overwhelm any imaginable foe. Some soldiers are issued mechanical bodies. Most soldiers are merely remote controlled robots with no class designation.
The lower classes are limited to “flesh bodies”. Of course, it is not possible for these to travel through space for obvious reasons. Fundamentally, flesh bodies are far too fragile to endure the stresses of gravity, temperature extremes, radiation exposure, atmospheric chemicals and the vacuum of space. There are also the obvious logistical inconveniences of food, defecation, sleep, atmospheric elements, and air pressure required by flesh bodies, that doll bodies do not require.
Flesh Bodies
Most flesh bodies will suffocate in only a few minutes without a specific combination of atmospheric chemicals.
After 2 or 3 days the bacteria which live internally and externally on the body cause severe odors to be emitted. Odors of any kind are not acceptable in a space vessel.
Flesh can tolerate only a very limited spectrum of temperatures, whereas in space the contrast of temperatures may vary hundreds of degrees within seconds. Of course flesh bodies are utterly useless for military duty. A single shot from a hand-held, electronic blast gun instantly turns a flesh body into a noxious vapor cloud.
IS-BEs who inhabit flesh bodies have lost much of their native ability and power. Although it is theoretically possible to regain or rehabilitate these abilities, no practical means has been discovered or authorized by The Domain.
Even though space craft of The Domain travel trillions of “light years” in a single day, the time required to traverse the space between galaxies is significant, not to mention the length of time to complete just one set of mission orders, which may require thousands of years.
Biological flesh bodies live for only a very short time – only 60 to 150 years, at most – whereas doll bodies can be re-used and repaired almost indefinitely.
Development of biological bodies
The first development of biological bodies began in this universe about seventy-four trillion years ago.
It rapidly became a fad for IS-BEs to create and inhabit various types of bodies for an assortment of nefarious reasons: especially for amusement, this is to experience various physical sensations vicariously through the body.
Since that time there has been a continuing “de-evolution” in the relationship of IS-BEs to bodies.
As IS-BEs continued to play around with these bodies, certain tricks were introduced to cause IS-BEs to get trapped inside a body so they were unable to leave again.
Very interesting.
This was done primarily by making bodies that appeared sturdy, but were actually very fragile. An IS-BE, using their natural power to create energy, accidentally injured a body when contacting it. The IS-BE was remorseful about having injured this fragile body. The next time they encountered a body they began to be “careful” with them. In so doing, the IS-BE would withdraw or minimize their own power so as not to injure the body. A very long and treacherous history of this kind of trickery, combined with similar misadventures eventually resulted in a large number of IS-BEs becoming permanently trapped in bodies.
Now, who would think of such a thing?
Of course this became a profitable enterprise for some IS-BEs who took advantage of this situation to make slaves of others.
The resulting enslavement progressed over trillions of years, and continues today.
Ultimately the dwindling ability of IS-BEs to maintain a personal state of operational freedom and ability to create energy resulted in the vast and carefully guarded hierarchy or class system.
Sigh.
Using bodies as a symbol of each class is used throughout the “Old Empire”, as well as The Domain.
Sigh.
The vast majority of IS-BEs throughout the galaxies of this universe inhabit some form of flesh body.
The structure, appearance, operation and habitat of these bodies vary according to the gravity, atmosphere, and climatic conditions of the planet they inhabit.
Body types are predetermined largely by the type and size of the star around which the planet revolves, the distance from the star, the geological, as well as the atmospheric components of the planet.
All well understood parameters now. But at that time must have been enlightening and shocking.
On the average, these stars and planets fall into gradients of classification which are fairly standard throughout the universe.
Archetypes.
For example, Earth is identified, roughly, as a “Sun Type 12, Class 7 planet”. That is a heavy gravity, nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere planet, with biological life-forms, in proximity to a single, yellow, medium-size, low-radiation sun or “Type 12 star”.
The proper designations are difficult to translate accurately due to the extreme limitations of astronomical nomenclature in the English language.
Understood.
There are as many varieties of life forms as there are grains of sands on the beach. You can imagine how many different creatures and types of bodies have been manufactured by the millions of companies such as “Bugs & Blossoms” for all of the myriad planetary systems during the course of seventy-four trillion years!”
(MATILDA O’DONNELL MACELROY PERSONAL NOTE)
“When Airl finished telling me this “story”, there was a long, silent pause while I muddled through all this in my mind. Had Airl been reading science fiction books and fantasy stories during the night? Why would she tell me something so incredibly far-fetched?
The science fiction stories of the pulp magazines of that day wouldn't even begin to consider the things this extraterrestrial was saying.
If there had not been a 40 inch tall alien, with gray “skin”, and three fingers on each hand and foot sitting directly across from me, I would not have believed a single word of it!
In retrospect, over the 60 years since Airl gave me this information, Earth doctors have begun to develop some of the biological engineering technology that Airl told me about right here on Earth. Heart bypasses, cloning, test tube babies, organ transplants, plastic surgery, genes, chromosomes, and so forth.
One thing is very sure: I have never looked at a bug or flower the same way since then, not to mention my religious belief in Genesis.”
Conclusion
As I parse though this entire document, sentence by sentence, I have come to revise some of my beliefs and understandings. I have obtained numerous “Eureka!” moments where events and experiences fall into place and explain things. Yes, I can honestly say. Everything herein is accurate and is exactly what has occurred.
End of Part five
You can visit part six HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 4.
Key point – Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Key point – Errors
However, there are some errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates seems to have some errors. The translator was having difficulty with those areas.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics might in error. If you are having trouble in these areas, treat them as non-resolved issues and can be ignored.
Key point – This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
“The actual history of Earth is very bizarre. It is so nonsensical that is it is incredible to anyone on Earth who attempts to investigate it. A myriad of vital information is missing from it. A huge conglomeration of non sequitur relics and mythology has been arbitrarily introduced into it. The volatile nature of the Earth itself cyclically covers, drowns, mixes and shreds physical evidence.
I have no problem with this.
These factors, combined with amnesia and post-hypnotic suggestions, false facades and covert manipulation make a reconstruction of the factual origins and history of Earth civilizations virtually indecipherable.
I have no problem with this.
Any investigator, no matter how brilliant, is doomed to wallow in a quagmire of inconclusive assumptions, unworkable hypotheses, and perpetual mystery.
I have no problem with this.
Since The Domain does not suffer these afflictions, having the advantage of memory, longevity and an exterior point of view, I will add some clarification to your fragmentary knowledge of the history of Earth.
Stand by for clarification of our fragmentary knowledge.
These are some of the dates and events that are not mentioned in Earth history textbooks.
These are significant dates. All of which are not mentioned in any of the history books that were provided to the extraterrestrial.
These dates are significant because they provide some information concerning the influences of the “Old Empire” and of The Domain on Earth.
They are significant as they introduce the role of both the "Old Empire" and the "Domain" regarding Earth.
Although I have attended several briefings by our mission control personnel on the general background of Earth within the past few hundred years, I will rely principally on data gathered from records captured after our invasion of the “Old Empire” planetary headquarters. Since that time The Domain Expeditionary Force has tracked the general progress of events on Earth.
"The Domain" was unaware of Earth and what was going on. This all changed when "The Domain" conquered "The Old Empire". When "The Domain" took over the main capital, they acquired substantive documents regarding Earth. Most of what the extraterrestrial is relaying is in regards to what the records of the "Old Empire" has recorded.
As I mentioned, in some cases The Domain has chosen to intervene in certain affairs on Earth in order to ensure the success of our long term expansion plans.
I have no problem with this statement.
Although The Domain has no interest in Earth, per se, or in the population of IS-BEs on this planet, it does serve our interests to ensure that the resources of Earth are not destroyed or spoiled.
Important points;
"The Domain" has [1] no interest in the Earth or the population of IS-BE on the planet.
[2] However, they do not want to see the Earth destroyed as a result of uncontrolled activity of it's population. They want to see a "green" planet that takes care of it's environment, and does not destroy the world in a global wide nuclear holocaust.
For those of you who are wondering where some of these media narratives come from, perhaps you all should be looking at a grand strategy to turn the Earth into a Sentience Nursery.
To that end, certain officers of The Domain have been sent to Earth on reconnaissance missions from time to time to gather information.
I have no problem with this.
However, Moreover, the following dates and events have been extrapolated from the accumulated information in the data files of The Domain – at least those that are accessible to me through the space station communications center.
208,000 BCE — Old Empire Established
The establishment of the “Old Empire”, whose headquarters were located near one of the “tail stars” in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation of this galaxy. The “Old Empire” invasion force conquered the area with nuclear weapons sometime earlier.
From the point of view of humans on the earth, this statement is loaded with information.
[1] We know that the Earth was seeded way, way a long time ago by the progenitors.
[2] We also know that intelligent sentient beings, native to earth, grew and developed and either died out or changed.
[3] We know that (according to this extraterrestrial) that there were large colonies of humanoid extraterrestrials that established the colonies of Lemuria, and Atlantis, around 400,000 years ago.
[4] We know that proto-humans started to develop at that time, with the earliest monkey-like creatures two million years earlier. And tool-making humanoids around 200,000 years ago.
This statement then says that after the extraterrestrial colonies of Atlantis and Lemuria were long gone, and proto-humans were starting to use tools, the "Old Empire" came to power. Their base of power, or primary settlement, is at a cluster of stars that we identify as the "tail stars" in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation.
It does not mean that the huge enormous O, B, and A stars were the ones that harbored the civilization seat. But rather that this was the geographic region for the planets, where ever their existed or orbited.
They were brutal in conquering the previous civilizations and nuclear weapons and other very dangerous weapons of destruction were utilized, and we can well imagine that they completely devastated the civilizations that they encountered in severe "space opera" style.
After the radioactivity subsided and the clean-up and restoration were completed, it received the immigration of beings from another galaxy into this galaxy. Those beings set up a society that kept going until about 10,000 years ago when it was superseded by The Domain.
Again, this is just full of information. We don't know what the "Old Empire" was. But what we do know is that right after they had conquered the major civilizations in this section of our galaxy, they started to import or migrate other species from another galaxy to here.
This "other group of immigrants" were either of the same type, species, or sentience of the "Old Empire" and thus were able to occupy the conquered worlds of that empire.
This continued for 10,000 years.
Then the "Domain" entered the region, and took over, and conquered them. We know from (part 3) that they did not use nuclear weapons, but rather highly powerful disruptive beans that affected the IS-BE consciousnesses directly.
Very recently Earth civilization has come to resemble aspects of that civilization, now that it has fallen out of its immediate control.
I personally find this statement alluring. This was 1947. This was right before the 1950's and the 1960's in America. What he is referring to is the creation of central-power governments that controlled all else.
Hitler and the Nazi Germans out of Berlin.
Mao and China out of Beijing.
Stalin and Russia out of Moscow.
The United States out of Washington DC
A central European "block".
From this we can extrapolate that the central power model with very little control locally represents the fundamental structural elements of the "Old Empire".
In particular, the appearance and technology of transportation such as planes, trains, ships, fire engines, and automobiles, as well as what you consider to be “modern” or “futuristic” architecture, which emulate the design of buildings in the major cities of the “Old Empire”.
Again, very interesting. It is saying that all the "modern" advancements of technology resemble those which defined the "Old Empire".
Before 75,000 BCE — Colonies on Earth
The Domain records contain very little information about the civilizations on the continental land masses of Atlanta and Lemur, except to note that they did coexist on Earth at more or less the same time.
The records of the "Domain" were just cursory reviews of the solar system as a whole. And between 400,000 and 75,000 years ago, both Atlantis and Lemuria colonies existed at that time.
Apparently, both civilizations were founded by remnants of electronic, space opera cultures who fled from their native planetary systems to escape political or religious persecution.
So we can well imagine a solid science-fiction narrative where an escaping group of settlers leave a harsh "space opera" galactic empire. Where they fled to an out-of-the-way planet, in a generally not well traveled part of the galaxy.
The Domain knows that a long-standing edict of the “Old Empire” prohibits unauthorized colonization of planets.
At this time of the founding of the "Old Empire" was the same time as the colonies of Atlantis and Lemuria came into being. Since the "Old Empire" did not authorize these colonies, they must have been illegal.
We can imagine that when the "Old Empire" came into being, that some of the people or creatures that they conquered, fled the ruins and devastation and came to earth to start a new life.
And apparently, for many years they had good, prosperous societies upon the earth. But eventually we know that both were destroyed suddenly and with a complete violence that left very little remaining.
Therefore, it is possible that their destruction was caused by police or military forces who pursued the colonists as criminals and destroyed them.
The extraterrestrial hypothesise that the destruction of the "renegade" colonies was conducted by the "Old Empire".
Although this seems a likely supposition, no conclusive evidence exists that explains the complete destruction and disappearance of two entire electronic civilizations.
It's just a hypothesis. There isn't any proof for it. What is interesting is that both civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria were both "entire electronic civilizations" which would be well understood to be similar to what exists around the world today.
Another possibility is that a massive submarine volcanic eruption in the region of Lake Toba, in Sumatra and Mt. Krakatoa in Java caused the destruction of Lemur.
The flood waters caused by the eruption overwhelmed all the land masses, including the highest mountains.
Survivors of the destruction of the civilization, the Lemurians, are the earliest ancestors of the Chinese.
This is very interesting. The Chinese race then are descended from the survivors of the Lemuria colony, which were survivors of a previous civilization that was conquered by the "Old Empire", and who thus fled to Earth.
Australia and the ocean areas to the north were the center of the Lemurian civilization and are the source of Oriental races. Both civilizations possessed electronics, flight and similar technologies of space opera cultures.
Both of the colonies of Atlantis, and Lemuria were fully modern and electronic civilizations possessing great technology.
Now, aside from the idea that the "Old Empire" eradicated and destroyed the colonies of those that fled when the "Old Empire" took over, the extraterrestrial posits that there might be another explanation. The loss of the colonies could be the result of natural geologic forces...
Apparently, the volcanic eruption expelled such a significant mass of molten rock that the resulting vacuum beneath the crust of Earth caused great areas of the land masses to sink below the oceans.
The continental areas occupied by both civilizations were covered with volcanic matter, and then submerged, leaving very little evidence that they ever existed except for legends of a global flood which prevail in every culture of the Earth, and for survivors who are the genus of oriental races and cultures.
That kind of colossal volcanic explosion fills the stratosphere with toxic gases which are carried around the whole planet. The usual refuse of these volcanic eruptions can easily cause a rain that lasts for “40 days and 40 nights” due to atmospheric pollution as well as an extensive period during which radiation from the sun is deflected back into space, and cause global cooling.
Certainly such an event would cause an ice age, extinctions of life forms and many other relatively long-term changes lasting thousands of years.
The extraterrestrial states that aside from [1] the systematic destruction of the two colonies by the "Old Empire", the only remaining potential cause for the destruction is [2] a natural event, and in this case, it offers the idea of a global wide volcanic eruption of significant magnitude and duration.
Due to the myriad types of naturally occurring global cataclysmic events which are indigenous to Earth, it is not a suitable planet for habitation by IS-BEs.
The Earth is not a suitable environment for IS-BE's. This is because of natural events. And that these natural events can cause global cataclysmic calamities.
In addition there have been occasional global cataclysms caused by IS-BEs such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago.
This extraterrestrial states that the Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction was not a natural event, but rather an intentional event made by IS-BE's.
About 66 million years ago, 75% of species became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction. Rates of extinction broadly swept the land, sea, and air.
In the oceans, ammonites disappeared. All non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. But avian dinosaurs survived because it was birds that descended from theropod dinosaurs. Eventually, mammals emerged as dominant large land animals.
It is believed that the cause of this extinction event was from an asteroid impact which left an impact called the Chicxulub Crater. Also, giant floor basalts aggravated called Deccan Traps.
That destruction was caused by intergalactic warfare during which time Earth, and many other neighboring moons and planets, were bombarded by atomic weapons.
This is also an interesting statement. So in the extraterrestrials' narrative, which is talking about the "Old Empire" from 400,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE.
Now, the narrative suddenly jumps to a point in time, long before the period of discussion.
At this point in time, 66 - 70 million years ago, long before the "Old Empire", and "The Domain", there was a terrible war in our solar system. It is not mentioned who were involved in this war, or why.
Atomic explosions cause atmospheric fallout much like that of volcanic eruptions. Most of the planets in this sector of the galaxy have been uninhabitable deserts since then.
Another interesting point. This war of 66 - 70 million years ago was not limited to our solar system, but rather involved multiple star systems. It also was devastating. Many otherwise habitable planets were turned into wasteland and barren deserts as a result of it.
An old 3D map showing the many of the stars in a 20 light year radius from our solar system. Since this graphic map was made substantial numbers of very cool brown dwarfs have been discovered that makes this map obsolete. Never the less, we can assume that many of the (once inhabitable) stars are shown on this map.
Earth is undesirable for many other reasons: heavy gravity and dense atmosphere, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, continental drift, meteor impacts, atmospheric and climatic changes, to name a few.
An interesting point, and something that I have stated elsewhere.
[1] heavy gravity
[2] dense atmosphere,
[3] floods,
[4] earthquakes,
[5] volcanoes,
[6] polar shifts,
[7] continental drift,
[8] meteor impacts,
[9] atmospheric and climatic changes,
The changes that greatly affect the Earth for many thousands of years after the event are shown in bold.
What kind of lasting civilization could any sophisticated culture propose to develop in such an environment?
Good point. I have no problem with this.
In addition, Earth is a small planet of a “rim star” of a galaxy.
Not really true; geographically. The solar system is smack dab in one of the major "arms" of the galaxy geographically. You can see this on a map.
Location in our galaxy.
However, if you look at the statement from the point of view of the population centers of the galaxy in our region, then you can find some answers.
The extraterrestrial stated that an enormous war took place in our section of the galaxy 70 million years ago and it resulted in many neighboring solar system to lose what ever habitable worlds that existed.
Imagine that in all that devastation, nothing much remains, and the Earth solar system is one of the few "oasis" in a sea of death, destruction and wasteland.
This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy.
These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for it’s current use as a prison – but not much else.
Which is also something that I have stated in my previous articles.
Before 30,000 BCE — Misfits started arriving to the Earth
I can tell you that I have long known about the presence of "federation" craft in and around our Earth at 30,000 years ago. Its just that I assumed that they were type-1 grey vehicles. This disclosure clarifies my information. It states that the visitations to the earth at 30,000 BCE were "Old Empire" vehicles performing specific activities in and around the Earth.
Earth started being used a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged “untouchable”, meaning criminal or non-conformists.
IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps and transported to Earth from various parts of the “Old Empire”.
Underground “amnesia stations” were set up on Mars…
…and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa…
… in the Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal…
Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal.
… and in steppes of Mongolia.
Mongolian Mountains.
These electronic monitoring points create force screens designed to detect and capture IS-BEs, when the IS-BE departs the body at death.
The way these devices work is it [1] senses when a person dies, and the consciousness departs the body at death. Then, [2] it attracts, snares or captures that consciousness.
IS-BEs are brainwashed using extreme electronic force in order to maintain Earth’s population in state of perpetual amnesia.
A high enough, or powerful enough, electronic force can do anything. This then provides amnesia for the consciousness.
However, there is evidence that it no longer is wholly functional.
You see, according to the extraterrestrial, the devices (the electronic amnesia screens) only work when the person departs the body as consciousness, they lose all memories and then are reshuffled back to the Earth.
Yet, we know, that through various techniques (such as hypnosis) we can recover these memories of time before lives, and within other lives.
I have copied complete books of Robert Newton in this regard. You can see my articles here;
Thus the works by the great Doctor Michael Newton who studied the geography of Heaven through regression hypnosis. It might be something that most people would discount as "tin foil hat" nonsense, but his works absolutely and accurately describe what I have observed personally in my MAJestic dealings.
Though, please take note that he did not understand the MWI, and some of his assumptions are in error. What he did was try to map out what Heaven was from the basis of what "time" and "reality" is. Still the best reads out there.
The first book is considered “ground breaking”, I however thought that it was rather elementary. Thus, I strongly urge any reader to read this book first before you tackle the second…
Unfortunately, this first book has all kinds of “new age” things inside of it that pretty much “turned off” my readership. It also had some misconceptions. So I went ahead and annotated the book and explained things so that my base readership would understand what is going on, relative to MAJestic and the entire universe. Here are the posts broken down for easy reading and study…
The second book is full of “red meat” and is just packed with information. However, most readers will not be able to understand it unless they read the first book. This book, due to the size and complexity has been broken down into three posts. A lot of good stuff is here.
Again, realize that he and his patents did not understand what “time”, “realities” and the concept of “quantum shadows”. Please take his misconceptions into account when you read his works.
So in summary, my point is that [1] things have certainly changed since 1947. And that [2] during the 1970's all sorts of discoveries were starting to be made regarding regaining memories of past lives, and the interim period between lives.
Combined, this offers [3] the suggestion that efforts of MAJestic and the Domain extraterrestrials have been successful in greatly reducing the influences of these force screens.
Yet, some questions remain.
[4] Being able to recall past lives, that occurred before 10,000 years ago suggests that the shield amnesia effect is not permanent.
[5] However, most human subjects that I have read in the Dr. Newton studies suggest that their memories are more recent than that. Which suggests that it was only after the shield was turned off that they were able to remember memories that happened after 10,000 years.
But,
I can tell you that MM has partial memory retention, and that MM memories date back to around 250,000 years.
What does this mean?
[6] I have a EBP that (perhaps) assists in memory retention.
[7] If the memory can be recalled under hypnosis earlier than 1150AD (the destruction of a major "old Empire" base), it means that your memory amnesia is not permanent.
[8] If your memory can be recalled under hypnosis earlier than 8,000 BCE, it means that you are probably not part of the 3,000 domain expeditionary forces that had complete memory wipes. For they had a complete and permanent wipe that was (at 1947) unrecoverable.
Obviously there are many unanswered questions.
Could it be lying, or could things have changed substantially since 1947 and with MAJestic support and assistance starting one year later in 1948? I personally believe that things have changed, and I also believe that the world-line clustering, slides to anchor world-lines were very effective in the support of bringing about a recovery of memories.
But that is just me.
Further population controls are installed through the use of long range electronic thought control mechanisms.
So it is not just one or two facilities or bases that run these devices, but an entire constellation of them, with many located far away geographically.
These stations are still in operation and they are extremely difficult to attack or destroy, even for The Domain, which will not maintain a significant military force in this area until a later date.
That later date may have already happened. Most certainly things have changed substantially since 1947.
The pyramid civilizations were intentionally created as part of the IS-BE prison system on Earth.
Interesting. The Egyptian pyramids are part of the prison structure? Tell me more.
The pyramid is alleged to be the symbol for “wisdom”. However, the “wisdom” of the “Old Empire” on planet Earth is intended to operate as part of the elaborate amnesia “trap” consisting of MASS, MEANING and MYSTERY.
These are opposite to the qualities of an Immortal Spiritual Being which have no mass, or meaning. An IS-BE “is” solely because it thinks that it “is”.
A consciousness consists of:
[1] Thoughts. Not physical mass.
[2] Formlessness. Not tangible meaning.
[3] Clarity. Not mystery.
MASS: represents the physical universe, including objects such as stars, planets, gases, liquids, energy particles and tea cups. The Pyramids were very, very solid objects, as were all of the structures created by the “Old Empire”. Heavy, massive, dense, solid objects create the illusion of eternity.
Dead bodies wrapped in linen, soaked in resin, placed inside engraved golden coffins and entombed with Earthly possessions amid cryptic symbols create an illusion of eternal life.
However, dense, heavy physical universe symbols are the exact opposite of an IS-BE. An IS-BE has no mass or time. Objects do not endure forever. An IS-BE “is” forever.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
MEANING: False meanings prevent knowledge of the truth. The pyramid cultures of Earth are a fabricated illusion. They are nothing more than “false civilizations” contrived by the “Old Empire” mystery cult called the Brothers of the Serpent.
False meanings were invented to create the illusion of a false society to further reinforce the amnesia mechanism among the intimates in the Earth prison system.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
MYSTERY: is built of lies and half-truths. Lies cause persistence because they alter facts which are comprised of exact dates, places and events. When truth is known, a lie no longer persists. If the exact truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
All of the pyramid civilizations of Earth were carefully contrived of layer upon layer of lies, skillfully combined with a few truths. The priest cult of the “Old Empire” combined sophisticated mathematics and space opera technology, with theatrical metaphors and symbolism. All of these are complete fabrications of truth, baited with the allure of aesthetics and mystery.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements.
The intricate rituals, astronomical alignments, secret rites, massive monuments, marvelous architecture, artistically rendered hieroglyphs and man-animal “gods” were designed to create an unsolvable mystery for the IS-BE prison population on Earth. The mystery diverts attention away from the truth that IS-BEs have been captured, given amnesia and imprisoned on a planet far, far away from their home.
I have absolutely no problem with these statements. It is the common misdirection technique deployed by black program, and the American media mechanism today.
The truth is that every single IS-BE on Earth came to Earth from some other planetary system.
This is very curious. Every single person... every single human on Earth is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant.
Not one person on Earth is a “native” inhabitant. Human beings did not “evolve” on Earth.
Humans did not evolve from primates.
Primates evolved, and went into various "dead ends".
But the humans that existed upon the earth were transplants. None of them evolved per the common belief that everyone holds. Monkeys did not eventual evolve into humans.
In the past, Egyptian society was run by the prison administrators or priests, who, in turn, manipulated a Pharaoh, controlled the treasury and kept the inmate population enslaved physically and spiritually. In modern times, the priests have changed, but the function is the same. However, now the priest are prisoners too.
This system of religion controlling the leadership is an on-going theme throughout the human cultures and societies, and it has only been most recently that this has changed.
Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The “Old Empire” feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The “Old Empire” priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
And so they destroyed the mere idea of reincarnation...
The “Old Empire” operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Well, of course not!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
Yikes!
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could “remind” a being and rekindle his memory.
So they did everything in their power to keep everyone primitive. When Greece started to advance, it was destroyed. When Persia started to advance, it was destroyed. When Rome started to advance it was destroyed. When the Chinese kingdoms advanced, they were destroyed. But it all came to an end, more or less around 1150 ad.
Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the “Old Empire”, have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This idea that everything was established all at once is highly suggestive of a pre-designed system of prison construction. This goes along with my strong belief that there are five "sentience nurseries" in this region of space.
All of which occupy the formerly ruined worlds of the catastrophic space wars of 66 million years ago.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double-speak.
Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance.
The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth.
I have no problem with these statements.
When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their “soul” or “Ka” after death. An IS-BE does not “have” as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.
I agree.
On the home planet of an IS-BE their material possessions were not lost, stolen or forgotten when the being died or left the body. An IS-BE could return and claim the possessions.
Nothing is ever lost in our universe it only changes shape.
However, if the IS-BE has amnesia, they will not remember that they had any possessions. So, governments, insurance companies, bankers, family members and other vultures can pick their possessions clean without fear of retribution from the deceased.
This is something that the Roswell leadership could well understand. And something that I too understand most perfectly.
The only reason for these false meanings is to instill the idea that an IS-BE is NOT a spirit, but a physical object!
This is a lie.
It is a trap for an IS-BE.
And, isn't that exactly what is taught in schools and religions?
Countless people have spent endless hours attempting to solve the jig-saw puzzle of Egypt and other “Old Empire” civilizations. They are puzzles made of pieces that do not fit. A question states its own answer.
Everything is an intentional "dead end".
What is the mystery of Egypt and other pyramid cultures? Mystery!
circa 15,000 BCE – Bolivia mining operations
The “Old Empire” forces supervised the construction of a hydraulic mining operations in the Andes Mountains in present day Bolivia near Lake Titicaca (Lake of Tin Stones) at Tiahuanaco including construction of the massive stone complex of carved stone buildings known as Kalasasaya and its “Gate of the Sun” at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.
No problem with this.
11,600 BCE – Polar Axis Shift
The Polar Axis of Earth shifted to a sea area. The last Ice Age came to an end abruptly as the polar ice caps melted and the level of the ocean rose to submerge large sections of the land masses of Earth. The last remaining vestiges of Atlantis and Lemuria were covered by water. Massive extinctions of animals occurred in the Americas, Australia and the Arctic Regions due to the shift of the poles.
10,450 BCE — Plans for the Great Pryramid were created.
Plans were made by the “Old Empire” IS-BE called Thoth for construction of a Great Pyramid of Giza. The 4 “air shafts” of the pyramid point precisely to key stars in the “Old Empire” as seen from Giza in this year. The alignment of the Pyramids of Giza on the ground matches perfectly the alignment of the constellation of Orion as seen in the sky from Giza relative to the Nile as the earthly representation of the Milky Way in the sky.
No problem with this. This date is in alignment with Graham Hancock. Like the Cayce Association, he continues to argue for a 10,500 B.C. "origin" of the Great Pyramid and Giza Plateau.
10,400 BCE – Herodotus records that Atlantis records are buried under the Sphinx.
According to the Earth historian, Herodotus, records from the ruined civilization of Atlantis, containing electronic technology and other technology of that society, were buried in a vault beneath the paws of The Sphinx.
The Greek historian wrote that he was told this by some of his friends who were Priests of Anu, the Sumerian god, at the Egyptian city of Heliopolis.
However, it is highly unlikely that any traces of an electronic civilization would be allowed to be left intact on Earth by the “old empire” prison system administrators.
No problem with this.
8,212 BCE — Veda Hymns created.
The Veda or Vedic hymns are a set of religious hymns that were introduced into the societies of Earth. They came forward in spoken tradition, memorized, from generation to generation. “The Hymn to the Dawn Child” includes an idea called the “cycle of the physical universe”: the creation, growth, conservation, decay and death or destruction of energy and matter in a space. These cycles produce time. The same set of hymns describes the “theory of evolution”.
Here is a tremendous body of knowledge which contains a great deal of spiritual truth. Unfortunately, it has been incorrectly evaluated by humans and altered with lies and reversals of fact by priests which are a booby trap to prevent anyone from using the wisdom to discover a way to escape from the prison planet.
No problem with this.
8,050 BCE — Old Empire Home Planet is conquered and destroyed.
Destruction of the “Old Empire” home planet government in this galaxy.
This was the end of the “Old Empire” as a political entity in the galaxy.
However, the vast size of the “Old Empire” will take many thousands of years for The Domain to conquer completely.
The inertia of the political, economic and cultural systems of the “Old Empire” will remain in place for some time to come.
No problem with this.
However, remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet in the solar system of Earth were finally destroyed in 1,230 AD.
Massive destruction in the solar system at 1230 AD. Meanwhile on Earth everyone was fighting everyone else. See HERE.
In addition to operatives of the “Old Empire” who run the Earth prison operation, there were other beings from the “Old Empire” who came to Earth.
Since Earth was no longer under the control of the “Old Empire” after their defeat by The Domain Forces, there was no police force to control military renegades, space pirates, miners, merchants and entrepreneurs who came to Earth to exploit the resources of the planet for personal gain, and many other nefarious reasons.
No problem with this. After the government collapsed, everyone came to take advantage of the situation, loot and acquire power.
For example, the history of Earth, according to the Jewish people, describes the “Nephilim“. Chapter 6 of The Book of Genesis, describes the origin of the “Nephilim” :
“Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the “sons of God” saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
The ancient Jewish people who wrote the history book called the Old Testament were slaves, herders and gatherers. Any modern technology, even a simple flashlight, would seem astounding and miraculous to them. They attributed any unexplainable phenomenon or technology to the workings of a “god”.
Unfortunately, this behavior is universal among all IS-BEs who have been given amnesia, and cannot remember their own experiences, training, technology, personality or identity.
Obviously, if these were men, and they mated with Earth women, they were not “sons of god”.
They were humans that mated with human Earth women who had no recollections of their true nature.
They were IS-BEs who inhabited biological bodies in order to take advantage of the political situation in the “Old Empire”, or simply to indulge in physical sensation.
They set up small colonies of their own on Earth beyond the reach of the police and tax authorities.
I am sure... all over the world.
Coincidentally, one of the most serious crimes an IS-BE could commit in the “Old Empire” was to violate income tax regulations. Income taxes were used as a slavery mechanism and as a punishment in the “Old Empire”. The slightest error in a tax report made an IS-BE “untouchable”, followed by imprisonment on Earth.
These were established in Babylon, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. The Mesopotamian area provided service facilities, communication stations, space ports, and stone quarry operations for these false civilizations.
Ptah was the name given to the first in a succession of administrators from the “Old Empire” who represented themselves to the Earth population as “divine” rulers.
Ptah’s importance may be understood when one learns that the word “Egypt” is a Greek corruption of the phrase “Het-Ka-Ptah,” or “House of the Spirit of Ptah”. Ptah, was nick-named “The Developer”. He was a construction engineer. His high priest was given the title ‘Great Leader of Craftsmen’.
Ptah was also the god of reincarnation in Egypt. He originated the “opening of the mouth ceremony” which was performed by priests at funerals to “release souls” from their corpses. Of course, when the “souls” were released, they were captured, given amnesia, and returned to Earth again.
The so-called “Devine” rulers who followed Ptah on Earth were called “Ntr”, meaning “Guardians or Watchers” by the Egyptians. Their symbol was the Serpent, or Dragon which represented a secret priesthood of the “Old Empire” called the “Brothers of the Serpent”.
“Old Empire” engineers used cutting tools of highly concentrated light waves to quickly carve and excavate stone blocks. They also used force fields and space craft to lift and transport blocks of stone weighing hundred or thousands of tons each. The placement on the ground of some of these structures will be found to have geodetic or astronomical significance relative to various stars in this galactic region.
The buildings are crude and impractical, compared to building standards on most planets.
As an engineer of The Domain, I can attest that make-shift structures like these would never pass inspection on a planet in The Domain. Stone blocks such as those used in the pyramid civilizations can still be seen, partially excavated, in the stone quarries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Most of the structures were hastily built “props”, much like the false facades of a western town on the set of a motion picture. They appear to be real, and to have some use or value however, they have no value. They have no useful purpose. The pyramids and all of the other stone monuments erected by the “Old Empire” could be called “mystery monuments”.
Good points. Why create these enormous stone structures unless to support some kind of an illusion of power? The people lived in wood structures. Why make these big stone creations that apparently served no functional purpose?
Most of these discussions sound very familiar as the "alternative history" of the world. People point to the alternative "historians" as the folk that started these beliefs, but aside from the Edgar Cayce narratives, everything actually began at this "Alien Interview". And it was kept secret from the general population for decades.
For what reason would anyone waste so many resources to construct so many useless buildings? To create a mysterious illusion.
The fact of the matter is that each one of the “divine rulers” were IS-BEs who served as operatives of the “Old Empire”. They were certainly not “divine”, although they were IS-BEs.
6248 BCE – Battles for the Solar System
The beginning of active warfare between The Domain Space Command and the surviving remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet in this solar system that lasted nearly 7,500 years.
So for the firm dates, we can say that the warfare began in 6278 BCE, and ended in 1150 AD. Or roughly 7500 years.
It began when an installation was established in the Himalaya mountains by a battalion of the 3,000 officers and crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force. The installation was not fortified as The Domain was not aware that the “Old Empire” maintained Earth as a prison planet.
So the Domain set up a undefended base. And it was destroyed and the members imprisoned.
The Domain installation was attacked and destroyed by space forces of the “Old Empire” who continued to operate in the solar system of Earth.
IS-BEs of The Domain battalion were captured, taken to Mars, given amnesia, and sent back to Earth to inhabit human biological bodies. They are still on Earth.
5,965 BCE — Dominion bases on Venus set up to fight the Old Empire forces
Investigations into the disappearance of Domain forces in this solar system led to the discovery of “Old Empire” bases on Mars and elsewhere.
The Domain took over the planet Venus as a defensive position against the space forces of the “Old Empire”.
When the warfare began, the Domain set up defensive positions on Venus.
The Domain Expeditionary Force also monitors life forms on Venus which has a very dense, hot and heavy atmosphere of sulfuric acid clouds. There are a few life forms on Earth that can endure an atmospheric environment like Venus.
This provided them protection from the "Old Empire" forces, which were, after all, all humans.
The Domain also established secret installations or space stations in the (Earth) solar system.
This solar system has a planet that is broken up – the asteroid belt. It provides a very useful low-gravity platform for take off and landing of space craft. It is used as a “galactic jump” between the Milky Way and adjoining galaxies.
This asteroid belt is in the "frost zone" and planetary formation in this area is not stable.
There aren’t any planets at this end of the galaxy that can serve as a good galactic entering spot for incoming transport, and other ships. But this broken up planet makes a very ideal space station.
As a result of our war against the “Old Empire”, this area of the solar system is now a valuable possession of The Domain.
So as a side effect of cleaning out the "rat's nest" that was the "Old Empire" was the ability to set up staging locations for on-ward progress towards the more populated sections of the galaxy.
The intervention into the affairs on Earth by the “Old Empire” operatives or “divine gods” was disrupted at this time by The Domain Forces.
They were forced to replace themselves with human rulers.
The Warden(s) for the "Prison planet" of Earth now had to leave. They could no longer maintain their roles and their positions. If they did, the Domain, would secure them, and remove them. So the roles were taken over by the "inmates".
The First Dynasty of human Pharaohs who united Upper and Lower Egypt began with the rule of a Pharaoh who, coincidentally, was named “MEN”. He established the capital city called Men-Nefer, “The Beauty of Men” in Egypt.
This started the first succession of 10 human Pharaohs and a period of 350 years of chaos that followed in the administrative ranks of the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this statement.
3,200 BCE — Open war between the Domain and the Old Empire on Earth
As I mentioned earlier, Earth was under attack between The Domain and the “Old Empire” forces during this period.
Of course this does not make any sense to archaeologists or historians on Earth, because the Egyptian period is a space opera era period. Since Earth historians have amnesia, they assume that this was only a religious period.
Archaeologists who study ancient Egypt assume all the writings are not technical or historical. Instead they view it as religious and superstitious.
Further, because the technology and civilizations installed on Earth during this period were “prepackaged”, they did not “evolve” on Earth.
Of course, there is no evidence anywhere on Earth of an evolutionary transition which resulted in sophisticated mathematics, language, writing, religion, architecture, cultural traditions in Egypt or any of the pyramid civilizations.
These cultures, complete with all of the details of racial body types, hair-styles, facial makeup, rituals, moral codes and so forth, just “appeared” as complete integrated packages.
This is something that I too have commented about.
The physical evidence suggests that all evidence of the intervention of The Domain or “Old Empire” Forces, or any other extraterrestrial activity, has been carefully “cleaned up”, so as not to create suspicion.
I would agree with this as well.
The “Old Empire” force does not want the IS-BEs of Earth to suspect that they have been captured, transplanted to Earth and brainwashed.
I have no problem with this statement.
So, Earth historians continue to assume that Egyptian priests were not supposed to have “ray guns” or other technology of the “Old Empire”. And, they suppose that there was nothing going on, on Earth, except some priests walking around saying ‘Amen’, which the Christians still say.
3,172 BCE – Astronomical grid layout
Layout of the astronomical grid that joins the key mining sites and astronomical buildings of ‘the gods’ in the Andes Mountains such as Tiahuanaco, Cuzco, Quito, the cities of Ollantaytambu, Machu Picchu and for the mining of rare metals, including tin for use in making bronze.
Metals were the property of “the gods”, of course.
Graham Hancock discussed this in one of his books.
A great variety of entrepreneurial mining was done on Earth at that time due to the war between the “Old Empire” force and The Domain.
These miners did carve a few sculptures of themselves.
They are seen wearing mining helmets.
The Ponce stela sculpture in the sunken courtyard of the Kalasasaya temple is a crude rendering of a stone worker using an electronic, light-wave emitting stone cutter and carving tools, held in a holster.
Ponce stela sculpture.
The “Old Empire” has also maintained mining operations on planets throughout the galaxy for a very long time. The mineral resources of Earth are now a property of The Domain.
2,450 BCE — Great pyramid complex finished
The “great” pyramid and complex of pyramids near Cairo were completed.
I am a little bit confused with this.
Earlier he started talking or discussing the creation of pyramids in Egypt at around 10,000 BCE. Now he is saying that they were completed at 2450 BCE, which is about 7,500 years later.
An inscription created by the “Old Empire” administrators can be seen in the so-called Pyramid texts.
The pyramid texts inscription.
The texts say that the pyramid was built under the direction of Thoth, Son of Ptah.
Of course there was never a King buried in the chamber, since the pyramids were never intended to be used as a burial chamber.
The great pyramid was located precisely at the exact center of all of the land masses of Earth, as viewed from space.
Obviously such precise measurements require aerial perspective and a view of the land masses of Earth from space. Purely mathematical calculations of the geodetic center of the continents of Earth could not be made otherwise.
Of course. This is one of the many arguments made by alternative historians.
Shafts were constructed inside the pyramid to align with the configuration of stars in the constellation of Orion, Canus Majora, and specifically Sirius.
The shafts are also aligned to the Big Dipper, where the home planet of the “Old Empire” existed.
Also, Ainitak, Alpha Draconis and Beta Ursa Minor. These stars are each one of the key systems in the “Old Empire” from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Well, now another point of confusion. All the stars listed are huge, hot, short lived and energetic stars. Certainly not the kind of a place that one could assume humans would live. But I will pause my incredulity, and make the statement that there is much that we do not know about stars, and the technological abilities of the "Old Empire".
I am now going to diverge a small bit from the narrative to take a closer look at the stars that the extraterrestrial mentioned.
I have color coded the information to make it easier to understand.
Orion Constellation
Great Pyramid alignment
The constellation of Orion is among the oldest recognized constellations in the world. Among the earliest known depictions of Orion lies in a prehistoric Aurignacian mammoth ivory carving dated to be between 32,000 to 38,000 years old. The constellation of Orion is probably the most prominent, and amongst the oldest constellations in the night sky, hosting numerous bright stars, nebulae, clusters, and more.
The distinctive pattern of Orion is recognized in several cultures around the world, and thus many myths and legends are associated with it.
Canis Major
Great pyramid alignment
(Latin: “Greater Dog”) constellation in the southern sky, at about 7 hours right ascension and 20° south in declination. The brightest star in Canis Major is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the fifth nearest to Earth, at a distance of 8.6 light-years. This constellation is also home to the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, which at a distance of 25,000 light-years is the closest galaxy to Earth. Because of its proximity to Orion, the constellation was identified as one of Orion’s hunting dogs. Canis Major was also thought to represent other dogs in Greek mythology, such as one of the hounds of Actaeon.
Sirius System Summary
Great pyramid alignment
Also known as Alpha Canis Majoris, Sirius is the fifth closest system to Sol, at 8.6 light-years (ly) away. It is located in the north central part (06:45:08.92-16:42:58.02, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Canis Major, the Larger Dog. Sirius is also the lower left member of the "Winter Triangle" of first magnitude stars, whose other components are Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) at upper left and Betegeuse (Alpha Orionis) at right center.
The bright star is the title member of the Sirius stellar moving group (also known as the Sirius Super Cluster or Ursa Major star stream), which include all five stars of the Great Dipper as well as Gemma and are mostly around 490 million years old and all moving towards the galactic center.
Although Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873-1967) claimed that Sirius was a likely member of the Ursa Major moving group as early as 1909, a 2003 study of possible moving group members using HIPPARCOS' parallax data led by Jeremy King was not able to confirm the system's membership (Ken Croswell, Astronomy.com, March 2005), and the Sirius system appears to be too young, only about half the apparent age of the Ursa Major star stream (Liebert et al, 2005; and Ken Croswell, 2005).
And now for the systems that the extraterrestrial says were home solar systems for the various "Old Empire" citizenry.
Alnitak 3
This star is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Once thought to be around 1,500 to 1,600 light-years (ly) away, the Alnitak, or Zeta Orionis, system is now estimated to be located around 820 +/- 170 ly from Sol (based on a HIPPARCOS Plx= 3.99 +/- e_Plx= 0.79 mas).
It lies in the south central part (5:40:45.5-1:56:34 for Stars Aab, J2000, or 5:40:45.5-1:56:33.3, ICRS 2000) of Constellation Orion (see chart and labelled photo), the Hunter.
There, Alnitak can be found at: left or immediately southeast of the neighboring belt stars of Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) and Mintaka (Delta Orionis); southwest of Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), northeast of Rigel, and northwest of Saiph (Kappa Orionis).
In addition to wide binary companion Star B, Alnitak's primary also has a close stellar companion Ab, (USNO press release). However, the star (sometimes called "C") that has a separation of around 57.6" away is thought to be a optical companion.
Alnitak lies in a region crowded with several dusty clouds of interstellar gas actively forming new stars, including the famous "Horsehead Nebula" to the south. The system is a member of the "Orion OB1 Association," where massive young objects with over 10 times the Sol's mass can be found in abundance (more on OB associations and stellar nurseries).
Zeta Orionis A or Aa
Detailed information.
Alnitak Aa is a blue supergiant star of spectral and luminosity type O9.7 Ibe (with "peculiar" emission lines), where O-type stars are the hottest stars in the spectral sequence excluding white dwarfs. The star may have as much as 28 times Sol's mass (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf), perhaps 20 times Sol's diameter (Remie and Lamers, 1982, page 87; as reported in Pasinetti-Fracassini et al, 2001), and around 100,000 times its bolometric luminosity, which is much greater than its visual luminosity of around 10,500 times Solar.
The European Space Agency's astrometry satellite HIPPARCOS has measured Zeta Orionis Aab's distance from Earth to be around 820 light years, giving it an absolute visual magnitude of -5.25 (based on a HIPPARCOS Vmag= 1.74), somewhat under-luminous for stars of its class; however, these measurements may have been significantly affected by the presence of the recently discovered, dimmer close stellar companion Ab (described below). Even so, Alnitak Aa is the brightest O-type star in Earth's night sky (according to Professor Jim Kaler's excellent Stars' web page on Alnitak). Its 31,000-degree-Kelvin surface, however, radiates mostly ultraviolet wavelengths that are invisible to Human eyes.
Type-O supergiants show strong stellar winds that produce optical spectral emission lines and thermal radio and X-ray emissions. How these stars produce high-energy X-rays, however, is still subject to intense research because they lack significant magnetic fields and are not sufficiently hot despite their very high surface temperatures.
Alnitak Aa seems to generate and maintain magnetic loops like Sol, which is difficult for astronomers to explain. Although O-type stars have inner convection zones in their core, they are believed to lack outer convection zones, which astronomers considered necessary to create the hot and energetic plasmas confined in magnetic loops. Convection zones are internal regions where most of the energy is transported by fluid motions from hotter regions to cooler ones.
Without such zones located near a star's surface, astronomers are currently unable to explain how high-density knots of X-rays could exist. On the other hand, shock waves created in the turbulent stellar wind flow are an important part of current theories. Like all O stars, Alnitak Aa's X-rays may come from a wind that blows from its surface at nearly 2,000 km (1,200 miles) per second, which produces x-rays when blobs of gas in the wind crash violently into one another (Donati et al, 2002; Waldron and Cassinelli, 2001, and 2000 in pdf; and CXC press release, 10/18/2000).
Massive stars use their fuel quickly and do not live very long. Although Alnitak Aa may only be around six million years old, hydrogen fusion may already have ceased at its core. The star will eventually become a red supergiant somewhat like Betelgeuse and will probably explode as a supernova. Useful catalogue numbers and designations for the star include: Zet Ori A, 50 Ori A, HR 1948/9, HIP 26727, HD 37742, BD-02 1338, SAO 132444, STF 774 A, and ADS 4263 A.
In a wide orbit around the primary is a 4th magnitude visual companion, a B-type giant star that is currently separated by about 2.3 arcseconds (USNO press release, 4/15/1998). The pair orbits each other with a period estimated around 1,500 years long. According to old calculations (from J. Hopmann in 1967) cited in the Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binaries, Star "B" is separated on average from the primary by around 680 AUs (a semi-major axis of a= 2.728" at a distance of 817 ly), with an estimated orbital period of 1,508.6 years. Their highly circular orbit (e= 0.07) is inclined 72.0° from the perspective of an observer from Earth.
In 1998, Star A was found to have a close stellar companion ("Ab") only around 11 AUs away (0.042" in February and March 1998 at a distance of 820 ly). The close companion is only two magnitudes fainter and would be easily visible to the naked eye from Earth if it was farther from its brighter neighbor. The relative motion of the inner stellar pair has been detected, which was "most likely due to their being gravitationaly bound with an orbital period of only a few years" (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf; and USNO press release).
The distance from the star pair Aab where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is at least 300 AUs -- over seven times the orbital of Pluto in the Solar System. Given that the stars are only a few million years old, however, they are too probably young for any forming planets to have cooled off sufficiently to have much surface water instead of superheated steam. Astronomers would find it very difficult to detect an Earth-sized planet around this star using present methods.
Zeta Orionis Ab
Detailed information
As Star Ab has a high visual magnitude (around 4) and a presumably youthful age of a few million years shared with the primary, it may be a late O-type main sequence dwarf (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf). Hence, it should have a much greater mass (e.g., 23 times Solar), diameter, and visual luminosity (over 1,300 times Solar) than Sol.
According to the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, 1991 5th Revised Edition notes entry for HR 1948 and 1949, Star B is a blue-white giant star of spectral and luminosity type B2 III. It may have 14 times Sol's mass, a much larger diameter, and around 1,100 times its visual luminosity, based on an apparent magnitude of 4.2 with an even greater bolometric luminosity due to the high ultraviolet emission of its spectral type (Hummel et al, 2000, in pdf).
As with the inner star pair Aab, the orbit of an Earth-like planet (with liquid water) around Star B would be centered beyond the orbital distance of Pluto in the Solar System. Given the youth of the host star (which should be similar to that of the primary), moreover, such a planet is unlikely to have cooled sufficiently to have much surface water instead of steamon its surface. Useful catalogue numbers and designations for the star include: Zet Ori B, 50 Leo B, HD 17743, and ADS 4263 B.
Thuban (α Draconis) Facts
This star is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
Thuban is a relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, located at around 305 light-years away from the Sun. Thuban, also designated as Alpha Draconis, is a double star system located in the constellation of Draco. Thuban is historically significant since it was the north pole star from the 4th to 2nd millennium BCE. Based upon it metallicity, the interstellar medium from which Thuban formed, was somewhat metal-poor. Thuban’s exact age is uncertain. However, it has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core, and it is no longer in the main-sequence.
Distance, Size, and Mass
Thuban is located at around 303 light-years / 93 parsecs away from the Sun. The primary component star is both more massive and several times bigger than our Sun.
Thuban has 2.8 solar masses, or 280% of the Sun’s mass, and a radius of 3.4 solar radii, or 340% of the Sun’s radius. Based upon its radius, Thuban should be around six times, or more, bigger than our Sun. Thuban’s companion star has 2.6 solar masses or 260% of our Sun’s mass.
Other Characteristics
Thuban is a white giant star of spectral class A0III, indicating similarities to Vega in temperature and spectrum, but more luminous and massive.
Thuban has been used as an MK spectral standard for the A0III type. It has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core and started to expand. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.6 and an absolute magnitude of -1.20.
Thuban is 479 times brighter than our Sun and has average surface temperatures of around 10,100 K, or 1.7 times hotter than our Sun.
Thuban’s companion, Alpha Draconis B, is 40 times brighter than our Sun, being 1.83 magnitudes fainter than the primary star. Not much is known about the companion, though it is speculated that it is a main-sequence star slightly cooler than Thuban, and possibly of spectral type A2.
Stellar System
The Thuban / Alpha Draconis star system is a single-lined spectroscopic binary star system, which means that only the spectral liens of the primary component are visible.
The two stars orbit each other once every 51.5 days and have an orbital eccentricity of 0.43. The two components are separated from one another by about 0.46 AU.
This system is an eclipsing binary star system. The eclipses displayed are only partial, with an inclination of slightly less than 90 degrees, with depths of 9% and 2%. These eclipses last for only six hours.
Thuban is one of the stars that take turns as the North Star during the Earth’s precession cycle. Thuban was the Pole Star from 3942 BCE to 1793 BCE, during the creation of some of Egypt’s largest pyramids.
Thuban was closest to the pole in 2830 BCE, coming closest to the north celestial pole out of all the other pole stars. However, Thuban was among the faintest pole stars.
In comparison, the current pole star, Polaris, comes within 0.5 degrees of the north celestial pole and has an apparent magnitude of 1.98.
As the North Star, Thuban was preceded by Edasich (Iota Draconis) and succeeded by the brighter Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris), one of the stars of the Little Dipper, and the fainter Kappa Draconis. Thuban has slowly drifted away from true north over the last 4,800 years.
Location
Thuban is located in the constellation of Draco, the eighth largest constellation in the sky and the fourth largest northern constellation, occupying an area of 1,083 square degrees.
Thuban is easy to spot though, from light-polluted areas, this can become a challenge. Thuban lies about halfway between Mizar, the middle star of the Big Dipper’s handle, and Kochab and Pherkad, the stars that form the outer side of the Little Dipper’s Bowl.
44 Boötis System Summary
This star system is one of the key systems in the "Old Empire" from which IS-BEs were brought to Earth and dumped, as unwanted merchandise.
This triple star system is located about 41.6 light-years (ly) away from our Sun, Sol. It lies in the northwestern part (15:3:47.3+47:39:14.6, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Boötes, the Herdsman or Bear Driver -- north of Nekkar (Beta Boötis), east of Lamda Boötis, northeast of Seginus (Gamma Boötis), southwest of Edasich (Iota Draconis), southeast of Theta Boötis and Alkaid (Eta Ursae Majoris), and west of Tau and Nu Herculis.
The "star" was noted to be variable in 1785 by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who was born Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel. According to Robert Burnham, Jr. (1931-93), the system was confirmed to be a visual binary in 1832 by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864).
In 1926, the fainter component itself was found to be an eclipsing binary by Jan Schilt by photographic observations, which had already been suspected from a spectrum that showed rotationally broadened absorption lines.
The system has the variable star designation i Boötis and is often confused with Iota Boötis, a Delta-Scuti-type variable star of spectral and luminosity type A9 V.
All three stars of the 44 Boötis system are similar to Sol in size, brightness, and color. The annual proper motion of the system is about 40" in PA 274°, and it's radial velocity is around 24 km per second (15 miles per second) in approach. It is visible to the naked eye. All three are believed to be more than a billion years old (Alan Hale, 1994, pp. 312 and 314).
44 (i) Boötis A
This star is a yellowish main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type F5-G1 Vn (Nikolic et al, 1997; based on Frans van't Veer, 1971; and Kurpinska and van't Veer, 1970; versus Hill et al, 1989, page 89). It may be as massive as (or slightly more so than) Sol, with about the same diameter -- 1.03 to 1.05 percent Solar (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 683; and Hill et al, 1989) and around 1.14 times its luminosity. Useful star catalogue numbers and designations for 44 Boötis A include: 44 Boo, i Boo, 44i Boo, HR 5618*, Gl 575 A, Hip 73695, HD 133640, BD+48 2259, SAO 45357, Struve 1909 A, and ADS 9494 A.
From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the orbit of Star A and the BC tight binary pair exhibit a very elongated and narrow ellipse whose separation has varied from 4.7" in 1880 to less than 0.4" in 1969 (Kaj Aage Gunnar Strand, 1937; A. Gennaro, 1940; L. Bennendijk, 1955; Worley and Heintz, 1983; and Wulff Dieter Heintz, 1963 to 1997; among others). According to new measurements (Staffan Soderhjelm, 1999) found in the new Sixth Catalog of Visual Orbits of Binary Stars, Stars A and B are separated by an "average distance" of about 48.5 AUs (semi-major axis of 3.8" with a HIPPARCOS distance estimate of 41.6 ly), or more than the average of orbital distance of Pluto in the Solar System. They move in a highly elliptical orbit (e= 0.55) that takes about 206 years to complete. Their orbit is inclined about 84° from the perspective of an observer on Earth. These elements are similar to Heintz's 1997 elements of: P=220.0 years; a=3.70"; e= 0.451; and i=83.7 (Wulff Dieter Heintz, 1997). (See an animation of the orbits of Stars A, B, and C and their potentially habitable zones, with a table of basic orbital and physical characteristics.)
44 (i) Boötis B
This star is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G2 V (Nikolic et al, 1997; and Hill et al, 1989). This star may have around the same mass as Sol, 87 to 89 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 683; and Hill et al, 1989), and as little as 54 percent of its luminosity. Useful catalogue numbers for the star include: Gl 575 B, Struve 1909 B, and ADS 9494 B.
44 Boötis is classified as an eclipsing variable of W Ursae Majoris type (that also resembles U Pegasi) because Star B has a double-lined, spectroscopic companion that is close enough to be considered a (weak thermal) shallow contact binary (Hill et al, 1989, page 96; and Jan Schilt, 1926). Since the outer gas envelopes of the stars are in contact (overflowing their Roche lobes), they essentially share a common photosphere despite having two distinct nuclear-burning cores. Indeed, Stars B and C are separated by only some 0.008 AU, around three quarters of a million miles (more than one million km) or about three times the distance between the Earth and its Moon. They are revolving in a highly circular orbit (e~ 0) that takes only 6.427 hours to complete. Moreover, from the perspective of an observer on Earth, Stars B and C eclipse each other twice at every revolution (every three hours). (See an animation of the orbits of Stars A, B, and C and their potentially habitable zones, with a table of basic orbital and physical characteristics.)
X-ray emission from stellar coronal material has been observed around Stars B and C with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (press release; Brickhouse et al, 2001; and Nikolic et al, 1997; among others). According to the Yale Bright Star Catalogue's notes entry for HR 5618, a variation in the light curve for this close spectroscopic binary pair appears to be caused by mass transfer, which is supported by observations of gaseous streams between the stars. Eclipsing variables of this type may develop into eruptive "dwarf novae" similar to U Geminorum and SS Cygni, and U Pegasi has been observed to exhibit flares or eruptions of small amplitude that may presage more violent activity at a later stage of evolution. (More discussion on W Ursae Majoris type binaries is available from: Maceroni and van't Veer, 1996.)
44 (i) Boötis C
This star is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of possibly spectral and luminosity type G V (Nikolic et al, 1997; and Hill et al, 1989), or later spectral type. This star probably has less mass than Sol, as little as 66 percent of its diameter (Hill et al, 1989), and significantly lower luminosity than Star B. Useful catalogue numbers for the star include Gl 575 C and NS 1503+4739 C.
Hunt for Substellar Companions
Since at least one of the stars of 44 Boötis is fairly similar to our Sun, some speculate whether the system might contain planets that harbor life. The distance from Star A where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around 1.07 AU -- just beyond the orbital distances of Earth in the Solar System, with an orbital period of more than an Earth year. For close-orbiting Stars B and C, the liquid water zone may be centered around 0.73 AU -- between the orbital distances of Venus and Earth, with an orbital period around half a year. Astronomers would find it very difficult to detect an Earth-type planet around either of these stars using present methods.
Sorry for the detailed stellar data, but I couldn't help myself. Let's get back to the extraterrestrial narrative.
The configuration of all the pyramids of the Giza Plateau was intended to create a “mirror image”, on Earth of the solar system and certain constellations within the “Old Empire”.
2,181 BCE — Some manage to escape
MIN, became the God of Fertility of Egypt. The IS-BE, also known as Pan, was also a Greek god. Min or Pan, was an IS-BE who somehow managed to escape from the “Old Empire” amnesia system.
2,160 – 2040 BCE — Old Empire Rulers left
One of the results of the intensifying battle between The Domain Forces and the “Old Empire” forces was that the control of the “divine rulers”, was broken at this time.
They finally left Egypt and returned to the “heavens”, so to speak, in defeat.
Human beings took over the ruling role as Pharaohs. The first human pharaoh moved the Capital city of Egypt from Memphis to Heracleopolis.
I have no problem with this.
1,500 BCE – Destruction of Crete
This is the date for the destruction of Atlantis given by the Egyptian high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis of Sais, to the Greek sage Solon.
This is the date of the destruction of the colony of Atlantis provided by the Egyptians. It differs from that provided by the extraterrestrial, who stated that Atlantis was destroyed.
While the extraterrestrial stated that between 400,000 and 75,000 years ago, both Atlantis and Lemuria colonies existed.
The Priests of Anu recorded that the Mediterranean area was invaded by “Atlantean” people about this time. Of course, these people were not from the ancient continent of Atlanta, in the Atlantic Ocean, which existed more than 70,000 years earlier.
These were refugees from the Minoan civilization on Crete escaping from the volcanic eruption and tidal waves of Mt. Thera that destroyed their civilization.
Here, the extraterrestrial clarifies the discrepancy.
Plato’s references to Atlantis were borrowed from the writings of the Greek philosopher Solon, who was given the information by the Egyptian priest who called Atlantis “Kepchu”, which also happens to be the Egyptian name for the people of Crete.
Nicely clarified.
Some of the survivors of the Minoan volcanic disaster asked Egypt for help, since they were the only other civilization with high culture in the Mediterranean area at the time.
1351 BCE – 1337 BCE — Earth Warfare
The Domain Expeditionary Force actively waged a war of religious conquest against the Egyptian mystery cult called the Priest of Amun, also known as the “Old Empire” Brothers of The Serpent.
While the space fleet of the "Old Empire" was destroyed in the solar system much earlier. We can say that the warfare began in 6278 BCE, and ended in 1150 AD. Or roughly 7500 years.
The "Old Empire" IS-BE's maintained occupancy in the human bodies on Earth.
As the leaders were removed, one by one, their cohorts formed "fifth column activities and "secret societies" that needed to be rooted out and eliminated.
During this time the Pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the priesthood of Amun, and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to the new location at Amarna, at the exact geodetic center of Egypt. However, this plot to overthrow the “Old Empire” religious control was quickly spoiled.
1,193 BCE — Greek wars / battle for control of space stations
In the Near East and Achaea, the Greeks and Trojans fought for supremacy, which ended in the destruction of Troy as the finale of the Trojan War.
During this same time, war was being fought out in the space of the solar system between two forces for control of the “space stations” surrounding Earth.
That period of 300 years was a very violent resistance to The Domain Forces by the remnants of the “Old Empire” forces. It did not last long however, as it is futile to resist The Domain.
I have no problem with this.
850 BCE — Homer wrote about IS-BE’s
Homer, the blind Greek poet, wrote the stories ‘the gods’ as borrowed and modified from earlier sources in Vedic texts, Sumerian texts, Babylonian and Egyptian mythology.
His poems, as well as many other “myths” of the ancient world are very accurate descriptions of the exploits of IS-BE’s on Earth who were able to avoid the “Old Empire amnesia operation and operate without biological bodies.
Interesting. Homer wrote stories about IS-BE's that escaped the amnesia operations. They were accurate descriptions. And so it was absolutely possible to undo the Empire amnesia operations.
700 BCE – Vedic Hymns translated into Greek
The Vedic Hymns were first translated in the Greek language. This was the beginning of a cultural revolution in Western civilization that transformed crude and brutal tribal cultures into democratic republics based on more reasonable conduct.
638 – 559 BCE — Atlantis reported to exist
Solon, a wise man from Greece, reported the existence of Atlantis. This was information he received from the “Old Empire” high-priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, with whom he studied in Egypt.
630 BCE – Domain replacements for Old Empire religions
Zoroaster created religious practices in Persia around an IS-BE called Ahura Mazda. This was yet another of the growing number of “monotheistic” gods put in place by operatives of The Domain to displace a panoply of “Old Empire” gods.
604 BCE -Laozi
Laozi, a philosopher who wrote a small book called “The Way”, was an IS-BE of great wisdom, who overcame the effects of the “Old Empire” amnesia/hypnosis machinery and escaped from Earth. His understanding of the nature of an IS-BE must have been very good to accomplish this.
According to the common legend, his last lifetime as a human was lived in a small village in China. He contemplated the essence of his own life. Like Gautama Siddhartha, he confronted his own thoughts, and past lives. In so doing, he recovered some of his own memory, ability and immortality.
As an old man, he decided to leave the village and go to the forest to depart the body. The village gatekeeper stopped him and begged him to write down his personal philosophy before leaving.
Here is a small piece of advice he gave about “the way” he rediscovered his own spirit:
"He who looks will not see it;
He who listens will not hear it;
He who gropes will not grasp it.
The formless nonentity,
the motionless source of motion.
The infinite essence of the spirit is the source of life.
Spirit is self.
Walls form and support a room,
yet the space between them is most important.
A pot is formed of clay,
yet the space formed therein is most useful.
Action is caused by the force of nothing on something,
just as the nothing of spirit is the source of all form.
One suffers great afflictions because one has a body.
Without a body what afflictions could one suffer?
When one cares more for the body than for his own spirit,
One becomes the body and looses the way of the spirit.
The self, the spirit, creates illusion.
The delusion of Man is that reality is not an illusion.
One who creates illusions and makes them more real than reality,
follows the path of the spirit and finds the way of heaven".
593 BCE – Genesis Story
The Genesis story written by the Jewish people describe “angels” or “sons of god” mating with women of Earth, who bore them children. These were probably renegades from the “Old Empire”. They may also have been space pirates or merchants from a system outside the galaxy who came to steal mineral resources, or smuggle drugs.
The Domain has observed that there are many visitors to Earth from neighboring planets and galaxies, but they rarely stop and live here. What kind of beings would live on a prison planet if they were not forced to do so?
The same book also reports the story of a human named Ezekiel who witnessed a spacecraft or aircraft landing near Chebar River in Chaldea. His description of the craft uses very archaic language, technically, but is nevertheless, quite an accurate description of an “Old Empire” saucer or scout craft. It is similar to the sighting of “vimanas” by the people in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Their Genesis story also mentions that “Yahweh” designed biological bodies to live for 120 years on Earth. Biological bodies on most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are usually engineered to last for an average of about 150 years.
Human bodies on Earth last only about one half as long.
We suspect this is because the prison administrators have altered the biological material of human bodies on Earth to die more frequently so that the
IS-BEs who inhabit them will recycle through the amnesia mechanism more frequently.
It should be noted that much of the “Old Testament” was written during the captivity of the Jews who were enslaved in Babylon, which was very heavily controlled by priests of the “Old Empire”. The book introduces a false sense of time and a false concept of the origin of the creation.
The serpent is the symbol of the “Old Empire“. It appears in the beginning of their creation story, or as the Greeks say, “Genesis”, and causes the spiritual destruction of the first human beings, who are metaphorically represented by Adam and Eve.
The Old Testament, clearly influenced by the “Old Empire” Forces, gives a detailed description of the IS-BEs being induced into biological bodies on Earth.
This book also describes many of the “Old Empire” brainwashing activities, including the installation of false memories, lies, superstitions, commands to “forget” and all manner of tricks and traps designed to keep IS-BEs on Earth. Most importantly, it destroys the awareness that humans are Immortal Spiritual Beings.
I have no problem at all with these statements.
580 BCE — Communication centers
The Oracle at Delphi was one temple in a network of many oracle temples. Each temple was a communication center.
The “Old Empire” priests designated a local “god” for each temple.
Each of the temples in this network were located at precisely 5 degrees of latitude intervals from the capital city of Thebes throughout the Mediterranean area as far north as the Baltic Sea.
The shrines served, among other things, as a grid, housing electronic beacons, later called “Omphalus Stones”. The grid arrangement of Oracle sites can only be seen from miles above the Earth.
An Omphalus Stone
The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
Very interesting. The original network of electronic communications beacons were disabled when the priesthood was dispersed, and were replaced by carved stones.
The symbol of the “Old Empire” priesthood is a Python, dragon or serpent. It was called the “earth-dragon” at Delphi, which is always represented in sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent.
In Greek mythology the guardian of the Omphalus Stone at the temple at Delphi was an oracle whose name was Python, the serpent.
She was an IS-BE, who was conquered by a “god” named Apollo.
He buried her under the Omphalos stone.
This is a case of one “god” setting up his temple on the grave of another. This is a very accurate euphemism for The Domain Force that detected and disabled the “Old Empire” temple network on Earth.
It was one of the fatal blows to the “Old Empire” Force in the solar system of Earth.
As I parse this document, I find more and more tidbits of extreme interest. You must keep in mind that all of this was recorded after ten days in captivity and after scanning some books.
559 BCE – Lost Commander of The Domain Battalion was rediscovered
The Commanding Officer of The Domain Battalion who was lost in 5,965 BCE was detected and located by a search party sent to Earth from The Domain Expeditionary Force.
He was incarnated as Cyrus II of Persia during this time.
A unique system of organization was used by Cyrus II and the members of that Battalion who followed him from India through his progression of human lives on Earth.
In part, it enabled them to build the largest empire in the history of the Earth to that date.
The Domain Search Party who located him traveled around the Earth searching for the lost Battalion for several thousand years.
The party consisted of 900 officers of The Domain, divided into teams of 300 each.
One team searched the land, another team search the oceans and the third team searched the space surrounding Earth.
There are many reports made in various human civilizations concerning their activities, which humans did not understand, of course.
The Domain Search Party devised a wide variety of electronic detection devices needed to track the electronic signature or wavelength of each of the missing members of the Battalion.
Some were used in space, others on land, and special devices were invented to detect IS-BEs under water.
One of these electronic detection devices is referred to as a “tree of life”.
The device is literally a tool designed to detect the presence of life, which is an IS-BE. This was a large electronic screen generator designed to permeate wide areas.
To the ancient humans on Earth it resembled a sort of tree, since is consists of an interwoven lattice of electronic field generators and receivers.
The electronic field detects the presence of IS-BEs, whether the IS-BE is occupying a body, or if they are outside a body.
A portable version of this detection device was carried by each of the members of The Domain Search Party.
Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings. They are also shown carrying the power unit for the scanner which are depicted as stylized baskets or water buckets, being carried by eagle-headed, winged beings.
Stone carvings in Sumeria show winged beings using pinecone-shaped instruments to scan the bodies of human beings.
Members of the aerial unit of The Domain Search Party, led by Ahura Mazda, were often called “winged gods” in human interpretations.
Throughout the Persian civilization there are a great many stone relief carving that depict winged space craft, that they called a “faravahar”.
A faravahar.
Members of the Aquatic Unit of The Domain Search Party were called “Oannes” by local humans.
Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes are shown wearing silver diving suits. They lived in the sea and appeared to the human population to be men dressed to look like fish. Some members of the lost Battalion were found in the oceans inhabiting the bodies of dolphins or whales.
Stone carvings of the so-called Oannes.
Very interesting stuff.
Therefore, although mythology and history may be based on factual events, they are likewise full of misunderstood and misinterpreted evaluations of the data, and embellished with assumptions, theories and hypotheses which are false.
The space unit of The Domain Expeditionary Force are shown flying in a “Winged-Disc”. This is an allusion to the spiritual power of the IS-BEs, as well as to the space craft used by The Domain Search Party.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Commander of the lost Battalion, as Cyrus II, was an IS-BE who was regarded as a messiah on Earth by both the Jews, and the Muslims. In less than 50 years he established a highly ethical, and humanitarian philosophy which pervaded all of Western Civilization.
Be the Rufus!
His territorial conquests, organization of people and monumental building projects were unprecedented before or since. Such sweeping accomplishments in a short period of time could only have been achieved by a leader and a team of trained officers, pilots, engineers and crew members of a unit of The Domain, acting as a team, who had been trained and worked together for thousands of years.
Although we have discovered the location of many of the IS-BEs in the lost Battalion, The Domain has been unable to restore their memory and return them to active duty as yet.
Of course we cannot transport IS-BEs who are inhabiting biological bodies to the space stations of The Domain since there is no oxygen in our space craft.
Also we do not maintain life support facilities for biological entities there.
Our only hope has been to locate and rekindle the awareness, memory and identity of the IS-BEs of the Lost Battalion. One day they will be capable of rejoining us.
So this differs from what many "more conventionally minded" readers might think. The Domain cannot ever rescue or recover a amnesiac IS-BE member that is in the human form. They have to find other methods to recover their memories, and then extract them from the prison system that exists. Or that did exist in 1947.
200 BCE — Teotihuacan
The last remnant of the “Old Empire” pyramid civilization is at “Teotihuacan“. The Aztec name means “place of the gods” or “where men were transformed into gods”.
Like the astronomical configuration of the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the entire complex is a precise scale-model of the solar system that accurately reflects the orbital distances of the inner planets, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Since the planet Uranus had only been “discovered” with modern Earth telescopes in 1787, and Pluto not until 1930, it is apparent that the builders had information from “other sources”.
A common element of the Pyramid Civilizations around the Earth is the constant use of the image of the snake, dragon, or serpent. This is because the beings who planted these civilizations here want to create an illusion that the “gods” are reptilian.
This is also a part of an illusion designed to perpetuate amnesia.
The beings who placed false civilizations on Earth are IS-BEs, just like you. Many of the biological bodies inhabited by IS-BEs in the “Old Empire” are very similar in appearance to the bodies on Earth.
The “gods” are not reptiles, although they often behave like snakes.
I have no problem with these statements.
1,034 – 1,124 AD – Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah
The entire Arab world was enslaved by one man: Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain. He established the Hashshashin who operated a part of Mohammedanism which controlled by terror and fear much of India, Asia Minor and most of the Mediterranean Basin. They became a priesthood that used an extremely effective mind-control mechanism and extortion tool that enabled the “Assassins” to control the civilized world for several hundred years.
Their method was simple. Young men were kidnapped and knocked unconscious with hashish. They were taken to a garden filled with beautiful black-eyed houris in a harem decorated with rivers of milk and honey.
The young men were told that they were in paradise.
They were promised they could return and live there forever if they sacrificed themselves as an assassin of whomever they were commanded to kill. The men were knocked out again, and shoved out into the world to carry out the assassination mission.
Meanwhile, the Old Man of the Mountain sent a messenger to the caliph or, whatever wealthy ruler from whom they demanded payment, demanding camel-loads of gold, spices, incense or other valuables.
If payment did not arrive on time, the assassin would be sent to kill the offending party.
There was virtually no defense against the unknown assailant who wanted nothing more than to carry out his mission, be killed and return to “heaven”.
This is a very crude example of how simple and effective a brainwashing and mind-control operation can be when it is used skillfully, and forcefully. It is a small scale demonstration of how the amnesia mind-control operation is used against the entire IS-BE population of Earth by the “Old Empire”.
Very interesting.
1119 AD — The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar was established as a Christian military unit after the First Crusade.
But (it) quickly transformed into the basis for the international banking system to accumulate money.
(With a purpose of) conducting funding the agenda of operatives for vestiges of the “Old Empire” on Earth.
I have no problem with this.
1135 – 1230 AD – Old Empire Space Fleet completely removed from the solar system
The Domain Expeditionary Force completed the annihilation of the remaining remnants of the “Old Empire” space fleet operating in the solar system around Earth.
Unfortunately, their long established thought control operation remains largely intact.
I have no problem with this. Just keep in mind that it was narrated back in 1947.
1307 AD – Knights Templar disbanded
The Knights Templar was disbanded by King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Order. He pressured Pope Clement V to condemn the Order’s members, have them arrested, tortured them into giving false confessions, and burned them at the stake in an effort to erase his debt by seizing all of their wealth.
A majority of the Templars fled to Switzerland where they established an international banking system which secretly controls the economy of Earth.
“Old Empire” operatives act as an unseen influence on international bankers.
The "traditional" West banking system, that controls the US dollar, and all that fiat currency, isn't so much as controlled by "Jews" as it is controlled by elements of the "Old Empire" that need to fund their efforts and activities.
It is no wonder that the "Old Empire" operatives are scared shitless with the advent of e-yuan and all those electronic currency options now being implemented.
The banks are operated covertly as a on-combatant provocateur.
(It is designed) to covertly promote and finance weapons and warfare between the nations of Earth.
Warfare is an internal mechanism of control over the inmate population.
This was written in 1947, and most people today in 2021 realize this with the crazy shit coming out of America today.
The purpose of the senseless genocide and carnage of wars financed by these international banks is to prevent the IS-BEs of Earth from sharing open communication, cooperate together in activities that might enable IS-BEs to prosper, become enlightened, and escape their imprisonment.”
I have no problem with these statements.
End of part 4
Sure, there are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species, however this is the real deal. It fits in perfectly with everything that I know about MAJestic.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
I will admit that I was unaware of the “Old Empire”, and the role that the Earth had as a “prison planet” for it. I am also unaware of the details regarding it.
But as I compare what I know, and what I have experienced with what I have parsed, I have been able to “open doors” so to speak, and suddenly mysteries that I have been part of have now been explained. I can tell you that this document has really been a real benefit to me personally.
Please do NOT read the document without reading my parsing. I think my parsing will help you all move foreword with this.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Everything here is true.
Earth is no longer a “prison planet”
Earth is now a “sentience nursery”.
Fear not an “abduction”. It’s actually a good thing. Not a bad thing.
Type-1 greys of “the Domain” are service-for-others sentience.
MAJestic is changing everything, hand in hand with the Type-1 greys.
In regards to much of this “historical data” it is very interesting, and rings true to those of us who have read the alternative-histories that abound in the books and the internet. Yet, we must always keep in mind that this document was recorded from an extraterrestrial that had only ten or so days in interrogation, and this is it’s statement made in 1947.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
This is part 3.
Document appears to be genuine
And I can tell you all that the more that I parse this document, the clearer it is (to me) that it is genuine.It is exactly what it says it is. And the extraterrestrial is actually telling the truth, so far.
Errors
However, there are errors in translation, and confusion in the interpretation of what is being stated. Anything concerning “time” and the translation of dates are all wrong.
Humans think of time as “shared” and “linear”.
The type-1 greys think of time as circular and repeating. As in, consciousness enters and exits different world lines” and if you graph that movement of consciousness you will see a “corkscrew” movement through the MWI. Which is what it was referring to. All of which was WAY beyond the concepts of anyone in Roswell at that time.
Therefore all dates and time, and anything associated with these characteristics are in error, and can be ignored.
This document predates MAJestic
Also take note that this document pre-dates MAJestic, and it is crystal clear to me now, that my role was, and still is, in the rehabilitation aspects of moving the Earth from a Hellish “Prison Planet” to that of a “sentience nursery”.
This document has (for me, personally) helped to clarify elements and aspects of my role that were “blurred” and obscured from me. To that I am eternally grateful.
Look at the dates on my articles, and look at what I covered. You will see that they match up nearly perfectly with this “Alien Interview” transcript. And this is the first time that I have ever heard of this document. The timing was transcendental.
This is part three of the parsing of this document
“The Domain Expeditionary Force has observed a resurgence in science and culture of the Western world since 1150 AD when the remaining remnants of the space fleet of the “Old Empire” in this solar system were destroyed.
No problem with this.
The influence of the remote control hypnosis operation diminished slightly after that time, but still remains largely in force.
By removing the local leadership, the impact on the "electromagnetic force projection field" wasn't really affected. It still remained in place as of 1948. Therefore, there must have been other systems, facilities, bases, and operations scattered in and around the Earth that were still functional.
Apparently a small amount of damage was done to the “Old Empire” remote mind control operation which resulted in a small decrease in the power of this mechanism.
This offered a clue as to the techniques and methodologies involved, but at the time of the interview little else was understood.
As a result, some memory of technologies that IS-BEs already knew before they came to Earth started to be remembered.
It appears to me that the methodology seemed to be stratified. And by taking out the leadership, a great deal of the suppression system disappeared.
Thereafter the oppression of knowledge that is called the “Dark Ages” in Europe began to diminish after that time.
Since then knowledge of the basic laws of physics and electricity have revolutionized Earth culture virtually overnight.
No problem with this.
The ability to remember technology by many of the geniuses in the IS-BE population of Earth was partially restored, when not so actively suppressed as it was before 1150 AD. Sir Isaac Newton, is one of the best examples of this. In only a few decades he single-handedly reinvented several major and fundamental scientific and mathematical disciplines.
The men who “remembered” these sciences already knew them before they were sent to Earth.
No problem with this.
Ordinarily, no one would ever observe or discover as much about science and mathematics in a single life-time, or even in a few hundred life-times. These subjects have taken civilizations billions and billions of years to create!
No problem with this. Genius level skills and abilities point to much deeper understandings and connections. Much the same way that I discuss world-line travel int he MWI. I did not "invent" it. It's knowledge that lies all around us, it's just that the suppression field keeps this knowledge from us.
IS-BEs on Earth have only just begun to remember small fragments of all the technologies that exist throughout the universe. Theoretically, if the amnesia mechanisms being used against Earth could be broken entirely, IS-BEs would regain all of their memory!
We can only hope! But it will take time, and it cannot happen too quickly, as the result would be catastrophic. So things need to be nurtured into place.
Unfortunately, similar advances have not been seen in the humanities as the IS-BEs of Earth continue to behave very badly toward each other.
I have no problem with this statement.
This behavior, however, is heavily influenced by the “hypnotic commands” given to each IS-BE between lifetimes.
I have no problem with this. The pre-birth world-line template is what he is talking about. Though in different terms, adjusted to the mindset of Roswell military leadership in 1948. Specifically, he is referring the the consciousness components that are established and associated with the pre-birth world-line template.
And, the very unusual combination of “inmates” on Earth – criminals, perverts, artists, revolutionaries and geniuses – is the cause of a very restive and tumultuous environment.
No problem with this.
The purpose of the prison planet is to keep IS-BEs on Earth, forever.
I have no problem with this.
Promoting ignorance, superstition, and war between IS-BEs helps to keep the prison population crippled and trapped behind “the wall” of electronic force screens.
I have no problem with this.
IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the “Old Empire”, like Sirius, Aldebaran, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others.
I am sure that he is referring to star names that the pitiful astronomic knowledge of the Roswell military leadership would recognize. In truth, most civilizations are around much cooler, older, and stable stars. Not the short lived, blazing, and highly transitory stars that he specifically named.
There are IS-BEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments. Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories.
I have no problem with this.
These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria.
Do not get too caught up in the conventional narratives about "Atlantis" and "Lemuria". That is sure as Hell a route to send you all down into a black hole that you will have a difficult time extracting yourself from.
All evidence, all over the world, points to tool making humanoids around 400,000 years ago. This predates the normally accepted histories of the rise and evolution of man.
The sudden appearance of these humanoid civilizations at 400,000 BCE is clearly indicative of transplanted civilizations.
The size, magnitude and locations of their communities are (as of now) lost in time. Do not get too worked up about the details. Just realize the most basic history.
Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary “polar shift”, many thousands of years before the current “prison” population started to arrive.
Important points here.
Humanoid colonies were established on the Earth. These eventually were destroyed or collapsed by natural events.
Following that destruction was the rise of native proto-humans.
It was during that period came the creation of the Earth as "Prison Planet" as part of the "Old Empire".
Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.
The "oriental races", such as the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Indians were all descended from the pre-deluge colonies.
On the other hand, the civilizations set up on Earth by the “Old Empire” prison system were very different from the civilization of the “Old Empire” itself.
I have no problem with this statement.
Which is an electronic space opera, atomic powered conglomeration of earlier civilizations that were conquered with nuclear weapons and colonized by IS-BEs from another galaxy.
The civilizations set up on Earth differed from the "Old Empire". They are "artificial" and retarded societies.
This was intentional.
The idea (I am sure) was to create a place of perpetual hardship and torture. A place where everyone was constantly fighting, where starvation, and hardship was normal.
The Earth was set up to be a perpetual prison where the inmates were trapped to relive Hell over and over again.
The bureaucracy that controlled the former “Old Empire” was from an ancient space opera society, run by a totalitarian confederation of planetary governments, regulated by a brutal social, economic, and political hierarchy, with a royal monarch as its figurehead.
It appears to me that this is exactly the kinds of societies that have been setup throughout human history, with the most advanced and strongest manifestations being the current United States, and Western Europe.
Were I to be an administrator of the "Old Empire" that was in charge of this Earth "Prison Plant", and realized that "The Domain" has invaded and taken control, I would flee. But where to? It seems to me that the most likely location would be on Earth itself and to occupy the bodies of the ruling classes. There I could live a life as I have become accustomed to living.
This type of government emerges with regularity on planets where the citizens abandon personal responsibility for autonomous, self-regulation.
I have no problem with this statement.
They frequently lose their freedom to demented IS-BEs who suffer from an overwhelming paranoia that every other IS-BE is their enemy who must be controlled or destroyed.
I have no problem with this statement.
Their closest friends and allies, whom they espouse to love and cherish, are literally “loved to death” by them.
I have no problem with this statement.
Because such IS-BEs exist, The Domain has learned that freedom must be won and maintained through eternal vigilance and the ability to use defensive force to maintain it.
I have no problem with this statement. Additionally, I believe that the military leadership at Roswell, would have agreed with this comment as well.
As a result, The Domain has already conquered the governing planet of the “Old Empire”.
I was unaware about any of the information regarding the "Old Empire", but I do believe what is being stated.
The civilization of The Domain, although considerably younger and smaller in size, is already more powerful, better organized, and united by a egalitarian esprit de corps never known in the history of the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this, and I am sure that the Roswell military leadership would recognize this as well.
The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the “Old Empire”, but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful.
This statement is directly directed to the Roswell military leadership.
Many of the IS-BEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by “Old Empire” government.
Which tends to be the case in most American prisons today.
Consequently, the population of Earth is disproportionately comprised of a very high percentage of such beings. The conflicting cultural and ethical moral codes of the IS-BEs on Earth is unusual in the extreme.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Domain conquest of the central “Old Empire” planets was fought with electronic cannon.
I think that many readers will not understand. They will probably think of some "new" type of weapon, or a weaponized ray gun based on Nikola Tesla technology.
This is wrong.
What he is actually talking about is a weapon that disrupts the consciousness+ in much the same way that the "electromagnetic force screen" disrupted the lives of the consciousnesses on Earth. This type of weapon would be very powerful against consciousness, but do little damage to physical structures.
The citizens of the planets forming the core of government for the “Old Empire” are a filthy, degraded, slave society of mindless, tax-paying workers, who practice cannibalism. Violent automotive race tracks and bloody, Roman circus type entertainments are their only amusements.
Pretty much sounds like America today.
America today.
Regardless of any reasonable justification we may have had for using atomic weapons to vanquish the planets of the “Old Empire”, The Domain is careful not to ruin the resources of those planets by using weapons of crude, radioactive force.
The Domain did not use massive weapons like we would associate with war.
They used disruptive electromagnetically designed beam weapons that upset the consciousness stability in the physical realms.
The current U.S. civilization is beginning to mimic some of the trappings of that civilization, especially in the design of airplanes, automobiles, ships, trains, and telephones. Likewise, buildings in the cities of Earth are thought to be “modern” or “futuristic” if their design resembles the architecture of the “Old Empire”.
Yes. I believe this. And this statement was made in 1947.
The government of the “Old Empire”, before being supplanted by The Domain, was comprised of beings who possessed a very craven intelligence, very much like the Axis powers during your recent world war. Those beings manifested precisely the same behavior as the galactic government that exiled them to eternal imprisonment on Earth.
A bit confused wording.
The ruling class of the "Old Empire" very much resembled Nazi Germany.
And the Nazi Germans exhibited the same behaviors that the leadership of the "Old Empire" maintained.
I can see this information resonating with the Roswell generals and leadership in 1947.
They were a gruesome reminder of the ageless maxim that an IS-BE will often manifest the treatment they have received from others. Kindness fosters kindness. Cruelty begets cruelty.
No problem with this.
One must be able and willing to use force, tempered with intelligence, to prevent harm to the innocent.
No problem with this.
However, extraordinary understanding, self-discipline and courage are required to effectively prevent brutality, without being overwhelmed by the malice that motivated the brutality.
It takes a special kind of sentience to rise above the brutality that you suffered through. Not necessarily to find and giver forgiveness, but to prevent it from ever happening again.
Only a demonic, self-serving government would employ a “logic” or “science” to conceive that an “ultimate solution” to any problem is to murder and permanently erase the memory of every artist, genius, skilled manager, and inventor, and cast them into a planetary prison together with political opponents, killers, thieves, perverts, and disabled beings of an entire galaxy!
"Tell me about it."
Oh how well I know this! If you have any doubts about my experience on this, read about how I was "retired" from MAJestic.
Once the IS-BEs expelled from the “Old Empire” arrived on Earth, they were given amnesia, and hypnotically tricked into thinking that something else had happened to them.
It discusses the process. I have no problem with this.
The next step was to implant the IS-BEs into biological bodies on Earth. The bodies became the human populations of “false civilizations” which were designed and installed in the minds of IS-BEs to look completely unlike the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this. It's a logical extension.
All of the IS-BEs of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe were guided to pattern and build the cultural elements of these societies based on standard patterns developed by the IS-BEs of many earlier, similar civilizations on “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets that have existed for trillions of years throughout the universe.
I have no problems with this. The civilization archetypes are quite standard.
In the earliest times the IS-BEs sent to prison Earth lived in India.
When Earth was used as a "Prison Planet", the very first convicts were sent to ancient India. At that time, my guess is that this was the most populated, or densely populated area on the Earth. Certainly not like it is today, but more populated than say Africa, or Europe.
They gradually spread into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Achaea, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, and to the New World.
It stated that the migration and expansion of the prison population moved Westward not East. Eventually moving into the Mediterranean Sea, and associated civilizations there. Into Europe, and then into the Americas.
They did not move into the East, as these areas had descendants of prior civilizations (Atlantis and Lemuria) which maintained the Asian genetic code.
They were hypnotically “commanded” to follow the pattern of a given civilization by the “Old Empire” prison operators.
This would be pre-structuring, or "front-loading" the pre-birth world-line template by consciousness component attributes.
This is an effective mechanism to disguise the actual time and location from the IS-BEs imprisoned on Earth. The languages, costumes and culture of each false civilization are intended to reinforce amnesia because they do not remind the IS-BEs on Earth of the original “Old Empire” planets from which they were deported.
This make sense. You remove anything that might trigger a memory. You make everything, new, different and contentious.
On the very far back-track of time these types of civilizations tended to repeat themselves over and over because the IS-BEs who created them become familiar with certain patterns and styles, and stayed with them.
I have no problem with this.
It is a lot of work to invent an entire civilization, complete with culture, architecture, language, customs, mathematics, moral values, and so forth. It is much easier to replicate a copy based on a familiar and successful pattern.
I have no problem with this.
A “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planet is the designation given to a planet inhabited by carbon-oxygen based life forms.
This is in 1947. Long, long before the television series "Star Trek". No one ever thought like this back then. Not even in the wildest dreams of the scientists of the day, no one ever thought like this.
The class of the planet is based on the size and radiation intensity of the star, the distance of the planetary orbit from the star, and the size, density, gravity, and chemical composition of the planet. Likewise, flora and fauna are designated and identified according to the star type and class of planet they inhabit.
I have no problem with this.
On the average, the percentage of planets in the physical universe with a breathable atmosphere is relatively small.
I have no problem with this. While life abounds in the universe, the idea that there are lifeforms identical to what we have on the Earth isn't as common as we would hope for.
Most planets do not have an atmosphere upon which life-forms “feed”, as on Earth, where the chemical composition of the atmosphere provides nutrition to plants, and other organisms, which in turn support other life forms.
I have no problem with this.
Though, when it was addressing the Roswell leadership it was speaking in terms that they could understand, such as human-like creatures and intelligence's. Today, we would widen up the scope a bit, and include all types of microbes and other bacterial forms.
When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed. The Aryan people invaded and conquered India, bringing the Vedic Hymns to the area.
What was discussed by the Type-1 extraterrestrial in 1947 is common knowledge today.
Population migration out of India.
The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form.
During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as “Vishnu”. He is described many times in the Rig-Veda. He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus.
Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the “Old Empire” forces. He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.
This Domain officer inhabited a human body and was involved in the teaching and changing the conditions of the human civilization at that time. It was never erased, and never sentenced to the "Prison Planet" and is now performing other duties within the Domain.
This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by “Old Empire” administrators.
The type-1 greys planned and orchestrated this and other series of battles and Geo-political posturings to help break the grip of the "electro-magnetic force screen" that had so completely incarcerated them.
The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many “gods” and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who “managed” them. It is all part of the mental manipulation by the “Old Empire” to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.
I have no problem with this.
A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual, is only a biological body, and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being. The individual has no identity. The individuals have no past lives. The individual has no power. Only the gods have power. And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve.
It's a power control mechanism,. I have no problem with this.
I have no problem with this. This is a theme that has been repeated over, and over, and over again. From the Americas, to Europe, to Egypt, to Rome, to today inside of America, and televangelists.
What else would one expect on a prison planet where all prisoners have amnesia, and the priests themselves are prisoners?
I have no problem with this.
The intervention of The Domain Force on Earth has not been entirely successful due to the secret mind-control operation of the “Old Empire” that still continues to operate.
As of 1947, the Dominion has not been all that successful erasing the programming and changing the destructive paths that mankind was set upon.
A battle was waged between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain through religious conquest.
The attempts to change the planetary system began around 8,000 BCE, and wasn't really all that successful.
Between 1500 BCE and about 1200 BCE, The Domain Forces attempted to teach the concept of an individual, Immortal Spiritual Being to several influential beings on Earth.
A new avenue, or methodology was attempted during a 300 year span of time. It started around 1500 BCE.
One such instance resulted in a very tragic misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misapplication of the concept. The idea was perverted and applied to mean that there is only one IS-BE, instead of the truth that everyone is an IS-BE! Obviously, this was a gross incomprehension and an utter unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s own power.
What a fiasco!
The “Old Empire” priests managed to corrupt the concept of individual immortality into the idea that there is only one, all-powerful IS-BE, and that no one else is or is allowed to be an IS-BE. Obviously, this is the work of the “Old Empire” amnesia operation.
I have no problem with this statement.
It is easy to teach this altered notion to beings who do not want to be responsible for their own lives. Slaves are such beings. As long as one chooses to assign responsibility for creation, existence and personal accountability for one’s own thoughts and actions to others, one is a slave.
Which is a major issue going on inside the United States today.
As a result, the concept of a single monotheistic “god” resulted and was promoted by many self-proclaimed prophets, such as the Jewish slave leader – Moses -who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, as well as his son Tutankhamen.
I am not well versed in the lineages of Ancient Egypt. However, I can see how this could take place.
The attempt to teach certain beings on Earth the truth that they are, themselves, IS-BEs, was part of a plan to overthrow the fictional, metaphorical, anthropomorphic panoply of gods created by the “Old Empire” mystery cult called “The Brothers of The Serpent” known in Egypt as the Priests of Amun.
News to me, but I can see it happening.
They were a very ancient, secret society within the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with this statement.
The Pharaoh Akhenaten was not a very intelligent being, and was heavily influenced by his personal ambition for self-glorification. He altered the concept of the individual spiritual being and embodied the concept in the sun god, Aten. His pitiful existence was soon ended. He was assassinated by Maya and Parennefer, two of the Priests of Amun, or “Amen”, which the Christians still say, who represented the interests of the “Old Empire” forces.
I am not well versed in Ancient Egyptian history, but this does make sense and could very well have happened.
The idea of “One God” was perpetuated by the Hebrew leader Moses while he was in Egypt. He left Egypt with his adopted people, the Jewish slaves. While they were crossing the desert, Moses was intercepted by an operative of the “Old Empire” near Mt. Sinai. Moses was tricked into believing that this operative was “the” One God through the use of hypnotic commands, as well as technical and aesthetic tricks which are commonly used by the “Old Empire” to trap IS-BEs.
I have no problem with this statement.
Thereafter, the Jewish slaves, who trusted the word of Moses implicitly, have worshiped a single god they call “Yaweh“.
I have no problem with this statement.
The name “Yaweh” means “anonymous”, as the IS-BE who “worked with” Moses could not use an actual name or anything that would identify himself, or blow the cover of the amnesia/prison operation. The last thing the covert amnesia/hypnosis/prison system wants to do is to reveal themselves openly to the IS-BEs on Earth. They feel that this would restore the inmates memories!
I have no problem with this statement.
This is the reason that all traces of physical encounters between operatives of space civilizations and humans is very carefully hidden, disguised, covered-up, denied or misdirected.
I have no problem with this statement.
This “Old Empire” operative contacted Moses on a desert mountain top and delivered the “Ten Hypnotic Commands” to him. These commands are very forcefully worded, and compel an IS-BE into utter subservience to the will of the operator. These hypnotic commands are still in effect and influence the thought patterns of millions of IS-BEs thousands of years later!
So, and if you read this exactly as written. It states that any of the ten commandments trigger hypnotic commands. And thus are used by the "Old Empire" to influence the will of the people who thus believe them. Petty powerful, and yes, even dangerous stuff.
Is it true or not? I do not know.
Incidentally, we later discovered that the so-called “Yaweh” also wrote, programmed and encoded the text of the Torah, which when it is read literally, or in its decoded, form, will provide a great deal more false information to those who read it.
The type-1 extraterrestrial is saying that all of the major religions at that time spouted writings which were trigger hypnotic commands, and thus influenced all the people who read or listened to them.
Ultimately, the Vedic Hymns became the source of nearly all of Eastern the religions and were the philosophical source of the ideas common to Buddha, Laozi, Zoroaster , and other philosophers.
So it spread throughout the world...
The civilizing influences of these philosophies eventually replaced the brutal idolatry of the “Old Empire” religions and were the true genesis of kindness and compassion.
You asked me earlier why The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known. Land on Earth? Do you think we are crazy or want to be crazy?
Obviously, it knew very well how to respond to the questions poised by the Roswell military leadership.
It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because this is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population.
Well stated, and factually correct.
And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago.
As powerful as the type-1 greys of the Dominion are, they can be hurt and harmed. And they need to be very cautious when they are in dangerous situations and dangerous people.
No one knows what IS-BEs on Earth are going to do.
I think that is is a very accurate statement.
We are not scheduled to invest the resources of The Domain to take total control of all the space surrounding the area at this time.
This should be well understood.
This will occur in the not-to-distant future – about 5,000 Earth years – according to the time schedule of The Domain.
I believe that this time-line has sped up substantially with the formation of MAJestic, and with people such as MM, and Sebastian providing "boots on the ground" and performing various "anchoring" activities.
At this time we do not prevent transports from other planetary systems or galaxies from continuing to drop IS-BEs into the amnesia force screen area.
A couple of points here.
[1] In 1947, the Domain did not prevent interstellar "drop offs". I do know that that policy changed when I was active in MAJestic.
[2] The "amnesia force screen area" is a specific region. It is not infinite. It has geographic boundaries, and limits.
Eventually, this will change.
In addition, Earth, inherently, is a highly unstable planet. It is not suitable for settlement or permanent habitation for any sustainable civilization. This is part of the reason why it is being used as a prison planet.
This is a serious point that no one, in any analysis that I have read really understands. Contrary to the other statements about O, B and A stars, (Those were proximity locations for civilization anchors, not the homes of specific species themselves) most civilizations prefer the cooler, longer life, K, M and drown dwarfs for civilization stability.
The next point(s) are all very important and you all should read them, and pay attention to them.
No one else would seriously consider living here for a variety of simple and compelling reasons:
The continental land masses of Earth are floating on a sea of molten lava beneath the surface which causes the land masses to crack, crumble and drift continually.
Because of the liquid nature of the core, the planet is largely volcanic and subject to earthquakes and volcanic explosions.
The magnetic poles of the planet shift radically about once every 20, 000 years. This causes a greater or lesser degree of devastation as a result of tidal waves, and climatic changes.
This was written long before "Worlds in Collision".
Earth is very distant from the center of the galaxy and from any other significant galactic civilization. This isolation makes it unsuitable for use, except as a “pit stop” or jumping off point along the way between galaxies. The moon and asteroids are far more suitable for this purpose because they do not have any significant gravity.
Our solar system is in a relatively "rural area" in our galaxy. Though, the center of our galaxy is rather dangerous for us humans, it isn't for other species that have adapted to that environment.
Earth is a heavy gravity planet, with heavy metallic soil and a dense atmosphere. This makes it treacherous for navigational purposes. That fact that I am in this room, as the result of an in flight accident, in spite of the technology of my craft and my extensive expertise as a pilot, are proof of these facts.
There are approximately sixty billion Earth-like (Sun Type 12, Class 7) planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, not to mention the vast expanses of The Domain, and the territories we will claim in the future. It is difficult to stretch our resources to do much more than a periodic reconnaissance of Earth. Especially when there are no immediate advantages to invest resources here.
On Earth most beings are not aware that they are IS-BEs, or that there are spirits of any kind. Many other beings are aware of this, but nearly everyone has a very limited understanding of themselves as an IS-BE.
One of the reasons for this is that IS-BEs have been waging war against each other since the beginning of time.
I have no problem with this.
The purpose of these wars have always been to establish domination by one IS-BE or group of IS-BEs over another. Since an IS-BE cannot be “killed”, the objective has been to capture and immobilize IS-BEs. This has been done in an nearly unlimited variety of ways. The most basic method to capture and immobilize an IS-BE is through the use of various kinds of “traps”.
I prefer the use of the term "snare" instead. But I am sure that the point was made in the communication narrative.
IS-BE traps have been made and put in place by many invading societies, such as the one that established the “Old Empire”, beginning about sixty-four trillion years ago.
Again, ignore the dates and time. They are wholly messed up and incomprehensible to the translator and the Roswell military leadership audience.
Traps are often set up in the “territory” of the IS-BEs being attacked. Usually a trap is set with the electronic wave of “beauty” to attract the interest and attention of the IS-BE. When the IS-BE moves toward the source of the aesthetic wave, such as a beautiful building or beautiful music, the trap is activated by the energy put out by the IS-BE.
A trap or snare of beauty, or attractiveness. Yikes!
One of the most common trap mechanism uses the IS-BE’s own thought energy output when the IS-BE tries to attack or fight back against the trap. The trap is activated and energized by the IS-BE’s own thought energy. The harder the IS-BE fights against the trap, the more it pulls the IBS toward it and keeps them “stuck” in the trap.
It's like trying to stop smoking, by just smoking the last pack instead of throwing it away.
Throughout the entire history of this physical universe, vast areas of space have been taken over and colonized by IS-BE societies who invade and take over new areas of space in this fashion.
Not just the "Old Empire", but many others. The universe has a history of consciousness dominance.
In the past, these invasions have always shared common elements:
the overwhelming use of force of arms, usually with nuclear or electronic weapons.
mind control of the IS-BEs in the invaded area through the use of electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, erasure of memory and the implantation of false memory or false information intended to subjugate and enslave the local IS-BE population.
take over of natural resources by the invading IS-BEs.
political, economic and social slavery of the local population.
These activities continue in present time.
I have no problem with these statements.
All of the IS-BEs on Earth have been members of one or more of these activities in the past, both as an invader, or as part of the population being invaded. There are no “saints” in this universe. Very few have avoided or been exempted from warfare between IS-BEs.
I have no problem with these statements.
IS-BEs on Earth are still the victims of this activity at this very moment. The between-lives amnesia administered to IS-BEs is one on the mechanisms of an elaborate system of “Old Empire” IS-BE traps, that prevent an IS-BE from escaping.
I have no problem with these statements.
This operation is managed by an illicit, renegade secret police force of the “Old Empire”, using false provocation operations to disguise their activities in order to prevent detection by their own government, The Domain and by the victims of their activities.
All this is news to me, but it does explain the fear and concern that the Type-1 grey has when dealing with humans. I can tell you that things have improved significantly once MAJestic became involved. And movement with the type-1 greys and other species proceeded unhindered and unmolested.
They are mind-control methods developed by government psychiatrists.
Of course. I have no problem with this statement.
Earth is a “ghetto” planet. It is the result of an intergalactic “Holocaust”.
This is news to me, but I can see it happening by a very big, very corrupt and very powerful "Old Empire".
IS-BEs have been sentenced to Earth either because:
They are too viciously insane or perverse to function as part of any civilization, no matter how degraded or corrupt.
Or, they are a revolutionary threat to the social, economic and political caste system that has been so carefully built and brutally enforced in the “Old Empire”. Biological bodies are specifically designed and designated as the lowest order of entity in the “Old Empire” caste system. When an IS-BE is sent to Earth, and then tricked or coerced into operating in a biological body, they are actually in a prison, inside a prison.
In an effort to permanently and irreversibly rid the “Old Empire” of such “untouchables”, the eternal identity, memory, and abilities of every IS-BE is forcefully erased. This “final solution” was conceived and carried out by the psychopathic criminals who are controlled by the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with these statements.
The mass extermination of “untouchables” and prison camps created by Germany during World War II were recently revealed. Likewise, the IS-BEs of Earth are the victims of spiritual eradication and eternal slavery inside frail, biological bodies, inspired by the same kind of craven hatred in the “Old Empire”.
I have no problem with these statements.
The kind and creative inmates of Earth are continuously tortured by butchers and lunatics who are controlled by the “Old Empire” prison operators. The so-called “civilizations” of Earth, from the age of useless pyramids to the age of nuclear holocaust, have been a colossal waste of natural resources, a perverted use of intelligence, and an overt oppression of the spiritual essence of every single IS-BE on the planet.
I have no problem with these statements.
If The Domain sent ships to every corner of the universe in search of “Hell”, their quest could end on Earth. What greater brutality can be inflicted on anyone than to erase the spiritual awareness, identity, ability, and memory that is the essence of oneself?
I have no problem with these statements.
The Domain has, as yet, been unable to rescue the 3,000 IS-BEs of the Expeditionary Force Battalion either. They are forced to inhabit biological bodies on Earth. We have been able to recognize and track most of them for the past 8,000 years. However, our attempts to communicate with them are usually futile, as they are unable to remember their true identity.
I have no problem with these statements. However, I do know that there is a program with "abductees" who are taken to type-1 grey facilities and undergo biological monitoring, cleansing techniques, and other procedures designed to rehabilitate them.
MAJestic members (such as myself) participate in various ways. Sometimes assisting, sometimes providing <redacted> and sometimes being part of the procedure ourselves.
I myself have taken part in these rehabilitation procedures, and I even wrote up about one. I think I wrote about it last year or so.
Wouldn't it truly be something if I was one of the lost legion!
Anyways, all this stuff about "abductions" are misinterpretations of important efforts made to take care of the consciousnesses+ that inhabit this Earth wide region.
The majority of lost members of The Domain force have followed the general progression of Western civilization from India, into the Middle East, then to Chaldea, and Babylon, into Egypt, through Achaia, Greece, Rome, into Europe, to the Western Hemisphere, and then all around the world.
I can tell you that all MAJestic members must be of service-to-others sentience, and that is the sentience that all of the Type-1 greys that I have encountered possessed. I cannot help but to believe that any members of the lost members of the Domain would also possess this sentience.
The members of the lost Battalion and many other IS-BEs on Earth, could be valuable citizens of The Domain, not including those who are vicious criminals or perverts. Unfortunately, there has been no workable method conceived to emancipate the IS-BEs from Earth.
As of 1947. I believe that this situation has changed somewhat. I can tell you that <redacted>.
Therefore, as a matter of common logic, as well as the official policy of The Domain, it is safer and more sensible to avoid contact with the IS-BE population of Earth until such time as the proper resources can be allocated to locate and destroy the “Old Empire” force screen and amnesia machinery and develop a therapy to restore the memory of an IS-BE.”
I agree with this, and I personally believe that this situation changed one year later when MAJestic was formed. And that substantial strides and changes were made and implemented throughout the 1980's and 1990's up until my retirement as well as the mass retirement of everyone within my cluster of cells.
End of part 3
Sure, there are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species, however this is the real deal. It fits in perfectly with everything that I know about MAJestic.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
I will admit that I was unaware of the “Old Empire”, and the role that the Earth had as a “prison planet” for it. I am also unaware of the details regarding it.
But as I compare what I know, and what I have experienced with what I have parsed, I have been able to “open doors” so to speak, and suddenly mysteries that I have been part of have now been explained. I can tell you that this document has really been a real benefit to me personally. I have seen and read many, many, MANY faked bullshit nonsense on the internet. But folks, this is the real deal. It has been able to unlock some things that only I know, and open them and suddenly all sorts of puzzle pieces that I have participated in, like <redacted> and the time that <redacted> with the particular <redacted> explains the ancient <redacted> and the especial oddity that I encountered when dealing with the Oxia Palus <redacted>.
I well remember an event that I had regarding a world-line slide, and it really was a mystery to me. Most of the time, I would just brush them off as just odd things that I had to endure, but on one occasion it seemed to me that they all fit together, and when <redacted> which brought me to the understanding of the anchoring process for world-line groupings, and at this time the <redacted> along with a type-1 grey were involved in <redacted> and it clearly showed to me that there MUST have been a previous or prior Empire or federation” of some sort, or of some type that were involved in <redacted> to such an extent. All requiring some kind of “work around” to accomplish specific goals and changes. Now I know.
The solution to the reversal of the amnesia was tied to the “world-line” anchoring that I have been so painfully involved in these last three decades. And with that, and the understanding that the <redacted> of the various attributes <redacted> fit in the consciousness <redacted> collaboration <redacted> reconfiguration by region, time, and <redacted>.
I just cannot express myself in any way that you can understand. Guys! This is the missing cypher.
Please do NOT read the document without reading my parsing. I think my parsing will help you all move foreword with this.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Everything here is true.
Earth is no longer a “prison planet”
Earth is now a “sentience nursery”.
Fear not an “abduction”. It’s actually a good thing. Not a bad thing.
Type-1 greys of “the Domain” are service-for-others sentience.
MAJestic is changing everything, hand in hand with the Type-1 greys.
Part four
You can visit part four HERE.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
“Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time. Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.
No problem with this.
Space is not linear. Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing a object. The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called “space”.
No problem with this.
Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion. In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.
No problem with this.
History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool. History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.
No problem with this.
Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.
All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous. Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream. In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe.
No problem with this.
Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe. The reason they are called “immortal”, is because a “spirit” is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of “is – will be”. She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same. Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.
No problem with this.
The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her “doll” at will. She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time. An IS-BE is literally, “immaterial”.
No problem with this.
They can span great distances of space instantly.
No problem with this.
They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms. An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her “identity”, so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!
No problem with this.
She says that the existing collection of suns in this immediate vicinity of the universe have been burning for the last 200 trillion years. The age of the physical universe is nearly infinitely old, but probably at least four quadrillion years since its earliest beginnings.
Not true.
You can calculate the age of a star based upon how long it takes to burn. A star is like this big tureen of fuel, that is on fire. The fire will burn and burn until all the fuel is gone. There is a relationship between the mass of the star, the size of the star, and it's longevity.
The oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy are 13.4 billion years, give or take 800 million years. This is somewhat close to what the age of the Universe is (which hovers around 13.7 billion years).
Personally, I believe that this paragraph is an error in understanding by the translator.
All the statements leading up to this point discussed consciousness+. And then suddenly "out of the blue" comes this discussion about physical stars. It is totally and completely out of place, and out of context to the thought stream. Thus, I believe that the translator miss-translated it.
My best guess is that the extraterrestrial was trying to continue on this statement...
"Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!"
In which case the proper translation should have been...
"She says that the existing collection of consciousness+ in this (particular) immediate vicinity of the universe have been in existence for the last 200 trillion years."
It far out-dates the physical universe. Which is something that I agree with.
Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began.
No problem with this.
As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.
No problem with this.
The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.
No problem with this. A universe is created as a tool by a consciousness, or a group of consciousnesses.
The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe.
No problem with this.
Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions.
No problem with this.
Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary. You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician.
No problem with this. There was a point in time where the only thing that existed was thoughts and consciousnesses. Then over time, the consciousnesses began to construct physical realities as tools to obtain experiences within, and thus further their individual growth.
In every case, the “magician” was one or more IS-BEs. Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.
No problem with this.
Each IS-BE entered into the physical universe when they lost their own, “home” universe. That is, when an IS-BE’s “home” universe was overwhelmed by the physical universe, or when the IS-BE joined with other IS-BEs to create or conquer the physical universe.
This understanding differs from mine. But only slightly. I was always under the impression that a physical universe (bubble) was a stable and constant thing. This extraterrestrial says that once the consciousness+ leaves that physical universe that it ceases to exist.
As I see it, a "soul" anchors itself in the original physical universe, then creates a consciousness+ that migrates from that universe to another one to obtain experiences in. Since the consciousness+ and the soul are still connected by quantum entanglement, both physical universes exist simultaneously.
On Earth, the ability to determine when an IS-BE entered the physical universe is difficult for two reasons:
the memory of IS-BEs on Earth have been erased, and
IS-BEs arrival or invasion into the physical universe took place at different times, some 60 trillion years ago, and others only 3 trillion. Every once in a short while, a few million years, an area or planet will be taken over by another group of IS-BEs entering into the area.
At this point, the extraterrestrial is discussing the injection of consciousness+ into the bodies of creatures in the Earth sphere of influence.
What we can gather from this discussion is that...
[1] Entry point for consciousness+ injection into physical bodies in and around the Earth is difficult to determine both geographically, and by date and time.
[2] Consciousness+ injections in this region came in waves from different points and from different locations in geographical location and in time.
Sometimes they will capture other IS-BEs as slaves. They will be forced to inhabit bodies to perform menial, or manual work – especially mining mineral ores on heavy-gravity planets, such as Earth.
No problem with this. I work about this is a similar vein regarding "farming sentience's".
Airl says that she has been a member of The Domain Expeditionary Force for more than 625 million years, when she became a pilot for a biological survey mission which included occasional visits to Earth. She can remember her entire career there, and for a very long time before that.
No problem with this. For a non-corporal being the enormous spans of time involved are given and expected.
She told me that Earth scientists do not have an accurate measuring system to gauge the age of matter. They assume that because certain types of materials seem to deteriorate rather quickly, such as organic or carbon-based matter, that there is a deterioration of matter. It is not accurate to measure the age of stone, based on the measurement of the age of wood or bone.
No problem with this. In all of this, I see a fundamental difference in dating things from the point of view of a non-corporal entity, and that of cycling biological creatures.
This is a fundamental error. Factually, matter does not deteriorate. It cannot be destroyed. Matter may be altered in form, but it is never truly destroyed.
No problem with this. Einstein E=mc2.
The Domain has conducted a periodic survey of the galaxies in this sector of the universe since it developed space travel technologies about 80 trillion years ago.
Actually it should be written as:
"The Domain has conducted periodic surveys of this sector of the universe. It has done so ever since it first developed space travel technologies."
A review of changes in the complexion of Earth reveal that mountain ranges rise and fall, continents change location, the poles of the planet shift, ice caps come and go, oceans appear and disappear, rivers, valleys and canyons change. In all cases, the matter is the same. It is always the same sand.
Every form and substance is made of the same basic material, which never deteriorates.
I have no problem with this.
“Airl described the abilities of an IS-BE officer of The Domain to me, and she demonstrated one to me when she contacted – telepathically – a communications officer of The Domain who is stationed in the asteroid belt.
No problem.
The asteroid belt is composed of thousands of broken up pieces of a planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. It serves as a good low-gravity jumping off point for incoming space craft traveling toward the center of our galaxy.
No problem. Sure the asteroid belt is a region of the "frost line" in our solar system, and rocky planets are not stable there. They tend to break up.
She requested that this officer consult information stored in the “files” of The Domain, concerning the history of Earth. She asked the communications officer to “feed” this information to Airl. The communications officer immediately complied with the request. Based on the information stored in the files of The Domain, Airl was able to give me a brief overview or “history lesson”.
No problem with this.
This is what Airl told me that The Domain had observed about the history of Earth:
She told me that The Domain Expeditionary Force first entered into the Milky Way galaxy very recently – only about 10,000 years ago.
This does not match my understanding.
As I understand things, the type-1 greys have been around for much longer than that. And as far as Earth goes, they have been around for at least 30,000 years.
From the human point of view, there has been observations and contacts with space vehicles, and their crews for all of human history. Whether or not they are Type-1 greys, members of the "Old Empire", or something else is unknown.
Their first action was to conquer the home planets of the “Old Empire” (this is not the official name, but a nick-name given to the conquered civilization by The Domain Forces) that served as the seat of central government for this galaxy, and other adjoining regions of space.
As I interpret this, the extraterrestrial is saying that they are from outside of the Milky Way Galaxy. When they entered our galaxy, the first thing that they needed to do was conquer the ruling "federation" or national communities on this side of the galaxy first. That this "federation" was the seat of the central government of our galaxy, and nearby regions of space.
This idea of conquering a region of space, and becoming the ruler of that area is something that the military leadership in Roswell New Mexico would well understand. After all, they just finished a long war with the Nazi Germans and the Japanese.
Yet, it makes no sense.
These extraterrestrials are non-corporal creatures. They exist as waves and inhabit manufactured bodies as they desire. They do not need to "claim" any geographic region for any purpose.
My "gut instinct" is that there is a very complicated and complex relationship of governance between different species, and the physical and non-physical realms. Whether this results in "space opera" type galactic battles or not is hard to say, but my guess, unlikely.
At least "unlikely" as described by this entity in how it was depicted to the Roswell military leadership.
I suspect other situations, truths and considerations were in play. And this entire detailed bit of narrative was just simply to evoke specific reactions from the military leadership.
To me, it appears that the extraterrestrial wanted to make some strong points apparent to the Roswell Military members...
[1] It is an officer of a large and powerful military empire.
[2] This military empire is so powerful that it completely broke and took over the massive galactic empire that ruled this section of space.
These planets are located in the stars systems in the tail of the Big Dipper constellation. She did not mention which stars, exactly.
"Within Ursa Major the stars of the Big Dipper have Bayer designations in consecutive Greek alphabetical order from the bowl to the handle.
Near Mizar is a star called Alcorr and together they are informally known as the Horse and Rider. At magnitude 4.1, Alcor would normally be relatively easy to see with the unaided eye, but its proximity to Mizar renders it more difficult to resolve, and it has served as a traditional test of sight. In the 17th century, Mizar itself was discovered to be a binary star system — the first telescopic binary found.
The component stars are known as Mizar A and Mizar B. In 1889, Mizar A was discovered to in fact be a binary as well, the first spectroscopic binary discovered, and with the subsequent discovery that Mizar B itself is also a binary, in total Mizar currently is known to be at least a quadruple star system."
About 1,500 years later The Domain began the installation bases for their own forces along the path of invasion which leads toward the center of this galaxy and beyond.
Based on what is being stated, I made up this simple drawing of our physical galaxy; The Milky Way. On it, I located the solar system, and the purported movement of the invasion forces.
Invasion path.
If this is the true case, and what he said is correct, then the dominance of the galaxy by his "federation" would look something like this...
About 8,200 years ago The Domain forces set up a base on Earth in the Himalaya Mountains near the border of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a base for a battalion of The Domain Expeditionary Force, which included about 3,000 members.
So this base would be inside of China in the Tibet (XiZang) autonomous region.
Regions of China.
They set up a base under or inside the top of a mountain. The mountain top was drilled into and made hollow to create an area large enough to house the ships and personnel of that force. An electronic illusion of the mountain top was then created to hide the base by projecting a false image from inside the mountain against a “force screen”.
The ships could then enter and exit through the force screen, yet remain unseen by homo sapiens.
This is standard, well known, Type-1 grey technology.
Shortly after they settled there the base was surprised by an attack from a remnant of the military forces of the “Old Empire”. Unbeknownst to The Domain, a hidden, underground base on Mars, operated by the “Old Empire”, had existed for a very long time. The Domain base was wiped out by a military attack from the Mars base and the IS-BEs of The Domain Expeditionary Force were captured.
You can imagine that The Domain was very upset about losing such a large force of officers and crew, so they sent other crews to Earth to look for them. Those crews were also attacked.
This is most certainly an interesting story. But whether or not it is true is something else entirely.
On one hand, the story does nothing aside from provide background information on a battle between two groups of opposing forces, and establishes a narrative in support of the reasoning behind the presence of Type-1 greys in this section of the galaxy.
On the other hand, it could be a delicious fiction that would be accepted and acknowledged by the Roswell military leadership at the base at that time.
The captured IS-BEs from The Domain Forces were handled in the same fashion as all other IS-BEs who have been sent to Earth. They were each given amnesia, had their memories replaced with false pictures and hypnotic commands and sent to Earth to inhabit biological bodies. They are still a part of the human population today.
Here we see that the "Old Empire" has constructed systems (in this region of Earth) to interrupt the the ability of consciousness+ to easily migrate in and out of world-lines, and an established life-line.
After a very persistent and extensive investigation into the loss of their crews, The Domain discovered that “Old Empire” has been operating a very extensive, and very carefully hidden, base of operations in this part of the galaxy for millions of years.
No one knows exactly how long.
Eventually, the space craft of the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain engaged each other in open combat in the space of the solar system.
No problem with this. If the story about this war is true, this is the logical conclusion that you can expect.
According to Airl, there was a running battle between the “Old Empire” forces and The Domain until about 1235 AD, when The Domain forces finally destroyed the last of the space craft of the “Old Empire” force in this area. The Domain Expeditionary Force lost many of its own ships in this area during that time also.
About 1,000 years later the “Old Empire” base was discovered by accident in the spring of 1914 AD.
The dates and all of the matters regarding "time" are suspect as they do not make any sense. 1235AD + 1000 = 2235AD. Not 1914AD.
The discovery was made when the body of the Archduke of Austria, was “taken over” by an officer of The Domain Expeditionary Force. This officer, who was stationed in the asteroid belt, was sent to Earth on a routine mission to gather reconnaissance.
The extraterrestrial goes into some detail how a non-corporal entity can take over the body of a physical person. I am quite sure that this astounded, and "blew the minds" of the military leadership at the Roswell base.
The purpose of this “take over” was to use the body as a “disguise” through which to infiltrate human society in order to gather information about current events on Earth. The officer, as an IS-BE, having greater power than the being inhabiting the body of the Archduke, simply “pushed” the being out and took over control of the body.
No problem with this. Though it might have scared the living Dejesus out of the Roswell leadership at that time.
However, this officer did not realize how much the Hapsburgs were hated by feuding factions in the country, so he was caught off guard when the body of the Archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian student. The officer, or IS-BE, was suddenly “knocked out” of the body when it was shot by the assassin. Disoriented, the IS-BE inadvertently penetrated one of the “amnesia force screens” and was captured.
And that is how this species learned about the "electronic force field" that prevents wave form data transfer, consciousness+ movement, and all other associated elements.
"Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863 - June 28, 1914) was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Prince Imperial of Austria and Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, and from 1896 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated the Austrian declaration of war. This caused countries allied with Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) and countries allied with Serbia (the Entente Powers) to declare war on each other, starting World War I.
In 1889, Franz Ferdinand's life changed dramatically. His cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide at his hunting lodge in Mayerling, leaving Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Karl Ludwig, as first in line to the throne. However his father renounced his succession rights a few days after the Crown Prince's death. Henceforth, Franz Ferdinand was groomed to succeed.
On June 28, 1914, at approximately 11:15 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of several (a few) assassins organized by The Black Hand (UpHa pyKa/Tsrna Ruka). The event, known as the Assassination in Sarajevo, triggered World War I.
Franz and Sophie had previously been attacked when a bomb was thrown at their car. It missed them, but many civilians were injured. Franz and Sophie both insisted on going to see all those injured at the hospital. As a result of this, Princip saw them and shot Sophie in the abdomen. Franz was shot in the jugular and was still alive when witnesses arrived to his aid, but it was too late; he died within minutes.
The assassinations, along with the arms race, nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system all contributed to the beginning of World War I, which began less than two months after Franz Ferdinand's death, with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia."
Eventually The Domain discovered that a wide area of space is monitored by an “electronic force field” which controls all of the IS-BEs in this end of the galaxy, including Earth. The electronic force screen is designed to detect IS-BEs and prevent them from leaving the area.
Using the prison analogy, you can liken it to walls, barbed wire, and search lights.
If any IS-BE attempts to penetrate the force screen, it “captures” them in a kind of “electronic net”. The result is that the captured IS-BE is subjected to a very severe “brainwashing” treatment which erases the memory of the IS-BE.
No problem with this.
This process uses a tremendous electrical shock, just like Earth psychiatrists use “electric shock therapy” to erase the memory and personality of a “patient” and to make them more “cooperative”.
"The story of electric shock began in 1938, when Italian psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti visited a Rome slaughterhouse to see what could be learned from the method that was employed to butcher hogs. In Cerletti's own words, "As soon as the hogs were clamped by the [electric] tongs, they fell unconscious, stiffened, then after a few seconds they were shaken by convulsions.... During this period of unconsciousness (epileptic coma), the butcher stabbed and bled the animals without difficulty
"At this point I felt we could venture to experiment on man, and I instructed my assistants to be on the alert for the selection of a suitable subject."
Cerletti's first victim was provided by the local police - a man described by Cerletti as "lucid and well-oriented." After surviving the first blast without losing consciousness, the victim overheard Cerletti discussing a second application with a higher voltage. He begged Cerletti, "Non una seconda! Mortifierel" ("Not another one! It will kill me!")
Ignoring the objections of his assistants, Cerletti increased the voltage and duration and fired again. With the "successful" electrically induced convulsion of his victim, Ugo Cerletti brought about the application of hog-slaughtering skills to humans, creating one of the most brutal techniques of psychiatry.
'Electric shock is also called electro-convulsive "therapy" or treatment (ECT), electroshock therapy or electric shock treatment (EST), electrostimulation, and electrolytic therapy (ELT). All are euphemistic terms for the same process: sending a searing blast of electricity through the brain in order to alter behavior."(Reference: http://www.sntp.net/ect/ect3.htm)
Today Electroshock therapy (ECT) is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania, catatonia, schizophrenia and other disorders. It first gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 50s. Today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year, usually in a course of 6-12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week.
Electroconvulsive therapy has "side-effects" which include confusion and memory loss for events around the time period of treatment. ECT have been shown to cause persistent memory loss. It is the effects of ECT on long-term memory that give rise to much of the concern surrounding its use. The acute effects of ECT include amnesia.
Registered nurse Barbara C. Cody reports in a letter to the Washington Post that her life "was forever changed by 13 outpatient ECTs I received in 1983. Shock 'therapy' totally and permanently disabled me. "EEGs [electroencephalograms] verify the extensive damage shock did to my brain. Fifteen to 20 years of my life were simply erased; only small bits and pieces have returned. I was also left with short-term memory impairment and serious cognitive deficits. "Shock 'therapy' took my past, my college education, my musical abilities, even the knowledge that my children were, in fact, my children."
Ernest Hemingway, American author, committed suicide shortly after Electric Shock treatment at the Menninger Clinic in 1961. He is reported to have said to his biographer, "Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient...."
On Earth this “therapy” uses only a few hundred volts of electricity. However, the electrical voltage used by the “Old Empire” operation against IS-BEs is on the order of magnitude of billions of volts!
"The general public may consider household mains circuits (100-250 V AC), which carry the highest voltages they normally encounter, to be high voltage. For example, an installer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment may be licensed to install 24 Volt control circuits, but may not be permitted to connect the 240 volt power circuits of the equipment.
Voltages over approximately 50 volts can usually cause dangerous amounts of current to flow through a human being touching two points of a circuit.
Voltages of greater than 50 V are capable of producing heart fibrillation if they produce electric currents in body tissues which happen to pass through the chest area. The electrocution danger is mostly determined by the low conductivity of dry human skin. If skin is wet, or if there are wounds, or if the voltage is applied to electrodes which penetrate the skin, then even voltage sources below 40 V can be lethal if contacted."
This tremendous shock completely wipes out all the memory of the IS-BE. The memory erasure is not just for one life or one body. It wipes out the all of the accumulated experiences of a nearly infinite past, as well as the identity of the IS-BE!
I wrote about this before. This is how you take subjects, and "farm them", and then capture their experiences. Then erase and then send them back to relive the experiences.
The shock is intended to make it impossible for the IS-BE to remember who they are, where they came from, their knowledge or skills, their memory of the past, and ability to function as a spiritual entity. They are overwhelmed into becoming a mindless, robotic nonentity.
No problem with this.
After the shock a series of post hypnotic suggestions are used to install false memories, and a false time orientation in each IS-BE.
"The ability of a human to be induced into a form of behavior or thinking pattern after coming out of the hypnotic state. Post hypnotic suggestions are administered by the hypnotist and may optionally include a time scope. An altered sense of perception or behavioral pattern may be "programmed" into the person under hypnosis. Certain sequences of events may be set as triggers to enter or exit the post-hypnotic pattern. The behavior patterns resemble conditioned reflexes, though administered without classical behavior alteration techniques.
Examples:
Any number, color, object, etc. may be induced to be ignored by the patient after full consciousness. A certain keyword starts the suggestion and a different word ends it. The patient will not know nor use the item to be ignored. He/she may state that the sea is colored red, if suggested to ignore the color blue. A count of eleven may be achieved if asked to count ones fingers if a number -say 5- is suggested to be ignored. Thus the patient counts 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9-10-11
Different type of behavior patterns may be induced such as forcing the patient to recite a certain sentence whenever anyone says out loud the special keyword. The patient is fully aware of the conditioned action but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to restrain from doing it. Sweating, loss of coordination and full lack of concentration plagues the patient until he/she performs the programmed action.
An object may be set to be perceived as invisible and it will be fully ignored and evaded during the period of suggestion. Experiments may be performed with a coffee mug, induced to be invisible. If the mug is put on top of a page with writing, the patient will only read the parts not covered by the mug. Even though the sentences may make no sense, nothing is seemingly wrong to the suspected. It is difficult to suggest an object be invisible, yet stay tactile. Usually the object is completely ignored by all senses. Thus, the mug in the example will reportedly not exist, even when the patient is touching it.
Stage hypnotists will sometimes perform shows in which they hypnotize participants to think they are some celebrity and behave exactly like them. John Mohl, stage hypnotist and member of The National Guild of Hypnotists, says that he has often hypnotized people to become someone else! Mohl noticed that adults often became a celebrity while Middle or High School students usually become something much more creative or imaginative."
What I find most interesting about this is that this concept of "brain washing" and suggestion to control others was NEW information provided to the Roswell military leadership in 1947.
From it, was spawned Monarchprogramming.
I can clearly see a straight line military development from this interrogation, to the Monarch mind control program. And since I do, it lends credibility to this entire disclosure.
This includes the command to “return” to the base after the body dies, so that the same kind of shock and hypnosis can be done again, and again, again – forever. The hypnotic command also tells the “patient” to forget to remember.
No problem with this.
What The Domain learned from the experience of this officer is that the “Old Empire” has been using Earth as a “prison planet” for a very long time – exactly how long is unknown – perhaps millions of years.
This is not what I understand. I think that "Prison Planet" is much too strong a term. I prefer the term "sentience nursery".
Aside from a completely different connotation, it helps us to understand that this area is a place for growth and development. While the idea of a "prison planet" is one of isolation and punishment.
It is very important that the reader understand the difference, between these two, and the relationship and role that thy have here in this life that they are living. While it might be true that this earth once might have been a "prison plant", today it is in the process of being reformed, and the Type-1 greys are working with other entities to make sure that this happens.
In fact, I am 100% convinced that the Earth being a "sentience nursery" is the recovery effort initiated by the Type-1 greys to rehabilitate the human species and get them out from under this horrible "electromagnetic force field". Which is why the Mantids are involved in dealing on a person-to-person, consciousness-to-consciousness basis.
So, when the body of the IS-BE dies they depart from the body. They are detected by the “force screen”, they are captured and “ordered” by hypnotic command to “return to the light“.
No problem with this.
The idea of “heaven” and the “afterlife” are part of the hypnotic suggestion – a part of the treachery that makes the whole mechanism work.
(Read “The Invisible College – War in Heaven – A Completely New And Revolutionary Conception of The Nature of Spiritual Reality”).
After the IS-BE has been shocked and hypnotized to erase the memory of the life just lived, the IS-BE is immediately “commanded”, hypnotically, to “report” back to Earth, as though they were on a secret mission, to inhabit a new body. Each IS-BE is told that they have a special purpose for being on Earth. But, of course there is no purpose for being in a prison – at least not for the prisoner.
No problem with this.
Any undesirable IS-BEs who are sentenced to Earth were classified as “untouchable” by the “Old Empire”.
"In the Indian caste system, a Dalit, often called an untouchable, or an outcaste, is a person who according to traditional Hindu belief does not have any 'varnas". Varna refers to the Hindu belief that most humans were supposedly created from different parts of the body of the divinity Purusha.
The part from which a varna was supposedly created defines a person's social status with regard to issues such as whom they may marry and which professions they may hold. Dalits fall outside the varnas system and have historically been prevented from doing any but the most menial jobs. (However, a distinction must be made between lower-caste people and Pariahs.) Included are leather-workers (called chamar), carcass handlers (called mahar), poor farmers and landless labourers, night soil scavengers (called bhangi or chura), street handicrafters, folk artists, street cleaners, dhobi, etc.
Traditionally, they were treated as pariahs in South Asian society and isolated in their own communities, to the point that even their shadows were avoided by the upper castes.
Discrimination against Dalits still exists in rural areas in the private sphere, in ritual matters such as access to eating places and water sources. It has largely disappeared, however, in urban areas and in the public sphere, in rights of movement and access to schools. The earliest rejection of discrimination, at least in spiritual matters, was made as far back as the Bhagavada Gita, which says that no person, no matter what, is barred from enlightenment There are an estimated 160 million Dalits in India."
Reference: Wikipedia.org
"Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; '7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".
"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York. India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits."
Reference: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html
This included anyone that the “Old Empire” judged to be criminals who are too vicious to be reformed or subdued, as well as other criminals such as sexual perverts, or beings unwilling to do any productive work.
No problem with this.
An “untouchable” classification of IS-BEs also includes a wide variety of “political prisoners”.
"A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, for his/her involvement in political activity.
political prisoners are arrested and tried with a veneer of legality, where false criminal charges, manufactured evidence, and unfair trials are used to disguise the fact that an individual is a political prisoner. This is common in situations which may otherwise be decried nationally and internationally as a human rights violation and suppression of a political dissident. A political prisoner can also be someone that has been denied bail unfairly, denied parole when it would reasonably have been given to a prisoner charged with a comparable crime, or special powers may be invoked by the judiciary.
Particularly in this latter situation, whether an individual is regarded as a political prisoner may depend upon subjective political perspective or interpretation of the evidence. Governments typically reject assertions that they hold political prisoners.
Examples:
In the Soviet Union, dubious psychiatric diagnoses were sometimes used to confine political prisoners. In Nazi Germany, "Night and Fog"prisoners were among the first victims of fascist repression. In North Korea, entire families are jailed if one family member is suspected of anti-government sentiments."
-- Reference: Wikipedia.org
This includes IS-BEs who are considered to be noncompliant “free thinkers” or “revolutionaries” who make trouble for the governments of the various planets of the “Old Empire”. Of course, anyone with a previous military record against the “Old Empire” is also shipped off to Earth.
No problem with this.
A list of “untouchables” include artists, painters, singers, musicians, writers, actors, and performers of every kind. For this reason Earth has more artists per capita than any other planet in the “Old Empire”.
No problem with this.
“Untouchables” also include intellectuals, inventors and geniuses in almost every field. Since everything the “Old Empire” considers valuable has long since been invented or created over the last few trillion years, they have no further use for such beings. This includes skilled managers also, which are not needed in a society of obedient, robotic citizens.
No problem with this.
Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the “Old Empire” are “untouchable” and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.
Is it just me? But it just seems like the United States is trying to replicate The "Old Empire".
The net result is that an IS-BE is unable to escape because they can’t remember who they are, where they came from, where they are. They have been hypnotized to think they are someone, something, sometime, and somewhere other than were they really are.
No problem with this.
The Domain officer who was “assassinated” while in the body of Archduke of Austria was, likewise, captured by the “Old Empire” force. Because this particular officer was a high powered IS-BE, compared to most, he was taken away to a secret “Old Empire” base under the surface of the planet Mars. They put him into a special electronic prison cell and held him there.
No problem with this.
Fortunately, this Domain officer was able to escape from the underground base after 27 years in captivity. When he escaped from the “Old Empire” base, he returned immediately to his own base in the asteroid belt.
No problem with this.
His commanding officer ordered that a battle cruiser be dispatched to the coordinates of the base, provided by this officer, and to destroy that base completely.
(The following internet links shows maps of a complex of artificial looking structures which some people have referred to a the "Pyramid Complex, The Face on Mars, and other geological features that are strikingly similar to symbols and architecture found in Mesoamerican and Egyptian pyramid civilizations. Notice how the "pyramids and face structures look as though they have been partially destroyed! Had there been an "Old Empire" base at this location, which was destroyed by a cruiser attack from The Domain Force, it base would have been significantly damaged.)
http://www.greatdreams.com/cydonia.htm
http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/cydonia.html
"In addition, a team of scientists from the United States Geological Survey reported at the recent annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, that images taken by NASA s Mars-orbiting spacecraft Mars Odyssey show what appear to be cave entrances where primitive life forms - "past or present microbial life" - could have been sheltered, and where water could exist in liquid form.
A more detailed perusal of the report reveals that the spacecraft actually photographed, in both visual and infrared, puzzling dark circular structures associated with these caves -structures ranging in size from 100 to 250 meters (330 to 825 feet). Picking up the hardly-noticed story in its June 2007 issue, the prestigious journal Scientific American has now provided additional information: Seven such "football size" caverns were identified; they are 425 feet deep. "
Although the military base of the “Old Empire” was destroyed, unfortunately, much of the vast machinery of the IS-BE force screens, the electroshock / amnesia / hypnosis machinery continues to function in other undiscovered locations right up to the present moment. The main base or control center for this “mind control prison” operation has never been found. So, the influences of this base, or bases, are still in effect.
No problem with this.
The Domain has observed that since the “Old Empire” space forces were destroyed there is no one left to actively prevent other planetary systems from bringing their own “untouchable” IS-BEs to Earth from all over this galaxy, and from other galaxies nearby.
Therefore, Earth has become a universal dumping ground for this entire region of space.
Well, maybe, but who really knows?
This, in part, explains the very unusual mix of races, cultures, languages, moral codes, religious and political influences among the IS-BE population on Earth. The number and variety of heterogeneous societies on Earth are extremely unusual on a normal planet. Most “Sun Type 12, Class 7” planets are inhabited by only one humanoid body type or race, if any.
No problem with this.
In addition, most of the ancient civilizations of Earth, and many of the events of Earth have been heavily influenced by the hidden, hypnotic operation of the “Old Empire” base. So far, no one has figured out exactly where and how this operation is run, or by whom because it is so heavily protected by screens and traps.
No problem with this.
Furthermore, there has been no operation undertaken to seek out, discover and destroy the vast and ancient network of electronics machinery that create the IS-BE force screens at this end of the galaxy.
No problem with this.
Until this has been done, we are not able to prevent or interrupt the electric shock operation, hypnosis and remote thought control of the “Old Empire” prison planet.
No problem with this.
Of course all of the crew members of The Domain Expeditionary Force now remain aware of this phenomena at all times while operating in this solar system space so as to prevent detection and the capture by “Old Empire” traps.”
End of part 2
There are miss-translations on time, confusions in regard to galaxies and universes, and a mish-mash of confusion between consciousness+, humans, and some confusion regarding galactic “ownership” and “power projection” between different species.
The more I parse it in detail, the clearer to me that this is exactly what it is claimed to be.
Key Points
Never the less, I believe the following to be true in regards to this parsing of this section of the book…
Most of what was stated was factually accurate… provided that the war between the “Dominion” and the “Old Empire” is correct. But this has never been a key knowledge base for my role, and thus I know nothing at all about it.
The information about “time” is also correct. It is wholly misunderstood by most humans.
Since the 1980’s MAJestic has taken a major role in working with this species and <redacted>, <redacted> and the Mantids towards the maintenance and development of this “Prison Planet” into a “Sentience Nursery”.
The Roswell leadership should be able to understand and relate to the military aspects of the narrative.
The aspects regarding consciousness+ movement would probably simply terrify the Roswell leadership, and confuse them. But they are really actually very accurate.
So far, in parsing this document, I see no reason to describe it as a fictional work. It appears to be exactly what it said it is.
Apparently the writings about “Mind Control” ended up spawning American covert effort in the Monarch Program.
There is no reason for the Type-1 grey extraterrestrial to lie. None.
The information provided had / has a purpose. It appears that the background information is truthful, but tailored to the limitations of the target audience, and worded to appeal to their understandings.
And finally…
Because MAJestic was established, and my role involved strong interaction with this species, and you all in MM land can see the content and the direction of my articles, it should be obvious that [1] MAJestic believed what the extraterrestrial said, and [2] my role is part of this reconstruction effort.
I have presented the PDF titled “Alien Interview” to the readership. It is supposed to be the transcripts of the interview that a nurse had with an extraterrestrial entity that was recovered from a spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico. There is a lot of good stuff there, and a lot of things that run counter to what I know and understand to be true. My intention here is to parse the entire book, and compare it to what I know. Where the two diverge, it will be up to you (the readership) to sort it out.
Website
There is a website devoted to this book. You can visit it HERE.
They seem to make posts based of passages from the book, and then delve into greater detail from there.
I do not (personally) believe that this is warranted. From what I know of the Type-1 greys they tell us what we want to hear, for the most part. And if you look at the content of the book, you can easily see fraudulent elements that were remnants of the popular culture at the time.
Never the less I believe the transcript to be authentic.
The bibliotecapleyades on-line version of the book. HERE.
Introduction
A Mrs. MacElroy presented an envelope of transcripts to a publisher in 2007. In the envelope and over the phone she asked the publisher to do what he could to get them to be published. She claimed to be the duty nurse at the Roswell Army base in New Mexico in 1947. And further, she claimed that she was the sole interpreter / translator of the sole surviving extraterrestrial fro the wreckage.
The content of this book is primarily excerpted from the letter, interview transcripts and personal notes I received from the late Matilda O'Donnell MacElroy. Her letter to me asserts that this material is based on her recollection of communication with an alien being, who "spoke" with her telepathically.
During July and August of 1947 she interviewed an extraterrestrial being who she identifies as "Airl", and whom she claims was and continues to be an officer, pilot and engineer who was recovered from a flyer saucer that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico on July 8th, 1947.
She was late in age and was ready to die. This, apparently, was her effort to make sure that the experience that she had would not be forgotten.
The initial letter from Mrs. MacElroy was received on September 14th, 2007, together with a package of documents. The package contained three types of documents:
Hand-written notes in cursive on ordinary, lined, 8 1/2″ X 11″school notebook paper, which I assume had been written personally by Mrs. MacElroy.
Notes typed on a manual typewriter on plain, white 20 lb. bond paper, which I am assume were prepared personally by her. At least both had the appearance of having been written in the same hand writing, and / or typed on the same typewriter consistently throughout. The writing in the notes I received also appeared to be the same as the writing on the address and return address of the manila envelope I received from Navan, Ireland, which was postmarked on 3 September, 2007. Since I am not a forensic expert, or handwriting analyst, my opinion in these matter is not a professionally qualified judgment.
Many pages of typewritten transcriptions of her interview with the alien. These were obviously typed on a different typewriter. These pages were typed on a different type of paper and showed apparent signs of age and repeated handling.
There is a lot, especially in the front 1/3 of the document, that seems credible to me an MAJestic “operator”. There is also quite a lot that is alien to me, and a substantial amount that does not match what I know to be the truth.
Thus, I must rightfully conclude that a large bulk of the information follows the type-1 grey MAJestic warning:
“They tell you what you want to believe, not necessarily the truth.“.
All in all, I think that [1] the truth is this is that these are actual transcripts from the Roswell event. However, [2] the content is tailored to the interpreter and her superiors. Thus, [3] most of it’s content is inaccurate, or misleading to us reading it 70 years later.
I have first-hand experience with these type-1 greys. I have worked with them. I have been at their facilities. I have interacted them in both the physical and the non-physical. So I do have more than just a little bit of knowledge concerning this subject.
However, my EBP entanglement was with another species known as the Mantids, and they view things quite differently. Though, truthfully, it was THIS species that manufactured the EBP, installed it inside my skull (off world), and laid out the “training” that I had at NAS, NASC China Lake.
From the MM point of view, this [4] entire exercise offers us a great “spring board” for investigation, and I would like to use what I know to sort out this document and turn it into something that is useful for all of us to learn from.
Finally, [5] there are errors in understanding of a 1948 nurse and terminology and lexicon, that I will try to resolve here.
Limitations
I am not going to reprint the entire book here. The same does for the notes by the nurse, and the various supporting documents held within the PDF.
Instead, I am going to parse the transcript of what the type-1 grey had to say. I will do so based on my role in MAJestic, and what I know through the EBP entanglements.
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 9. 7. 1947
QUESTION – “Are you injured?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “What medical assistance do you require?”
ANSWER -NONE
QUESTION – “Do need food or water or other sustenance?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “Do you have any special environmental needs, such as air temperature, atmospheric chemical content, air pressure, or waste elimination?”
ANSWER – NO. I AM NOT A BIOLOGICAL BEING.
At this point, early on in the interview we see that the body is a construct used by a being in wave form. It does not require any of the support equipment needed by biological creatures.
QUESTION – “Does your body or space craft carry any germs or contamination that may be harmful to humans or other Earth life forms?”
ANSWER -NO GERMS IN SPACE.
QUESTION – “Does your government know you are here?”
ANSWER – NOT AT THIS TIME
QUESTION – “Are others of your kind going to come looking for you?”
ANSWER – YES
QUESTION – “What is the weapons capability of your people?”
ANSWER – VERY DESTRUCTIVE.
QUESTION – “Why did your space craft crash?”
ANSWER – IT WAS STRUCK BY AN ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE FROM THE ATMOSPHERE WHICH CAUSED US TO LOSE CONTROL.
This differs from my understanding. I was told that radar technology developed by the Germans during World War II were being tested in New Mexico, and they are what brought the vehicle down. Aircraft getting hit by lightening is a common event and rarely causes the crash of a vehicle.
QUESTION – “Why was your space craft in this area?”
ANSWER – INVESTIGATION OF “BURNING CLOUDS” / RADIATION /
EXPLOSIONS
The first test of a nuclear weapon was in the atmosphere on July 16, 1945, in a remote part of New Mexico on what was then the Alamogordo Bombing Range, and is now the White Sands Missile Range. The site is 55 miles northwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
QUESTION – “How does your space craft fly?”
ANSWER -IT IS CONTROLLED THROUGH “MIND”. RESPONDS TO “THOUGHT COMMANDS”.
QUESTION – “How do your people communicate with each other?”
ANSWER –
THROUGH MIND /THOUGHT.
QUESTION – “Do you have a written language or symbols for communication?”
ANSWER -YES
QUESTION – “What planet are you from?”
ANSWER – THE HOME / BIRTHPLACE WORLD OF THE DOMAIN
QUESTION – “Will your government send representatives to meet with our leaders?”
ANSWER -NO
QUESTION – “What are your intentions concerning
Earth?”
ANSWER -PRESERVE / PROTECT PROPERTY OF THE DOMAIN
QUESTION – “What have you learned about Earth governments and military installations?”
ANSWER – POOR / SMALL. DESTROY PLANET.
Earth governments are "poor" and "small", but they have the power to destroy the entire planet.
QUESTION – “Why haven’t your people made your existence known to the people of Earth?”
ANSWER – WATCH / OBSERVE. NO CONTACT.
QUESTION – “Have your people visited Earth’s previously?”
ANSWER – PERIODIC / REPEATING OBSERVATIONS.
QUESTION – “How long have you known about Earth?”
ANSWER – LONG BEFORE HUMANS.
Pre-historic humanoids date back to 400,000 years. At that time they were tool making, cart making creatures that seemed to have an appreciation of music, speaking, and society. Though no written language. Proto-humans date back even further, going back 2 million years. This knowledge will be useful to explain other statements made later on.
QUESTION – “What do you know about the history of civilization on Earth?”
ANSWER – SMALL INTEREST / ATTENTION. SMALL TIME.
QUESTION – “Can you describe your home world to us?”
ANSWER – PLACE OF CIVILIZATION / CULTURE / HISTORY. LARGE PLANET. WEALTH / RESOURCES ALWAYS. ORDER. POWER.
KNOWLEDGE / WISDOM. TWO STARS. THREE MOONS.
QUESTION – “What is the state of development of your civilization?”
ANSWER – ANCIENT. TRILLIONS OF YEARS. ALWAYS. ABOVE ALL OTHERS. PLAN. SCHEDULE. PROGRESS. WIN. HIGH GOALS / IDEAS.
Our universe is roughly 14 billion years old. While a soul and consciousness can be much older than that, I take the term "trillions" to mean "an unfathomably long period of time".
QUESTION – “Do you believe in God?”
ANSWER – WE THINK. IT IS. MAKE IT CONTINUE. ALWAYS.
QUESTION – “What type of society do you have?”
ANSWER – ORDER. POWER. FUTURE ALWAYS. CONTROL. GROW.
QUESTION – “Are there other intelligent life forms besides yourself in the universe?”
ANSWER – EVERYWHERE. WE ARE GREATEST / HIGHEST OF ALL.
Thoughts from the first interview
Obviously the book has the notes hand written on the paper that pretty much helped explain her thoughts and impressions. I left those out.
As you can see, not much was gleaned from the first interview.
But as it was, it was very productive. At that time, the entire Army base was abuzz with soldiers all of which just finished fighting a bloody global war with fanatical Nazi’s and Japanese. Their mind-set was militaristic, aggressive, defensive, protective, and nationalistic. It was a hostile environment for an extraterrestrial species to enter.
The extraterrestrial pilot, who like all type-1 greys, can read the non-physical world about it, fully understood the situation and was actively reading and absorbing the thoughts of everyone around it. And like all type-1 greys, assimilated the knowledge, and made the appropriate physical actions.
Which was do nothing. Wait in the room.
The next day…
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 10. 7. 1947
“QUESTION – “Why have you stopped communicating?”
ANSWER -NO STOP. OTHERS. HIDDEN / COVERED. SECRET FEAR.
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 11. 7. 1947
“QUESTION – Can you read or write any Earth languages?
ANSWER -NO.
QUESTION – Do you understand numbers or mathematics?
ANSWER – YES. I AM OFFICER / PILOT / ENGINEER
QUESTION – Can you write or draw symbols or pictures that we may be able to translate into our own language?
ANSWER –UNCERTAIN
QUESTION – Are there any other signs or means of communication you can use to help us understand your thoughts more clearly?
ANSWER -NO.”
QUESTION – Can you show us on a map of the stars which is the star of your home planet? ANSWER -NO.
As discussed, this question is based on the assumption that there is one singular planet that the species departed, and that is it's "home planet". Which is false, and if you understand that this species is a non-physical species that creates physical bodies for use in physical space, you can recognize what an impossible question this is to answer.
This species is part of a wide organization, with many, many regions that they inhabit. This includes both the physical and non-physical. Most of which 99.999% were unknown to the military and scientists at that time. In fact, at that time, they didn't know about brown dwarfs, or even if there were planets around stars. And many thought that the earth was the center of the universe.
QUESTION – How long will it take your people to locate you here?
ANSWER -UNKNOWN.
QUESTION – How long would it take your people to travel here to rescue you?
ANSWER – MINUTES OR HOURS.
QUESTION – How can we make them understand that we do not intend to harm you?
ANSWER – INTENTIONS ARE CLEAR. SEE IN YOUR MIND / IMAGES /FEELINGS.
At this point, the more astute should realize that they were absolutely transparent to this being. And that their plans, thoughts, secrets and desires were open and presented to it and they had no defense against it.
QUESTION – If you are not a biological entity, why do you refer to yourself as feminine?
ANSWER – I AM A CREATOR. MOTHER. SOURCE.”
“QUESTION – “What assurance or proof do you require from us that will make you feel safe enough to answer our questions.”
ANSWER – ONLY SHE SPEAKS. ONLY SHE HEARS. ONLY SHE QUESTIONS. NO OTHERS. MUST LEARN / KNOW / UNDERSTAND.”
There it is. The type-1 grey defines who, what, when, why, how and where. No one else.
Then, according to the notes;
“On the afternoon of the 16th day Airl and I sat next to each other as she read. She closed the last page of a book she was reading and placed it aside. I was about to hand her the next book from a large pile waiting to be read, when she turned and said or “thought” to me, “I am ready to speak now”. At first I was a little confused by the remark. I gestured for her to continue and she began to teach me my first lesson.”
Up to this point, everything was very matter-of-fact, clear, cut and dry. Now we enter “the twilight zone” and start getting into the real “meat” of the interview. And it is this part that REALLY NEEDS to be sorted out and put into context.
“I have been a part of the Domain Expeditionary Force in this sector of space for several thousand years. However, I have not personally had intimate contact with beings on Earth since 5,965 BCE. It is not my primary function to interact with inhabitants of planets within The Domain. I am an Officer, Pilot and Engineer, with many duties to perform. Nonetheless, although I am fluent in 347 other languages within The Domain, I have not been exposed to your English language.
Said very interestingly. However, let's parse this statement to it's basics.
This officer
[1] has been assigned to this region for a long stretch of time (from a human perspective).
[2] Hasn't interacted with humans for roughly 8,000 years.
[3] Is an officer, a pilot, and an engineer.
[4] Is fluent in numerous languages spoken within their "nation" / "federation".
[5] Does not speak English until now.
The last Earth language with which I was conversant was the Sanskrit language of the Vedic Hymns. At that time I was a member of a mission sent to investigate the loss of a Domain base located in the Himalaya Mountains. An entire battalion of officers, pilots, communications and administrative personnel disappeared and the base destroyed.
This officer learned the local Earth language when investigating the loss of one of their outposts. This was in the Himalaya mountains, and at that time 8,000 years ago, the locals spoke Sanskrit. It was a large outpost.
Knowing what I know, I can tell you that this was a sizable installation. It was large, and it maintained a large contingent of personnel, and they were active in doing what ever they were active in doing. A facility this size has a purpose. And what it was, or what it was doing, is not specified.
Several million years ago I was trained and served as an Investigation, Data Evaluation and Program Development Officer for The Domain. Because I was experienced in that technology, I was sent to Earth as part of the search team.
Again, do not get all caught up on the specific numbers and terms. Just look at the basics what it was saying.
The type-1 extraterrestrial had training in the specialties needed to investigate the mystery of the lost outpost. So it was sent down to the area to investigate.
One of my duties involved interrogation of the human population that inhabited the adjoining area at that time.Many of the people in that region reported sighting “vimanas” or space craft in the area.
Thus the reason why the "non-contact" protocols were breached. The local humans needed to be interviewed, and they needed to be understood. So it learned the local language at that time.
In interviewing them (not specified how), the humans reported seeing spaceships and vehicles in the area. Which was telling. As the type-1 greys have a "non-contact" / "non-interference" policy and all their ships are hidden from view (cloaked).
This means that they were observing space vehicles of another nation / civilization / species.
Following the logical extension of evidence, testimony, observation, as well as the absence of certain evidence, I led my team to the discovery that there were still “Old Empire” ships and well-hidden “Old Empire” installations in this solar system of which we had been completely unaware.
It makes reference to an "old empire". This is entirely plausible, however, it does seem to be contrived to fit the mind-set of the military at the facility at that time.
For all of military at the base (at that time) had just spent the last few years fighting the Nazi Germans and the Japanese empires. It seems logical to me that the Type-1 grey would carefully construct a narrative that the human base commanders would relate to, accept and understand.
You and I were unable to communicate in your language because I, personally, have not been exposed to your language. However, now that I have scanned the books and material you provided me this data has been relayed to our space station in this region and processed by our communications officer through our computers. It has been translated into my own language and relayed back to me in a context that I can think with. I have also received additional information from the files stored in our computers about the English language and Domain records concerning Earth civilization.”
It obtained the books. Scanned the content. Relayed it to "the cloud" at the base. Massaged it, cross-indexed it with known available records, and now is able to converse in English at a more professional level.
“Now I am prepared to give you certain information that I feel will be of great value to you.
Up until this point in time, I believe that all the information was wholly accurate, and truthful to the understanding of the people in the Roswell facility.
It is at this juncture, that it decides to "give certain information" that might benefit humans.
I will tell you the truth. Although truth is relative to all other truth, I wish to share with you as honestly and accurately as possible, truth as I see it, within the boundaries of my integrity to myself, to my race and without violating my obligations to the organization I serve and have sworn to uphold and protect”.
The key phrase is "truth is relative to other truths". And that is the KEY to unlocking and understanding all which was stated.
It is [1] providing a mixture of information that [2] will be believable to the military leadership at the base, all intended to convey [3] various points that it wants to establish.
Knowing what I know, the points that it wanted to establish were...
[A] The Type-1 greys are a old, advanced species.
[B] The Type-1 greys own the Earth and everything surrounding it.
[C] The Type-1 greys are very strong militarily.
[D] Avenues for further communication will be made possible but on the terms established by the Type-1 greys.
Everything else is clouded in a mish-mash of mercurial and seemingly unrelated, but highly detailed (trigger) subjects designed to evoke a certain degree of emotional and mental reactions from the military staff at the facility.
“OK”, I thought. “Will you answer questions from the gallery now?”
“No. I will not answer questions. I will provide information to you that I think will be beneficial to the well-being of the immortal spiritual beings who comprise humanity, and that will foster the survival of all the myriad life forms and the environment of Earth, as it is a part of my mission to ensure the preservation of Earth.
As part of it's role and mission to ensure the preservation of the Earth, it will provide a narrative. This narrative will provide "information" which will eventually be beneficial to the souls of the humans that exist on the Earth.
“Personally, it is my conviction that all sentient beings are immortal spiritual beings. This includes human beings. For the sake of accuracy and simplicity I will use a made-up word: “IS-BE“. Because the primary nature of an immortal being is that they live in a timeless state of “is”, and the only reason for their existence is that they decide to “be”.
What it is talking about is "individual consciousness" which is a creation of soul.
This term "IS-BE" is confusing. For our purposes here, we will simply refer to it as "consciousness+".
It describes consciousness as it has decided to enter various life-lines through various world-lines. Of course, this understanding was well-beyond the military minded folk right after world war 2. So it made up it's own term.
No matter how lowly their station in a society, every IS-BE deserves the respect and treatment that I myself would like to receive from others. Each person on Earth continues to be an IS-BE whether they are aware of the fact or not.”
Continued, and with personal notes from the interpreter.
“Airl told me her reasons for coming to Earth and for being in the area of the 509th Bomber Squadron. She was sent by her superior officers to investigate the explosions of nuclear weapons which have been tested in New Mexico. Her superiors ordered her to gather information from the atmosphere that could be used to determine the extent of radiation and potential harm this might cause to the environment. During her mission, the space craft was struck by a lighting which caused her to lose control and crash.
This was covered earlier (above).
While investigating nuclear detonations in the New Mexico region, the vehicle experienced some kind of wave frequency / electro-magnetic interference. The type-1 extraterrestrial believed that it was due to natural weather irregularities. But, within two years, they will realize that it was due to radar interference with their electrical control systems.
The space craft is operated by IS-BEs who use “doll bodies” in much the same way that an actor wears a mask and costume. It is a like a mechanical tool through which to operate in the physical world. She, as well as all of the other IS-BEs of the officer class and their superiors, inhabit these “doll bodies” when they are on duty in space. When they are not on duty, they “leave” the body and operate, think, communicate, travel, and exist without the use of a body.
Not stated in the transcripts, but in the personal notes of the nurse is the understanding that these constructed bodies are just like suits of clothing that the type-1 grey extraterrestrial entities wear.
The bodies are constructed of synthetic materials, including a very sensitive electrical nervous system, to which each IS-BE adjusts themselves or “tune in” to an electronic wave length that is matched uniquely to the wavelength or frequency emitted by each IS-BE.
Each IS-BE is capable of creating a unique wave frequency which identifies them, much like a radio signal frequency. This serves, in part, as identification like a finger print. The doll body acts like a radio receiver for the IS-BE. No two frequencies or doll bodies are exactly the same.
The bodies of each IS-BE crew member are likewise tuned into and connected to the “nervous system” built into the space craft. The space craft is built in much the same way as the doll body. It is adjusted specifically to the frequency of each IS-BE crew member. Therefore, the craft can be operated by the “thoughts” or energy emitted by the IS-BE. It is really a very simple, direct control system. So, there are no complicated controls or navigation equipment on board the space craft. They operate as an extension of the IS-BE.
When the lightning bolt struck the space craft this caused a short circuit and consequently “disconnected” them from the control of the ship momentarily which resulted in the crash.
Again, the belief is that the default explanation for the crash was a natural phenomenon based upon assumption.
Were the type-1 greys to investigate the crash and wreckage, they would (and eventually will) identify the root cause failure. Which was a real surprise to them, I am sure. And resulted in changes to the control systems of the spacecraft.
Airl was, and still is, an officer, pilot and engineer in an expeditionary force which is part of a space opera civilization which refers to itself as “The Domain”.
I have no problem calling the type-1 greys part of a "space opera civilization".
Firstly [1] because they are one of the dominant species in our region. Secondly [2] that the military leadership at Roswell would easily understand this reference. And thirdly [3] all the subsequent information provided illustrates this point most clearly.
This civilization controls a vast number of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and asteroids throughout an area of space that is approximately one-fourth of the entire physical universe!
It could be. Or it could not. No one really actually knows.
My understanding from this differs substantially.
As I understand it, this species can travel the universe, and has control over regions of space in other galaxies. But as far as our galaxy is concerned, it's control is about 25% of it, and our solar system is somewhere off to the side of the central area of control. The are expanding inward towards the center from the outer rim.
This nurse, is making a common mistake associating "the universe" with "the galaxy".
The continuing mission of her organization is to “Secure, control and expand the territory and resources of The Domain”.
Airl pointed out that their own activities were very similar in many ways to the European explorers who “discovered” and “claimed” the New World for The Holy Father, The Pope and for the kings of Spain, Portugal and later, Holland, England, France and so forth.
Europe benefited from the property “acquired” from the native inhabitants. However, the native inhabitants were never consulted with or asked for their permission to become a part of the “domain” of European nations and the soldiers and priests they sent to acquire territory and wealth in order to advance their interests.
Airl said she read in a history book that the Spanish king regretted the brutal treatment of the native inhabitants by his soldiers. He feared retribution from the gods he worshiped, as described in the various testaments of the Bible. He asked the Pope to prepare a statement called “The Requirement” which was supposed to be read to each of the newly encountered native inhabitants.
The king hoped that the statement, whether it was accepted or rejected by the natives, would absolve the King of all responsibility for the resulting slaughter and enslavement of these people. He used this statement as justification to confiscate their lands and possessions by his soldiers and the Pope’s priests. Apparently, the Pope, personally, did not have any feelings of guilt or responsibility in the matter.
Airl thought that such actions were those of a coward and that it is no surprise that the territory of Spain was diminished so quickly. Only a few years later the king was dead and his empire had been assimilated by other nations.
While this entire narrative and story was not included in the interview transcripts, I do not doubt that it occurred in silent unspoken communication between the two.
Souls are constructed and grow from the experiences that consciousness generates.
If your consciousness (in whatever form you take) creates destructive, unwarranted and unfair actions, tumult, pain, sadness, and emotional and physical strife...
...this creation will reside upon all your works, and your soul construct no matter how pleasant and beautiful you (and your works) look on the outside.
Eventually, it will try to find a point of lowest energy potential and all will manifest and come down hard on your "great works". It is no surprise that the type-1 grey talked in these terms.
Airl said that this sort of behavior does not occur in The Domain. Their leaders assume full responsibility for the actions of The Domain, and would not denigrate themselves in this fashion. Nor do they fear any gods or have any regret for their actions.
This idea reinforces my earlier suggestion that Airl and her people are probably atheists.
Missing the point.
Say that you kidnapped someone when you were in your 20's. You raped them, then you killed them, you hid the body, and no one knew anything at all about it.
For sixty years you raised a family, went to church, and worked at your job and got your gold watch at retirement.
On your death bed, you made a last confession. You told the priest about the murder, and he "absolved you of all your sins", and you died and expected to go into Heaven.
What's next?
A mantid (angel) comes and you go in front of a committee and they review your life. They see the good works, the bad works, and the terrible works.
Are your sins absolved?
No. They are not.
Buy doing those terrible things, you have "hoisted a huge grand piano, with a strong hemp rope, a full 80 stories above your head".
(This is a figurative illustration that suggests that you have created a very dangerous situation and now lie under the threat of this situation that you created.)
Until you resolve your deeds, you will have that danger with you always, and it attracts people who have sharp knives and who love to cut ropes.
(Again, figuratively, you will attract to you events, and things that will trigger a release of that danger that you created.)
You will need to resolve that, and the best way is a role reversal in your next life. The second best, is to take on a positive and helpful role doing good deeds and making great things happen. A third way is to accept it, and allow the piano to fall on you as that is the consequence for your actions.
Now all of this would have been totally alien to the military leadership at Roswell at that time.
In the case of the acquisition of Earth by The Domain, the rulers of The Domain have chosen not to openly reveal this intention to the “native inhabitants” of Earth until a later time when it may, or may not, suit their interests to reveal themselves. For the present time, it is not strategically necessary to make the presence of The Domain Expeditionary Force known to Mankind. In fact, until now, it has been very aggressively hidden, for reasons that will be revealed later.
Simple. The Earth is owned by the type-1 greys. There is no need to tell any of the Earth inhabitants of this truth. Maybe sometime in the future, the Type-1 greys will work and communicate with humans in various nations of the world, but not in 1948.
I can tell you that this occurred with the United States in the 1970's and MAJestic was formed as a result of this level of communication.
I can also tell you that both China, and Russia have also been in contact with the Type-1 greys. But I cannot elaborate on the extent of that communication.
The asteroid belt near Earth is a very small, but important location for The Domain in this part of space. Actually, some of the objects in our solar system are very valuable for use as low-gravity “space stations”. They are interested primarily in the low gravity satellites in this solar system which consists mainly of the side of the moon facing away from Earth and the asteroid belt, which was a planet that was destroyed billions of years ago, and to a lesser degree, Mars and Venus.
Nothing new here. The Type-1 greys are interested in the asteroid belt, and the moon (on the "far side").
Doom Domed structures synthesized from gypsum or underground bases covered by electromagnetic force screens are easily constructed to house the Domain forces.
Bases and facilities are easily created in this solar system. They consist of domed structures, or underground facilities hidden by electromagnetic force screens.
Once an area of space is acquired by The Domain and becomes a part of the territory under its control, it is treated as the “property” of The Domain. The space station near the planet Earth is important only because it lay along a path of The Domain expansion route toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy and beyond.
Nothing new. And this information can be well understood by the Roswell military at that time.
End of part 1
So far there is NOTHING in this transcript that I can find fault with.
There’s some minor errors in translation, and misconceptions, but most of what is going on is what you would expect. In this first part, there wasn’t any intentional misdirection, falsehoods, or deceptions that I can identify.
Of course, this information would have been an absolute SHOCK to the world at that time. And no one was ready for the idea that [1] there were other species in universe, or that [2] they owned us lock, stock and barrel.
In this article, I tried to put things into perspective with what I know, and added some insight. I also purposefully omitted much of the opinions, thoughts and clutter that the book has. I just wanted to “get to the meat” of it.
The next section(s) describe some very difficult things to absorb. Mostly because you (and most MM readers) do not have the mind-set of a 1947 military officer. And THAT was the target audience for the narrative presented.
We will continue with a parsing of this document / book in part 2.
Key Points
The Roswell military event that acquired a UFO is not a fiction.
A Type-1 grey extraterrestrial craft crashed and was recovered by military personnel.
One creature was captured and interrogated.
The person who was able to ask him questions and record the answers was an Army nurse.
She kept all records of the event, including the actual transcripts, and disclosed them on her death-bed.
The creature was a construct and the species wore the animated creature like we would wear clothing.
The creature claims to be very ancient, and that they own the Earth, and their role is to protect it and make sure that it is maintained
There is another extraterrestrial group. This group is referred to as the “old empire” and it has been administrating this region of space for a long time.
Do you want more?
You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…
Well, in 2020 Trump decided to go to a “hot” war with China. he sent 7 – 8 assault battle carrier groups to the South China Sea, and an undisclosed number of submarines. I’ve discussed this issue before HERE. And we now know that no “disclosed” fighting actually occurred. The flotilla steamed back to the United States “empty handed”, and the Admiral and his staff were fired immediately when they arrived back in Washington DC.
No word or information is provided as to why the Admiral(s) refused to engaged the Chinese, or attempt the take-over of some “minor” outlying islands. We all, in the Western readership” are all oblivious to it. But the fact is that something actually “spooked” the Naval brass (leadership) in charge of the operation. What was it?
We will never know.
But what we do know is that China is decades ahead of the West in certain technologies such as directed energy weapons and electronic suppression systems. Indeed it would be a sorry day for an entire submarine with 100 – 200 crew and all sorts of multi-million dollar munitions to sink softly to the bottom of the South China Sea when nothing works. It would be a scene out of the Foundation Trilogy.
During the story, there was this group of technologists that controlled the manufacturing and science related to all technology. It had become a religion to them. They were dedicated to technology like religious fanatics.
Meanwhile the various empires and governments were using this technology to conduct wars and achieve their very own petty objectives.
So the leader of the technologists decides to shut everything down, and as a result the Empire space fleet of enormous weapons systems and space-dreadnoughts all shut down and came to a complete stop.
That being said, let’s be real.
Ever since the middle 1990’s the United States has invested billions of dollars in the creation of very expensive and very unique submarine warfare systems. These are not to attack Yemen, or Zaire with. They are to attack China, and maybe… Russia with. For the vast bulk of territory that is valuable to China are the shipping lanes in the South China Sea.
So for nearly three decades the United States has invested billions of dollars in these systems, but no one knows about them.
Here we are going to discuss them, and indeed they are IMPRESSIVE. But keep in mind, no matter how impressive they are, and their capabilities are, they can be rendered absolutely and completely inert…
…and sink to the bottom of the South China Sea with one blast of a direct energy weapon. Weapons that completely and absolutely ring the entire Pacific basin near China.
You can have the best trained SEALs, and the most impressive weaponry, and the most excellent leadership, but it means nothing when you are trapped inside a steel tomb three miles beneath the ocean and your nuclear reactor is going into meltdown. Word to the wise.
So while I have no proof that this is what was going on, there is every reason to believe that it is this kind of thing that “spooked” the admirals to call off the invasion and “instigation” force and return home.
Never the less, the American capability is substantive, and for a military-technology geek, this stuff is superbly interesting.
Here’s a great article, and it is amazing. I want to give full and absolute credit to the source and the article author. Please take note. And also remember, like all reprints, they were edited to fit this venue and all credit to the author.
Today, the U.S. Navy’s quartet of converted Ohio class nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines, or SSGNs, are among America’s most powerful, in-demand, and flexible weapons. These giant and secretive submarines are known for their ability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and dozens of special operations frogmen into contested territory to ply their quiet trade, but really, they are much, much more than that.
A decade and a half ago, the U.S. Navy was testing incredible new capabilities that it would subsequently integrate into its four yet to be converted SSGNs, including one highly elaborate, but obscure proof of concept exercise that solidified the SSGN concept for the seagoing service. Here is the story of how these vessels came to be and the highly unique, if not exotic capabilities, from drone mothership to command and control center, they possess.
The Genesis of the Ohio SSGN
The decision to covert Ohio class SSBNs into SSGNs originated with the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review, which determined that only 14 of the 18 Ohio class boats were necessary to meet the United States’ nuclear deterrence needs. Eight years later, the Navy began actually converting the four oldest Ohio class submarines – USS Florida, USS Georgia, USS Michigan, and USS Ohio – into the new configuration.
The Navy had considered a number of potential configuration options for the new SSGNs. The concept that the service finally settled on retained 22 of the 24 missile tubes found on Ohio SSBNs, but modified them so that they were unable to fire Trident D5 nuclear-tipped submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Instead, each one would be able to launch up to seven BGM-109 Tomahawks using a Multiple All-Up-Round Canister (MAC) adapter. The SLBM fire control systems were similarly replaced with ones for the Tomahawk.
Tubes one and two on each of the four SSGNs would be completely replaced with lockout chambers so combat divers and Navy SEALs could enter and exit the submarine underwater. Personnel could also install a Dry Deck Shelter (DDS) to the top of the hull linked to either one of these modified tubes, or both if required, which could accommodate swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) mini-submarines. As the name suggests, the DDS provides a fully enclosed, dry space to work in on the submarine’s deck, even while it is underwater.
The abortive Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) was supposed to have been able to directly dock with either one of these lockout chambers, as well. The Navy canceled the ASDS program in 2009 after cost overruns and other major setbacks, including a fire that had destroyed the original prototype the year before.
With a DDS installed, a number of additional tubes on the SSGNs would also be blocked off, so the Navy decided to make tubes three through 10 reconfigurable into storage space, if necessary. A dedicated berthing area for a typical contingent of 66 special operators, with a surge capacity of up 102 personnel, was added in the reconfigured missile compartment, as well.
More recent reporting has indicated that a typical load for these submarines is around 100 Tomahawks. This most likely represents between 14 and 16 fully loaded tubes, which would equate to between 98 and 112 missiles in total. This would leave between six and eight tubes available for storage or other purposes, something we will come back to later on in the story.
Beyond that, the SSGN configuration had an all-new a dedicated special operations mission control center and associated mission planning spaces. It also included additional and improved sensor and communications antenna masts on the sail. Other modifications that would allow these submarines to better operate in shallower waters closer to shore, were also likely involved with the conversion.
A rich history of special mission submarines
The Navy had substantial past experience with employing submarines as special operations motherships and in the tactical strike role, to say nothing of using them as specialized covert intelligence gathering platforms, when it had crafted the requirements for the Ohio SSGNs. The ability of a submarine, in general, to transport personnel and materiel, as well as launch raiding parties ashore, while using its inherent capabilities to help avoid detection, was well established by the end of World War II.
Between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the Navy, in cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Air Force, had even used submarines to secretly launch radar-reflecting balloons to probe hostile air defense capabilities. You can read more about these operations in this past War Zone story.
By the Vietnam War, the Navy was using specially configured submarines to support special operations. These included Gato class USS Tunny and the first-in-class USS Grayback, both of which were diesel-electric submarines that had previously been configured to fire the Regulus nuclear-armed cruise missile.
The “hangars” on the decks of these submarines for the airplane-sized Regulus were well suited to modification into lockout chambers for swimmers and shelters for mini-submarines, just like the Ohio’s Trident tubes. In 1968, the Navy went so far as to designate them LPSSs, or amphibious transport submarines.
These boats supported special operations along the coast of North Vietnam and also helped gather intelligence. Grayback was notably involved in Operation Thunderhead in 1972, an attempt to rescue American aviators that the U.S. military believed had escaped from North Vietnam’s infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. Bad weather and other factors eventually led the Navy to abort the mission and SEALs and Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) members never made contact with any escapees.
One SEAL, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Melvin Spence Dry, died during the mission. The U.S. military only acknowledged the operation in 2008, at which time Dry received a posthumous Bronze Star.
In the decades after Vietnam, a number of Sturgeon class nuclear-powered attack submarines also served in similar special operations support roles. In something of prelude to the Ohio SSGNs, as part of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT I agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1981, the Navy disabled the SLBM capabilities on a number of SSBNs, reclassifying them officially as attack submarines.
USS Sam Houston, USS John Marshall, USS Kamehameha, and USS James K. Polk – the first two belonging to the Ethan Allen class and the latter pair being from the Benjamin Franklin class – received further modifications that added DDSs to the top of the hull and dedicated spaces to carry embarked SEAL teams. These submarines continued sailing into the 1990s and Kamehameha was the last to leave service, with the Navy only decommissioning her in 2002.
A new kind of submarine mothership
Still, while the Navy had decades of experience with using submarines to support tactical operations, including special operations, at sea and onshore, the Ohio SSGNs aimed to be far more robust and flexible multi-mission platforms than any of these previous conversions.
As of 2004, the service was still very much fleshing out the specifics of the SSGN conversion and “writing the manual” on how to then employ these submarines. Georgia had become the main testbed for what was still very much an evolving concept, receiving a number of interim modifications including reconfigured internal mission spaces and additional data links and communications equipment. At that time, none of the four chosen Ohios had gone through the full conversion process and they were still years away from actually entering service in their new configuration.
“Two years from now, when we open the wrapping paper to see USS Georgia, a brand-spanking-new SSGN, we are going to need an instruction manual,” U.S. Navy Commodore Robert Shuetz, then-commander of Submarine Squadron 17, said at a change-of-command ceremony for the submarine in December 2004. “A manual that hasn’t been written yet; a manual that will describe in excruciating detail how this new ‘toy’ will be operated.”
“This is where the crew of Georgia has excelled,” Shuetz continued. “They have written the first instruction manual for how this ship and her three sisters, the ‘toys’ in demand by every combat commander, will be operated.”
Silent Hammer
Two months earlier, off the coast of San Diego, California, Georgia, even without anything near the full suite of capabilities outlined in the conversion plan, had demonstrated just what the SSGN configuration might be capable of as part of an experiment nicknamed Silent Hammer. To enhance the realism of the scenario, the Navy inserted this test into a larger exercise, called Trident Warrior, that involved an array of other submarines, ships, aircraft, drones, and special operations forces (SOF).
The Silent Hammer scenario, which lasted a little over a week, involved a joint task force with Georgia in the lead locating and neutralizing mock terrorists on land and at sea. The “red team” occupied various sites on San Clemente Island, situated some 80 miles west of San Diego, which the U.S. military routinely uses for exercise and other test purposes. The contractor-operated offshore support vessel, the R/V Acoustic Explorer, also served as a simulated maritime threat.
The overall objective of the exercise for the “blue team” was to find and fix these faux militants using a variety of intelligence sources and then neutralize them with simulated Tomahawk strikes.
During the experiment, at least publicly, the focus was far more on the submarine’s ability to act as an intelligence-collection platform, as well as a broader “clandestine sea-base” that would provide a “headquarters node from which command and control operations and logistic support were conducted,” including for special operators ashore.
“Our converted Tridents will generate their own intelligence, which allows onboard commanders to make decisions about what’s needed and determine what additional organic sensors should be deployed in virtually any scenario,” by-then-retired U.S. Navy Admiral Frank “Skip” Bowman wrote, referring to the Ohios collectively by the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles that the SSBN versions carry, said in the Winter 2005 edition of Undersea Warfare magazine, the official publication of the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Force. Bowman’s last position in the service had been as Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion.
“Silent Hammer demonstrated how a networked force, including sea-based SOF from an SSGN, can fill joint gaps – Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and Time Sensitive Strike – by conducting large-scale clandestine operations, supported by advanced unmanned systems, to reduce risk and increase capability,” U.S. Navy Captain J.S. Davidson, who headed up the Silent Hammer experiment, had explained in another interview for another story in that same issue of Undersea Warfare.
An intelligence nerve center
It’s hard to overstate how significant the intelligence fusion capabilities demonstrated during Silent Hammer were. For the experiment, Georgia had an embarked joint service command team onboard, who used modified spaces in the submarine to run a forward operations center that controlled other assets under the waves, riding on the surface, in the air, and on land. This was intended to reflect the capabilities that the submarine would have after going through the SSGN conversion, which would create new, more robust mission spaces for command and control elements and intelligence gathering personnel, among others.
This was the first time the Navy had ever done this as part of the development of the SSGN concept of operations and it put the operational commanders right in the thick of things in a whole new way. Unlike traditional surface command ships, such as the USS Blue Ridge, the Georgia was allowing these officers and their staff to direct forward operations while sailing concealed below the surface of the ocean. The submarine’s command center was linked to rear command centers, and their intelligence networks, via satellite. It also had direct data-link feeds from a number of other sources.
In the air, these included the Pelican, a highly modified, pilot-optional Cessna 337 propeller-driven aircraft, and a specially configured Sabreliner twin-engine business jet. The Pelican belonged to the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) and was configured at the time in a way that matched the capabilities of the MQ-1 Predator drone. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory operated the Sabreliner as a surrogate for smaller, lower-altitude unmanned aircraft.
The Lincoln Lab also had their heavily modified Boeing 707 airliner, nicknamed Hannah, a well-known cutting-edge communications and sensor testbed, in the air playing the role of a airborne radar with synthetic aperture and ground-moving-target indicator capabilities. This effectively made it, in part, a surrogate for a U.S. Air Force E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) battlefield management command and control aircraft.
Navy EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes and EP-3E Aries II intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft also took part in Trident Warrior and fed information into this network of information sources.
Down below, Georgia was networked together with other vessels taking part in Trident Warrior, including two Los Angeles class fast attack submarines, the USS La Jolla and USS Pittsburgh. In addition, members of the Silent Hammer experiment team were on board the first in class amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa and the Wasp class USS Bonhomme Richard, which were also taking part in the larger exercise.
Ashore, U.S. Navy SEALs, along with other unspecified attached special operators, likely including U.S. Air Force Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC), were in direct contact with Georgia. They emplaced their own “unattended” sensors to monitor for potential hostile activity and otherwise fed even more data back to the submarine.
We also know that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) supplied unspecified payloads, as well as sensor systems for the exercise. Georgia itself demonstrated how she might launch unmanned aircraft and an unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) during the exercise to support intelligence collection efforts. We will talk more about these shadowy developments later on.
Data fusion pioneers
The amount of intelligence information collected during the exercise was staggering. The supporting aircraft, ground sensors, and other offboard sensors collected more than 21,000 individual images during the exercise. In total, the task force created nearly 11 gigabytes of data, including thousands of textual alerts and nearly 3,000 actual intelligence “products,” such as PowerPoint presentations distilling various pieces of information, according to an article in a 2007 edition of the Lincoln Laboratory Journal.
Unfortunately, this wealth of information also risked being overwhelming. So, the Navy and the Lincoln Lab had also developed a computerized and heavily automated network system, state-of-the-art for the time, that allowed the command center onboard Georgia to rapidly parse through the mountains of available information for the most relevant data and only download what they needed in full. Being able to avoid downloading unnecessary information was particularly important given the bandwidth limitations in the data links available between the submarine and its various offboard information sources, especially 15 years ago.
Silent Hammer planners, as well as the Lincoln Lab, had been acutely aware of data sharing issues based on lessons learned from a smaller SSGN developmental experiment in 2003, nicknamed Giant Shadow, which involved the USS Florida and took place in and around the secretive Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, or AUTEC, off the coast of Andros Island in the Bahamas. Similar to the Silent Hammer scenario, Giant Shadow centered on an operation to destroy a chemical weapons plant that mock terrorists were operating on shore.
“We can get this [imagery] real-time down to the submarine,” U.S. Navy Captain William Toti, then commander of the Florida, said in an interview at the time with “60 Minutes” on CBS News. “The SEALs can look at it real-time as they’re planning their missions, and have a better sense of what’s going on.”
The problem in that exercise, as it turned out, had been that there quickly became too much information for personnel on the submarine to sift through and process in real-time. “The providers, not the consumers, decided what information to transmit and when, which created a situation whereby analysts were overloaded with processing extraneous information, yet still had insufficient information for decision support,” according to the 2017 Lincoln Laboratory Journal article.
The flow of information during Silent Hammer was better, but still showed room for improvement. The vast quantities of data meant that it was still easy for intelligence officers to miss important new developments as they did their best to prioritize the efforts. Of the more than 21,000 images that various platforms collected during the exercise, less than 7,000 made their way into the networked database and “blue team” personnel only ever looked at 361 of them at any resolution, downloading just 45 of them in full for more extensive analysis. Still, the task force that Georgia led was ultimately able to find all of the simulated threats and successfully carry out the mock strikes to neutralize them.
Secretive payloads
For how much is known about Georgia’s participation in Silent Hammer, as well as the overall scope and scale of the intelligence gathering and networking systems employed during the exercise, there is little information about the testing of the submarine’s capabilities to launch underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs) and unmanned aircraft.
It’s not clear what type or types of UUVs participated in Silent Hammer, or if Georgia deployed any of them herself. However, during the earlier Giant Shadow exercise, Florida had become the first Navy submarine to launch and recover the Seahorse Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) via a modified missile tube. It is very possible that this undersea drone took part in Silent Hammer, as well.
The Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at the Pennsylvania State University had begun development of Seahorse in 1999 under contract to the Naval Oceanographic Office, or NAVOCEANO. At 28 and a half feet long and weighing 10,800 pounds, this underwater drone was more than 10 feet longer than a Mk 48 heavyweight torpedo and just over 7,100 pounds heavier.
Its main job was undersea mapping using a variety of sensors, including multi-beam bathymetric and synthetic aperture sonars, an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and a Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sensor. Those same sensors could be used to scout out mines and other potential underwater hazards and, in the decades since the Navy took delivery of Seahorse, the service has acquired and fielded a large number of increasingly more capable torpedo-shaped UUVs of various sizes for mapping and mine clearance missions, among others.
The Flexible Payload Module
Georgia didn’t actually launch any unmanned aircraft during Silent Hammer, according to the Navy, but did release two Stealthy Affordable Capsule System (SACS) canisters, each containing an “inert test shape simulating a UAV,” from a Flexible Payload Module (FPM) installed in one of the submarine’s missile tubes.
Since the 1990s, the Navy had been very interested in the idea of pairing unmanned aircraft with submarines to expand the ability of the boats to scout ahead and collect intelligence. Drones working with subs could also act as communications and data relays, probe and collect information on enemy defenses, and potentially even strike targets themselves. For example, in March 1996, the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Chicago took part in a demonstration in which it tested its ability to both communicate with and actively control an early example of what was then known as the RQ-1 Predator.
Development of the FPM dates back to at least 2000, when the Navy tasked two separate industry consortiums with crafting concepts for future submarines designs, as well as payloads and sensors for them, with an eye toward technologies that could be operational in the years to come. The Navy and DARPA managed this project, aptly named Submarine Payloads and Sensors, cooperatively.
Northrop Grumman, a member of Team 2020, one of the consortiums, which Lockheed Martin headed up, developed the FPM. General Dynamics Electric Boat, the United States’ premier submarine builder, which had built the Ohios, among others, and was involved in the development of the Virginia class attack submarine at the time, was also part of Team 2020.
The FPM was effectively an insert that would slot into a large diameter ballistic missile tube on a submarine, but could be adapted to hold multiple payloads, including numerous unmanned aircraft, that the crew could then launch independently. General Dynamics Electric Boat described it as a “plug and fight” system.
Northrop Grumman designed the first iteration, which had 10 14-inch tubes and a pair of larger 20-inch ones, specifically around the dimensions of the Ohio’s missile tubes. The second FPM prototype, which Georgia carried during Silent Hammer, had only three tubes of an unknown diameter. Each one of those could accommodate a payload inside a SACS, another Northrop Grumman development.
“The FPM and SACS comprise an encapsulation system that facilitates the launch of non-marinized payloads and weapons from a submarine,” according to the article on Silent Hammer from the Winter 2005 issue of Undersea Warfare. “This allows the use of Navy air- or surface-launched payloads – plus those from other services – without the need to redesign them for launching in an undersea environment.”
SACS was “adaptable for long-term storage, variable release depths, launching under broaching or surface-loitering conditions, and the ability to encapsulate small or large payloads,” according that same article.
“In the case of the SUAV [submarine-launched unmanned air vehicle], SACS rises buoyantly to the surface, a sensor in the capsule detects broach, the SACS end-cap is blown away, and the SUAV booster ignites to clear the water and build vertical speed,” notes from a presentation that Steve Weinstein and William McGannon gave at the National Defense Industry Association’s (NDIA) 2002 Joint Undersea Warfare Technology Spring Conference explains. “At the proper moment, the SUAV wings are extended from alongside its long slender body to the horizontal position, the flight control software tilts the SUAV over to the horizontal flight position and once in stable flight, the SUAV turns and climbs to the pre-planned altitude to begin its mission.”
At the time, Weinstein and McGannon were employed with the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Submarine Sensor Systems division.
The other industry collective that had taken part in the Submarine Payloads and Sensors program, called Forward Payloads And Sensors for Submarines (Forward PASS), had developed a similar system, known as the Broaching Universal Buoyant Launcher (BUBL), that worked in much the same manner. However, BUBL’s design was meant to work with a variety of existing launcher options on submarines, including torpedo tubes and countermeasures launchers, or even be carried externally. Of course, the external carriage option could have created performance problems or increased the sub’s acoustic signature, making it more vulnerable.
Raytheon was the team leader for Forward PASS, which also included Boeing and Pennsylvania State’s Applied Research Laboratory, among others. General Dynamics Electric Boat was part of both teams in order to provide its extensive knowledge base to help with submarine development and integration questions. There is no mention of Georgia employing BUBL during Silent Hammer.
Submarine-launched drones
While we don’t know what drones Georgia was supposed to have been simulating the launch of from the FPM specifically, Northrop Grumman had also already developed at least one submarine-launched drone known as Sea Ferret in the 1990s. This was an evolution of Ferret, which the company had originally developed for the U.S. Army.
The Sundstrand TJ50 turbojet-powered Ferrets and Sea Ferrets are what we would call loitering munitions today. The approximately 145-pound drones carried both electro-optical sensor packages and 20-pound warheads and could fly out to a maximum range of around 370 nautical miles and a top speed of 300 knots and still be able to orbit around a target area for around two hours.
In December 1996, the USS Asheville, another Los Angeles class attack submarine, simulated launching the Sea Ferret during a technology demonstration. A Cessna 206 light aircraft carried one of the drones under its wing to then simulate the unmanned aircraft in flight. Northrop Grumman had intended the final system, which the Navy did not ultimately adopt, to be torpedo tube-launched using a modified canister for a UGM-84 submarine-launched Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile.
Still, the 1996 test “successfully simulated organic and inorganic UAV operations & SOF support,” according to Weinstein and McGannon 2002 NDIA presentation. It is certainly possible that Northrop Grumman could have developed a follow-on of some sort to Sea Ferret at the time of Silent Hammer.
We also know that the Navy had been holding workshops and other defense industry engagement events to gauge options for submarine-launched unmanned aircraft starting in 2000, around the same time as the Submarine Payloads and Sensors initiative. A slide from a General Dynamics Electric Boat briefing at the 2006 NDIA Systems Engineer Conference, which also touches on the Flexible Payload Module (FPM) development, shows concept art for at least five different potential submarine-launched drone designs.
By 2002, a team that included General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, AeroVironment, and Kollmorgen, had also demonstrated a modified Universal Modular Mast that could shoot small unmanned aircraft into the sky from periscope depth. An artist’s conception of the system shows a drone design virtually identical to the Blackwing, which AeroVironment officially began developing four years later for the Navy as a submarine-launched system.
In his guidance for 2005, then Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark had also called for a follow-on Silent Hammer II exercise that “should employ aerial sensors (UAVs) in addition to ground sensors and exercise full range connectivity links.” It’s not clear if Clark had wanted to demonstrate a true submarine-launched drone capability or if that exercise ever ultimately occurred.
Lockheed Martin’s mysterious Cormorant
Of all the submarine-launched unmanned aircraft in development around the time of Silent Hammer, by far, the most interesting was Lockheed Martin’s shadowy Cormorant, a product of the company’s Skunk Works advanced design division. DARPA managed this program, also known as the Multi-Purpose Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MPUAV), which sought to develop a relatively large, stealthy, jet-powered drone that a submarine could both launch and recover.
Patent documents show that Cormorant was in development at least as early as 2004. A subsequent official Lockheed Martin video presentation on the Cormorant makes clear that, while DAPRA was officially in charge of the project, it was informed, at least in part, by Navy requirements relating to the Ohio SSGNs.
“The Navy came to us for our concepts for a wide range of unmanned aircraft that could operate from aircraft carriers or surface ships or even submarines,” Bob Ruszkowski, then-Lockheed Martin’s MPUAV Team Project Manager and Technical Lead, said in the video. “This idea was unique in that it was the first time someone had thought about the idea of launching and recovering the vehicle while the submarine was still submerged.”
The Cormorant, in concept, would be launched from a modified missile tube on an Ohio class SSGN at a depth of up to 150 feet and then float the surface “like a cork,” according to Ruszkowski. Rocket boosters would then propel the four-ton, titanium-skinned craft into the air, a traditional turbofan jet engine would take over. During launch, as well as recovery, the intakes and exhausts for the engine would be sealed off from the water.
“The aircraft uses its stealth and mission planning to penetrate hostile airspace,” Ruszkowski continued. “Once it’s in there, it can do a variety of missions, that could be collecting intelligence and reconnaissance on weapons of mass destruction sites, it could be supporting special operations forces. But whatever it’s doing, it’s using its stealth and its mission planning to avoid detection.”
One patent that Lockheed Martin filed in 2004 regarding Cormorant included artwork depicting the drone releasing weapons, suggesting that Lockheed Martin, DARPA, and the Navy may have been considering a strike role from the drone, as well. A Lockheed Martin briefing from 2005 describes the unmanned aircraft as being capable of carrying a 1,000-pound payload in a modular bay, which could include sensors, communications relay systems, and even supplies that it could drop to personnel at a designated drop zone.
After completing its mission, it would return to a rendezvous point and deploy a parachute, landing safely in the water. The submarine would then send out its own tethered remotely operated vehicle to attach a cable to the drone and reel it back in.
It’s unclear how far the program progressed, but we do know that Lockheed Martin conducted a number of disclosed tests, including releasing a test article from a simulated launch tube underwater, dropping that test article into the water, and evaluating the recovery concept that Ruszkowski had described in the video.
Theoretically, Cormorant could have worked using a launcher mounted on a surface ship, as well. The 2004 patent shows an artist’s conception of a surface ship releasing a Cormorant off the side.
Publicly, DARPA canceled development of Cormorant, ostensibly due to budget cuts, in 2008. It’s not clear whether development of the system continued on afterward, possibly in the classified realm, under a different program. Discussions about the unmanned aircraft, or its underlying concepts, virtually evaporated, even from Skunk Works, which had been promoting the project heavily up until then.
In 2009, Lockheed Martin didfile another patent relating to an unmanned aircraft that could be launched and recovered in the water. This application described a system that used an electric ducted fan both for self-propelled operation in the water, as well as in the air. The concept art curious shows an aircraft shaped like an early Cold War Soviet MiG-15, which was reportedly because Lockheed Martin had utilized a modified radio-controlled model of one of these aircraft to test the electric fan propulsion system.
The Ohio class SSGNs enter service
For as open as the Navy was in the early 2000s about the book it was writing on how to employ the Ohio SSGNs, and what capabilities they might have as a result of their refits and in the future, since they actually entered service toward the end of that decade there has been relatively little information about how they have been putting that doctrine into action. Ohio was the first to rejoin the fleet, with General Dynamics Electric Boat delivering the converted submarine on Dec. 17, 2005. A ceremony to mark its return to service occurred nearly two months later.
Florida and Michigan followed on Apr. 8 and Nov. 22, 2006, respectively. For unclear reasons, Michigan did not have her official return to service ceremony until June 2007. Georgia was the last to arrive on Dec. 18, 2007.
The bulk of the official news reporting about these four boats has been primarily concerned with deployments, returns to home port, port visits, and general announcements about their participation in exercises. “The missions that we do are very exciting and challenging,” U.S. Navy Captain Murray Gero, then the commanding officer of the Ohio’s Blue crew, said in one typical pre-deployment story in 2009.
“We typically go to sea with over 100 tomahawk missiles, and that basically replaces a tomahawk missile inventory of three surface warships,” he continued, focusing on the time-sensitive strike mission. “This increases the flexibility of the surface fleet, because we basically allow them to reassign those three ships as soon as we get into our operating theater.”
The Captain did add that the boat was capable of other missions, including intelligence gathering and special operations support, and that “they are very complex, and they involve very close coordination with several outside agencies, including SEALS.” He didn’t offer any more specific details, though.
Conventional deterrence and actual combat
We do know that the boats have flexed their strike muscles both for deterrent purposes and during actual operations. In 2010, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio nearly simultaneously made port visits at Diego Garcia in the India Ocean, in Busan in South Korea, and in Subic Bay in the Philippines, respectively, in what some observers took to be a show of force aimed at China.
“This demonstrated that these platforms offer signaling capabilities that other conventional missile systems lack,” Forrest E. Morgan, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation think tank wrote about these events in a study in 2013. “Yet, one might doubt whether U.S. leaders would even allow SSGNs to surface while on patrol in an engagement zone during a crisis when doing so might put them at risk of attack.”
In 2011, Florida also notably took part in the open stages of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the NATO-led intervention into Libya that led to the ouster and death of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. The submarine fired 93 Tomahawks over the course of the operation, 90 of which hit their targets.
“By virtue of their concealment and endurance, the SSGN platform forces our adversaries to consider that they could be operating almost anywhere at any time,” then-Vice Admiral John Richardson, Commander of Naval Submarine Forces at the time, said upon Florida’s return to its homeport at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia on Apr. 29, 2011. “The sensor suite on the boat allows the captain to gather information and intelligence in situ, passing that back to the commander and responding on the spot. When you combine all that with the tremendous combat capability the boat brings – land attack missiles, special forces, torpedoes – that’s a lot of bets the enemy has to cover down on.”
Richardson subsequently became Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion and then Chief of Naval Operations, the service’s top uniformed officer. He retired in August 2019.
In 2017, Michigan had appeared again in Busan at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea, which was also seen as a signal to the regime in Pyongyang. U.S. President Trump had also revealed and highlighted the submarine’s presence in the region as a counter to North Korean aggression in a telephone conversion with his counterpart in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, which subsequently leaked out into the press. Michigan did go on to conduct exercises with the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and her associated Carrier Strike Group, which had also deployed the region.
Earlier in November 2019, ABC News‘ “Nightline” aired a segment in which David Muir got to spend a day aboard Florida, which is presently operating in the Mediterranean Sea on what was described as a “classified mission.” Muirs interviews with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Houston and Captain Seth Burton offered some additional insights into the SSGN operations. Houston is presently tripled-hatted as Director of Plans and Operations for U.S. Naval Forces Europe/U.S. Sixth Fleet, the Deputy Commander of Sixth Fleet, and the Commander of Submarine Group Eight. Burton is the current commander of the Florida.
“We’ve put this submarine right in this area of the eastern portion of the Mediterranean to counterbalance the Russian buildup in Syria,” Houston told Muir. “We’re watching them [the Russians] very very closely. There’s really not a day where we’re not watching them, every single day.”
“If you just look at the region and you’ve got ISIS in Northern Africa, you’ve got what’s going on on the Turkey Syria border right now, the fact that you’re here in the Mediterranean, does that give you a set of silent eyes for the U.S.?” Muir asked Burton. “Absolutely. It gives them eyes where no one knows that they’re being looked at,” he replied.
#USNavy silent service in action! Rare look at the Ohio-class fleet guided-missile submarine #USSFlorida operating in @USNavyEurope AOR. Florida, is capable of conducting clandestine strike operations, carrier and expeditionary strike group operations, and more. #NavyLethalitypic.twitter.com/uiRgUpQSsw
We also know that the Ohio SSGNs regularly conduct intelligence gathering missions during their patrols and work together with SEAL teams and other special operations forces on a routine basis around the world. As Captain Murray Gero noted back in 2009, these boats offer their crews unique experiences and they are among the hottest boats to get on in the fleet.
New capabilities?
If operational information about the Ohio class SSGNs is limited, then details about upgrades and new technologies for these boats have been even scarcer. This stands in stark contrast to how open the Navy had been about the capabilities of these converted submarines early on and how willing it had been to discuss what it might have in store for them in the future, including the drones and UUVs, both of which have seen quantum leaps in the expansion of their capabilities over the last decade and a half.
We do know that by the late 2000s, the Navy was integrating a signals intelligence collection system, called Radiant Gemstone, onto at least some Los Angeles class attack submarines, which you can read about more in this past War Zone piece. This came along with the necessary data links and software backend, known as Radiant Mercury, to rapidly exchange that information with the National Security Agency.
“The RADMERC [Radiant Mercury] program facilitates sharing of critical information across security domains and among allied, coalition and inter-agency partners,” an official list of the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s (SPAWAR) programs as of 2017 explained. “The Radiant Mercury product provides cross-domain information sharing capabilities from Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) to General Service (GENSER) and GENSER to Unclassified.”
This sounds very much like an evolution of the data sharing systems and concepts of operation that Georgia pioneered during Silent Hammer. It also seems like an ideal addition to the SSGNs that would align well with their known intelligence gathering and fusion capabilities, if they didn’t have it already, and may well be an extension of developments that first appeared on the converted Ohios.
The Universal Launch and Recovery Module
We also know that the Flexible Payload Module (FPM) evolved, at least in part, into the Universal Launch and Recovery Module (ULRM), also known as the Universal Launch and Retrieval Module. General Dynamics Electric Boat has described this system as primarily being intended to launch and recover various types of UUVs, including Seahorse, Seaglider, and the Bluefin 21.
The Bluefin 21 became well known world-wide after taking part in the search for the remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014. The U.S. Navy subsequently adopted a derivative of this UUV, the Knifefish, primarily for mine hunting missions.
The modified Trident missile tubes would be able to accommodate racks that could launch and recover a number of these relatively small UUVs at once. General Dynamics Electric Boat envisioned the possibility of an SSGN deploying entire swarms of networked underwater drones to conduct persistent surveillance missions across a broad area as one possible application. There were also plans to eventually integrate larger underwater drones into the system.
General Dynamics Electric Boat did not specifically say that this system could launch unmanned aircraft from submarines, but it is possible that it could have been adapted to deploy encapsulated drones. The same system might similarly be able to deploy other payloads, as well, such as mines or decoy balloons.
As it was working on the ULRM, the company also said that it was developing an improved storage module that would be more readily transportable and installable. This, in principle, would have allowed more tailored special operations force packages to rapidly deploy to a forward port to rendezvous with one of the submarines for a specific mission.
There was also talk about another module that could contain additional masts with sensors or potentially for deploying additional payloads, such as drones. The modular nature of these systems combined with the large number of missile tubes on the SSGNs offered the potential to readily mix and match capabilities that would be best suited to the boat’s operational needs.
In 2013, the Navy said that it would test a prototype ULRM onboard one of the Ohio class SSGNs the following year. The goal at that time was to have examples available for actual operational use by 2019, but it’s unclear if this has occurred or not.
Upward Falling Payloads And Hydra
In 2013, DARPA itself initiated a new program to explore the possibility of launch small unmanned aircraft from capsules that could lie on the seabed, dormant and potentially unknown to potential opponents, for years at a time. A submarine could potentially deploy them covertly, as well, a mission that seems well suited to the SSGN concept of operation.
Known as Upward Falling Payloads (UFP), this project envisioned a system that American forces could activate remotely, or that might be triggered automatically in some fashion, and then release its payload. “Such a system of pre-positioned, deep-sea nodes could enable a full range of maritime mission sets that are more cost-effective than existing manned or long-range unmanned naval assets,” DARPA’s archived page for the project explains. UFP is also reminiscent of the Broaching Universal Buoyant Launcher (BUBL) system from a decade earlier, but it’s not clear if there is any actual direct relationship between the two projects.
At the same time, DARPA was working on this seabed payload launcher concept, it was also exploring a modular, standardized payload module that could work with submarines, as well as aircraft and surface ships, called Hydra. This could deploy either unmanned aircraft or UUVs and sounds similar in some respects to the Stealthy Affordable Capsule System (SACS). Again, it is unclear if there was any direct relationship between these two efforts.
Both UFP and Hydra appear to have come to an end sometime between 2016 and 2017. As with Cormorant, it’s not immediately clear if these continued on in some other form, including in the classified realm.
In 2013, the Navy itself had successfully demonstrated the ability to launch an encapsulated unmanned aircraft via a submarine’s torpedo tube. The Los Angeles class USS Providence (SSN-719) deployed the Naval Research Laboratory’s eXperimental Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial System, or XFC UAS, using a launch system known as Sea Robin, which used a modified Tomahawk missile launch canister. That same year, the service said it was also actively testing AeroVironment’s Blackwing using the standard three-inch countermeasures launchers on its submarines.
More capable than we know
All told, it seems very possible, if not probable, that the capabilities of the Ohio class SSGNs have significantly expanded since Silent Hammer in 2004, even if the specifics are limited. Even without new systems, such as the Universal Launch and Recovery Module, the Ohio SSGNs have already been using their modified Trident launch tubes to deploy unmanned systems and for other novel purposes, including just acting as valuable storage space within the confines of the submarines.
The intelligence collection and fusion systems that Georgia had in 2004, even before its full conversion into the SSGN configuration, were state-of-the-art. More than a decade of improvements in basic computing technology and processing power, as well as new developments in data links and communications systems, including new ways for submarines to transmit and receive information, can only have drastically expanded those already impressive capabilities.
UUV and drone technology has also come a long way, both in general and within the Navy specifically. The service, by itself, has made significant progress in submarine-launched drones, drone swarm technology, and autonomous capabilities that apply to unmanned platforms in the air, at sea, and underneath the waves. Just this year, the Navy hired Boeing to build a new fleet of large displacement UUVs as part of a program called Orca, which you can read about in more detail in this past War Zone piece. All of this aligns well with the SSGN’s capabilities, and the Navy’s long-standing plans to expand them, as we understand it.
The Navy has also been quietly working on a new and revolutionary electronic warfare architecture, known as the Netted Emulation of Multi-Element Signature against Integrated Sensors, or NEMESIS, since at least 2013. The service has described this effort, which you can read about in-depth in this past War Zone feature, as involving swarms of unmanned platforms, various systems on ships and submarines, countermeasures and electronic warfare suites, and more that could combine to project signatures mimicking large groups of aircraft, surface ships, and subs.
The Ohio SSGNs present an ideal platform for deploying elements of and supporting this cutting-edge and critical initiative. Most notably, they could launch swarms of small electronic-warfare payload-carrying drones deep in enemy territory that can project false fleets and aerial armadas on enemy sensors and act as decoys during a time of war or probe and gather intelligence on enemy air defense networks during a time of peace. Launching radar-reflector carrying balloons, a 60-year-old proven tactic, could also be part of this capability. In fact, we know of no better platform to carry out such a task.
The Ohio SSGNs could also see the integration of new conventional weapons to support their time-sensitive strike mission, and otherwise expand their offensive capabilities, in the future, as well. The Navy is already working on a number of new and upgraded missiles that could have submarine-launched applications, such as the multi-purpose SM-6 Block IB, a highly classified supersonic anti-ship missile known as Sea Dragon, and the future Next Generation Strike Weapon. The Navy has also already test-fired prototype submarine-launched hypersonic boost-glide vehicles from Ohio class submarines under the Conventional Prompt Strike program, though it’s unclear if it may choose to deploy those only on those submarines configured as SSBNs.
Smaller weapons could dramatically increase the boats’ already impressive magazine depth. The extra capacity could give the submarines more diversity in their arsenals, allowing them to engage broader target sets, as well. European missile consortium MBDA’s SPEAR 3 mini-cruise missile and its SPEAR-EW variant, which carries an electronic warfare payload instead of a warhead, are good examples of the kind of miniaturized missiles that could be extremely valuable additions to the Ohio SSGNs.
The Navy has also been putting these converted Ohios through major refits, which serve as an opportunity to integrate even more new capabilities. Georgia left the dry dock at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in March 2019 and Ohiofinished her stint at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Washington State in August. Michigan is set to return to the fleet in 2020. It is not clear when Florida, which is presently deployed in the Mediterranean, will go through the process. These overhauled SSGNs likely represent a whole new level of capability derived from lessons learned over the last decade and a half of operations.
Successors to the Ohio SSGNs
Unfortunately, the Ohios SSGNs won’t be able to serve forever, they are already the oldest Ohio class submarines in existence, and the Navy is already exploring concepts for what comes next. The experience with these four boats has directly informed the development of the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) for the future Block V Virginia class attack submarines.
The VPM has four large multi-purpose tubes that can accept various modules just like the modified Trident missile tubes on the Ohio SSGNs, including the same seven-round Tomahawk launchers. The designs of the existing Block III and future Block IV Virginia class boats also already feature two similarly-sized Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) in the bow of the submarine.
As such, the VPTs already bring some of the multi-mission capability found on the SSGNs to the Block III Virginias and this will only be more pronounced on the Block IV boats. The Navy has already set aside at least four Block II and III Virginia class submarines for special operations support missions, with two more available as alternates, if required.
These six Virginias – USS Hawaii, USS Mississppi, USS New Hampshire, USS New Mexico, USS North Carolina, and USS North Dakota – can also carry the same types of Dry Deck Shelters (DDS) as the Ohio SSGNs. All of these submarines actually share a common pool of DDSs that Navy personnel can install on any of the boats, as necessary.
The Navy’s present plan is to fully replace the Ohio SSGNs with Block IV Virginias by 2026, though, especially given the recent refits, its possible that the former boats could end up remaining in service longer. It’s not clear whether older Virginias would continue to serve int he special operations support role, as well.
Beyond that, the Navy is already exploring options for what it presently refers to as Large Payload Submarines, which will be a future class of multi-purpose, multi-mission boats derived from the Columbia class SSBN design that will be capable of, as the name implies, deploying a wide variety of large payloads. This could include both UUVs and submarine-launched drones. The submarines could also have the ability to deploy networked swarms of these unmanned platforms above or below the waves.
At present, the Navy plans to buy a minimum of five Large Payload Submarines, but it’s not clear when they might actually enter service. The current schedule would be to buy one every three years starting in 2036, after the initial Columbia class production run, totaling 12 boats, ends.
However, there are already concerns about how expensive and complex the Columbias are, each of which will cost more than $7 billion, and whether General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding will be able to keep to the schedule. This, in turn, could push plans for the Large Payload Submarines further into the future. You can read more about all this in-depth in this past War Zone story.
More than 15 years after Georgia wrote the first few chapters in the book on Ohio class SSGN concepts of operations, the U.S. Navy’s four SSGNs remain some of the most unique and capable platforms within the Pentagon’s portfolio, and that is just based on what we know about their abilities. By every indication, these submarines have and continue to serve as testbeds for even more impressive developments that still have yet to become public.
Just think, if the ability to launch various drones, both air and sea types, and especially higher-end ones like the Skunk Works’ Cormorant, was very much in development on multiple fronts 15 years ago, just imagine what is deployed today or on the drawing board. If an SSGN can carry up to 154 Tomahawk missiles, how many small weaponized drones can it carry and how could an enemy ever defend against such an overwhelming onslaught crossing their shores? It is this type of imagination and the room to realize such dreams that have made these submarines so valuable and, for lack of a better term, revolutionary.
It’s safe to say that the Navy’s SSGNs are a case of “more than meets the eye,” as they are much more than the stealthy Tomahawk slingers and SEAL delivery platforms that the public perceives them to be. While their arsenal of cruise missiles and frogmen is certainly formidable, their ability to adapt, spy on the enemy, control the battle from under the waves, and above all else, accommodate new ideas, makes them uniquely ferocious to any enemy nation they may be sitting off of at any given moment.
Conclusion
What an article! Ok. Please keep in mind that the best made weapons and technology is meaningless when the environment that you expect to use it in has altered and changed. Which is China. They DO NOT PLAY.
You might amass all your forces on a plain. Everyone wearing the best and strongest armor. Your men might have the best training and the horse might be the most loyal and robust in the world. But that means nothing when a wall of water comes crashing down and wipes out your forces.
China is a nation that is not only four to five time larger in population, but it is merit driven. And not just merit in the ability to dispute diversity issues, or numbers on a tabulated spreadsheet, but real hard and fast (hard scrabble) abilities.
They are formidable, and especially now that China and Russia and Iran are all linked together militarily as one. The USA had best stop playing with the boyhood toys and grow up. It’s a new game, and a new way of doing things. The best thing that the USA can do is “get with the program” and adapt, or die though extinction.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
We are witnessing the end of the United States military Empire. As well as the rise of a unified Asia.
There are all sorts of articles on this subject. Most out of the United States are pretty limited in scope. No one is looking at the big picture, and instead what they see is evil or frightening. But it need not be.
First, lets look at history…
All credit to the author. And note that it was formatted to fit within this venue. The article is titled “The Last Days of Rome: How A Great Empire Fell With Barely a Whimper“, and it makes some very interesting points.
…
Unlike the valiant last stand by Constantine XI in Constantinople which marked the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Roman Empire in the West did not fall after a notable battle. Indeed, it is perhaps ironic that one of the greatest empires in history surrendered rather meekly without much of a struggle. Although the end of the empire is said to have occurred when Odoacer marched into Rome and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus on September 4, 476, the end was nigh for quite some time.
A Fragmented Empire
Although Diocletian managed to bring the disastrous Third Century Crisis to an end by taking control in 284, the Empire was fundamentally weakened. Aside from widespread economic strife throughout the Empire in the fourth century, the tribes of Germany significantly increased their populations and became more of a threat.
By 376, an enormous influx of barbarians from across the Danube threatened the Eastern part of the Empire, and the Romans suffered a disastrous defeat at Adrianople in 378 when Emperor Valens died with most of his army. By the end of the fourth century, Emperor Theodosius was reliant on barbarian warlords who lacked discipline and loyalty. It was the equivalent of allowing wolves into the chicken coop.
To make matters worse, Theodosius had to contend with the usurper Magnus Maximus who declared himself Emperor of the West in 383. Theodosius finally defeated his enemy in 388 but with heavy losses on both sides that only served to weaken the Empire. When he died in 395, his sons Honorius and Arcadius became emperors. Both were incompetent and little more than puppet rulers.
Sack of Rome
Much like the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 was the beginning of the end for the Byzantine Empire, the Sack of Rome in 410 can be seen as the start of the Western Empire’s last days. The King of the Visigoths, Alaric, first attempted to invade Italy in 401 but was repelled by Stilicho at Pollentia the following year. When Emperor Honorius ordered a massacre of Goths serving in the Roman military, some 30,000 of them defected to Alaric in 408.
He laid siege to Rome that year and forced its citizens to pay a sizeable tribute to prevent them from starving to death. Alaric did not want to destroy the Empire; he just wanted a recognized position within its borders. After another siege in 409, he tried to negotiate with Honorius the following year. The influence of an enemy Goth during negotiations angered Alaric, so he laid siege to Rome once again. This time, he succeeded in breaking through and sacked the city.
Oddly enough, there was relatively little destruction during the three-day sacking of Rome. Alaric invited barbarian slaves to join his army, and a large proportion was happy to do so. He had no intention of remaining in Rome and decided to sail to Africa. However, his ships were battered by storms, and he died of fever. Although Alaric did not remain in Rome to conquer it, the sacking of the city was an indication of just how weak the Empire in the West was. The countdown to its demise began in earnest.
A Continued Collapse
The Empire disintegrated further throughout the fifth century. It lost Carthage to the Vandals in 439 and was at the mercy of Attila the Hun during the 440s and early 450s. After successful campaigns against the Eastern Empire, he turned his attention to the West, and while he suffered defeat at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, he invaded Italy. Attila accepted a favorable peace treaty but planned to invade Italy once again before his death in 453.
After a brief resurgence under the rule of Emperor Majorian (457-461), the Empire once more plunged into chaos. A Germanic general called Ricimer entered Rome in 472, but he died just six weeks later. Over the next four years, the Western Empire had a succession of Emperors who were little more than puppets for barbarian warlords.
A Sad End
In 475, a man named Orestes drove the Emperor Julius Nepos out of the capital Ravenna and declared his 16-year-old son as Emperor Romulus Augustus. The teenager was never recognized as the ruler outside Italia, and when his father refused to grant federated status to the Heruli, its leader Odoacer launched an invasion. He chased Orestes to Pavia and then Piacenza where the Emperor’s father was executed on August 28, 476.
On September 4, 476, the Senate compelled Romulus Augustus to abdicate, and it is typically on this day that the Western Roman Empire is said to have officially fallen. The unfortunate boy remained in Ravenna, but instead of executing him, Odoacer showed mercy by sending him to live in Campania. The fate of the last Emperor of the West is unknown because he disappears from the historical record.
Although 476 is used as a convenient date to mark the end of the Empire, it is a little more complicated. The deposed Julius Nepos continued to claim that he was the Emperor of the West until he was murdered in 480. In the meantime, Odoacer began negotiations with Zeno, the Emperor of the East. Although Zeno accepted Odoacer as viceroy of Italia, he insisted that the barbarian continue to recognize Julius Nepos as the Emperor in the West.
Odoacer invaded Dalmatia when he learned of Nepos’ murder while in 488, Zeno authorized the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great’s invasion of Italia. After five years of indecisive fighting, Odoacer and Theodoric agreed to rule jointly, but the Ostrogoth betrayed his new ‘ally.’ At a banquet celebrating their new arrangement in 493, Theodoric’s men slaughtered Odoacer’s troops, and he cut his rival in half.
And so one of the greatest Empire’s in history ended not with a fearsome battle, but with a sorry capitulation. Its hold on the East lasted for almost 1,000 years after that, and while the Byzantine Empire also fell apart meekly, the final battle at Constantinople was at least more befitting of a regime’s downfall than the slow, painful demise of Rome.
Likewise, we can expect America to die with a whimper.
Indeed, unless [1] World War III occurs, or [2] the United States government starts acting and behaving like people who care for America, the nation is destined the long slow crawl towards the gutter. It will be just like Rome. With insignificant minor events as defined by technology rather than structure.
Let’s consider China. Indeed, let’s understand what contemporaneous Chinese think of America through the lens of their own history.
The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty
Although the brief Qin dynasty managed to unite the Warring States of China, the Han dynasty is considered to be the second great Chinese imperial dynasty after almost 800 years of Zhou control. The Han had such a profound impact on its nation’s culture that the word ‘Han’ ultimately referred to a person who was ethnically Chinese.
The short-lived Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) began with the unification of six warring states. Led by a man who proclaimed himself the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the empire unified China for a brief period before Qin died in 210 BC. The result was a vicious civil war which was won by Liu Bang who defeated Xiang Yu. Liu led the Han since 206 BC and after four years of fighting, finally got the better of Xiang after surrounding him at the Yangzi River where his rival committed suicide. From 202 BC until his death seven years later, Liu was known as Emperor Gaozu of Han, the first leader of the dynasty.
He decided to pick Chang’an as the empire’s new capital as all major roads converged there; it was also the eastern end of the legendary Silk Road. Within 200 years, the population of the city grew to approximately 250,000 as it was the economic, cultural and military center of the nation.
When the emperor died in 195 BC, his wife Lu Zhi tried to take the empire for her family. She murdered all of her husband’s sons born to concubines and mutilated his favorite mistress. The Empress embraced nepotism by installing relatives in positions of power, replacing those who had been loyal to the emperor. Emperor Gaozu’s heir apparent was his teenage son, Liu Yang who became Emperor Hui of Han. Once he found out what his mother was doing, the frightened emperor took great care not to disobey her.
Rise & Fall of the Lu Clan
Emperor Hui did not have any children so when he died in 188 BC; his mother showed that she was the real powerbroker in the Han dynasty by placing one ruler on the throne before removing him for someone else. During the reigns of her handpicked emperors, Lu Zhi issued imperial edicts and picked family members as kings, military officers and officials.
Once Lu Zhi died in 180 BC, the King of Qi (grandson of the first emperor) raised an army to fight the Lus but before they could engage, the Lu Clan was destroyed by a coup. The King of Qi did not become the new ruler; instead, the King of Dai, Liu Heng, became Emperor Wen and ruled until 157 BC.
Stability & Prosperity
Wen was succeeded by Emperor Jing who ruled until 141 BC. The near 40-year period of combined rule by these two men was an era of stability and prosperity for the Han dynasty. While the Qin dynasty was known for its cruelty, the Han tried to show a different face of power by issues multiple amnesties, reducing tax on agricultural goods and abolishing mutilation as a legal form of punishment.
However, kingdoms that rebelled against the Han were ruthlessly dealt with as their territories were reduced and in some cases, kingdoms were abolished altogether. The result was an increase in the number of kingdoms and commanderies.
Emperor Wu was one of the longest reigning Han rulers; he became the leader in 141 BC and ruled until his death in 87 BC. Although he had to contend with the Xiongnu and fought a lengthy war with this enemy, literature, poetry and philosophy flourished under Wu. The ‘Shiji’ was written by Sima Qian, and this Historical Records text set the standard for later histories sponsored by the government. The Shiji recorded information about ‘barbarians’ that lived on the borders of the empire among other things.
Emperor Wu also established Confucianism as the kingdom’s basis for proper conduct and education.
China regained a number of territories under his rule with new commanderies formed in Korea. In 101 BC, the Han conquered Ferghana and several neighboring regions which enabled them to steal a large quantity of horses. At this stage, China had control of important trade routes around the Taklamakan Desert. The nation traded its coveted silk and gold for items such as grapes, wine, broad beans, and alfalfa.
Fall of the Western Han
The death of Emperor Wu resulted in a variety of social and political conflicts that eventually led to the downfall of the Western Han dynasty. The Empress Wang Zhengjun oversaw the succession of emperors and ensured her male relatives took the throne one after another.
In 8 BC, her nephew, Wang Mang, became General-in-Chief but was removed from office less than a year later. Pressure from his supporters ensured he returned to the capital in 2 BC.
The following year, Emperor Ai died, and as he had no son, Wang Mang assumed the title of regent over Emperor Ping.
When Ping died in 6 AD, Empress Wang confirmed Wang Mang as the acting emperor. Although he promised to relinquish power when the child Liu Ying came of age, he clearly decided that he enjoyed being emperor.
Wang Mang started a propaganda campaign, announced the end of the Han dynasty and proclaimed himself the leader of the new Xin dynasty in 9 AD.
Rise & Fall of the Eastern Han
To Wang Mang’s credit, he tried to change the unfair land ownership situation but failed. In 23 AD, a rebellion led by a group called the Red Eyebrows sacked the capital city of Chang’an and beheaded the unfortunate Wang Mang.
The court of the Eastern Han dynasty was laden with scheming and intrigue during the first century AD as there was no real line of succession.
Most of the emperors died relatively young with no heirs, so a close relative usually became the next ruler. Towards the end of the second century AD, eunuchs had far too much power in the royal court, and the people ultimately grew tired of government corruption.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 AD threatened the capital city (Which was Luoyang since 25 AD), and six years later, a warlord called Dong Zhou captured the city and placed a child named Liu Xie on the throne.
Although the young boy was a member of the Han, Zhou was the real leader, and he proceeded to murder all the eunuchs and burn the city to the ground.
A succession of battles significantly weakened the empire, and in 220 AD, Liu Xie agreed to abdicate and allowed Cao Pi, King of Wei, to take over. This marked the end of the Han dynasty and the formation of the Cao Wei state which was a major player during the period of the Three Kingdoms.
Confusing?
In China the nation was ruled by the elite. Much like America is ruled by the elite in Washington DC. And this rule involved all kinds of “back stabbing”, “power plays”, “alignments”, and subterfuge. And that is what we see here. The entire dynasty was broght down by the very people who were supposed to make it last, and work; the leadership.
But they were far too preoccupied with petty squabbles, wealth and power, and politics that they let the empire dissolve around them. Sure, there had capable people, and technologies at their disposal, but their interest wasn’t in the good of the nation.
It was themselves.
Let’s look at America today…
The best articles are the ones that come with a historical perspective. They are the best. And here is one right here. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have. What is surprising is that it comes right out of America. Imagine that someone stuck their head out of the echo-chamber bubble to throw this one together.
Of course, all credit to the original author. Note that it was reformatted to fit this venue, but the content stays the same. You can read the original article HERE.
How Empires End
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
Histories are generally written by academics.
They, quite naturally, tend to focus on the main events: the wars and the struggles between leaders and their opponents (both external and internal). Whilst these are interesting stories to read, academics, by their very nature, often overlook the underlying causes for an empire’s decline, – reports the Internationalman website.
Today, as in any era, most people are primarily interested in the “news”—the daily information regarding the world’s political leaders and their struggles with one another to obtain, retain, and expand their power. When the history is written about the era we are passing through, it will reflect, in large measure, a rehash of the news. As the media of the day tend to overlook the fact that present events are merely symptoms of an overall decline, so historians tend to focus on major events, rather than the “slow operations” that have been the underlying causes.
The Persian Empire
When, as a boy, I was “educated” about the decline and fall of the Persian Empire, I learned of the final takeover by Alexander the Great but was never told that, in its decline, Persian taxes became heavier and more oppressive, leading to economic depression and revolts, which, in turn led to even heavier taxes and increased repression. Increasingly, kings hoarded gold and silver, keeping it out of circulation from the community. This hamstrung the market, as monetary circulation was insufficient to conduct business. By the time Alexander came along, Persia, weakened by warfare and internal economic strife, was a shell of an empire and was relatively easy to defeat.
The Tang Dynasty
Back then, I also learned that the Tang Dynasty ended as a result of the increased power amongst the eunuchs, battles with fanzhen separatists, and finally, peasants’ revolts. True enough, but I was not taught that the dynasty’s expansion-based warfare demanded increases in taxation, which led to the revolts. Continued warfare necessitated increasing monetary and land extortion by the eunuchs, resulting in an abrupt decrease in food output and further taxes. Finally, as economic deterioration and oppression of the citizenry worsened, citizens left the area entirely for more promise elsewhere.
Is there a pattern here? Let’s have a more detailed look—at another empire.
The Spanish Empire
In 1556, Philip II of Spain inherited what was regarded as Europe’s most wealthy nation, with no apparent economic problems. Yet, by 1598, Spain was bankrupt. How was this possible?
Spain was doing well but sought to become a major power. To achieve this, Philip needed more tax dollars. Beginning in 1561, the existing servicio tax was regularised, and the crusada tax, the excusado tax, and the millones tax were all added by 1590.
Over a period of 39 years (between 1559 and 1598) taxes increased by 430%. Although the elite of the day were exempt from taxation (the elite of today are not officially exempt), the average citizen was taxed to the point that both business expansion and public purchasing diminished dramatically. Wages did not keep pace with the resultant inflation. The price of goods rose 400%, causing a price revolution and a tax revolution.
Although Spain enjoyed a flood of gold and silver from the Americas at this time, the increased wealth went straight into Philip’s war efforts. However, the 100,000 troops were soon failing to return sufficient spoils to Philip to pay for their forays abroad.
In a final effort to float the doomed empire, Philip issued government bonds, which provided immediate cash but created tremendous debt that, presumably, would need to be repaid one day. (The debt grew to 8.8 times GDP.)
Spain declared bankruptcy. Trade slipped to other countries. The military, fighting on three fronts, went unpaid, and military aspirations collapsed.
It is important to note that, even as the empire was collapsing, Philip did not suspend warfare. He did not back off on taxation. Like leaders before and since, he instead stubbornly increased his autocracy as the empire slid into collapse.
Present-Day Empires
Again, the events above are not taught to schoolchildren as being of key importance in the decline of empires, even though they are remarkably consistent with the decline of other empires and what we are seeing today. The very same events occur, falling like dominoes, more or less in order, in any empire, in any age:
The reach of government leaders habitually exceeds their grasp.
Dramatic expansion (generally through warfare) is undertaken without a clear plan as to how that expansion is to be financed.
The population is overtaxed as the bills for expansion become due, without consideration as to whether the population can afford increased taxation.
Heavy taxation causes investment by the private sector to diminish, and the economy begins to decline.
Costs of goods rise, without wages keeping pace.
Tax revenue declines as the economy declines (due to excessive taxation). Taxes are increased again, in order to top up government revenues.
In spite of all the above, government leaders personally hoard as much as they can, further limiting the circulation of wealth in the business community.
Governments issue bonds and otherwise borrow to continue expansion, with no plan as to repayment.
Dramatic authoritarian control is instituted to assure that the public continues to comply with demands, even if those demands cannot be met by the public.
Economic and social collapse occurs, often marked by unrest and riots, the collapse of the economy, and the exit of those who are productive.
In this final period, the empire turns on itself, treating its people as the enemy.
The above review suggests that if our schoolbooks stressed the underlying causes of empire collapse, rather than the names of famous generals and the dates of famous battles, we might be better educated and be less likely to repeat the same mistakes.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely. Chances are, future leaders will be just as uninterested in learning from history as past leaders. They will create empires, then destroy them.
Even the most informative histories of empire decline, such as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, will not be of interest to the leaders of empires. They will believe that they are above history and that they, uniquely, will succeed.
If there is any value in learning from the above, it is the understanding that leaders will not be dissuaded from their aspirations. They will continue to charge ahead, both literally and figuratively, regardless of objections and revolts from the citizenry.
Once an empire has reached stage eight above, it never reverses. It is a “dead empire walking” and only awaits the painful playing-out of the final three stages.
At that point, it is foolhardy in the extreme to remain and “wait it out” in the hope that the decline will somehow reverse. At that point, the wiser choice might be to follow the cue of the Chinese, the Romans, and others, who instead chose to quietly exit for greener pastures elsewhere.
Editor’s Note:The US government is overextending itself by interfering in every corner of the globe. It’s all financed by massive amounts of money printing. However, the next financial crisis could end the whole charade soon.
The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a global economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve ever seen before.
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According to modern accepted history, prior to the ability to write, most humans were very, very primitive. While they might have been able to farm, and perhaps fabricate some clothes from animal skins, that was the full extent of human progress. And most historians place this date around 5,000 years ago, with some squabbling that it might be as early as 9,000 years ago.
The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze.
During the Stone Age, humans shared the planet with a number of now-extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.
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The idea that Neanderthals were able to do anything besides one or two carvings on mammoth tusks, and using bones as hammers, is considered ludicrous.
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And when they pretty much were dying out, historians believe that that was the period of time when the use of stone tools started to make way for pottery, and perhaps roughly sewn clothing.
The oldest pottery known was found at an archaeological site in Japan. Fragments of clay containers used in food preparation at the site may be up to 16,500 years old.
Stone Age food varied over time and from region to region, but included the foods typical of hunter gatherers: meats, fish, eggs, grasses, tubers, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.
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But that’s pretty much the extent of it all. But, then we have an OOPART. A thing that should not exist. A thing or an item that shakes the very foundation that historians have created for the lineage of man.
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How? Well, these are the OLDEST dates that people are willing to attribute to humans…
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Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, evolved from their early hominid predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. They developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago.
The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago.
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Here we talk about this.
Enigmatic Ancient Wheel: The 300-Million-Year-Old Wheel and Anomalous Ancient Tracks Across the World
The following article is extracted from The Myth Of Man by J.P. Robinson. All credit to the author, and please kindly note that it was edited to fit this venue. Along with some healthy MM additions.
In 2008, a curious find was discovered down a coal mine in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
As it could not be safely or successfully cut out due to the nature of the sandstone in which it was embedded, the mysterious artifact looking much like an ancient wheel remains in situ down the mine.
A fossilized (previously) wooden wheel has been unearthed in a mine in Eastern Europe / Russia. It is encased in rock (sandstone) that is 300 million years old.
Whilst drilling the coal coking stratum named J3 ‘Sukhodolsky’ at a depth of 900 meters (2952.76 feet) from the surface, workers were surprised to find what appears to be the imprint of a wheel above them in the sandstone roof of the tunnel that they had just excavated.
Thankfully, photographs of the unusual imprint were taken by the Deputy Chief V.V. Kruzhilin and shared with the mine foreman S. Kasatkin, who brought news of the find to light.
Without being able to further explore the site and inspect the imprint at close hand, we are left with only the photographs as evidence of their existence (there was more than one imprint) and the word of a group of Ukrainian miners.
Discovering the Wheel
Without being able to definitively date the strata in which the fossilized wheel print was found, it has been noted that the Rostov region surrounding Donetsk is situated upon Carboniferous rock aged between 360-300 million years ago.
As well as the widely distributed coking coals have derived from the middle to late Carboniferous; suggesting a possible age of the imprint at around 300 million years old.
This would mean that an actual wheel became stuck millions of years ago and dissolved over time due to a process called diagenesis, where sediments are lithified into sedimentary rocks, as is common with fossil remains.
Diagenesis () is the process that describes physical and chemical changes in sediments first caused by water-rock interactions, microbial activityand compaction after their deposition. The increase of pressure and temperature only starts to play a role as sediments get buried much deeper in the Earth's crust.
In the early stages, the transformation of poorly consolidated sediments into sedimentary rock (lithification) is simply accompanied by a reduction in porosity and water expulsion (clay sediments), while their main mineralogical assemblages remain unaltered.
As the rock is carried deeper by further deposition above, its organic content is progressively transformed into kerogens and bitumens. The process of diagenesis excludes surface alteration (weathering) and deep metamorphism.
There is no sharp boundary between diagenesis and metamorphism, but the latter occurs at higher temperatures and pressures. Hydrothermal solutions, meteoric groundwater, rock porosity, permeability, dissolution/precipitation reactions, and time are all influential factors.
-Wikipedia
A miner below a wheel imprint in the mine. (Author provided) SMXL
The following is an extract from a letter written by S. Kasatkin (translated from Ukrainian) in reference to his testimony of having been witness to the anomalous wheel imprint discovered by his team of miners in 2008:
‘This finding is not a PR action. In due time (2008), we as a team of engineers and workers asked the mine director to invite scientists for detailed examination of the object, but the director, following the instructions of the then owner of the mine, prohibited such talks and instead only ordered to accelerate work on passing through this section of lava and on fast ‘charging’ of the section with mining equipment. Owing to that, this artifact and the smaller one found during further work came to be in a tunnel blockage and could not be taken out and studied. It is good that there were people, who in spite of the director’s prohibition, photographed this artifact. I have connections with the people who first discovered these imprints and also with those who photographed them. We have more than a dozen witnesses. As you understand, the admission in the mine is strictly limited (it is dangerous on sudden emissions) and to obtain such permit is rather difficult. The ‘wheel’ was printed on sandstone of the roof. Guys (drifters) tried to ‘cut away’ the find with pick hammers and to take it out to the surface, but sandstone was so strong (firm) that, having been afraid to damage a print, they have left it in place. At present the mine is closed (officially since 2009) and access to the ‘object’ is impossible - the equipment is dismantled and the given layers are already flooded.(with water)’
The wheel.
With only this written testimony and that of the other witnesses, the photographs remain the only proof of this anomalous imprint, but it must be deemed worthy of mention despite any difficulties verifying the details beyond that which you have read.
For, if the photographic evidence is indeed legitimate, then one must question how a man-made wheel became embedded in such ancient strata, when according to scientific orthodoxy man had not even evolved yet.
Contemporaneous Cartwheel
Here is the design of a cartwheel made out of wood that was common prior to the industrial age.
Yeah.
You all might want to compare it with the wheel found in the 300 million year old limestone.
A curious thing about this cartwheel
it’s very difficult to make out, and (as far as I know) no one bothered to measure the wheel, from the pictures, it appears diminutive.
Most cartwheels that I have seen and know of from my personal experiences tend to be large. They are perhaps, 150 cm in diameter. (With obvious variations of course). This is roughly five feet in diameter.
This wheel appears to be much less than that. Maybe 100 cm in diameter, or roughly three feet.
Judging from this singular article, and extrapolating with many assumptions, you might want to suggest that the species, or creatures that manufactured this wheel were diminutive in size as well. Perhaps, 120 cm high (4 feet).
If so, then this would be in agreement with the hand bell that was found in a lump of coal that is contemporaneous with this wheel.
The wheel apparently has metal banding on both the hub and the wheel. This implies directly, that the species that manufacturing this wheel was also able to work in metal.
Why is this an OOPART?
It’s not just that this wheel predates the “bronze age” of human technological advancement, but it predates all primates.
The wheel pre-dates to the time of the dinosaurs.
The Earth, 300 years ago…
This was a time before even the mighty dinosaurs roamed the Earth. A time in history when the plants and animals would be unrecognizable to us today, well most of them.
You’ll probably already know that at this time the Earth’s continents were fused together in the supercontinent Pangea. This supercontinent would eventually break up and produce the modern configuration of continents we are all too familiar with.
Professor Roger Steinberg from Del Mar College hand drew a sheet of paper with 5000 dots on it. He then photocopied it 200 times and stuck them all together to show his students. When shown the paper, he asked her students to guess the number of dots they could see. Estimates ranged from 4.6 billion (the age of the Earth) to 13.7 billion (the age of the Universe).
They were all shocked when he revealed it was only actually 1 million. Now imagine 60,000 of those sheets stuck together and you’ll “get a feel” for the length of time we are talking about here. Given the average dimensions for A4 paper (21 by 29.7 cm or 0.06 m2) that would cover an area of 3600 m2!
Now imagine this 300 times larger!
Incredible!
300 million years ago puts us firmly within the Palaeozoic period of geological history, technically speaking within the Permian-Pennsylvanian boundary. This was a time of great change in the animal kingdom. Amphibians had evolved into reptiles that will one day give birth to all-conquering dinosaurs in a few tens of millions of years.
300 million years ago puts us firmly within the Palaeozoic period of geological history.
The plants that were in the carboniferous period were very similar to those present in a tropical climate. It was known for swamp forest which had lots of life. Lycopsids were abundant during the Carboniferous period and were a big source of carbon. There was a lot of coal during this time period so it helped the coal a lot. Then the lycopsids went extinct due to a drying trend. After that ferns and sphenopsids were dominant.
The land was dominated by the ancestors of all mammals, the Synapsids, and the ancestor of all reptiles and birds, the Diapsids. Living Diapsids include crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara. The Synapsids would become a highly diversified group throughout the Permian ultimately evolving into the first mammals during the Triassic.
The iconic apex predator of the period, the Dimetrodon, would rule the land. This chap, although looking pretty reptilian, is actually more closely related to you than the dinosaurs that would follow it.
The Dimetrodon was the apex predator.
In the oceans, ammonites and ancient fish and sharks roamed the depths. Plant life on land was undergoing a revolution changing from the giant swamps of the Carboniferous to truly modern Gymnosperms taking dominance.
At this time in Earth’s history, the continents of the modern world were tightly locked together in the supercontinent known as Pangea. It is believed this assembly formed somewhere around 335 million years ago. It wasn’t to last, however.
The restless “gubbins” of the Earth would tear this assembly apart about 175 million years ago through a process known as plate tectonics. This gradual motion of the plates still continues today, in fact, Australia and India (they share the same plate), for example, are actually sliding northeast towards Asia and the central Pacific Ocean.
This a picture of what the world looked like during the Carboniferous Period. As you can see it looks nothing like the world we know today. The continents are in process of forming a super continent called Pangea.
So there you go. That’s how the world looked 300 million years ago. Cool eh?
The Carboniferous Period (350-300 Million Years Ago)
Some of the animals that were present during the Carboniferous period were Amphibiamus lyelli, Which had long snouts, short limbs and flattened heads. Labachia is an early relative of they conifers. Crocodiles were there and hey are still present today. There were some dinosaurs but not as many as the Mesozoic era. There was also marine reptiles, lizards,snakes, birds and land snails. They also had many insects such as big dragonflies, mayflies, millipedes, scorpions and spiders. The millipedes scorpions and spiders were very good for the environment. There was hylonomos which were lightly built with deep strong jaws and slender limbs. Some other animals were gastropods, bonyfish and sharks.
A Look at Prehistoric Life During the Carboniferous Period.
Amphibamus grandiceps, a dissorophoid temnospondyl from the late Carboniferous of Illinois.
The name “Carboniferous” reflects the most famous attribute of the Carboniferous period: the massive swamps that cooked, over tens of millions of years, into today’s vast reserves of coal and natural gas. However, the Carboniferous period (359 to 299 million years ago) was also notable for the appearance of new terrestrial vertebrates, including the very first amphibians and lizards.
Climate and Geography
The global climate of the Carboniferous period was intimately linked with its geography.
During the course of the preceding Devonian period, the northern supercontinent of Euramerica merged with the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, producing the enormous super-supercontinent Pangea, which occupied much of the southern hemisphere during the ensuing Carboniferous.
This had a pronounced effect on air and water circulation patterns, which resulted in a large portion of southern Pangea being covered by glaciers and a general global cooling trend (which, however, didn’t have much effect on the coal swamps that covered Pangea’s more temperate regions).
Inthe swampy forests of the Carboniferous Period, 360 to 286 million years ago, dragonflieswithtwo-and-a-half-foot wingspans darted among the giant ferns. Mayflies grew to canary size. Cockroachesappeared suddenly (as cockroachesdo) for the first time.
-Insects of the Oxygeniferous | DiscoverMagazine
Oxygen made up a much higher percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere than it does today, fueling the growth of terrestrial megafauna, including dog-size insects.
Terrestrial Life During the Carboniferous Period
The climate during the carboniferous period was tropical and mild temperatures. It was a uniform climate, and the early carboniferous period was relatively warm.
Amphibians. Our understanding of life during the Carboniferous period is complicated by “Romer’s Gap,” a 15-million-year stretch of time (from 360 to 345 million years ago) that has yielded virtually no vertebrate fossils.
What we do know, however, is that by the end of this gap, the very first tetrapods of the late Devonian period, themselves only recently evolved from lobe-finned fish, had lost their internal gills and were well on their way toward becoming true amphibians.
Carboniferous life.
By the late Carboniferous, amphibians were represented by such important genera as Amphibamus and Phlegethontia, which (like modern amphibians) needed to lay their eggs in water and keep their skin moist, and thus couldn’t venture too far onto dry land.
Reptiles. The most important trait that distinguishes reptiles from amphibians is their reproductive system: The shelled eggs of reptiles are better able to withstand dry conditions, and thus don’t need to be laid in water or moist ground.
The evolution of reptiles was spurred by the increasingly cold, dry climate of the late Carboniferous period.
One of the earliest reptiles yet identified, Hylonomus, appeared about 315 million years ago, and the giant (almost 10 feet long) Ophiacodon only a few million years later.
By the end of the Carboniferous, reptiles had migrated well toward the interior of Pangea. These early pioneers went on to spawn the archosaurs, pelycosaurs, and therapsids of the ensuing Permian period. (It was the archosaurs that went on to spawn the first dinosaurs nearly a hundred million years later.)
Invertebrates. As noted above, the Earth’s atmosphere contained an unusually high percentage of oxygen during the late Carboniferous period, peaking at an astounding 35%.
This surplus was especially beneficial to terrestrial invertebrates, such as insects, which breathe via the diffusion of air through their exoskeletons, rather than with the aid of lungs or gills.
Carboniferous life.
The Carboniferous was the heyday of the giant dragonfly Megalneura, the wingspan of which measured up to 2.5 feet, as well as the giant millipede Arthropleura, which attained lengths of almost 10 feet.
This is a drawing of the Dragon flies that were around during this time period. As you can see they look similar to the ones we have today except for their much larger size.
As well, as the domestically evolved Mantid species.
Insects of the Carboniferous Period
During the Carboniferous, numerous new insect families developed on Earth, with many insect species growing to incredible sizes. Fortunately, there’s a distinct lack of eight-foot-long millipedes today.
Bugs today are minuscule compared to the Carboniferous period, likely due to the way that insects breathe and how that system fails to hold up at large scales.
Invertebrate insects grew to enormous sizes.
Insect respiration relies on a series of small tubes, or tracheae, spread throughout their bodies. Most insects don’t even “breathe,” exactly, but rather allow oxygen to passively diffuse throughout their respiratory systems. When an insect gets too large, these tracheae can’t collect enough oxygen to support their bodies.
Around 300 million years ago, however, Earth was saturated with oxygen. Today’s atmosphere is 21% oxygen, while the Carboniferous period had an atmosphere that was 35% oxygen. With this overabundance, insects’ respiratory systems could support larger bodies than what we think of as typical. Being big is, generally, a good thing: large animals stand to win in a fight, can store more energy for when resources are scarce, and retain heat more efficiently.
Animals that were passive absorbers of oxygen, like insects, started growing to huge sizes. And I mean HUGE.
There was a species of caterpillar that grew to 2.5 metres in length, a scorpion that grew to 70 cm and a dragonfly that had a wingspan of 75 cm. Yikes!
Invertebrate insects grew to enormous sizes.
In fact, the size of many modern insects is only limited by ambient levels of oxygen. It’s not a genetic limit. More oxygen equals bigger size. There are scientists who are, right now, trying to grow large insects inside oxygen chambers. Someone should tell them to stop. PLEASE STOP.
For insects, there needed to be more oxygen in the air for this to happen. The extra oxygen didn’t suddenly appear, however; this change in the atmosphere can be attributed to the arrival of the first trees on the planet.
Prior to the Carboniferous period, trees didn’t exist. During this time, the first things that could properly be recognized as trees appeared. These were unlike the trees we know today—they were more like massive ferns with shallow roots that made them prone to falling over. They grew throughout the swamps that covered most of the planet during this period.
Invertebrate insects grew to enormous sizes.
However, ancient trees and modern trees do share a crucial characteristic. They both are made of a cellulose and lignin composite—wood. Wood also happens to be an excellent store of carbon. As these trees grew taller and taller to compete for sunlight, they sucked more and more carbon out of the atmosphere and exchanged it for oxygen, fundamentally changing the composition of the atmosphere.
Wood was a novel material on the planet: the fungi and microbes capable of digesting it didn’t exist yet. When these trees fell over and died, they stayed in place. Tree trunks slowly accumulated over the swampy Earth, storing away much of the carbon in the atmosphere. This is where the name of this period of time comes from: Carboniferous is Latin for coal-bearing. In fact, as layers of dead trees piled on top of each other, they were gradually compressed into a massive layer of coal, which is where we get most of the coal we use today.
Invertebrate insects grew to enormous sizes.
All of this paints a very surreal picture of ancient Earth. It would have been a moist, swampy place covered in endless fields of timber and giant ferns, crawling with Lovecraftian insects the size of your arm or larger.
Crazed boffins in the USA say they have successfully carried out a Jurassic Park-style project in which enormous flesh-eating creatures from the remote prehistoric past have been successfully bred in the laboratory. Incomprehensibly this laboratory is not located on a remote island.
As many readers will doubtless be aware, during the late Paleozoic era the Earth was, if not exactly ruled or terrorized, at the least very seriously bothered by swarms of gigantic dragonflies with wingspans around 70cm across. The monster insects will have been all the more troublesome as dragonflies “need to hunt live prey”, according to experts.
One such expert is Dr John VandenBrooks, who has after a lengthy struggle managed to breed such much-enlarged dragonflies in his Arizona laboratory. The large size was achieved by enhancing atmospheric oxygen levels to 31 per cent, as seen in the Paleozoic (today’s air is only about 20 per cent O2).
Proudly showing off the results of their genetic experimentation.
The hard bit, according to the prof, was not the creation of this artificially enriched (or “hyperoxic”) atmosphere but the actual care and feeding of the monstrous, prehistoric winged flesh-eaters.
“Dragonflies are notoriously difficult to rear,” boasts VandenBrooks. “We are one of the only groups to successfully rear them to adulthood under laboratory conditions.”
According to a statement issued by the Geological Society of America:
There is no such thing as dragonfly chow. As juveniles they need to hunt live prey and in fact undergraduate students Elyse Muñoz and Michael Weed working with Dr VandenBrooks had to resort to hand feeding the dragonflies.
It’s to be hoped that the unfortunate undergrads escaped from the hyperoxia chambers with their hands and other body parts intact. Plenty more where they came from, no doubt.
Not content with his creation of huge flesh-eating Paleozoic hyper-dragonflies, VandenBrooks also sought to breed greatly enlarged cockroaches and other horrors using similar hypercharged breeding pens. However this time the experiments were a failure, even once the hyper-roaches had been blasted with incredibly powerful energy rays at a handy atom-smasher.
The disappointed prof, perhaps assisted by surviving members of his team, is to reveal details of his accomplishments at a convention in Colorado.
Yikes!
Giant Millipede.
Marine Life During the Carboniferous Period
With the extinction of the distinctive placoderms (armored fish) at the end of the Devonian period, the Carboniferous isn’t especially well known for its marine life, except insofar as some genera of lobe-finned fish were closely related to the very first tetrapods and amphibians that invaded dry land.
Falcatus, a close relative of Stethacanthus, is probably the best-known Carboniferous shark, along with the much bigger Edestus, which is known primarily by its teeth.
As in preceding geologic periods, small invertebrates like corals, crinoids, and arthropods were plentiful in the Carboniferous seas.
Plant Life During the Carboniferous Period
The dry, cold conditions of the late Carboniferous period weren’t especially hospitable to plants—but that still didn’t prevent these hardy organisms from colonizing every available ecosystem on dry land.
The Carboniferous witnessed the very first plants with seeds, as well as bizarre genera like the 100-foot-tall club moss Lepidodendron and the slightly smaller Sigillaria.
Lepidodendron trees. However, by most accounts they existed in dense forests with very thick and deep swampy undergrowth. So if you add that green boggy mess to the picture you would have a better idea of what the tree actually looked like.
The most important plants of the Carboniferous period were the ones inhabiting the large belt of carbon-rich “coal swamps” around the equator, which were later compressed by millions of years of heat and pressure into the vast coal deposits we use for fuel today.
Bruno, a fellow forum member and moderator of the naturalistes forum has a ton of plant fossil examples and reconstruction info over on that site..
Take a look at each page and you'll see the closeup detail of fossils of the genus Lepidodendron and lots of reconstructions that will help your cause.
He's also got a wealth of info on the other major plant members of the forest in that website....days and days worth of fossil images and reconstructions. It is a treasure!
http://forums-naturalistes.forums-actifs.com/t2395-lepidodendron-sternberg-1820
Carboniferous period summary
During this period in time, there was one super continent on the earth. It had plentiful oxygen which permitted the evolution of insects to grow to enormous sizes and develop specialized intelligence’s over the years.
Most other creatures were still primitive and resembled proto-dinosaurs. These were smaller creatures that were just then finding their way on the food chain. There were NO apes, primates or humans.
Ancient Tracks
Yet…
Evidence for the existence of wheeled vehicles in antiquity has surfaced all over the world. They do so as petrified ancient tracks.
They are found in France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and even North America.
Prehistoric “Cart ruts”
"I believe we’re seeing the indicators of the civilization which existed sooner than the vintage introduction of this global,” Dr. Koltypin mentioned. “All those rocky fields had been coated with ruts left thousands and thousands of years in the past…we don’t seem to be speaking about human beings. We are coping with some more or less automobiles or all-terrain vehicles.”
-Alienpolicy
A prehistoric site known formally as Misrah Ghar il-Kbir meaning the Great Cave in Maltese (and commonly referred to as Clapham Junction), is located at Siggiewi, near the Dingli Cliffs in Malta.
It is at this now famous site that what have been termed ‘cart ruts’ cut into the limestone have mystified all that have visited the area.
Cart ruts suggestive of an axle connected pair of wheels.
Likewise, a number of unusual tracks in stone are also visible on the island of Sicily at the Greek amphitheater called the Great Theater of Syracuse.
Interestingly, and paradoxically, most archaeologists have suggested that the Maltese tracks were probably created by Sicilian settlers who traveled to Malta around 2000 BC at the start of the Bronze Age.
Yet more tracks are to be found in Turkey.
Some at Sofca cover an area roughly 45 by 10 miles (72.42 by 16.09 km), and also in Cappadocia, where several pockets of tracks can be seen.
The many ruts discovered around the world have caused a great deal of controversy as to their purpose, age, and origin.
These mysterious objects remain up for debate, but due to the association and close proximity with megalithic structures, in Malta particularly, and due to the fact that many tracks are now submerged below the sea in that region, many researchers have concluded that the fossilized lines show signs of great antiquity.
‘Cart rut’ tracks in Sofca, Turkey. (Author provided)
Bizarrely, considering the anomalous wheel print discovered in Ukraine that we have just discussed, a medieval city-fortress in the Crimean Mountains of Ukraine called Chufut-Kale lies in ruins, but also plays host to a number of cart ruts in stone like those at the nearby site of Eski-Kermen.
"We can think that ancient vehicles on wheels had been drove on comfortable soil, perhaps a rainy floor, and as a result of their weight the ruts had been so deep. Later those ruts – and all the floor round – simply petrified and secured all the proof,”
-Alienpolicy
Dr. Alexander Koltypin is a geologist and director of the Natural Science Research Center at Moscow’s International Independent University of Ecology and Politology.
He has spent a great deal of time visiting these sites and comparing them to one another in search of similarities.
“I first saw tracks in stone - fossilized car or terrain vehicle traces (usually called cart ruts) on Neogen plantation surface (peneplene in Phrygian) plain in May 2014 (Central Anatolia Turkey).
They were situated in the field of development of Middle and Late Miocene tuffs and tuffites and according to age analysis of nearby volcanic rocks, had middle Miocene age of 12-14 million years,” wrote Koltypin.
This particular region which Koltypin has researched further is relatively unknown and the guide books offer nothing in the way of information.
Whilst orthodox researchers claim that the tracks are simply the remnants of old petrified cart ruts from the kind of wheeled vehicles which donkeys or camels would have pulled, Koltypin has other ideas.
“I will never accept it,” he explained when confronted with the standard explanations. “I myself will always remember . . . many other inhabitants of our planet wiped from our history.”
Raddet ir-Roti Cart Ruts, Xemxija Heritage Trail in St. Paul’s Bay, Malta. (Frank Vincentz/ CC BY SA 3.0 )
Upon measuring the width and length of the tracks at the Phrygian Valley site, he is convinced that they were created by vehicles of a similar length to modern cars but with tires 9 inches (22.86 cm) wide.
With the depth of the impressions of the tracks in stone exceeding that which one would associate with small carts, Koltypin maintains that the vehicles responsible must have been much heavier.
"As a geologist, I will unquestionably inform you that unknown antediluvian (sooner than the flood) all-terrain vehicles drove round Central Turkey some 12-14 million years in the past. The technique of specifying the age of volcanic rocks may be very smartly studied and labored out,”-Alienpolicy
He theorizes that whichever civilization drove the heavy vehicles that created the tracks were most likely responsible for the many different but identical roads, ruts and underground complexes which are scattered around the entire Mediterranean, more than 12 million years ago.
Aware that the process of petrification can occur within a relatively short period, Koltypin insists that the heavy mineral deposits which coat the tracks and the visible erosion are suggestive of…
…of a greater antiquity;
…along with the surrounding underground cities, irrigation systems, wells, and more, which also show signs of being millions of years old in his view.
Koltypin wrote on his website,
‘We are dealing with extremely tough lithified (petrified) sediments, covered with a thick layer of weathering, that takes millions of years to develop, full of multiple cracks with newly developed minerals in them, which could only emerge in periods of high tectonic activity.’
It is evident that much research is needed to clarify the age and origin of the many tracks that are being discovered.
Discoveries which occur at multiple geographical locations, all over the world.
And yes, it is easy to simply state that they are the product of old carts which once trundled through these parts.
But actual investigation may well reveal far more complex and remarkable explanations which could well correlate with other things.
Other things, such as the mysterious remnants of an unknown ancient civilization as postulated by Alexander Koltypin.
The sheer presence of the fossilized wheel found in the Ukraine is certainly suggestive of the fact that the ancients may have had access to more technology and know-how than is currently accepted.
Especially when we KNOW that the world pretty much looked a little like this…
About the ruts
Don’t the ruts resemble trying to move carts through very marshy, muddy land? Just exactly the kind of terrain and environment that existed 300 million years ago?
Typical terrain 300 million years ago.
Conclusion
Dates are being bantered about of 300 million years, and 12 million years. In any event these dates pre-date apes, monkeys, primates and proto-humans.
Yet, we find the impossible.
Not only a wheel firmly embedded deep down inside a mine shaft, but ruts that take many centuries to harden into stone. Couple that with the discoveries of chains, metal lamps, bells, and other objects all pulled out of 300 million year old coal, it makes one wonder what is really going on.
Perhaps instead of trying to reationalize how these OOPART objects can exist relative to the history that is taught in school, perhaps we should realize that at signifigant points in time…
…in this case,
300 million years ago
12 million years ago
…that civilizations existed upon the earth. That these civilizations possessed tool-making ability, (as shown in other articles) metal forming ability, and the ability to work together in groups to create large megalithic structures that resemble boulders and rocks today.
And…
…instead of saying that mankind, or proto-humans created these objects, wouldn’t it be cleaner, more sensible, and easier to simply acknowledge that there must have been other civilizations, populated by other creatures living upon the earth at those far, far distant times.
A diminutive, and smaller than human, species… capable of living in a high oxygen content environment… where the oxygen made them grow to enormous sizes (though still smaller than humans). Capable of fabricating things out of wood, such as the Lepidodendron tree. And capable of metal working, which means that they had control over fire, and an understanding on how to mine ore.
And when we understand that point, we are truly able to see the insignificance of the human species on the grand scale of things.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my OOPARTs Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Today I woke up at the crack of dawn, made my self a nice stout coffee (after I washed my face) and ate it with some buttered baguettes. It’s a nice little routine that I have, especially since I found a bakery that makes these kinds of bread instead of the soft and sweet “sponge cakes” (style breads) that are irritatingly common throughout China these days.
Sweet breads are not my favorite, though. Bagels are. And finding a proper bagel in China is an exercise in futility.
My old dog was snoring and barking in his deep doggie dreams. His little doggie paws were making padding moves and he was softly barking between his snoring.
It was a nice lovely and calm morning.
I sat down, fired up my computers, sat down (after I measured my blood pressure) and checked my email, as the dawn was lightening up. I could feel the fresh ocean breeze carry the fragrances of the local flowers, and the birds were singing their morning songs. It was calm and pleasant.
Uncle MM has left me some bars of gold…
What do you know!
My long lost great uncle Metallicman has died without any heirs. And I am the closest relative. Who would have figured?
What are the odds?
What’s more, he’s got a couple of billion dollars in the bank and I was contacted to see if I was his long, lost relative.
My goodness. Imagine that!
My name is Fabian Artoro, an asset management brokerage consultant. I am contacting you on behalf of my late client who worked as an independent engineering contractor in a gold mining company in my country, the Republic of Ghana.
He was my client until his sudden demise on the 24th of April 2018, fatal car crash, his wife and their only daughter were all involved in that car crash along Kumassi express Road.
Sadly, all occupants of the vehicle, unfortunately, lost their lives. My client had funds, a huge amount in one of the financial institutions here and it is in the process of being confiscated by the state as unclaimed funds...
I’m sure it is legitimate.
Don’t you?
Well, After checking my normal (tap, click and move on) websites, and finding out that they are all parroting the same-old, same-old nonsense, I moved on. You do get tired of the same spiel day in, and day out.
What am I talking about?
Well, I am talking about this…
First up, your daily dose of Anti-China…
It’s been a daily top-line item in my feeds since 2016.
Reminds me of the movie “Battleship”. Nice CGI, by the way. And yeah, this was the entire plot and story line behind it. Don’t you know…
Well that was about as useful as giving a dolphin a pair of crutches.
So then it’s off to MM, and I check the comments. Ohhh baby!
MM Comment Section
Right there at the top of my comment “awaiting approval” list is this piece of insulting passive-aggressive bullshit.
I see you’re still doing the bidding of your new country comrade, it’s dishonest to hide the fact that you are a round-eyed Chinese operative…apparently there is no such thing as a retired intelligence officer.
I am too old for this nonsense.
I’ve lived in China for nearly two decades and no one has ever used the term “comrade“. I guess this jackass never got the memo. He’s probably still talking about how groovy the Mod Squad is, and fondling his “love beads”.
I’m dishonest? Even in prison they told me that I “couldn’t lie worth shit“. I can’t. So I just don’t try. I tell you it straight. You either take it or not. It really makes my life simpler. What you see is what you get.
“Round eyes” sounds pretty fucking racist to me.
Idiots abound in this world.
Sometimes I wonder if they really believe what they say, or that they want to live inside a rotten world-line template. This “fellow” is certainly making his MWI topographical map “interesting“.
Here’s a MM secret; if you want to have a nice calm and happy life, make others happy. If you want to have a problem-some, and tumultuous life, then spend your time making others miserable.
Anyways, it’s 7am and I could use a beer.
Do you “feel” me?
Beer and pancakes.
The rest of the world is not my problem. You all will see what the fuck is going on in your little neck of the woods soon enough. Especially this piece of shit (will).
Anyways…
I am sorry that I have been so busy with all these other issues lately. But I do “feel” a need to start post more MAJestic related stuff, and that means OOPART stuff as well.
Which leads me to this mystery…
The Aiud Mystery in Transylvania
Yeah. Aiud is in the Transylvania region of Romania. It in the state of Alba. It’s that triangle shaped region in the map below.
The Transylvania region of Romania.
.
Of all the hundreds of websites about this mystery object, not one single one bothered to look up Aiud on a map. They just cut and paste from other websites.
Slothful. Lazy.
Money-grubbing. Greedy.
“For-profit” oriented assholes.
Doesn’t anyone ever just do things because they WANT to do it? Jeeze!
Anyways, in 1974, in Romania, East of Aiud, (in Transylvania) a group of workers, on the banks of the river Mures, discovered three buried objects in a sand trench 10 meters deep.
In sand, near a river, implies that the river eventually covered these items and buried them in silt. Then later, when the river became smaller or changed it’s path, the silt remained as sandy soil.
Of the three items, two of the objects proved to be Mastodon bones. These dating from between the Miocene and the Pleistocene periods. The third object — the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud, also known as the Object of Aiud, is a mysterious wedge-shaped block of aluminum metal.
The mysterious aluminum object was discovered by chance in 1974 at a depth of 10 meters at a quarry by the banks of river Mures near the Romanian town of Aiud. The artifact weighs approximately 2 kilos (length: 21cm; width: 12.5 cm; thickness: 7cm).
According to researchers and engineers it appears very similar to the feet fused on modern landing gear found on aircraft with vertical landing and take-off.
For conventional investigators it appears as a hammer head.
In its vicinity researchers found two mastodon bones(extinct large tusked mammal species that lived between 10,000 and 80,000 BC). Based on the findings next to the object it can be assumed that the object is at least 10,000 years old.
-HistoryDisclosure
Because it is out of place, it is considered an OOPART.
After all, contemporaneous belief is that Mastodons were unable to fabricate tools, let alone precision manufacture of aircraft components. They didn’t have opposing thumbs, don’t you know. Let alone the fact that those enormous tusks of theirs would get in the way of precision manufacturing…
That goes as well for the local humans at the time. They are considered to be primitive.
Early humans. (Romanticized.)
.
So what the heck is a pawl from a landing gear doing with some mastodon bones near a river in Romania?
Dating the object
According to conventional history the artifact should not exist since aluminum was discovered in 1807 and wasn’t produced in any usable form until after 1886.
A subsequent dating analysis (I haven’t been able to find details on the dating technique used) on the artifact indicated that it was at least 200,000 years old.
This date apparently came from the geological evidence where the bones and pawl were found. When the “front end loader” excavated the trench (or what ever equivalent did so in the 1970’s in Romania) the soil, and the mastodon bones indicated a very approximate date sometime within the Pleistocene.
Mastodon, (genus Mammut), any of several extinctelephantine mammals (family Mammutidae, genus Mammut) that first appeared in theearlyMiocene (23 million to 2.6 million years ago) and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).
-Mastodon | Description, Distribution, Extinction, & Facts ...
Depending on the particular dating of the bones, we can assume that the pawl was contemporaneous with the bones in some way. Which could mean that the primitive humans picked up this pawl at some point in time, and were using it to smash open Mastodon bones for food.
.
Obviously they weren't using it on one of their aircraft, or it just suddenly "fell off" some aircraft speeding along two million years ago, eh?
.
The dating (on the Mastodon bones) would be somewhere between 23 million years ago and 11,700 million years ago. Which is a (phew!) long span of time.
.
So I’m not in agreement with the dating of the trench, the location, the bones, or anything else. Except to say that the aluminum predates the discovery, manufacture and utilization of aluminum in that form and shape. Thus making it an OOPART.
However, a conjecture…
Perhaps primitive man found this aluminum pawl, and found a use for it. It is very useful for cracking open bones to get at the marrow.
.
If we go ahead with the idea that perhaps a primitive human or pre-human picked up this aluminum pawl in it’s travels…
…and thinking that it is a nice “stone”, being light and easy to carry (5 pounds), with a nice pointed end…
…that shows abrasions on the pointed ends and sides…
…which makes this scenario likely…
…then we can date this part as used as a tool by the pre-humanoids in that region at that time.
The oldest handmade stone tools discovered yet predate any known humans and may have been wielded by an as-yet-unknown species, researchers say.
The 3.3-million-year-old stone artifacts are the first direct evidence that early human ancestors may have possessed the mental abilities needed to figure out how to make razor-sharp stone tools. The discovery also rewrites the book on the kind of environmental and evolutionary pressures that drove the emergence of toolmaking.
Chimpanzees and monkeys are known to use stones as tools, picking up rocks to hammer open nuts and solve other problems. However, until now, only members of the human lineage — the genus Homo, which includes the modern human species Homo sapiens and extinct humans such as Homo erectus — were thought capable of making stone tools. [See Photos of the Oldest Stone Tools]
Ancient stone artifacts from East Africa were first uncovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in the mid-20th century. Those stone tools were later associated with fossils of the ancient human species Homo habilis, discovered in the 1960s.
-LiveScience
So…
This aluminum pawl could be 2.3 million years old.
Humans during the Pleistocene
Let’s have Caleb Strom explain what “humans” were like during this time. (From here.)
Theevolution of anatomically modern humans took place during the Pleistocene. In the beginning of the Pleistocene Paranthropus species were still present, as well as early human ancestors, but during the lower Palaeolithic they disappeared, and the only hominin species found in fossilic records is Homo erectus for much of the Pleistocene.
-Pleistocene - Wikipedia
The Pleistocene epoch is a geologic epoch which began around 2.6 Mya (Million years ago) and came to an end around 11,700 BP (Before Present). It is characterized by lower sea levels than the present epoch and colder temperatures. During much of the Pleistocene, Europe, North America, and Siberia were covered by extensive ice sheets and glaciers. The Pleistocene was an important time because it was when the human genus first evolved.
The Pleistocene ( PLYSE-tə-seen, -toh-, often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's most recent period of repeated glaciations.
The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek πλεῖστος (pleīstos, "most") and καινός (kainós (latinized as cænus), "new".
-Wikipedia
The flora and fauna today also more or less reached their current form during the Pleistocene. Most Pleistocene animals and Pleistocene plants also exist in the Holocene. Furthermore, the Pleistocene epoch was the last geological epoch in which humans had relatively little impact.
While parts of the world were dryer – such as central Europe, which was mostly covered in tundra, other parts of the world were wetter and greener.
Many of the animals common today were also common in the Pleistocene. Deer, big cats, apes, elephants, and bears could all be found in a Pleistocene landscape. There were also animals that were common which have since gone extinct, such as mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths , and pre-human hominins .
Europe and Asia had significant populations of African fauna. Cave paintings and paleontological finds in Europe reveal that rhinoceroses, lions, and hyenas were all common at that time in southern Europe. The island of Sicily was also inhabited by a dwarf elephant species until surprisingly recent times. Northern Europe was covered in glaciers and inhospitable, while central Europe was tundra. Southern Europe, however, contained forests and was inhabited by numerous species of megafauna, most of which have since died out.
Another important development on the Pleistocene timeline was the emergence of the human genus: Homo. Humans probably evolved out of bipedal apes, such as the Australopithecines and Ardipithecus Ramidus . These early bipedal apes are classified as hominins. Hominins first evolved near the end of the Miocene epoch (25-5 Mya) in south and east Africa. Other than their upright posture and bipedalism, these hominins were not significantly more human than previous apes.
Their skeletons indicate that they resembled modern apes such as chimpanzees and their use of tools was limited or absent. At the beginning of the Pleistocene, however, a new type of hominin appeared. These hominins were taller, more dependent on upright locomotion, and had larger brains, which allowed them to excel in tool use over any previous hominin. These hominins belong to the genus Homo and hominins in this genus are simply called humans.
The earliest human species was Homo Habilis . The first examples of this species appeared about 2.3 million years ago. They used simple flake tools which were made by taking rocks and striking sharp flakes off other rocks – which could be used as cutting tools. Homo Habilis was more technologically inclined than its hominin predecessors, but it was still closer to earlier and more ape-like hominins than modern humans.
Homo Habilis
The next earliest human species is Homo Erectus . The first H. Erectus evolved around 2 million years ago and the last of them did not die out until sometime within the last 100,000 years. Archaeological and paleontological evidence suggest that they may have been the first humans to use culture as a wholesale approach to adapt to their environment. They were more advanced tool users and were also much taller than previous hominins, about six feet (1.83 meters) tall. They were also the first humans to leave Africa. By 1 million years ago, H. Erectus had spread to both Europe and Asia, bringing humans for the first time to these regions.
Homo Erectus
The earliest humans were universally hunter-gatherers. Their use of technology to interact with their environment made them very adaptative – so that humans eventually found their way into every possible environment on the planet: forests, grasslands, deserts, even tundra.
For most of the Pleistocene, humans did not significantly impact their environment. There were no more than a few hundred thousand individuals at a given time and their ability to transform the landscape was limited by primitive technology and limited social organization.
This all changed with the emergence of Homo Sapiens (modern humans) in Africa and Homo Neandertalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe.
Neanderthal
Anatomically modern humans first evolved in Africa around 200,000-300,000 BP. After the emergence of anatomically modern humans, something happened, perhaps a rewiring of the human brain , that led to the emergence of modern behaviors like art, blade production, long distance trade, and more efficient, organized hunting, among other abilities.
This change in behavior caused humans to have a significantly larger influence on their environment than in previous times. This can be seen in the fate of most megafauna, especially in the New World. Megafauna extinctions occurred around 40,000-50,000 years ago in Australia and around 13,000 years ago in North America. Both occurred shortly after the appearance of humans on these continents.
…
Obviously, Homo Neandertalensis (Neanderthals) are unlikely to have mined ore, smelted it, studied how to create alloys, formed it into aircraft components, and machines it for use in aircraft.
Thus we have an OOPART worthy of investigation.
Homo Neandertalensis (Neanderthals) are unlikely to have manufactured this aluminum pawl object.
An investigation ensues
So of course, if you are part of a construction crew and you dig up some bones, and other odd objects you call the authorities. And if the bones or objects look old, you call in the experts from the local museum, college or university to have a look.
Thus the object was sent to the archeological institute of Cluj-Napoca.
After the investigation and study, the block was donated to the History Museum of Transylvania, to be rediscovered and analyzed many years later. (I cover that later on.) Its weight turned out to be 5 pounds, and its approximate measurements are 20 x 12.5 x 7 centimeters.
There are two holes of different sizes.
The object has two arms like features.
Traces of abrasion can be seen on the sides of the object and at its lowest point.
Dr. Niederkorn of the institute for the study of metals and non-metallic minerals located in Magurele, Romania, concluded that the object is comprised of a alloy of an extremely complex metal.
He was not exaggerating.
Twelve different elements combine to form the Aiud Object. It consists of: 89% aluminum, 6.2% copper, 2.84% silicon, 1.81% zinc, 0.41% lead, 0.33% tin, 0.2% zirconium, 0.11% cadmium, 0.0024% nickel, 0.0023% cobalt, 0.0003% bismuth, and trace of galium.
Furthermore, this strange object is covered with a thick layer of aluminum oxide, which lends credence to its antiquity.
"After the analysis of this aluminum oxide layer, "specialists" have confirmed that the object is a minimum of 300 to 400 years old."
But that’s a bullshit guess.
The generation of aluminum oxide depends on the environment and the particular alloy that is being used. Unless you have that exact alloy of aluminum and put it though accelerated life testing, in the environment in question, it is IMPOSSIBLE to determine the age of anything.
Accelerated life testing
Accelerated life testing? What is that?
Well, it’s a common enough and fundamental aspect of engineering product design, but unknown to most other people. it is a way of estimating the life of a product due to environmental concerns. It’s a pretty handy and mature method for determine the life of a given object, or going backwards, the age of an object.
So here’s some basic links for the interested explorer…
But what we really want to determine is the accelerated life test due to corrosion. In that case similar, but more specialized tests must be conducted…
Anacceleratedcorrosiontest is a cyclic climate test for determination of thecorrosionresistance of various types of coatings. In an acceleratedcorrosiontest, corrosion, corrosiontest, corrosion, degradation or failure of materials and products are inducedwithoutchangeincorrosion mechanism (s) in a shorter time period than under normal conditions.
-What is an Accelerated Corrosion Test (ACT)? - Definition ...
www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/1503/accelerated-corrosion-test-act
Different alloys of aluminum oxidase differently. Some alloys are great for marine environments, while others are not that great, but have better strength characteristics. Further complicating the issue is the environment. Exposure to a dry environment is quite different from sitting with in a bog or sandy soil.
The ONLY way that you can accurately test for the oxidation characteristics of a new alloy is to perform extended life testing on a sample of the aluminum alloy within a simulated environment. Otherwise your estimates on aging through oxidation are all wrong.
The Aluminum Pawl. Note the two holes clearly shown.
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Many people have things to say about this object and opinions on dating it.
No one is saying that the aluminum pawl is recent. Aside from making them look silly in the eyes of their contemporaries, it’s obvious that this chunk of metal is old. Really old. The level of corrosion on the object far exceeds any kind of contemporaneous aluminum corrosion. It’s just simply very extraordinary and unusual.
And because of this there are numerous statements being made…
The fact that this strange metal object was found alongside Mastadon bones does cause one to wonder and raises many issues.
And...
Other specialists claim that the object could be 20,000 years old because it was found in a layer with mastodon bone. Perhaps this particular specimen lived in the latter part of the Pleistocene.
And...
Some researchers suppose that this piece of metal was part of a flying object that had fallen into the river. They presume that it had an extraterrestrial origin. Other researchers believe the wedge was made here on Earth and its purpose has not yet been identified.
Ah…
Some have speculated that this object is part of an Aircraft
It looks like a badly corroded locking latch from the retraction mechanism of an aircraft’s undercarriage, but that can’t be….surely?
Can it?
The retraction mechanism of an aircraft’s undercarriage.
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These mechanisms come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. But the closest thing to explain the operational features and functions of this aluminum pawl is the aircraft retraction mechanisms in contemporary aircraft.
I mean it’s more likely that this item was the part of some kind of landing gear mechanism than say a “frying pan”, a “pick axe”, a “railway train wheel”, a metal frame for a window”, a “water pipe” or an “anvil”.
Which makes one wonder what is one doing 2.5 million years ago, being used to break up the bones of a mastodon.
Primitive man would use stones and heavy objects to break open the bones of hunted animals to obtain the marrow inside of the bones.
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Could it have ended up down amongst bones that were deposited thousands of years ago by chance? It just happened to fall off an aircraft, that just happened to be flying a few million years ago, and it just happened to fall into the remains of a dead mastodon.
I guess it could.
Anything is possible.
And while it is possible, it is not probable.
The simplest explanation is probably the closest to the truth.
Whilst it is likely that the philosophy was posthumously attributed to him, as it was based upon common medieval philosophy, it seems to be a result of his minimalist lifestyle.
Occam's razor is more commonly described as 'the simplest answer is most often correct,' although this is an oversimplification. The 'correct' interpretation is that entities should not be multiplied needlessly.Researchers should avoid 'stacking' information to prove a theory if a simpler explanation fits the observations.
Occam's razor is the process of paring down information to make finding the truth easier.In science, it is getting rid of all the assumptions that make no difference to the predictions of the hypothesis. If you have a few hypotheses that could explain an observation, it is usually best to start with the simplest one.-How Occam's Razor Works | HowStuffWorks
Or in other words, look for the simplest explanation, and then go from there. You add and include or discount and discard theories that fit or don’t fit the investigation that you are performing.
Landing gear.
Names on a landing gear
I call it a pawl. But who knows what it’s actual role was.
pawl. (pôl) n. A hinged or pivoted device adapted to fit into a notch of a ratchet wheel to impart forward motionor prevent backward motion. [Perhaps variantofpale or pole, or from French pal (from Old French; see pale1 ).]
-Pawl - definitionofpawlbyTheFreeDictionary
It’s actual use name would be better described differently.
The specific names used on the various elements of an aircraft landing gear mechanism.
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Perhaps instead of a pawl, I could refer to it as a “drag strut to trunnion link walking beam“. Do you think that it would make things clearer?
Aiud in Romania
Ok, well let’s review where it was found. maybe some of you might want to hop on a plane and investigate for yourselves. You know, like Anonymous Jane did regarding the fuselage in The Fuselage embedded within the rocks of Victoria Falls.
If you do, I would be more than happy to post some of your pictures and info here. This is, after all, a collaborative effort.
Location of Romania. (This is for you Americans out there. The rest of the world pretty much knows where Romania is on a map.)
Map of Europe.
As far as where the town is, you need to look on a map. Here is a Romanian political map showing the location of Aiud. It is in the Alba (or Alba Lulia) state, which looks like a triangle.
A map of the various political regions of Romania.
And within this state we can find the location of Aiud in Romania.
A map of Alba, within Romania clearly showing the location of Aiud. “X” marks the spot.
Romania in the Miocene and the Pleistocene
Of course, a few thousand to a few million years ago Romania didn’t look like it does today. There was a lot of water there. With the Carpathian mountains creating a line of islands that interrupted a much larger Black Sea. If the dating was a million years ago, then we can say that the proto-humans who found and used this pawl were not all that far from the shorelines or feeding rivers to the Black Sea.
Palinspastic map for the Late Miocene with indication of palaeobiogeographic units (modified after Popov et al., 2004). Pannonian area emended after Magyar et al. (1999).
Outlines are drawn after palaeogeographic reconstructions or sediment distributions.
Faunas of freshwater systems fringing the Eastern Paratethys and the Italian 'Lago-mare' assemblage do not form a homogenous palaeogeographic entity. They are based on too many localities to be clearly indicated on the map. The Illyrian Region is only poorly supported by the analysis and represents the expiration of the Middle Miocene faunas of that region. Its incorporation into the present framework is only tentative.
Abbreviations: CPMCentral Peri-Mediterranean Dominion; NA-North Aegean Dominion; CA-Central Aegean Dominion; SAA-South Aegean-Anatolian Dominion; 1-Lower Tagus (w); 2-São Teotónio (l); 3-Duero (l); 4-Madrid (l); 5-Teruel (fl); 6-Baix Llobregat (b); 7-Alcalà de Xivert (u); 8-Cabriel (l); 9-Ayora (u); 10-Valencia (u); 11-Granada (l); 12-Spanish 'Lagomare' (b); 13-Palma (b); 14-Bresse-Valence (f); 15-Lower Rhône (m); 16-French 'Lago-mare' (b); 17-Torino hills (b); 18-Volterra (b); 19-Casino (b); 20-Velona (l); 21Cinigiano-Baccinello (l); 22-Sicilian 'Lago-mare' (b); 23-Bełchatów (l); 24-Turiec (l); 25-Pannon (b); 26-Dacia (b, l); 27-Kherson-Odessa region (b); 28-Black Sea depression (b); 29-Rioni Bay (b); 30-Kura Gulf (b); 31-Jazvina (l); 32-Kamengrad (l); 33-Posušje (l); 34-Sarajevo (l); 35-Kosovo (l); 36-Metohia (l); 37-Skopje (l); 38-Stanintsi (w); 39-Katerini (b); 40-Thessaloniki (b); 41-Strimon (b); 42-Limni (w); 43-Markopoulo (l); 44-Athens (l); 45-Gythio (b); 46-Kythira (b); 47-Naxos (u); 48-Heraklion (l); 49-Rhodos (l); 50-Kefalos (fl); 51-Kos (east) (l); 52-Mytilini (fl); 53-Denizli (b); 54-Cumaovası (l); 55-Dumlupınar-Siçanli (u); 56-Behramkale (u); 57-Marmara (f).
Environments are characterised as: b-brackish; f-fluviatile; fl-fluvio-lacustrine; l-lacustrine; m-marginal marine; w-wetlands; u-unknown.
History of Aluminum
This pawl is puzzling because pure aluminum was not readily obtainable until the middle of the 19th century.
Aluminum is not found freely in nature, but is combined with other minerals.
The manufacturing process requires 1,221°F (660.32°C) degrees of heat. Only in the last 100 years or so has the technology existed to successfully separate the materials from the mineral bearing ore.
For decades after it was first identified by British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in the early 1800s, scientists and tinkerers tried, and mostly failed, to find a good method for separating aluminum from everything else that stuck to it.
France’s Emperor Napoleon III was an early proponent of aluminum. He hoped the lightweight metal could be used to produce weapons and armor, giving his soldiers an edge in battle. The emperor funded the work of Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, who found a chemical method for obtaining pure aluminum, but it was still a slow process. An often repeated story goes that Napoleon III, frustrated with progress on aluminum, had much of France’s stock melted down and turned into cutlery. He and his honored guests used aluminum utensils, while everyone else at the imperial dinner table made do with gold.
In 1884, when the Washington Monument was completed, it was capped with a large casting of aluminum. The capping ceremony and the dedication of the monument “were given front-page publicity in the nation’s newspapers and the aluminum point or apex was creditably described,” according to a 1995 article published in the journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. “Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people who had never before even heard about aluminum now knew what it was.”
At the time, a pound of aluminum was worth $16 ($419 in today’s dollars).
Two years later, a commercially viable method for extracting aluminum from ore was discovered, and by 1889 the price had fallen to $2 per pound. Within 10 years of commercial refining, it plummeted to just 50 cents a pound.
The modern method of obtaining aluminum was discovered simultaneously by two young scientists working independently on different continents.
In 1886, two men, both 22 years of age — one working in Ohio and the other in northwestern France — developed the modern method for producing aluminum metal.
American Charles Martin Hall went to work after being inspired by a lecture at Oberlin College in which his chemistry professor pronounced that the discoverer of a practical way to produce aluminum “will bless humanity and make a fortune for himself.”
Frenchman Paul Héroult was working on the same problem.
At nearly the same time, the two men hit upon the same answer: electricity, and lots of it.
Still used today, this is how their method works: Alumina from bauxite is dissolved in another mineral, cryolite, at 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. The molten mixture is poured into a specially designed vat, and vast amounts of electricity are passed through it. The process causes aluminum metal to condense at the bottom of the vat.
The two men fought over ownership of the process they developed to smelt aluminum from bauxite ore. Héroult filed for his patent six weeks before Hall, but the American was able to prove (thanks possibly to notes kept by his sister, Julia Brainerd Hall) that he had actually made the discovery a few weeks before his rival. Ultimately, the two men settled their dispute and became friends.
In 1888, Hall co-founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Co. to produce aluminum. The company later became the aluminum giant Alcoa. The following year, Héroult scaled up the process in France.
The two men died the same year, in 1914, both age 51.
The development of the Hall-Héroult process, as it came to be known, was a major milestone in the Industrial Revolution. But it has also carried an environmental cost: The electricity needed produces large quantities of greenhouse gases. Aluminum production alone is responsible for about 1% of global emissions, according to estimates.
The availability of aluminum at the turn of the 20th century spurred on the age of flight and the Space Age.
Uses for Aluminum
The strength and light weight of aluminum is perfect for aerospace applications.
Aluminum allows designers to build a plane that is as light as possible, can carry heavyloads, uses the least amount of fuel and is impervious to rust. In modern aircraftmanufacture, aluminum is used everywhere. The Concorde, which flew passengers atover twice the speed of sound for 27 years, was built with an aluminum skin.
-Historyof Aluminum in the Aerospace Industry | Metal Super…
27% of all aluminum consumed occurs in the transportation industry, according to Aluminum Leader. This chemical element in the boron group is characterized by a silver-white color and soft, ductile texture. While it’s used in many different applications, one of the most common is aerospace. In fact, aluminum is one of the most common materials used in the construction of airplanes. So, why is aluminum used for this purpose instead of steel or other materials?
Some of the first airliners weren’t made of metal, but instead were made of wood. Although cheap and readily available, wood has a serious flaw that made it hazardous in airplanes: it rotted. There was one instances in which a wooden airliner crashed, killing everyone on board. The cause of the crash was later found to be rotten wood. This prompted manufacturers to quickly phase out wood in favor of metal.
Aluminum is the perfect material to use when manufacturing airplanes, thanks in part to its unique properties and characteristics. It’s strong, lightweight, predictable and inexpensive. Steel and iron are both stronger than aluminum, but strength alone isn’t enough to justify its use in aerospace manufacturing. The problem with steel and iron is its weight. Both of these metals are much heavier than aluminum — and too much weigh restricts an airplane’s ability to takeoff and fly.
It’s estimated that up to 80% of the materials used in modern-day aircraft is aluminum. The Wright brothers used a steel engine in their early-model Flyer plane, which was not only heavy but lacked the power necessary for takeover. As a result, they acquired a special engine made of cast aluminum, which allowed their Flyer-1 to takeoff with ease.
There are several different types of aluminum used in aerospace engineering, some of which include the following:
Aluminum 2024
Aluminum 3003
Aluminum 5052
Aluminum 6061
Aluminum 7075
Note: the number refers to the aluminum’s “grade.”
Of course, aluminum isn’t the only metal used to manufacture airplanes. Carbon-alloy steel is often used for his application as well. When carbon is added to steel, it becomes stronger and more resistant to rust and corrosion. Titanium is another metal that’s commonly used in aerospace engineering. It’s strong, lightweight, and naturally resistant to corrosion. Some companies alloy titanium with iron or manganese to construct the frame and engines for airplanes. These use of these metals, however, is typically less than that of aluminum. Aluminum isn’t the strongest metal, but it maintains a perfect balance of strength and low weight that make it ideal for airplanes.
The metal used and subsequent study
The object was taken to the Archaeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca for metallographic analysis where it was discovered that it was made from a complex alloy consisting 12 different elements.
It was then taken to a laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, to verify its composition, showed that the artifact was constituted mostly by aluminum (89%), with the minor participation of 11 other metals in specific proportions.
The thick layer of oxide of a millimeter of thickness that covered of even form to the block helped to date the antiquity of this in about 400 years. However, the geological layer in which it was found (Pleistocene) suggests that it already existed some 20,000 years ago in the past.
Florin Gheorghita, had the opportunity to examine the report and the analysis carried out under the direction of Dr. Niederkorn of the Institute for the Study of Nonmetallic Metals and Minerals (ICPMMN), located in Magurele, Romania, stressed in that it is composed of an extremely complex metal alloy.
Gheorghita states that the alloy is composed of 12 different elements, of which the percentage of aluminum volume (89%) has also been established. It also identified the presence of copper (6.2%), silicon (2.84%), zinc (1.81%), lead (0.41%), Laguna (0.33%), zirconium (0, 2%), cadmium (0.11%), nickel (0.0024%), cobalt (0.0023%), bismuth (0.0003%), silver (0.0002%), and gallium (in trace amounts).
People! these are extremely odd material and unusual combinations to have in an aluminum alloy. To say that it is unique is putting it mildly. What kind of mad scientist thought up this combination?
As I have often stated previously, factories don’t just throw what ever alloy of aluminum together and use it. Like steel, copper, bronze and zinc there are specific alloys that are regulated world-wide and used for certain purposes. Thus, by comparing the alloy composition of this object with available alloys “on the books” we can identify many aspects of this object.
We can identify it’s function.
We can identify what nation made it.
We might even be able to identify what smelter factory made the billet.
Isn’t industrial forensics fascinating?
Aluminum-Copper Alloy
The first thing that we note is that it’s most important alloying element is copper.
And from from this we can help determine what the possible function of the pawl was.
Copper has been the most common alloying element almost since the beginning of the aluminum industry, and a variety of alloys in which copper is the major addition were developed.
Most of these alloys fall within one of the following groups:
Cast alloys with 5% Cu, often with small amounts of silicon and magnesium.
Cast alloys with 7-8% Cu, which often contain large amounts of iron and silicon and appreciable amounts of manganese, chromium, zinc, tin, etc.
Cast alloys with 10-14% Cu. These alloys may contain small amounts of magnesium (0.10-0.30% Mg), iron up to 1.5%, up to 5% Si and smaller amounts of nickel, manganese, chromium.
Wrought alloys with 5-6% Cuand often small amounts of manganese, silicon, cadmium, bismuth, tin, lithium, vanadium and zirconium. Alloys of this type containing lead, bismuth, and cadmium have superior machinability.
Durals, whose basic composition is 4-4.5% Cu, 0.5-1.5% Mg, 0.5-1.0% Mn, sometimes with silicon additions.
Copper alloys containing nickel, which can be subdivided in two groups: the Y alloy type, whose basic composition is 4% Cu, 2% Ni, 1.5% Mg; and the Hyduminiums, which usually have lower copper contents and in which iron replaces some of the nickel.
In most of the alloys in this group aluminum is the primary constituent and in the cast alloys the basic structure consists of cored dendrites of aluminum solid solution, with a variety of constituents at the grain boundaries or interdendritic spaces, forming a brittle, more or less continuous network of eutectics.
Wrought products consist of a matrix of aluminum solid solution with the other constituents dispersed within it. Constituents formed in the alloys can be divided in two groups: in the soluble ones are the constituents containing only one or more of copper, lithium, magnesium, silicon, zinc; in the insoluble ones are the constituents containing at least one of the more or less insoluble iron, manganese, nickel, etc.
The type of soluble constituents formed depends not only on the amount of soluble elements available but also on their ratio.
Available copper depends on the iron, manganese and nickel contents; the copper combined with them is not available.
Copper forms (CuFe)Al6 and Cu2FeAl7, with iron, (CuFeMn)Al6 and Cu2Mn3Al20 with manganese, Cu4NiAl, and several not too well known compounds with nickel and iron.
The amount of silicon available to some extent controls the copper compounds formed.
Silicon above 1% favors the FeSiAl5, over the iron-copper compounds and (CuFeMn)3Si2Al15, over the (CuFeMn)Al6 and Cu2Mn3Al20 compounds.
Similarly, but to a lesser extent, available silicon is affected by iron and manganese contents. With the Cu:Mg ratio below 2 and the Mg:Si ratio well above 1.7 the CuMg4Al6 compound is formed, especially if appreciable zinc is present. When Cu:Mg > 2 and Mg:Si > 1.7, CuMgAl2 is formed.
If the Mg:Si ratio is approximately 1.7, Mg2Si and CuAl2 are in equilibrium.
With the Mg:Si ratio 1 or less, Cu2Mg8Si6Al5, is formed, usually together with CuAl2.
When the copper exceeds 5%, commercial heat treatment cannot dissolve it and the network of eutectics does not break up. Thus, in the 10-15% Cu alloys there is little difference in structure between the as-cast and heat treated alloys.
Magnesium is usually combined with silicon and copper. Only if appreciable amounts of lead, bismuth or tin are present, Mg2Sn, Mg2Pb, Mg2Bi3 can be formed.
The effect of alloying elements on density and thermal expansion is additive; thus, densities range from 2 700 to 2 850 kg/m3, with the lower values for the high-magnesium, high-silicon and low-copper alloys, the higher for the high-copper, high-nickel, high-manganese and high-iron contents.
Many of the cast alloys and aluminum-copper-nickel alloys are used for high-temperature applications, where creep resistance is important. Resistance is the same whether the load is tensile or compressive.
Wear resistance is favored by high hardness and the presence of hard constituents. Alloys with 10-15% Cu or treated to maximum hardness have very high wear resistance.
Silicon increases the strength in cast alloys, mainly by increasing the castability and thus the soundness of the castings, but with some loss of ductility and fatigue resistance, especially when it changes the iron-bearing compounds from FeM2SiAl8 or Cu2FeAl7, to FeSiAl5.
Magnesium increases the strength and hardness of the alloys, but, especially in castings, with a decided decrease in ductility and impact resistance.
Iron has some beneficial strengthening effect, especially at high temperature and at the lower contents (< 0.7% Fe).
Nickel has a strengthening effect, similar to that of manganese, although more limited because it only acts to reduce the embrittling effect of iron. Manganese and nickel together decrease the room-temperature properties because they combine in aluminum-manganese-nickel compounds and reduce the beneficial effects of each other. The main effect of-nickel is the increase in high-temperature strength, fatigue and creep resistance.
Titanium is added as grain refiner and it is very effective in reducing the grain size. If this results in a better dispersion of insoluble constituents, porosity and nonmetallic inclusions, a decided improvement in mechanical properties results.
Lithium has an effect very similar to that of magnesium: it increases strength, especially after heat treatment and at high temperatures, and there is a corresponding decrease in ductility. Zinc increases the strength but reduces ductility.
Hiduminium
The Hiduminium alloys or R.R. alloys are a series of high-strength, high-temperature aluminium alloys, developed for aircraft use by Rolls-Royce (“RR”) before World War II.
The name Hi–Du-Minium is derived from that of High Duty Aluminium Alloys.
In 1934 the Reynolds Tube Co. began production of extruded structural components for airframes, using R.R.56 alloy supplied by High Duty Alloys.
A new purpose-built plant was constructed at their works in Tyseley, Birmingham.
In time, the post-war Reynolds company, already known for its steel bicycle frame tubes, would attempt to survive in the peacetime market by supplying Hiduminium alloy components for high-end aluminium bicycle cranks and brakes.
The Duralumin alloys had already demonstrated high-strength aluminium alloys. Y alloy‘s virtue was its ability to maintain high strength at high temperatures. R.R alloys were developed by Hall & Bradbury at Rolls-Royce, partly to simplify the manufacture of components using them. A deliberate heat treatment process of multiple steps was used to control their physical properties.
Hiduminium Alloy range
A range of alloys were produced in the R.R.50 range. These could be worked by casting or forging, but they were not intended for rolling as sheet or general machining from bar stock.
Low-creep forging alloy for rotating impellers and compressors
R.R. 59
Forged piston alloy
The number of alloys expanded to support a range of applications and processing techniques. At the Paris Airshow of 1953, High Duty Alloys showed no less than eight different Hiduminium R.R. alloys: 20, 50, 56, 58, 66, 77, 80, 90. Also shown were gas turbine compressor and turbine blades in Hiduminium, and a range of their products in the Magnuminium alloy series.
R.R.58, also Aluminum 2618, comprising 2.5 copper, 1.5 magnesium, 1.0 iron, 1.2 nickel, 0.2 silicon, 0.1 titanium and the remainder aluminum, and originally intended for jet engine compressor blades, was used as the main structural material for the Concorde airframe, supplied by High Duty Alloys, it was also known as AU2GN to the French side of the project.
Later alloys, such as R.R.66, were used for sheet, where high strength was needed in an alloy capable of being worked by deep drawing. This became increasingly important with the faster jet aircraft post-war, as issues such as transonic compressibility became important. It was now necessary for an aircraft’s covering material to be strong, not merely the spar or framing beneath.
R.R.350, a sand-castable high temperature alloy, was used
In terms of composition, Y alloy typically contains 4% of copper and 2% of nickel. R.R. alloys reduce each of these by half to 2% and 1%, and 1% of iron is introduced.
So in comparison with the Pawl, we see that it’s composition in not a Y-alloy in the Hiduminium alloy family. The material used in the Pawl is an “aircraft structural grade aluminum alloy“, but it is not in common use as far as I can determine.
The copper percentage used, and the other alloying elements tells us that the material selection of this part migrated towards the need for ease of machining and finishing. And a look at the complex shape of this part, with curved, and convex surfaces, reinforces this conclusion. This part was cast, and then machined to exacting tolerances to match it’s complex geometry.
This particular grade of material is designed for high temperature applications. And since it is designed to pivot inside a mechanical mechanism, it appears that it is associated with either an engine component or landing gear.
So at least we know what it is not. It is not a hammer or utility part from a tractor. These parts tend to be made out of steel, or iron.
And we know what it is; it is a part used in an aircraft. It’s unique and complex geometry tells us that this was a structural component that fit within a mechanism with other precision parts. The presence of a machined hole tells us that there was a pivoting function of this item, and the presence of the second hone on the concave surface indicates that it mated with another part in some kind of sub-assembly geometry.
Abrasions on the surface
In 1995, a Romanian researcher, Florian Gheorghita, came across the artifact in the basement of the History Museum of Transylvania. The wedge was tested once more. This time in two different laboratories: the Archaeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca and an independent Swiss laboratory.
The tests confirmed the results reached by Fischinger and Niederkorn.
Gheorghita wrote in the Ancient Skies publication where he asked an aeronautical engineer about the artifact’s studies.
The engineer pointed out the configuration and hole drilled in the wedge and claimed that a pattern of abrasions and scratches on the metal led him to believe that it was part of an airplane landing gear.
For the Statists
Since this pawl is evidently an aircraft part, and the use of aluminum in aircraft began in the 1930’s, it is possible that this is part of a contemporaneous aircraft strut that somehow found it’s way to Romania over the years.
And somehow, it aged unusually rapidly, with surface corrosion of a substantial amount to a substantial degree by sandy soil.
And the design of the strut was somehow very elaborate and unusual for the aircraft pointing to some kind of advanced experimental design, for after all it wasn’t until the 1990’s that custom aluminum forgings of complex curved geometry started to find it’s way into mass production.
And it was truly a coincidence that it wound up in a batch of mastodon bones.
You can believe this narrative if it makes you feel better.
Conclusion
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck and tastes like a duck… it’s a duck. The only thing is that the particular species of a duck is new and unknown.
A machine, probably an aircraft, lost a part of it’s retractable landing gear around one million years ago near the Black Sea. The local proto-humanoids at that time, probably a species similar to Homo Habilis found the part and decided that it made a great hand tool. They used it to smash open the bones of the mastodons that they hunted at the time, and in the excitement of eating and engorging themselves forgot about the item and left it with the carcass.
Then, sometime in the 1970’s, the remains of the meal with the aluminum pawl was unearthed together during the construction of a road.
Who flew the aircraft, or what it was doing when it lost it’s part is unknown.
I do not know if it was “little green men”, articulated mastodons, or an unknown species of proto-humans who manufactured this part. What we do know is that they knew their metallurgy, they were able to design, and machine adeptly, and had the ability to fly in aircraft that encountered high temperature extremes.
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One of my all time, favorite, websites is “Ancient Origins“. There, resides a repository of hundreds, if not thousands of articles, stories and editorials written by real experts in the fields of archaeology, sociology, anthropology, and the sciences. And their articles are interesting and fascinating, and I could read them for hours and hours, and hours.
ZHENG HE AND HIS TREASURE FLEET
During the reign of China’s Yongle Emperor in 1403, an imperial order was issued to begin the construction of a fleet of super-ships – vessels vastly bigger than anything ever seen before. Officially called Xiafan Guanjun (‘The Foreign Expeditionary Armada’), the behemoth boats would become better known as the Ming Empire’s treasure ships.
I’ve been wanting to reprint a few articles to MM, but haven’t had the time. I’ve chosen this beauty. And of course, It’ is reprinted exactly as found and all credit to the author. I only changed the formatting to fit this venue. This article can be found HERE, and I strongly urge the interested reader to bookmark this site and visit if often. It, like MM, has things that you will not find anywhere else, and that makes it precious.
Metallicaman Introduction
One of the things that really irks me is the statist belief that the entire American continent was populated by nomadic people from Asia that tromped over the Bering Straight on a “land bridge” and then head Southward to populate the Americas. There, they lived in peace and prosperity until the arrival of the Europeans.
And while that is certainly plausible, and does account for some dominant DNA persistence in the America’s, it is not the whole story.
The actual story is that the American continent has seen waves and waves of settlement. They came in various sizes and shapes over the years, and it was NEVER a wholly isolated and independent land-mass.
And every time I see evidence of this, whether a story here, or an article there, my “ears perk up” and I devour the article ravenously.
This is one of those articles.
And it is a great one, well researched, and of course, something that you won’t find anywhere else. If you want to know about how “Christopher Columbus discovered America” read CNN. But if you want to have some insight into the color, the passions and the life that colored the entire human existence, then by all means visit Ancient Origins. And is is just an amazing article…
Does Newfoundland Have the Oldest Intact Ancient Ships in the World?
31OCT20 by Ron Ryan
In relatively shallow ocean waters on the north east coast of Newfoundland Island there are the remains of several ships with the most unusual characteristics. It has been determined that these ships may be the oldest intact ships in the world. We constantly hear of discoveries of the remains of ancient ships and, maybe, because of that, assume that there must be oodles of ancient ships preserved the world over.
Such is not the case. In fact, the number of ships in the 200 – 400-year-old range, in any near-complete state of preservation, can be counted on one’s digits.
The Oldest Known real-ancient Ships
The oldest known real ancient ships are the Mary Rose (1509), a British warship that was sunk in action in 1545, and the Vasa (1628), a ship that did not make it out of Copenhagen harbor before rolling over.
It seems to be common knowledge in most historical circles now that the Chinese began a campaign, in the late 1300s, to build a large fleet and to attempt to exert its hegemony over the nations of south east Asia. A sub-objective of that initiative was to create a world map. There were so many ships in that enormous fleet that National Geographic Magazine called the great armada, “a massive shadow on the ocean that moved like a floating city that stretched across miles and miles of ocean.” (January 9, 2014). National Geographic also states that the Chinese emperor ordered the fleet to take to the ocean and “to sail to the ends of the earth.”
Indicative of their success, is evidence from recent scholarship that has determined that the Chinese had a world map
by 1430 AD, an achievement that could have resulted only from the Chinese fleets visiting virtually every point on earth, including Antarctica.
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. Chinese world map, circa 1430. ( Public Domain )
Grand Admiral Zheng He’s Treasure Voyages
The Grand Admiral of this formidable armada was one Zheng He (variously spelled), a eunuch who was the favorite of the emperor, Zhu De, and who, although having the support and admiration of the palace eunuchs, had only the enmity of the mandarins who feared losing their power and influence. Apparently, around 1430, the mandarins had succeeded in convincing the sitting emperor to cease the “treasure voyages.”
The Treasure Fleet Sets Sail
Zheng He's most important role in his master's service was being the commander-in-chief of the new treasure fleet, which would serve as the emperor's principal envoy to the peoples of the Indian Ocean basin. The Yongle Emperor appointed him to head the massive fleet of 317 junks crewed by over 27,000 men that set out from Nanjing in the fall of 1405. At the age of 35, Zheng He had achieved the highest rank ever for a eunuch in Chinese history.
With a mandate to collect tribute and establish ties with rulers all around the Indian Ocean, Zheng He and his armada set forth for Calicut on India's western coast. It would be the first of seven total voyages of the treasure fleet, all commanded by Zheng He, between 1405 and 1432.
During his career as a naval commander, Zheng He negotiated trade pacts, fought pirates, installed puppet kings, and brought back tribute for the Yongle Emperor in the form of jewels, medicines, and exotic animals. He and his crew traveled and traded not only with the city-states of what are now Indonesia, Malaysia, Siam, and India, but also with the Arabian ports of modern-day Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Although Zheng He was raised Muslim and visited the shrines of Islamic holy men in Fujian Province and elsewhere, he also venerated Tianfei, the Celestial Consort and protector of sailors. Tianfei had been a mortal woman living in the 900s who achieved enlightenment as a teenager. Gifted with foresight, she was able to warn her brother of an approaching storm at sea, saving his life.
Final Voyages
In 1424, the Yongle Emperor passed away. Zheng He had made six voyages in his name and brought back countless emissaries from foreign lands to bow before him, but the cost of these excursions weighed heavily on the Chinese treasury. In addition, the Mongols and other nomadic peoples were a constant military threat along China's northern and western borders.
The Yongle Emperor's cautious and scholarly elder son, Zhu Gaozhi, became the Hongxi Emperor. During his nine-month rule, Zhu Gaozhi ordered an end to all treasure fleet construction and repairs. A Confucianist, he believed that the voyages drained too much money from the country. He preferred to spend on fending off the Mongols and feeding people in famine-ravaged provinces instead.
When the Hongxi Emperor died less than a year into his reign in 1426, his 26-year-old son became the Xuande Emperor. A happy medium between his proud, mercurial grandfather and his cautious, scholarly father, the Xuande Emperor decided to send Zheng He and the treasure fleet out again.
Death
In 1432, the 61-year-old Zheng He set out with his largest fleet ever for one final trip around the Indian Ocean, sailing all the way to Malindi on Kenya's east coast and stopping at trading ports along the way. On the return voyage, as the fleet sailed east from Calicut, Zheng He died. He was buried at sea, although legend says that the crew returned a braid of his hair and his shoes to Nanjing for burial.
-thought Co
It is not known who actually initiated the voyages. Although Emperor Zhu De gets the credit, the first of the ships were in the water in less than two years after Zhu De assumed the throne, an impossible miracle of construction attributed to the chief administrator, Zheng He, who was subsequently named the admiral of the enormous fleet.
Zheng He gloried in the strength and endurance capacities of his ships on the world’s oceans. Engraved on a tablet at Fujian is a quote attributed to the admiral :
“We have travelled more than 100,000 Li (Approximately 50 000 KM ) of immense water spaces and have witnessed in the ocean waves like mountains, while our sails, unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course like a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a city street…”
The Statue of Admiral Zheng He in Sam Poo Kong, Semarang city, Indonesia. ( diamirara /Adobe Stock)
Although there is very little sound information about the Chinese effort at hegemony, over the forty or so years from the late 1300s to about 1433, there seems little doubt that the Chinese treasure fleets did make seven or eight voyages from around 1401 to 1435. There is no definitive information to indicate exactly where ALL of the ships went.
It is not even known how many ships of each fleet arrived back in China or, indeed, when. Indeed, some people refer to the ships of these voyages as “Ghost Fleets” because the reliable information about them is so very sparse.
There seems to be little doubt that the Chinese constructed ships of such a size during the first quarter of the 15th Century, that they would not be rivalled for another 450 years.
Between 1405 and 1433, Ming China under the rule of Zhu Di, sent out enormous armadas of ships into the Indian Ocean commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He. The flagship and other largest treasure junks dwarfed European ships of that century; even Christopher Columbus's flagship, the "Santa Maria," was between 1/4 and 1/5 the size of Zheng He's.
Drastically changing the face of Indian Ocean trade and power, these fleets embarked on seven epic voyages under Zheng He's guidance, resulting in a rapid expansion of Ming China's control in the region, but also of their struggle to maintain it in years to come due to the financial burden of such endeavors.
Sizes According to Ming Chinese Measurements
All of the measurements in the remaining Ming Chinese records of the Treasure Fleet are in a unit called "zhang," which is made up of ten "chi" or "Chinese feet." Although the exact length of a zhang and chi has varied over time, the Ming chi was probably about 12.2 inches (31.1 centimeters) according to Edward Dreyer. For ease of comparison, the measurements below are given in English feet. One English foot is equivalent to 30.48 centimeters.
Incredibly, the largest ships in the fleet (called "baoshan," or "treasure ships") were likely between 440 and 538 feet long by 210 feet wide. The 4-decked baoshan had an estimated displacement of 20-30,000 tons, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the displacement of modern American aircraft carriers. Each had nine masts on its deck, rigged with square sails that could be adjusted in series to maximize efficiency in different wind conditions.
The Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of an amazing 62 or 63 such ships for Zheng He's first voyage, in 1405. Extant records show that another 48 were ordered in 1408, plus 41 more in 1419, along with 185 smaller ships throughout that time.
Zheng He's Smaller Ships
Along with dozens of baoshan, each armada included hundreds of smaller ships. The eight-masted ships, called "machuan" or "horse ships," were about 2/3 the size of the baoshan measuring approximately 340 feet by 138 feet. As indicated by the name, the machuan carried horses along with timber for repairs and tribute goods.
Seven-masted "liangchuan" or grain ships carried rice and other food for the crew and soldiers in the fleet. Liangchuan was about 257 feet by 115 feet in size. The next ships in descending order of size were the "zuochuan," or troopships, at 220 by 84 feet with each transport ship having six masts.
Finally, the small, five-masted warships or "zhanchuan," each about 165 feet long, were designed to be maneuverable in battle. Though tiny compared with the baochuan, the zhanchuan were more than twice as long as Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria.
The Treasure Fleet's Crew
Why did Zheng He need so many huge ships? One reason, of course, was "shock and awe." The sight of these enormous ships appearing on the horizon one by one must have been truly incredible for the people all along the Indian Ocean's rim and would have enhanced Ming China's prestige immeasurably.
The other reason was that Zheng He traveled with an estimated 27,000 to 28,000 sailors, marines, translators and other crew members. Along with their horses, rice, drinking water, and trade goods, that number of people required a staggering amount of room aboard the ship. In addition, they had to make space for the emissaries, tribute goods and wild animals that went back to China.
-Thought Co.
Our interest here will focus on the voyage of 1433 – 1435.
At least six voyages of the Chinese Treasure Fleet seem to have been conducted successfully, and there are some records for some of the ships. Admiral Zheng He was in charge of at least some of the voyages. Moreover, there is no record in China of what Admiral Zheng He was doing during the 1417 – 1419 voyage.
Indeed, after the sixth voyage, related history is even more fuzzy. The eunuchs and the mandarins were vying for power and for influence. The old emperor, Zhu De, died; the next one died; the third, Xuan De, had acceded to the “Dragon Throne” and was persuaded by the mandarins that further voyages would be to China’s detriment.
Detail of the Fra Mauro map relating the travels of a junk into the Atlantic Ocean in 1420. The ship also is illustrated above the text. ( Public Domain )
Moreover, it seems clear that the mandarins were fearful of Zheng He and wanted to get rid of this troublesome eunuch. Although Zheng He was a favorite of the first emperor, he was not favored by the second and third. However, the third emperor was reluctant to have Zheng He have a fatal “accident,” and the mandarins were afraid to dispatch Zheng He unless they had a clear understanding from the emperor.
The emperor realized that if Zheng He met with some accident, real or plotted, then the general finger would be pointed at the palace. Even if the emperor held “absolute power,” there were always war lords and other powerful officials ready – and willing – to exploit a judgment lapse. Not willing to risk the wrath of the Chinese people, the emperor appointed Zheng He to some menial administrative job, to get him out of the way. That did not satisfy the mandarins who were beginning to feel their power. They wanted Zheng He out of the picture, completely and permanently.
Besides, in the view of the palace mandarins, Zheng He, a renowned master of military tactics who had been instrumental in placing emperor Zhu De on the throne, was likely at precisely the right place and precisely the right time for him to nurture alliances with those who would be happy to have someone that they could manipulate on the throne. They were concerned at least as much about their heads as they were about their positions of power.
There is, however, no indication that Zheng He entertained any ambition in that direction. Indeed, although still a young man, about 60, apparently, he was ill.
The emperor was cautious. There were literally hundreds of ships out in the bay, riding at anchor. To the Chinese people these ships represented China’s pride. Why were the ships not gone on some important voyage? What is the use of ships, in port, at anchor, slowly rotting, and the reputation and power of the emperor slowly rotting along with them? The ships simply had to go, somewhere. The related optics were crucial!
What to do?
An ancient Chinese ship. ( Мария Тарасова /Adobe Stock)
Go away and NEVER come back.
The emperor recalled Zheng He to Nanjing, the then-capital. What actually happened between the Great Admiral and the emperor is not known. However, it is easy to guess: The emperor told Zheng He to crew all of the ships, to fill the ships, at the emperor’s expense, with everything Zheng He could possibly think of: soldiers, horses, armaments, gunpowder, priests (Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu), specialists of every kind, doctors and other medical personnel, medicines, preserved foods, seeds, root stalks, surveyors, technologists, craftspeople, prostitutes, animals (a veritable Noah’s Ark!), slaves, fine china, silks, and so on.
Then, the emperor had a private conference with Zheng He. The emperor said:
“You have everything you could possibly need. You have overseen everything yourself. You cannot blame me if you are missing something. Talk to your officers. Determine whether there is still something you need.”
Then, in a whisper so that none of the listeners could hear – and in the Emperor’s palace there were always listeners:
“Take the fleet. Go away. I don't care where you go. But, wherever you go, do NOT come back! NEVER come back! Do NOT let any of your officers or sailors come back. Nobody, except ....” and he explained the exception. “You have my best wishes. I never want to see you again! Be smart! Go!”
The carved and painted stern of the last ship had hardly disappeared over the horizon before the mandarins began collecting every last scrap of information that they could find about the fleets and about Zheng He.
Everything was burned, including ship logs, charts of the voyages, maps, architectural drawings of the various types of ships, ship models, tools, records of construction – in short, everything that they could get their hands on. Apparently, the world map was among the scraps of information that did survive, likely hidden by one of the eunuchs.
The fleet had gone for about a year.
Then, one day, a ship, much tattered, arrived back in the harbor. The captain went directly to the emperor. There had been several enormous tempests on the far oceans. Every last ship had been lost, and the grand admiral, himself, the beloved Zheng He, had gone to the bottom with the first tempest near Ceylon. The second tempest had taken the remainder of the fleet near Indonesia.
Woodblock print representing Zheng He’s ships. ( Public Domain )
The emperor then announced the sad news to a shocked and mournful nation. He ordered a tomb be built for the beloved Zheng He. In that tomb, they placed one of Zheng He’s robes, a pair of his slippers, and maybe a lock of the revered man’s hair.
What happened to Zheng He and the great fleet?
Nobody knows!
What is known is that not a single ship of that fleet, other that one messenger, ever made it back to China. Not a single marine officer, not a single craftsperson, prostitute, or sailor. NOTHING was ever heard from them again. Nothing!
For the most part, the myth of the death of Zheng He in India or Ceylon has been accepted in China as historical fact. There is little room in China for shades of grey, most things being black or white. Zheng He and the great fleet become part of the official national lore. The other aspect of the story, the tempests that took all of the ships, except one, to the bottom of the ocean is, likewise, the official story, it was not to be disputed and not to be questioned, at the peril of one’s head!
Zheng He’s tomb. Nanjing, China. ( Public Domain )
What happened to the ancient ships?
About 600 years later, two decades ago, China began to resurrect the story of Admiral Zheng He because it was politically convenient to do so, at least according to the detractors of China’s sometimes awkward diplomacy. Besides, the story of Zheng He and the “peaceful” fleets was a source of pride for China, something they could point to as an example of China’s friendly international intentions.
One of Zheng He’s ships.
Artifacts of the great fleet of 600 years ago would be of inestimable value to Chinese propaganda. Therefore, China entered into agreements with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Kenya to find some of the remains of the great fleet. There just had to be thousands – if not millions – of artifacts, just lying on the bottom of the ocean awaiting retrieval by a grateful nation.
China has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, utilizing the latest underwater technologies of the Chinese navy, in an effort to retrieve the millions of artifacts. Plans for museums in China and other displays worldwide were in the planning stages. China was on the cusp of an enormous diplomatic and publicity coup!
What did they find?
After a decade or so of searching in the waters around Sri Lanka and Indonesia, what did they find? Nothing!
No ships, no ship remnants, no artifacts, no fine china, no amphora of preserved olives, no skeletons of Chinese sailors. Nothing!
Nothing!
But somehow – without, just now, having a complete narrative to explain it – at some time before recorded history in the annals of Newfoundland Island , the Chinese arrived. They called the island “Island like a Chinese garden” and mapped the whole north western area of the North Atlantic as far as into the Davis Strait and, indeed, according to Chinese sources, Hudson’s Bay. Indeed, the Matteo Ricci Map (Kunyu Universal Map) is a copy of a Chinese map (Kunyu Wanguo Quantu Map) that was completed by 1430, indicating that the voyages of the Chinese fleets from 1405 onward – or at some earlier time – were successful in “mapping the world” and that Zheng He would have had an almost complete map of the world by which to guide his last voyage, some of which – the north west North Atlantic seaboard – Zheng He, himself, had likely mapped during the 1417 – 1419 voyage.
Portion of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu map showing Newfoundland Island. The four ancient Chinese characters on the representation of Newfoundland Island read “Island like a Chinese Garden.’ (Public Domain )
Portion of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu map showing Newfoundland Island. The four ancient Chinese characters on the representation of Newfoundland Island read “Island like a Chinese Garden.’ (Public Domain )
The ancient Chinese ships in Newfoundland
At least two of these ships are on the ocean bottom in shallow water in a protected harbor on the rugged north east coast of Newfoundland Island. Other ships have been detected with sonic equipment, including one that appears to be 200 meters (656.17 ft.) long. Moreover, phenomena that has been interpreted as a “graveyard” of ships have been detected in another area of deep, cold water.
The two ships in shallow water have been known about for 350 years or more, from the time of the first European fishermen who arrived in the area and established themselves in what became the dozen or so coastal fishing villages in that area. These ships cannot be European or American. No country, other than China, built ships of this size until well past the mid-1800s. These ships were there before about 1650.
Besides all of that, China has no record of any kind related to the structural aspects of their ships of the Treasure Fleets , no drawings, no models, no descriptions, no images. What China has are the remains of the dockyards that built the ships, some tools, and a rudder that is about 13 – 14 meters (42.65-45.93 ft.) long. Although some marine historians and others have drawn speculative designs of what the ships of the Treasure fleet might have looked like, these drawings do NOT correspond with the ships that have been found in Canadian waters.
Surviving blueprints for these ships are rare.
The only known intact examples of the Chinese ships associated with the great fleet are resting on the ocean bottom at the north east coast of Newfoundland Island. Nowhere else in the world are there, presently known, unmistakable large ships that might be identified as the ships of the great Chinese Treasure Fleet.
Based on the balance of probabilities, one would be confident in declaring that these ships are from the great Chinese fleet of 1405 – 1435.
To conclude, it seems clear that in the inner ocean waters on the north east coast of Newfoundland Island are the oldest decked ships in existence, and at least some of them are substantially intact.
By Ronald Lloyd Ryan, DA., PhD.
Model of some of the great Zheng He ships
These were enormous ships, able to have small farms on the deck and cattle pens. They were enormous by all accounts. As such, and as impressive as we can imagine, various people have made, and market scale models of what we can make a hypothesis on what these ships were like.
This model is made from the original drawings of the ship. And it is a beauty.
History of the Zheng He Treasure Ship
The Chinese Treasure Ship was a large wooden ship in the fleet of Admiral Zheng He, during the early 15th century Ming Dynasty. He led 7 voyages. There seems to be disagreement among scholars about the factual accuracy and correct interpretation of accounts of the treasure ship. Treasure ships were considered luxury ships rather than warships.
According to some records, Zheng He’s treasure ships were mammoth ships with 9 masts and 4 decks. Zheng He’s treasure ships could accommodate more than 500 passengers, as well as a massive amount of cargo.
Zheng He’s fleet consisted of 300 ships, including 62 treasure ships. Chinese records assert that Zheng He has traveled extensively, sailing as far as East Africa.
On the return of Zheng He’s last voyage, he found a new Emperor whose court was uninterested and even hostile toward the continuation of his naval adventures. Zheng He’s ships were decommissioned and sat in the harbor until they rotted away. Some scholars suggest that the Emperor ordered the treasure ships and records to be burned, although exact information on their fate is unknown.
A replica of Zheng He’s treasure ship was built in Nanking and was to be ready for sailing in 2013.
MM Thoughts
That was a great article, eh? You betya!
After reading the article, I went and conducted a preliminary Google search for “sunken Newfoundland ships” and came up with some interesting hits. Not really germane to this particular article (unfortunately), but really interesting never the less.
Let’s deep-dive” into this with yet another article from Ancient Origins, and one by the same author;
The Beothuck Key: Finding a Lost Chinese-Norse Civilization in Canada
Two mysteries – one Oriental, one Western – have attracted considerable attention recently both in academic and popular spheres: [1] the disappearance of the Seventh Chinese Treasure Fleet and [2] the disappearance of the people of Greenland. Until now, people have not considered that the two stories might be somehow connected.
Scale comparison.
Indeed, although very much in retrospect, there were numerous pieces of evidence readily available that pointed to the two narratives possibly being associated, even if the key element were missing. However unlikely and counter-intuitive, it appears that key is in the much-disputed continuing existence of the Beothuck People of Newfoundland Island – without them neither of the mysteries would have been resolved.
Origins of the Beothuck People
The journey of discovery began quite by accident, when a Beothuck person observed some unusual artifacts at museums in China that seemed to be the analogues of artifacts of the Beothuck People.
The resulting investigation led to all known information about the Beothuck people being sifted and evaluated, with the conclusion being that the Beothuck People had Chinese origin.
The Beothuk are the aboriginal people of the island of Newfoundland. They were Algonkian-speaking hunter-gatherers who probably numbered less than a thousand people at the time of European contact. The Beothuk are the descendants of a Recent Indian culture called the Little Passage Complex.
...
By the beginning of the 19th century, the Beothuk were reduced to a small refugee population living along the Exploits River system and attempting to subsist on the inadequate resources of the interior. Although a succession of Newfoundland governors had, since the middle of the 18th century, attempted to establish friendly contact with the Beothuk, it was probably too late to change a pattern which had existed for perhaps 250 years. Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk, died in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1829.
-The Beothuk People
Beothuk, North American Indian tribe of hunters and gatherers that resided on the island of Newfoundland; their language, Beothukan, may be related to Algonquian, but some authorities believe it to have been an independent language. When discovered by John Cabot in 1497 the tribe probably numbered no more than 500 persons; in the succeeding centuries the Beothuk were decimated by Europeans and by Mi’kmaq (Micmac) hunters crossing from Nova Scotia. A few survivors may have escaped to Labrador to intermarry with the Innu (Montagnais).
Little is known of Beothuk culture. The people were apparently divided into small bands of a few related families, each band having its own leader. Their skill as canoeists was noted by many early writers; they speared seals with primitive harpoons and fished for salmon and shellfish. Equally at home in the woods, they tracked deer with bow and arrow. Birch bark was used to make cooking vessels and wigwams. They smeared red ochre on their skin, apparently for both religious reasons and protection against insects; this habit is thought to be the source of the European reference to Native Americans as “red” people.
-Beothuk | people | Britannica
The considerable skepticism about the Chinese voyages seemed to be primarily because the idea of massive Chinese ships, as suggested by Menzies and Hudson was thoroughly doubted. Unfortunately, one could not appeal to China because that country has retained no information as to the design of such massive ships – no models, no sketches, no descriptions.
Curious genetic and ancestral stories of the Beothuck People led to an informal survey that revealed mtDNA of Celtic, Norse, and other Scandinavian/Baltic origin, leading to speculation that all of the people were descendants of the Norse from the time of the Viking Sagas.
However, that speculation was disabused by research reports to the effect that (a) Newfoundland Island had had several waves of occupation, and (b) there is a genetic discontinuity between the maternal lineages of the various occupation groups.
Moreover, historical reports indicate that whoever was on the island were substantially, or completely, killed off by some blight or combination thereof (plague, typhus, smallpox) between 1402 and 1404, which meant that as of that later date the island was effectively empty.
If that were true, then it meant that the Norse ancestors of the contemporary Beothuck must have colonized at least part of the island sometime after 1404 AD.
Ties to the People of Greenland
That led to a consideration of the story of the disappearance of the people of Greenland in the early 15th Century. There is no record of the people of Greenland going east, as some experts have speculated.
According to Catholic Church records, there had been as many as 5000 people in Greenland circa 1409. That’s a lot of people to account for.
In a pastoral letter from the Holy See addressed to the Bishops of Skalholt and Holar in Iceland, dated September 20, 1448, concern was expressed that Greenland had been raided by a “Fleet of heathens” some 30 years previously, and that all of the people had been taken.
It is not immediately clear how the Pope acquired that information.
Related to that was another piece of information: tributes began to arrive at Rome sometime in the early-1400s, from “ Vinland.” Clearly, a vector of communication existed from the “far western lands’ to Rome.
Recent research suggests that there was no violent confrontation in Greenland.
Indeed, everything points to a peaceful, organized departure of the people. The conclusion was that the people of Greenland, all 5000 of them, along with their priests and other religious people (monks and nuns), peacefully departed their homes sometime after 1409 and before about 1420.
William Cormack is the only person whose report we have who actually spoke with the Beothuck. Cormack said that the Beothuck language had all of the sounds of Scandinavian languages, maybe Swedish.
Additionally, J. T. Mullock , Roman Catholic Bishop of St. John’s, Newfoundland, said that many people thought that the Beothuck had “Northmen” ancestry.
Moreover, Dr. John Cooper of Dalhousie University concluded that the language was at least 25% Gaelic and Norse. There was not, necessarily, much difference between Norse and Gaelic because, as Wallace says,
“... the Norse were mixed with Celts and Picts through intermarriage and slavery.”
Because Newfoundland Island was empty of people, say from around 1404, and because the people of Greenland departed their homes around 1418, and because a large number of people from Newfoundland Island has Norse ancestry from the forests of the island, it seemed reasonable to conclude that the Beothuck people were the descendants of the “missing” Norse of Greenland.
The notion of a fleet of ships, as per the Pope’s letter, was, to say the least, intriguing.
More on Beothuck Ancestry
The investigation has now arrived at the point where two phenomena seem to be supported: The Beothuck people had Chinese ancestry and the Beothuck people had Norse ancestry.
The local people in that remote and isolated geography, although having a high degree of illiteracy, had a rich oral tradition. For many generations these people, the European ancestors of whom came to the area around the mid-1700s or earlier, told stories of enormous ships that had been on the nearby ocean bottom since before their arrival. As late as 1890, people could easily see one massive ship in a sheltered harbor of relatively shallow water, and the mast of that ship – enormous, much larger than anything that they had ever seen or could imagine – protruded from the ocean surface. Moreover, at that time, they could see “dishes” and “jugs” on the ocean bottom near the ship.
The subsequent generation (circa 1930) contained a story that two teen boys had attempted to measure the ship and, being creative with fishing cords, estimated that one ship was about 400 ft. (130 meters) long.
After several months of searching with Google Earth, during 2017, two almost identical ships were located, each being about 450 ft. (150 meters) in length. Since then, several other equally large ships, seemingly intact, have been found resting on the ocean bottom. The only ships that fit the circumstances are those of the Chinese of the early 1400s. No European or American ship of the dimensions of the ships that were found would be constructed until after the mid-1800s.
At that point it is possible to suggest, at least, that the enormous fleet that had taken the people from Greenland had been a Chinese fleet. If that fleet brought the people of Greenland to Newfoundland Island sometime around 1418, that would explain the Norse and Chinese ancestry of the Beothuck People.
The Voyage from China and Links to Zheng He
The available information supports the following scenario: after leaving port in southern China the fleet would split into several flotillas, each expediting their individual appointed tasks, more or less, and reassembling later. One voyage took place during 1417 – 1419. The flotilla that had been assigned the task of mapping the western North Atlantic area – whatever the Chinese called it – was under the command of Admiral Zheng He .
It crossed the North Atlantic, discovered Newfoundland Island (1417), and, maybe the next year (1418), returning from mapping Hudson’s Bay, chanced upon the Norse of Greenland, in a state of destitution and at the cusp of starvation. The Chinese “rescued” these desperate people and transported them to Newfoundland island, the mythical Vinland of the Norse people. Zheng He returned to China, but came back to Newfoundland in 1435.
The Matteo Ricci (1552 – 1610) map of 1605 has the lands of the north west Atlantic identifiably drawn. Someone spent time charting the north west Atlantic area, did the cartography, and returned to China, writing four Chinese characters on the land that would be identified as Newfoundland Island: “Island like a Chinese garden.” According to Lee, the Ricci map is a copy of a Chinese map and that the Chinese had a complete map of the world by 1430, a map that included the northwest Atlantic area.
Did Zheng He know where he was going? Was the initial map-making done by a previous Chinese fleet and before 1418? Did Zheng He’s admirals do the charting of the northern lands? Who would have named Newfoundland Island so glowingly?
Wherever he was, the Great Admiral seems to have boasted:
We have traversed more than 100,000 li of immense water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course. ..
That would have gotten him to Greenland and back in the 1417-1419 time frame of that voyage.
Signs of a Lost Settlement
As a confirmation exercise, Google earth was utilized to seek indicators of Norse and Chinese occupancy of Newfoundland Island. That investigation resulted in the identification of a ubiquitous pattern. It was determined that the pattern was communal housing – much as had been described by John Cabot in 1497 and Jacques Cartier in 1534.
These dwellings were as much as 164 ft. (50 meters) in diameter and contained 10 – 12 family cells around a central common area. These dwellings appeared to be one-story adaption of Hakka-Han TuLu in south east China of the time (which continues today), the area that was the origin of the Treasure Fleets. The basic Hakka housing pattern incorporated Norse features to accommodate winter conditions, those features that the Beothuck descendants had incorporated into their root-cellars, many of which still exist. (Incidentally, the Hakka Tulu figures in the recent movie, “Mulan.”)
Treks into the forest confirmed the speculations: patterns on the forest floor, now covered with trees, certainly still retained the discernible and recognizable communal Tulu pattern. A survey of the island with Google Earth Pro revealed literally thousands of these structures. An estimate related to the number of structures detected suggested dwellings of maybe as many as 300,000 people, an enormous number in comparison to the paltry several thousand that experts have been suggesting up to now.
Satellite imagery revealed structures that seemed to be defensive walls, and treks into the forest confirmed the existence of the artifacts, some of which were not completely occluded by vegetation overburden. One trek also resulted in the discovery of a carving of a three meter long hand, chiseled into a rock-face, with the letter “J” carved just above it, and a scepter carved along the wrist.
The next discoveries were towers and a wall, and, then, astonishingly, several Buddhist-type pyramids. About 12 miles (20 km) away, a set of buildings was discovered, including a three-tiered pagoda and an intact stone church, a basilica – a structure that is not in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, and not in the history of the local Roman Catholic archdiocese.
The next astounding discovery was a set of massive bluff-carvings, the first found being a Chinese mythical dog, about 161 sq. ft. (15 sq. m.). The image is almost identical to that of a Chinese postage stamp for 2008 “The Year of the Dog.”
Above the dog carving, and about the same size, was the Monkey King, again from Chinese mythology. About a hundred carvings were found in all, ranging in size from 32 – 1640 ft. (10 – 500 meters) in length, the latter being a bird, 500 meters from beak to tail feathers, and about 656 ft. (200 meters) wingtip to wingtip.
The next mysterious phenomenon discovered was a boat, about 114 ft. (35 meters) long, that seems to have been under construction. Then, ten or so similar boats were discovered, all under construction, all in the forest well away from the coast.
A number of what were determined to be row boats, maybe water taxis, were located, still intact, preserved by the chemicals in the peat ponds where they have now lain for maybe as much as 400 years. Thus, it is possible to determine the design of these boats of so long ago. Why the boats were built in the location described is a mystery unto itself and has resulted in speculation that is tangential to this narrative.
Although some experts have written about the massive Chinese ships the fact is that the only existing more-or-less intact Chinese ships from the medieval Chinese period – and, indeed, any medieval period – and, thus, the only accurate information about these ships, there being next to nothing in China, are being preserved by the frigid ocean waters of north east Newfoundland Island. The next oldest existing ship from that period, worldwide, is the British warship, Mary Rose (Circa 1540), about 50% of which was recovered from her watery grave.
Compiling the Evidence in Newfoundland
Although Zheng He was erased from Chinese history shortly after 1433, he has been recently resurrected by China for, as some see it, a contemporary form of Chinese hegemony.
The accepted narrative, in China and south east Asia, of the demise of Zheng He and his enormous seventh fleet is that all succumbed to a typhoon somewhere near Sri Lanka or Malaysia. Virtually every country in south east Asia is seeking evidence that Zheng He and the remains of his seventh fleet is somewhere in their backyard. The Chinese government, believing their own myth, has recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars, with the help of the latest Chinese military technology, in the belief that they were destined to find the remains of their fleet. They have found nothing.
The research group on Newfoundland Island continues to make discovery after discovery that they associate with the Chinese-Norse civilization that began around 1420: fish weirs, harbor complexes, fish processing facilities, buildings (one with a discernible chimney), industrial structures (e.g., huge furnaces).
Moreover, now that considerable evidence and information has been compiled, it is possible to state that, on the balance of probabilities, the only people on the island as of 1450 were the Norse, the Chinese, and their progeny, who called themselves “BeiHanKe” but which was misunderstood as “Beothuck.”
The final conclusion is that the research group in that remote area has found the remains of a collapsed Chinese-Norse civilization of which the contemporary Beothuck are the remnants. Otherwise, they have stumbled on the remains of a collapsed civilization about which nothing else is known.
There is strong reason to believe that Newfoundland was indeed settled by the Chinese. That they interacted, and perhaps forged alliances with local Indians and Vikings. Certainly there was a large city-sized community there in the land described as “Like a Chinese garden”.
No one know what happened to them, and how or why they died out, but it would most certainly make for some interesting reading. They seem to have merged with other migratory and ship-faring peoples, and weathered various periods of illness, natural disasters, and famine. Eventually, they packed up and left.
There is much that I would enjoy reading about these peoples. I look forward to further scholarly studies on this matter.
I firmly applaud Ronald Lloyd Ryan for his great work in this area, and I look forward to his many future discoveries. For this is an area of great interest to me personally.
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I have more articles in this vein, in my Happiness Index here…
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